Cuil: Identity Crisis

There’s a lot of buzz about the launch of Cuil (pronounced "cool," ugh), a search engine by former Google folk. It’s attractive, but it does some strange things.

In a move of narcissistic predictability, I searched for my name in Cuil. I don’t know why I do that, because there are a number of people who share my name (which really has to do with the ubiquitous surname Nguyen). So, naturally, Cuil came up with hundreds of results, most of which were not me.

But what’s odd is the way it attributed the same photo to a handful of different Kevin Nguyens.

One of the first results is for a Kevin Nguyen who hosts a radio show on 90.1 FM The Sound. That’s definitely me, but that’s definitely not my photo.

I am way cuter.

On page two, there’s a Kevin Nguyen who swims at Cerritos College. Cuil uses the same picture, but when I click through to the site, it reveals an entirely different Kevin Nguyen.

The third page has a Vimeo user.

On the fourth page, the same photo links to a motorcycle enthusiasts group on Meetup.com (which cannot be found). This dude definitely cannot ride a motorcycle. Look at him again.

Page five features a doctor from Van Nuys, California. Six, a dude selling soybeans (broken). Seven, a poker player. Eight, spam. (My work on The Bygone Bureau doesn’t show up until page nine, but it’s the second result in Google.)

Aside from the fact that half the links I clicked through were broken, the photo of this one jerk has been prescribed to every single person on the internet with the name Kevin Nguyen. That's idiotic. There were also a disproprtionately high number of results from Meetup.com, Vimeo, and IMEEM.

I know hindsight is 20/20, but here’s the lesson to learn from Cuil: get your shit together before you launch. Or at least use my picture.

Way down in the Knol

On Wednesday, I linked to Knol on Bureaucracy:

It’s just like a Wikipedia, only with named author(s) for each article, meaning that you could probably cite it in a paper. Knol encourages authorship by sharing AdSense revenue with users. Also, you can insert cartoons from The New Yorker. That’s actually not a joke.

(That’s right, I’m quoting myself. Award me ten ego points.)

The central ideological difference between Wikipedia and Knol is that articles are penned by experts rather than relying on collective knowledge. Instinctually, it sounds like a more reliable system, but past studies have shown that Wikipedia is as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica.



Of course, this doesn’t stop us from digesting Wikipedia with cautious skepticism. I’ve heard of a handful of professors who’ve jumped on the wiki bandwagon and forced their class to create joint entries on course material. The idea is that each student can bring something new to the table and will collectively tweak the entry to perfection. What actually happens, though, is that the more capable students just end up re-writing everything. (When it’s for a grade, you can’t rely on anyone but yourself, right?)

So I welcome Knol as a competitor, even if Google claims it isn’t. As I said in my Bureaucracy blurb, I’m anxious for a Wikipedia-like resource that can be cited in academic writing. I use Wikipedia as a starting point for unfamiliar topics, but entries too frequently have missing citations, which can lead to a dead end in research. (Though I’ve always suspected that many teachers resent Wikipedia because it makes research too easy.)

There are many obstacles to Knol’s success. Wikipedia has millions of articles, and with the author verification process, Knol will never catch up. Wikipedia is also nonprofit, whereas Knol will be supported by Google AdSense. My biggest issue will be getting past the fact that Knol is short for "knowledge." Also, people forget that even Google is capable of producing a flop.

Google Video, anyone?

Knol also has a ways to go. For example, the site design, though slick, lacks organization. Try finding anything in the directory. Also, from what I've seen, articles lack the linkable footnotes of Wikipedia.

I think the most important development of Knol is Google’s shift from aggregating content to being a provider of content. Knol may or may not succeed, but it’s a sign of the direction Google is moving. That’s a little scary -- the same company controls what you read and how you find it.

Please, don’t be evil.

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Some other related errata

• According to Ars Technica, Mahalo and Citizendium are similar concepts.
• Best comment on Bits’s write-up of Knol: "Knol has no information on Optimus Prime."
• The Wikipedia entry on Wikipedia. How postmodern!

Muphry's Law

Here's a great concept, not to be confused with Murphy's Law.

1. if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written;
2. if an author thanks you in a book for your editing or proofreading, there will be mistakes in the book;
3. the stronger the sentiment expressed in (1) and (2), the greater the fault;
4. any book devoted to editing or style will be internally inconsistent.

This is bound to bite me in the ass one day. When I'm not criticizing bad typography, I'm usually criticizing someone's writing. Then again, I've never been wrong about anything, ever.

And to hat-tip, I discovered this on neat blog called Language Log, which I immediately bookmarked. Don't miss the Muphry's Law Wikipedia entry.

Getting drafted

The new post revisions feature in Wordpress 2.6 allows users to compare previous versions of saved drafts. It's fantastic.

I do wish you could it would attribute changes by the user editing rather than the post author, but that's just a small gripe. Hopefully Wordpress keeps developing in a direction toward multi-author blogs. You still can't assign more than one author to a post, though.

Idea: Let's make useful iPhone apps

There are a bunch of nice tweaks in iPhone 2.0, and there’s a plethora of fun, free downloads on the new App Store. But other than maybe NetNewsWire, an RSS reader, there’s not much that’s useful yet. Here are some apps I would like to see:

Voicemail
One of the iPhone’s best features is visual voicemail, which allows you to see who called you and listen to messages in whatever order you please. You also don’t have to listen to an automated intro to each one. ("You. Have. Six. Teen. Messages.") It’s not complicated technology, and really, I think every cellphone should’ve had this feature five years ago.

For some reason, voicemail is still accessed by satellite rather than downloaded straight to the phone. Why? This means you can’t access voicemail when you’re out of service area, and as with all carriers, your messages get deleted after a certain period of time. Instead, voicemail stored on the device.

While I wait for that, I hope someone writes an app that allows you to save voicemail. I’m a strong proponent of never deleting anything, especially communications like email (Gmail users--hit archive, not delete!), so I’d like the ability to save voicemail messages on my computer. You may need them again someday.

Also, syncing voicemail with your computer would grant the ability to access messages from other places. Say you forgot your phone at home, and you were waiting for an important call. At least you could check your voicemail remotely.

Outpost
Nick and I manage The Bygone Bureau through Basecamp, which is an online project management service that I’ve complimented in the past. Without it, I don’t think we’d have had the same success or consistency with the Bureau.

That’s a long-winded way of saying that I’m excited about Outpost, which is an app with a Basecamp interface tailored for the iPhone. It’s not slated for release until August, but I’d rather have a polished copy than one rushed for the App Store launch. Being able to manage article edits and set deadlines when I’m not at a computer would be invaluable, rather than reminding writers via text message.

Outpost will also justify my owning an iPhone for reasons other than wanting to look pretentious.

Of course, Outpost’s usefulness, at least for me, is contingent on its ability to open Word documents. (I’m not sure how that’s handled on the iPhone, whether Mail and MobileSafari have exclusive system-level permissions to open them or if all apps can access that feature.) I emailed David Kaneda, one of the app's developers, who promptly and politely responded that they have not dealt with message attachments other than images yet. He also said that pricing is still to be determined, but will be under $20. If Outpost can open documents, that, to me, would be very fair price.

As for other Bureau-related tools, there’s a Wordpress app coming out soon, which, if well done, will be extraordinarily useful. I’d also like to see one for stats tracker Mint.

Games
I do wish I was able to play more videogames (it’s secretly killing me that I can’t play Metal Gear Solid 4 yet), but I’m not willing to drop $9.99 for Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone. All I really want is a good puzzle or word game, something more exciting than Bejeweled. The available offerings aren’t so bad. I considered a Sudoku game, and I could see myself buying EA’s Scrabble title if it didn’t have one fatal bug.

Even better than those would be an app with access to daily The New York Times crossword.

According to Ars Technica, the iPhone has roughly the same power has a Sega Dreamcast. I’m holding out for Metal Gear Solid on the iPhone. What? It could happen. Maybe not...

Fair airfare

I’m interning at an airline this summer, which has been called by some the "cushiest sounding job evah." I admit, it’s a pretty cool gig. Today, I learned about pricing airfare, which, especially now, is a very tricky topic.

It’s widely understood that airfare is under priced, given the rising fuel prices. The obvious answer is that airlines should adjust their fares accordingly.

It’s not that simple though.

What’s surprising is that raising fares doesn’t yield equal returns in revenue. Price increases have been modest to keep people buying, but it has encouraged flyers to redeem their earned miles, go after discounted fares, etc. Higher prices does increase revenue, just not at the magnitude airlines would expect.

The more predictable barrier is competition. Low-cost carriers are still fighting each other for territory. For many airlines, the game plan is to run their competition out of business, no matter the short-term losses. You don’t have to outrun the bear; you just have to outrun the other hiker. (Plus it’s a bear market... this pun is too good.)

Online travel services have also kept prices low. Many travelers don’t care when they fly out or what carrier they’re on and, understandably, go for the absolute cheapest fare. I know I do.

Sites like Expedia have made the pricing more transparent, which is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it encourages competition, and for the consumer, there’s nothing better; given the economic landscape, it’s forcing airlines to price aggressively when they should all be raising fares.

The end result? If airlines keep selling tickets that don’t cover their costs for long enough, we’ll see more of them go out of business. I’m predicting an industry-wide meltdown within the next year or two, and unless the government can support airlines with substantial subsidies (I’m not sure how possible that is), then we’re going to see major shrinkage in the flight.

And with fewer carriers and fewer routes, that’s going to mean a huge hike in prices—far greater than we’ve seen in decades. If we don’t start paying more now, we may not be able to fly as frequently in the future.

Foals at SP20

Seeing Foals at the second day of Sub Pop’s 20th Anniversary concert reiterated the lessons I’d learned from the first time I saw them live.

1. Twitching is an interesting alternative to dancing.


2. Jack Bevan is a kick ass drummer.


3. Foals is seriously dysfunctional.

SP20 had an efficient setup with acts alternating between two stages. When one band finished, the next began immediately after, and I don’t think a single set started more than five minutes after it was scheduled. Good for the audience, not so good for the bands, though. Since the stages were side-by-side, sound checks couldn’t be performed, causing almost every act was plagued with volume level issues.



During Foals’ opening number, "The French Open," the song’s most dramatic breakdown was made rather undramatic by a soft lead guitar. I don’t think anyone in the audience noticed except for me, but it bothered lead singer Yannis Philippakis enough to ram his guitar through an amplifier.

While stagehands assessed the damage, the band broke into an instrumental jam, which just goes to show how effortlessly the band can put together mathy dance-punk. Philippakis joked somewhat begrudgingly about how they had bad luck in Seattle, and even though he was moody, the crowd was rather receptive to his between-song banter. Maybe it was his British accent.

A song or two later, Jack Bevan (unintentionally) broke his snare drum beyond repair, and halfway through the set, guitarist Jimmy Smith (unintentionally) puked all over the stage.

But despite all the technical and behavioral difficulties, the performance was one of SP20’s best. In 40 minutes, they played most of Antidotes, the highlight being a ferocious new version of "Heavy Water" with an extended instrumental middle-section.

I saw Foals about a month ago at Neumos in Seattle when Philippakis broke two guitars and another amp. It’s sad to think that these guys probably won’t be together long enough to make a second album.

The headlining act was Wolf Parade, who were only supposed to play for 40 minutes but, luckily, were able to push it to an hour and a half. Most of the material was off their new album, At Mount Zoomer, rather than crowd favorites. I was pleasantly surprised they played "Kissing the Beehive," the awesome eleven-minute-long closer of Zoomer.

On blogging

I’ve decided to “refresh” my blog format in terms of both content and platform. My penchant for posting eccentric links has been satiated by the introduction of Bureaucracy, The Bygone Bureau’s new microblog.

Also, I’ve switched back to Blogger, which I haven’t used since early high school.

I have a long-term relationship with Wordpress (from way back when it was called b2/cafelog), mainly because the Bureau runs on it. In the past, I even had a fling with Movable Type before it became a sell-out. Blogger, though, is like first love—not perfect, but the one you never really get over.

Shortly after we parted, Blogger saddled up with Google. My account was still active, so I got an exclusive invite to the Gmail beta test, which, at the time, was a big deal. (Hotmail was the leading email provider, offering a pathetic two megabytes to Gmail’s gigabyte.) Invites were so precious that beta testers could even sell the three they received through an online bartering system (the name of which I now forget).

For my invites, I got a $50 gift certificate to Amazon and three CDs (The Streets’ A Grand Don’t Come for Free, the Walkmen’s Bows + Arrows, and a Von Bondies album I threw away).

But I owe a lot to Blogger. Though I never really wrote anything of worth in those days (most of it fortunately lost), having a well-designed outlet proved to be invaluable practice and an introduction to how the internet would revolutionize communication. I’ve been complimented on how efficiently I can write, but it’s not really a talent. I’ve just been writing consistently for years.

And of course, I got a head start on Gmail, the first truly powerful web-based email service. The one lesson that keeps getting reinforced in my life is that time management and quick, clear communication are the most important skills you can have.

On a similar note, Bows + Arrows is one of the few albums from high school that I still listen to.