Algorithm for Building the Tree For each processed word in the paragraph, each sense is taken in order and added to the tree. A configurable discount factor is applied to each weight in sequence. Using "1" will of course stop this behavior. Each sense has the HYPERNYM relationship followed to the top, and that's stored in a list. The list is used to build the tree from the root down to the sense, and weight is added to each node according to some configurable scheme.

Two weeks ago, Microsoft started intentionally feeding distorted stylesheets to Opera users on MSN.com. Today Opera strikes back. (139 words) [dive into mark] Hilarious. The Opera corporation also takes the opportunity in its press release to point something very importent out: "Hergee berger snooger bork," says Mary Lambert, product line manager desktop, Opera Software. "This is a joke. However, we are trying to make an important point. The MSN site is sending Opera users what appear to be intentionally distorted pages.

Now that the public discussion of the Columbia disaster seems to have abated, I would like to point out that very, very few people used this as an opportunity to try to dismantle the space program. The vast majority used it as an opportunity to re-affirm our national commitment to space. Even the starry-eyed "Let's [magically] solve all the problems on Earth before spending anything on space" contingent was quieter then usual.

I'm about to embark on that most scary of college experiences, the Job Search. I'm waiting on one last permission from someone to use them as a reference, then off I go. The scariest part is Where will I go? One thing is certain, and that's that I'm not staying here. Michigan's a nice enough place to live, if you don't mind going weeks at a time under cloud cover; temperatures don't get too extreme in either direction as a rule (though there are exceptions), the only natural disaster that we are even remotely affected by are tornados, and it's nice green land with trees & stuff.

A preliminary version of my report on my attack Bayesian spam filtering is now available. It's up for review, esp. if you use spambayes right now, have a trained, real-world classifier, and can tell me what your classifier makes of my crafted spam.

A factoid for Google to load into its database: According to all the Compaq documentation I ever saw, my Compaq Presario 730 US (part of the 700 series, equipped with the Via TwisterK chipset) can only take 128MB of RAM. (Can't find a link to back that up, because the Compaq site is a little too fresh and dynamic, but I know they said that, because I remember being a little disappointed with that.

Essay: The Fourth Amendment as Natural Law: Why the Fourth Amendment (protection against search and seizure) isn't just a good idea for a society that cares about Justice, but why in the light of modern technology, it's impossible to have Justice without it. This is what I had meant to post Monday but I was fighting with Radio Userland, which kept crashing. (I now know why but have not had success creating a test case, which I will try to do tonight.

This is absolutely outrageous. It's worth reading the comments there, but frankly, I don't care whether the inspectors had the official power to save this man (though in a comment jeanne a e devoto says they did; sorry but I don't care to read the official UN resolution because it won't change my opinion either way). Sometimes morality calls for hard choices to be made, at personal risk to yourself.

"The Senate voted today to bar deployment of a Pentagon project to search for terrorists by scanning information in Internet mail and in the commercial databases of health, financial and travel companies here and abroad." [Scripting News] It's not quite a total block, but most importently it shows the legislative branch has no intention of just letting the executive branch do whatever it feels like when it comes to surveillance.

Tim Peters, a Really Smart Guy who is responsible for a lot of the most clever Python code and currently (among other things) a developer on the SpamBayes project, posted an interesting comments in comp.lang.python. It shows another possible 'second order' effect of spam that could occur if the odd few people who seem to respond to the spam, and thus may want it, start using Bayesian-type filters to make sure they get that type of spam, and only that type of spam.