Documentation
Articles on how to ... ?... effectively search the net?
Getting started
Searching the net for gathering information I start with a single website or file that has some key stuff on it. That is my feed for the searching journey.
If possible I then triangulate three of the major search engines that suit my quest. Sometimes a quick start can be made by using meta engines. Most meta's allow queesters and seekers to set which search engines will be asked for their gathered wisdom.
A start for searching the "hidden web" can also be made with file searching.
And if you want to search without being seen, I recommend selecting a personal search engine that allows for stealth mode, or to get Firefox with TrackMeNot. TrackMeNot works not by means of concealment or encryption (i.e. covering one's tracks), but instead, paradoxically, by the opposite strategy: noise and obfuscation. With TrackMeNot, actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are essentially hidden in plain view.
Then I quest and afterwards gather results from my backpack -- browser history and
the journal I keep and notes and maps I make underway ...
Meta data
All The Web’s URL investigator provides meta data on a site. You can get a plugin here for that for your browser if you have Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Netscape 6+, Netscape 4.x and older, and for Opera.
Similar
Things like Google’s related:www.site.wherever to find similar pages.
Pearl culturing
Pearl culturing where I start with a small set of relevant keys, and do image searching (updated May 20, music searching, and multimedia searching to hunt for what's associable. I keep track of potential additional subject keys like words and images (doodles really), associations with tunes and rythms, and meanings made on a piece of paper - and regularly redraw the emerging scapes on ever bigger and bigger pieces of paper. I also have a whiteboard in my office-up-in-the-attic 
.
Search industry snapshot contains some of the notes I made searching the net for net searching in May 2005. The below on this page listed found fauna and flora in the search industry niche, was another result of that quest.
Mining weblogs
Mining weblogs where I search subject specific information portals, collaborative portals, expertise portals and knowledge portals and directories, including blog portals and aggregators, like Technorati and Blogstreet. For more on what search engine or portal to use for what seeker purpose, searching the internet: recommended sites and search techniques gives some excellent starters.
Going way, way, back ...
Wayback Machine to find deleted pages. Wayback now has full text search. With that I can fold some time, as I can gather how a site came to be. There's also an archive of historic versions of the Wayback machine.
Who is or was that?
Whois, for which I run two tools on-line on my website. There’s also a Whowas, but it costs money. If it’s important enough, like for a reputation check before going into business with someone, likely I will use Whowas, and perhaps some other commercial services.
Mining Yahoo groups
Yahoo groups and such large scale group hubs are often named as part of the “invisible web”. There are many tools for which none of the information in such groups services is “invisible”, no matter what a group is set for … I don’t use those see the invisible tools myself, yet I know some other people do. So this is more a word of warning for people wanting to discuss private matters over mailing lists, and a word of warning with regard to how free IT people may feel on a yahoo list, knowing how vulnerable that data is.
Clustering
Viewing combinations of keys with a clustering engine.
I used clustering when I was tracking what happened with Rick Brenners message to the world on conflict resolution. The visual clustering was fun, and supported building a landscape from the gathered data.
With a landscape and impressions of how it came to be, we can whatif the future more effectively to predict likely outcomes of imagined experiments. And if our predictions are verified, our confidence in the landscape will increase. And increasing confidence holds a danger in and off itself: Footprints in the Sands of Time
... find a fitting open source tool?
You know your itch, and perhaps it is time to scratch that itch?
Wondering what tool would suit you best?
Our open source software pages provide overviews of several tools.
If those didn't give you what you came looking for or sounding out, here are a number of places on the Internet where you can most likely find "it":
Summarizing some guides for your hunt:
Make sure you check the licenses of for you possibly interesting software/tools. Open source promotes software reliability and quality by supporting independent peer review and rapid evolution of source code. To be OSI certified, the software must be distributed under a license that guarantees the right to read, redistribute, modify, and use the software freely.
Many of the tools and software have webforums where questions can be asked, and most/some questions have already been answered. When tools are very alive, mature, and much loved, the whole community helps answering questions, including (more experienced ) users. Some open source teams have even evolved into communities with language teams, documentation, and support teams (not always for free).
Check for what works for you, ask questions, either here or there on the forums.
Or, contact us if you wish for a guide to help you find that tree in the forest with your name (virtually) on it!
iTunes on Ubuntu: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
My sister is trying out Ubuntu and asks "what about my iTunes"? And this is the third time someone asks me about iTunes and Ubuntu. High time for an article on that.
I have bad news, ugly news and good news!
The Bad News
There isn't any iTunes for Linux (and Ubuntu). There is even a iTunes on Linux Petition to Apple Computer, Inc.
There are socalled workaround solutions where you use Wine or Crossover Office. In general, these allow you to run some of the native Windows programs, but even those don't work properly for iTunes:
The Ugly News
You can set up a dual boot system. This is very ugly because you have to reboot your computer every time you want to access iTunes and then reboot your computer again to go back to Ubuntu.
Two slightly less ugly variations of this are running virtual Ubuntu inside Windows using VMWare, or running virtual Windows inside Ubuntu using VMWare.
And the Good News is ...
You can manage your iPod without iTunes with many native Linux programs. Wikipedia offers a comparison (including lists of features) of iPod managers that will work on Linux (and Ubuntu). AmaroK and Banshee in particular come highly recommended by Ubuntu Forum members.
For more information on where to get music, including user experiences and recommendations, these Ubuntu Forum threads may be helpful:
- Best place to download music?
- Where do you get your music?
- Legal Music Downloads
- Music downloads for Linux
Then what about songs you already purchased at iTunes?
You cannot legally play the songs you have already purchased. When you buy from the iTunes store, you agree to their terms of service, which states:
Security. You understand that the Service, and products purchased through the Service, such as sound recordings, videos and related artwork ("Products"), include a security framework using technology that protects digital information and limits your usage of Products to certain usage rules established by Apple and its licensors ("Usage Rules"). You agree to comply with such Usage Rules, as further outlined below, and you agree not to violate or attempt to violate any security components. You agree not to attempt to, or assist another person to, circumvent, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise tamper with any of the security components related to such Usage Rules for any reason whatsoever. Usage Rules may be controlled and monitored by Apple for compliance purposes, and Apple reserves the right to enforce the Usage Rules with or without notice to you. You will not access the Service by any means other than through software that is provided by Apple for accessing the Service. You shall not access or attempt to access an Account that you are not authorized to access. You agree not to modify the software in any manner or form, or to use modified versions of the software, for any purposes including obtaining unauthorized access to the Service. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability.
Next steps
Pick your first path. Any of the above solutions, Wine, CrossOver, Dual Boot, Amarok, Banshee, we can do. It would be my pleasure to write an article that includes all of the details on how to do it. And traveling down a path we may discover that we wish to try another. No problem! :-)