| Friday, April 15, 2005 |  |
| Search results you might not want to see |
| ZabaSearch is a people search engine which is, well, a little scary. If you live in the U.S., try to put in your own name. I put in mine, and it gave most of the addresses I've lived at or used, back to 15 years ago, and phone numbers. Seems like this comes from credit records. This kind of stuff has been available all along, but usually required a fee. Stalkers really have it much too easy.
Read about the people behind it here. The journalist makes a point of digging up some dirt on them, which just serves them well. A couple of guys with a criminal record, hiding behind a mailbox center, and who used to employ a bunch of the members of Heaven's Gate. [ Information | 2005-04-15 22:17 | 5 comments | PermaLink ] More > |
| Your genetic ancestry |
 National Geographic has a program where you can submit a DNA sample and be told your genetic history, where your ancestors came from and how they have migrated. That would be fun to see.
10 years ago I worked as a computer programmer for a company that did testing for organ transplants. That wasn't primarily DNA testing, but serological testing. I.e. one tests reactions between different drops of blood, and one measures against HLA, Human Leukocyte Antigens, on a section of chromosome 6, which has characteristic markings, which happen to be useful for testing tissue compatibility. Anyway, they also showed me charts like that, where the different types had been tracked over time in different parts of the world, and migratory patterns revealed. And I got a kick out of that they frequently wanted my blood, because it apparently was tricky to type, so they would use it for verifying the correctness of some of their tests. It is nice to be special. [ Science | 2005-04-15 22:17 | 4 comments | PermaLink ] More > |
| Google Video |
 Google has a new video search. Which has a lot of potential, I'm sure. But it is also a bit strange, as a lot of the videos aren't available. You can search on the closed captioning (subtitles) within a lot of programs that have been broadcast, and it will show you excerpts and snapshots along the way. But then you can't see the actual video. You'd have to go and find it and download it yourself from some file sharing network. The broadcasters really need to get smarter. Anyway, you can also upload your own videos. Apparently they'll take just about anything, of any length, and host it on their servers and index it. And that should have potential.[ Information | 2005-04-15 22:26 | 0 comments | PermaLink ] |