----- Original Message ----- From: "Gerhard Fiedler" To: Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 8:08 AM Subject: Re: [OT] Light running backward? > Bill & Pookie wrote: > >> When I was in the stacks looking for books on chess, I was also near >> books >> on backgammon and mah jong. So liked the way simular topics were >> neghbors >> and could learn new stuff. > > The problem with any such system is that it has only one dimension of > similarity. Most topics have several dimensions, and they get lost. You > were looking a book about chess and other, similar table games are indeed > similar. But you also could have looked for a book about chess strategy, > and topics like martial arts (some good material about strategy), foreign > politics (strategic planning is an important part of a good foreign > policy), AI (research about formalizing strategic planning), chess > programs > (actual implementations of formal strategies), biographies of chess > masters > (which possibly contain some general information about strategy, > especially > when it's an autobiography) and other such quite interesting and similar > topics would have been far, far away in the system. > > Wow, banks and dairy farmers share an interest in queing theory for their depositers. If they used the key word in their publication then google could discover both lines of information. Just the title of a book can be both informative or missleading, such as "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I think that the search engines developed so fast and was much better than what precedded them that now the net may suffer with the net resources they use collecting the information and the impossibile amount of information they return for a search. But they are intrenched and might remain the standard for a long time. But I do live them. Bill >> Also at that time, considered the Dewey Decimal System to be universal. > > It's a bit more global than the World Series , but apparently not the > only player in town outside the USA. See e.g. http://www.udcc.org/ > > Gerhard > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist