Digging In Your Own Old Dirt

So I was digging through some old papers today, and came across a bundle of lecture notes from college. One page of publishing business notes struck me as particularly useful today, and I wanted to find out what happened to my instructor that day. Problem was, I could remember her face but not her name.

So what to do? Of course, the English department at FSU was no help -- this professor has flow the coop years ago, and the Web site doesn't list emeritae. So it's the Wayback Machine to the rescue!

A quick search dug up old, old links to the Creative Writing program's home page. The archive stretched back to the mid-1990s, which was all I needed. A copy of that home page from early 1998, just before I walked Magna Cum Laude, led to a handy faculty list, with just enough clues to help me ferret out the name I needed. Dr. Janet Burroway, I will never forget that ultra-cool Cambridge robe you wore on graduation day!

A couple of Google clicks later, and I have my professor's home page with contact info, and updated bio, and everything I could ask for. Score one for the Wayback Wanderer!

Google Paranoia

An oldie but goodie from NY Times, predicting what Google might search tomorrow. Notice the cheerful pair of buttons: "I'm Feeling Lucky" or "I'm Feeling Paranoid."

Is Google becoming Big Brother? And if so, is that necessarily a bad thing? Thanks to my librarian schooling, I kind of like the idea of being able to search anything, anytime, for any reason. Just means it's up to me not to gather too many skeletons in my closet. The idea reminds me of Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter's Light of Other Days, where nothing is secret or ever will be again.

Does an omniscient Google scare or excite you? Post a comment and let me know!

Disclosure: Anders owns shares in Google.