SharePoint Search: An Open Source Widget

If you have SharePoint responsibilities, you know how fabulous Microsoft’s Swiss Army knife solution is. Let me explain. The “fabulousness” applies to consultants, integrators, and “experts” who can make the rusty blade cut better than it does once the system is installed.

I learned about “SharePoint 2013 Search Query Tool” from one of the ArnoldIT SharePoint experts. You can download tool to test out and debug search queries against the SharePoint 2013 REST API. The tool does not help improve either the system or the user queries, but I find this software interesting for three reasons:

After years of Microsoft innovation, there are still issues with getting relevant results. Ergo the open source tool.

SharePoint does not provide a native administrative function to perform this type of testing.

Open source may be edging toward SharePoint. If the baby steps mature, will an open source snap in to replace the wild and crazy Fast Search & Transfer technology pop into being?

Stephen E Arnold, one of the world’s leading experts in information retrieval said:

Fast Search is on a technical par with SharePoint. The idea that two flawed systems can cope with changing user needs, Big Data, and unexpected system interactions is making SharePoint software which boosts costs. Change may be forced on Microsoft and without warning.

Worth thinking about and checking out the free widget.

Stuart Schram

2013/09/14

Berto Jongman: The maps transforming how we interact with the world

Geospatial

The maps transforming how we interact with the world

The modern map is no longer an unwieldy printed publication we wrestle with on some blustery peak, but digital, data-rich, and dynamic.

It is transforming the way we interact with the world around us.

Thanks to “big data”, satellite navigation, GPS-enabled smartphones, social networking and 3D visualisation technology, maps are becoming almost unlimited in their functionality, and capable of incorporating real-time updates.

Read full article.

2013/09/142013/09/14

Berto Jongman: Google Evil – Exploits All Wi-Fi Passwords

Security

Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

By Michael Horowitz

Computer World, September 12, 2013

If an Android device (phone or tablet) has ever logged on to a particular Wi-Fi network, then Google probably knows the Wi-Fi password. Considering how many Android devices there are, it is likely that Google can access most Wi-Fi passwords worldwide.

Recently IDC reported that 187 million Android phones were shipped in the second quarter of this year. That multiplies out to 748 million phones in 2013, a figure that does not include Android tablets.

Many (probably most) of these Android phones and tablets are phoning home to Google, backing up Wi-Fi passwords along with other assorted settings. And, although they have never said so directly, it is obvious that Google can read the passwords.

Full article with many links below the line.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Google Evil – Exploits All Wi-Fi Passwords”

2013/09/132013/09/13

Jean Lievens: Intentional Communities and Solidarity Economics — Grassroots Economic Organizing

Crowd-Sourcing, Design, Economics/True Cost

Intentional Communities and Solidarity Economics | Grassroots Economic Organizing

From geo.coop – September 12, 12:28 AM

The Fall GEO Theme seeks to deepen awareness and understanding of the strong connections between solidarity economic activists and members of intentional communities through the common work they are doing.

Intentional Communities and Solidarity Economics | Grassroots Economic Organizing | Peer2Politics | Scoop.it

2013/09/09

Stephen E. Arnold: IBM Has Security Flaws

Security, Software

IBM Has Security Flaws

September 8, 2013

IBM is a respected technology company and it appears that hardly anything can bad can be said about them. There comes a time when every company must admit they have a fault in their product and IBM must step up to the plate this time. The news comes to us from Secunia, a Web site that monitors technology security, in the warning, “Security Advisory SA54460-IBM Content Analytics With Enterprise Search Multiple Vulnerabilities.”The warning is labeled as moderately critical and should worry organizations that use the software to manage their data. The bug messes with cross site scripting, manipulates data, exposes sensitive information, and a DoS.

Here is the official description:

“IBM has acknowledged a weakness and multiple vulnerabilities in IBM Content Analytics with Enterprise Search, which can be exploited by malicious people to disclose certain sensitive information, conduct cross-site scripting attacks, manipulate certain data, and cause a DoS (Denial of Service).”

Ouch! IBM must not be happy about this, but at least they discovered the problem and Content Analytics users can expect a patch at some point. Hate to bring up Microsoft at this venture, but whenever a big company has a problem I can’t help but think about how Microsoft never has a product launch without some issues. IBM is reliable and hopefully they will not go down the same path as Windows 8.

Whitney Grace, September 08, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

2013/09/07

Stephen E. Arnold: Power Search for Open Source Developers

#OSE Open Source Everything, Software

Power Search for Open Source Developers

Open source is cutting across the world as solution revolution. It is making technology cheaper and more widely available. It could have positive far reaching consequences in education and aerospace technology, but all revolutions need a little help getting off the ground.

“Open source projects need all the help they can get. If not with funding, then with volunteers contributing to open source programming and free tools they can brandish. Search engines tuned with algorithms to find source code for programming projects are among the tools for the kit bag. While reusing code is a much debated topic in higher circles, they could be of help to beginner programmers and those trying to work their way through a coding logjam by cross-referencing their code.”

Makeuseof.com points to the article, “Open Source Matters: 6 Source Code Search Engines You Can Use For Programming Projects” that lists code search engines to help developers out in their projects. Ohloh Code is one of the largest code search engines with over ten billion code lines in its system. It allows users to search by different code classes, but currently it does not support regular expressions. SearchCode searches through open source communities such as Github, SourceForge, and CodePlex. Amazingly, a single person maintains it. For those who have code with special symbols, Google and other engines cannot cut it. That is where Symbol Hound sniffs around the Net for odd character.

There are a few more code search engines described in the article, but head on over to read it on your own. Code search engines are indicative of the open source mentality-share and spread the wealth.

Whitney Grace, September 06, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

2013/09/05

Geoff Forbes at LandInfo: Syria at 1:50,000