You're One Step Away From 'Artificial Intelligence'

"The Web...is an Ocean of Knowledge, about two centimeters deep!"

-Fjalar Ravia(if that is his real name! =)

The first time I read that statement, I thought that it was kind of corny. But the more I think about it, the more I realize the wisdom it contains. The essence of this statement is that the web contains an enormous amount of information, but one should not despair, because it is all right at your fingertips.

If you are looking for an answer to something, you CAN find it on the web, as it is almost certainly out there. It may not be easy to find the answer(depending on the subject matter), but with a few linguistic tricks, some knowledge of search engines, and a lot of guesswork...ahem, I mean zen, you can find it. Also, I find that a Red Bull vodka or two does not hurt! =)

Let me demonstrate(Use the provided links to follow along, they should open in a new window)!

I am looking for a book, "Windows 95 System Programming Secrets," which is out of print. Let's see what happens when I google for it. Well, it pulls up a bunch of bibliographies and some stores selling used copies, but nothing much, really, other than what appears to be some source code to accompany the book. A quick peek at one of the entries reveals the names of some of the authors, let's try to search on some of them. I recognize the last name Pietrek, he writes a lot of articles, so I'll try him first. Wow. This guy is popular: 32,000+ results! That's no good. The first hit is a personal website of his, it would appear. I check various links on the page to find mention of the book. Occasionally, books are released to the public domain, and the authors will sometimes post links to online copies. No luck, until you look at the FAQ page! Mr. Pietrek says "I've seen that somebody has taken the time to pirate ["Windows 95 System Programming Secrets"] on a website. I've seen it on a website outside the US. Suffice it to say, this is not endorsed by me, I believe it's illegal, so asking me about that site is a sore subject :-)" What's with the smiley face? Anyway, that is very good news for me. :-)

It's possible that whoever has pirated the book has published it in HTML format, but Adobe's PDF format seems a more likely option. Let's try searching for " 'Windows 95 System Programming Secrets' " again, and this time add a " +.pdf ". This looks promising. After quickly browsing through the results, I see that a lot of them are just recommending the book, and on the same page they have other programming documents available to download in PDF format. Close, but no cigar. Aha! This one looks promising. It's a foreign domain, and it has some english titles in it, one of them being "Windows 95 System Programming Secrets.pdf"

Looks like a winner to me, folks. I just downloaded it, and yup. It's the real deal. I'm sure none of you are interested in the book itself, but I hope I gave some idea of how simple it can be sometimes to find the information you seek. All that took me about 10 minutes, and a whopping grand total of three searches. Admittedly, I got pretty lucky, but in my experience, knowing a bit about the author is often key. If Pietrek hadn't explicitly stated that the book existed online, I might have followed a more convoluted route. I still would have found it, though. If you question the legality of downloading a pirated version of this book, understand that Pietrek essentially gave the world the combination to unlock the vault where his book is kept. I would not be surprised if it was deliberate, contrary to what he claims to feel about the whole prospect. So, download it or don't. I am not responsible for your actions.

Learn more about how to search at Searchlore.org. Don't be put off by the awkward layout and prose! It is entirely intentional. Take your time, read some of the articles, try out some of his tricks, and get absorbed by the riddles littered throughout. I've been reading this guys wisdom for years, and I highly recommend you try to track down some of his older stuff. It shouldn't be hard to find!