Google has added an “entity disambiguation” feature along with auto-complete when you type in your search query. For example, when I search for George Bush, I get the following additional information in auto-complete.

As you can see, Google is able to identify that there are two George Bushes’ — the 41st and the 43rd President and accordingly makes a suggestion to the user to select the appropriate president. Similarly, if you search for Johns Hopkins, you get suggestions for John Hopkins – the University, the Entrepreneur and the Hospital.  In the case of the Hopkins query, its the same entity name but with different types and thus Google appends different entity types along with the entity name.

However, searching for Michael Jordan produces no entity disambiguation. If you are looking for Michael Jordan, the UC Berkeley professor, you will have to search for “Michael I Jordan“. Other examples that Google is not handling right now include queries such as apple — {fruit, company}, jaguar {animal, car}.  It seems to me that Google is only including disambiguation between popular entities in its auto-complete. While there are six different George Bushes’ and ten different Michael Jordans‘ on Wikipedia, Google includes only two and none respectively when it disambiguates George Bush and Michael Jordan.

Google talked about using its knowledge graph to produce this information.  One can envision the knowledge graph maintaining, a unique identity for each entity in its collection, which will allow it to disambiguate entities with similar names (in the Semantic Web world, we call it as assigning a unique uri to each unique thing or entity). With the Hopkins query, we can also see that the knowledge graph is maintaining entity type information along with each entity (e.g. Person, City, University, Sports Team etc).  While folks at Google have tried to steer clear of the Semantic Web, one can draw parallels between the underlying principles on the Semantic Web and the ones used in constructing the Google knowledge graph.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v52FLMOPSig

Walk and Talk the Vote – West Wing Reunion – Bridget Mary McCormack

The cast of the West Wing reunites to promote voting in non-partisan elections like. Who can say no to President Jed Bartlet?

Muhammad in the playboy pose? Funny right, you might even say it’s a riot … ok bad joke. But the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo thought it would be hilarious. 

Following the riots last week though out the Mideast (sparked by what was basically a flip ph0ne video) the editors of the magazine decided to publish a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a pornographic pose as a testament to free speech. They say the cartoon was meant to satirize the video “Innocence of Muslims” and to denounce the violence it has provoked.

Mr. Charbonnier, Charlie Hedbo’s Editorial Director 

I’m sorry for the people who are shocked when they read Charlie Hedbo . . . But let them save 2.50 euros and not read it. That’s the only thing I have to say.

What do you think? Are the satirists being unnecessarily insensitive, are they fighting for free speech, or do you think they are just planning to make a killing off a hyped up cartoon?

Never again will students have to make the trek to the ITE building over the weekend to finish up that Matlab assignment. Thank UMBC’s Division of Information Technology (DoIT) for developing a virtual desktop solution that allows students to connect to a standard UMBC computer lab image from their MAC, PC, or iPad.

The virtual desktop is based on a Dell solution named “Virtual Desktop Environment (VDE) and it allows remote access to software like SPSS, SAS, Matlab, Comsol, Mathematica, and more.  

To try out the VDE system, visit virtual.umbc.edu.

Join the UMBC Bookstore on Homecoming Saturday, October 13, 2012 at 1 p.m. for the Cram it / Jam it shopping spree.  4 grand prize winners will receive their choice of JanSport backpack and 46 seconds to cram it with as much UMBC clothing that will fit. All while wearing the bags on their backs! 

Enter to win 3 ways:

1. Register for Homecoming. All registered Homecoming guests will be automatically entered to win. 

2. Complete the entry form in person at the UMBC Bookstore and Yum Shoppe.

3. Enter online at fb.com/umbcbookstore. 

In addition to the shopping spree, many second prizes will be won including a Kindle, camcorders, a tent, and an iPad dock radio. 

Everyone who attends will receive an additional 12% off UMBC clothing and merchandise on top of the 20% off Homecoming Sale. 

You have to show up to win.  But it's Homecoming, so you'll be here anyway!

See website for official rules and details.