Elfira Yolanda S

… my paradise information retrieval world!

No, I was not welcoming you to a technical post. That is just not something to be expected from me. Hehe..

It has been days since I come to the office and work for about 8 hours. Now, I come to the office and work myself out just to keep me from boredom. It’s simple thing, my friends.. I (, at most of the time,) have nothing to do. Well, I am not like her, with her heavy reading and her being happy over an ANTLR3 article (hehe..) and I am not like him, my cubicle neighbor, who is trying to make a set of gridview code in javascript, but they certainly inspire me to have my own learning.

So.. I downloaded an e-book related with information retrieval, written by C. J. van RIJSBERGEN B.Sc., Dip. NAAC, Ph.D., M.B.C.S., F.I.E.E., C.Eng., F.R.S.E. (what a name..). Look at this definition of information retrieval I found:

Information retrieval is the term conventionally, though somewhat inaccurately, applied to the type of activity discussed in this volume. An information retrieval system does not inform (i.e. change the knowledge of) the user on the subject of his inquiry. It merely informs on the existence (or non-existence) and whereabouts of documents relating to his request.

Well, Mr. C. J. van RIJSBERGEN B.Sc., Dip. NAAC, Ph.D., M.B.C.S., F.I.E.E., C.Eng., F.R.S.E. himself quoted the definition from someone named F. W. Lancester.

The bold parts on the definition is something that I just realized. The products of information retrieval technology don’t actually retrieve information we request.. hear.. hear…! Agree! That’s true, right? I’m amazed.. Huhu…

Well, as you might guess, I end up writing this post (instead of reading the e-book, I haven’t even finished the introduction chapter, wkwkwk..). But, it’s quite a progress, right?