Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

1 November 2006

Search Selected Film Sites

Just a quick note today: I find that when I look for film information on the Internet, I construct the same queries over and over, trying to mine the sites that I know provide the content I like.

I've tried to bottle that here:

find.erratamag.com

It's a Google search box that limits its results to a select group of useful, high-quality film sites, chosen by me. Some new features at Google make this kind of thing very easy to create. It's not the perfect tool for discovery, but it may be useful. We'll see.

It's an experiment. If you haven't yet, take it for a spin. Please wear your goggles.

Posted by davis | Link

Reader Comments

November 1, 2006, 11:26 AM

Andy Horbal

That's bloody brilliant! You can make the link at the top of the page on your CSE point to a directory that includes the names and a brief description of all of the sites you're indexing, too. I've been thinking about trying to create a large Film Blog Directory, and this is just the tool to use...

November 1, 2006, 11:37 AM

davis

Yeah, it could work well for that. You can configure it to search the web at large but give extra weight to your chosen sites. I like that idea in theory, since it opens up your sandbox, but I found that the weighting wasn't as strong as I'd like, so I've set it to limit the results to my list.

They also have collaborative features so that other people can add to your list of sites.

One negative: you can't turn off the ads. (Naturally.) Errata is a non-commercial site, so I'd prefer not to have them. I've pushed them to the side, out of the way, but there they are. Hmm.

November 1, 2006, 10:14 PM

maya

Well, aren't you the bees knees!!! Thank you!

November 2, 2006, 06:46 AM

HarryTuttle

This is a great invention! Exactly what I needed. The search based on "word association" sorted by a computer is ridiculous (just like NSA's automated spying is less productive than operative intelligence). Only human memory makes the right connections between a query and relevant results. That's what the net misses.

I tried the Technorati watchlist and the Google blogsearch, both have RSS feed to get easy updates on what new results come up every day. But yours is definitely more interesting.
Thanks for including my blog in your database. :)

November 19, 2006, 01:42 PM

HarryTuttle

I finally got around to set up my own. Thanks for the tip.
Apparently you can turn off Ads now for non-profit sites ;)

November 19, 2006, 01:52 PM

davis

Great. I've turned off the ads on mine, although it hasn't taken effect yet. They say it should only be done for "a 501(c)(3) non-profit, university, or government agency website" so we'll see how long we can get away with it.

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