

If you're going to search the web, make an intelligent guess first - jgrahamc
http://blog.jgc.org/2010/05/if-youre-going-to-search-web-make.html

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Periodic
I don't think this is advice that really needs to be given to most people on
HN. However, it is important advice.

I've often been told by my wife that the reason she has to ask me for help
with computer issues is because I know what to google and she doesn't. She
will often end up blinding picking part of an error message to google, but I
am able to understand the error and the systems involved enough to make a good
search that narrows in on the specific problem.

It's amazing how much more productive a little GoogleFu can make you.

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ryanelkins
I don't know, if that was true then the person who originally posted it might
have found it themselves, or the people who responded to the original post
might not have been so perplexed as to how he figured that out. It seems like
a no brainer when you think about it but I'm not sure everyone would think
about it right off.

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ggrot
Another fun approach would be using google code search which allows for regexp
searching. Looking for stuff of similar format to {D1531,1000,1501|}, I find
these two results. The results indicate that this might be related to
printers.

[http://www.google.com/codesearch?q=\\{D[0-9]{4},[0-9]{4},[0-9...](http://www.google.com/codesearch?q=\\{D\[0-9\]{4},\[0-9\]{4},\[0-9\]{4}\\|\\}&hl=en)

~~~
jgrahamc
Interestingly, that points to TEC Printers made by Toshiba for a similar
purpose (barcoding). So perhaps this is a common barcoding language used by
compatible printers.

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braindead_in
Ref: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1346961>

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jorgecastillo
Another "good Google searching practices" anecdote.

When I was in high school (I live in Mexico) we were supposed to watch a human
rights video for English class and transcribe the audio. But since I am
somewhat lazy I thought tha maybe there could be a transcription somewhere on
the internet. After googleing a while (only some very thoughtful searches
which I don't remember) I came across a pdf with a full transcription from
some Korean government site. I copied and printed the english text and that's
what I handed in.

I failed the assignment and the teacher asked me to lend her the transcription
so that everyone could have a copy.

P.S. When I found the transcription I passed it to some classmates and they
copied the transcription by hand to their notebooks (they didn't fail the
assignment).

