Memex FAQ

• How do I get a login on memex server?
  The demo site will have a sign-up form where you have to enter a login name and an email address. This email will be used only once, to send you a password. This email will not be used for any solicitation. When you start the Memex applet enter the login and password.
• How do I connect to the server?
  When the applet loads you would be prompted for login, password and Memex server URL. (For the demo there is only one server.) Fill in the details and click "Connect".
• How do I set my proxy settings?
  You don't have to set them. They are read from your browser's settings and the network connections are made accordingly.
• The applet starts up but cannot record by surfing history.
  Remember to enable Javascript.
• What would happen if I open another Netscape window?
  At the moment the Memex applet can monitor only one window, the one where it was started.
• Can I run two Memex sessions as one user at the same time?
  No, starting the second session will terminate the first session. This is for your security.
• Which version of Netscape/IE does memex require?
  Netscape 4.5 or higher, IE 4.0 or higher (the port for IE has not yet been released).
• How do I import my old bookmarks from my browser?
  Go to the Folder tab and click on the import button. Your default bookmark file is picked up from your .netscape directory and imported to the server. (Later we will import any named file in suitable formats.)
• What are the buttons at the bottom of the Memex panel?
  The URL currently shown in the browser can be bookmarked by clicking the bookmark button. It is added to the selected folder.
  You can choose if you wish to share bookmarks and surfing history with other surfers in your community. In case you do not wish to archive at all, click `None'; if you do not wish to share, click `Private'; if you wish to share, click `Public'. You can change the choice at any time.
• How do I edit the folder structure?
  Use the cut/copy/paste menus on the Folder tab. These let you edit your folder structure pretty much like Windows file and folder manager. We cannot implement drag-and-drop yet with the current generation of browsers. Therefore select url/folder, click on cut/copy, select the target folder, and click paste to put the urls/folder at the target.
• What's clustering and classification?
  Clustering is the automatic organisation of web pages into a heirarchial tree structure based on similarity of content. The memex server returns a folder partitioned into similar documents thus ensuring a better organisation of your bookmark structure.
  Classifying is the automatic positioning of a web page in your bookmark folder structure. In case you are in doubt where to put a page in your folder structure, the Memex server will do it for you.
• How much time it would take to cluster/classify?
  This depends on the load on the server, the number of users logged on, and the size of input (number of URL's to classify or cluster).
• How do I rename/edit my folders?
  Triple click on the folder and fill in a new name and press ENTER.
• How do I accumulate folders into cluster folder?
  Select the URLs you wish to include in the input to the clustering algorithm and click on url_edit-copy, then click on Cluster-dump. The selected URLs will become visible in the Cluster tab. Click on cluster-submit to submit the URLs to the clustering engine.
• How do I send a URL for classification?
  You don't need to. The Memex server periodically goes through your surfing history to classify visited locations automatically into your folder structure.
• What's the function of the Trail tab?
  The Trail tab is a visual guide to your browsing graph. Use it to move about on the Web graph and to recall, by clicking on a topic, to recreate the context of your last surfing session relevant to that topic.
• What will happen to the Memex applet if Netscape/IE crashes?
  The Memex applet will die, but most requests sent to server will not be lost. You can simply restart the browser and revisit the Memex site to resume your surfing session.
• How do use the Search tab?
  Enter a boolean expression and click the Search button. Examples are java package awt and java +jdbc -oracle with the obvious meaning. Double click on any result URL to take the browser to the corresponding page.
• Can I know who are all the users currently accessing the server?
  Not at this point. We consider this a privacy issue.