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On the Amazon....
Nov. 27th, 2002 12:49 pmOne of the Unicorn and Gryphon mailing list folks read an article at http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB1038261936872356908,00.html entitled "If TiVO thinks you're gay, here's how to set it straight" about the amusing and occasionally alarming things the algorithms used decide what sort of stuff you want to watch. Mind you, if I got TiVO and it kept recording stuff I didn't ask it to, and I couldn't kill off the feature, I'd get rid of it again. Who needs this? The article sent the poster to Amazon.com to see what they thought of him, and I decided it would be fun to do so myself.
OK - I clicked on "recommendations" and found a biography of Pope John III, an underwater camera, the video game "Kingdom Hearts", _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, and a wireless DSL router... Given that I've been using Amazon to look up links for things people recommended for this year's Furry Reading List, I suppose that's about par for the course. (The Reading List is a list of things published in the past year which would be eligible to nominate for the Ursa Major Awards. You can find it at http://www.ursamajorawards.org/ReadList.htm)
On to "New For You"... a history book about the Allied Invasion of North Africa, an ultrathin CD player (where I get ultrathin CDs it doesn't say), a Tony Bennet album, the SpiderMan video, the Fellowship of the Ring platinum CD.
Hmm.. this thing says I have some messages. I look at the messages and find an advertisement for... the 8 Mile soundtrack? Well, it's not like I've ever ordered recordings from them - I get most of my music from Random Factors... And right after "Explicit Lyrics" it figures I probably need Jesus' Little Instruction Book (no thanks, I've got one - it's called "The Bible"... :->) Oh - I see - it's by Thomas Cahill. I've ordered 3 of his books from them thus far so this actually makes sense. Ah, and he also wrote the Pope John III bio, which explains that recomendation too.
Releases in DVD - aha, yes, I do want the Babylon 5 boxed set - in fact I've already got it... Space 1999 otoh - manifestly they don't think much of my taste... Two Star Wars and Spiderman again...
HEY, a new Terry Pratchett! Ok, guys, I'll forgive you for the Space 1999.
[pause to order]
At the bottom of the page after taking the order for _Night Watch_, it gives me a list of recommendations, all of which I've already got. Most are by Pratchett, so this makes perfect sense.
Back to shopping, and with this order, the recommendations have all updated and it's now pushing _Nanny Ogg's Cookbook_. I think this concludes our tour for the day. :->
OK - I clicked on "recommendations" and found a biography of Pope John III, an underwater camera, the video game "Kingdom Hearts", _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, and a wireless DSL router... Given that I've been using Amazon to look up links for things people recommended for this year's Furry Reading List, I suppose that's about par for the course. (The Reading List is a list of things published in the past year which would be eligible to nominate for the Ursa Major Awards. You can find it at http://www.ursamajorawards.org/ReadList.htm)
On to "New For You"... a history book about the Allied Invasion of North Africa, an ultrathin CD player (where I get ultrathin CDs it doesn't say), a Tony Bennet album, the SpiderMan video, the Fellowship of the Ring platinum CD.
Hmm.. this thing says I have some messages. I look at the messages and find an advertisement for... the 8 Mile soundtrack? Well, it's not like I've ever ordered recordings from them - I get most of my music from Random Factors... And right after "Explicit Lyrics" it figures I probably need Jesus' Little Instruction Book (no thanks, I've got one - it's called "The Bible"... :->) Oh - I see - it's by Thomas Cahill. I've ordered 3 of his books from them thus far so this actually makes sense. Ah, and he also wrote the Pope John III bio, which explains that recomendation too.
Releases in DVD - aha, yes, I do want the Babylon 5 boxed set - in fact I've already got it... Space 1999 otoh - manifestly they don't think much of my taste... Two Star Wars and Spiderman again...
HEY, a new Terry Pratchett! Ok, guys, I'll forgive you for the Space 1999.
[pause to order]
At the bottom of the page after taking the order for _Night Watch_, it gives me a list of recommendations, all of which I've already got. Most are by Pratchett, so this makes perfect sense.
Back to shopping, and with this order, the recommendations have all updated and it's now pushing _Nanny Ogg's Cookbook_. I think this concludes our tour for the day. :->
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