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Peter Howard is Wintermute, mythologist

The site of a film student and geek from Sydney, Australia. Most of the content on the site is arranged under ?bits, which you can navigate by post, month, or category. You may want to subscribe to the Atom feed.

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Who Says Computers Aren't Intelligent?

26May2006 [directLink] [myth]

Received an ‘Amazon.com Recommends’ email the other day. I haven’t been particularly impressed with Recommends in the past, not because it doesn’t work, but because it keeps recommending things I’ve already got (ie, they’re too obvious). This time there was one that got me interested:

We recommend Back to Bedlam
~ James Blunt
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000301YY8/ref=pe_ar_A1KX37XUJ9HU3Px6B000301YY8

You were recommended this because you purchased or rated:
* Elephunk
* Get Lifted

Now I’m impressed. I’ve made no mention of James Blunt on Amazon.com, and most of my rated music is hiphop — but somehow Amazon.com’s computer decides if I like the Black Eyed Peas and John Legend, I might also like James Blunt — that’s not a link most humans would make, but the computer has enough information that it can see a link.

« 14-20May2006 :: This Week :: 21-27May2006 :: This Week »

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