Links For Wednesday 5th August 2009

Links For Friday 31st July 2009

On The Failure Of Recommendation Engines

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk,

We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Bill Drummond have also purchased The Economics of Large-value Payments and Settlement: Theory and Policy Issues for Central Banks by Mark Manning. For this reason, you might like to know that The Economics of Large-value Payments and Settlement: Theory and Policy Issues for Central Banks will be released on 1 August 2009.

I think perhaps some smarter author matching in in order. Either that or Zodiac Mindwarp is branching out in some really odd directions, and proving unexpectedly capable of taking his fans with him. I suspect the former, and Amazon have made it sound like the latter, but I really don’t believe that very many people (like me) who read books with title like “Get Your Cock Out” are hugely interested in “The Economics of Large-value Payments and Settlement”. Oh dear, Amazon.

Links For Thursday 30th July 2009

Links For Friday 24th July 2009

  • Please, pass this link around. It's worth doing. Reblog, re-tweet, pass it on to your friends so they can do the same. If you are a geek or a nerd of any stripe, you should be aware that some small fraction of the money you spend on entertainment media is going to fuel homophobia (if you're giving money to companies that are then giving money to an operation that is fuelling homophobia, then yes, that *is* what is happening), and that this should be stopped. And unless they are publically shamed, then there is no reason for companies like Marvel to grow a spine. So you should circulate this link.
  • It does exactly what it says on the tin. I have no use for this, but I love that it exists.
    (tags: fish reference)
  • Watching this, I had to keep reminding myself that he's a politician, and that his words are unlikely to be backed up by action, that he's not going to be called on the content of this speech, and that he has teams of people whose job it is to help him seem engaged, aware and generally serious about the world. Still: this is a good speech, talking sense, and it's quite nice to see him saying things I agree with 100%.