random things from ilya

Amazon.com's many bots feud over book-prices | Boing Boing

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:18:05 +0100

Amazon.com's many bots feud over book-prices | Boing Boing:

‘Before I talk about my own troubles, let me tell you about another book, “Computer Game Bot Turing Test”. It’s one of over 100,000 “books” “written” by a Markov chain running over random Wikipedia articles, bundled up and sold online for a ridiculous price. The publisher, Betascript, is notorious for this kind of thing.

It gets better. There are whole species of other bots that infest the Amazon Marketplace, pretending to have used copies of books, fighting epic price wars no one ever sees. So with “Turing Test” we have a delightful futuristic absurdity: a computer program, pretending to be human, hawking a book about computers pretending to be human, while other computer programs pretend to have used copies of it. A book that was never actually written, much less printed and read.’

oh yes…

underwaterpassion: Venus Awesomeness!

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:14:07 +0100

underwaterpassion:

Venus

Awesomeness!

Photo

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:59:00 +0100

Eyeo Festival | Converge to Inspire

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:51:06 +0100

Eyeo Festival | Converge to Inspire:

Hmmmm

hmmmmm Robert Hodgin

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:42:00 +0100

hmmmmm Robert Hodgin

Photo

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:13:48 +0100

Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:55:48 +0100

Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - BBC Four (by BBC)

Awesome visualization & storytelling!

(via 20 Great Visualizations of 2011 | Visual.ly Blog)

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:53:05 +0100

(via 20 Great Visualizations of 2011 | Visual.ly Blog)

Franklin’s Footpath Gene Davis putting finishing touches; shot...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:43:48 +0100

Franklin’s Footpath

Gene Davis putting finishing touches; shot by Henry Groskinsky, Philadelphia 1972

orientaltiger: London, 1940s, in hi-res color: These...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:12:26 +0100

orientaltiger:

London, 1940s, in hi-res color: These photographs were taken using Kodachrome film by Chalmers Butterfield, probably in 1949.

deplorableword: I want this so bad, 8-bit Breaking Bad...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:52:27 +0100

deplorableword:

I want this so bad, 8-bit Breaking Bad (Warning: contains spoilers) (via discodrive)

DOES contain spoilers!

bigfun:

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:25:00 +0100

bigfun:

Photo

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:23:59 +0100

applearts: Fancy

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:21:56 +0100

applearts:

Fancy

applearts: Interior design room: UXPin Portable Kit

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:20:00 +0100

applearts:

Interior design room: UXPin Portable Kit

"If he is a good designer the form he invents will penetrate the problem so deeply that it not only..."

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:16:28 +0100

“If he is a good designer the form he invents will penetrate the problem so deeply that it not only solves it but illuminates it.”

- Notes on the synthesis of form - Christopher Alexander - Google Books (via slantback)

Ha, i just finished reading the book…

uhuh

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:29:12 +0100

terminally-incoherent:

"‎Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our cultural and political..."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:43:14 +0100

“‎Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our cultural and political life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”

- Isaac Asimov

anthropophagous: I don’t really think that this is anti-intellectualism as a blanket thing, so much as valuation of certain kinds of knowledge over others / the idea that intellectuals are somehow disengaged from the world / anti-intellectualism as a shroud for other kinds of bigotry and groups you would like to marginalize or legitimize.

(via brocatus)

terminally-incoherent: Countries that use metric system are in...

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:30:49 +0100

terminally-incoherent:

Countries that use metric system are in green.

"There is no school like the old school, and I’m the fucking headmaster!"

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:08:50 +0100

“There is no school like the old school, and I’m the fucking headmaster!”

- Rock’n Rolla