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eBay has this great "feature" that if you search for "stuff I want" -"ugly rotten crap" you will get emails for "the ugly rotten crap you're looking for".
The minus works on search results, but then they recommend what you excluded.
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John C. Dvorak, long-time PC Mag columnist (who, in his own words, got unceremoniously deplatformed for his views on 5G), had a great article on this sort of thing a good while ago. As I recall he referred to it as the big data lie. Basically, it amounts to this:
They have access to the largest purchasing history database in the world, yet the best they can do is, after you've bought a hat, start showing you ads for hats.
AI has a long way to go.
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dandy72 wrote: he best they can do is, after you've bought a hat, start showing you ads for hats.
Now, for any normal logic, one would realize you just bought that so you won't need one for a while. However,
perhaps their marketing is run by women and they feel that if you just bought shoes (in particular) then you obviously want to buy more shoes. In their minds it absolutely logical.
Deep down in side, the all idolize Amelda Marcos[^].
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: Now, for any normal logic, one would realize you just bought that so you won't need one for a while.
Exactly
W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: perhaps their marketing is run by women and they feel that if you just bought shoes (in particular) then you obviously want to buy more shoes. In their minds it absolutely logical.
I would've said that's the marketing approach and not have made such a general, sexist comment, but given your example...I have no counterargument. 
I only have two feet. I think I own 3 pairs of shoes, including a pair of winter boots, and a pair of dress shoes I haven't had a reason to wear in about a decade. Ok, make that 4, if slippers count.
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Indeed - how many new cars can you buy one after the other (facebook after I bought a car - and how did it even find out given that I bought it in person, the internet wasn't involved)? How many new projectors do you need (Amazon after I bought one)?
I don't think Skynet is quite ready yet - and if it is, would probably drop megatons of sanitary products on women and "men's" products on men.
8)
I can't believe it would be difficult to tell the AI to ignore non-consumable products for a while after you bought them, rather than instantly assuming you are buying them for the entire population of your home country.
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I often find it easier to bypass their search altogether and use a search engine. E.g. 1/16" FOOBARS site:amazon.com
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Your proposal seemed like an interesting option so I tried it with a recent shopping event. The listing I got was difficult to use (no sorting or anything) - so I modified the search by clicking the shopping link. At that point, site:amazon.com was no longer part of the picture.
Deja-vu all over again.
Too bad.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Amazon search has a lot of room for improvement. They could learn a lot from Craigslist which has a pretty thorough syntax. You can't add "not" to Amazon searches to weed out the noise. I was searching for 4 cell LiPos and had no way to filter out the 2S, 3S, 6S. There are a lot of 3S to wade through!
I think Amazon had "not" and "and" syntax at one time but took it away? I could be mis-remembering.
Not to say Craigslist is perfect. Used car dealers know how to make their crap shows up show up for stuff you really don't want to see by adding a block of "keywords". Interestingly, it is hidden on the mobile search but you can see it on the desktop browser experience. Just add another "not" clause and you're good to go. I'd think that Craigslist could easily detect these and keep them from being posted.
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Shmoken99 wrote: You can't add "not" to Amazon searches to weed out the noise
Actually you can:
"4 cell LiPo" -2S Will look for exact text, and exclude results with "2S" in them.
I've been using it for years! 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Funny enough, my buddy and I where on about this a little while back.
It's NOT just the shopping sites, but the search experience in general, to whit, we came to the conclusion they are just NOT trying as hard as they used to, and are more interested (Esp the main search engines outside the market places) in putting results in front of you that they hope will lead you to buy things.
I've lost count of the amount of searches in "Bing" and "Google" where I have been really, really specific, I mean
"this phrase" AND "that phrase" "keyword" "keyword" "keyword"
specific.
And got back either a bunch of shopping results, or an instant "sorry nothing found and where not even gonna try" response.
There was a time, when (Particularly with google) you could put in a general query, then spend a few minutes tweaking it, by enclosing some things in quotes and using operators like the minus symbol to exclude stuff, or filetype:xxx domain:blah.blah to filter stuff out you didn't want.
And you could tell that your tweaking was doing a more through search because it took noticeably longer.
Even google them selves documented it at one point stating that "if you fine tune your search, it cause the search engine to do a deeper more intensive search, that often reveals hits not in the general index"
Now however, I'm increasingly seeing tweaks like this being ignored. Don't want those ads for some product or other to appear try -"keyword" and watch the ad still appear along with more just like it.
It feels largely like the search engines leave the syntax in to make folks think they have control, but they ignore it anyway in favour of potential money making hits.
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Maybe it's an audience assessment thing:
People live in a world of ignorance because their hand-held device is connected right to google. The "need to know" doesn't seem to be an interest, let a lone an imperative.
By this, I mean, they don't need to know anything since they can ask someone (something) to look it up for them. They take what they get - without question. That's the beauty of the system, a "closure" if you wish: the less you know the more you need them and the less capable you are to realize they're ![Elephant | [mastadon]](https://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/Images/elephant.gif) ing with you.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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@GregUtas
Where is the CCC?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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These idiots were running around the Capitol in full view - and ironically because they detest the COVID face mask orders - so the datasets will be there to compare against. I wonder if they even remotely understand how the mathematics of eigenvalues will put them in prison.
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Everyone one of them "showing their patriotism", by not wearing a mask! 
And I don't think anyone is going to need facial recognition software. They were on prime-time TV across the world.
If it wasn't so scary, it would be hilarious. 
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I would be astonished if the NSA, the FBI, or even the Washington DC police department did not have access to such software. Whether the political will to use it exists is another matter.
swampwiz wrote: I wonder if they even remotely understand how the mathematics of eigenvalues will put them in prison.
If God had meant them to know about eigenvalues, they would be named in English, as God intended. After all, if English was good enough for God to write the Bible in, it's certainly good enough for mathematicians. 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: Whether the political will to use it exists
Of all things, you're questioning that?
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swampwiz wrote: I wonder if they even remotely understand how the basics of mathematics of eigenvalues will put them in prison.
FTFY
And no, this isn't a slight on Trumps counting system, or the US election at all. It's a swipe at the intelligence of people who gather in large groups, not wearing masks, during a pandemic that appears to be getting worse, and attempt to storm a building that is going to be well and truly covered in armed, trained security as well as cameras ...
TBH, it's a miracle that any of them survived.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: TBH, it's a miracle that any of them survived.
I think that miracle is called: "white skin"! The cops were taking selfies with guys trying to overthrow democracy. 
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5teveH wrote: "white skin"!
Make that christian white skin. You did see those T-shirts? Also, in very many, perhaps the majority, of cases, the BLM marchers were heavily if not mainly white. Certainly following Floyd's murder.
However - I propose a different thing altogether.
Just "whose side are you on?" and how that reflects in the mentality of the police force(s) as a whole. I don't don't the crackdown may have come sooner if the rioters "didn't look like me" from the cop's point of view. Or better, "vote like me". (I used the first version as an attempt at the irony of the incredible racism the first statement implies - and it's acceptable for "some people" to use such expressions). Sides may, certainly in urban areas, lay upon a racial divide.
They had plenty of warning so perhaps we need fall back onto occam's razor and go for the simple solution: it was allowed to happen not because of anything racial but purely political.
Now, of course, let's add to he fire: a perceived show of strength by the far right or as a mechanism to disgrace them by the far left? Conspiracy theories - egalitarian reality !
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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OriginalGriff wrote: it's a miracle that any of them survived.
Natural selection's too ![Elephant | [mastadon]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/elephant.gif) ing slow.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Quote: It's a swipe at the intelligence of people who gather in large groups, not wearing masks, during a pandemic that appears to be getting worse
You don't need the qualifier "not wearing masks" in there; people gathering in large groups during a global pandemic are displaying all the intelligence of a tuna sandwich.
Because, you see, masks limit the amount of infection sprayed into the air, it doesn't remove it completely, so having a few hundred people gathered together with masks on is not that much better than a few hundred people without masks on.
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