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Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

extremetech.com

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Re: Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

#71

Post by rayiner »

derleth wrote: post #29
Steko wrote: post #24

Is there where we reap upvotes with strident comments about how terrible curation is? No, wait for the Apple articles? Hookay.

So 'curation' means 'arbitrarily refusing to let someone give something away for free for absolutely no good reason'? http://www.jwz.org/blog/2012/07/apple-dicks/ (Oh. No. Apple had a very good reason: It was called xscreensaver and fuck you. I believe the second reason was the most important one.)

Yes, because giving people choices imposes a small but real cost upon them. It's science.

Re: Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

#73

Post by antoniuschan99 »

People this is all fake. It's not real or he's just a scammer. Look at the reviews he's got, it's all by the same person or the reviewer reviewed other titles of his books. Insead is a real place though, so dunno why he's a real prof there.

Re: Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

#74

Post by readme »

jrockway wrote: post #49
podperson wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although, to be fair, while Amazon doesn't need this, it kind of deserves it.

How dare they let just anyone write a book. Printing presses should be reserved for the elite and people whose opinions I personally agree with.

s/a book/800000 books with a spam app./

Re: Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

#76

Post by wdr1 »

rwg wrote: post #7

Just what Amazon needs: 800,000 computer-generated books crapping up the listings along with the thousands of on-demand printed copies of Wikipedia articles. Wonderful.

As long as you have good search functionality, it shouldn't matter. From what I can tell, so far Amazon does.

Re: Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

#77

Post by Zenst »

rwg wrote: post #7

Just what Amazon needs: 800,000 computer-generated books crapping up the listings along with the thousands of on-demand printed copies of Wikipedia articles. Wonderful.

I'm sure this really not help in future digital library archieves for phrase searching.

Next we will have entire usenet archieves published as ebooks, least a few threads in there day of more interest.

Re: Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

#78

Post by derleth »

scrumper wrote: post #12
jbperry wrote: post #2

As formulaic as some series are, I wonder how long it will be until a best seller is "written" by a program?

"The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed," written in 1983 by a program named Racter. Bestseller? It's very well known, but I don't know how well it sold.

> "The Policeman's Beard" Was Largely Prefab!

http://www.robotwisdom.com/ai/racterfaq.html

This is an interesting web page that convincingly makes the case that "The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed" was written largely by the humans involved, with the program having a minimal role, and that the Racter program they sold to the public was incapable of reproducing the novel.

Re: Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

#79

Post by oh_sigh »

podperson wrote: post #32
rwg wrote: post #7

Just what Amazon needs: 800,000 computer-generated books crapping up the listings along with the thousands of on-demand printed copies of Wikipedia articles. Wonderful.

Although, to be fair, while Amazon doesn't need this, it kind of deserves it.

Why is that?

Re: Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

#80

Post by derleth »

dasil003 wrote: post #67
derleth wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 'curation' means 'arbitrarily refusing to let someone give something away for free for absolutely no good reason'? http://www.jwz.org/blog/2012/07/apple-dicks/ (Oh. No. Apple had a very good reason: It was called xscreensaver and fuck you. I believe the second reason was the most important one.)

Hm, but then they let it through: http://www.jwz.org/blog/2012/08/xscreensaver-for-ios-now-ava... I fail to see the point of your tangential vitriol.

> Hm, but then they let it through:

Am I the only one that sees the idiocy here? That jwz had to fight with them at all is the entire point.

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