Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon • Hacker News Board

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#51

Post by freshhawk » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 1:17 AM UTC

lobotryas wrote: post #34

elteto wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective" What exactly is an art perspective? I buy stuff every month from Amazon to serve different purposes, so that they are pseudo-random if looked from outside without context. That doesn't make me an artist, at least not in my book. I don't want to start a modern art flame fest, but where do we draw the line? I mean, it seems like nowadays anything is or can be art…

>where do we draw the line? All that's needed to cross this "line" is for the creator to say "Yes, this is art" and the question is answered. The creator's intent is enough to make this distinction because art can be so varied and unique that holding preconceptions is self-defeating. I believe what lies at the core of this point is really the question: "Is this good art?" This is an entirely different discussion that…

Exactly.

It would be difficult for me to defend the statement "random consumerism isn't art" and quite easy to say "random consumerism is shitty narcissistic art"

I think the art/artists subject came up from this post on the blog: http://randomshopper.tumblr.com/post/36593869254/addressing-...

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#52

Post by nextstep » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 1:44 AM UTC

jaysonelliot wrote: post #19

If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective, he's engaging in Generative art, art that is created by process outside the control of the artist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_art I usually think of John Cage when I think of generative art, and the way he let the environment or random events become part of his music. One of the coolest things I've learned about recently in this realm is Joseph Nech…

Generative? I think a better term, in this case, would be Consumption Art. I wouldn't consider buying something to be "generation" of anything.

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#53

Post by ErikAugust » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 1:55 AM UTC

jrabone wrote: post #47

ErikAugust wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's what it does: http://randomshopper.tumblr.com/post/35454415921/randomized-... It also bought him a Chomsky book on Linguistics and a electronic music CD. And if the bot did that on it's own that'd be a little too spooky.

No, the article says right there it uses search results (presumably by scraping). ECS used to be WSDL - real easy to drive from eg. PHP back in the day. I wouldn't want to be the poor sod parsing the retail website HTML (although perhaps the last redesign improved it).

"Every time I run it, I give it a set budget, say $50. It grabs a random word from the Wordnik API, then runs an Amazon search based on that word."

You're right.

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#54

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 1:57 AM UTC

jrabone wrote: post #47

ErikAugust wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's what it does: http://randomshopper.tumblr.com/post/35454415921/randomized-... It also bought him a Chomsky book on Linguistics and a electronic music CD. And if the bot did that on it's own that'd be a little too spooky.

No, the article says right there it uses search results (presumably by scraping). ECS used to be WSDL - real easy to drive from eg. PHP back in the day. I wouldn't want to be the poor sod parsing the retail website HTML (although perhaps the last redesign improved it).

[deleted]

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#55

Post by zdgman » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 2:00 AM UTC

How is he actually completing the amazon purchase solely via a bot? I know there is no API to automagically buy an item from Amazon.

Would love to see a write up of how this is accomplished.

EDIT: Noticed he is using PhantomJS and running the process through a browser. Very interesting.

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#56

Post by lutze » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 2:05 AM UTC

kyllo wrote: post #32

j2kun wrote: post #3

I'm surprisingly intrigued by this. It sounds really fun!

Good for a conversation piece at parties, if nothing else. "Hey, you guys won't even believe what I got from my random shopper bot this week!"

Personally, I'd rather not risk having to explain why I just got 55 gallons of lube and an anatomically correct blow up donkey through the mail.

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#57

Post by devb » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 2:27 AM UTC

adv0r wrote: post #41

johngalt wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you spend your time commenting on work you don't respect. Why weren't you out farming?

what is the purpose of your comment?

I thought the insinuation was fairly clear.

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#58

Post by minikomi » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 2:40 AM UTC

nextstep wrote: post #52

jaysonelliot wrote: post #19

If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective, he's engaging in Generative art, art that is created by process outside the control of the artist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_art I usually think of John Cage when I think of generative art, and the way he let the environment or random events become part of his music. One of the coolest things I've learned about recently in this realm is Joseph Nech…

Generative? I think a better term, in this case, would be Consumption Art. I wouldn't consider buying something to be "generation" of anything.

I think the potential for art lies in the restrictions he could place on himself on receiving the items. At the moment he's just kind of enjoying the items and the process (wow, cool, a nice book.. some weird music heh heh..) , but if he perhaps made the item somehow central to his lifestyle - eg. he must tell everyone about what he receives / become an unquestioning advocate of whatever the robot chose for him to everyone around him - it would be more of a statement - how much do we let what we buy based on arbitrary values affect the way we present ourselves? or something like that...

It reminds me of an extreme Japanese TV show which used to be on, where a guy called Nasubi (after his long face - eggplant) - was locked naked in an apartment and could only live on what he gained from filling out thousands of "lucky draw" postcards. He gradually built up quite a system, gained bags of rice, a playstation..

人は懸賞だけで生きていけるか? - Can a person survive on sweepstakes?

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#59

Post by ksikka » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 3:43 AM UTC

adv0r wrote: post #37

you have no respect for the value of money, time and our planet. You better use your spare time write a bot to feed 80 human beings in poor country. :\ disappointed how this can get so high on HN. Srsly, you guys are loosing it.

? if anything, he is stimulating the american economy

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#60

Post by eclipticplane » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 3:43 AM UTC

lutze wrote: post #56

kyllo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good for a conversation piece at parties, if nothing else. "Hey, you guys won't even believe what I got from my random shopper bot this week!"

Personally, I'd rather not risk having to explain why I just got 55 gallons of lube and an anatomically correct blow up donkey through the mail.

... or did the bot give you a reasonable excuse to family and friends as to why you have a 55 gallon drum of lube and an anatomically correct blow up donkey?

Hmmmmm. I sense a startup: "we hide your filthy, disgusting pornorgraphy habits from your family by hiding them amongst 'random' automated purchases. Get six days of boring things like glitter and used wing nuts and the seventh day you'll get your favorite, delicious porn. BUY NOW!"