I will be writing a bot to buy me random things from musiciansfriend.
Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
91–100 of 102 posts
Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
what is the purpose of your comment?
To point out that there are more things you can be doing for others than getting outraged at a person's lost productivity, if that is your prime concern.
I'm not sure that the OP was "outraged at a person's lost productivity". It seems like badv0r may have thought that the project could have potential merit if it focused on something like "feeding 80 human beings in poor country" instead of "Buying random things from amazon each month".
To be more general, the bot currently buys:
for
while it could buy
for
Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
#93you 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
OP's point could be that the bot could have "stimulated the american economy" in a way that fed "80 human beings in poor country", as opposed to buying him random things.
Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
#94How 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.
Apparently http://zinc.io does provide an API for placing orders on Amazon.
Learn something new everyday on HN! Didn't know this existed and I am wondering how they actually achieve this via Amazon but that's their secret sauce.
Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I define "art" as something I (the proverbial unskilled layman) couldn't do in a weekend. I was in a Syndey art museum recently, and there are a lot of beautiful art paintings I couldn't create in a thousand years. There are a few proudly displayed "things" that I could create in a couple hours with zero skill. I have no idea what people see in those "things".
>I define "art" as something I (the proverbial unskilled layman) couldn't do in a weekend. Art is also about context. Look at prehistoric cave paintings: I have no technical skill as an artist, but I could easily recreate the paintings myself. But does that mean they're not art? Of course not. To take another example, how about the hasty sketches of a soldier in the trenches in the First World War? I only use such a…
Consider a painting I saw on TV a while back that is suspected of being done by da Vinci. If the experts concur, it would be worth millions. If they do not concur, it would be worth $20,000 because it's old. If joe starving artist down the street painted it, it would be worth $500 at best.
The exact same painting.
Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm the guy who built the original XKCD-inspired bot -- the original blog post is still around at http://bieh.net/wordpress/2010/11/08/xkcd-576/ , though the images have since broken. Possibly the web service you mean is http://www.eachdayisagift.com/ ?
bieh's had a pretty good run when it was live! I wrote eachdayisagift.com and it was funny to see all this come back on HN today. I had to freeze mine as it was buying a lot of stuff from Hong Kong that Australian customs classed as 'weapons' (laser pointers, throwing stars), that got me a stern letter from the government.
Wait - what? You actually wrote a bot as in http://xkcd.com/576/ and actually had the problem in the comic?
Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's say that you save 10'000 $ in an account with 5% interest, then you'll have 500 $ a year to spend on presents. If every child has two children the amount children in a generation is 2^n. When they grow up we stop giving them presents for mathematical simplicity. Then it's possible to give every child in the 9th generation a $1 gift a year. Which is quite neat. If we have a generation length of between 25 and 30…
In the long run, it is highly likely that you will either be an ancestor of every single human, or none of them. ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19331938 ) You don't need to give every single one of your descendants a gift. Give 2-5 gifts a year, randomized after filtering out undesirables using a naughty/nice algorithm. Assuming total population remains roughly the same, if enough people did this, it would actu…
Nice idea and an interesting article. If the goal is to be remembered for as long as possible giving more presents is obviously better. After 9 generations only a small part
But some might feel that a enormous list of children with ratings of their behavior would be questionable.
Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
To point out that there are more things you can be doing for others than getting outraged at a person's lost productivity, if that is your prime concern.
I'm not sure that the OP was "outraged at a person's lost productivity". It seems like badv0r may have thought that the project could have potential merit if it focused on something like "feeding 80 human beings in poor country" instead of "Buying random things from amazon each month". To be more general, the bot currently buys: for while it could buy for
Then they should offer suggestions instead of chastising.
Most persons buy unneeded things whether they can afford them or not. The OP ought to take the time and energy they squander on judging others and devote it to helping the needy. Less anger, more good.
Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
#99If 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…
"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…
"pseudo-random if looked from outside without context. That doesn't make me an artist, at least not in my book"
Context (explicit, implied, or ambiguous) often separates "art" from "seemingly random pile of crap".
Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
The answer is very simple, and I wish I could tell everyone this: When most people argue over what is "art", they actually intend to be arguing over what is good art. "Art" is just a descriptor that can be given to any noun at the discretion of any observer. The state of being "art" is not an elevation of status, it's not something that necessarily needs to be honored or revered, and it does not necessarily mean that…
> When most people argue over what is "art", they actually intend to be arguing over what is good art. No. When I argue over what "art" means, I intend to argue about what "art" means. > "Art" is just a descriptor that can be given to any noun at the discretion of any observer. According to you. My definition is much closer to the dictionary definition: the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aest…
"I can be open-minded about art and still think that " "Art" is just a descriptor that can be given to any noun at the discretion of any observer. " is nonsense."
Declaring that your subjective, value-laden opinion is objective fact is rarely the best way to be open-minded.