Monday, July 30, 2012

What I Learned While Listenilng to NPR




If you are reading an e- book on your Kindle or your i-pad there is a good chance you are telling publishers how to make a book more readable.

As you read an e-book your reading device is sending messages to the publisher telling the details.  If you put it down for a while the devices report on what page you put it down and how long of a break you took.  An analyical expert can figure why you put it down - was it that you didn't like what was going on, or just boring?  From what your actions are they will know how to design a book that you will probably like.

The next book or the next you read could be computer generated - that you unknowingly created the formular.

It is like used to at Blockbusters they displayed a video and said,  "If you like this video, then you will like these:"

The e-book I am currently reading is a novel based on historical facts.  If I linger too much in one spot or even quit reading, it is possible my actions will distort future histoical novels based on the same time period so it will sell .  For instance I could go on a trip and forget to carry my i-pod and the next novel about Tom Dooley would make him out a successful man who never had V.D.

Who needs facts and a creativitive writer  when you have a analyical statistician?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's even worse. Netflix records the movies you watch on dvd, on streaming they record where you stopped in a movie, what parts you replayed, etc. Even if you don't rate movies you watch, they have way too much info. Cable, Uverse likely have the same capability. The Satellite TV's could report the info via the phone connection most require.

Add in facebook where some people reveal every thing about their lives and big brother wouldn't even need to have a camera in your home.

And adding in whatever you buy unless you pay cash (and don't use a loyalty card), they know everything.

Eddie said...

I am facebook friends with a lady in North Carolina who is a car salesman. We are both familyl researchers on the same family tree. About a year ago I think she did her newspaper and magazine reading on line, every day I would be notified the moment she finished reading something. It doesn't do that anymore - I think if I hook up to something like that the first time I finished something and a facebook friend immediately asked me what did I think of it I would repel, feeling my privacy has been violated. Maybe this lady felt the same.
Remember Big Brother Is Watching of John Gault is arranging horrible things for us.