It seems a bit late to blog an article after seeing it at #2 on Blogdex,
but this article about TiVo and other computerized aesthetic profilers was too good to pass up:
but this article about TiVo and other computerized aesthetic profilers was too good to pass up:
Dino Leon, a hair-salon owner in Birmingham, Mich., says his TiVo quickly figured out that he and his partner were gay. They were OK with that, but just for fun, they tried to confuse the software by punching in “redneck” programs, like Jerry Springer’s talk show.
TiVo wasn’t fooled, and kept recording gay shows. Mr. Leon believes the box was giving them a message: “You’re definitely gay. And you’re watching too much TV.”
The only place I see profiles of my tastes generated is Amazon.com, and actually, it does a pretty good job. I guess I’ve maintained a pretty good balance of things I’ve rated. However, the “Just Like You” does tend to match me with people who share a relatively limited subset of my interests; it seems particularly uninsightful when recommending technology books. I’d like to be able to tell it to way my cultural tastes more highly, because those recommendations tend to be more interesting.