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Back in the old days, when the internet was still powered
by
steam, I relied for CD recommendations on a website called
firefly.com (Don't look for it, it's not there any more). Users
of
this site would enter a selection of CDs they owned, and
the
site, using a more sophisticated version
of the (Most people
who have Brian Eno's "My Life In The Bush of Ghosts" also
have
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra's "Another Green World")
argument would then recommend some CDs you might like.
It
really was very good, and once I had entered about 20 CDs,
recommended a whole slew of CDs I already had, but hadn't
entered. I believe the technology was sold to Amazon for
their
book recommending thing, and the domain is now owned by
Microsoft.
Anyway, this idea is to apply the same
technology to junk mail, of which I receive a lot. Junk mail
is
sent to addresses based on which address lists have been
bought by the junk mailer, whether your address is in an
affluent area or not, which competitions you have entered
recently, etc. I envisage a web site where you can enter
your postcode/ZIPcode, details of who you bank with,
which
credit cards you have, which organisations you belong to,
which catalogues you have signed up for, etc. (but obviously
not your name, address, bank account number, etc., for
security reasons) and which junk mail items you regularly
receive. The web site will then be able to do two things.
Firstly, it will predict which items of junk mail you are likely
to
receive in the future. Secondly it will be able to correlate
member details with junk mail (e.g. "Everyone who holds a
VISA
card, but not those who hold only Mastercards will receive
a
letter every six months encouraging them to buy a Bose
Wave
Radio"). The other service this site might offer is to show
you
what junk mail you're missing out on and, if it's something
you
want, what you need to do to get it ("To get on the mailing
list of this lingerie catalogue, enter any competition in
Pretentious French Cinema magazine").
Brian Eno, for example
http://www.allmusic...H&sql=B4dvsa9wgb23g Scroll down to ARTIST BROWSER [thumbwax, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
What's That Hill?
http://www.halfbake...7s_20That_20Hill_3f [half] Your annotation reminded me of this idea... [hippo, Oct 05 2004]
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Annotation:
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I thought Eno did "Another Green World." You mean there are more Green Worlds? |
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Byrne anno is spot on - Had my xreth listen to it a few weeks ago, my elf. I've had that on LP, 2 cassettes - CD. Traded Green LP away a few years ago. Here Come The Warm Jets is also excellent. What was the topic again? Oh, yes - email "ratings" - for comparisons, AMG (see link) has a little something called "Artist Browser" - it's a rollover utility which is quite useful, and for the most part, accurate. This might be somewhat of a guidepost for email "predictions", albeit - with different category names, types of results. |
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Bollocks! - I meant, of course, The Penguin Cafe
Orchestra's "Broadcasting from Home" - go and buy it
now. |
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If we were holding a contest to find ideas that went off topic the quickest then I'd nominate this one. |
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The musical confusion probably stems from the fact that Eno produced the Penguin Cafe Orchestra in the 70's. |
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Thanks [snarfyguy] - Right, everyone, back on topic now. |
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I'm not sure how well this would work, but it occurs to me that much of the data entry part you mention could be automated by a tool that just poked around in your bookmarks, browser history, and local "cookie" files. These give evidence of web sites you have visited recently/commonly visit/subscribe to. These are ones most likely to have your email address. Obviously there are some privacy issues there, but not insurmountable ones. |
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Um, I know it's an archaic idea, but I believe [hippo] is referring to junk snail mail, not spam! This tool would allow you to predict what you-can't-live-without-it offer might be in your physical mailbox tomorrow.
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I'm not sure I would use it either. I'm usually too busy making sure there's no "real" mail stuck in the adverts to notice what the junk's all about! Although, the ability to actually tailor my junk mail to some extent is kind of interesting. Alright - if it can help me figure out how to get free Victoria's Secret catalogs, I'll toss in a croissant! |
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Wow, that is an archaic concept. |
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