Mal ,'Ariel'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
I'm still kind of in "Fuck You, Amazon" mode.
I've spent about half an hour trying to figure out how much $$ I spent at Amazon in 2008, as well as the $$ total of things that other people bought for me off of my wishlist (for Xmas, etc.), so I can e-mail Amazon with an actual figure and tell them that I'm perfectly happy to spend it at Barnes & Noble instead.
Parsnips and leeks sounds like it could be it--thanks, bon! I found that pureeing the vegetables afterwards and adding some cream (hush cholesterol elves) made another lovely soup.
Wasn't just gay-themed, either. It was anything listed as "erotic" so a lot of ero-rom authors have had their book rankings wiped, as well as disability and sexuality.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven. Some guy who claims to work for amazon posted at Smart Bitches:
Listen, I work at Amazon and there are a few things you should know:
1. The whole system is automated. Big computers running everything.
2. They sell adult material, like soft porn DVDs. In order to keep this stuff from popping up in front of children, the suppress the sales rank, which feeds the algorithm that decides what to display first, second, etc. This is no different than Google. Google is smarter in that they give you the option to see unfiltered results if you like.
3. Some low-level person in the company probably tinkered with the algorithm based upon some input or complaints, and totally fucked up the code. There’s NO evidence this was an executive mandate. If there was, I’ll quit.
As reported on Twitter, the suppression of search rankings was inconsistent. If this had been intentional it would have been more effective.
4. Do you really think Amazon is that stupid to piss of a huge community of consumers?
5. Amazon’s corporate culture is very supportive of the GLBT community, both internally and externally.
I dunno... a low level employee messing around with algorithms of that nature? Obviously, I have no clue, but that sounds profoundly stupid.
Hey, ita, remember how you hate being called a fluffy bunny? Apparently my girl feels the same way.
So. Very tired.
Oh, poor Grace.
Still SO CUTE though.
4. Do you really think Amazon is that stupid to piss of a huge community of consumers?
Businesses never do stupid things, of course.
As someone who until yesterday lived with someone who programs Amazon search, I'm pretty damn sure it was not intentional.
Sometimes when there's a coin toss between malice and stupidity it can be a very hard call. They need either better PR or software release processes.
Amazon has been mostly off my shopping site list since they tried to patent one click shopping, so it wouldn't make much difference to my practices, even if I were buying.
My head is swimming. I've been spending the past week or so going through the long list of complex examples of advanced CSS ornamentation at some savant's site. I've reached the point where I understand much of it, but could never come up with it by myself. I have at least one site to CSS redo tomorrow, so I'm hoping for mental alchemy overnight.
Skipping with matzah-crumbs all over the place to post that, according to Jilli VoiceOfReason "If the Apocalypse Comes, Beep Me" Apr 13, 2005 11:03:27 pm PDT today is Lillian's birthday!
Happy birthday, you big lovely girl! With lots of wishes for your mom and all your family, as well.
Sometimes when there's a coin toss between malice and stupidity it can be a very hard call. They need either better PR or software release processes.
Better testing, for sure.
Businesses never do stupid things, of course.
Businesses often do stupid things, but this isn't the style of stupid thing Amazon typically does with intent.