What is Digg?64 Comments
- bigwrestlerguy, on 04/15/2008, -1/+34***** you high school Senior research paper!
- dazparkour, on 04/15/2008, -1/+24Google spiders.
For Computers by computers. - DietMountainDew, on 04/15/2008, -2/+21“The 2007-2012 Outlook for Tufted Washable Scatter Rugs, Bathmats and Sets That Measure 6-Feet by 9-Feet or Smaller in India” ($495 for 144 pages)
I think I'll pass on that one. - macewan, on 04/15/2008, -1/+15I so hope he releases the code. Blogging everyday can be a bitch.
- Frecklefoot, on 04/15/2008, -0/+12"Compiled 200,000 books", not "wrote." I can believe that he can automatically generate romance novels: the epitome of Formula Fiction.
- bosssmiley, on 04/15/2008, -0/+11Kickboxing. Woooooooo-PAH!!!
CARRIER LOST
| - theberlindoctor, on 04/15/2008, -1/+10yes, lets produce more crap no-one reads..
- Steinr, on 04/15/2008, -0/+9who will read it?
- jdepp, on 04/15/2008, -0/+9he's just scamming university libraries that tend to buy a copy of any book produced.
- lamiaconfitor, on 04/15/2008, -0/+8Are you kidding me? I just bought two!
- danpat, on 04/15/2008, -0/+7Sounds like he's churning out rubbish based on potentially in-accurate internet sources, and without the voice of a real educated writer with knowledge and experience and love for the topic.
I can't imagine they would be enjoyable or reliably factual to read. Think about how bad some unauthorised biographies are when the writer doesn't have good access to the subject and instead bases everything on internet research. Now get a robot to write it. - lamiaconfitor, on 04/15/2008, -2/+8You'll get your chance one day, tiger.
- SSUK, on 04/15/2008, -1/+6You don't deserve a blog.
- BoneStamp, on 04/15/2008, -1/+6I wonder if he's got a book on getting laid... (checks amazon)... nope, guess he hasn't figured that out yet.
- titorTT, on 04/15/2008, -0/+5I come from the future. What we have there is computers reading what other computers write. I have diagrams of such machines.
- dupswapdrop, on 04/15/2008, -0/+5Ok he collects a pile of text that is somewhat related and calls it a book. Hey I am going to publish a book call the "The Comments of Digg" look for it at your local book store $14.95 a copy.
- ph4n70m, on 04/15/2008, -0/+5MAKE IT 1 PAGE
- smotpoker1, on 04/15/2008, -0/+5he's a book spammer.
- macewan, on 04/15/2008, -0/+5Sounds similar to the scrapers used to set up money blogs.
- Fertnel, on 04/15/2008, -0/+5check out the review on this book "2007-2012 world outlook for commercial an industrial floor sanding and scrubbing machines":
http://www.amazon.com/2007-2012-Commercial-Industr ... - inactive, on 04/15/2008, -0/+4Couldn't be any worse than the DaVinci Code!
- s6t9eve, on 04/15/2008, -0/+4Sounds like he is just printing off articles from wikipedia.
- Bladwor, on 04/15/2008, -0/+4Nah.
- Lazdude, on 04/15/2008, -1/+4Computers...what can't they do?
- MiddleOfNowhere, on 04/15/2008, -1/+4He has written (or is using) software that compiles information from web sites on a topic, then has it printed on demand.
On the one hand I think he is really providing a service to people who cannot use the web (for whatever reason).
On the other hand, I think the copyright holders of the text fragments he is compiling should sue his ass off. Reading and quoting publicly available information is one thing - compiling it into a "book" and making profit from other people's work is another one. - Fxer, on 04/15/2008, -0/+3Nope.
- noob09, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2Ohhh!!!
..No - leszek, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2reminds me of the "galley slave" novel from Isaac Asimov in "The rest of the robots".
- Plotinus, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2@MiddleOfNowhere:
"Stealing from one writer is plagiarism, stealing from 20 is research" - cryinlion85, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2i totally want to read a romance novel created by a computer designed by an engineer.
douche. - thomasprebble, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2This does seems to fly in the face of everything I've been taught of computer science. Either those books will be awful (read: mechanical) to read or he is augmenting the process heavily along the way.
- mcsnolte, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2We all know what's going to happen... Google and Amazon will merge, buy his algorithms, and start Googlzon:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/epic2015 - inactive, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2I wonder whether those books contain words like LOL!!!, WTF!!!, LOLCAT, HAS CHEESE, Rickroll.
- yelnatz, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2Yea. "...printed only when a customer buys one. "
Why didnt I think of that? *face palm* - habenneas, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1wow
- kmb1794, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1This story sort of blows my mind. I wrote a short story about a writing machine last summer. Didn't get published but it was pretty good. =P
- AMSRay, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1That's his plan. He says "there are only so many body parts" and he's working on it now.
- lamiaconfitor, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1soon enough we will have our personal computers doing this. good stuff.
- bizchris, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1Dude can't spell "spaghetti", so it's good the computers are doing the heavy lifting.
- fluxion, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1nope, they're awful, and apparently off-topic
"useless if you know how to use the internet", according to the "author" himself. he's basically just bringing pre-run google searches to people who dont know how to use computers to research things. - antdude, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1And college thesis!
- Jaymzg, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1This is just like putting 50 chimps in a room filled with typewriters and eventually Shakespeare's entire anthology comes out.
It's not fair to create books from a formula, if he sticks to research books this isn't terrible for 'the internets worst' who still don't know what 'a google' is, but romance novels?? An author's personality is part of the depth of a book, and a generated string of text may send a message, but it's definitely not of any real value ... aside from the effortless cash this ass hole is making. - habenneas, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1LynxCache mirror: http://www.lynxcache.org/usr/1/He_Wrote_200_000_Bo ...
- Narrator, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1Here's a review of one of his books on Amazon that seems to confirm your suspicions....
"If you took some freely downloadable Papiamentu-English wordlists, such as those available from Freelang and Wiktionary, and merged them with an outdated public domain version of Roget's Thesaurus, you would get something very similar to this book. Based on some particular errors that exist in both Wiktionary and this book, I suspect that's exactly how this book was created. The data clearly has not been checked by anyone who actually knows Papiamentu.
The typesetting and layout are very nice, but the data is poor." - etceteraing, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1Hm... computers that write books...
Does anyone else smell a hint of Orwell in the air? - lamiaconfitor, on 04/16/2008, -1/+1anyone sick enough deserves your STDs
- Chubs879, on 04/15/2008, -1/+1Is it just me or does he seem a bit arrogant?
Sure, that's a pretty awesome algorithm, but your definition of book is pretty loose, sir. It almost offends me that he is now compiling poetry. - BCoelho2000, on 04/15/2008, -0/+0Let me see if I get it right:
This guy turned an research project that compiles several fragments of information into a profitable business?
Nice one!
Let me ask you one thing: do you think that original ideas and being a first mover is an advantage to create a profitable business? - Terasiel, on 04/15/2008, -0/+0This doesn't bother me in the slightest. I've always held the belief that books were not the highest form of media, nor are they free from the same Sturgeon's law that movies, shows, plays, and games are subject to. This just cuts out the middle-man and says straight forward "I write soullessly for profit."
- theoodone, on 04/15/2008, -0/+0no wonder Roald Dahl wrote on of those around WW2
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