Tag Archives: Amazon

Time wasters.

So I’m sitting here at work with nothing to do and probably nothing to do for the rest of the day. It’s got me wondering. What do all of you do to waste time in those down periods at the office? I want to hear about stuff you do at work that sort of looks like you’re working if your boss wanders by and glances at your monitor with no real interest.

Currently, I’m in an IRC channel, checking three forums for activities, surfing CNN.com, reading Twitter, skimming through the DailyKos, and compulsively updating my Recommended Products list on Amazon, and thinking up backstory for the Bounty Hunter character I’m gonna play in an upcoming Star Wars Saga game.

Please, reply to this with your list. Give me one more thing to read so I’m distracted from this almost overpowering urge to set my office on fire and run out the door smelling of gasoline and cackling madly.

#amazonfail Update

Looks like Amazon has elaborated a bit on the glitch. Also, Seattle PI has some theories from an ex-employee of Amazon about how this happened. Basically, that it was a coding area that propogated from version of Amazon throughout the system recatorgizing tens of thousands of books.

Still, it’s an important lesson about the power of search, ranking, and rating technology.

#amazonfail?

Just to show this won’t all be about RPGs, I have to admit that the #amazonfail fiasco fascinates me. The company’s failed response. The maelstrom of twitter and blog activity–I had all but forgotten that LiveJournal still existed. The possible mainstreaming of bantown as a concept and term. And a beautifully reductive shattering of our trust in search engines due to limitations, controls, and susceptibilities we too often forget.

For those unaware, Amazon delisted a load of gay-themed books this weekend (and possibly before) from their sales rankings, effectively making these books non-existent to many buyers and reviewers. Maybe it was a glitch and maybe it was a hack and maybe it was a policy of distilled epic fail? The speculation is as deafening as Amazon’s silence.

Just a completely wild scene, but I’m glad it brought my attention to the idea of hackers using flag technology to incite active, marginalized groups against corporations for the hell of it. Nice to know about that.