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When Personalization Runs Amuck

pamar writes "According to this article from the Wall Street Journal, your TiVo could definitely get the wrong impression about your interests, or even your sexual preferences. And what you need to do to get "a clean slate"? Most of the users who have been "targeted" by TiVo usually try to "correct" the profiling by showing an abnormal interest in something wildly different." Yep, it's a dupe.

19 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Its getting just like TV around here by warmcat · · Score: 5, Funny

    All repeats and no Firefly.

  2. Duplicate story by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Slashdot covered this two days ago. The editors aren't reading their own output again.

    Remember, incompetent editors, you can be replaced by a program.

    1. Re:Duplicate story by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 4, Funny
      "Remember, incompetent editors, you can be replaced by a program [news.google.com] ."

      Clearly, there's nobody at OSDN owns one of these or we wouldn't have such slip-ups on slashdot :-)

    2. Re:Duplicate story by CaseyB · · Score: 4, Funny
      I heard once that you could do a fairly accurate job of predicting the weather (better than official meteorological reports, at the time) by just stating that the weather would be the same as the current day.

      Now you can predict the stories on slashdot the same way.

    3. Re:Duplicate story by Dark+Lord+Seth · · Score: 5, Funny

      I secretly hope Taco forgets he is married already and prompty proposes to his now-wife again on slashdot with another nice dupe.

  3. Read The Manual! by stevelup · · Score: 5, Informative

    All you have to do is go into the system setup menu and select "Reset Thumb Data".

    It will forget everything it ever might have thought about you...

    Mind you, expecting journalists to read the instruction manual before making wild statements is of course too much to ask...

  4. First my girlfriend judges me... by Quaoar · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...now my TV is doing the same. At least the TiVo can't leave and take half my stuff! Hah!

    --
    I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
  5. my tivo is getting a face transplant by baryon351 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It appears when your thumb info is incorrect on your tivo, it'll search out the WRONG face donor, and you'll get one you never really wanted.

    Slashdot Editor spokeswoman Ellen Feiss said "It was a really good face... My tivo devoured it. Then I got a transplant and it wasn't as good".

    Stay tuned tomorrow for more adventures of Punxatawny Phil, as ground hog day continues on Slashdot.

  6. Slashdot Personalization by cybermage · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is there a setting in preferences to filter out duplicates?

    1. Re:Slashdot Personalization by Fweeky · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Is there a setting in preferences to filter out duplicates?

      Could do.

      Instead of editors (*cough*) just adding "yeah, it's a dupe" at the end of the article, they could set a "Dupe" flag on the story; you set your prefs to remove them, and you're sorted. Of course, there would be a short period where it would be displayed, but it's either that, some dupe detection on submit, or less incompetence.
  7. My SlashDot Keeps Recording TiVo Articles by loggia · · Score: 5, Funny

    For some reason, my SlashDot recording preferences are off. It keeps thinking I am really into TiVo articles.

  8. Scary thought by JessLeah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What if, in the future, companies start requesting the data collected by such "we can guess who and what you are" systems for demographic purposes?

    "Well, according to this data, 25% of our customers are pregnant gay men, and 14% are neo-Nazis with an interest in cooking..."

    But seriously. Something evil tells me that it's only a matter of time before this stuff is taken as the Word of Gord(TM)...

  9. Re:Deja vu by FyRE666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are the editors out to lunch today? This is a duplicate from a day or two ago.

    You're new here, aren't you?

  10. Re:Hey guys, i just wanted to let you know.. by JohnG · · Score: 5, Funny

    The worst thing about duplicate stories isn't the fact that we've read them before, it's having to read posts by users complaining about editors not checking for old stories, when they themselves didn't bother to check that hundreds of people before them have already yelled DUPE! Sheesh.

  11. Matrix by GuyMannDude · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is a duplicate from a day or two ago.

    Deja vu is usually a glitch in The Matrix. It happens when they change something in the program. Be on your guard...

    GMD

  12. Slashdot is like TiVO by MrJones · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot thinks that I like TiVO news and keep posting dupes about TiVO news. :-)
    Just kidding

    --
    Get my e-mail after a captcha test in: http://tinymailt
  13. Slashdot duplicate articles ruined my life !! by deek · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was once a happy and energetic person. I used to love to be involved in life. Whether it was work or play, all my activities were fun and interesting.

    Then I saw my first duplicate Slashdot article.

    The effect was immediate. Life just lost that shine. I'm wandering around now, dazed and confused, exclaiming "Why! Why does Slashdot have to post duplicates!". My sex drive has vanished, my work productivity has become non-existant, my exuberance has all but dried up. All I can be fed up doing these days, is slothing around the house muttering curses against the evilness of duplicated news stories.

    Please consider people like us, Mr. Slashdot editor, the next time you submit a story.

    DeeK

  14. Suggestions for more accuracy by Do+not+eat · · Score: 4, Informative

    Got problems with the shows TiVo records as suggestions? Well, try these methods to fix it:

    Edit your "Channels You Receive" to remove channels you aren't interested in at all.

    Look at the "TiVo Suggestions" for upcoming shows and rate them using the thumbs up/dowm method. Give three thumbs-down to major mistakes.

    Take a moment to rate shows it has recorded before deleting them.

    Rate your season passes. TiVo will automatically give anything you record 1 thumb-up. If you've got a season pass for something in a genre, or with actors, you'd typically dislike, rate the season pass with multiple thumbs-down (it'll still be recorded.) Do this as well for the one-off items you record (especially if your recording for guests.)

    If all else fails, punch the reset button. Somewhere in setup you can tell TiVo to start over in building it's profile.

  15. When duplication runs amock by FurryFeet · · Score: 5, Funny

    Posted by Hemos on Thursday November 28, @02:25PM
    from the glitch-in-the-matrix dept.
    someone writes "According to this article from the Slashdot Journal, your Slashdot could definitely get the wrong impression about your interests, or even your need to read a story more than once. And what you need to do to get "a clean slate"? Most of the users who have been "targeted" by Slashdot usually try to "correct" the profiling by posting an abnormal number of flames and ironic remarks. Unfortunately, the only reaction from Slashdot is the remark: "Yep, it's a dupe".
    This story will run again tomorrow, right after the one about the face transplants and before the new Linux kernel patch. Stay tuned