I was working on something like this in my spare time a while back, but put it down when I got laid off and finding a job became more important.
It took a while to find an algorithm, but I wound up using a Pearson correlation coefficient. IANAS (I Am Not A Statistician), but it basically tells you how strongly two sets of numbers relate to each other.
The way I was planning for it to work was to get ratings for several books for each user, then calculate correlation coefficients for each user pair. Then when a user asked for a recommendation, I'd pull the ratings for the top, say, five users whose ratings correspond most strongly to the current user. From those ratings, I'd then return the most highly rated books (above an arbitrary threshold) that the current user hasn't rated.
A little ungainly, and a little processor-intensive (especially when recalculating the coefficients), but I'm pretty sure it would have worked.
I opened to the first page and read "They set a slamhound on Turner's trail..." and was like, Wow. I don't have any idea what that means, and yet, I think I do.
I'm slightly offtopic here, but a lot of the best science fiction does this--gives you that "Wait a minute...what the fuck was that?" feeling. The example I always use is Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep. That one hurt my brain--not in the "This makes no sense" way, but in the "Gotta make room in my head for a new concept" way. I can't recommend it enough.
You really should wait for the page to load, though. The cartoons there are pretty spiffy...and I'm not just saying that because they were drawn by my wife. Cough.
Slashdot Mirror
"Computer scientists are going to have the same kinds of battles that physicists did amidst the fallout of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,"
Am I the only one picturing Kaiju Big Battel style combat between Oppenheimer and Szilard?
("Oh no! It is Enrico Fermi! We must flee the city!")
I know I am guilty of talking to roommates online versus in person WHEN THEY ARE NO MORE THAN A DOZEN OR SO FEET AWAY.
I've done this with my wife...but only while we're both on IRC or something so everyone can "hear" what we're talking about.
I was working on something like this in my spare time a while back, but put it down when I got laid off and finding a job became more important.
It took a while to find an algorithm, but I wound up using a Pearson correlation coefficient. IANAS (I Am Not A Statistician), but it basically tells you how strongly two sets of numbers relate to each other.
The way I was planning for it to work was to get ratings for several books for each user, then calculate correlation coefficients for each user pair. Then when a user asked for a recommendation, I'd pull the ratings for the top, say, five users whose ratings correspond most strongly to the current user. From those ratings, I'd then return the most highly rated books (above an arbitrary threshold) that the current user hasn't rated.
A little ungainly, and a little processor-intensive (especially when recalculating the coefficients), but I'm pretty sure it would have worked.
What time zone Is Ms. Rosencrance in?
GST...that is to say, Guildenstern Standard Time.
(Yeah, yeah...I know it's "Rosencrantz"...work with me here.)
I typically read at +2 or greater [...]
Ah, there's your problem. You need at least a +3 Keyboard of Posting to be successful.
Listen, buddy. I'm the result of billions of years in the evolutionary compile-link-debug cycle. So just show some bloody respect.
All your base pair are belong to us.
Clearly you're not drinking enough Mountain Dew.
It looks like you're trying to fly a craft with only one wing. Would you like to:
* Plummet to the ground
* Stick an arm out the window and flap vigorously
* Visit the Morton Thikol technical support website?
I can't help but feel that he has to be on anti-depressants.
Either that, or someone HAX0R3D T3H G1BS0N!
Sorry. I try to do that only once a year or so...
I opened to the first page and read "They set a slamhound on Turner's trail..." and was like, Wow. I don't have any idea what that means, and yet, I think I do.
I'm slightly offtopic here, but a lot of the best science fiction does this--gives you that "Wait a minute...what the fuck was that?" feeling. The example I always use is Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep . That one hurt my brain--not in the "This makes no sense" way, but in the "Gotta make room in my head for a new concept" way. I can't recommend it enough.
'cause The Man is always tryin' to keep a brother box down.
> They are not paying you to keep the seat warm.
Speak for yourself.
Proud employee of Amalgamated Butt Heat, Inc.
[...]a squid enforced police state.
Does this mean you'll be returning the company-issued iCephaloPod?
So, folk at your shop are the local expert on hot grits and goat-rutting?
Hey, be fair. They're also the area experts on PnP technology.
(By which, of course, I mean petrified Natalie Portman...)
For that matter, you couldn't tell me why water molecules stick together.
For the sake of the kids.
Isn't it obvious what happened?
A computer virus invaded their research facilities and they lost 530 research points.
Does this punishment also include Natalie Portman pouring hot grits down his pants, or has that been superseded by paddlin'?
Bandwidth elves.
You really should wait for the page to load, though. The cartoons there are pretty spiffy...and I'm not just saying that because they were drawn by my wife. Cough.
"It says `The last words of the logging protesters may be found at www.aaagggggh.com'."
"Where?"
"www.aaagggggh.com."
"He must have died while typing it."
"He wouldn't have bothered to *type* 'aaagggggh'. He'd have just said it."
"Perhaps he was dictating."
"Oh, shut up."
I think you're thinking of "Fondly Fahrenheit", but it's by Alfred Bester, not Isaac Asimov. Still a good story, though.
Something like "All your base pair are belong to us".
I can see it now--cadavers lying in the morgue with "3y3 0wnz0rz j00!" and "All your pacemaker are belong to us" stitched in their chests...
In other words....
1. Start an online magazine
2. ?
3. Profit!
(Yeah, yeah, I know...)
> [...] subtle stimuli like minute vibration of the tool [...]
Huh huh huh.
Um, sorry...carry on.