In Which Clive Thompson Cherry Picks from A Wired Feature

At first, it seemed some geeked-out supercoder was going to make an easy million.

In October 2006, Netflix announced it would give a cool seven figures to whoever created a movie-recommending algorithm 10 percent better than its own. Within two weeks, the DVD rental company had received 169 submissions, including three that were slightly superior to Cinematch, Netflix’s recommendation software. After a month, more than a thousand programs had been entered, and the top scorers were almost halfway to the goal.

…

His name is Gavin Potter. He’s a 48-year-old Englishman, a retired management consultant with an undergraduate degree in psychology and a master’s in operations research. He has worked for Shell, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and IBM. In 2006, he left his job at IBM to explore the idea of starting a PhD in machine learning, a field in which he has no formal training. When he read about the Netflix Prize, he decided to give it a shot — what better way to find out just how serious about the topic he really was?

-Jordan Ellenberg: “This Psychologist Might Outsmart the Math Brains Competing for the Netflix Prize," 2/25/08, Wired.

THE “NAPOLEON DYNAMITE” problem is driving Len Bertoni crazy. Bertoni is a 51-year-old “semiretired” computer scientist who lives an hour outside Pittsburgh. In the spring of 2007, his sister-in-law e-mailed him an intriguing bit of news: Netflix, the Web-based DVD-rental company, was holding a contest to try to improve Cinematch, its “recommendation engine.” The prize: $1 million.
…
As Gavin Potter, a Netflix Prize competitor who lives in Britain and is currently in ninth place, pointed out to me, a computerized recommendation system seeks to find the common threads in millions of people’s recommendations, so it inherently avoids extremes. Video-store clerks, on the other hand, are influenced by their own idiosyncrasies. Even if they’re considering your taste to make a suitable recommendation, they can’t help relying on their own sense of what’s good and bad. They’ll make more mistakes than the Netflix computers — but they’re also more likely to have flashes of inspiration, like pointing you to “Napoleon Dynamite” at just the right moment.

-Clive Thompson: “If You Like This, You’re Sure to Love That—Winning the Netflix Prize," 11/21/08, NYT.

It is Official: NYT is OMG for Vampires :)

It’s love at first look instead of first bite in “Twilight,” a deeply sincere, outright goofy vampire romance for the hot-not-to-trot abstinence set. Based on the foundational book in Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling multivolume series, “The Twilight Saga” (four doorstops and counting), this carefully faithful adaptation traces the sighs and whispers, the shy glances and furious glares of two unlikely teenage lovers who fall into each other’s pale, pale arms amid swirling hormones, raging instincts, high school dramas and oh-so-confusing feelings, like, OMG he’s SO HOT!! Does he like ME?? Will he KILL me??? I don’t CARE!!! :)

[NYT]

How To Be TONY's Comedy Editor: Suck (up) for Pity Party Quotes

That can’t be; I don’t waste space on negative reviews.
It’s not ’cause they’re bad reviews. A bad review can be good—when it has some humanity to it. And when it has an engagement of what is being criticized. But I find some of the reviewers are really, really snide. I’ve been excoriated in your magazine many times—and I don’t hold that against them. But I find that overall—you can go on record with this—theater and movies are both extra mean. You know, the more you know about something, the more you know how hard it is to do something well.

I agree.
I’m from the school of thought that in the old days critics used to get slapped in the face with gloves. People use to duel with critics. And you know what? I understand it. Because you can say whatever you want and there’s no repercussion. You can be critical but you don’t have to be snide.

Again, I agree.
So yeah, I cancelled my subscription. I don’t like your magazine. Especially the Italian guy. Mike something or other.

Mike D’Angelo?
Yeah—Mike D’Angelo, that was the guy.

That was years ago! Dude, he’s been gone for years; there’s a reason why.
Really?

Yes. Come back to us, John! We want you.
Okay, I’ll tell you what: I’ll buy the next issue.

Because if John “I have to cameo in Transformers" Turturro’s feelings are hurt, then those few dozen TONY freelancers will NEVER see their overdue checks.  Or, you know, you could just have a completely frivleous title at a dying glossy weekly and snipe at someone who used to work there. Either/or really.

[TONY Blog]

“John Lichman, so far the only Web job position you have found is the one Life has landed you … arms and legs akimbo adhered to the ugly web of unemployment staring into the hungry segmented eyes of desperation as it approaches you like a giant Black Widow. Before it devours you, lets just hope you at least get sex out of it before the ingesting … aren’t those critters are known for that?”
—

From our sole podcast commenter, THE FUTURIST!

Apparently, I’m going to have sex with a Black Widow. Sure, there are better ways to go out, but this one involves sex. With a giant mutant spider. Why not?