4 ms·
i wonder if they already had a database of items and attributes or if this was all built custom for the demo. kind of amusing to think how similar it is to man
by a-dub 5y ago
i wonder if they already had a database of items and attributes or if this was all built custom for the demo.
kind of amusing to think how similar it is to many modern day data science projects. it's entirely plausible to think that they may have had a roomful of people at one point, punching out punch cards describing which items were good for which demographics. like an actually mechanical mechanical turk.
- kens 5y agoThe video said that Simpson's employee Frances Cook spent six weeks choosing the 3,000 gifts that could be suggested by the computer and deciding what sort of people those gifts would suit. So it sounds like one person did the data collection.
- a-dub 5y agohah! i relistened to both clips trying to find this, not remembering it (and questioning my sanity!). it's actually in the "Did you know?" text that accompanies the radio clip. either way, i really enjoy reading your blog and twitter posts about computing history and geeky explorations and have for quite some time. thanks!