Big Brother, continued: Amazon Knows Who You Are & Will Sell the Data

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AP

Amazon.com has one potentially big advantage over its rival online retailers: It knows things about you that you may not know yourself.
Though plenty of companies have detailed systems for tracking customer habits, both critics and boosters say Amazon is the trailblazer, having collected information longer and used it more proactively. It even received a patent recently on technology aimed at tracking information about the people for whom its customers buy gifts.

Wisconsin Badgers vs. North Carolina Roundup

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Follow the conversation on Sunday’s Wisconsin Badger’s loss to UNC:

  • Ivan Carter: There were moments during Sunday’s crisply played game when it appeared Williams and his players would be sharing only disappointment. Wisconsin (25-9) played a terrific game, shooting 49.2 percent from the field and making 11 of 24 three-point attempts and 11 of 13 free throws.
  • Joe LaPoint: The primary victim of all this was Mike Wilkinson, a Wisconsin forward matched against May at each end of the floor.
    “He’s almost unstoppable and even knocked down some jump shots today,” Wilkinson said. “He just played amazingly all over the floor. He did a good job on the boards, everything. He’s just all over.”
    May said before the game that Rashad McCants had said of Wilkinson: “There’s no way he’ll be able to guard you. He’s too little.”

  • Technorati

Deader Trees: RIP for Newspapers?

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Michael Malone:

In any other industry, a product that lost 1 percent of market share for two decades — only to then double or triple that rate of decline — would be declared dead. The manufacturer would discontinue it and rush out a replacement product more in line with the desires of the marketplace. So, let’s finally come out and say: Newspapers are dead. They will never come back. By the end of this decade, the newspaper industry will suffer the same death rate — 90-plus percent — that every other industry experiences when run over by a technology revolution.

The transition will surely be interesting….

From High Society to Higher Calling

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Adair Lara:

Then she threw herself a going-away bash at the Hilton hotel. “The first two-thirds of my life were devoted to the world,” she told 800 friends as they enjoyed music from two orchestras and tucked into caviar, coquille of seafood and fine wines. “The last third will be devoted to my soul.” It was Oct. 30, 1989, her 60th birthday.

Winning Ugly – Wisconsin Badgers vs. N.C. State

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The first half was rather difficult to watch. Someone mentioned that the game reminded him of the Bennett era game vs. Southwest Missouri State. Commentary around the country:

  • Ivan Carter:

    If James Naismith had been around to witness Wisconsin’s 65-56 region semifinal victory over North Carolina State on Friday night, he might have wished he had invented something other than basketball.

  • Joe LaPointe

    Explaining his team’s strategy for coping with Hodge, Ryan said: “You show respect, and then you play. Make him go right a little bit. Make him go left a little bit. I really liked our help defense. We kept him from getting to the rim.”

  • Herb Sendek Remarks

  • Roger Van Der Horst

    This was supposed to have been a renaissance for college basketball in the Triangle, and for a week it was just that, a time when once again all three of its major men’s basketball teams — Duke, N.C. State and North Carolina — were playing deep into the NCAA Tournament. For Duke and State, those sweet few days ended with a thud Friday night, courtesy of two methodical, strong, defensive-minded Big Ten teams.

  • Google News (lots of links)

Meanwhile, Ed Cone is pleased that one ACC team survived. Rather unusual for 3 Big Ten teams to make it this far, with only UNC left from the ACC.