So this person data mined a bunch of amazon wishlists. (Apparently the hard way, by web scraping rather than by using the easier and more efficient amazon web api.) He was able to then do some matching on book titles to determine which wish lists were more or less subversive. Then he used google maps to figure out where people lived.

You can bet the next time I interview a job candidate I’m going to check out what is on their amazon wish list. (Note to self, clean up amazon wish list next time I interview for a job.)

The best part is that this little experiment shows how data privacy issues often involve people voluntarily giving up their private information for a reason, in this case the reason is getting better presents. (BTW, I’m still waiting for that New Yorker Cartoon book.) So much for worrying about the FBI going to the library to figure out what I read.

[Link courtesy of Dave's Picks]

I was listening to the local classical music station and happened to hear the haunting song that is used in Ken Burn’s documentary, “The Civil War.” For some reason I needed to find out who wrote the song and when. I discovered that the song is called “Ashokan Farewell”. It was composed by Jay Ungar in 1982 and recorded in 1983 by “Fiddle Fever” on their album entitled “Waltz of the Wind“. There is a FAQ to go with the song that explains it’s origins. The song plays for 59+ minutes of the 11 hour documentary. It’s no wonder that song instantly calls up black & white images civil war dead strewn on battlefields for me.