Still Data Fail

Amazon still thinks I'm a student, but for years I've told them I'm not. How is this a good use of customer data? How is this responsive to customers? It's insane and idiotic (and annoying when I am trying to give them my money, they make it harder to do so, but yes ok ok I am still an Amazon customer so what do they care?).

Here's a screen grab from this month, September 2016:


But I've told their online help people that I'm not a student, back in April as you can see here and previously in January of 2015 as you can see here. So much for customer feedback.

Additionally, Twitter's recommender needs some help:

Data & Society is an incorporated entity like Valvoline, but the two organizations are nothing alike and neither are their Twitter feeds. Valvoline isn't marked as a "sponsored" post (i.e., paid advertising), and even if it were the mismatch is just hilarious.

And currently I live in New York and I don't own a car.

The data is there, people just aren't using it well at all.

Star Trek and the Future

Although this has been acknowledged before (Star Trek inventing the future and all that), during the recent 50th Anniversary of Star Trek where many or all of the original episodes (remastered so they look nicer on today's televisions) were shown, I was moved by the earpieces they use, since they are like clunky Bluetooth earpieces. Here's a quick (and thus blurry) photo I grabbed off my TV with Spock in the foreground with his easily observable earpiece and Uhura in the background adjusting hers. Granted for TV such technologies would need to be easily observable by the audience, especially in the mid-1960s, today not so much since we actually have these things.