Tumblr (3.0; @adamismcom)http://adamism.com/<p>I read <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/" target="_blank">this fascinating article</a> today about data mining. It describes how data mining customer purchase data at Target can give them enough insight to predict if a customer is pregnant and their likely due date!</p> <p>As society moves away from cash this will become even easier. Credit card companies mine their customer purchase data to identify fraud. There are even cases where <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/your-money/credit-and-debit-cards/31money.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">data mining is used to adjust a customer’s credit limit</a>.</p> <p>The most interesting part of the article on Target was their remedy to complaints of being “too creepy.” They made their targeted coupon books look a bit more random, putting lawn mowers next to diapers, to trick customers into thinking they hadn’t been spied on.</p> <p>Companies are getting more creative on ways to track you. Google was just <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/google-safari-browser-cookie/" target="_blank">caught bypassing browser security</a> to track it’s users using Safari. It makes me wonder what they’ve built into their Chrome browser. Is there really a way to be “<a href="http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95464" target="_blank">Incognito</a>?” It seems unlikely.</p>http://adamism.com/post/17885212693http://adamism.com/post/17885212693Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:44:45 -0500<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxmbdtWGAv1r6l2ljo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>I stumbled upon this great artist tonight.. really neat sculptures! For those that don’t watch much TV: that’s a character from a series called Breaking Bad (awesome show — check it out).</p>http://adamism.com/post/15658706098http://adamism.com/post/15658706098Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:03:29 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwdii3KSZT1r6l2ljo1_500.gif"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Get it? A “Gingerbread House”</h2></p>http://adamism.com/post/14377968498http://adamism.com/post/14377968498Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:25:15 -0500<img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luza43KQH41r6l2ljo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>GHOSTS</p>http://adamism.com/post/13078210868http://adamism.com/post/13078210868Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:24:00 -0500<iframe width="400" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nfruZ9N__lA?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/><p>Tor Myhren, president and chief creative officer of Grey New York, regaled the audience with the detailed story of how he lost his virginity in the ’80s — and how the tale would be completely different for a digital native today.</p>http://adamism.com/post/13073581603http://adamism.com/post/13073581603Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:49:27 -0500