Database Nation, the Web Site

Andre Szykier, the managing director of Ntier Architects, send me this way cool URL that is based on Reason's mass-personalized June cover:

http://www.ntiera.com/projects/mil/contemporary4.html

Well worth checking out.

Comments

[twc]

And? What IS your response, Nick Gillespie?

[twc]

The cover was cool and accurate. The concept was trick. The demographic information inside the front cover of ours was fairly inaccurate because it was sorted and pulled together (presumably) by zip code. The median income of my area is 5 times what was stated and the median age is half again or more older. Why? Our zip code includes 1.5 million dollar homes on one end and people butchering hogs on the front porches of doublewides on the other.

I?m not just pointing out a flaw in the sorting process for sport. More importantly this suggests that both critics and proponents exaggerate the extent (okay, maybe not the extent) and accuracy of our database nation.

On a slightly different note, privacy issues have been libertarian issues for years and I find it interesting that Reason seems to be abandoning them with glee.

Always remember, just ?cause yer not paranoid doesn?t mean they?re not out to get you.

[Andrew Lynch]

twc,

Privacy issues are no match for improvements in commerce. Didn't you get the memo? :>

[Nick Gillespie]

Subscriber copies went out last week and some will still be arriving this week. There are some cases where for a variety of reasons--including photo availibility and/or data problems--subscribers will not receive a customized copy.

[Jeff]

From the personalized Reason cover I learned:
A: There's a creek about 100 yards to the west of me I never knew about (I've lived nere 12 years)
B: My yard is a mess.

[Slippery Pete]

Hey Nick -

When are these dang magazines supposed to arrive? I signed up before the deadline but nothing's shown up yet.

[Garth]

I got mine. Very cool. The wife and I have decided that it's a keeper.

[ortolan88]

Anybody notice that the text of the Flash animation is plagiarized from an LA Times article?

[Mark Fox]

Had I known it was going to be so cool, I would have paid extra for a shrink-wrapped copy. My letter carrier did not have sufficient reverence for what might be a collectible.

The database technology is no surprise. I'm blown away by the customized print-on-demand aspect on such a large scale.

[tom wright]

Steven Brin's talk at the Nat LP convention 2 years ago spoke to this idea of privacy being outdated, or at least revolutionarily changed.

Oh, yeah. So far as I know, my subscription is still good, but my issue has not yet arrived. But then, since my town here in NJ just notified everyone of house-by-house INSIDE inspections for real-estate tax purposes, they are probably using the covers to help look for un-permited additions.

Can't let too many people get away with fancy faucets in the crapper.....

Tom

[patrick]

Did anyone notice that the flash animation was slower than cold snails? I got bored and left, how'd it end?