sunshine0221's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My Tivo Doesn't Think I'm Gay My Tivo Doesn�t Think I�m Gay Someone on a message board posted a link to fairly hilarious article about a guy who was concerned because his Tivo seemed to think he was gay. The article appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Here�s an excerpt : �Mr. Iwanyk, 32 years old, first suspected that his TiVo thought he was gay, since it inexplicably kept recording programs with gay themes. A film studio executive in Los Angeles and the self-described "straightest guy on earth," he tried to tame TiVo's gay fixation by recording war movies and other "guy stuff." "The problem was, I overcompensated," he says. "It started giving me documentaries on Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Eichmann. It stopped thinking I was gay and decided I was a crazy guy reminiscing about the Third Reich.� This is funny for many reasons. First of all the dude is concerned about what his Tivo thinks of him. Secondly he spent time, energy, and thought on how to make his his Tivo not think he�s gay. And thirdly, he screwed up and now his Tivo salutes and says �Heil Hitler� whenever he turns on his TV. Another excerpt: "Many consumers appreciate having computers delve into their hearts and heads. But some say it gives them the willies, because the machines either know them too well or make cocksure assumptions about them that are way off base. That's why even TiVo lovers are tempted to hoodwink it -- a phenomenon that was also spoofed this year on another TV show, HBO's "The Mind of the Married Man. Mike Binder, creator and star of that show, had set his home TiVo to record his 1999 movie, "The Sex Monster," about a man whose wife becomes bisexual. After that, Mr. Binder's TiVo assumed he would enjoy a steady stream of gay programming. Unnerved, he counteracted the onslaught by recording the Playboy Channel and MTV's spring break bikini coverage. It worked, he says. 'My TiVo doesn't look at me funny anymore'. His wife, however, was taken aback when she saw all the half-naked women he was ordering through TiVo. He told her those women meant nothing to him: 'I'm just counterprogramming because TiVo thinks I'm gay.' She was unamused. The incident inspired an episode of his show." I�m fortunate, my Tivo does not think I�m gay. My Tivo loves and understands me. We�re buds. My Tivo recorded the episode of Charmed where Pru gets turned into a man, and is actually kinda attractive in an ambiguously androgynous kind of way. My Tivo recorded the Food 911 episode with the incredibly delicious looking tuna burgers. And it even grabs the few Buffies that I�m not already recording. My Tivo is my friend. Amazon, on the other hand, thinks I�m Christian. This does disturb me. Amazon has a handy dandy feature that makes recommendations based on books you�ve purchased or wish listed. I�m a big suspense/thriller/romance fan, and I accidentally put some Christian romantic suspense books on my wish list. I realized my error and deleted them, but Amazon has a memory like an elephant, and keeps recommending religious books. I wonder what would a religious action/adventure/romance novel be like? Do they substitute religious activities for boinking?? �And they kissed each other deeply, looked into each other eyes, and said �We better go, we�ll be late for church��???? I also wonder what kinds of books I need to buy to make Amazon stop thinking I�m Christian. Hell for Dummies? Or maybe How to Break All Ten Commandments for Less Than $40 a Day ?? I�m not going to lose sleep over this. And I do get a chuckle every time religious books show up in my suggestions. I just hope that Amazon doesn�t start sharing its recommendations with my Tivo.
1:57 p.m. - December 14, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||