By reusing and repurposing existing writing into viral fragments on Twitter, the account functioned like today’s chatbots. The Guardian spoke to Jacob Bakkila, the human behind the accountMore than a decade before an AI-powered chatbot could do your homework, help you make dinner or pass the bar exam, there was @Horse_ebooks. The primitive predecessor to today’s chatbot renaissance began as a Twitter account in 2010, tweeting automated excerpts from ebooks that, decontextualized, took on unexpected and strangely poetic meanings.Purportedly a spambot, the account surfaced quotes from ebooks that went viral for their absurdist fragments – phrases like “Hello saxophone,” “COULD THIS BE THE”, and “Today we are lucky to be talking”. It amassed more than 200,000 followers at its peak and now, despite being inactive for a decade, the account still holds 131,000 followers. Its most memorable quip – “everything happens so much” – still resonates today. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-03 15:00:04 UTC ]
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In France, the manga bubble never burst—although it may be starting to deflate a bit. Last year French manga sales declined for the first time. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Business psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic reveals the reasons why the online publisher is so successfulWhen it comes to online content and storytelling, there are few sites as savvy as BuzzFeed, a platform that combines artificial and human intelligence to detect, produce and increase viral... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The president of the non-profit investigative journalism website on measuring impact, team work – and Edward SnowdenRichard Tofel has had a dream. It came upon him the night before we meet and he is still a little rattled by it. In it, he found himself performing his old role at Dow Jones, where... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer Gillian Flynn has acknowledged rewriting the ending to her novel Gone Girl (Weidenfeld... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jeremy Dooley created a new book--and an original font--to tutor tots on typeface.They say necessity is the mother of invention, but new parenthood isn't bad for coming up with new ideas either. "After my son was born, I found that his very simple books started me thinking about a lot of basic... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sir Alex Ferguson's My Autobiography (Hodder & Stoughton) has retained pole position in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The clock is ticking for two bookstores in the midst of transition: one about to open a second branch, the other to move. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Hawking has gone to great lengths to promote science through books and videos, but he has been conspicuously absent in the software world -- until now, that is. The astrophysicist has just teamed up with Random House on Snapshots of the ... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The suburban St. Louis bookstore ended its four-week Kickstarter campaign on Sunday, more than $2,000 above its goal. The funds raised are being used to build out a section of its new home so that the store can open for business on weekends before Christmas. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An ill-judged tweet can land you in a whole lot of legal bother, as Peaches Geldof and Sally Bercow know only too well. So the attorney general's new guidelines are essential readingIt doesn't seem real to think that you could take your phone out of your pocket right now, type a few words on it,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon has been prising open the wallets of Australian consumers for years – but what will its local push on Kindle mean for readers, writers and publishers?Ben Eltham Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Union pays Lucy Adams' legal costs after falsely accusing her department of being involved in a 'dirty tricks' campaignThe National Union of Journalists has apologised to the BBC's outgoing human resources director Lucy Adams and paid her legal costs after falsely accusing her department of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers need to be careful when they assign a book a genre – as Costco learned when it categorized the Bible as 'fiction.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Speakers at last week's UK Futurebook conference offered ideas for combating Amazon dominance, including advocating government intervention and ending DRM. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The print book business in Latin America remains dominant, but digital is rising. Are there lessons to be learned from the music business? Several Argentine music pros weigh in. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon will begin delivering packages in the US on Sundays for the first time through the US... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Gary Rubin joined the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 11 years ago, he brought a corporate sensibility with him. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Human Kinetics and the International Monetary Fund have signed a deal to make their content available in China. The agreement is a result of Publishing Technology’s local alliance with CNPIEC, the China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corporation, and its new CNP eReading platform. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When the U.K. newspaper the Sunday Times outed J.K. Rowling as the author of detective novel The Cuckoo's Calling earlier this year, computer scientists were among the first people called in. Although the novel was published under the pen name Robert Galbraith, two computational... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-09-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a victory for transparency advocates in the wake of the PRISM secret surveillance scandal, U.S. intelligence agencies will begin revealing the number of surveillance orders they request per year under various FISA ordinances, as well as national security letters. The agencies will also reveal... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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