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Amazon Hacks For Fun and Money 249

An anonymous reader writes "There's a new BusinessWeek article looking at some of the cool hacks coming out of Amazon's open API and XML feed policy. Some nifty stuff - 27,000 developers have apparently signed up to build hacks on Amazon data. It seems '..most are only part-timers and hobbyists, but a growing number are serious programmers who seek to make a living selling products based on the data Amazon is offering on a silver platter.'"
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Amazon Hacks For Fun and Money

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  • Amazon (Score:0, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 25, 2003 @11:38PM (#6299983)
    Okay, when I read the title I pictured a busty female warrior sitting infront of a computer hacking away at some hapless souls files. She was sexy too.
  • I wonder (Score:5, Funny)

    by chunkwhite86 ( 593696 ) on Wednesday June 25, 2003 @11:43PM (#6300003)
    I wonder if they include their highly advanced "one-click" technology in with this? It would truly be a gift to experience a technical achievement of this magnitude.

    I mean, who would have thunk it? "one-click"! This certainly is the pinnacle of innovation and ingenuity. Sure is a good thing they patented this... otherwise who knows what might happen if such power was available to mere mortals? Inconcievable!

  • How long... (Score:5, Funny)

    by appleLaserWriter ( 91994 ) on Wednesday June 25, 2003 @11:45PM (#6300013)
    until some federal genius decides to label O'Reilly as a terrorist organization due to their sponsorship of "hacking"?

  • Re:I wonder (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 25, 2003 @11:47PM (#6300028)
    Sure is a good thing they patented this... otherwise who knows what might happen if such power was available to mere mortals? Inconcievable!


    I do not think this word means what you think it means.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 25, 2003 @11:55PM (#6300066)
    Amazon hacks YOU!
  • by Snoopy77 ( 229731 ) on Wednesday June 25, 2003 @11:57PM (#6300072) Homepage
    And you'll now be able to compare the price of Amazon Hacks using Amazon hacks.
  • Re:I wonder (Score:3, Funny)

    by skraps ( 650379 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @12:15AM (#6300149)
    I do not mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 26, 2003 @12:18AM (#6300166)
    In other news, a league of hackers who took up Amazon.com's challenge to "hack" its web services have announced a new technology called "zero-click."

    Said m0rp3us, leader of the group "3y3 0f th3 d0g," "zero-click" will order various items automatically using already stored in a user's billing info.

    "All they have to do is sign-in once and they're done. The stuff basically orders itself after that," he said, " and delivered to your home. It's like Christmas every day!"

    When asked if he will patent the new technology, Jeff Bezos declined comment, but did mention that the technology was responsible for three new automobiles and a new town that he was going to play with later.

    Amazon.com's shares were up with the news.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 26, 2003 @12:20AM (#6300175)
    Regardless of what you think about Amazon opening up its API and inventory data, this is a nifty product. Scan something anywhere and get the Amazon data on it. Now I comparision shop Amazon with BestBuy, Circuit City, or B&N while I am at the store. Wait?! Is this illegal under the DMCA?

    This would be great if they guy hooked it up to Froogle and made it work on a PDA - you could buy anything you saw, anywhere, for the cheapest price you could find on the web, while you were in a real store!

    (runs off to fill out a patent form...)


    * Moderating...

    Let's see:

    - Bashed DMCA... Check (pointlessly, but all the better)

    - Bashed Patents... Check

    - Bashed SCO... FAIL

    - Bashed Microsoft... FAIL

    - Bashed **AA... FAIL

    - Referenced "Good Technology (tm)", eg. Linux/Google/GNU/GPL... Check

    - Referenced Geek Toy... FAIL (Close, but "PDA" is not "Zaurus")

    You had a good post, but it could have looked like this:

    --------------------

    Regardless of what you think about Amzaon opening up it's API and inventory data, this [ipilot.net] is a nifty product. Scan something anywhere and get the Amazon data on it. Now I comparision shop Amazon with BestBuy, Circuit City, or B&N while I am at the store. (Ha! I bet the bigwigs at M$ would LOVE if I comparison shopped Linux vs. XPee, let's not even MENTION SCO!)

    This would be great if they guy hooked it up to Froogle and made it work on a Zaurus - you could buy anything you saw, anywhere, for the cheapest price you could find on the web, while you were in a real store! (I bet the RIAA would object, though, what with their PRICE FIXING WAYS. Bastards.)

    (runs off to fill out a patent form... before Amazon does!)

    Oh, also, I HATE THE DMCA!!!! VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!

    --------------------

    Learn from the master.
  • Re:Query? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 26, 2003 @12:35AM (#6300226)
    I recently wrote a program that uses a cuecat to scan barcodes/cds/games to use with Guzzlefish.com

    And I riced out my cuecat, added an on/off switch, disabled the serial number, and put a Type R sticker

    (kidding about the type r sticker)
  • by smallpaul ( 65919 ) <paul@@@prescod...net> on Thursday June 26, 2003 @12:35AM (#6300227)
    This site is powered by something called "StoreBuilder." I love what StoreBuilder has to say about how they chose to use Amazon's XML over HTTP interface rather than the SOAP interface: "XML over HTTP, no SOAP interaction overheads"
  • by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @02:46AM (#6300582)
    Amazon announced today, two years after they first opened their data for harvesting and scrutiny by 3rd parties, that they have been purposely salting that data for the last 18 months, for the purpose of skewing any results gleened by said 3rd partiers.

    Amazon will be selling their own un-skewing software, for anyone that wishes to know the truth behind what they thought they knew the truth behind before.

    This process of releasing skewed data has been patented, and is known as 'Salty Skew 42-Click'.

    hut!...hut!...hut!
  • by sql*kitten ( 1359 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @07:27AM (#6301195)
    Said m0rp3us, leader of the group "3y3 0f th3 d0g," "zero-click" will order various items automatically using already stored in a user's billing info.


    I wish Amazon would let me correlate delivery addresses with birthdays with cash limits with wish lists, and submit orders automatically whenever everything aligned, so I could completely automate gift-remembering.
  • by Daz3d ( 669004 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @10:21AM (#6302418) Journal
    If someone devised a method of delivering food over the internet with TCP/IP, I bet that would be a good candidate for a patent.

    Can't wait to download a roast chicken off Kazaa!
  • Re:Query? (Score:4, Funny)

    by jea6 ( 117959 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @11:22AM (#6303037)
    How, pray tell, does an offline e-mail occur? Fax, sorta? What if I draft the message and print it out then mail it to you? Is that an offline e-mail? :-)

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