books – My Game Reviews

How to search and buy effectively with Amazon Rufus

Introduction: Amazon Rufus, the Shopping AI.

Amazon has generally been a pretty straight forward website. It is a place where you buy things or if you are a seller, sell your items on the Amazon storefront similar to eBay. Unlike many other dotcom businesses in the 1990s, Jeff Bezos had a vision and a sustainable business model. However, this does not mean that Amazon is lying on its laurels and has been continuing to innovate in many areas.

Amazon’s Rufus is named after a dog who was in Amazon’s office in the early days. It’s function is very much like a digital golden retriever: it seeks out information about the items you want to buy on the site.

Rufus is available on desktop as well as the mobile app. On the desktop site, Rufus is located on the upper left side of the screen.

How to search with Amazon Rufus Chatbot.

To start, you need to start typing something into the Amazon search box.

When you type in something into the Amazon, Rufus will analyze it and it will provide relevant questions.

When you click on the question bubbles, Rufus will provide answers to your questions here. It combines ChatGPT with the Amazon customer review system which helps to create a unique AI.

I chose a Runic Ring to buy, the first result on the page.

When you click on the link to the product page, Amazon has now integrated Rufus into many aspects of the site.

One of the best aspects of Amazon’s AI integration is that it is holistic. Unlike the older versions of chatbots that would you see before ChatGPT, companies such as Amazon are integrating throughout the site. It is not an annoyance on the side bar; it now greatly enhances your ability to shop on Amazon and save time instead of spending it on the annoying search engine in Amazon.

Amazon’s s Rufus is much better than Google’s AI overview as it curates the Amazon customer review system in order to provide better responses.

Amazon smartly chooses to have Rufus located throughout the page for each product that you click on the site. While it may seem overbearing for some, this approach means that Amazon is not just treating like a feature that is being hidden away on the screen. In many ways, Amazon is the prefect site for such implementation of Shopping chatbots.

Empire Earth vs Empire Earth 2: Two Games of Contrast

Empire Earth and its sequel are a study in contrasts. There are two games that represent differing ideas about what a game is. Empire Earth attempts to represent the classic RTS genre while Empire Earth 2 is attempting to chase after a new audience while being able to please the fans.

Empire Earth is about tactics and free form in its nature. It is a game that allows you build buildings anywhere.

Empire Earth 2 is more about strategic thinking and planning. The game integrates Civilization style scale with the RTS style.

Which game is better here?

Empire Earth at this point in time has remained the more popular of the two. On YouTube, Empire Earth 2 is largely obscure, only going due to the efforts of a few users.

Empire Earth however retains a thriving multiplayer scene. While not as lively as it once was in the past, there are significant number of players who enjoy it.

What is the reason for Empire Earth 2 being more obscure now? I believe it has to do with the overcomplication of the game.

Sometimes reinventing the wheel can be exciting but you are wasting money while your rivals are using tried and true technology which works now.

Empire Earth 2 attempts to put the Civilization series onto the structure of a RTS game.

Empire Earth knew what it was. The main selling point was the movement through history. That is what mattered to the players.

Empire Earth 2 was too much of a leap and Empire Earth was the comfy home which had the warm cookies made by your mom.

Many video games struggle with this. How much change should a game have? Sometimes its best to refine than to create something from scratch.

Empire Earth’s longevity as a game is a testament to the excellent structure and gameplay. It truly is a game that means what it says: Epic is too small a word.

The wide as an ocean and shallow as puddle worked just right for Empire Earth. That is why players continue to play and enjoy it.

M3GAN-A seminal Cyberprep Movie or Neo-Cyberpunk Movie

I have only watched clips of M3GAN but the plot is quite familar to me. It is the story of a robot going aganist its servitude and becoming self-aware and how conflict begins here. However, M3GAN has something unique which is it is the encapsulation of a style or sensiblity. It is known as Cyberprep. While there is a clothing style known as Cyberprep, I am talking about a subgenre of Cyberpunk here. To some, Cyberprep is Captialism’s attempt to subvert the Cyberpunk genre, which seeks to create a digital space that is more about cooperatives and the sharing of information for the furthering of human knowledge instead of refining consumerism in global capitalism in our culture. Cyberprep is some sense is the sanitization of cyberpunk and acknowledgment of regression in styles.

Some people in the more left-wing circles have been trying to make M3GAN into a icon of identity politics, the truth is simplier. M3GAN is a movie about transition of styles in America.

Previously, such movies had distinct style which harkened back to two styles I will describe here. While there are offshoots and every movie is different, there are two types in my opinion.

1. Cyberpunk Classic(Japan)

This is the Cyberpunk which everyone knows. It is the one with the Neon lights and the Japanese characters. This is what people think of when they think about Cyberpunk. In the 1980s, it was at its height in media. It is generally an extension of the rebel culture of the 1960s. It is about embracing one’s individuality online. It had an eye on the up-and-coming growing Japan. The Asian country, already with rich tradition of automata in its ancient times during the Heian and Tokugawa eras, was becoming a focal point of what people though the future was going to be. Japanese society, which conformity but also innovation, allowed for a consistency in style. Rural Japan and Urban Japan had their differences, but they tended to be on the same wavelength culturally. In America, the gap is larger between the city and country. While the radio would start the process of closing such gaps, it remains wider than in places such as in Japan.

2. 1990s Internet Chic

This is a refinement of Cyberpunk and the sensibility is more corporate. The internet in its beginning was a computer system known as Aparnet. It was more for scientific purposes and the military, a result of the need to share knowledge during the Cold War. The internet would then go into a transition phase into becoming more commercial as time went on.

By the beginning of the World Wide Web, Hypertext Markup Language(HTML) had become standard and was remaking the nature of internet networks.

With the rise of websites, the internet merged with Cyberpunk but it was no longer about the clunky hardware. While CRT computers were reigning on the throne, the nature of connectivity was no longer about putting on bulky VR headsets. It was now something was contained within a cyberspace. This cyberspace was not navigated with hardware but was hitching a ride on copper wires that were venerable veterans in telecommunications.

M3GAN represents an updating of the 2nd style here.

Generally speaking, M3GAN and its themes are focused on the upper middle-class experience. While some people may say that the robot is not realistic, I think that it makes a lot of sense here. M3GAN is a product of a brilliant if awkward mind. Gemma is genius but held back by the Capitalist system. M3GAN is a representative of Cyberprep.

M3GAN clothing is a throwback to the 1980s Corporate woman, who would often wear clothes in that style. Indeed, such a robot has a fashion sense which is more sophisticated than most Americans now. I would even say that she is reminiscent of a small girl in the body of an upper middle-class woman in 1940s America.

M3GAN is representative of a capitalist system which is starting to fortify in its enclaves. There is no interest in helping the average person even understand what they are getting into. Cyberprep is the Cyberpunk without the edge. The elite of today in places such as Seattle is not interested in guiding mankind towards greatness; it is more about their own people.

M3GAN is really about the palace battles in the corporate halls. To the people farming shimp on the Bayou, M3GAN seems like something out of a Middle Eastern Fantasy story with flying carpets.

M3GAN is true Cyberprep cinema