Fun With Search Engines

Amazon Mechanical Turk Will Hook You Up With Porn Jobs That Pay Pennies

I’ve worked in porn.

I’ve taken surveys hundreds of questions long about my mental state and my politics. I’ve censored online content. I’ve helped schoolteachers track down plagiarists. I’ve touted real estate. I’ve burned my personal social network in the hope of scoring a few cents.

My take: $13.25 (I’m owed a good deal more, by my reckoning — more on that later).

For the past month I’ve been intermittently participating in one of Amazon ’s weirdest business ventures: Amazon Mechanical Turk . The big idea — and everything involving Amazon Chief Jeff Bezos is about a big idea — is to automate the gritty little mental tasks that computers just can’t do. Eat it Watson.

There are two kinds of participants in this scheme. ‘Workers’ perform tasks. ‘Requesters’ assign jobs and put a price on what they’ll pay to have the it done. Each task is referred to as a “ Human Interface Task,” or HIT.

The service, started by Amazon in 2005, takes its name from an 18th century scam. In 1770, Wolfgang von Kempelen built what he touted as an automaton chess player. It beat some of the best players of the day, and baffled everyone else. The trick: a chess master, hidden inside the machine. Inside Amazon’s Mechanical Turk: thousands of humans tackling the more than 150,000 jobs posted at any given time.

‘Qualification tests’ can be used to find workers with the right skills. I’m qualified to transcribe podcasts, for example. Another check: ‘requesters’ can ask that those accepting their jobs meet certain criteria. If a ‘requester’ asks for a ‘HITs Qualification’ mark above 50, then half or more of the jobs I’ve tried to complete must be approved by paying clients. No coasting, here.

The pay varies. Some jobs pay nothing. ‘Workers’ do them, presumably, to boost their ‘HITs Qualification’ mark, among other metrics. Many jobs promise to pay only a penny. Write a catalog listing and you might make 5 cents. Translate a passage from Levantine Arabic into English and you’ll get a dollar. That’s pretty good. Too bad I don’t speak Arabic.

While there are some jobs I can’t do, there are others I won’t. For example, one ‘requester’ asked for a 500-word article on Metformin — a diabetes drug — and pregnancy. No. Not even for the princely sum of $2.00.

However, I have written other stuff involving drugs I can’t understand and side effects I don’t want to understand (something involving erectile dysfunction) to earn a few pennies. Next time you turn to a search engine for medical advice, keep that in mind.

Active Generations » Exciting New Computer Classes Being Offered!

Nts, file folder labels, name badges, etc. Avery, one of the largest suppliers of these forms, provides a free program online that can be installed as an add-in to Microsoft Word. This one-session class explains how to download and install the Avery Wizard program and how to use it to create professional-looking forms easily. Prerequisite: Student needs to be familiar with Microsoft Word and have it installed on his/her computer.

Tables in Word:

Tables are a convenient way to present information in columns and rows rather than in paragraphs in documents. The table functions of Word are easy to use and present a variety of formatting options. This class covers how to define the number of columns and rows in a table, controlling the height and width of cells, formatting or suppressing cell borders, formatting and arranging text inside cells, and adding or deleting rows or columns in an existing table. Prerequisite: Student needs to be familiar with Microsoft Word and have it installed on his/her computer.

Searching the Search Engines

Using just Google, Yahoo or Bing for your searches, is like using the expressway, but never taking your car out of first gear. When we search the search engines, we’ll go way beyond the ordinary and usual and explore the odd, and uncommon. The results will be fun and fascinating.

Google Earth

Have fun learning how to explore the earth, the sky and the oceans using Google Earth. Go into Street View and actually travel the streets in faraway places without leaving your home. Learn how to look up your own address and see what other people see when they type in your address. Navigate under the surface of the ocean and explore the depths. See what the astronauts discovered by exploring the stars in the sky, the moon, and Mars. A great little seminar to help you discover the world around you.

Downloading Music to Your MP3 player (IPOD)

The Internet has open up the music world to people in many new ways. You can shop for music in the comfort of your home. In this seminar you will explore the I-Tunes store where you can buy single songs of all your favorite singers. You can then burn these songs to a CD to play or to an MP3 player to take on the road with you, to listen to when you exercise or walk. Come learn more!

E-Cards With Jib Jab

Jib Jab E-cards turn your average “hello” into a deluxe “Howdy-doo!”. It’s the creative, and funny way to send an online greeting message — Starring You —or the person receiving the greeting. We’ll show you have to take several greetings, insert photos of real people, have them animated, and then email at a pre-selected time. Jib Jab is easy, fun and free.

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