Debunking the Beer and Diapers Story

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:04:05 GMT

Mark Whitehorn (of 'Fast Track to MDX' fame) debunks that old 'beer and diapers' story that I've used plenty of times in data mining presentations in the Register today:

http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/08/15/beer_diapers/

Not that I'm going to let the small matter of the truth get in the way of a good story in future presentations!

Thinking about it, though, the fact that I've never seen beer and nappies together in the supermarket (or for that matter other equally incongruous combinations) should have given the game away. I'm a young father - daugher #2 was born three weeks ago - and I've spent more Friday nights down at Tesco buying nappies than I'd like to admit; I always find the beer in the beer aisle and the nappies in the nappy aisle at opposite ends of the store.

Data Mining Amazon Wish Lists

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 12:49:49 GMT

I've seen this article linked to by several people today and thought it was worth posting up myself:

http://www.applefritter.com/bannedbooks

Not true data mining as BI folks understand it, but once you've got the data just think what you could do with it using AS2005 data mining (something similar to what Amazon are already doing with it, I guess). By the way, if anyone wants to buy me a present...

Chris Webb's BI Blog: Data Mining

Debunking the Beer and Diapers Story

Data Mining Amazon Wish Lists