nat gertler at aaugh.com has parsed and partially decoded amazon.com's image url format. turns out that amazon's system actually control the image size, orientation, bullets, and more using the url, rather than storing each image variation as a separate file. using this system, you can create some interesting and peculiar variations, adding multiple rotations and bullets and even superimposing text over the image. gertler has also posted a bizarre gallery of abused amazon images to show off the system's potential.
kudos to corante's copyfight blog for finding the guide as well as amaztype, a site that "prints" a phrase of your choice in a pseudo-pointillist style made up of tiny amazon images.
Posted by stAllio! at June 2, 2005 04:30 PM