• BuGo (unregistered) in reply to Pap

    Man... no more bottles for you...

  • Buanzo (unregistered) in reply to BCS

    I'm 25! :P Linuxating since late 1994 :P

  • (cs) in reply to Tim
    Tim:
    Amazon recommended "The God Delusion" because I bought "The LaTeX Companion"

    Very sensible of it. I would also recommend "The LaTeX Delusion", and, of course, "The God Companion - Feeding, care, and toilet training for your deity".

  • Jason (unregistered)

    Heh, that is an awesome April Fool's joke. Maybe I'm stating the obvious symbolism but a book about moving away from the bottle relating to a book about (indirectly) moving away from Windows.. Hrm..

    Very nice.

  • Adriano (unregistered)

    It would be great if the Amazon recommendation system actually worked when I tell it that I'm not interested in a PS3, as it keeps on bringing up titles like "Resistance - Fall of man" because I'm apparently interested in the console.

    Another nicety would be to stop recommending (or at least, not display the "add to wishlist" button) for titles I've already added to my wishlists.

  • anonymous (unregistered)

    As heard from somebody fairly close to the source of the mail: some customers' targeting was based on the fact that people who bought Torvalds' books are also buying Sam Williams' book, such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/Free-Freedom-Richard-Stallmans-Software/dp/0596002874/

    Now, when Sam Williams (although, perhaps, not the same Sam Williams :-) ) has also drawn a new picture book... well, you know the rest.

  • (cs) in reply to Sharkie
    Sharkie:
    Perhaps the connotation is for Linux users to give up their "bottle" and start using Windows? For Linux fans to succumb to peer pressure and start drinking form the tea-cup?

    I was actually thinking the opposite... that since you bought a book about Linux you were interested in giving up the Windows bottle that so many "babies" use. :)

  • Hikari (unregistered) in reply to csrster
    M. Paris:
    Actually, this happens more often than you might think. And when it does, send a comment to amazon. They really like their engine, but it of course, is only as strong as their tagging is. After ordering a few books on atheism (being an atheist), I received hints that I also might like books on religion (which I don't) from religious people. And when you send them a comment (don't call, their first line helpdesk doesn't have clue about this), you get this reply:
    csrster:
    Plus I wonder if amazon will still be recommending Teletubbies books to me when my kids are twenty, on the basis that I did buy one _once_.

    Seems like these might suggest a "not interested" button or similar that, when clicked, weakens the relevant association between items or just puts that item's ID on a blacklist for your recommendations. Either way Amazon can use this data to more accurately construct a picture of your interests without the level of human interaction (and therefore time investment and financial cost) required for the comment process.

  • Gdn (unregistered) in reply to Nub

    I bought a few for your mom.

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