>The Story About Ping has earned a place on my bookshelf, right between Stevens' Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, and my dog-eared copy of Dante's seminal work on MS Windows, Inferno. Who can read that passage on the Windows API ("Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous, So that by fixing on its depths my sight -- Nothing whatever I discerned therein."), without shaking their head with deep understanding. But I digress.
Allowing submissions with an affiliate code encourages people to submit material to HN that has no intellectually gratifying qualities (see guidelines) in the hopes that thousands click through, and their future purchases are tracked and a commission paid to the submitter.
I wanted to share this link with my Twitter followers, but noticed that there was an affiliate code in it; I did't want them to think I posted it for money.
It's nice to see Amazon embracing this in a positive way. One of my all-time favourites was the "Harry Potter vibrating broomstick". It took a while to find but here are some of the reviews:
http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/reviews/potters-stick/inde...
If you're willing to excuse the language in the reviewer I genuinely cried with laughter when I read this. The review probably cried too but for different reasons.
"The most horrific thing of all was that after having spent 300 years crawling to the system to unplug said cable, my brother was unable to control the sheer power of such a quality signal and like an ancient psychedelic Mr Miyagi struggling with a running fire hose, pointed the beam directly into his face."
This is a comedy gold mine. I love that Amazon curates these.
It is rare that 'a funny review' makes you buy the product, however I did after reading about 'Chompy', let me quote:
Is it possible to become emotionally attached to a kill-crazy cannibalistic worm that looks like a facehugger from the Alien movies and spends most of its time attempting to eat its siblings? Having recently shed a tear while burying my last one - Chompy - in the back garden, I'd say yes. These little beasties inspired fear and disgust in my girlfriend, but to me they were true friends.
Extremely important skill if you're sailing, and not as easy as it would first appear (they move a lot faster than you would expect). Not that I would read/write a whole book on the subject.
However my favorite Amazon review of all time remains The Story of Ping: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2VDKZ4X1F992Q