Sad trombone at the Beast of Bezos… But WW3.1 still living free at Bookfunnel I had to pull the plug a couple of hours early on the free downloads at Amazon. Word was getting around. But you can still get your free copy of the series kick off at Bookfunnel. Because your special.https://BookHip.com/ZNWLGQH
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Just got the above in email from JB.  The mystery might be solved. The link works as far as I can tell.

 

starexplorer wrote:

I found many analyses that assert something along these lines:

”Amazon uses customer data, such as location, browsing history, and purchase behavior, to tailor prices to individual customers. This can lead to price discrimination, where different customers are charged different prices for the same product.”

I have no doubts that this is true, given my own experiences as an Amazon customer over the long term.  How many times has Amazon presented you with a custom page or marketing email 'based on your browsing history'?
In fact I have more evidence than that - there's a story I can now safely tell at least part of without repercussions.

Some 15 years ago, I was part of a tender evaluation team at my employer looking at a replacement data warehousing solution.  One solution offered matched what Amazon was using at the time and in fact Amazon was offered to us as a reference customer for that solution with detailed descriptions of how Amazon was using the component products.  Amazon was, even then, using the solution on offer to us to log every single interaction of a potential customer with an Amazon generated web page.  Every keystroke, every mouse click, every mouse movement and mouse hover over an Amazon page was being logged for further analysis.  Fifteen years ago.

An additional aspect I recall is that the DBMS vendor doing the systems integration of the solution included in the materials given to us some stuff they probably shouldn't have - an email discussion between Amazon engineers noting a particular technical performance issue we would likely encounter if we implemented the solution as designed.


 

You're most welcome, Star.  It's good to be able to clear some of that stuff out of a locked room in my mind.  Your children's situation with Amazon reminds me of my own association with the Apple walled garden.  I refuse to use an Apple phone because I have no control over what my girls have done with the messaging and security settings.  They have set it up to suit themselves, not me.  My only connection is the credit card it links to, of course.

Back to the initial subject of thisthread, Birmo has dropped another free book that is a direct prequel to the new one.  What follows is a snippet of his latest email newsletter in his own words:Thanks to everyone who wrote back to say how much they were enjoying or looking forward to the whole Axis of Time story kicking off again. It shouldn’t affect me after so many years. I’m a hard bitten, two fisted writing machine damn it.But thanks.One thing I realised quickly was how many people on this list had no idea there were a bunch of novellas sitting between Axis of Time and World War 3.1. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_213,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0b739117-528b-4481-a287-d0b36addea4e_213x320.jpeg">  But there are. They follow a couple of original series faves (Prince Harry, Julia Duffy, Slim Jim and the Hammer) trying to foil Stalin’s nefarious plots and commie shenanigans.I collected them all into one convenient book which you can have for free, if you don’t have it already. That’s just for me to say thanks to you.It’s available here at Bookfunnel. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_313,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F22f429d1-ef65-4cb4-ae26-05f2873c8e36_313x500.jpeg">  It’s also available on Kindle Unlimited, but that’s not an option for everyone. The Bookfunnel copy plays nice on all platforms.Thanks to everyone who’s left reviews or ratings at the Beast of Bezos. They really help goose the algorithm. And I’ve enjoyed firing up this old newsletter so much I’ve decided to send some more free stuff out when I get home from my current research trip. (I’m in Europe, deciding what to blow up in WW3.2 and 3.3)And, of course, you look forward to the book dropping on all platforms for Christmas.CheersJB

Hey Star, I don't think it is important to finish the original trilogy.  The Stalin's Hammer compilation will bootstrap you into the right early 1950s milieu for the new trilogy and position you right at the starting line for the new book.  My only warning would be not to read the start of World War 3.1 before the Stalin's Hammer Cairo segment if you want to avoid some possible spoilers.
Oh, and if you still need a free copy of World War 3.1, the following Bookfunnel link seems to still be working - at least as of a few minutes ago.

https://bookhip.com/ZNWLGQH
 

I read World war 3.1 and enjoyed it as a single work. I may go back and read the earlier works in the series, though.