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The problem with ASINs is that they are not unique within amazon marketplaces. So B0000001 could be a toy in USA and a Book in Germany.
Has this perhaps changed over time, are there older ASINs which are different between regions, but new ones refer to the same product everywhere?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For some reason, ISBNs having check digits seems really strange to me. I wonder why. I am sure that Australia's smart meter numbering scheme also uses a check digit, but on learning that it that didn't strike me as odd. Maybe the association with books and "old stuff" makes it seem incongruous to me. In general, are check digits common in schemes like these? Is it something you'd do if you expect lots of manual copyi…
I get it for a smart meter, you don't want to mix up numbers and provide wrong readings. And they could be read manually and entered into a system, even if they're "smart". But for books, the worst that can happen is that you get the wrong book. Maybe back in the days when people ordered books via phone it was good to have a checksum, but even then the seller would probably read back the name of the book. So I don't…
> Unfortunately — and Shel was well aware of this very quickly, but of course by that time, it was too late — ISBNs are terribly abused in the United States. The company that issues ISBNs, Bowker, charges a lot of money for ISBNs (from the perspective of small publishers, anyway), and publishers don’t necessarily read all the rules. Small publishers were re-using ISBNs, and they also took their range of ISBNs and num…
For some reason, ISBNs having check digits seems really strange to me. I wonder why. I am sure that Australia's smart meter numbering scheme also uses a check digit, but on learning that it that didn't strike me as odd. Maybe the association with books and "old stuff" makes it seem incongruous to me. In general, are check digits common in schemes like these? Is it something you'd do if you expect lots of manual copyi…
And International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) have two check digits, but at the front, not at the back. And having check digits is important, because it might not be easy to get your money back, if transferred to some unintended account.
The IBAN consists of up to 34 alphanumeric characters comprising a country code; two check digits; and a number that includes the domestic bank account number, branch identifier, and potential routing information. The check digits enable a check of the bank account number to confirm its integrity before submitting a transaction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Num...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, TIL. So you're saying you can get the audiobook legit through Audible and use a downloaded EPUB and it will still work if the ASIN is in the metadata? This is definitely worth a blog post or something at least.
No. A USB side-loaded book in AZW3 or KFX format with embedded ASIN, and tagged EBOK, is treated as Amazon books. Everything sent via Send to Kindle is tagged PDOC so they behave differently. Normally, books sent via USB can't use Whispersync to sync reading position between different devices. OP is saying that if you embed ASIN into the book (can just be a random ASIN) and sideload the same books to multiple device,…
In addition to the other associations of the name "ASIN", there was also the Pet Shop Boys hit pop song "It's A Sin", several years earlier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRHetRTOD1Q&t=1m
For everything I want to sell
No matter book or bathtub gel
There's one key thing in S-Q-L
I need, I need, I need, its ASIN> Unfortunately — and Shel was well aware of this very quickly, but of course by that time, it was too late — ISBNs are terribly abused in the United States. The company that issues ISBNs, Bowker, charges a lot of money for ISBNs (from the perspective of small publishers, anyway), and publishers don’t necessarily read all the rules. Small publishers were re-using ISBNs, and they also took their range of ISBNs and num…
For some reason, ISBNs having check digits seems really strange to me. I wonder why. I am sure that Australia's smart meter numbering scheme also uses a check digit, but on learning that it that didn't strike me as odd. Maybe the association with books and "old stuff" makes it seem incongruous to me. In general, are check digits common in schemes like these? Is it something you'd do if you expect lots of manual copyi…
Upon a quick reading of the Wikipedia article on EAN-13 it appears that there is some parity to determine the direction of the scan (i.e. upside-down or upright) but the numbers are encoded as-is without any further error correction contrary to e.g. QR codes.
Alas, for a definitive answer on the reasoning one might have to buy the relevant ISO standard, if it is even described there.
Given that human adults are said to be able to keep 5-9 items in working memory, I would think it prudent to include a check digit for the ISBN when one might be required to manually enter them into search masks, forms, etc. and if only hearing it (e.g. over the phone) might not benefit from the grouping they visually gain from the interspersed dashes.
On the topic of correctly copying (manually):
whenever I have to be certain to correctly transcribe a long important number or string I would at the end cover up both the source and the transcription, then reveal one character from the end, then the second to last on e.g. the source, verify that the last and the second to last on the transcription matches (in that order!), then uncover the next 2 on the transcription, verify against the source, continue with the source and so on. This helps immensely to discover transposed digits (especially since my mother tongue is German where we swap the tens and ones while speaking (or thinking with the inner voice) a 2-digit number) and not glance over well known digit groups such as zip code or special dates, etc.
Here’s some ASIN trivia from my time at Amazon in the early 10’s. At least at that time, there was exactly one inventory item at Amazon that could change ASINs during its lifetime: Amazon Fresh used different ASINs for green bananas and yellow bananas.
If a banana ripens in a forest and nobody is around to see it, does its ASIN change?
I would love to hear from a botanist/banana-related person what a bunch of banana plants are called. Are there similar differing names as for groups of various animals?
The problem with ASINs is that they are not unique within amazon marketplaces. So B0000001 could be a toy in USA and a Book in Germany.
In general they seem to match (I just checked a random product from amazon.com, B08VD5JZJD), and get the same product when opening /dp/B08VD5JZJD on german amazon, france, japan, spain and UK. Has this perhaps changed over time, are there older ASINs which are different between regions, but new ones refer to the same product everywhere?
> Unfortunately — and Shel was well aware of this very quickly, but of course by that time, it was too late — ISBNs are terribly abused in the United States. The company that issues ISBNs, Bowker, charges a lot of money for ISBNs (from the perspective of small publishers, anyway), and publishers don’t necessarily read all the rules. Small publishers were re-using ISBNs, and they also took their range of ISBNs and num…
For some reason, ISBNs having check digits seems really strange to me. I wonder why. I am sure that Australia's smart meter numbering scheme also uses a check digit, but on learning that it that didn't strike me as odd. Maybe the association with books and "old stuff" makes it seem incongruous to me. In general, are check digits common in schemes like these? Is it something you'd do if you expect lots of manual copyi…
Lots of examples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Check_digit