

Introducing O.W.L.S. - sambeau
http://www.waterstones.com/blog/2013/12/introducing-o-w-l-s/

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robgough

      Q: But owls aren’t robots, they’re birds.
      A: That’s the end of the questions, thank you.
    

Ha, nice to companies having a bit of fun. Worth the quick read.

I'd rather have companies release occasional posts like this throughout the
year, rather than everyone trying to cram theirs into the 1st April.

~~~
sambeau
Bookshops (at least here in the UK) have been almost totally eradicated by
Amazon (especially on the high street) so it's nice to see Waterstones
(pretty-much the last survivor) poking a little fun at its exterminator.

~~~
lmm
Doesn't Amazon now own a stake in Waterstones?

~~~
sambeau
I don't think so. They seem to have an agreement where Waterstones sells
kindles & e-books but that's about it.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterstones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterstones)

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mildweed
Site is farked. Relevant YouTube:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agpB5FVMkOg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agpB5FVMkOg)

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DanielBMarkham
When reading about Amazon developing air service for parcel delivery, I was at
a loss as to how to take it. Obviously this wasn't anything that was going to
happen soon. Obviously this was a big PR win for Amazon. Obviously my fellow
HN'ers would love such a suggestion. And obviously who even knew if it would
ever happen?

It's not that I didn't believe Amazon, or Google. It's that there seems to be
a trend of early release of nerd-candy for R&D projects that may or may not
see the light of day. I'm a huge Elon Musk fan, and that's exactly what
happened with the hyperloop. The hyperloop may become a reality -- or it may
not. In either case, Musk got a great deal of PR for stringing us all along
and then making the announcement. I don't feel tricked, but I'm definitely
starting to feel manipulated.

Since this is such a tricky issue, humor looks like the best way forward.
Nobody need go to extremes and call anybody out. I think everybody is acting
in good faith. But it's also easy to generate a lot of hoopla over _ideas_.
Execution is a different matter entirely. And the best way to show that is to
spoof it.

tl;dr I liked this post. Made a similar tweet this morning.
[https://twitter.com/danielbmarkham/status/407526820784140288](https://twitter.com/danielbmarkham/status/407526820784140288)

