Rather, how can I use string-based userid/itemid's without having the deal with the slowness associated with mapping them to a long?
In the MongoDataModel, for example, significant time/overhead goes into converting the unique id's to long... I'm still getting my head wrapped around mahout, but this seems like a significant limitation. I have to assume there's some logic behind the decision to restrict them to long, but i didn't find anything about it in Mahout in Action or the list. Thanks.
