Wizard Snarks Amazon: Does Amazon Care? Ho Ho No
March 13, 2025
Another post from the dinobaby. Alas, no smart software used for this essay.
I read a wonderful essay from the fellow who created a number of high-value solutions. Remember the Oxford English Dictionary SGML project or the Open Text Index? The person involved deeply in both of these projects is Tim Bray. He wrote a pretty good essay called “Bye, Prime.” On the surface it is a chatty explanation of why a former Amazon officer dropped the “Prime” membership. Thinking about the comments in the write up, Dr. Bray’s article underscores some deeper issues.
In my opinion, the significant points include:
First, 21st century capitalism lacks “ethics stuff.” The decisions benefit the stakeholders.
Second, in a major metropolitan area, local outlets provide equivalent products at competitive prices. This suggests a bit of price exploitation occurs in giant online retail operations.
Third, American companies are daubed with tar as a result of certain national postures.
Fourth, a crassness is evident in some US online services.
Is the article about Amazon? I would suggest that it is, but the implications are broader. I recommend the write up. I believe attending to the explicit and implicit messages in the essay would be useful.
I think the processes identified by Dr. Bray are unlikely to slow. Going back is difficult, perhaps impossible.
PS. I think fixing up the security of AWS buckets, getting the third party reseller scams cleaned up, and returning basic functionality to the Kindle interface are indications that Amazon has gotten lost in one of its warehouses because smart Alexa is really dumb.
Stephen E Arnold, March 13, 2025
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