Amazon Versus Microsoft: JEDI in Play?
March 7, 2020
DarkCyber spotted a story in Stars and Stripes titled “Judge Says Amazon Likely to Succeed on Key Argument in Pentagon Cloud Lawsuit.” The source appears to be the Bezos-owned Washington Post. That fact may provide some context for the story.
The main point in the write up seems to be:
A federal judge has concluded that a bid protest lawsuit brought by Amazon over President Donald Trump’s intervention in an important Pentagon cloud computing contract “is likely to succeed on the merits” of one of its central arguments, according to a court document made public Friday [March 6, 2020].
The article states:
In an opinion explaining her reasoning, Campbell-Smith sided with Amazon’s contention that the Pentagon had made a mistake in how it evaluated prices for competing proposals from Amazon and Microsoft. She also concluded that the mistake is likely to materially harm Amazon, an important qualifier for government contract bid protests.
What’s missing from this story? Detail for one thing.
Several observations:
- Planners for the JEDI program are likely to experience uncertainty
- Regardless of the ultimate decision, time to implement newer systems is being lost
- The cost of the procurement process for JEDI will climb and, at some point, may become larger than the program itself.
Net net: Government procurement remains an interesting and impactful process. Procurement just keeps grinding its procedural mechanisms, delivering “efficiency.”
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2020
Tools for TikTok and Twitch
March 5, 2020
DarkCyber spotted “JOBY Launches New Line of Accessories for Content Creators.” The idea is that there are quite a few people streaming video. The equipment required for IRL and some popular streaming situations has to be cobbled together. Enter Joby. The company offers a
- Video streaming kit for $200
- An LED halo light for $90
- A stand for iPhone and Android devices for $40.
Are there other brands competing for the vloggers’ money? Yes, Razer, Neewer, and Homall among others.
If you want to locate these products, be sure to search for products tagged for games, vloggers, streamers, and Twitch. Amazon will sell you beannie’s, hoodies, and a book “Twitch for Dummies.”
A new Amazon Basics category may be coalescing. TikTok fame awaits.
Stephen E Arnold, March 5, 2020
Amazon Pursues the Ipanema Way
February 26, 2020
Foreign technology investment is a booming industry. Most major technology investments appear to occur in Asia and western countries. Amazon Web Services is looking south for technology investments, specifically Brazil. ZDNet reports that, “AWS Plants Multimillion-Dollar Investment In Brazil” for development.
AWS plans to invest $233 million (1 billion reais) to expand its infrastructure in São Paulo. The investment will be made over two years. Governor of São Paulo João Doria predicts that AWS’s investment will create more jobs and opportunities for startups within the state. AWS and the Brazilian officials did not share anything else about the deal other than an official press releases. AWS first came to São Paulo in 2012, when they built its first datacenter. That was just the start of the new investment:
“A few years later, the company announced that it would be using the customer cost-consciousness driven by economic instability to grow its business in Brazil and increase its influence in the local technology community. Cloud computing and artificial intelligence will be the core areas of focus when it comes to investment in technology in Brazil in 2020, according to a study released last month by technology firm CI&T.”
AWS’s major challenge in Brazil will be guaranteeing that this sector of the market can keep up with the rest of the world. Cloud computing technology advancements are driving AWS to invest in Brazil because it is a new, although volatile market.
Whitney Grace, February 26, 2020
Amazon: Buying More Innovation
February 26, 2020
DarkCyber noted the article “Amazon Acquires Turkish Startup Datarow.” The word “startup” is rather loosely applied. Datarow was founded in 2016. Not a spring chicken in DarkCyber’s view is a four year old outfit.
What’s interesting about this acquisition is that it provides the sometimes unartful Amazon with an outfit that specializes in making easier-to-use data tools. The firm appears to have been built around AWS Redshift.
The company’s quite wonky Web site says:
We’re proud to have created an innovative tool that facilitates data exploration and visualization for data analysts in Amazon Redshift, providing users with an easy to use interface to create tables, load data, author queries, perform visual analysis, and collaborate with others to share SQL code, analysis, and results. Together with AWS, we look forward to taking our tool to the next level for customers.
The company provides what it calls “data governance,” a term which DarkCyber means “get your act together” with regard to information. This is easier said than done, but it is a hot button among companies struggling to reduce costs, comply with assorted rules and regulations, and figure out what’s actually happening in their lines of business. Profit and loss statements are not up to the job of dealing with diverse content, audio, video, real time data, and tweets. Well, neither is Amazon, but that’s not germane.
Will Amazon AWS Redshift (love the naming, don’t you?) become easier to use? Perhaps Datarow will become responsible for the AWS Web site?
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2020
Does Amazon Have Dark User Interface Patterns?
February 25, 2020
The question “Does Amazon make use of interfaces intentionally designed to generate revenue?” is an interesting one. Amazon does have a boatload of features, functions, and services. There are — what? — more than a half dozen different databases, including the quantum thing.
The article “My First AWS Free Tier Hosting Bill Was $900.” The idea is that “free” did not mean exactly free. This is akin to the word “unlimited” when it appears in mobile data plans. Is Amazon following a path blazed by telecommunications giants, truly models of consumer centric behavior in DarkCyber’s narrow view of the economic world.
The write up states:
A major part of AWS marketing is pay-per-use for their services:
“You only pay for the services you consume, and once you stop using them, there are no additional costs or termination fees.” – AWS Pricing
They also market “free tier” products, less powerful instances that are free for the first year of use.
The article reports that a slow roll out allowed the system to “sit around for a month.”
That decision cost about $1,000.
The article points out that assuming that an “idle server” would not cost anything. Also, the Amazon jargon did not make sense, so the developer ignored the Amazon speak.
The write up goes through the Amazon lingo to alert other individuals of Amazon’s approach to “free.”
Several observations:
- Amazon is confusing. DarkCyber thinks this is party due to the vaunted two pizza team approach to programming and part due to clever marketers who really want to match up to the founder’s principles.
- Amazon pitches itself hard as the logical, best, and superior choice for cloud anything. Individuals who buy this pig in a poke are going to pay.
- Amazon, if one makes a good case to the customer service unit staffed with people who sort of speak like those in rural Kentucky, will modify the charge.
Are these some lessons one can learn from this write up? Maybe, for example:
- Learn to speak Amazon
- Think before clicking
- Amazon became really big for a reason: Avoid becoming a third party merchant whose hot product became part of Amazon Basics.
Your mileage may vary from the drive through the Tunnel of Love that the author of the article took.
Stephen E Arnold, February 25, 2020
Did PopSockets Slow the Bezos Bulldozer?
February 25, 2020
At a recent hearing of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, major tech players Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google were all accused of anticompetitive practices. Representatives listened to executives from Sonos, Basecamp, Tile, and PopSockets describe how those larger companies have unfairly wielded their market dominance against smaller players. For one CEO, Amazon’s behavior was especially egregious. Mashable reports, “PopSockets CEO Calls Out Amazon’s ‘Bullying with a Smile’ Tactics.” Reporter Jack Morse writes:
“Barnett, under oath, told the gathered members of the House that Amazon initially played nice only to drop the hammer when it believed no one was watching. After agreeing to a written contract stipulating a price at which PopSockets would be sold on Amazon, the e-commerce giant would then allegedly unilaterally lower the price and demand that PopSockets make up the difference.”
When asked how Amazon could ignore their contract, Barnett elaborated:
“‘With coercive tactics, basically,’ he replied. ‘And these are tactics that are mainly executed by phone. It’s one of the strangest relationships I’ve ever had with a retailer.’ Barnett emphasized that, on paper, the contract ‘appears to be negotiated in good faith.’ However, he claimed, this is followed by ‘… frequent phone calls. And on the phone calls we get what I might call bullying with a smile. Very friendly people that we deal with who say, “By the way, we dropped the price of X product last week. We need you to pay for it.”’ Barnett said he would push back and that’s when ‘the threats come.’ He asserted that Amazon representatives would tell him over the phone: ‘If we don’t get it, then we’re going to source product from the gray market.’”
PBS, the TV outfit, took a close look at Amazon and saw George Orwell, not the smiling box. So with JEDI stalled, Amazon seems to be popping and socketing to the rhythm of ringing cash registers.
Cynthia Murrell, February 25, 2020
Ring: An Amagenic Response?
February 22, 2020
Big technology companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google lie. All of these companies have lied about collecting user data and selling it. Amazon is in the hotspot once again and this time the company was caught lying about facial recognition. Check out the article from Buzzfeed News called, “Ring Says It Doesn’t Use Facial Recognition, Bit It Has ‘A Head Of Face Recognition Research.’”
Amazon’s Ring is a popular home security device deployed in ten million homes. Amazon has gone on the record stating that Ring does not use facial recognition technology, but Buzzfeed News discovered that Ring’s Ukraine branch are working on it. Amazon received flack before about working with law enforcement agencies and it turns out that Ring has partnerships with 405 police departments. According to the article:
“Police departments with Ring partnerships currently have the ability to see the general vicinity of camera locations in a community. Officers, using a tool called Ring Neighborhoods Portal, can then request that users who post videos to Ring’s app, Neighbors, share those clips with law enforcement. As BuzzFeed News previously reported, Ring’s terms of service gives the company an irrevocable, perpetual license to the video content users post on Neighbors.
Documents obtained by Motherboard found that some police departments were required to distribute free Ring cameras to residents and encourage adoption of the Neighbors app, while some cities paid Ring up to $100,000 to subsidize Ring cameras for community residents.”
Ring currently does not have facial recognition technology deployed to its units, but in the future it could be possible. Facial recognition technology is imperfect and constantly fails to identify individuals.
Ring is likely to remain in the digital frame.
Whitney Grace, February 22, 2020
Ring, Ring: Will the Police Continue to Respond?
February 21, 2020
Amazon has been working to establish a policeware business. One of the more visible products is the Amazon Ring doorbell. The law enforcement community has access, under certain conditions, to the data captured by these devices. The idea is that Ring videos provide useful information to investigators.
“Cute Videos, but Little Evidence: Police Say Amazon Ring Isn’t Much of a Crime Fighter” reports:
Ring promises to “make neighborhoods safer” by deterring and helping to solve crimes, citing its own research that says an installation of its doorbell cameras reduces burglaries by more than 50 percent. But an NBC News Investigation has found — after interviews with 40 law enforcement agencies in eight states that have partnered with Ring for at least three months — that there is little concrete evidence to support the claim.
Then Euronews adds:
Three agencies said the ease with which the public can share Ring videos means officers spend time reviewing clips of non-criminal issues such as raccoons and petty disagreements between neighbors. Others noted that the flood of footage generated by Ring cameras rarely led to positive identifications of suspects, let alone arrests. Thirteen of the 40 jurisdictions reached, including Winter Park, said they had made zero arrests as a result of Ring footage. Thirteen were able to confirm arrests made after reviewing Ring footage, while two offered estimates. The rest, including large cities like Phoenix, Miami, and Kansas City, Missouri, said that they don’t know how many arrests had been made as a result of their relationship with Ring — and therefore could not evaluate its effectiveness — even though they had been working with the company for well over a year.
If these data are accurate and Euronews is on the beam, Amazon’s idea may not convert to revenue from the firm’s policeware investments.
Amazon has other capabilities of utility to law enforcement. A Ring which goes unheeded may slow if not stall Amazon’s ambitions in this market segment. The use of the word “cute” is another amagenic touch. There is some aggression toward the online bookstore it seems.
Stephen E Arnold, February 20. 2020
Amazon: A Dark Underbelly or Just Low Cost Content?
February 20, 2020
Here is something they don’t tell you when you sign up for that $120/year Amazon Prime membership. From Vox’s article, “The Dark Underbelly of Amazon Prime Video,” we learn that almost two-thirds of the service’s streaming videos are user-generated. There also seems to be little to no vetting of this content. That explains why it is difficult to find something good to watch on the platform if one is not searching for something specific. The piece cites a recent feature from the Wall Street Journal. Writer Marc Atkins adds:
“We did some more sleuthing and found even more weird and potentially offensive content. It’s almost as though Amazon welcomes the bad videos, which count toward the total number of titles available on Prime Video. According to Ampere Analytics, Amazon Prime Video boasts 65,504 distinct titles — almost 10 times the 7,177 on Netflix. Users who upload videos, WSJ reports, also get a small cut of revenue based on how many people watch their videos, so there’s an incentive to upload even more. A quick glance at what turned up in a handful of search results shows that quantity can outweigh quality.”
Atkins lists a few examples, from mere oddities to the truly bizarre. See the write-up for those titles. He continues:
“We’ve come to expect off-putting content from social behemoths like Facebook and Google’s YouTube, where many regular people — and the occasional coordinated efforts from foreign governments — post their memes and videos. Amazon Prime Video, on the other hand, presents itself as a Netflix competitor, and that might lead its users to believe that the content on the platform has been vetted. To the average user, it’s not even clear that any of the content on Amazon Prime Video is user-generated, much less the majority of it. Unlike YouTube, Amazon doesn’t label user-generated content as such.”
That is misleading, to say the least. The WSJ article reports Amazon does use both AI and human reviewers to screen for offensive or illegal content. However, Atkins is dubious about their effectiveness, considering the gems he turned up in his search.
And the content may cost less than a Hollywood blockbuster conjured from Jack Warner’s former stomping grounds.
Cynthia Murrell, February 20, 2020
Amazon Revealed by the BBC: Analysis and News about the Bezos Bulldozer
February 18, 2020
The BBC is a subsidized news outfit. As a person who lives in America, I don’t understand the approach taken to either obtaining money or to programming. I do miss the Lilliburlero tune. Also, wouldn’t it be helpful to be able to locate BBC audio programs? Well, maybe not.
DarkCyber noted “Why Amazon Knows So Much about You.” The write up is notable for several reasons. First, it uses one of those Web layouts that are popular: Sliding windows, white text on black backgrounds, and graphics like this one of Mr. Bezos, zeros and ones, and a headline designed to make the reader uncomfortable:
Second, the article is labeled as news, but it is more of a chatty essay about Amazon, its Great Leader, and the data the company gathers via the front scoop of the Bezos bulldozer. But news? Maybe one of those chatty podcasts which purport to reveal the secrets of some companies’ success.
Third, the write up seems long. There are plenty of snappy graphics, dialog which reads a bit like the script for the video program Silicon Valley, and embedded video; for example, Margreth Vestager:
Note that this image is in close proximity to this image of Mr. Bezos and his friend. Happenstance? Sure.
The write up goes deep into Amazon history with details about a snowy, cold, and dark night. The stage setting is worthy of Edward Bulwer Lytton, the fellow who allegedly coined the phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Is the BBC’s pen mightier than an Amazon sword, available in the US for $23.70 with free shipping for Prime members:
With that in mind, what is “Why Amazon Knows So Much about You?”
The most straightforward way to respond to this question is to look at what the write up covers. Here’s the general layout of the almost 5,000 word “semi news” story:
Introduction with the author’s personal take on Amazon
The early days (the meeting in the mountains) of “planning to suck data”
Amazon’s approach to business: Slippery, clever, and maybe some Google-style deflection
The Ring moment when the Shark Tank people proved they were not qualified to work for Mr. Bezos
Amazon is just like those other American monopolies and the sky is falling because staff are complaining about many things
Amazon’s big ideas for making even more money.
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