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Hey, it's "works" for the audiophile industry! /s

Oh gods does it!

Amazon already sells a way to prevent radio tracking from devices hidden inside delivery boxes: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=myl... Thieves can bring the boxes back to a room that is also RF shielded, remove the RF tracking devices, deactivate them, & sell them on Amazon & Ebay.

I think a better solution is for Amazon & its customers to stop creating tempting opportunities for theft out in the world we all have to live in. I don't want Amazon to encourage thieves to patrol my neighbourhood looking for opportunities. It's just a really bad idea.

Have the packages delivered to a drop-off point where you can pick them up later.

They offer this already - Amazon Pick-up Location

Use a RFID blocking wallet or bag. https://www.amazon.com/Blockin...

Even with the GPS turned off Audible still sends the network router MAC address and SSID to kochava.com which is resolved to the user's location. Kochava admits to using their "IdentityLink" tracking in the Audible app. Kochava also promotes the fact their reports include geolocation.

It should also be noted that users of Audible are locked into using this app on Android because the content is provided in an obfuscated format. So not only does the advice of the privacy policy to turn off location services not work, using alternatives apps are also not a supported option under Audible's terms of use.

I have tried a couple times to get in touch with Audible/Amazon support. They refused to admit to the use of Kochava embedded in Audible or that any location tracking was continuing to take place. It was implied that the activity of Audible must be due to a different app installed. And while they claimed an Audible developer would get in touch with me, it has been several months with no follow-up.

Overall, I get the feeling that customer privacy really is not a priority for Amazon and being misleading about the lack of privacy they provide is just part of the business model.

Even with the GPS turned off Audible still sends the network router MAC address and SSID to kochava.com which is resolved to the user's location. Kochava admits to using their "IdentityLink" tracking in the Audible app. Kochava also promotes the fact their reports include geolocation.

It should also be noted that users of Audible are locked into using this app on Android because the content is provided in an obfuscated format. So not only does the advice of the privacy policy to turn off location services not work, using alternatives apps are also not a supported option under Audible's terms of use.

I have tried a couple times to get in touch with Audible/Amazon support. They refused to admit to the use of Kochava embedded in Audible or that any location tracking was continuing to take place. It was implied that the activity of Audible must be due to a different app installed. And while they claimed an Audible developer would get in touch with me, it has been several months with no follow-up.

Overall, I get the feeling that customer privacy really is not a priority for Amazon and being misleading about the lack of privacy they provide is just part of the business model.

This is my thought as well. Interestingly, I developed this while writing a book (Calculus from the Ground Up) to use for my homeschool co-op calculus classes. I was trying to find a good way to explain the notation, and I literally had 20 calculus books that I read through trying to find a good explanation for the standard notation in any of them. None of them even attempted an explanation, just "this is the way it is, but don't treat it as a fraction." So, I tried to deduce the notation myself. That's when I realized that it was not just limited, it was actually wrong. So I wrote the paper and finished the book (it's Appendix B in the book).

UnknowingFool reminisced:

I Remember IANA

Me, too.

Jon's sly, gentle humor perfectly counterbalanced his unfailing integrity and courtesy. He was a superb custodian for the DNS and IP allocation databases, back when IANA was strictly a one-man-band. He also was wise enough to see the need for authority over the DNS registry to be taken out of the hands of Network Solutions, Inc.

Unfortunately, it wound up under the control of ICANN, instead - which was an improvement only in the sense that being beaten with a sock full of nickels is an improvement over being beaten with a sock full of dimes ...

(Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

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There are Chinese knock-offs on Amazon for less than $20. I used this on our last VRBO. Seems to pick up cameras on phones, etc., OK.

I'm a fan of the BBC, but this is hardly "news" when there's whole book on it circa 2015... https://www.amazon.com/Song-Ma...

Sure - I've known for a long time that most pop music is written by a few folks in Sweden, and is just a collection of hooks without actual meaning, and lots of autotune and fake emoting.

But let's not make the mistake of expecting that a news story not be made because we've personally already heard it before. Some folks haven't.

I'm a fan of the BBC, but this is hardly "news" when there's whole book on it circa 2015... https://www.amazon.com/Song-Ma...

I have an old HP stream box that runs windows 10 in tablet mode. It makes a great set-top box. I'm thinking of getting one of these. for my other tv's, since the stream box is no more. This is not much more then a Roku and does way more.

I don't store anything locally, I run an openSuse box that acts as a NAS for the home and gives me torrenting or anything else I want.

Somehow 5 years later he is an "industry leader in machine learning"?

Perhaps it had something to do with publishing original research that revolutionized machine learning.

Remember hearing about Alphazero defeating the world's Go champion? That was based on a GAN, which Ian invented.

He also wrote the definitive book on deep learning which anyone in the field should read. Twice.

I have an hp stream box with Win10. I run it in tablet mode and it streams anything, runs Kodi and doesn't make any noise. I got it off craigslist afew years ago and it's discontinued.

Today, I'd go with something like this. It's so much nicer to have a full pc that I can do what I want with.

No it wasn't. Read about that in this book. "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds " Charles MacKay.

You don't need a book to know that. Just look around.

Crusades

A justified reaction against Islamic aggression.

No it wasn't. Read about that in this book. "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds " Charles MacKay.

I'm the first one to bash Islam for being a backwards stiffing misogynist religion, but the Crusades were not their fault. It was profiteering evil Christian clergy.

Religion is a cancer in this World and the sooner we ditch it the better for the human race.

Quote from the story: "The report adds that the price cuts are expected to last at least through the end of the year."

I'm guessing that means that the prices will be sneakily raised later.

I've seen a lot of insufficient management on Amazon. There are many misleading items on Amazon. For example, this King Size 100% Cotton Sheet Set was advertised as costing $7.45. On Amazon it says "+ $11.55 shipping". The true cost with shipping is $19. The top reviews say that the sheets are not cotton.

Amazon bought "Whole" Foods and extended its business when Amazon managers are not managing the core business well.

For anyone interested in a deep dive into this topic, I highly recommend ScienceMart

Isn't this part of the plot of the "Girl with the dragon tattoo" books? Only it's a man, not a woman with the immunity from pain.

More likely, The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo. I hear Lizbreath Salamander is one tough dragon.

[ Louise Belcher (Bob's Burgers) had some fun with this for Halloween. ]

BEHOLD
https://www.amazon.com/Mpow-Bl...

I just have 3 of these I cycle through the work day. Full charge is about 4 hours, tap the button to turn on/off/pause/play
If you accidentally switch to Chinese language mode, may God have mercy on your soul.

Why anyone would buy airpods over this is a mystery to me.

green1 opined:

That's not how it works.

You hire lawyers and politicians to make it legally impossible for people to go with a competing product, then you launch your own inferior product and wait for the money to roll in.

THAT's how it works.>/p>

Competing on actual merit is so last century.

I apologize, green1. I intended to mod your post +1 Funny, but my stupid Bluetooth mouse misfired, and it wound up being modded down as -1 Flamebait, instead.

If I had not already spent 8 points (mostly) upmodding other posts in this discussion, I'd've just posted under my own ID to undo my blunder in your case - but I'm unwilling to penalize the 8 other posters to correct the error I made in yours.

My bad ...

(Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

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Look at the picture of the found "microplastics" - do those look like plastic plates, forks, knives or bottles? Even pieces of such?

I wouldn't know because I don't often wait for plastics to crumble from age and then inspect the fragments under a microscope. Do you?

[Plastic eating utensils] have structural integrity (compared to their paper alternatives)

Why not use wooden utensils? 8 cents each won't bankrupt anybody.

and generate LESS pollution than cutting down trees and/or cleaning glass bottles, washing dishes.

Do you often find that telling the truth weakens your argument?

Wireless is available now if you're willing to accept the need to fiddle with settings and drivers to get it to work. I have a TPCast, and when it works, it works really well. However, I often run into the need to reboot the headset or tpcast, or tpcast-router, sometimes multiple times to get the initial connection up, which is ... annoying.

Official Vive Wireless:
https://www.amazon.com/Vive-Wireless-Adapter-PC/dp/B07GKHNBCT/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=vive+wireless&link_code=qs&qid=1553644737&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Unofficial TPCast Wireless:
https://www.amazon.com/TPCast-Wireless-Adapter-HTC-VIVE-PC/dp/B074D471C4/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=vive+wireless&link_code=qs&qid=1553644737&s=gateway&sr=8-10

Wireless is available now if you're willing to accept the need to fiddle with settings and drivers to get it to work. I have a TPCast, and when it works, it works really well. However, I often run into the need to reboot the headset or tpcast, or tpcast-router, sometimes multiple times to get the initial connection up, which is ... annoying.

Official Vive Wireless:
https://www.amazon.com/Vive-Wireless-Adapter-PC/dp/B07GKHNBCT/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=vive+wireless&link_code=qs&qid=1553644737&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Unofficial TPCast Wireless:
https://www.amazon.com/TPCast-Wireless-Adapter-HTC-VIVE-PC/dp/B074D471C4/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=vive+wireless&link_code=qs&qid=1553644737&s=gateway&sr=8-10

Interesting stuff.

I have the opposite problem: gastrically-mediated, chronic, severe sleep deprivation. It's a rare night that I get more than 3 hours of deep sleep, and I spend most of my horizontal hours in some variation of twilight sleep - which, as you noted in your own case, isn't particularly restful.

About 5 years ago, my sleep specialist agreed to write me a prescription for 300 mg. of modafinil per day (because I was waking up behind the wheel a half-dozen times or more every time I made the 60-mile drive to see him). That took care of the little problem of risking my life every time I had to drive further than 10 miles or so, but it didn't do a damned thing about me being chronically exhausted.

Oh, I was awake, all right. But modafinil does not make me feel rested, and after two or three consecutive days of 2 hours or fewer of deep sleep, I have to deal with being punchy, having little energy, and experiencing mild visual and auditory hallucinations.

A couple of years ago, my then-insurance company forced me to switch to 250 mg of armodafinil (which is the pure levo-rotary enantiomer of the molecule, unlike modafinil, which is a racemic mixture). That's actually better for me, both because it's twice as powerful, and because it doesn't cause me additional intestinal havoc, as modafinil did. Both of them, however, do cause occasional, severe chills when I'm in bed. (Those typically pass within 10-15 minutes, but they're quite unpleasant in the meantime.)

I have never noticed any adverse impact from either medication on my math skills. Then again, I don't do a lot of math these days ...

(Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

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USAA

Are services provided by USAA worth joining the military?

Costco membership required

Annual fee: $60 (source)

Prime membership required

Annual fee: $119 (source) or $59 for students at a U.S. university whose email domain is within the .edu TLD (source)

Yeah, just for comparison the Amazon Prime credit card gives you 1-2% back for ordinary purchases, and a whopping 5% back for Amazon.com purchases. And... well, don't know what the ordinary Apple user does, but I buy a lot more stuff at Amazon.com because it sells more kinds of stuff.

My Citicard seems to vary the rewards on a regular basis but usually has a tier of 5-10% cashback offers.

The cashback doesn't seem impressive. No late fees might be. I assume they lock the card or provide some other incentive to make a payment if that happens.

What's the price difference between a 240Gb SSD and whatever it is Apple's shoving in this thing? For reference, the street price of a 240Gb SSD is about $30. Is 240Gb too small for an entry level computer? Well, street price for half a terabyte is $70.

Looking at prices, I think we've reached the point where "enough storage" is available in both SSD and spinning disk form for the same minimum amount of money. The price per GB is higher with SSD, but the floor is much, much, lower, which means the cross-over point where SSD and magnetic is now at a level where you're talking usable amounts of storage. For that reason, there's no reason to exclude SSD from an entry level system unless you're trying to punish the customer for buying cheap hardware.

At this stage magnetic discs are what cheapskates like me use to build a 1Tb i5 system for $400, not what a premium computer company should be using in its $1,000 personal computers. The only other legitimate use of them is for building external storage systems you'd make back-ups to, be they USB or NASes.

What's the price difference between a 240Gb SSD and whatever it is Apple's shoving in this thing? For reference, the street price of a 240Gb SSD is about $30. Is 240Gb too small for an entry level computer? Well, street price for half a terabyte is $70.

Looking at prices, I think we've reached the point where "enough storage" is available in both SSD and spinning disk form for the same minimum amount of money. The price per GB is higher with SSD, but the floor is much, much, lower, which means the cross-over point where SSD and magnetic is now at a level where you're talking usable amounts of storage. For that reason, there's no reason to exclude SSD from an entry level system unless you're trying to punish the customer for buying cheap hardware.

At this stage magnetic discs are what cheapskates like me use to build a 1Tb i5 system for $400, not what a premium computer company should be using in its $1,000 personal computers. The only other legitimate use of them is for building external storage systems you'd make back-ups to, be they USB or NASes.

Someone who buys an AmazonBasics Mice, Keyboard, Cables... Are not interested in getting the High End Fast Responce Mouse, The mechanical keyboard with clicky blue switches (or less clicky brown). Cables that are not coated in Gold because they think you will get a better result from it, or at least need to less worry about it corroding.

However, for those of us that are in the market for gold plated high end fast response mice, Amazon Essentials has some awesome khaki pants.

They've got you covered either way.

Antique Geekmeister reminisced:

I can attest that it's been 45 years. I can remember the original Blackmoor and Grayhawk books being used by a gamemaster at a local game store. Part of the original fun of the game was the gamemasters, trying to juggle the maps and adventures to create a narrative and the players taking that narrative to places the gamemaster had never envisioned.

Blackmore? Greyhawk?

Hell, I still have my original, white-box set of the three brown pamphlets!

Come to that, I still have my velo-bound copy of the Chainmail rules ...

(Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

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Dunbal diagnosed:

AC is the kind of DM who cherishes the thought of a TPK within the first 10 minutes.

Any TPK is a Total Fail - on the part of the DM ...

(Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

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I think you need to do more research into what makes startups successful. I recommend reading Founders at Work, but you can look wherever you want. Your ignorance of actual data is showing.

Summary of fees to sell physical goods on Amazon:

- $480 per year for a seller to be on its platform
- 15 percent of each order's total, including shipping but excluding sales tax, or $1.00 per order, whichever is higher
- 3 percent of sales tax

Apple charges each seller only $99 per year, and it has no $1 minimum fee per order. I imagine the $1 minimum fee has something to do with credit card and ACH debit processors taking a 30 cent fee per transaction.

Paid apps and in-app purchases on Amazon Appstore have a similar fee structure to Apple (source), though without the $99 per year fee:

- 20 percent for movie and TV subscription IAPs within Android apps
- 30 percent for paid apps and all other IAPs, including paid Alexa skills

Lots of pressure will come to bear in this case from IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, who are all suffering from a very specific database problem competing with AWS. Each of these companies sells their own database (DB2, SQL Server, and Oracle, respectively) that they've rolled into their cloud services. AWS's RDB, in contrast, is based on MySQL and costs Amazon almost nothing to support, giving the biggest cloud player a clear pricing advantage.

This is not true.

There are a wide range of database engines to choose in AWS. RDS explicitly lets you choose from Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB or - Oracle or even SQL Server. And guess what else? Microsoft themselves offer a managed MariaDB instance on Azure! This guys post is straight-up bullshit and looks like he did zero fact-checking.

But the poster's comment was about "mortgage backed derivatives" (and other financial fictions) and how they are not the same as trading money for labour.

I recommend reading this. The author doesn't have all the answers, but does a great job laying out the problems.

e3m4n noted:

McCain was born in Panama BTW.

John McCain was born in the military hospital on the U.S. Navy's Coco Soco base. By custom and treaty, U.S. military bases are legally considered U.S. soil. Any children born on U.S. soil are, by long-established legal precedent, automatically citizens of the USA, regardless of their parentage - so the fact that McCain's parents were both U.S. citizens wouldn't have any bearing on his eligibility to be president.

The same principle applies to children born inside U.S. embassies or consulates, since those are also legally U.S. soil.

Note that IANAL. If you need legal advice regarding questions of citizenship, you should consult someone who is ...

(Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

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Maybe a friend will give Mr. Draper a copy of this book

If fraud is ever detected at any Draper backed company from now on, investigators will reference his interview with Sarah McBride. A lot of financiers read Bloomberg. A cold chill just blew through Wall Street.

and there's always a problem, cats or not cats. A Raccoon is a surprisingly hardy animal and would make short work of a feral house cat.

Mice and Rats are generally easier to control than cats. For one thing they're not a cute so folks don't mind killing them. For another they'll mostly steer clear of human dwellings in cities. And finally you can put up some of these and they'll go away.

The folks who run these catch and release programs know what they're doing. We're not talking about indigenous species. These are feral house cats. In fact, getting rid of them has a benefit to the environment. They kill a _lot_ of birds which can lead to mosquito problems.

"... looking at the complete picture."

The complete picture: It seems to me that there are many areas in which Amazon is badly managed.

I've seen many misleading items on Amazon. For example, this King Size 100% Cotton Sheet Set was advertised as costing $7.45. On Amazon it says "+ $11.55 shipping". The true cost with shipping is $19.

The top reviews say that the sheets are NOT cotton.

This isn't sold by Amazon. It is sold by a third party on Amazon. It's pretty easy to spot the difference.
This kind of makes your entire post pointless and irrelevant.

"... looking at the complete picture."

The complete picture: It seems to me that there are many areas in which Amazon is badly managed.

I've seen many misleading items on Amazon. For example, this King Size 100% Cotton Sheet Set was advertised as costing $7.45. On Amazon it says "+ $11.55 shipping". The true cost with shipping is $19.

The top reviews say that the sheets are NOT cotton.

https://www.amazon.com/Plugabl...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d...

$17-18?

Not a fan of the USB-C only BS, but this one isn't too bad.

https://www.amazon.com/Plugabl...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d...

$17-18?

Not a fan of the USB-C only BS, but this one isn't too bad.

JaneTheIgnorantSlut confided:

Many employers offer to deduct charitable contributions from your pay automatically, but they generally offer only a select list of charities they will handle.

This is absolutely the case in the USA. (I can't speak knowlegeably about whether it's also true for companies operating in other countries.)

FWIW - it's also true that not-for-profit aggregators, such as The United Way, which distribute net donations (i.e. - what's left after they deduct their own expenses) only pass money through to a select set of other non-profits (for instance, TUN does not, as a matter of policy, contribute to Planned Parenthood, because conservative Catholics and evangelical Protestants would refuse to donate to their pledge drives if they did). And I can tell you from experience, enormous pressure is exerted upon employees of Fortune 500 corporations to contribute to TUN's fundraising campaigns in order to ensure "100% participation" by those employees, for purposes of corporate optics.

In other words, "To make the company look good to potential customers and investors."

When I worked for the IT department of a major U.S. bank during the early 1990's, I was made to feel like an outcast, because I refused, on principle, to contribute to their United Way drive, specifically because TUN discriminated against Planned Parenthood - and because I understood just how much of each donated dollar TUN's management raked off the top before passing what was left through to "non-controversial" end recipient organizations ...

(Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

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Some prominent antitrust experts think the violation is clear. I'd suggest reading Tim Wu's "The Curse of Bigness" for more background.

Only $10.39 on Amazon, which also happened to be the top Google result

Only $9 for the Kindle version.

The Washington Post even gave it a good review.

As someone who has walked around at night wearing usually jeans and a dark coat but without remotely a dark complexion, cars have nearly blinding light to the point that it's frequently painful to look at. If that's not enough to see a person in the dark, then I'm not sure what is.

I recommend one of these: https://www.amazon.com/kwmobil.... Maybe a set of these, too: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018.... And some reflectors to make sure those bright headlights are bounced back, too.

Seriously, light yourself up for safety if you're out on the road at night.

As someone who has walked around at night wearing usually jeans and a dark coat but without remotely a dark complexion, cars have nearly blinding light to the point that it's frequently painful to look at. If that's not enough to see a person in the dark, then I'm not sure what is.

I recommend one of these: https://www.amazon.com/kwmobil.... Maybe a set of these, too: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018.... And some reflectors to make sure those bright headlights are bounced back, too.

Seriously, light yourself up for safety if you're out on the road at night.

An Anonymous Coward cautioned:

Even if the software was 100% clean and trustworthy, just clicking on that link would probably put you on some kind of list.

A list of people who use VPNs ... ?

(Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

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Will this work? Like I said though, if the Jibo costs more than $50, it's not worth my time to tinker.

3D printers have certainly revolutionized prototyping or one-off development. So don't knock it until you've tried it. Compared to other manufacturing techniques, filament deposition manufacturing is still very slow and crude (and likely will always be on the crude side). But it has its place.

You can go on Amazon right now and buy the Ender 3 3D printer for under $250 that works amazingly well right out of the box (after some minor assembly). All I've done is calibrate the bed and use the default settings in Cura and I've had fantastic results. So far I've mainly used it to make little brackets, fittings, and enclosures for electronics boards. This little 3D printer has been the most interesting thing I've bought in years and to show me what 3D printing can and can't do.

And there are other 3D printing technologies besides FDM that show amazing promise, like stereo lithography that can make things like complex helical micro fluid channels inside a a solid that no other form of manufacturing can do.