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Amazon Web Services Quietly Forms a Mixed Reality Team, But What Is It Building? (geekwire.com)

Posted by msmash on from the going-forward dept.

Nat Levy, reporting for GeekWire: Amazon is building a new "two pizza team" within Amazon Web Services focused on mixed-reality technology, another sign that the cloud powerhouse is expanding its reach and branching out into new areas. AWS isn't talking publicly about the initiative, but a job posting for a software engineer sheds some light on the team's goals. The posting says the company is "building a set of services, and platform to bring AWS and Amazon into the world of Mixed Reality." The company wants engineers with experience in "Computer Vision, 3D objects, rendering and data storage by designing, developing and testing software solutions." The posting further states that "applications would include real-time 3D modeling, image and video stream processing all within a scalable distributed environment." The posting calls the group a "true start-up within AWS (a real two pizza team)." The two-pizza term goes back to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and his well-known rule that any team or meeting that can't be fed with two pizzas is too large.

41 comments

  1. A working Data Pipeline infrastructure by hyperar · · Score: 1

    I'm amazed on how unreliable it is...

    1. Re: A working Data Pipeline infrastructure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hopefully a new UI.

  2. Mixed reality by invid · · Score: 2

    I guess mixed reality is the new term for augmented reality.

    --
    The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
    1. Re:Mixed reality by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      Either that or they're going to start publishing a newspaper that contains news aimed at both Trump supporters and everyone else, making 50% of it fake news. Hence "mixed reality"

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    2. Re:Mixed reality by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Magic Leap created such a convincing tech demo video that every CEO got sold on it and now wants to build it. Apple's Tim Cook got caught up in it too.

      It kind of reminds me of 3D desktops environments: cool in principle, lame in practice. Maybe someone will figure out a way to make it non-lame.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:Mixed reality by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Either that or they're going to start publishing a newspaper that contains news aimed at both Trump supporters and everyone else, making 50% of it fake news. Hence "mixed reality"

      Their Catchphrase: "Nothing but the Alternate Facts"

    4. Re:Mixed reality by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I had some amusement with this:

      Link.

      Check out the video - it's kinda cool.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    5. Re: Mixed reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is Unix, I know this.

    6. Re: Mixed reality by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Did you watch the demo vid? It is frivolous eye candy and mostly pointless. It's kinda neat.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    7. Re: Mixed reality by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Yeah, all you really need is a terminal, and actually "echo" mode on is kind of a waste of bandwidth.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    8. Re: Mixed reality by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I am not that hardcore.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    9. Re: Mixed reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, Mixed Reality Team is the first, middle, and last name of the next individual who will leak information to the press.

  3. What!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Amazon is starting their own major news network!?

  4. This pizza has gone stale... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    A new Slashdot with an AI to select relevant news stories..

    1. Re:This pizza has gone stale... by ls671 · · Score: 1

      Watch you wish for. /. management could decide to extent it to comments...

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  5. "Two-pizza team"? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What is the specific reference? Just using Seattle-area joints, this could be all over the place...

    Mod Pizza: Max team size is apparently two people

    Pagliacci's: Six to eight people, depending on how hungry they are

    Northlake Tavern: Two pizzas can easily feed a dozen, maybe more

    So which is it, Bezos?

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What he means is any team that can't be bribed into working crazy overtime with 2 of the cheapest pizzas in town is too expensive. That's how these rich fucks think.

    2. Re: "Two-pizza team"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not being overly specific was quite effective. Apparently... Some MBA person somewhere could probably count more beans applying similar logic. And never will...

    3. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by kiviQr · · Score: 1

      Two-pizza team is a temp pulling an all nighter!

    4. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      What is the specific reference? Just using Seattle-area joints, this could be all over the place...

      When one encounters an unfamiliar phrase, one uses google. The top result for a google search for "two-pizza team" unsurprisingly explained quite adequately.

      I thought it was dumb not to explain it too, but it's also dumb not to just ask google

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      You're taking this way too seriously.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    6. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One creimer.

    7. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One creimer.

      At $50k a year that's about 1-2 pizzas an hour.

    8. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by dasgoober · · Score: 1

      Dunno what the hell he's talking about; just the hardware group alone will be more than 2 pizzas

    9. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, it helps to confirm their employee's low expectations and lack of future prospects. "Surprise, you have a perk with pizza day, you just need to stay a little bit later to get your TPS reports done"

    10. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They might discriminate based on appetite, and that should be legal as long as it isn't based on body size.

    11. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What was wrong with something like "n-person team"? Coining a new term that is a stretch for what it represents is stupid.

    12. Re:"Two-pizza team"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL! The interns are out partying (might as well live it up before it's all over and you gotta get a real job). It's the youngest developer pulling an all nighter.

  6. Amazon Goggles by randomErr · · Score: 1

    Coming soon: a high speed intranet that makes Google Glasses actually work... at an decent price. Alexis, map out the closest taco stand.

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
  7. Why, The Perfect Beast, of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Speaking of which, Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson's. Since the naughties.

  8. Mixed Reality? by mario6915 · · Score: 0

    Let's be honest... "Mixed Reality" is two things... 1 Identifying faces for social/stalker reasons 2 Identifying products to sell you shit

  9. The real threat is GCP by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    Rather than farting around with this, Amazon should be getting ready for a price war with Google by shedding expenses.

    1. Re:The real threat is GCP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AWS is already in a price war with Azure, which is a very clear number two in terms of cloud computing.

      GCP is finally catching up in terms of feature parity, and their new, scalable SQL database is fairly unique, but I have not seen anything else to tempt companies over to GCP except that they don't round billing up to the nearest hour, instead charging by the minute.

    2. Re: The real threat is GCP by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

      Your company might not be large enough to attract GCP Enterprise pricing then. In the Fortunes Google has dropped its pants on server virtualization (e.g. 30% lower than EC2) to buy market share.

  10. A job posting?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Job postings are works of fiction to troll the applicant pool, trick the competition, and tamper with the prices of the labor market. Job postings cannot be trusted under any circumstances.

    A job posting is your evidence??

    Fake! Fake! Fake!

  11. So then 3 people by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

    is too large of a meeting.

  12. AR as a service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A new set of AR service hosted in the cloud on-demand and with pay for what you use. Im assuming using existing AWS services such as Lumberjack + Polly + Rekognition + Lex.

  13. Fakeish News? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    What else is "Mixed Reality" supposed to mean? They add alternative facts to mostly factual stories.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    1. Re:Fakeish News? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      On second thought: they auto-write content for Amazon's fiction departments by ripping stories from the headlines and automatically changing names and places so they won't get sued.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  14. Greetings from Moskow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For a Russian ear "two pizza" sounds exactly as our word for blockhead or dullard.
    "Two pizza team", you say... That explains much!..

  15. Mixed Reality Estate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which could be more ripe market for disruption than, housing and living in cities?!

    Could you imagine yourself walking down the road, with your special augmented reality glasses switched on, reading the labels tagged across the various houses:
    * BUY: New built modern flat, -10% from baseline price for this postcode for cash buyers, available in 3 months. Use amazon prime or tel XXX
    * RENT: 1960s rustic house, at the end of the alley, available now; receiving offers at email YYY
    * AUCTION: 5-year old semi-detached house, going on dutch auction in 4 days. Mortgage via bank ZZZ available for high tax earners with amazon credit rating 5. ...
    Clap your hands to select the last option; clap twice to rewind to previous option (music plays in the background: It's the final countdown...)

    Real estate agents: TAKE THAT!