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'I Tried to Block Amazon From My Life. It Was Impossible.' (gizmodo.com)
Kashmir Hill, a reporter at Gizmodo, spent weeks trying to avoid and block Amazon -- and every service that is owned by Amazon or uses Amazon's web services (AWS). She went to great lengths such as getting her own custom-built VPN. Turns out, it is impossible to keep Amazon off your life. An excerpt from the report: Launched in 2006, AWS has taken over vast swaths of the internet. My VPN winds up blocking over 23 million IP addresses controlled by Amazon, resulting in various unexpected casualties, from Motherboard and Fortune to the U.S. Government Accountability Office's website. (Government agencies love AWS, which is likely why Amazon, soon to be a corporate Cerberus with three "headquarters," chose Arlington, Virginia, in the D.C. suburbs, as one of them.) Many of the smartphone apps I rely on also stop working during the block.
Weird. Who would think that blocking AWS would block the customers of AWS. What an interesting experiment.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
That's like complaining you hate your government and then complain you can't drive anywhere because you can't use the roads they built.
Now if you really want to complain, try living without Google, Microsoft, Apple, Linux and Amazon. Those companies are, like it or not, part of our modern life.
Interesting article. Any US company that is so omnipresent in the lives of its customers and has an active corporate policy to crush or, at least, impede competition does indeed warrant a good look by the US Treasury Department. And I'm not a big government, anti-capitalist kind of guy by any stretch of the imagination.
All you have to do is turn your computer(s) off and leave them off. And yes, your cellphone is a computer....
Now, if you want to have the conveniences of modern life along with no Amazon, that's another story. Note that she'd have the same sort of difficulties if she tried to get completely away from the electric company....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
If she really wanted to be cut off from Amazon, or any company for that matter, its pretty simple. Buy a log cabin in the woods with no power, no internet, cell connectivity, at least 30 miles away from any neighbor. Then Amazon will completely disappear from your life. Of course this presents other problems.
Seriously why are you trying so hard to block one company or anything they touch? Afraid you'll get cooties? You want all the modern amenities there are things you'll just have to accept. I'm not saying to swallow the Kool-Aid and just go with it, just realize that at some point you are doing business with a company you may not agree with. You can minimize your contact, but you can't really prevent it. Well, I guess there is that log cabin option, but I'm betting thats not an option for you either.
" largest cloud provider" then goes to show how cloud services didn't work without it?
WTF
its like complaining you can't shit after you sew your ass shut.
Sorry about the vulgar language but the author clearly wants to converse in this manner.
Or even just, cancel both subscriptions.
Subscribing to a store is idiotic to start with, but choosing it and then whining is much worse.
And I use scriptblock and also uMatrix; by default a website gets no JS. And if I turn it on for the domain I visited, uMatrix prevents any third-party scripts from running unless I whitelist them.
And I don't spontaneously combust, or anything like that. Life doesn't stop. I'm still able to acquire whatever information I need.
The story is exactly the same as, "alcoholic tries for weeks to stay away from alcohol and reports it as being `impwwwwOsible!'" No, that's not what that word means.
She only even spent $3k, she's paying a 5% premium on her purchases for a membership to the store! If it saved people money, it would make a lot more sense.
I Tried to Block Amazon From My Life. It Was Impossible.
Ted Kaczynski wouldn't have had an issue with it. Of course if you like things like running water and electricity. As well as not mailing hand made bombs to people, that life might not be for you.
"What I woulkd primarily ask, is, well, why?"
Refusing to do business directly or indirectly (where possible) with a company you dislike for any reason is a perfectly reasonable and rational thing to do. What difference does the reason she wants to block patronizing amazon really make?
I don't eat at certain restaurants, or purchase goods from certain companies (e.g. sony) myself out of that principle. I likewise block facebook in my browsers, and refuse to use their various apps and services. I avoid indirectly patronizing them as well but realistically... its pretty limited what you can do on that front. But I wouldn't walk out of a friends wedding because the photographer they hired uses sony cameras... because that's basically nuts.
And likewise she's being a bit of a nutter trying to go so far as to block amazon as a 3rd party host to services and companies. That's like getting into a tiff with Verizon and refusing to deal with any business that uses Verizon mobile or has verizon internet services... or refusing to walk into a government office lit with philips lightbulbs. Its absurd.
Except the article's point is both stupid and naive. It's approximately the same as shutting off your city water supply because you're pissed at where they installed bike lanes. That'll show that pesky government!!
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A tech journalist can't avoid the big tech companies due to their career depending on using the technology those companies produce.
Who would have thought?
https://www.linuxfoundation.or...
Article summary;
1. I block Amazon and Amazon AWS cloud sites
2. I discover how lazy I am - Think about the drudgery of going to a physical store to buy paper towels
3. I discover how much free data I feed Amazon - $3k+ spent yearly on Amazon.com
4. I discover how much I'm addicted to voice activated assistants - echo
5. I discover I buy most video streaming entertainment from Amazon
6. I have Amazon apps on my phone
7. I need a fitness tracker app or smart watch to jog in the park
Simply cut the cord, one by one, to reduce your Amazon footprint. Not hard to do. Go to a physical store, it will reduce what you buy since there is physical work involved in transporting it to your home.
For sanity checking:
a. Count the number of interactions via text message, email, app popup, notifications, beeps, etc per day - say X per day
b. Consider if you got that X interactions all in one avenue - say email each day
c. Ask yourself, would a sane person read and respond to X emails per day? Or read 50 newspapers per day? Or make/receive hundreds of phone calls each day?
Just because it's easier to respond to a digital interaction does not mean you need to have that interaction.
A few summers ago I was able to block Google, Amazon, and Netflix for life for just about two week. I left the phone on the counter, no service where I was going. Put the tent, the sleeping back, and supplies in the back of the car. Pointed North and drove off for some hiking and camping.
Technology doesn't have to enslaved you if you don't want it too. It's just another tool.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
It shouldn't be mandatory to use it to access any govt service. Period.
Give this a little more thought. Must a government website run on government-owned servers, with traffic routed on government-owned lines? Of course not - governments can and do rent space or time in private data centers. Amazon is one of many private data centers.
My library uses Overdrive to lend ebooks.
And they probably loan CDs and DVDs and a number of other proprietary formats which require some specific company's technology to use.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
perhaps intentionally.
There's been a massive consolidation and monopolization push going on for at least 30 years. Companies that were broken up in the 50s and 60s have bought their way back to monopoly status.
There's several problems with this:
1. Massive increases in efficiency and outsourcing mean less jobs.
2. Constant price hikes because of a lack of real competition.
3. Enormous concentration of political power the likes of which we haven't seen since the robber barons.
I could go on and on. This is just one example where boycotting doesn't work anymore. It's why folks on the left say capitalism is broken. You literally _can't_ vote with your dollars.
The closest you could get is to try hiding out in a Nevada desert. Of course as soon as you try to use what little water they have there a mega corp'll want to sue you so they can bottle it and sell it back to you.
The time is now to regulate and take control of this situation.
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Not so much Amazon as Google. I really don't think I rely on Amazon that much. I buy the occasional book from them, and up until a few days I had Amazon prime. I just cancelled it because I really didn't use it that much.
I doubt I'll do 5 or 10 years but I'm looking at a few months, probably this summer or next. I've been meaning to hike the Application Trail, or at least a good part of it. I also doubt I will be completely technological free during this outing. I might carry a flip phone and a AM radio.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
I remember people used to write that stuff about Walmart.
https://www.linuxfoundation.or...
Linux is NOT a company.
Saying Linux is a company because companies exist that support Linux makes no sense whatsoever.
It's like saying 'Trees' are a company because tree farms exist.
Did Linux exist prior to Linux foundation? YES.
Does Linux's continued existence depend on Linux foundation? NO.
Would Linux exist if the Linux foundation didn't? YES.
Give this a little more thought. Must a government website run on government-owned servers, with traffic routed on government-owned lines? Of course not - governments can and do rent space or time in private data centers. Amazon is one of many private data centers.
Yes, but it is something that deserves critical examination.
The government in my home country keeps a non-profitable coal-mining industry alive through subsidies for strategic reasons - if there ever is a global crisis or war, coal is the only energy source the country has in sufficient quantities.
Haven't we reached the point where government IT is a strategic element and should be independent from foreign corporations? Sure the US is an ally, but in a global crisis, they'll be their own best friends first.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org