I do love Amazon (Canada) and order at least a few things every week. They've been the most reliable online vendor for me.
But, I will say.. in the past couple years they have been pulling some sketchy things, at least up here - shipping "prime" items with their own in-house shipper (that's usually late, with no real tracking), shipping straight from China with no real return option (the return label is a postcard, postage required, back to China, making return of items under $50 not economically feasible). Been getting quite a number of knockoffs when I ordered the real thing, lately, too.
Their review system is under attack from clickfarms, and people know it. To be honest, I feel like this might be their #1 existential threat; if people lose trust in Amazon reviews, there goes one of the major reasons for shopping there in the first place.
For the mostpart I'm still happy, but they do seem to be sacrificing some amount of quality in exchange for short-term profit, at least up here. That always leads to a decline in revenue (or revenue growth) in the long-term.
I will single-issue-vote for any representative that promises to table and/or support legislation adding a stiff tax on products based on an e-waste assessment.
Wear items, such as batteries, glued into the device? 50% recycling tax.
Non-standard fasteners (ie. Torx with an anti-tamper pin)? 75% recycling tax.
Cryptographic challenges preventing the use of replacement parts, kernels, roms, etc? 100% recycling tax.
If any legislators are reading this comment: I will vote for you if you push right-to-repair legislation, no matter what else you stand for.
They seem to have allocated their best people - coders, PMs, QA staff, designers - to their backend dev teams. Gmail, Google search, Youtube... the server side is incredibly resilient, reliable, and high performance.
Whoever was left over, they probably sent to the new products team.
Whoever the new products team wouldn't take, they probably sent to their legacy apps/maintenance team.
Whoever couldn't hack it there, they probably tried to dismiss.
Whoever they couldn't dismiss, they probably sent to their UI team, where they're remained since.
Haha. As a matter of fact, I live aboard a 46' ketch with about 5,000NM under her keel, singlehanded. I do avoid heavy weather to the best of my ability, but of course I've "seen some shit." Nothing worse than ~50 knots sustained.
In heavy weather, I'm never on the foredeck, and the cockpit is relatively well protected behind a dodger. I've never had a problem with my Note 3, which isn't waterproof. Knock fiberglass.:p
Either they obey the law (once right-to-repair legislation is passed), or they suffer the consequences and risk bankruptcy and shareholder lawsuits. Pretty simple stuff, really.
I'm not an Apple fan for many reasons, but if I might hijack the story for the moment, I would like to make a side note.
There aren't a whole lot of things a company can do to earn my unbridled loyalty. One of the things they can do is take responsibility for a problem, publicly, loudly, and apologetically. They can offer legitimate solutions to legitimate problems. When a company goes out of their way to say "we fucked up; we're sorry, and here is how we're going to fix it" they gain so many respect points (personally) that they're almost guaranteed I will make it worth their while in the end.
I sometimes wonder if I'm the outlier, or if people are just really bad at business.
n9005 here as well. Nothing to add, except that I've written my (Canadian) MPs requesting new legislation to heavily tax the manufacturing and import for sale of any devices into which wear items have been glued. One day.
Sorry... what I meant was.. simply rooting your device should not be any excuse to restrict the device from any operation that non-rooted devices are allowed to do.
Right now we have to hide root from SafetyNet using frustrating Magisk hacks, or a bunch of apps disappear from the Play store (ie. Netflix). That's not okay, imho.
Not only should root access/firmware flashing (or equivalent) be mandatory as terms of sale on all general/mobile computing devices, it should be a criminal offense to offer functionality to non-rooted devices that is not also available to rooted devices.
That is, it should be a crime to discriminate between devices passing SafetyNet, and devices which fail.
1. Wear items, such as batteries, must be easily user-removable and replaceable. Exceptions for certain types of medical and human interface devices, or where the device's primary function is as a battery (ie. power banks).
2. Superuser privileges on personal and mobile computing devices must be made available at time of purchase. If there is a means of escalating privilege (ie. sideloading, rooting, firmware flashing, oem unlock, etc.) and it's not limited by FCC compliance, it must be available, or the device cannot be legally sold or imported for resale.
I recently bought a MediaPad m5 only to learn that Huawei's official new policy is to lock the bootloaders on all of their devices, and they refuse to provide the bootloader unlock code to device owners.
If you give money to Huawei in exchange for a telephone, just be aware that you aren't actually buying anything, but rather borrowing their property for an unspecified period. The device obeys them at all times; they can remotely monitor you, install/uninstall whatever they want, fall behind on security patches, stop supporting the device entirely...
I'd recommend everyone do what I did: email their sales organization, and let them know that due to the anti-ownership provisions they've adopted, you'll be purchasing devices from their competitors. They're the ones most able/likely to correct the company's behavior.
Looking for two things: 1) bullshitting, and 2) fear
Totally. Another one is "bad" laziness, heh. Not the kind that causes one to automate shit, but the kind that causes one to take lazy shortcuts that make life more difficult for the next person.
We're pretty critical on our team, and if someone's not contributing sufficiently (or worse, is a burden), then they don't last long.
The one that didn't work out actually left on his own accord, as they just weren't able to keep up in the role, and knew it. They found a better fit elsewhere.
The rest are/were excellent and a couple were superstars.
Problem is.. I have a bit of a guilt complex. I don't like assigning work to others, particularly if it's just shit work.
The few times I've tried to lead a team, I just ended up doing most of project myself because I felt like it would take longer to explain and assign than to just do it myself.
Slashdot Mirror
Or the opposite. One star - "Ordered the wrong part.. had to return." Shit makes me mental.
I do love Amazon (Canada) and order at least a few things every week. They've been the most reliable online vendor for me.
But, I will say .. in the past couple years they have been pulling some sketchy things, at least up here - shipping "prime" items with their own in-house shipper (that's usually late, with no real tracking), shipping straight from China with no real return option (the return label is a postcard, postage required, back to China, making return of items under $50 not economically feasible). Been getting quite a number of knockoffs when I ordered the real thing, lately, too.
Their review system is under attack from clickfarms, and people know it. To be honest, I feel like this might be their #1 existential threat; if people lose trust in Amazon reviews, there goes one of the major reasons for shopping there in the first place.
For the mostpart I'm still happy, but they do seem to be sacrificing some amount of quality in exchange for short-term profit, at least up here. That always leads to a decline in revenue (or revenue growth) in the long-term.
I will single-issue-vote for any representative that promises to table and/or support legislation adding a stiff tax on products based on an e-waste assessment.
Wear items, such as batteries, glued into the device? 50% recycling tax.
Non-standard fasteners (ie. Torx with an anti-tamper pin)? 75% recycling tax.
Cryptographic challenges preventing the use of replacement parts, kernels, roms, etc? 100% recycling tax.
If any legislators are reading this comment: I will vote for you if you push right-to-repair legislation, no matter what else you stand for.
Google is an odd company.
They seem to have allocated their best people - coders, PMs, QA staff, designers - to their backend dev teams. Gmail, Google search, Youtube ... the server side is incredibly resilient, reliable, and high performance.
Whoever was left over, they probably sent to the new products team.
Whoever the new products team wouldn't take, they probably sent to their legacy apps/maintenance team.
Whoever couldn't hack it there, they probably tried to dismiss.
Whoever they couldn't dismiss, they probably sent to their UI team, where they're remained since.
Haha. As a matter of fact, I live aboard a 46' ketch with about 5,000NM under her keel, singlehanded. I do avoid heavy weather to the best of my ability, but of course I've "seen some shit." Nothing worse than ~50 knots sustained.
In heavy weather, I'm never on the foredeck, and the cockpit is relatively well protected behind a dodger. I've never had a problem with my Note 3, which isn't waterproof. Knock fiberglass. :p
Eh, waterproofing is overrated. :p
Bigger boats don't tend to ship much water.
It's been a tough week, and I needed this. An Oracle phone. A successful Oracle phone.
Thanks guys. ^_^
My question is: why does it matter?
Either they obey the law (once right-to-repair legislation is passed), or they suffer the consequences and risk bankruptcy and shareholder lawsuits. Pretty simple stuff, really.
I'm not an Apple fan for many reasons, but if I might hijack the story for the moment, I would like to make a side note.
There aren't a whole lot of things a company can do to earn my unbridled loyalty. One of the things they can do is take responsibility for a problem, publicly, loudly, and apologetically. They can offer legitimate solutions to legitimate problems. When a company goes out of their way to say "we fucked up; we're sorry, and here is how we're going to fix it" they gain so many respect points (personally) that they're almost guaranteed I will make it worth their while in the end.
I sometimes wonder if I'm the outlier, or if people are just really bad at business.
Excepet the sensor on the 125mm equiv lens is only 8MP.. so digital zoom will degrade pretty fast. :/
Another phone with wear items (ie. battery) glued inside! Another piece of electronics designed to fail after a couple years!
Right-to-repair legislation banning the manufacturing/import-for-resale of devices into which wear items have been glued can't come soon enough.
n9005 here as well. Nothing to add, except that I've written my (Canadian) MPs requesting new legislation to heavily tax the manufacturing and import for sale of any devices into which wear items have been glued. One day.
Sorry ... what I meant was .. simply rooting your device should not be any excuse to restrict the device from any operation that non-rooted devices are allowed to do.
Right now we have to hide root from SafetyNet using frustrating Magisk hacks, or a bunch of apps disappear from the Play store (ie. Netflix). That's not okay, imho.
But why? We pay for this fancy, expensive government. Why not use it to correct the behavior of these companies?
Not only should root access/firmware flashing (or equivalent) be mandatory as terms of sale on all general/mobile computing devices, it should be a criminal offense to offer functionality to non-rooted devices that is not also available to rooted devices.
That is, it should be a crime to discriminate between devices passing SafetyNet, and devices which fail.
My $0.02.
Two rules are critical:
1. Wear items, such as batteries, must be easily user-removable and replaceable. Exceptions for certain types of medical and human interface devices, or where the device's primary function is as a battery (ie. power banks).
2. Superuser privileges on personal and mobile computing devices must be made available at time of purchase. If there is a means of escalating privilege (ie. sideloading, rooting, firmware flashing, oem unlock, etc.) and it's not limited by FCC compliance, it must be available, or the device cannot be legally sold or imported for resale.
What's especially frustrating is that really, only two things are required to save the world:
Nuclear power, and electric transportation. Wind and solar where it makes sense. Grid storage where it makes sense.
Done, and done.
We get absolutely pilliaged by the users of our public resource - the wireless spectrum - and it's unclear why, as a nation, tolerate it. :(
I recently bought a MediaPad m5 only to learn that Huawei's official new policy is to lock the bootloaders on all of their devices, and they refuse to provide the bootloader unlock code to device owners.
If you give money to Huawei in exchange for a telephone, just be aware that you aren't actually buying anything, but rather borrowing their property for an unspecified period. The device obeys them at all times; they can remotely monitor you, install/uninstall whatever they want, fall behind on security patches, stop supporting the device entirely...
I'd recommend everyone do what I did: email their sales organization, and let them know that due to the anti-ownership provisions they've adopted, you'll be purchasing devices from their competitors. They're the ones most able/likely to correct the company's behavior.
Not much else to say.
Looking for two things: 1) bullshitting, and 2) fear
Totally. Another one is "bad" laziness, heh. Not the kind that causes one to automate shit, but the kind that causes one to take lazy shortcuts that make life more difficult for the next person.
No idea, tbh, haha.
We're pretty critical on our team, and if someone's not contributing sufficiently (or worse, is a burden), then they don't last long.
The one that didn't work out actually left on his own accord, as they just weren't able to keep up in the role, and knew it. They found a better fit elsewhere.
The rest are/were excellent and a couple were superstars.
Interviewing candidates is just something I have to do on my team from time to time. I'm an ops/dev engineer first and foremost. :)
Problem is .. I have a bit of a guilt complex. I don't like assigning work to others, particularly if it's just shit work.
The few times I've tried to lead a team, I just ended up doing most of project myself because I felt like it would take longer to explain and assign than to just do it myself.
This is what they pay us, as managers, to do.
Hah! I'm actually just a lowly ops engineer who kinda fell into the role of hiring. I don't have the.. fortitude.. to actually manage people. :p