'I Tried to Block Amazon From My Life. It Was Impossible.' (gizmodo.com) 205
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.
Block AWS and... (Score:5, Insightful)
Weird. Who would think that blocking AWS would block the customers of AWS. What an interesting experiment.
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Your tongue is burrowing a hole in your cheek, sir.
Re:Block AWS and... (Score:4, Funny)
Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who was washing Waldo Woo.
FTFY, dumbass.
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But was starts with a "w".
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You just called Dr. Seuss a dumbass, Red.
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But was starts with a "w".
That doesn't make it a correct literary reference.
Dr Seuss's ABC book [wordpress.com].
The present tense is correct. It is "is".
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W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I just want to know, besides washing, what 3 guys are doing, presumably in the bathtub, together... ;-)
Ask the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. Always wondered about those guys.
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W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I just want to know, besides washing, what 3 guys are doing, presumably in the bathtub, together... ;-)
Ask the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. Always wondered about those guys.
They were all suspects in the investigation after the disappearance of the cow that jumped over the moon....
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I've already been corrected by Professor Smartass, dumbass.
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Yeah but it's nice calling some disrespectful smartarse a dumbarse, so we'll just savour this a bit ... dumbarse.
Milo Minderbinder and Catch-22 (Score:1)
Some day in the future competing governments will rent AWS time to launch cyber attacks and DNS attacks. Eventually when all government servies are on AWS, one country wil purchase AWS time to DDOS the AWS servces of the other country.
Milo minderbinder's legacy will continue in the digital age.
You're missing the point (Score:3)
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 a
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Well congratulations, you managed to write something interesting - unlike TFA. Perhaps the article is a performance art piece, meant to draw attention to the "issue" - but the whole exercise is predictable and frankly insulting. You made a concise point in a few sentences - the article is a 5-part series of wordy ridiculousness.
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Re:The point is NOT to provide Amazon tracking dat (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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.
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Ah, yes, I see your point.
I think some of your worry about Amazon (or Google or...) should be allayed by the fact that they operate in Europe under a separate entity, subject to European jurisdiction. Yeah, their headquarters is in the US - but their ownership and corporate structure are global. Amazon AWS runs datacenters in Germany, UK, Ireland, France, and Sweden... surely in a crisis the EU governments would not let Amazon pull any stunts that are against the EU interest?
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surely in a crisis the EU governments would not let Amazon pull any stunts that are against the EU interest?
But their leverage is much smaller, and it might require force, and you might find that important know-how (i.e. expert tech guys) are outside your jurisdiction.
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I could be talking out my ass, but I'm reasonably certain that the majority of technical staff at the Amazon datacenters are local hires and not Americans. If things got rocky, they would follow their government's orders. Why would they be loyal to the US? No doubt there is a lot of centralized command-and-control, but unless the system design is very poor there has to be a standalone mode if the centralization is lost. They are certainly selling it as a service that will remain intact even if other sites a
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the majority of technical staff at the Amazon datacenters are local hires and not Americans.
I'm sure of that. But when it gets to the guts of some system, there's always the situation that there's only a few people who really understand how it works.
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Because traveling on asphalt-paved road supports the genocidal, Cheney-backed, corrupt, oligarchical oil companies. There.
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Did you know that it takes fuel to grow vegetables!? Better stop eating entirely to boycott ExxonMobil.
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Both IP and limited liability are beasts that have grown way beyond their initial reasons for existence. Both represent massive government interference in the free market. I would love to see both reformed quite dramatically.
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What came first? The chicken, egg, omelet, or chick? Oh wait, I had the answer as soon as I typed this.
I run 'em all through my Bass-o-matic [youtu.be] and ya know what? I can't tell the diff. Tastes like .... no, not chicken. Exactly.
If you think that was hard... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:If you think that was hard... (Score:5, Interesting)
If you remove Linux you can not:
Run an Android phone
Use In-Flight Entertainment
Use the Internet AT ALL
No Netflix
No Prime
If you drive a Dodge/Chrysler you can't start your car
The list just goes on and on.
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WHO the hell wants to get rid of Linux??? Its my (and a LOT of other people's) saviour in the war against
Windows 10... I supported Windows (and Linux) for 20 years as a sysadmin, but when I retired in 2010, I
decided I was done with anything Microsoft. MS was bad enough in the olden days (pre-Windows 10) but
they've "jumped the shark" on insanity and creepyness... Sooooo glad I escaped its clutches...
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People who object to the Code of Conduct and systemd. Presumably they are all using BSD, or maybe FreeDOS now.
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If you remove Linux you can not:
If you drive a Dodge/Chrysler you can't start your car
So, it's not ALL bad.
Re:If you think that was hard... (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
I think that was the point he was trying to make -- Amazon has reached a level similar to government services.
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I think that was the point he was trying to make -- Amazon has reached a level similar to government services.
But why is that a bad thing? I would rather get my services from a corporation than from the government. A corporation has a clear motivation to provide high quality service in order to keep my business. The government has no such incentive.
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I'd rather get my services from my democratically elected government then a corporate monopoly/duopoly as the government has a clear motivation to provide high quality service to get my vote. The company with no competition has no incentive.
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The problem with both is that they have two competing customers.
Amazon has the buyers and the sellers. The users and the service providers.
The government has the electorate and the big donors.
Conflicting interests, and an incentive to abuse both.
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Don't have big donors here in Canada (some Provinces still might). Only real people (citizens I believe) allowed to donate with donations limited to about $1200 (tied to inflation) Federally and at least in my Province so that helps.
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My local DMV is worse than a kid with leprosy selling rotten lemonade from dead turtle shells.
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But why is that a bad thing?
I don't see where I said it was.
A corporation has a clear motivation to provide high quality service in order to keep my business.
Explain that to Comcast. Or AT&T. Or Ma Bell in 1960. I think the motivation you think exists doesn't always.
Re:If you think that was hard... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Fine, I'll boycott the Linux Foundation.
Which isn't very hard to do.
Today I learned (Score:1)
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.
that Linux is a company
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https://www.linuxfoundation.or... [linuxfoundation.org]
Re:Today I learned (Score:4, Insightful)
https://www.linuxfoundation.or... [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.
Re: If you think that was hard... (Score:3)
In the U.S, most roads are built by private contractors, using funds derived by private entities paying taxes.
The government does not build roads, it just acts as a middleman and drives up costs through regulation.
Re: If you think that was hard... (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah!
Like when the government drove up the price on all those interstate highways that private individuals built before the big Eisenhower program nationalized them.
Seriously, capitalism doesn't solve all problems. It's usually a significant part of the good solutions, but to pretend it's the only answer is disingenuous at best.
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They used to say "if you let private companies build the roads, they'll all be toll roads". I havn't seen a government build a non-toll highway or bridge in over a decade.
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I live in Wisconsin. There are no toll roads in Wisconsin. Milwaukee finished the Marquette interchange with no tolls installed. They are finishing the Zoo interchange and again no tolls. In Madison, the beltline highway work is moving west with no tolls installed. One part of the Verona road project finished with no tolls second part is finishing up with no tolls. These interchanges/arteries are the have the most traffic in each of their respective cities. In Illinois, most roads are toll free as we
Re: If you think that was hard... (Score:2)
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Around here, they like private public partnerships. Private company builds roads (actually usually bridges+roads), public guarantees financing and profits. So it is private companies building the toll roads.
The exceptions happen with the roads that the rich use, no tolls to the upscale ski hills.
Re: If you think that was hard... (Score:2)
Try blocking the government from your life and see how far you get.
The govt gets a lot more of my money than any corporation does.
Amazone and the vampire squid (Score:2, Informative)
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,
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Why no Linux? Even the most paranoid people out there use some form of Linux distro. I can't think of any general purpose OS that would be any better. QNX? You would pay for that, and it isn't cheap. Solaris? Meh. AIX, perhaps... Windows? Just ignore all the encrypted telemetry data zooming to Bog knows where.
The only OS that would even come close is a BSD, and the hardware support would be something to have to work out.
Re:If you think that was hard... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes who can forget the evil Linux megacorporation and their conniving CEO, Dr. Gnu Linux, charging their users so much that they can't afford to shave.
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It's the partner, Dr. Android Linux, hoovering up all our data.
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Now if you really want to complain, try living without Google, Microsoft, Apple, Linux and Amazon
One of these isn't a company.
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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.
No it's not. Roads are public.
Private entities shouldn't control infrastructure. Privilege of that sort is always abused for rent seeking and anti-competitive behavior. Has Amazon passed that point? Probably not, but there are also problems when only a few large actors control the entire market.
It's always strange to hear people spout off about free markets, and then in the same breath be against regulation. Free markets require rules to exist at all. Free markets are defined by rules, not a lack of the
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True, except for Apple, Apple you can quite easily do without with little or no effect on you at all.
So far.
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Linux could also be fairly easily replaced with one of the BSD's or such.
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ZeroHedge is also a known conduit for Kremlin-sponsored disinfo.
Antitrust concerns (Score:5, Interesting)
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I don't think the Dept of Justice or Treasury (or Congress or any particular authority) knows what to do with a company that, instead of taking over any one business market as a monopoly, takes only 50% ... of all of them. That could actually be much worse.
Re:Antitrust concerns (Score:4, Interesting)
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Oh, nonsense! (Score:4, Funny)
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....
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Well, that's kind of the point. Electric companies started out private, and eventually became highly regulated utilities. If Amazon is already this impossible to realistically avoid, that implies that we should move to regulating it as such.
More likely, this would mean splitting it up into its
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Just have to move to the next town/State/Province to get away from the electric company. Have to move to somewhere like China to get away from Amazon and it is not easy to move to China.
I don't think she tried hard enough. (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:I don't think she tried hard enough. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Just make sure that your brother doesn't know about the pipe-bomb supplies you are buying.
Strange experiment but WHY? (Score:1)
What I woulkd primarily ask, is, well, why? Why would they want to simply block AWS (or let's pick on Azure/Microsoft next? Maybe Google?) without a basic answer of why. Why is this person frustrated that they are paying for Prime twice, when there's no need (with a household setup). Why are they blocking AWS just to "stick it to the new imaginary bogey-man" when by her own admission, it screws up her own digital life. Is AWS Evil? Has she confused Bezos for the villain in Austin Powers?
Why?
If she's re
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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 tri
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"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 indirec
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She is free not to do business with Amazon.
If someone else, say the government, is renting cloud services in an Amazon datacenter, then using that government website is still 'not doing business with amazon'.
What she is doing is equivalent to boycotting any service or agency that gets their electricity from a given grid provider.
You should start small, with a service of no value (Score:2)
like blocking BookFace. Or Tumber, or Twitter.
what a mind numbingly stupid exercise (Score:4, Interesting)
" 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.
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does this mean we haven't actually reached the goal of the internet? and that's for the someone to still reach their destination even in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion?
e.g. in this author's experiment, "the internet" (whatever the hell that may be) should have continued to function in some sort of degraded fashion. In this case we could compare it to a 'nuke' taking out AWS. AWS would be hiroshima and would cease to exist. All the customers living in AWS perish as well. I believe the point is to
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Post Deadline (Score:2)
Sounds like author had a deadline and came up with a flimsy story, that or they have some fundamental misunderstanding about AWS and think that it builds some profile about you.
Ted Kaczynski (Score:2)
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.
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I'm pretty sure he has running water and electricity now (and no Amazon!). It's in the Constitution.
Blocking using a VPN ? (Score:1)
If you want to prove that you cannot browse without Amazon, try the NoScript plugin in Firefox. It's a blacklist-everything-by-default policy and a PITA at first. It needs some effort to tell it which sites you trust, or need.
But soon, y
Color me surprised (Score:5, Funny)
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?
It was easy. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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I listened to Wolfman Jack broadcasting from Tijuana, Mexico when in the California. "Fifty thousand watts of soul power!"
Now there is a name I've not heard in a long time. I used to listen to Wolfman Jack late nights. It was the only time his show would come through was when the local AM stations had to go to bed for the evening.
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The mighty six ninety....there's a name I haven't heard in a long time!
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And you came back home at some point (Score:2)
Going camping for two weeks isn't the same thing as actually living without modern infrastructure permanently. Go do that for 5-10 years and then we'll talk.
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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
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The point is not to go back to a hunter & gatherer lifestyle. Oh, I agree that even a few days without electricity, smartphone and Internet are intensely relaxing. But the point of the article was not "simple lifestyle", but "can you life a normal life without Amazon?"
And that it turns out you can't is quite a story. I didn't know Amazon has become an infrastructure like that.
Re:It was easy. (Score:4)
I don't think you understand the point. The most high tech thing I had on me was digital watch that told the time/date, and had a stop watch. The whole point of the exerciser was to be as free of technology as possible.
I would recommend it. Refresh the soul. I'm due for another outing. Time to make some plans.
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So you took a holiday, good for you.
Your experience sounds lovely and relaxing, and we should all strive to do this once in a while, but it's not practical as a sustained way of avoiding specific technology vendors when your solution is to avoid all technology.
Amazon must die (Score:2)
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I remember people used to write that stuff about Walmart.
If you read the bio on Stacy Mitchel, you'll see that she's said essentially the same thing about the Walton family's enterprises. I assume that they've gotten any better -- just other evil (more evil?) fish to fry.
Seriously? (Score:2)
News just in: World's richest businessman created popular business.
You do know how to work a button? (Score:2)
Try getting away from Intel (Score:2)
I on the other hand spent a year trying to get Intel out of my life. It seemed like website were using servers that ran on that processor, or there was a government bureaucrat using a computer with an Intel Inside logo. It was really made more difficult, because I was working for Intel at the time.
Snark aside, why exactly is she concerned that the proprietors of a website she is visiting chose to use the services of Amazon?
what's the point of this? (Score:2)
first i thought she just wanted to block the amazon retailer services, the website and their streaming stuff etc.
but then it also included AWS, for some reason. it's just a cloud provider, why does that even matter?
ok, it's a big cloud provider, but who cares, if they provide crappy service i'm sure a lot of people will find their cloud needs somewhere else, choice-a-plenty.
it's like saying you're going to block all traffic with IBM servers or all companies that use Oracle or another silly, no good reason.