Evil Amazon

[JimC]

Me too. I Amazon the fuck out of everything. Plus I Netflix, and Facebook. I'm just, like, you know. so like, up with the kids.

Do Netflix and Amazon operate in central Africa?

Do hippos like a swim?

[Tero]

Bought Snowblind: A Thriller (The Dark Iceland Series Book 1) Kindle Edition
by Ragnar Jonasson (Author)
Kindle edition. "Nordic Noir." It must happen in winter, it being so dark. If I like it I can get the rest of the books on paper.

On a completely different type of complaint, I ordered a CD of Vivaldi concertos some time back, maybe 2015. I went to look at it again. I can't find the physical copy, and the only ones for sale are used, for 35 dollars. Cheaper in the UK. So I ordered it again from some place here for 12 dollars. Then I go look at the so called "Amazon Music" app. I was entitled to a free mp3 download, since I bought the disc in 2015. Now I've bought the disc twice, and I could have just burned a copy from the free download.

I only got into the download app part as there was some disc people were discussing on a long thread, and I wanted to play that disc right away to follow the discussion, not wait 5 days for the delivery.

[Brian Peacock]

I bought Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash on kindle this week. I've got it on the bookshelf but it was only £0.99 and it's about time I read it again. Also got The Diamond Age while I was at it. For me his work went a bit down hill after that - too much writing up his research and a bit light on imagination as a consequence. But I also got an old fashioned library book on the Scottish Enlightenment out this week too. That's me being both traditional and with-it at the same time.

[laklak]

Netflix is in swaziland but not sure about amazon streaming. i use a U.S. based VPN so I'll try when we get there. Amazon doesn't deliver there.

[Brian Peacock]

Sell one of the kids kidneys for satellite internet. It's the only way lak.

[laklak]

I'm gonna pimp out Mrs. Lak first. Kidneys are a one-time shot. Reuse and recycle, that's my motto.

[Woodbutcher]

How do you re-line an old hooker?
Shove in a ham and pull out the bone.

[Scot Dutchy]

Never touch anything Amazon with a barge pole or streaming channels. Dont need to as there are plenty of better alternatives in Europe. The exploitation and working conditions in Amazon work places does not bother you? Some kind of joke? Just wait until governments are dictated to. There was an interesting report on BBC Radio 4 yesterday about the position of the giant tech industries and it was no laughing matter. The power they have accumulated is not to be scoffed at but enjoy their worker exploitation and feel the control as governments more and more rely on their data to make decisions.

[Scot Dutchy]

Friday briefing: Alexa's China child labour scandal

Supplier of Amazon devices admits youngsters employed to work all night

Top story: ‘I had no choice,’ says teenage Foxconn worker

Good morning briefers. I’m Martin Farrer and it’s my pleasure to bring you the top stories to help you through the last day of the working week.

Schoolchildren in China have been recruited to work in factories to produce Amazon’s Alexa devices as part of an often illegal attempt to meet exacting production targets for the smart-speaker products, the Guardian can reveal. Interviews with children and leaked documents from Amazon’s Chinese supplier, Foxconn, show that some youngsters have been asked to work nights and overtime in the factory in Hengyang in breach of Chinese labour laws. The children have been drafted in from local schools and classed as “interns”, with teachers paid to accompany them to work and pressurise their pupils to take on extra work in return for improved employment prospects at the factory. One pupil said she worked up to 10 hours a day in sweltering conditions. “I had no choice, I could only endure this,” she says. According to company documents, Foxconn pays “interns” a basic wage of £1.18 an hour. Alexa devices start from around £50 for a basic Echo Dot model.

When confronted by the documents, Foxconn admitted employing children to work overtime and nights. The company, which also makes iPhones for Apple, said it had taken “immediate action to fix the situation”. Amazon, which is led by Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, said it would not tolerate violations of its code of conduct.

Always thought the guy could not have a better name.

[Brian Peacock]

... There was an interesting report on BBC Radio 4 yesterday about the position of the giant tech industries and it was no laughing matter. The power they have accumulated is not to be scoffed at but enjoy their worker exploitation and feel the control as governments more and more rely on their data to make decisions.

It's a worry. Democratically unaccountable. Sucking up huge amounts of data, on us and on their rivals - the people who run Amazon all use Google and vice-versa, and both of them have a Facebook account which they access through their iPhones - and generating profits that make Croesus look like a hobo while managing to pay no tax in a perpetual no-inflation economy. Let's not pretend they're politically or economic neutral or ambivalent, nor that they'll just sit back and let governments do their thing without trying to influence them.

[Svartalf]

I'm an amazon customer, they let me get stuff I could never find otherwise.

[Brian Peacock]

Aye. Where else can you buy a Jesus Butt-plug without embarrassment?

[Scot Dutchy]

Look around Svarty honestly.

[Scot Dutchy]

I totally agree with you Brian, it is very alarming which was the point made in that report. Governments cut back and use private supplied data. A trend that is not healthy. In America now there exists a political limbo where these companies are moving in and shortly will be dictating to state governments. It is not even subtle.
They are absorbing power at a high rate. The days of American Inc. are not that far away.

[Svartalf]

Look around Svarty honestly.

I have.
plus, let's face it, I take online surveys, and the only interesting outlet for the points I get there is amazon gift coupons.