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This is really the dumbest, most unnecessary drama that Amazon has needed to face with absolutely zero gain. The entire chain of command who approved this deci

This is really the dumbest, most unnecessary drama that Amazon has needed to face with absolutely zero gain. The entire chain of command who approved this decision should get fired, because who knows what other dumb decisions they will make.

danblick 11y ago
FWIW, when the Kindle Fire launched, the major "breakthrough" feature was that it would pipe all your web traffic through Amazon's servers in EC2 (for browsing acceleration)... http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/28/amazon-silk/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/28/amazon-silk/
- ikeboy 11y ago
  Which is now a standard feature on chrome and elsewhere.
  - tedivm 11y ago
    I had never heard of this until your comment. I did a bit of research on this and have to say it is one of the least well advertised feature of any software I've seen in awhile- after a bunch of searching I found it on the bottom of the chrome privacy whitepaper[1], where it's referred to as "Data Saver". This feature is actually pretty cool. It only hijacks http traffic (leaving https the same) but pushes that traffic over an encrypted channel to google. This has some pretty positive benefits if you're the type of person who connects to random wifi, although there's apparently a simple way for network admins to disable the feature (if they block a certain webpage form loading chrome will go back to working like normal). The other major thing- and the reason I looked into this to begin with- is that it's opt in. So if you're like me and freaked out that google was spying on you after reading ikeboy's comment then you can relax now. [1] https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/privacy/whitepaper.html https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/privacy/whitepaper.htm...
    - ikeboy 11y ago
      I tend to go through every option of software when I begin using it, at least on a mobile device where there usually aren't too many settings. There are only like 10 settings on chrome mobile, and this is one, documented at https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2392284?hl=en https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2392284?hl=en Note that they removed it from iOS because of constraints, see https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/6323113 https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/6323113
    - ignoramous 11y ago
      Opera did it way better. It wasn't long ago that in markets with 2G and Edge, Opera Mini was as ubiquitous as WhatsApp is today. They really executed it brilliantly. I rem browsing webpages with 1MiB or more being reduced to 40KiB.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
  - bloaf 11y ago
    Is it at all like Opera Turbo? http://www.addictivetips.com/internet-tips/what-is-opera-turbo-mode-and-how-to-enable-it/ http://www.addictivetips.com/internet-tips/what-is-opera-tur...
mabbo 11y ago
Bias note: I've been an Amazon SDE for the last few years, though no where near the devices division (I make warehouses and delivery systems work better, weee). Additional note: in no way do I speak for the company, I'm just a guy who writes code and likes working here. Generally speaking, this isn't how Amazon operates. Firing someone for making a bad call is silly. Mistakes were clearly made but firing people in situations like this is like cutting off your hand because you burned your finger. The person who made the call probably has made hundreds of good calls over the years, and will continue to make good calls in the future, given the chance. Sure, if this is a pattern of stupid mistakes then clearly this person is in the wrong role, but that's not nearly as likely to be the case. Instead, I suspect a process will be put in place to help make these decisions better in the future- and process written in large part by the person who made the mistake. This way, not only will they not make a mistake like this again, but no one else will either. Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I've seen of the Amazon culture that's how we generally react to mistakes.
- JoBrad 11y ago
  That is exactly the right culture. If someone makes a series of blunders, without the history of good choices, that's one thing (maybe they need to be in a different position?), but simply firing someone over one decision is usually very bad for morale, and doesn't really teach anyone anything.
  - ikeboy 11y ago
    Hm, remember http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/apple-fires-maps-manager/ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/apple-fires-maps-ma...?
- jamez1 11y ago
  It's better to lean on the side of consequences than freedom, given that their incentives are only partly aligned with the shareholders. They'll do stupid M&A, plunder money on consultants and make up bullshit all for something to do. Management tends to be more of an autocracy than meritocracy and a good business needs to push against that. If you are lenient and you give them time to figure it out - they just use that leniency on themselves instead of the company.
kordless 11y ago
Actually, the only drama I see is within your illogical statements. Question is, why are you making them?

danblick 11y ago

FWIW, when the Kindle Fire launched, the major "breakthrough" feature was that it would pipe all your web traffic through Amazon's servers in EC2 (for browsing acceleration)... http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/28/amazon-silk/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/28/amazon-silk/

ikeboy 11y ago
Which is now a standard feature on chrome and elsewhere.
- tedivm 11y ago
  I had never heard of this until your comment. I did a bit of research on this and have to say it is one of the least well advertised feature of any software I've seen in awhile- after a bunch of searching I found it on the bottom of the chrome privacy whitepaper[1], where it's referred to as "Data Saver". This feature is actually pretty cool. It only hijacks http traffic (leaving https the same) but pushes that traffic over an encrypted channel to google. This has some pretty positive benefits if you're the type of person who connects to random wifi, although there's apparently a simple way for network admins to disable the feature (if they block a certain webpage form loading chrome will go back to working like normal). The other major thing- and the reason I looked into this to begin with- is that it's opt in. So if you're like me and freaked out that google was spying on you after reading ikeboy's comment then you can relax now. [1] https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/privacy/whitepaper.html https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/privacy/whitepaper.htm...
  - ikeboy 11y ago
    I tend to go through every option of software when I begin using it, at least on a mobile device where there usually aren't too many settings. There are only like 10 settings on chrome mobile, and this is one, documented at https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2392284?hl=en https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2392284?hl=en Note that they removed it from iOS because of constraints, see https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/6323113 https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/6323113
  - ignoramous 11y ago
    Opera did it way better. It wasn't long ago that in markets with 2G and Edge, Opera Mini was as ubiquitous as WhatsApp is today. They really executed it brilliantly. I rem browsing webpages with 1MiB or more being reduced to 40KiB.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- bloaf 11y ago
  Is it at all like Opera Turbo? http://www.addictivetips.com/internet-tips/what-is-opera-turbo-mode-and-how-to-enable-it/ http://www.addictivetips.com/internet-tips/what-is-opera-tur...

mabbo 11y ago

Bias note: I've been an Amazon SDE for the last few years, though no where near the devices division (I make warehouses and delivery systems work better, weee). Additional note: in no way do I speak for the company, I'm just a guy who writes code and likes working here. Generally speaking, this isn't how Amazon operates. Firing someone for making a bad call is silly. Mistakes were clearly made but firing people in situations like this is like cutting off your hand because you burned your finger. The person who made the call probably has made hundreds of good calls over the years, and will continue to make good calls in the future, given the chance. Sure, if this is a pattern of stupid mistakes then clearly this person is in the wrong role, but that's not nearly as likely to be the case. Instead, I suspect a process will be put in place to help make these decisions better in the future- and process written in large part by the person who made the mistake. This way, not only will they not make a mistake like this again, but no one else will either. Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I've seen of the Amazon culture that's how we generally react to mistakes.

JoBrad 11y ago
That is exactly the right culture. If someone makes a series of blunders, without the history of good choices, that's one thing (maybe they need to be in a different position?), but simply firing someone over one decision is usually very bad for morale, and doesn't really teach anyone anything.
- ikeboy 11y ago
  Hm, remember http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/apple-fires-maps-manager/ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/apple-fires-maps-ma...?
jamez1 11y ago
It's better to lean on the side of consequences than freedom, given that their incentives are only partly aligned with the shareholders. They'll do stupid M&A, plunder money on consultants and make up bullshit all for something to do. Management tends to be more of an autocracy than meritocracy and a good business needs to push against that. If you are lenient and you give them time to figure it out - they just use that leniency on themselves instead of the company.

kordless 11y ago

Actually, the only drama I see is within your illogical statements. Question is, why are you making them?