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? AWS is run like a gigantic social experiment in "how half-assed and crusty can we make it and still have people pay?" The reason we put up with them is beca

? AWS is run like a gigantic social experiment in "how half-assed and crusty can we make it and still have people pay?" The reason we put up with them is because A. they're the new IBM, nobody gets fired for choosing AWS, B. you can reliably reach a human who will at least give you a straight answer when you start to suspect that the AI-powered auto-scaling is actually marketing fluff sprayed over a double/halve cron job that runs at the top of the hour.

m0zg 6y ago
^ My impression as well, after spending nearly $200K of my clients' money on AWS. I use GCP for my own work (+ a bunch of on-prem hardware) FWIW, but "the new IBM" phenomenon and "half assedness" is very real and palpable in the case of AWS.
oarabbus_ 6y ago
>B. you can reliably reach a human who will at least give you a straight answer when you start to suspect that the AI-powered auto-scaling is actually marketing fluff sprayed over a double/halve cron job that runs at the top of the hour. You say this as if it's an afterthought as opposed to an incredibly important and massive advantage AWS has over GCP.
- jjoonathan 6y ago
  It's one of two reasons I use a service that I otherwise despise. It's not just important, it's an overriding factor.
pc86 6y ago
This is great for AWS compared to GCP, but what about Azure? If anyone was "the new IBM" I would have expected it to be Microsoft (but I agree, it's not).
maest 6y ago
Off-topic, but this might be a good opportunity to address this: Do people find "?" as being aggressive? I think questions generally, tend to be aggressive (which is why deflecting back at your opponent is common in online arguments), and I'm having a hard time seeing how a question mark does more than just attempt to annoy the other person. I'm curious what others think, I may be too sensitive.
- ciarannolan 6y ago
  > Do people find "?" as being aggressive? I'm on the younger side for HN. In my social circles replying to something with either just '?' or just a leading '?' is pretty aggressive and rude.
- ddingus 6y ago
  Hard to know. I read it as, "huh?" or "what?" or even maybe, "who are you kidding?" and for all of those determining offense level comes with context. In this context, the person replying clearly sees it as a bullet and puts some detail on why out there. Frankly, that kind of thing is as offensive as we all might think it is. Almost any offensive thing is. Context matters.
  - jjoonathan 6y ago
    Yep, that's how I intended it, effectively the same as "What?" with the implied offense level being no larger or smaller than the offense inherent in expressing surprise at someone else's opinion. That level is not zero, but it falls well within the bounds of civil discourse, especially given the lack of elaboration in the original position and the fact that I invested seventeen times its length on explaining my own -- only to not receive a followup from the original poster.
    - ddingus 6y ago
      I myself will use ?!? For curious surprise. Has never offended anyone.
      - jjoonathan 6y ago
        Yeah, next time I'll just type out the question. However, given that it's starting to look like OP ghosted the conversation, I'm increasingly comfortable with the originally-unintended rude undertones of "?"
        ddingus 6y ago

m0zg 6y ago

^ My impression as well, after spending nearly $200K of my clients' money on AWS. I use GCP for my own work (+ a bunch of on-prem hardware) FWIW, but "the new IBM" phenomenon and "half assedness" is very real and palpable in the case of AWS.

oarabbus_ 6y ago

>B. you can reliably reach a human who will at least give you a straight answer when you start to suspect that the AI-powered auto-scaling is actually marketing fluff sprayed over a double/halve cron job that runs at the top of the hour. You say this as if it's an afterthought as opposed to an incredibly important and massive advantage AWS has over GCP.

jjoonathan 6y ago
It's one of two reasons I use a service that I otherwise despise. It's not just important, it's an overriding factor.

pc86 6y ago

This is great for AWS compared to GCP, but what about Azure? If anyone was "the new IBM" I would have expected it to be Microsoft (but I agree, it's not).

maest 6y ago

Off-topic, but this might be a good opportunity to address this: Do people find "?" as being aggressive? I think questions generally, tend to be aggressive (which is why deflecting back at your opponent is common in online arguments), and I'm having a hard time seeing how a question mark does more than just attempt to annoy the other person. I'm curious what others think, I may be too sensitive.

ciarannolan 6y ago
> Do people find "?" as being aggressive? I'm on the younger side for HN. In my social circles replying to something with either just '?' or just a leading '?' is pretty aggressive and rude.
ddingus 6y ago
Hard to know. I read it as, "huh?" or "what?" or even maybe, "who are you kidding?" and for all of those determining offense level comes with context. In this context, the person replying clearly sees it as a bullet and puts some detail on why out there. Frankly, that kind of thing is as offensive as we all might think it is. Almost any offensive thing is. Context matters.
- jjoonathan 6y ago
  Yep, that's how I intended it, effectively the same as "What?" with the implied offense level being no larger or smaller than the offense inherent in expressing surprise at someone else's opinion. That level is not zero, but it falls well within the bounds of civil discourse, especially given the lack of elaboration in the original position and the fact that I invested seventeen times its length on explaining my own -- only to not receive a followup from the original poster.
  - ddingus 6y ago
    I myself will use ?!? For curious surprise. Has never offended anyone.
    - jjoonathan 6y ago
      Yeah, next time I'll just type out the question. However, given that it's starting to look like OP ghosted the conversation, I'm increasingly comfortable with the originally-unintended rude undertones of "?"
      - ddingus 6y ago