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02 Dec 2010 22:54

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Tech: Amazon drops extremely lame excuse for dumping Wikileaks

  • It’s clear that WikiLeaks doesn’t own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content. Further, it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren’t putting innocent people in jeopardy.
  • A statement from Amazon • Regarding their reasons for removing Wikileaks from Amazon Web Services. Pretty much everything we said about this whole thing last night still stands, even in the wake of all of this – namely, who is Amazon (which is running a service that should be impartial) to be making a judgment call here? This feels like an excuse more than anything else. They’ve created some major trust issues here. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Dec 2010 20:49

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Tech: Smelling a trend, Amazon invests in site kinda like Groupon

  • $6
    billion     the amount Google offered fast-growing deals site Groupon in a buyout offer last week
  • $175
    million     the amount Amazon invested in the similarly growing deals site Living Social earlier today source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Dec 2010 20:54

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Tech: Amazon Web Services, Wikileaks and censorship: A harbinger

  • Amazon’s quickly taken over the Web with its cloud computing services. If you’re reading this on our WordPress site, the image of the logo is from Amazon’s S3 service. If you’re reading this on Tumblr, the entire infrastructure scales thanks to Amazon’s cloud computing functionality. Ditto Twitter. Even more than shopping, cloud computing has become Amazon’s biggest gift to the Web. But the way they quickly booted Wikileaks off their site is just … wow. This is a very bad sign for the Web’s future growth.
  • What happened? In the wake of the huge DDoS attack it faced prior to its document release on Sunday, Wikileaks, which usually hosts its servers in this secret lair in Sweden, turned to Amazon’s EC2 services to ensure they’d stay online as the data broke. This was how they managed to stay online despite being the biggest story of the entire week.
  • Congressional pressure Eventually, certain members of Congress, namely Joe Lieberman, criticized Amazon for hosting the site and said Amazon and others should boycott Wikileaks. A day later, Amazon (who just recently pulled the free-speech card on a pedophilia book) complied. Wikileaks had a suitably withering response to Amazon’s actions.
  • The implications The problem here is obvious. Amazon created a service so widely used that they couldn’t control it if they tried. The New York Times (which has run multiple Wikileaks reports) even uses Amazon Web Services. This tool is only useful is Amazon is completely impartial to the content on it. This incident proves they’re not. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 10:34

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Biz: Amazon’s next scheme: It’s opening up its own movie studio (!)

  • $2.7 million Amazon plans to offer to budding directors source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Nov 2010 10:10

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Biz: Amazon’s “pedophile” crisis: “Free speech” loses out to angry mob

  • bad Some guy decides publishing an e-book called “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure” is a good idea. (It wasn’t, guys.)
  • worse TechCrunch notices the instant classic, creating a huge firestorm and leading to thousands of one-star “reviews” on the book’s Amazon page.
  • worser Amazon initially keeps the book online for “free speech” reasons, before finally taking it down after it reached the Top 100 in book sales. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Nov 2010 19:38

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Biz: Baby bundle: Amazon sees lots of opportunity with Diapers.com

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Sep 2010 10:54

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Tech: Kindle for the Web: Amazon figures out how to turn e-books into embeds

  • Hey, it’s like Hulu! This impressive little embed right here brings the joy of reading to a blog near you, and works as a great form of advertising. Amazon has proven time and time again that while they sell the Kindle, they’re really platform-agnostic. They just want readers. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 

15 Sep 2010 11:22

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Tech: In new ad, Amazon plays up the Kindle’s only advantages

  • Let’s face it – these criticisms are spot-on. But you know what that douchebag should’ve said? “Well at least I can do something other than READ BORING BOOKS!”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Aug 2010 10:48

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Tech: Prediction: Mirasol displays could be in your tablet-reading future

  • Is this the future of tablet design? The screen above, a hybrid of eInk and LCD called Mirasol, is getting some big buzz, and a certain client has Qualcomm paying $2 billion to ramp up production of the technology. Is it Apple? Is it Amazon? Is it HP? Is it somebody else? We don’t know, but we have to admit being able to read a tablet in direct sunlight would rule. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Aug 2010 21:55

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U.S., World: This dot on this map represents a guy in the middle of nowhere

Poor guy’s been isolated in the Brazilian Amazon for at least 15 years, possibly an uncontacted member of a decaying tribe. Which is kinda awesome. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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