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Amazon Dash Button

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Re: Amazon Dash Button

#581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, it's about a vendor making sure you buy their brand (again) when you need to fill up instead of going to the store and looking at the 50 choices in the detergent aisle one more time.

Really? Lots of people regularly switching their detergent?

Yes, really.

Do this: pretend you own Tide. Do you want people pressing a button that sends you money for more tide, or do you want them going here: https://www.google.com/search?q=laundry+aisle&espv=2&biw=144...

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#582

My 2 year old and 5 year old will be clicking this button like crazy. I'll come home one day and find 20 boxes of Tide and Toilet paper and a bill for $900. "Button! Must Click it! What does it do? I don't know! Click it again!"

As well as the one click limit, there's an easy fix for this assuming your kids aren't aberrantly tall for their age.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#583
It seems like automation gone too far? There can simply be dash button(s) in the smartphone app itself like a quickdial list, but for pre populated Amazon items

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'd make informed purchasing decisions and question them. Then again, I doubt my current preferred brand[0] would be available with a branded button. [0] http://uk.ecover.com/en/products/laundry/

Why wouldn't it have a branded button? Amazon carries it right now: http://www.amazon.com/Ecover-Laundry-Liquid-Fluid-Ounce/dp/B...

Did we see the same video? Those were all megabrands, probably all manufactured by a small number of Unilever-type companies. (Of course amazon carries it, they carry everything.)

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#585

Harper's Magazine, September 1996: > From an interview with Kurt Vonnegut in the November 1995 issue of Inc. Technology. Vonnegut was asked to discuss his feelings about living in an increasingly computerized world. >> I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterward I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this…

In reality, this man of privilege bounds into the store on a cloud of positivity, only to be met by the sullen face behind the counter, 12 hours into a double shift on a day that she wasn't even supposed to be here. At the Postal Convenience Center, the object of his affection barely registers his presence because she is fears going home to her abusive boyfriend who is probably halfway in the bag already. When the letter arrives at Woodstock, Carol has to go through the painstaking trouble of scanning in his chicken scratch, and she'll spend the weekend fixing that which OCR cannot unearth.

The whimsy of Vonnegut betrays the truth that too many of us suffer from too little time in the day to create genuine, shareable moments with one another. Technology can help beat back that tide by simplifying the tedious, and little by little, we may find ourselves making time to be more present in our everyday lives.

Technology should be celebrated, and not feared.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but having a free, physical button that magically reorders trash bags or detergent or paper towels placed in the very location where you would consume such things? magical! I don't get it. I keep tens of such things in my kitchen alone (paper towels, napkins, dish sponges, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, etc, etc). Does anyone really want a bank of these buttons lined up inside each cabinet? Wouldn't it be about 1000x…

more convenient? no. i would certainly rather have a small bank of interchangeable buttons for the 1/2 dozen items below my sink (dishwasher pods, 408, windex, sponges, trash bags, dish soap) than having to (with wet hands) find my phone/app/screen/button/click. those, of course, would be different than the small bank of buttons near the shelf in the garage. which would be different than the small bank of buttons in…

We'll have to agree to disagree then. I don't want a bank of buttons anywhere. Do you really want 30 different devices to set up and then worry about whether they've lost the connection to your wifi or run out of battery life or had their contacts corroded by your ever-soggy button presses?

I'd like an app with a lineup of Amazon Dash consumables. If my hands are filthy or wet I'll try to keep a single intention in my head for 30 seconds until that's no longer the case. And if I don't feel like doing that I can just write a note on a pad.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on your present. I like to make a choice before buying things. Especially coffee.

That sounds exhausting. I need my decision-making-juice[0] for more important things. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion#Consumer_behavior

Interesting link. Suggests that presenting unnecessary choice leads to passive behaviour. I'm thinking of active choices rather than seeing a row of a dozen different identical kitchen towel brands at the supermarket. Like, what are the ethical standards of this shop, how does it treat it's suppliers, does it exploit it's workforce etc.

Every decision is important, and every time it is automated for the sake of convenience is a little bit of disenfranchisement.

Again, it depends what you consider important. Purchasing decisions arguably dictate much transnational economic concerns. For example palm oil, the fair trade movement. As a global citizen I would say that was well spent decision juice.

I'm sitting higher up on my high horse than I started, but discussions tend to polarise / crystallize views!

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#589

I can see this being really cool for some products but for a number of the ones they show on that landing page I already use subscribe and save. If you aren't using S&S you should check it out. I use it for items that I am going to buy no matter what (needs more or less) and things I have pretty consistent need of. Currently I get the following through S&S which means I just don't even have to worry about them anymor…

My problem with S&S is that I travel a lot and don't want stuff to pile up when I'm away. It's a good concept but just doesn't work for me.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#590
post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US tax system offers a lot of deductions. When I first moved here I was paying ~12% in total taxes (state + federal) on $60K worth of income once I took advantage of the 401k deduction, mortgage interest deduction, etc,etc.

I'm not sure where you came from, but the US system offers more or less the same deductions as other systems. On $60K, the tax rate in Canada for example would be about 15-17%, before credits. Add your health care costs to that 12% and I think you'll find Canada has the cheaper rate, and you still get to take advantage of many (not all) of the same credits a typical American can.

There is no mortgage deduction in Canada. This is a big difference in the finances of many middle class families.
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