Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having a microphone/speaker in people's houses seems like a great way to collect a ton of data & guide their behavior.
Is it collecting that data when not spoken to?
No.
Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
281–290 of 298 posts
Re: Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
Realistically they’ve been saying this since the 1950s
There was the dot com bubble burst in 2000, so there has actually been one. A few years after the 2008 crash sounds about right to when people started talking about tech bubbles again to me.
I lived and worked through it and I’ve not seen tech slow down measurably, even then. There was a correction, and a shake out, but then it picked up basically where it left off and shot up. There have been other busts over the last 70 years but they’re more like a system that overheats, slows, then resumes.
Re: Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
#283This is so completely normal in these industries that it is a non-headline. Companies that have so much cash they can employ 100K+ developers on top of goodness knows how many designers, PMs, POs etc. of course they hire and fire. They can afford to offer above-average conditions when the markets need it and everyone goes flocking there only to be surprised when their job is taken away at the next point the sharehold…
> If you want job security, get a job somewhere that isn't trying to earn their next billion, where you can make a difference, where you are appreciated and where work/life balance means something. I expect you would feel much better :-)
... What?!?!? Where is this magical place you're talking about. Small companies can be better, but they can also be much worse, and you may have less recourse. You can really hide under a rock at a big corporation for like... decades.
Many of the "meaningful" jobs are low paying, and can be even more soul crushing. Teachers aren't always treated great. It's far more of a "hated by all" profession than you realize. Social work seems to be a tough racket on many fronts. You could have to do some difficult things and are almost guaranteed to see levels of despair and injustice that are difficult to bear.
All that for pathetic pay, but at least you have good job security, maybe sometimes with an asterisk; so best case you're one of the lucky ones guaranteed to be poor forever. I've heard that non-profits can be incredibly toxic as well.
In fact it almost seems that the "meaningful" professions are even worse, usually. There's a lot of corporate environments that are quite pleasant, have good pay and decent security.
"Heart" work almost always seems like a bad bet for financial security, and work environment. Doesn't seem worth it unless you're a very specific kind of person with talent that HAS to be a part of something, so is willing to put up with almost anything; boss puts cigarettes out on your forehead to pass the time? Sounds great, I'm just excited to be making music!
You will ALWAYS have 10 people tirelessly fighting for the job.
Re: Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
#284There has been a lot of talk about a correction coming and a bubble bursting specifically in tech for years now. Is this it?
Yup, I'm worried about what else could fall, but I think this was a necessary correction, and hope this stays contained.
Re: Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
#285Mass layoffs makes the news because papers depend on sensational headlines, but it's important to put into perspective. > The pandemic produced Amazon’s most profitable era on record ... Amazon doubled its work force in two years, and funneled its winnings into expansion and experimentation to find the next big things. So it doubled its head count in the past 3 years and is now trimming by 3% (or 1% of global). Updat…
Right. But hiring freezes are also happening and they are even more impactful.
Re: Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
#286> In 2018, Echo and Alexa lost about $5 billion, said a person with knowledge of the finances. When Amazon introduced new devices this fall in an annual event, it was notably more restrained than past years when it had featured zany products like a sticky note printer and $1,000 home robot. $5B loss from one business line is a lot. Maybe this manner of investment inspired Zuck on the metaverse.
I never got the value of voice devices. In my experience you learn how to make them do 1-2 things. You learn a few patterns. But beyond that, even if they work 95% of the time, that 1 in 20 is annoying enough to make me not want to use it and just push a few buttons. Maybe case in point is using voice in the car. It should be the best, most obvious application. Yet aside from maybe texting, people want things like Ap…
> and just push a few buttons.
There are just so many buttons to push, it's not only about lights. Remember, they have 'routines' that can easily equate to dozens of button pushes. Even without routines, I can tell it to set all lights in a room at some percentage. And no, I can't just wire a dimmer, because they are spread across light fixtures. Sometimes your hands are busy and it's good to be able to control stuff.
If anything, they should make it easier to add commands (I want to be able to change 3D printer settings without have to fiddle with the interface – it's connected to Homeassistant so it has access to controls).
It's not just for that either. Alarms, timers, unit conversions, translations, calls from echo to echo in different rooms, weather at some location, purchases (and asking where are they)... you can even ask if some food can be given to your dog.
I will agree that it's infuriating when they don't work. And it doesn't seem to difficult to fix. There are commands I use frequently, chances are I am using them again. Asking to turn of the lights and having it play some random song is ridiculous.
Re: Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
#287Maybe Bezos can start giving his fortune away philanthropically starting with these laid off people.
Re: Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Does usage of the devices lead to increased sales on Amazon.com? Are those sales that wouldn't have taken place on the app/website otherwise? That seems reasonable. Customers can order directly through the device ("Alexa, order some toilet paper"), that's low friction and lets Amazon rank options to their benefit. Plus regularly using Alexa keeps Amazon primed (no pun intended) in the customer's mind so next time t…
> at this point no one in my technical circle has proprietary "smart" home automation devices anymore What are they using now, if you don't mind me asking?
As others said - nothing (my preference), Mycroft, or Apple's Home Assistant (yes, propietary)
Re: Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
#289Re: Amazon is said to plan to lay off thousands of employees
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
> at this point no one in my technical circle has proprietary "smart" home automation devices anymore What are they using now, if you don't mind me asking?
As others said - nothing (my preference), Mycroft, or Apple's Home Assistant (yes, propietary)
Thanks. I do however think that people are referring to home-assistant.io, not Apple Home Assistant.