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The Hidden Life of an Amazon User

janavirgin.com

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Re: The Hidden Life of an Amazon User

#31

Post by blondin »

zarkov99 wrote: post #20
yowlingcat wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure the subject is a complaint and not an exploration? It seemed more to be an exploration of the energetic and computational cost of serving an average Amazon user. I found it fascinating. 30 watts and 88MB to load a page of otherwise static content does seem a little ludicrous, and I've definitely thought the same thing about much of the content I see on the internet that loves loading a bunch of crap that…

Yes, it seems pretty clear that the author feels oppressed by Amazon: "To put it bluntly, the user is not just exploited by means of their free labor, but is also forced to assume the energy costs of such exploitation."

yep. they made sure to say their browser is firefox. the whole thing would have been a moot point if your browser is draining more energy than the pages you visit...

Re: The Hidden Life of an Amazon User

#32

Post by ars »

octosphere wrote: post #24

Never liked when Amazon increases the price a few days later after witnessing you researching something to buy. This is why I only purchase items 'on-the-spot' in a small window of time which allows me to escape such a practice.

> after witnessing you researching something to buy.

Amazon has never done that (different prices for different customers), their prices are the same for all users.

They didn't raise it because of anything you personally did.

Their prices just go up and down all the time randomly.

Leave the item in your shopping cart and check it daily (or more) and watch the price bounce around. You can use this to your advantage if you are not in a rush and wait for a good price. You can also use camelcamelcamel as a price tracker.

Re: The Hidden Life of an Amazon User

#33

Post by TeMPOraL »

zarkov99 wrote: post #23
yowlingcat wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaving the author's admittedly sanctimonious tone aside (which I find a little grating), don't you think that the topic of energy costs of these "fat" applications is worthy of exploration?

Yes, I think that is interesting, but not enough for me to get over the oppression narrative. Furthermore, I am skeptical that there is anything there at all, I can't image that the energy I waste the few times a week I go to Amazon to be anything but a rounding error on my overall energy expenditure.

The problem of web bloat isn't that you waste a little more electricity on a particular site once a week. It's that all the million users waste all that energy each - which multiplied by millions of users, and by most popular sites being bloated, adds up to possibly relevant amounts of electricity (and carbon emissions).

Re: The Hidden Life of an Amazon User

#34

Post by ginko »

saagarjha wrote: post #26
ginko wrote: post #6

>The average amount of energy needed to load each of the twelve web interfaces, along with each one’s endless fragments of code, was 30 watts. What is that supposed to mean? A watt(= 1 J/s) is a measure power so energy per unit of time. Shouldn't this rather be given in joule?

The unit appears to have been fixed to “wh”.

So now it says 30wh, which seems just wrong. If the transaction took 10 seconds or so, during that short time it would have had to consume over 10 kilowatts of energy.

Re: The Hidden Life of an Amazon User

#35

Post by lonelappde »

ginko wrote: post #6

>The average amount of energy needed to load each of the twelve web interfaces, along with each one’s endless fragments of code, was 30 watts. What is that supposed to mean? A watt(= 1 J/s) is a measure power so energy per unit of time. Shouldn't this rather be given in joule?

It's supposed to be "sciency", not science. Look to scientists for meaningful energy to accounting. This a political art project, where accurate facts are not important.

Re: The Hidden Life of an Amazon User

#36

Post by onesmallcoin »

gorpomon wrote: post #28

It's presented too dramatically IMO, but the core argument is one we need to raise awareness of: you use energy and emit carbon so a company can run code that in part grooms you into being a better consumer of their products. Brick and Mortar stores do this too. Some ways are fun and nice like air conditioning and wine while browsing. Others not so much: facial recognition at Target's nationwide, and companies like S…

And those buttons sure look like amazon buttons

Re: The Hidden Life of an Amazon User

#37

Post by octosphere »

ars wrote: post #32
octosphere wrote: post #24

Never liked when Amazon increases the price a few days later after witnessing you researching something to buy. This is why I only purchase items 'on-the-spot' in a small window of time which allows me to escape such a practice.

> after witnessing you researching something to buy. Amazon has never done that (different prices for different customers), their prices are the same for all users. They didn't raise it because of anything you personally did. Their prices just go up and down all the time randomly. Leave the item in your shopping cart and check it daily (or more) and watch the price bounce around. You can use this to your advantage if…

> Amazon has never done that

Well maybe they do? I know Amazon's algorithms are opaque to the user, but after several purchases on Amazon I noticed this trend of items I researched showing a small uptick in the price after a few days when I go to buy it. The price uptick is there for all users, but Amazon knows only one specific person will buy it, so the price is adjusted for that person and no-one else. After buying, the price goes back to its default in a few days.

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