I blame Zizek and his 2020 book Sex & the Failed Absolute who link unorientables (klein bottle, crosscap and Mobius) to unfinished human subjectivity.
A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
401–410 of 628 posts
Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
#402Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey Cliff, I just have to say thanks. I read the Cuckoo's Egg in the early 90s and while I was already interested in computers, the idea that there were "networks" of them out there... well... it blew my mind. I immediately went to my school librarian and said I wanted to try to connect computers together, or try to dial-up to library information services, etc. We started learning together. You were a huge inspiratio…
There was also a television adaptation, "The KGB, the Computer, and Me" produced by PBS Nova in like 1992, starring Clifford Stoll as Cliff Stoll! Here is a bootlegged youtube link--it's the best I've got. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGv5BqNL164 A legend!
Thank you for the link. Amazing. And Cliff as himself !
I read the book but just could not stop watching the documentary.
Next time I am in Hannover will have to take a photo in front of the flat. It got a repaint though...
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.371627,9.7208921,3a,53.1y,13...
Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
#403Guess I'd better say a few things. First, I deeply appreciate that so many on Hacker News have come out for this. Enough to awaken me from a sound sleep on a Tuesday evening! I don't really care that much about selling Klein bottles over Amazon - it's mainly to reach parents over the holidays. But I do wish that Amazon would do something about this kind of thing. Finally, I"m very low on stocks of glass Klein bottles…
Just wanted to say while your bottles are awesome, your under-house storage and retrieval system is the stuff of my childhood dreams and my claustrophobic adult nightmares.
How did you go about designing it? Was it fairly organic? Or did you have the full plan from the beginning?
Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
#404This, and other instances of this scam make me not want to buy anything off Amazon ever again. Where is Amazon in this? Why is this even a thing ? Is there no oversight at all? Amazon has now become the Alibaba of the west and it makes me sick to think the once beloved marketplace is now just scamville. I typically buy from sellers websites now and rarely buy off of Amazon but now I feel I need to completely remove A…
I already stopped. I used to be a Prime subscriber, and use smile.amazon.com for charitable benefits. I don't use amazon at all now, because I don't trust that I will get what I think I am paying for.
Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
#405I would really love to know why "Amvoom" could declare to Amazon that they own "Acme Klein Bottle" when "Acme Klein Bottle" has nothing to do with the "Amvoom" trademark. Can they just declare they own any page that doesn't have a registered trademark?
In short, yes. If a seller (like me) has not trademarked his/her brand, and has not registered with Amazon's Brand Registry, then the listing can be hijacked. Of course, hijackers will only considers taking listings with many five-star reviews extending over several years.
Speaking from the experience - listing can be hijacked even if it has a brand registered trademark. These hijackers, rumored, are bribing amazon insiders to change trademark on the listing and gain full editing access to it after change is made.
Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
#406We're finally going to not renew our Amazon Prime after many years. We don't have that much need for "free" shipping on cheap Chinese products, and the convenience of the Amazon marketplace is now counter-balanced by the inconvenience of sorting out the fake goods and fake reviews. We are choosing sellers' own marketplaces when we can these days, and just dealing with longer and paid shipping. Additionally, we are fi…
Might I recommend Monoprice.com for the cables docks adapters displays speakers etc that you need cheap and reliable?
Lot’s of their stuff is made in Taiwan, which I consider a plus.
Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
#407We're finally going to not renew our Amazon Prime after many years. We don't have that much need for "free" shipping on cheap Chinese products, and the convenience of the Amazon marketplace is now counter-balanced by the inconvenience of sorting out the fake goods and fake reviews. We are choosing sellers' own marketplaces when we can these days, and just dealing with longer and paid shipping. Additionally, we are fi…
Great! This is how giant, greedy corporations die.
Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
I went cold turkey on Amazon a few months back; the only thing I've kept is the TV subscription. What I realised is that it was just a dependency because it was so easy to search for and buy stuff. Nowadays I'll buy from a smaller shop if I need something, but it's more likely that I think "do I actually need this?" and say "no."
For me their killer feature is ease and certainty of returns. If I am buying online I need to option to return items that are not as they appear, and Amazon offers that quite readily. So I think the major hurdle for other businesses is getting a reputation for prompt and free return acceptance if they want to sell things sight unseen.
At least here in Europe, returns are painless in almost all cases. Give it a shot!
This is especially true for larger and more expensive items (like electronics) where - I can not stress this enough - it is much, much better to buy directly from the company (I'd say 95% of all companies now have d2c shops on their websites).
It used to be the case that Amazon had an advantage in customer support and returns. I feel this is no longer true. I bought an expensive electronic item from Amazon and, when it broke, I send it in under warranty (in the EU, the first six months are essentially no questions asked repairs). Amazon send it to a third-party repair shop that send it back to me without any repair.
By contrast, I had to replace an item from a large consumer electronics company, which I had bought directly with them. They sent me a new one __before__ I had sent in my old item, and the new box included the shipping label to send back the damaged one. Much easier!
Beyond all this, it's obvious that Amazon is now home to fake and faux products. It is my view that the only product worth ordering there are cheapo China duplicates, for a price where you will be okay if they break after one week of use.
Otherwise, go with the supplier. It perhaps takes more than a day to ship, but often it doesn't. You can return any item for any reason within two weeks (in the EU), and damaged items can be returned within warranty anyway - usually with less hassle.
So folks, please stop buying stuff from Amazon if you can help it. As this - and countless other instances - has shown, Amazon is no longer worth supporting, for any reason.
Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fast delivery seems to have become an addiction in our fast-paced lives. Do we really need that new thing tomorrow? Probably not. Yet we can't delay the gratification.
It's not about delayed gratification - it's about predictability. I know what I'm doing tomorrow if I can afford to wait for a delivery. What will I be doing on a random day next week? next month? Less so!
You can often pick stuff up at a local store - e.g. certain couriers have deals with local supermarkets. It sometimes means pick ups are cheaper than the standard paid options.
Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing
#410We're finally going to not renew our Amazon Prime after many years. We don't have that much need for "free" shipping on cheap Chinese products, and the convenience of the Amazon marketplace is now counter-balanced by the inconvenience of sorting out the fake goods and fake reviews. We are choosing sellers' own marketplaces when we can these days, and just dealing with longer and paid shipping. Additionally, we are fi…
Might I recommend Monoprice.com for the cables docks adapters displays speakers etc that you need cheap and reliable?
Thanks! I just cancelled Prime too for similar reasons as the GP, and I have found excellent alternative sources for most things but fiddly bits like cables eluded me. (My online replacements are: books => alibris, cds/vinyl => discogs, photography => b&h, music gear => sweetwater/cl. I'm happy to report that each service is superior to Amazon in every way, even if it's slightly inconvenient to multiplex like this.)