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Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
61–70 of 130 posts
Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
#62$AMZN stock is flying right now: http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:AMZN
Lol. Sold a bunch of AMZN last week to buy AAPL, just before AAPL announced earnings. Looks like I should have kept AMZN.
As a Canadian, the whole currency conversion thing adds another source of risk.
Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought about going to Amazon when I decided to get out of the startup world about 6 months ago. I went through the standard application process, and promptly closed the tab when I found that they would only accept my r�sum� in MS Word format -- rejected PDFs, HTML, and even plaintext. It may seem like a silly reason not to work somewhere, but I think that the hiring process says more about a company than just abou…
> closed the tab when I found that they would only accept my r�sum� in MS Word format Why not just send it in a decent format and see what happens? Just because they say they'll reject it doesn't mean they will.
I did -- I initially just dropped it in there, then saw the ".doc only" notice after it errored out.
Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
AZMN stock climbed over 8% during the AWS outage, the market is disconnected from reality.
Just reading his run up regarding their distributed server technology it read to me like a brief ad for AppEngine. I'm thinking about all of the hardcore neuron work that went in to their infrastructure and how I'm getting a competing product for a song.
for liberal definitions of "competing" The only similar cloud services are from Microsoft and Google and they are about the same price, definitely not "a song" territory.
Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
#65Disclaimer:I work at Amazon as a dev manager. Working at Amazon does mean that you need to work hard, long and smart. There is a lot of technical debt to deal with too. But the technical debt did not come from bad design, but from the way business grows and changes. There is a 20% growth YoY. Inventories run into millions of products across multiple warehouses. We ship through multiple means and we ensure the product…
How long have you worked at Amazon and where are you based?
Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
#66The end result of all this behind-the-scenes software? Fast, accurate search results that help you find what you want. Has Bezos ever actually used Amazon's search functionality? I know it isn't the easiest problem in the world to solve, but their search is by far the worst of any of the major shopping sites that I use on a regular basis.
Specific examples? It seems pretty good to me. Which shopping site has a better search, and what makes it better? Exact keyword match is obviously fine. "harry potter and the sorcerer's stone" gives me various options for buying that book and a bunch of other harry potter related books, and i can sort by some useful options like reviews or bestselling. Harder problems, Google shopping vs amazon: Misspellings: Hairy P…
In particular, searches for computer equipment is generally frustrating. I've also seen sorts result in a large number of irrelevant outdated used items getting filtered to the top.[1]
I'm willing to cut them slack since it's good enough, but look at Newegg to see how it should be done. It's not a completely fair comparison (since Newegg specializes in this), but they do it so much better.[2]
[1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=k%3A16gb+sd...
[2] http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE...
Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stocks don't react to how results in announcements compare to last year, stocks react to how results in announcements compare with how Wall Street priced the stock yesterday based on their guess to what the results would be. Efficient markets 101 - otherwise you could make money by buying, one day in advance, stocks that obviously probably did well compared to last year. If this is not obvious to you then you should…
Um, missing earnings means earnings was less than what the wall street analysts expected, it doesn't mean it was less than last year.
I thought it generally meant that it was less than the company's own predictions, not the analysts? In any event it shouldn't matter which estimate they're falling short of as long as it isn't the market's implicit estimate.
Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought about going to Amazon when I decided to get out of the startup world about 6 months ago. I went through the standard application process, and promptly closed the tab when I found that they would only accept my r�sum� in MS Word format -- rejected PDFs, HTML, and even plaintext. It may seem like a silly reason not to work somewhere, but I think that the hiring process says more about a company than just abou…
Of course, that goes both way. Any engineer so fixated on not using Microsoft Word, and unwilling to submit a resume in the format requested by their potential employer, might not work out well in a number of environments where they might gasp be required to use operating systems, applications, and methodologies that they were unfamiliar with, or downright opposed to. Works out well for everyone - so, to some degree,…
I am not sure it works as a filter - I personally wouldn't spend my time making a .doc resume since it would enable HR drones to "enhance" it.
Yes that can also be done with a PDF, but it is difficult enough that they don't.
Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am truly surpised by the rigidness displayed regarding Word docs. Limiting opportunities in your life because an HR department uses the most common document app in the world seems self-defeating. Why not rule out cmapanies that use a certain type of printer paper?
It's a "bad smell". Too many bad smells and you don't apply for a job, it's like Bayesian filtering.
Bayesian filtering that works both ways. In fact we currently take PDF/Word/txt/RTF at my job. I'd actual considering narrowing it down to just Word. The type of person who decides that they don't want to submit in Word is probably a type of person that's not a good cultural fit. And I guess we've already ruled out those that prefer to send their resume via smoke signals only.
As an employer it is more important to find good cultural fits than it is as an employee, since it is typically easier for employees to leave than it is to fire them.
Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought about going to Amazon when I decided to get out of the startup world about 6 months ago. I went through the standard application process, and promptly closed the tab when I found that they would only accept my r�sum� in MS Word format -- rejected PDFs, HTML, and even plaintext. It may seem like a silly reason not to work somewhere, but I think that the hiring process says more about a company than just abou…
Of course, that goes both way. Any engineer so fixated on not using Microsoft Word, and unwilling to submit a resume in the format requested by their potential employer, might not work out well in a number of environments where they might gasp be required to use operating systems, applications, and methodologies that they were unfamiliar with, or downright opposed to. Works out well for everyone - so, to some degree,…
I don't have anything that can (reliably) create .doc files that consistently view the same in MS Word as they do in the application I've created them (I create and update my resume in Pages on the Mac). Creating a PDF means I know what it'll look like when they see it.
I once sent a .doc file to a potential employer, and when I arrived for my interview I saw that the font it had fallen back to (since it didn't have the exact one I'd used) was an aliased version of Courier for some ridiculous reason. It was ugly and difficult to read, the spacing was entirely incorrect, and it was generally a mess. If I were an employer and received a resume that looked like that, I'd surely count it as points against them (though it's possible that accepting Word document resumes means that this happens frequently and you get used to it).
I don't mind using MS Word at work, but I don't use it at home and have no intention of paying for it, so being able to provide someone a reliable, working document is not a guarantee unless I'm using PDF.