Tag Archives: monopoly

Amazon Is Interesting These Years

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Every decade or so, we get a couple of very interesting companies to keep an eye on. I’m not referring here to being profitable (even though that’s often the case). It’s about being interesting, as in ground-breaking, mind-bending, evolutionary. This is not a recipe for long-term success, as these companies can either become nearly-unshakable, established names, or end up fading into mediocrity.

Amazon is most definitely a company to watch out for. It has historically been doing quite well for itself, but as this decade approaches its end, things are getting really interesting. Here’s a very well written and thought-provoking article about the firm:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/14/why-amazon-is-eating-the-world/^

Even as Amazon draws closer to creating its own delivery service^ (and soon after, taking over the world) the company’s stock has suffered recently from a couple of direct attacks from the Trump Tactical Twitter Terror Torrent^, the White House’s newly found weapon of mass distraction. While it’s true that Amazon has dodged paying^ a lot of taxes, seeing this criticism coming from a master of tax evasion^ is somewhat tragi-comical. Note to self: one day find out who are the investors who profited the most from the dips in Amazon stock caused by the TTTTT^.

I’m pretty sure Amazon will continue to grow its business under almost any conditions can be thrown at it. The reason is culture. I believe Amazon managed to implement a culture of innovation that not only outpaces all its competitors, but is also very quick to adapt to changes in its economic and technologic environment.

I’m not sure if we should cry rivers for bankrupt retailers, but we should definitely cry rivers for the working conditions in some Amazon warehouses^. Keep in mind that this merciless economic ecosystem^ is of our own making^.

If during the coming years Amazon manages to become an almost transparent bridge between manufacturers and customers, it’s only the other retailers who lose. I emphasized the word “transparent” because sooner or later, Amazon will have to alter its business model in order to adapt to an economy where, other than monthly or seasonal exhibitions, customers will meet manufacturers online, with little to no mediation. It’s already happening through markets such as Etsy^, but will accelerate thanks to cryptocurrencies and other novel, yet to be imagined, means of doing commerce.

It won’t make me happy if small retailers might have to close shop, but perhaps it would be more pleasant for them to automate their logistics, sell online and spend the rest of their time doing more creative stuff. On the other hand, having a physical shop to go and test a product is quite valuable, albeit this is changing due to an increasingly flexible returns policy. Given the current trends, the job of being a retailer will eventually be completely automated, just like all other non-creative jobs. Or, I should say, the non-creative aspects of being a retailer will be automated, leaving creativity and originality as the valuable differentiator.

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The Internet Is 25 Years Old

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Few discoveries have changed mankind so much in so little time. Even fewer have their future in as much doubt as the Internet. Even though the Internet is still technically open and anybody’s public thoughts can be accessed, it doesn’t mean that worthy information can actually reach the people that need it.

Search engines have become gate-keepers of sorts while social networks transform themselves into walled gardens. Mobile apps are also filtering out the open web into cute little boxes where companies keep their users enthralled:

http://www.wired.com/2016/08/25-world-wide-web-still-long-way-reality/^

Some time ago, I wanted to use Google’s AdWords to publish an advert for one of my articles. I was censored. Why? Because my article was titled “The Virtual Reality Revolution^”. And of course, nobody in the establishment likes to see the world “revolution” printed anywhere, right? Right?

And while we’re at it, check out this article^ I wrote about 3 months ago regarding social threats to the Internet (as opposed to the ones that are featured in this posting, which I’d classify as economical and technological).

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All Your Computers Are Belong to Us

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In recent years, Intel has moved towards integrating some pretty nifty remote administration features into its CPUs. While this may be a good idea for certain enterprises, it may quickly turn into a nightmare as soon as exploits and vulnerabilities are found. And guess what^?

Software has bugs. Hey, it happens, everybody makes mistakes. But in this case, the mistakes can’t be corrected in time (before an attacker exploits them). That’s because, in typical monopolist corporation fashion, Intel is obscuring the process by not allowing the security community to analyze whatever code the company decides to shove into our machines. The same argument stands true regarding any proprietary code, especially Microsoft’s Windows, which after 20 years of fixes is still the most vulnerable mainstream operating system.

The following article describes the problem pretty well:

http://hackaday.com/2016/01/22/the-trouble-with-intels-management-engine/^

It’s probably only a matter of time until a clever attacker will compromise the company’s buggy code. Of course, Intel will eventually patch its security holes, but given that the company’s CPUs are used across the world in some pretty sensitive contexts, there’s no telling how much damage such attacks can cause.

As for us mortals, we are at risk of having our privacy compromised even by petty criminals. This is because there’s a large window of opportunity between the time when a security hole is found and the time that Intel moves to fix it for less prioritized customers.

And don’t even get me started on how governments across the world can (and probably will) force Intel’s hand into giving over political dissidents on a silver platter. Privacy? What privacy?

If you want to learn more, here’s another article on the same topic:

http://boingboing.net/2016/06/15/intel-x86-processors-ship-with.html^

I wrote this hot on the heels of a Dissected News piece about Cyber-Warfare^. There’s additional interesting information to be found there.

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