In today's episode of "ways Amazon is attempting to scam customers," the default option for a book purchase I was attempting to make is apparently to instead rent it. Caught it in time to cancel the order.
This is increasingly a company whose best days are behind it.
I miss the days when the bookstore part of Amazon was focused on adding value to the customer instead of literal rent-seeking.
"Triple check that you're buying what you THINK you're buying" was never something I had to concern myself with.
Note that the buyout price that they emailed me was significantly more than the price to purchase outright.
As a customer, how do you imagine I feel looking at this? Do you believe this earns trust? Do you think I'm likely to spend MORE with Amazon now?
With zero commentary on the technology itself, in this thread I’m going to bring web3 culture to @awscloud concepts.
Every API call you make becomes a chargeable transaction.
Every time you mention a few key terms you'll get @AWSSupport lookalikes replying instantly with sketchy Google Doc forms claiming to be the support portal and demanding your credentials. Twitter will do nothing about this.
I've been told that since enough has changed in how I do podcasts / video work, I should do another thread about my A/V setup (equipment and software) here at home.
Let's start with the audio path.
This is an ElectroVoice RE20 mic with a pop filter and a shock mount on it. I've been using it for a while; it's on a Røde mounting arm.
It plugs into the Cloudlifter mounted to the underside of the desk. Exciting. No buttons, so out of sight, out of mind.
Ooh, I can retitle it. Yes, this is real, not me having fun with the browser developer tools.
I use this account as my AWS credit dump; I'd prefer the opportunity to tell these things to ignore credits and tell me what it'd be costing me in actual dollars if we disregard the company scrip.