Amazon Go Shrinkage

Last week, Amazon opened its pilot 'cashier-less' retail store to the public.  It was announced over a year ago and I discussed it then.  Now, people outside of Amazon's own employee base have had an opportunity to experience it.  And mostly it has been positive.

Reviewers like the low (but not quite gone) employee interaction.  Most comment on the novelty of stuffing things into your backpack and walking out.  They all look at the grid of cameras suspended over the store and try and figure out what is actually going on (Amazon is not saying).  All of this is great.

Then they start talking about the implications.  As I don't live anywhere near Seattle, that's where I can jump in.

Sideband Dreams

This last weekend, I got myself some sushi and a nice dry sake then sat down and watched the first episode of Amazon's 'Electric Dreams'.  This is their anthology series based on the writings of Philip K. Dick and their answer to Netflix's 'Black Mirror'.  Based on that first episode, the series will have a lot in common with Mr. Dick: mind bending ideas that supersede the character and plot.  But they will not be direct visualizations of his stories.  Just like every other PKD story that's been filmed: they will be sidebands to his fundamental concept.

Granted, I've only seen one episode, 'Real Life', but as I've said before, I have a keyboard and access to the internet.  Being semi-informed (at best) is what goes on out here, so I'm going to dive in to a review-slash-tear-down-slash-ramble on that one episode.

Modest spoilers ahead if you care.

Fundamental Electronics Show

The International Consumer Electronics Show has come and gone for another year.  The annual celebration of technology as a consumer aspiration did its thing, attracting over 180,000 exhibitors, marketers, reporters, retailers and general enthusiasts (but only if they could borrow a badge from one of the first four groups).

On display were the biggest, smallest, fastest, farthest and most complex examples of electronic wizardry this side of DARPA.  TVs were bigger and brighter and more shapely.  Phones got thinner, faster and more... extendable(?).  There were robots that folded laundry and answered questions and guided people around.  There were new wireless technologies displayed that don't really exist yet.

On top of that the booths were more bombastic, curating brand and drawing attention and creating high concept experiences.  Experiences that were lost on the attendees as they threw elbows just to move and yelled at each other like couples at a rave club.

But none of those were the most interesting things at this year's CES.  At least, not to me.  No, the most interesting thing that happened at 11:30am PST on Wednesday, 1/10/2018.

That is when the power went out.

Stay Away

It's that time of year again, when the Tech Giants of the world descend on Las Vegas, NV and show case the things that they will make us buy in the coming year.

The big topics this year are going to be 5G and the general autonomy of Things.  That second is a sub-set of the Internet of Things that takes devices from remote controlled via the internet to making their own decisions as variables in their environment change.

Of course, there will still be the mega-booths devoted to TVs and audio equipment and all of the cars in the North Hall of the LVCC (and outside driving themselves around parking lots).  And there will be a excessive amount of people, an estimated 185,000 according the CES website.

Which brings me to my plea: Stay Away.

Five Giggity

For a variety of reasons, I've been investigating 5G, the fifth generation of mobile communications protocols.  Some of those reasons are pure curiosity and some of them are a bit more professional, but both lead to a "Great Googlie-Mooglie" reaction.  If they actually follow through on the promises this standard makes, then the world may actually change again.

The specs, taken at face value, do not tell the whole story:

• Minimum 20Gbps down per mobile base station, and 10Gbps up.
• One Million connected devices per square kilometer.
• Wicked fast mobility from base station to base station.
• Maximum 4ms ping times with the base station.

All they say is the usual more and faster story that each generation tells.  But these specs allow much more.  Read on.

[Had trouble feeling creative for the artwork.  Sorry]

StarWorld

I've seen "Star Wars: The Last Jedi".  And I enjoyed it.  Which must mean that I'm not a 'real' Star Wars fan.

Maybe.  Maybe not.  What I find is that I'm a fan of things that  I enjoy and I'm willing to let certain things slide from a canonical stand point if it makes the story interesting.  Did Rian Johnson, the director and writer, make the right choices for Luke's character?  I enjoyed the journey that the character of Luke took through this one movie, so from that perspective, he did.  Is it consistent with the character of Luke Skywalker from episodes 4-6?  I suppose that I would argue that it is not, but then that was 35 years earlier in that character's life.  Who among us has stayed the same over even five years of our lives, much less seven times that long?  Certainly not me.

But that is not really what I want to write about this week.  Merely the setup.  I want to talk about another of the fan backlash issues: starship automation.  And this one involves spoilers.  So read on only if you've seen the movie or don't care.   But see the movie: it's worth seeing on a big screen.

Mouse-opoly

Last week, the biggest news about the internet and inter-connectivity was the FCC's vote to repeal the Obama-era Net Neutrality regulations.  But that's been covered and covered and covered.  Don't get me wrong, I think that this party-line vote is a big blow against free speech in general and open access to information more particularly.  Furthermore, Ajit Pai is the puppet leader of a captured agency and should be relieved of his post.  Beyond that, I don't have anything original to say about it.

Instead, I'll jump to what I feel is the second biggest piece of Internet news: Disney Corp buying the creative assets of 20th Century Fox for $52M.  I know that at first glance, this does not look like a connectivity issue, but it is.  On a large scale.  An international scale.  Read on.