Did you ever wonder what, if anything, will inevitably defeat Amazon? I was recently flying home from vacation, and I started talking with the guy next to me. He was the CTO of his company, and we started talking about his tech infrastructure. He was using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support his site, and we got to talking about just how ubiquitous Amazon has gotten. Amazon is quickly moving into nearly every area of business there is, and they rarely fail. This should give most small businesses pause, as they consider whether or not Amazon is a competitor….
What? Social media sites are sharing my data?
While it’s slowing to a trickle, Facebook continues to be in the news for their data practices. People are still shocked that Facebook could have shared their user data with others. Working in the tech field myself, it’s surprisingly easy to find other tech professionals who are shocked that their data may have been shared with third party groups. A friend of mine, who worked with Apple, recently posted on his Facebook page that he was seriously considering shutting down his account, as so many others have already done (or at least claimed). My question: why is everyone acting…
Please be patient, student driver
I was riding my bike today, when I passed a car with a “Please be patient, student driver” bumper sticker. A sticker like this is asking people around them to behave differently than they otherwise might. How is this helping the new driver? Anyone driving a car is going to be subject to all of the unknown and mysterious whims, habits, rages, and peculiarities of every other driver on the road. The only way to prepare a driver for that is to throw them in and let them start experiencing the joy of driving first-hand. Obviously, the sticker is…
I’m sensing a trend…
Lately, I’ve noticed quite a few people causing a problem and then getting angry at those who reacted negatively to the problem they caused. In just the last week: I witnessed a woman in the street freak out and give the finger to a bus driver who chose to honk rather than run her down. Someone pulled out right in front of me while I was driving 40 on a 35mph road, and then gave me the finger when I went around them and looked at him. I was heading toward a stop light that was red with the…
Move over Marvel… DC has the best villain of them all
That’s right, while Marvel is dominating the comic landscape right now, they still have nothing on the DC villain, Codpiece. Earlier today, I was telling a friend that the iconic Stilt Man, a long time Daredevil villain, should be in the Netflix series. He responded by telling me that Codpiece should definitely get some screen time in the next DC movie. (DC Comics is the home of Superman, Batman, and the like.) I’m still having a hard time believing this character is real… but he is. Created by Rachel Pollack, Codpiece was just a guy in high school who…
Hey, let’s go harass the unstable guy with the gun
Let me see if I understand this… Those who advocate for gun control and the repeal of the 2nd Amendment are mostly liberal. Fair to say? As such, whenever there is a mass shooting, gun control advocates tend to protest and blame the NRA and, by association, conservatives. They often point out that conservatives love their guns and the 2nd Amendment. Liberals rush to find evidence that proves the mass shooter is a conservative, which fits the gun-love narrative. Everyone agrees that mass shooters are mentally ill, or certainly not stable. Meanwhile, the more radical and unhinged liberals (a…
There’s no such thing as equal, so there’s no such thing as equal pay
One of the reasons the Bubbler exists is because we were frustrated having points of view on the news that we were never hearing in the coverage. And so it goes with the equal pay movement. The premise of equal pay is that men and women should be paid equally for doing the same job. But no part of that idea holds up to scrutiny. Start with “the same job.” There are no “same jobs.” Not in the same company, and especially not across different companies. Every job has its own nuances. You work with different teams or individuals….
There still an area where women get no attention
Now that we’ve finally agreed that men and women are exactly the same and everything one gets, the other should get, too, there’s one area that still stands out to me. Why is it everyone can name at least three male serial killers, but no one can name one female serial killer. (Which isn’t necessarily true, because here at Face House Productions, we were able to name Myra Hindley largely due to The Smiths song, Suffer Little Children, which was a song about the Moors Murders.) We’ve dutifully addressed all gender inequality, but I think this one is overlooked….
Let your friends know Facebook is telling you to think about them on their birthday
Once again, I received another email from Facebook this week instructing me to “Let Maxwell House know you are thinking about him on his birthday today.” And once again, I made sure to get up early enough to call my friend and wish him a happy birthday before Facebook sent me their crutch. My friends are important to me, and so are their birthdays. Like people used to do with their friend’s phone numbers, I make an effort to remember my friend’s birthdays and wish them a happy birthday. But Facebook has leveled the playing field. Now, instead of…
Proud to be an American (when it’s going my way)
Gallup released their annual 4th of July poll with the headline “Record-low 47% Extremely Proud to be Americans.” They’re focus for the story was that the percent of Americans who are proud to be American hit 47%, the lowest percent since they started the annual poll in 2001. I took away something completely different: Conservatives and Republicans (not the same thing) were consistently proud to be American, no matter what year, and no matter who was the President – Bush, Obama, or Trump. In the last five years, the percent of conservatives varied from 61% to 66%. Conservatives’ pride…