Published on 2025-11-25
]]>Published on 2025-11-25
Tags: amazon, commentary, llm, quote, software
The new Amazon Alexa with AI has the same basic problem of all AI bots, it acts as if it's human, with a level of intimacy that you really don't want to think about, because Alexa is in your house, with you, listening, all the time. Calling attention to an idea that there's a psuedo-human spying on you is bad. Alexa depends on the opposite impression, that it's just a computer. I think AI's should give up the pretense that they're human, and this one should be first.
I very much agree with this, for two reasons. One, "AI" isn't close to intelligence, and it distorts the truth to pretend otherwise, especially for non-technical people unfamiliar with how LLMs operate. Two, on a product level it's a bad choice — given how far from intelligence LLMs are, letting the generated text sound "human" sets up all users of the product to feel dissonance every time the product doesn't live up to its presentation.
]]>Published on 2025-11-23
]]>Published on 2025-11-23
Tags: amazon, commentary, database, software-eng
]]>Dominik Tornow in The Write Last Read First Rule on 2025-11-06:
Once the system of record is chosen, correctness depends on performing operations in the right order.
Since the system of reference doesn’t determine existence, we can safely write to it first without committing anything. Only when we write to the system of record does the account spring into existence.
Conversely, when reading to check existence, we must consult the system of record, because reading from the system of reference tells us nothing about whether the account actually exists.
This principle—Write Last, Read First—ensures that we maintain application level consistency.
Remarkably, if the system of record provides strict serializability, like TigerBeetle, and if ordering is correctly applied, then the system as a whole preserves strict serializability, leading to a delightful developer experience.
Published on 2025-09-20
]]>Published on 2025-09-20
Tags: amazon, commentary, politics, software-eng
Trump to impose $100,000 fee per year for H-1B visas.
]]>Leaked Amazon Memo on 2025-09-19:
If you have H-1B status and are in the U.S.: Stay in the country for now, even if you have travel planned for the immediate future. We will continue to provide updates as more details are available.
If you have H-4 dependent status: We also recommend you remain in the U.S., though the proclamation doesn't specifically mention H-4 dependents.
If you have H-1B or H-4 status and are outside the U.S.: Try to return before tomorrow's deadline if possible. We realize this is short notice but returning soon is advisable and you should make every effort possible to clear U.S. customs before 12:00 a.m. EDT (9:00 p.m. PDT) on Sunday, September 21, 2025.
At this time, if you have an H-1B or H-4 status and are unable to return before the deadline, we advise that you do not attempt to enter the U.S. until further guidance is provided.
Published on 2025-09-15
]]>Published on 2025-09-15
Tags: amazon, art, commentary, rss, software-eng, static-site
My count of RSS feeds as of this writing is a whopping 340. A lot of them haven't had an update in a year or more. Some are dead (I should develop a method for cleaning them up). However, one of the benefits of my laziness is sometimes a non-updating feed updates! Like today's post on Necropolis, a webcomic I haven't seen update since 2020. The author's been busy being a professional animator and producer.
]]>Getting to make cartoons with so many talented people has been a huge, all-consuming privilege. It’s taken me five years on the job just to get my legs under me, just to begin to feel that I know what I’m doing. It’s taken everything I have just to keep my head above water, to get something resembling our crew’s talent and effort and intention onto the screen. For that entire half-decade I have longed to make comics, to write stories for myself, to draw for myself. But there was always something that needed doing.
Recently I’ve realized that denying that part of myself, telling it to wait its turn through one more script revision, one more review, one more retake, one more episode, one more season–it’s taken a toll that I can no longer afford to pay. I don’t think I can keep going unless I take some time to write and draw and explore outside of the studio production system. As we fight through post on the third season of My Adventures With Superman and start writing the first season of Lantern, I’m looking for ways to work and lead that will get me some of that time back–and my teams are really coming through for me.
Published on 2025-08-08
]]>Published on 2025-08-08
Tags: amazon, commentary, communication, software-eng
]]>mtlynch on Hacker News on 2025-08-04:
> Amazon meetings start with the presenter passing out copies... of a prose document... The meeting starts with everyone sitting in silence, reading the document, and adding notes and questions in the margins with red pen.
I've never worked at Amazon, but I've heard this a lot, and it always strikes me as an odd practice. Odder still is that it apparently works and everyone I hear talk about it seems to love it.
You're squandering precious meeting time by having everyone sit and read a document together. They could easily do the same thing ahead of the meeting, and you'd have much shorter meetings.
And doing it synchronously means everyone either sits idle until the slowest reader is ready or not everyone gets to finish in time. And "slowest reader" isn't even just about reading speed. Presumably, some people can understand the document more quickly because they have more context.