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Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by briga on Thursday August 13, 2020 @12:12PM (#24144906)
It's a little baffling how monstrously big Amazon has become over the years. Pretty soon there won't be an industry left untouched by Amazon's tentacles. Hard to see how they can continue down this path without getting broken up.

On the bright side: each new satellite launch should lower the barrier to entry for the next satellite launch. This combined with growing competition in the space industry could lead the way to commercially viable spaceflight. There's so much opportunity for off-planet industry, it'll be pretty exciting to see where all of this leads.

Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by missedthecue on Friday August 14, 2020 @01:38AM (#24154085)
It's regrettable and bitterly discouraging that the more Amazon works toward improving mine and millions of others daily lives, the closer they get to being broken up.

At least, that's the way I see it. They've added new competition in so many areas. They've saved the consumer so much money that the federal reserve literally blamed them for lowering inflation, but instead, the federal government as painfully ironic as it is, views Amazon as the bloated overreaching organization.

Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by rscho on Friday August 14, 2020 @02:53AM (#24154625)
> Amazon works toward improving mine and millions of others daily lives

... thousands of small businesses and millions of retail workers are so thankful for this "improvement". The day is nigh where you and I will also get "improved", hopefully!

Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by systemcluster on Friday August 14, 2020 @05:08AM (#24155585)
Occupations are always made obsolete when society advances as a whole and better solutions become available. We would not have progress otherwise.
Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by rscho on Friday August 14, 2020 @06:05AM (#24155966)
And one day we'll all be obsolete, implying we won't be able to show our value through our work.

Brave New World. Ideal for a certain social class: the alphas.

Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by saas_sam on Friday August 14, 2020 @12:01PM (#24159644)
Food, material goods, and services are cheaper and more plentiful than they have ever been in human history. Add to that: jobs are easier to discover, self-teach, and contact than they have ever been in human history. For the poor as well as the rich.

The main thing people get unhappy about is wealth disparity ie., how much MORE the rich have than the poor. That even today's poor have a rectangle that's effectively a magic portal to the entire world's knowledge and population is not satisfying to you when you read headlines about Bezos' mansions, right? Allow me to humbly suggest to you that if the dominant emotion of your worldview is envy, you would not have been any happier in decades past.

Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by rscho on Friday August 14, 2020 @04:15PM (#24162719)
Nice narrative. Yes, poors are better in a materialistic way. Now, what about their freedom? Is that also getting better? You might recall the magic rectangle from Farenheit 451...
Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by saas_sam on Saturday August 15, 2020 @10:11AM (#24168982)
Don't strain your back moving those goal posts. ;)
Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by cafebabbe on Friday August 14, 2020 @05:13AM (#24155621)
Not to mention the thousands of workers having to deal with grueling, unsafe work conditions.
Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by postpawl on Friday August 14, 2020 @02:07AM (#24154269)
You think they’re going to stay that competitive after they monopolize everything?
Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by Nasrudith on Friday August 14, 2020 @02:31AM (#24154439)
You think they are monopolizing eveything when they can't even win in tech ecosystems? Their latest outputs are "also-ran" copies like Kindle Fire, Prime Video, etc. They have some more success with private label which magically gets called a monopoly when combined with computers.

They are big and growing but just a bunch of talking heads and campaigns squawking "monopoly" doesn't make it so. Walmart is still bigger as a retail sector so calling #2 a monopoly is jumping the gun.

Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by Nasrudith on Friday August 14, 2020 @02:23AM (#24154387)
Well that is the thing about actually being competitive - it makes you the ultimate tall poppy, especially compared to long time lobbyists and vested interests. They made that abundantly clear back in the 90s when that DC was very upset about a lack of lobbying.
Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by richardw on Friday August 14, 2020 @03:39AM (#24154986)
My money is on e.g. Alibaba eventually doing the same to Amazon. One of them has a market that provides an obvious cost leadership advantage.
Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by echelon on Friday August 14, 2020 @04:59AM (#24155540)
How would you feel if Amazon entered your market and killed your company?

What if it takes them zero effort to do so?

Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by missedthecue on Friday August 14, 2020 @09:37AM (#24157746)
I wouldn't like it of course, but the consumer would win, and it wouldn't be right to sic the government on them because I get outcompeted. Government shouldn't be doing any favors for business, big or small.
Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by dogma1138 on Friday August 14, 2020 @05:55AM (#24155892)
I am still waiting for them to go into housing, with prefab and automation seems like the logical next step.
Re:Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night... by rscho on Friday August 14, 2020 @02:40AM (#24154510)
Pretty exciting, yeah.

Let me guess. Richer riches and poorer poors? I hope you'll enjoy the view from your off-planet 2 m^3 residential cubicle.