
John Carmack and Amazon's $30 1TB thumb drives - turrini
https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1215844056091320321
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reilly3000
For better or worse, Target and Walmart have both been able to keep a much
higher level of quality control over the merchandise and who is selling it.
Amazon charges a fee to sell on their marketplace each month: $39.99, in
addition to transaction fees. Their incentives are this: maximize the number
of sellers to increase fee revenue and give users the largest selection. That
is in stark contrast with how retailers work with suppliers, whereas both
Walmart and Target have rigorous human screening and management of every
supplier and marketplace seller.

[https://corporate.target.com/about/products-
services/supplie...](https://corporate.target.com/about/products-
services/suppliers)

It really makes Amazon look and feel like the world's flea market.

~~~
brudgers
I think that's a slight on flea markets. The flea market charges for a booth.
The flea market doesn't take a percentage of sales. The flea market doesn't
recommend items. The flea market doesn't show different items at different
prices to different people. It also doesn't charge buyers a membership fee.

~~~
solarkraft
> The flea market doesn't show different items at different prices to
> different people.

Does Amazon really do that?

> It also doesn't charge buyers a membership fee.

Neither does Amazon.

~~~
brudgers
The industry term is "dynamic pricing." This article from 2014 links (near the
top) to Amazon's admission to the practice.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/03/...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/03/if-
you-use-a-mac-or-an-android-e-commerce-sites-may-be-charging-you-more/)

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tluyben2
One of the comments says that he did not expect Carmack would fall for that: I
had that same feeling. This does, in fact, sound too good to be true which
would be the reason I would not buy it. If it were true, as it is around
1/10th of the real price, this would be on every tech frontpage and everyone
would be buying them, boxes at a time. If one of the smartest minds in tech
falls for something that does not even require tech to research for the 'too
good to be true' factor, how are total noobs protected? There really needs to
be far better protection for this; sending it back is still work and
annoyance.

Outside letting everything go via Amazon's warehouses and having items
randomly inspected by qualified staff, I cannot really see a solution though.
Apparently reviews do not work either; I bought crap as well that had top
reviews and was just crap. I find Aliexpress more reliable, it least it was
last time I ordered from it which is over a year ago; it is pretty clear what
is crap and what is not. I have gotten very crappy products there but I paid
0.50$-few $ for them, so you know that it will be bad (and actually sometimes
it is not! Like some tester phones I had for development; they were very cheap
but they work reliable for years). On Amazon sometimes you pay a lot more and
it has good reviews; turns out to be a $3 Aliexpress item with a fake brand.
Sure I will send it back and get my money back, but still, seems a lot of
sellers stay in existence even though that happens. Are other people
(Carmack?) not sending this back and leaving a 1* review?

What is a good site to order storage in the EU? I now just go to shops and by
them there; sure it costs more but I know what I get.

~~~
mantap
Probably when you get to Carmack's wealth, you stop filling your brain with
the expected prices of random items and you become more susceptible to things
like this.

In the UK politicians sometimes get asked what a pint of milk costs or a loaf
of bread, to prove they are in touch with the common man. Because many aren't.

~~~
mikestew
I’m on a tech salary with the savings to match, and I couldn’t tell you what a
load of bread costs +\\-$1, nor a pint of milk. I don’t think you have to go
very far to the wealth ladder to no longer be price-concious about stuff like
bread. You need it, you buy it. And I drive a fifteen year old Toyota, not a
McLaren. Speaking of which, couldn’t tell you what a gallon of gas costs WA
state, either.

Point is, I always found such questions silly. When’s the last time you think
a president or prime minister bought a gallon of milk? And would you fault
them for having staff do that? Would this really be news to the public?

~~~
solarkraft
In very high offices it's fine I guess, since you want to absolutely maximize
the time and energy they can spend on the work.

For more less ultra important offices it'a absolutely a problem, because
they're not aware of common problems. You see this a lot in US governance
pretty well, along the lines of "huh? I can afford health care just fine, so
why are people complaining?", while it's a gigantic issue for many.

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EliRivers
I simply don't buy new from Amazon anymore.

Second hand books is all I buy from there; everything else I ever buy online I
need to be able to rely on, and I just can't rely on Amazon anymore. I can
return it? I don't _want_ to return it, I don't _want_ to be the unpaid police
of the Amazon clusterfuck, I _want_ to receive what I ordered. I remember the
last two things I bought from there, which were even marked as being sold by
the actual manufacturer, came in boxes with spelling errors on. Must be that
commingled inventory they maintain.

Fine. Nothing new from Amazon for me anymore. Just second hand books. Their
new books are occasionally counterfeit, and often not actually cheaper than a
more reliable supplier.

~~~
sitkack
For second hand books you should be using thrift and abe. Better selection and
better prices. For music use discogs.

~~~
brudgers
AbeBooks has been a subsidiary of Amazon since 2008.

~~~
sitkack
Wait so they own Goodreads and AbeBooks, that is not right.

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swatkat
_> > I should have bought a $45 1TB hard drive._

He should be careful about hard drives too. Reminds me of this:
[https://www.jitbit.com/alexblog/198-chinese-magical-hard-
dri...](https://www.jitbit.com/alexblog/198-chinese-magical-hard-drive/)

~~~
jaclaz
Great, thanks, I simply _love_ the two nuts to give the thingy some weight.

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cataflam
On that topic, a tool named f3 exists to test the capacity of that flash
drive/card you just bought from Amazon.

[https://github.com/AltraMayor/f3/](https://github.com/AltraMayor/f3/)

~~~
rini17
It appears to use hardwired PRNG. Admittedly it's a stretch to imagine flash
manufacturers adding f3 defeat feature to firmware, but it's possible. I
prefer using bulletproof AES data like:

    
    
         1. yes | openssl aes-256-cbc -e -out /media/drive/testfile
         2. eject /media/drive
         3. physically reconnect and mount the drive
         4. openssl aes-256-cbc -d -in /media/drive/testfile | grep -q '[^y]'

~~~
colejohnson66
Why use pseudorandom or encrypted data? Why not just write the sector number
to each sector? For example, in sector 0, write an int64(0). Then read back
and check.

~~~
rini17
Many drives use compression already :)

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godzillabrennus
Zero surprise. Amazon is basically all knock offs when it comes to SD cards as
well. Friends don’t let friends buy memory cards on Amazon.

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ksec
If 1TB were really $30 I would have fitted my NAS with 5TB of those along with
a 5TB 2.5" HDD as Redundancy.

Unfortunately NAND price is expected to rise to previous level soon.

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admax88q
I have better luck buying from aliexpress than Amazon. I've taken some really
sketchy bets on some SSDs from brands I've never heard of and they have all
worked out so far.

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drudru11
Oh man I know that pain he describes in his tweet. I could not afford a hard
drive for my IIgs either.

