Dumping Amazon Prime

[Ashful]

In my personal opinion, having a truck drive by several times a day is poor stewardship of the great outdoors. I get that's life these days, tho.

Maybe in some areas or cases, but it's actually the opposite here. When a truck carrying Amazon packages comes down our street, they're stopping at every second or third house. No way can I go retrieve what I need on my own with lesser environmental impact, especially considering the vehicles I drive, for the incremental extra 600 feet they put on the Amazon truck to reach my door from their existing route between neighbors.

When it comes to backups, two=one, one=none.

By that logic, local copy is for convenience only, not considered a backup. I don't use external HDD for my own use. I consider them for moving files, not storing.

I use a secondary SSD as a storage drive, continually backed up to Backblaze. If they plan to go out of business, they will alert their customers and I'll upload my local copy somewhere else, as well as download the copy from Backblaze for archiving.

I also have cold storage in other offsite locations that gets added to as files are archived.

We are in complete agreement. Also using backblaze here, atop an NAS with redundant (mirrored) drives, atop local file storage, and all topped with offsite cold storage. It's the only way to fly, if your business and livelihood relies on 100% file recovery after any mishap or attack.

So the delivery trucks make their rounds either way. SOMEONE in my street will be getting a package, it's literally just another stop for them for about 30 second for them to pull over, walk the package up, pull away. The savings of me driving to/from in time, gas, wear and tear on a vehicle is immense.

Agreed. Especially for those not already passing stores on their daily commute.

 

[stoveliker]

Maybe in some areas or cases, but it's actually the opposite here. When a truck carrying Amazon packages comes down our street, they're stopping at every second or third house. No way can I go retrieve what I need on my own with lesser environmental impact, especially considering the vehicles I drive, for the incremental extra 600 feet they put on the Amazon truck to reach my door from their existing route between neighbors.

I understand, see.my later post.

However, the assumption you make is that the truck is there anyway.
While that is the way it is these days, I still wonder whether this mode (having 5 trucks go thru the street every day, also for me), is more wasteful than a weekly trip to get stuff (from a list).

I note that these trucks have about the worst operational mode (stop, 100 yards, stop, 100 yards, etc) for emissions.
Hard to nail down tho.

 

[peakbagger]

I understand, see.my later post.

However, the assumption you make is that the truck is there anyway.
While that is the way it is these days, I still wonder whether this mode (having 5 trucks go thru the street every day, also for me), is more wasteful than a weekly trip to get stuff (from a list).

I note that these trucks have about the worst operational mode (stop, 100 yards, stop, 100 yards, etc) for emissions.
Hard to nail down though

Give it just a few years and you will see a lot more electric delivery vehicles which are a lot better for that stop start type of delivery.

 

[sneefy]

We are in complete agreement. Also using backblaze here, atop an NAS with redundant (mirrored) drives, atop local file storage, and all topped with offsite cold storage. It's the only way to fly, if your business and livelihood relies on 100% file recovery after any mishap or attack.

For me, most critical dataset is a huge store of baby photos, lol.

For my work, I don't even mess with on-prem. It's all in 365, with 3rd party cloud-cloud backup, and Azure Backup for the Azure resources. Then train users to not store anything important only on their computer.

 

[NHWS]

Also using backblaze here, atop an NAS with redundant (mirrored) drives, atop local file storage, and all topped with offsite cold storage. It's the only way to fly, if your business and livelihood relies on 100% file recovery after any mishap or attack.

You might look into ZFS on FreeBSD as an alternative to mirrored drives. It's also available under most Linux distros, but might not be current or as rock-stable.

DON'T consider btrfs, through. It looks good on paper, but it is profoundly unstable on many platforms.

Offsite is clearly better than local for important info, as long as it is encrypted locally before being sent, and assuming you have enough bandwidth. Most of the people in my area have 2 MBit DSL at best. Hard to save anything more than the very most critical files at that speed.

 

[ABMax24]

To the emissions conversation, how many packages are flown long distances by air with Amazon instead of traditional truck for brick and mortar stores?

I know our local (5 hrs away, but nearest to us) distribution center was built next to the international airport for just this reason.

 

[Ashful]

My work (high-speed simulation) requires local storage, not just on the LAN, but physical PCIe NVMe drives rated ~3000 Mbps. So, we have a decent pipe, usually clocks 400 - 450 Mbps, but it's still slow enough that it would impact my workflow and loading of result data, to use any cloud service for primary storage.

I do store CAD files (and baby photos) on the NAS, which is connected by 1000 Mbps to each workstation, and even that is slower than I'd like for those tasks. I'm considering a hybrid / local approach to the CAD files, not just simulation files, but it comes with more risk unless I go full-redundant on all NVMe's ($$$$).

I'd be a good candidate for a 10 Gbps setup, but there are only so many hours per day available to chase faster computer hardware, between getting real work done.

 

[Ashful]

To the emissions conversation, how many packages are flown long distances by air with Amazon instead of traditional truck for brick and mortar stores?

I know our local (5 hrs away, but nearest to us) distribution center was built next to the international airport for just this reason.

To be honest, I thought this was at least part of the reason I see several Amazon trucks per day, instead of just one. I thought many items are coming from different regional distribution centers, and that they had a distributed predictive stocking model, to mostly have the goods fractionally stocked where they will be needed, to avoid the costs of flying them all over the country. If not, with their AI and "big data", they certainly should!

In other words, don't put all of the Furby's in one warehouse in Oklahoma, but rather distribute their population among warehouses according to predictive demand, based on population and other buying habits by locale.

 

[SpaceBus]

If we didn't use the streaming service so much, I would probably dump them as well. I find myself increasingly using other vendors when buying stuff these days.

 

[NHWS]

I'd be a good candidate for a 10 Gbps setup, but there are only so many hours per day available to chase faster computer hardware, between getting real work done.

10 Gbps fiber is easy. Look for Chelsio (like the T520-CR) or Mellanox SFP+ SR (short range) NICs and LC (Lucent Connector) transceiver modules on eBay. Very seldom counterfeited. Often perfectly good equipment replaced under a service contract. Data centers discard a lot of working parts. Drivers for Linux and *BSD are well supported. Not sure about Windows or Apple. Avoid 10Gbps copper, and avoid Intel (expensive and frequently counterfeited).

 

[ABMax24]

To be honest, I thought this was at least part of the reason I see several Amazon trucks per day, instead of just one. I thought many items are coming from different regional distribution centers, and that they had a distributed predictive stocking model, to mostly have the goods fractionally stocked where they will be needed, to avoid the costs of flying them all over the country. If not, with their AI and "big data", they certainly should!

In other words, don't put all of the Furby's in one warehouse in Oklahoma, but rather distribute their population among warehouses according to predictive demand, based on population and other buying habits by locale.

I guess it varies by area, our population density is far too low to support stocking everything Amazon sells in a wearhouse nearby, meaning many items are flown in. Granted Amazon's algorithm does a reasonable job at pushing items stocked locally.

 

[Ashful]

I guess it varies by area, our population density is far too low to support stocking everything Amazon sells in a wearhouse nearby, meaning many items are flown in. Granted Amazon's algorithm does a reasonable job at pushing items stocked locally.

Oh, definitely. Being right on the Philly/NYC corridor, I'm near one of the largest nearly-continuous urban population densities in this country. Our Baltimore to Boston megalopolis is an ideal scenario for the type of distributed stocking I'm suggesting, and which I believe Amazon must be using.

Of course, so is most of the population of this country, and hence the demand for Amazon deliveries, whether we're talking greater northeast or southern California.

 

[begreen]

While that is the way it is these days, I still wonder whether this mode (having 5 trucks go thru the street every day, also for me), is more wasteful than a weekly trip to get stuff (from a list).

This depends on the context. For many rural communities, this is not an option. There are many items that can take a 25+ mile trip (one way) to get items commonly available elsewhere. Their towns are often that distance or more from any big box store. Additionally, Covid made shopping online a much safer option for many.

 

[stoveliker]

This depends on the context. For many rural communities, this is not an option. There are many items that can take a 25+ mile trip (one way) to get items commonly available elsewhere. They are often that distance or more from any big box store. Also, Covid made shopping online a much safer option for many.

What is not an option? Planning and going once a week or once every two weeks - indeed farther, but with a comprehensive list?
Don't assume people don't know rural life... I did live in Eastern TN.

Safer has no relevance to what I was saying. My point was, that I wonder what is better *for emissions* (as I clearly indicated). 5 heavy trucks that go stop and go every 100 yards every day, or lighter cars that go longer distances with some (less) stop and go at the end of that longer trip.

It does require the lost art of keeping a list of what one needs, anticipating when one needs that, and accepting that not everything is instantaneous.

 

[begreen]

There is no argument about the lack of need for instantaneous shipping. That was stated at the beginning. Planning in advance is a good thing. The point is that a single truck or even a few trucks delivering the goods for a hundred persons a day to a small town is more efficient than those same 100 making a 50-mile round trip in their cars.

 

[stoveliker]

but only once every week or two, rather than 5 different trucks per day.

I think the benefit is not as clear as you make it out to be. Sure if one goes to a Home Depot 25 miles away and that's it. Combining trips is what has potential.

But I admit it's a moot point, in current society.

 

[begreen]

but only once every week or two, rather than 5 different trucks per day.

In a rural town of 5,000 to 10,000 it's not unusual for a hundred people a day to need something that is not available at the few local stores.

For sure we could all do with a lot less stuff, but that is another discussion. I work on that problem in our community almost daily.

 

[John Galt]

Didn't renew this year after 10 years of the "service" and noticing that the streaming parts transformed into selling or renting the product vs. it being included in Prime.

 

[peakbagger]

I still have a couple of months paid for, but in the meantime I am starting to simulate living without Prime by aggregating orders in my checkout to exceed the minimum free shipping without Prime and having them shipped on Prime day. Its easy to get spoiled by ordering something when I think of it but probably better to aggregate orders.

I do agree that the streaming service has degraded, their original productions are rarely of interest and a lot of the streaming content is stuff that seemed to be on Pluto for free (with commercials) prior to moving to Prime. They are hinting at free Mobile phone service which is intriguing but expect if I drop it, I can always change my mind.

 

[peakbagger]

Well the time has come, my subscription is up tomorrow so I set up to not renew. I rarely if ever get same day delivery and with smart post (post office doing the "last mile" delivery, same day is actually 2 to 3 days. Walmart.com has many of the items with free delivery. Worse case is if I really miss it, I can renew.

Next break is Sirius XM in about 2 weeks.

 

[begreen]

Our end date comes up on the solstice and will not be renewed.

 

[Ashful]

I went the other way, and just added a third Prime account to our household, this time for our business (tax exemption). Can’t think of another service which I’ve used so frequently, between the movies and multiple deliveries every day. Even my business backup and our streaming music all come from Amazon, now.

 

[begreen]

We've never used the music service. The few shows my wife wanted to watch are done. Most importantly, it is very rare that we need anything instantly and we like supporting our local businesses as much as possible. Buying local also takes a big load off of our local, overworked post office.

 

[Ashful]

You must have better local businesses than we do, begreen. The counter people at our local lumber yards, plumbing supplies, and electric supplies were such complete and utter A-holes that most contractors were afraid to even send their wives or kids to retrieve a part for them. God forbid a homeowner wandered into one with a few questions, these guys would eat them alive. Having owned plumbing and HVAC businesses, I got to see that, too frequently.

If you have a local business who's good at what they do, and offers value to the community, they're going to be fine. But too many took their position and their customers for granted, and I'm fine watching them rot while the Amazon and Lowes trucks pass their quiet storefront.

I've said it before, but someday the only "brick and mortar" stores may be those that actually sell brick and mortar, those being two commodities too heavy for free delivery!

 

[begreen]

Yes, we have a great hardware store and an ok lumber store. No big box stores here. Fortunately, our repairs are not common. I tend to go for well-made, low-maintenance fixtures. As the son of a mechanical contractor, I appreciate good work and do most of it myself.