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Amazon’s Robotic Workforce

Nov 29 2013

This week we take a hiatus from the Bizarre Author Deaths series to evaluate developments at surging retail behemoth, Amazon. As many of you know I have previously written a number of posts on Amazon related matters, including their increasing dominance, Asian expansion and their so-called war against publishing. Today’s post is about Amazon’s workforce.

As with most large corporations, Amazon’s workplace practices have on occasion been lambasted. Only this week the company received negative publicity in the lead up to its busiest time of year, with workers going on strike over pay at two distribution centres in Germany (Leipzig & Bad Hersfeld).

Fortunately such disruption may soon be a thing of the past for Amazon, with last year’s deployment of 1,382 robotic staff members a sign of things to come. I am of course referring to real robots not staff allegedly made to feel like robots, such as young undercover reporter Adam Littler, purportedly forced to walk 11 miles during a ten and a half hour shift in a Swansea based Amazon work camp.

It is hardly surprising that head Amazon cyborg, Jeff Bezos, should have such an interest in his fellow kind. After all this is the man/cyborg/robot/bionic being, who was described by former subordinate Steve Yegge as a:

‘‘hyper-intelligent alien with a tangential interest in human affairs.”

Bezos’s personal fascination in robots extends far beyond the $775 million Amazon paid to buy Kiva Systems, the company responsible for building Amazon’s robotic workforce. Amazon’s head honcho has also reportedly invested $7m of his own funds in another robot venture, Heartland Robotics. It would appear to be only a matter of time before further battalions of robots are deployed at Amazon distribution centres.

(A Kiva Robot – Courtesy of www.wired.co.uk)

Entertaining and eloquent in public, Amazon’s innovative leader is known not to suffer fools lightly in private. Previous comments directed at employees (human ones), whose performances have fallen below his exacting standards, include:

‘Are you lazy or just incompetent?’

‘I’m sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?’

With such disregard for human error, it seems little surprise that Bezos’s beloved Kiva robotic staff members signify a potential shift in the company’s hiring practices.

(Courtesy of www.singularityhub.com)

Last week in an attempt to investigate the latest update on the non-arrival of my Amazon book order, The Legend of the Holy Drinker by Joseph Roth (currently not in stock), I phoned Amazon. As expected of the company that sets the benchmark in customer satisfaction, the call was picked up within two minutes. The call was answered by a vaguely female sounding voice – mechanical in nature, devoid of the usual emotion and intonation one expects from human interaction. My suspicions aroused I enquired if she was a Kiva robot. Without pause she replied ‘no’, before continuing with the update on my order. Still unconvinced, I remembered that there are instances of dogs thinking they are people and assuming the same might hold true for robots, I rephrased the question.

‘Are you orange, about a foot high and travel around on wheels?’

After a momentary pause she replied,

‘I’m not orange, but I’m about a foot high and yes I travel around on wheels.’

Aware that she might be referring to a wheel chair and not wishing to enter the shark infested waters that is disability discrimination, I quickly changed tack, returning the subject matter back to my missing order, having decided to leave robotic related enquiries for another day. But I digress.

One of Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos’s, favourite phrases is reportedly,

‘Work hard, have fun, make history.’

The company are undoubtedly making history, but Bezos can also be rest assured that during Amazon’s busy festive period, his Kiva robots will not only be working hard, they will be having fun (unlike poor suffering Adam Littler). The video below is of a battalion of Kiva robots, still brimming with festive cheer at the end of an arduous shift, putting on an impromptu display of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.

Bizarre Author Deaths II

Nov 22 2013

Following on from last week, here is the second instalment of my series dedicated to bizarre author deaths.

Aeschylus

(525/524 BC – 456/455 BC)

Notable works: The Persians, Prometheus Bound, The Supplicants.

Often described as the father of tragedy, Aeschylus, along with Sophocles and Euripides, are the only Greek tragedians, whose plays are still performed and read today. Aeschylus wrote an estimated seventy to ninety plays, only seven of which have survived.

The tragedian’s innovations included most likely being the first dramatist to present his plays as a trilogy. His play, The Oresteia, is the only ancient example of the form to have survived. Another of his influential works, The Persians, is unique amongst Greek tragedies, as the only example to describe what was at the time a recent historical event. The play has proved to be an important source of information for historians studying the period in which it was written.

The playwright is also remembered for the purported bizarre nature of his demise. Aeschylus met his end when an eagle looking for a hard object to break open the shell of the turtle it was carrying, mistook Aeschylus’s bald head for a rock. The eagle dropped the turtle, killing the great tragedian instantly.

Mark Twain

(November 30th 1835 – April 21st 1910)

Notable works: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain is regarded as the father of American literature. Acclaimed for his satire and wit, Twain’s quotes on politics and human nature continue to be staples amongst speechmakers. The author’s iconic works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, often referred to as ‘The Great American Novel’, remain to this day required reading in American schools.

The influential author was born in November 1835, shortly after a visit by Halley’s Comet. Twain was convinced that he would meet his end when the comet next returned to earth. He once famously said,

‘I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming next year, and I expect to go out with it.’

On April 21^st 1910, nearly seventy four and a half years after the comet’s last visit, the iconic writer’s prophetic declaration came true, when he died of a heart-attack, merely one day after the comet’s closest proximity to earth.

Bizarre Author Deaths I

Nov 15 2013

This, the first instalment of my latest series about authors, is dedicated to two bizarre author deaths. I chose this rather macabre subject matter as death is one of the themes in my second novel, Necropolis, a humorous work of dark fiction, due for release early next year (date to be confirmed soon).

Virginia Woolf

(January 25th 1882 – March 28th 1941)

Notable works: To The Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, Orlando: A Biography, A Room of One’s Own.

Novelist, essayist, publisher and critic Virginia Woolf was an influential interwar writer and an important member of the prominent Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Regarded today as a foremost modernist and one of the major English language lyrical novelists, Virginia Woolf was an experimental writer, who achieved considerable popular and critical success during her lifetime. Her notable works include the experimental parodic biography, Orlando: A Biography, in which the hero’s life spans three centuries and both genders.

Woolf’s existence was not without its tribulations however. The talented writer suffered from depression throughout her life, several episodes in her younger years being so severe that she was sent to a mental institution. It was the onset of World War II and the destruction of Woolf’s London home in The Blitz, alongside the poor reception of her biography of late friend Roger Fry that were to send matters spiralling out of control.

Shortly after finishing the manuscript of her last novel, Between the Acts (posthumously published), Woolf entered a deep depression. On the 28th March 1941 the author put on her overcoat, filled the pockets with stones and walked out into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. After her body was finally discovered on the 18th April, Woolf’s husband, political theorist and author Leonard Woolf, had her cremated remains buried under an elm tree in the garden of their home in Rodmell.

Tennessee Williams

(March 26th 1911 – February 25th 1983)

Notable works: The Glass Menagerie, A Street Car Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

American playwright Tennessee Williams found fame with his play The Glass Menagerie (1944), a big hit on Broadway in New York. More success followed and by 1959 Williams had two Pulitzer Prizes, three New York Drama Critics Awards, three Donaldson Awards and a Tony Award to his name.

However the glory was not to last and the 1960s’ and 70s’ saw the talented playwright facing professional failures and personal problems. These may in part have been due to his increasing alcohol and drug consumption, as well as the death of former partner Frank Merlo in 1963. Beloved sister Rose being diagnosed with schizophrenia and his own dysfunctional upbringing, Williams’s father was a heavy drinker with a violent temper and his mother overbearing, could also have been factors in the playwright’s descent into depression, drugs and commitments to mental health facilities.

On the morning of February 26th 1983, Williams was found dead in his suite at the Elysee Hotel in New York. The medical examiner’s report indicated that the cause of death was Williams having choked to death on a cap from a bottle of eye drops. It was noted that alcohol and drugs might have contributed to his demise, as they may have suppressed the gag reflex. The bizarre nature of the playwright’s death was to be the subject of much scrutiny over the forthcoming years. A forensic detective who reviewed the file stated that it was an overdose that killed Williams, whilst friend Scott Kenan claimed someone in the coroner’s office invented the bottle cap scenario.

Amazon Versus Publishing

Nov 08 2013

The ongoing battle for dominance of the publishing industry saw Amazon emerge victorious from the ‘Ebook Wars’, its heavily armed Kindles decimating Barnes and Nobles’s woefully under-equipped Nooks. The ‘Pricing Wars’, which included an ambitious offensive by vigilante book retailer Overstock, who implemented an aggressive bestselling titles discount campaign, is now little more than a skirmish after Overstock made a predictable tactical retreat thereby avoiding being annihilated by Amazon.

Amazon’s ambitious empire expansion plans have entailed a campaign to lure customers to switch allegiances to them. The company’s strategy of rolling-out a series of new programs has had the dual purpose of distinguishing themselves from their competitors while crucially keeping Amazon in the media spotlight. Recent innovations include – Kindle First, Kindle Matchbook, Amazon Smile, Day One, Kindle Countdown Deals and Free Kindle Freetime subscriptions.

(Courtesy of www.clker.com)

Kindle First and Kindle Countdown are arguably the two programs that offer the most benefit for readers, authors and publishers alike. Kindle First allows Prime Members the opportunity to download one free ebook per month ahead of an official launch, whilst the Kindle Countdown, which is open to all customers, highlights discounted ebooks, at the same time putting pressure on customers to make quick purchases due to the timer which ticks down the days, hours and minutes until the deal expires. As with Amazon’s Kindle Select offering, publishers are only eligible for inclusion on the condition that the given title is exclusive to the Kindle platform (i.e. the title has been removed from competitors platforms) and is discounted by at least a dollar (£0.62).

Amazon’s approach has no doubt been successful to date, the fact that they control about 75% of the ebook market in the US and Canada pays testimony to this. Amazon is also striving to expand its empire into new markets, particularly Asia, as well as various other territories, including countries like Poland, where ebook sales are expected to increase more than ten times between 2011 and 2016.

However new threats to Amazon’s continuing dominance of the ebook market have emerged in the form of supermarkets. In the UK, Sainsbury’s have declared a discount war against Amazon. Last month Sainsbury’s offered ebook titles from bestselling authors at 99p for periods ranging from one day to an entire month. These ebooks are accessible through Android, Adobe Readers, Kobo devices and Nooks, but crucially not via Amazon’s kindle offerings. Sainsbury’s nemesis Tesco are also getting in on the action, having recently brought out their own-brand tablet, the Hudl (modestly priced at £119). To date the Hudl has been well received by customers and analysts alike.

(Courtesy of www.droid-life.com)

Despite the fact that Amazon have established a position of dominance, the future remains uncertain. It was not so many years ago that Microsoft were in complete ascendency of their market yet now that supremacy is being eroded.

Click here to read my post about Amazon’s Asian expansion.

Alcoholic Authors IV

Nov 01 2013

Here is part four of my Alcoholic Authors series.

Truman Capote

(September 30th 1924 – August 25th 1984)

Notable works: In Cold Blood, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Born Truman Streckfus Persons, Capote went on to become a prolific writer of short stories, novels, plays and nonfiction, whose accomplishments include at least twenty films and television dramas having been produced from his works.

Capote, who had a turbulent upbringing marred by divorce, long absences from his mother and periods of poor health started writing at a young age. By his late teens he had achieved considerable success and with the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966) international renown.

The author was a notorious heavy drinker. While writing In Cold Blood, Capote would allegedly have a double martini before lunch, another with lunch and a stinger after. On numerous occasions he sought help in various clinics, including Silver Hill in Connecticut, after being arrested for drink driving in Long Island. However he was to never kick his addiction, dying aged fifty-nine from liver cancer.

Capote once famously said, ‘I drink,’ …. ‘because it’s the only time I can stand it.’

Charles Bukowski

(August 16th 1920 – March 9th 1994)

Notable works: Post Office, Factotum, Pulp.

The German born Bukowski was a novelist, poet, short-story writer and columnist, who was described by Time in 1986 as a ‘laureate of American lowlife.’ His writing included the acclaimed novel Post Office, a semi-autobiographical account of Bukowski’s hand-to-mouth years existence whilst employed in a menial job at the post office and Pulp, a humorous and vulgar parody of the detective/mystery genre. The author’s writing was heavily influenced by his home city of Los Angeles.

Bukowski started drinking at aged thirteen and never looked back. A prodigious smoker and bar frequenter, he was a controversial figure renowned for his bravado. In later years the author preferred to drink at home, more often than not whiskey being his beverage of choice. Though by his own admission he suffered three hundred hang-overs a year, Bukowski never quit the habit. Despite this extraordinary excess he lived to the relatively old age of seventy-three.

Bukowski once said, ‘Alcohol is probably one of the greatest things to arrive upon the earth – alongside of me.’

Click on the links to read my reviews of Post Office and Pulp.

If you missed it here is Part III of my Alcoholic Authors series.

Aberdeenshire

Oct 25 2013

Last week I took a break from working on my second novel to visit Aberdeenshire on the east coast of Scotland (see map below).

(Courtesy of wikipedia.org)

On exiting Aberdeen airport I came across these remarkable spider web patterns on a hedge by the car hire depot.

Commercial forestry is very important to Aberdeenshire’s local economy. Picea sitchensis or Sitka spruce, a coniferous evergreen tree originating from the west coast of North America has become the predominant species in recent years, replacing the native coniferous species. Sitka’s popularity is due to its rapid growth even in poor soils. Sunlight struggles to permeate dense Sitka forest, resulting in a dearth of life on the forest floor (see below).

Peterhead, Europe’s largest whitefish port, sits at the easternmost point of mainland Scotland. British residents may be familiar with the port from the popular television series, Trawlermen. On entering Peterhead I was greeted by the sight of this fishing vessel.

Seals love the port (no prizes for guessing why). Below is a photograph of a Grey seal that I saw. It was so close that I might have been able to reach down and touch it. Their reported ferocious bite was enough to prevent me from attempting to do so.

A former fisherman showed me around one of the boats. Here are some pictures I took:

I suspect the living quarters would probably get some getting used to for us land-dwellers. The kitchen was rather quaint or so I thought.

Note the Xbox on the right of the sleeping quarters. I can only imagine what playing computer games on the high seas would be like.

A shot of the engine room with an engineer hard at work.

After the tour I took a look at the fish market being prepared for the following morning.

Below is a Monkfish (Not sure I would eat them if they looked like this when they were served).

Mackerel (see below)

Ling

The Peterhead port tour offered a fascinating insight into another world.

Famous Authors Who Died Poor II

Oct 18 2013

The following post is dedicated to two world famous and iconic authors, who died poverty stricken.

Oscar Wilde

(October 16th 1854 – November 30th 1900)

Notable works: The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The flamboyant Oscar Wilde was a writer, poet and playwright, acclaimed for his enduring wit and writing abilities. At the height of his fame in the early 1890s’ Wilde was a successful playwright and a mainstay of the London social scene.

However his world was to come crashing down with his arrest for gross indecency with other men in 1895. A guilty verdict and the resulting legal fees forced the author into bankruptcy. Sentenced to two years of hard labour, the intellectual Wilde, who was used to a life of relative luxury, suffered terribly, his health going into marked decline. Many of his friends deserted him, his name was removed from marquees where his plays were showing and the sale of his tragedy Salome fell through.

The Irish playwright was to never recover and at the age of forty-six Oscar Wilde died virtually destitute of cerebral meningitis in Paris. His final address was made from the squalid Hotel d’Alsace where he had taken up residence. He wrote:

‘This poverty really breaks one’s heart, it is so sale, so utterly depressing, so hopeless.’

O.Henry

(September 11th 1862 – June 5th 1910)

Notable works: The Gift of the Magi, The Ransom of Red Chief, A Retrieved Reformation.

Born William Sidney Porter, O.Henry is remembered as a renowned and prolific short-story writer. The author published hundreds of short-stories during his lifetime, many of which contained his trademark surprise ending.

O.Henry’s early writing career included founding Rolling Stone, an unsuccessful humour weekly and writing a column for The Houston Daily Post. In 1898 Henry was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzling funds whilst employed at First International Bank.

On being released early in 1891 for good behaviour Henry moved to New York City where he made a comeback. In the ten years prior to his demise he published over three hundred stories and became America’s favourite short-story writer. However when he died in 1910 Henry was virtually penniless. This was no doubt due in part to the alcoholism that afflicted him in later years and the fact he was carefree with money, on several occasions spending his advances, but not delivering the promised story or script.

Click here to read Part One.

Oktoberfest

Oct 11 2013

Last week I went to Munich for the annual beer festival, Oktoberfest. This is what I did there:

Karsplatz

My first sight of Munich on disembarking the train from the airport was the famous Karlsplatz (see above). The sightseeing continued with a visit to Marienplatz where I was greeted by its iconic spire.

Marienplatz

After which I visited this church (see below), located close to Marienplatz, its name escapes me.

It was now late morning and I was feeling pretty thirsty so I had my first stein (1.3 litre/2 pint capacity). Only one of them is mine.

After which we took a taxi to Oktoberfest, a short distance from the centre of town. The picture below captures the sheer scale of the event.

The place resembled an enormous fairground with vast beer tents situated either side of the main thoroughfare.

(Courtesy of www.themeparkreview.com)

In the image above a number of the rides are clearly visible. For some the rides proved not to be conducive to heavy beer consumption.

The image above goes someway to capturing the reverie in one of the beer tents.

Early the next morning found the esteemed author posing for a photograph (see below).

I was somewhat surprised to come across this person surfing in the river, something I had never previously witnessed in the centre of a city.

Below is an outdoor library. Perhaps we should embrace the concept here in the UK, considering our declining literacy levels. On such a wet and cold day this library was not particularly inviting however.

Below are some of the German beers that I sampled at Oktoberfest. Augustiner was my favourite and I can only hope that it appears in our pubs here in London one of these days. I would not recommend the Paulaner in large quantities, it is very heavy.

Lowenbrau

Beer2 Becks

Alcoholic Authors III

Oct 04 2013

As my Alcoholic Authors series has proven to be fairly popular here is a further instalment.

Dorothy Parker

(August 22nd 1893 – June 7th 1967)

Notable works: Enough Rope, Sunset Gun, A Star is Born.

American writer and poet Dorothy Parker was renowned for her sardonic wit and writing abilities. Parker sold her first poem to Vanity Fair in 1914 and went on to have an incredibly successful career, which saw her publish books, short-stories, screenplays and poetry. Her achievements include being a script writer for the Academy Award nominated film, A Star is Born.

A lifelong heavy drinker, Parker suffered from bouts of acute depression, even attempting suicide on several occasions. In later years as a direct result of her habit she was to suffer declining health. There has been much speculation as to why she drunk so heavily, perhaps it was a result of a traumatic childhood – her mother died when she was a small child, or her failed marriages and affairs; the author was married three times, twice to the same man.

Parker once famously said about her favourite drink martini:

“I like to have a martini,

Two at the very most.

After three I’m under the table,

After four I’m under my host.”

Little has been documented about Parker’s drinking habits, this may be in part due to the often isolated nature of her consumption, but also because as a woman her alcohol excess was never glorified.

Jack Kerouac

(March 12th 1922 – October 21st 1969)

Notable works: On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur.

American novelist, writer, poet and artist Jack Kerouac was a member of the Beat Generation that also included William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Kerouac primarily wrote autobiographical novels in a spontaneous prose style. His most famous book, On the Road, set against a backdrop of poetry, jazz and drug use was the defining work of the postwar Beat Generation.

Kerouac was a very heavy drinker, who particularly enjoyed Margaritas, having developed a taste for them during one of his trips to Mexico. The author was acutely aware of his drinking problem, often expressing a desire to quit or at least moderate his habit. In his book, Big Sur, Kerouac eloquently explained the nature of alcoholism. He once said, ‘Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.’

In later years Kerouac’s alcohol consumption increased as he found himself feeling isolated from the burgeoning counter-culture movement that he had reluctantly started. On October 20th 1969, Kerouac was rushed to hospital with abdominal pain. He died the following day from an internal hemorrhage caused by cirrhosis of the liver, caused by a lifetime of alcohol excess; he was forty-seven years old. The author’s legacy is that he will always be remembered as a literary pioneer and an integral part of the Beat Generation.

I am currently in Munich at the annual Oktoberfest beer festival. It seems likely that the alcohol theme will continue next week when I plan to recount my time there.

Click here to read Part 2 of Alcoholic Authors.

Alcoholic Authors II

Sep 27 2013

Following on from last week, this is part two of my Alcoholic Authors series.

James Joyce

(February 2nd 1882 – January 13th 1941)

Notable works: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, A, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Irish novelist and poet James Augustine Aloysius Joyce is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the modernist avante-garde of the early Twentieth-century. In 1999 Time Magazine named Joyce amongst the hundred most important people of the last century. In 1998 Modern Library ranked Joyce’s seminal work, Ulysses, as the best English language novel of the Twentieth-century. Another of his books, A, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, came in at number three on the same list.

Joyce was a notorious binge drinker, who was adamant that he could not write as well without the aid of alcohol. There is no doubt that Ulysses, an innovative work that utilised a stream of consciousness narrative would have been very different had the author not been under the influence whilst writing it. Various theories have been proposed as to why Ireland’s greatest ever writer drank so heavily, perhaps it was in part due to his father having been a heavy drinker or the fact that he was affected so profoundly by the death of his mother from cancer during his early adulthood.

During his time living in Paris Joyce was a drinking buddy of Ernest Hemingway. The slightly-built, bespectacled Joyce was said to often start bar fights and then hide behind the much bigger Hemingway, yelling, ‘deal with him, Hemingway. Deal with him.’

Hunter S. Thompson

(July 18th 1937 – February 20th 2005)

Notable works: Hells Angels, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas, The Rum Diary.

The father of Gonzo journalism, a style of journalism written without claims of objectivity that usually takes the form of a first-person narrative, Hunter S. Thompson was an iconic figure in the counter-culture. The writer first became well known internationally for his book, Hells Angels (1967).

The author was known for his lifelong heavy use of alcohol and drugs. Substance abuse is a central theme in much of his writing, including his most famous work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson drunk a wide range of alcoholic beverages, whiskey being a particular favourite. More often than not he was said to have started the day with beer and cocktails before progressing to straight liquor. Never one for the vagaries of waiters Thompson would typically order three to six drinks at a time.

At a first meeting with a New York publishers, a young Thompson allegedly drunk twenty double Wild Turkeys in about three hours. At the meeting’s conclusion he walked out as if he had been sipping tea. He once famously said,

‘I hate to advocate for drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.’

Thompson suffered from a bout of health problems in later life, culminating in his suicide aged sixty-seven. Per the author’s wishes his ashes were fired out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by friend and star of the movie adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp.

Click here to read part one of Alcoholic Authors.

AUTHOR GUY PORTMAN'S BLOG

Amazon’s Robotic Workforce

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Bizarre Author Deaths II

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Bizarre Author Deaths I

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Amazon Versus Publishing

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Alcoholic Authors IV

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Aberdeenshire

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Famous Authors Who Died Poor II

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Oktoberfest

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Alcoholic Authors III

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Alcoholic Authors II

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AUTHOR GUY PORTMAN'S BLOG

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