amazon

Both Google and Amazon experienced significant outages a few days ago, and the ripple-effect these issues have caused has been no less than astounding. Amazon's site went down for somewhere between 20 and 45 minutes on Monday, August 19, 2013. Only ... the amazon.com and amazon.ca sites, aimed at US and Canadian visitors, were affected. Other Amazon national sites, along with some specialist sites the company owns, remained online. Sources estimate the outage cost Amazon almost $5 million. That's based on the length of the outage and the average amount of money the company makes in sales every ... (view more)

It appears unlikely that Internet regulators will allow US-based online retailer Amazon to register and control the domain suffix '.amazon'. The ruling does not affect website names, such as www.amazon.com . Instead, it's related to the new ... top-level domain system, which covers the last part of an address (otherwise known as a domain suffix). Previously, this had been limited to a few terms -- such as '.com' and '.org' -- plus individual country codes, such as '.ca' for Canada. Under the new system, run by Internet regulators ICANN, organizations can apply to register virtually any term, ... (view more)

Amazon plans to broadcast pilot episodes for 14 new television shows, with viewers deciding which programs deserve to become a full-length series. The pilots will air free-of-charge on Amazon.com in the United States. In the United Kingdom, viewers ... can watch the content on 'Lovefilm'. Although you'll need to register an account to see the shows, you won't need to have a paid subscription to Amazon Prime or Lovefilm to watch these episodes. Although Amazon will be asking for feedback, it isn't simply having a "winner takes all" vote to decide a winner. Instead, it will look at responses and ... (view more)

After a simple yet devastating hack of its security went public last August, Apple has -- just eight months later -- introduced a two-step authentication system. Back in early August 2012, Wired.com's Mat Honan was devastated to find that hackers ... were able to gain access to his MacBook, iPhone, and Gmail account after easily bypassing both Apple and Amazon security systems. Hackers Exploit Simple Security Systems Hackers used a simple trick: they called Amazon to request a password change. When prompted by an Amazon representative, they presented Honan's name, billing address, and email ... (view more)

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has agreed to pay Amazon $600 million over the next ten years. However, the CIA isn't purchasing books or DVDs -- instead, it's buying access to Amazon's massive, private data system. The deal is with Amazon's ... Web Services department, which already offers cloud computing to individuals and businesses. Cloud computing doesn't simply mean offering online storage, but also online data processing. The Amazon cloud service works on a pay-as-you-go basis. This makes it ideal for organizations that need data processed intermittently rather than all the time. ... (view more)

The Authors Guild has formally objected to Amazon's plans to take control of a new website domain dedicated to books. They say it is inappropriate for a private company to control such an important (and generic) domain name. The dispute centers on ... the new top level domain system. Until this year, all website addresses had to have an ending (or top level domain) that was either '.com' or '.org,' or a specific country code, such as '.ca' for Canada. Under the new system, organizations can apply to take control of virtually any term. For example, a technology site could move to a ".site" address ... (view more)

Streaming video service Netflix suffered an international service outage on December 24-25, 2012, that left perhaps 90 per cent of its subscribers unable to access the company's massive catalog of TV shows and films. According to Netflix, Amazon was ... responsible for the problem. Netflix users intent on spending Christmas Eve in front of the boob tube were upset to find the service completely unavailable. One subscriber told The Wall Street Journal that they "came home to relax and watch movies," but after trying to access the Netflix catalog "several times" they simply "gave up" and turned to ... (view more)

Amazon has been hit by a simple but sneaky scam involving bogus "lost item" claims that could lead to difficulty for legitimate Amazon shoppers. The problem was highlighted by web development blogger Chris Cardinal, who received several mysterious ... emails from Amazon about an order for an expensive camera. (Source: htmlist.com ) At first Cardinal assumed the messages were part of a phishing scam, which involves tricking people into providing personal information, including log-in data and passwords. However, upon logging into his Amazon account he discovered the emails were genuine. ... (view more)

To our Valued Readers, In our quest to improve upon Infopackets.com and overall visitor satisfaction to our site, we've rolled out some major changes this past week and will continue to make improvements in the weeks ahead. Some of the changes we've ... rolled out this past week include: additional content: 5 more articles per week added: payment link for donations by PayPal, card, and by mail inclusion of "How To" articles to the site removal of Vibrant Media ads (blue double-underscore links / pop up ads) removal / change of Google ads added: 'Help Support Infopackets' tab at top of page ... (view more)

At the request of many users, I've put a link to this page on our tab menu (near: Home, Archive, Contact, etc), which is accessible on every page of our site. Refer back here any time you need to. This article was originally published November 22, ... 2012, and has been amended. Article Summary: This article describes our current financial situation, as well as instructions on how to support Infopackets using Amazon. Your support is greatly needed and appreciated and allows us to continue publishing. Update 2012/11/23: I've added links to Amazon.com (USA), Amazon.co.uk (UK), as well as Amazon.ca ... (view more)