Tag Archives: technology

Visible Light Transmission (VLT) Percentages and Automobile Windows

Here are three questions for you:

  1. When a car pulls up to you, do you want to look inside?
  2. Here’s another question: when a car pulls up to you, and you’re a law enforcement officer, do you want to look inside?
  3. And here’s a third: if you’re driving a car, how much window tint should the car windows have?

The answer to that third question varies on a state-by-state basis, which also affects the effectiveness around the second question.

I’ll use my state of California as an example. According to the “Window Tinting Laws By State” page on Geoshield’s website, the Visible Light Transmission (VLT) percentage on car windows depends on which car window you’re talking about.

  • For the front side windows, the minimum VLT value is 70%.
  • For back side windows and rear windows, any VLT value is allowed.
  • For the windshield, the minimum VLT value is 100%, except on the top 4 inches of the windshield.

But VLT percentages vary on a state-by-state basis. In Arkansas, front and back side windows have a minimum VLT of 25%.

And I would bet that if someone in California drives to Arkansas with “excessive” back side window tinting, they can get in trouble…if the highway patrol officer notices.

So if you’re a criminal, and you don’t want a law enforcement officer to see you, it’s safest for you to sit in the back seat. If you’re a rich criminal, you’re probably being chauffeured anyway, so this should be easy.

By the way, how many of you figured out why I’m asking these questions?

(Automobile tinted window image from Imagen 3)

One Product You Cannot Get at Amazon Fresh

I went back to the Upland Amazon Fresh at noon, primarily to see how Amazon incorporates technology into its services.

Amazon Fresh supports the Dash Carts I discussed in a previous post. (The Whole Foods I visited this morning does not.) These let you scan your items as you take them from the shelves, speeding your checkout.

Dash Cart in the wild.

Another device speeds your checkout by weighing your produce before checkout. Looks like you have to manually input the item number, though.

Weigh now and check out later.

This device appeared to be for returns, but I wasn’t really sure.

QR code for…something.

As I wandered through the store, I was impressed with the variety of groceries offered.

But I was unable to find one item in Amazon Fresh—something that is readily available at the Dollar Tree next door.

The missing item?

Books.

Remember when Amazon was only a book seller?

Amazon Fresh, Just Walk Out, and Reducing Automation

Between the Upland store grand opening, my musings on Amazon One, and a combination of the two, I have focused on the Amazon Fresh retail chain lately.

But I haven’t touched on the demise of Just Walk Out.

Not because of shrinkage, but because shoppers want control…and Just Walk Out took control away.

It’s masterful, really. You just throw your purchases into your cart, and a battery of cameras record and price everything automatically.

In reality, a battery of cameras and third world workers record and price everything semi-automatically. But I digress.

Anyway, all your purchases are recorded and totaled, and your payment method is charged as you just walk out.

THEN you find out how much you just spent.

Guess what? Customers didn’t like the surprises. They wanted to know how much they were spending BEFORE they were charged.

Customers wanted a better solution:

“Shoppers said they preferred being able to track their spending during a shop, access receipts instantly, and easily find products—all things that are harder with a fully automated system.

“The new solution—smart trolleys known as Dash Carts—lets customers scan items as they shop, view their basket total in real time, and pay using contactless payment at the end.”

Dash Cart picture from https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=21289116011

The love for Amazon Dash Carts horrifies engineers, who are shocked that customers rejected the technological marvel that was Just Walk Out.

Except that customers don’t want features. They want benefits…such as being able to control their spending.

And if the manual Dash Carts offer better benefits than the automated Just Walk Out…then Just Walk Out does exactly that and leaves the premises.

And if you need to communicate the benefits of your technology solution…

Bredemarket can help:

  • compelling content creation
  • winning proposal development
  • actionable analysis

Book a call: https://bredemarket.com/cpa/ 

Amazon in Upland: Is a Bear a Non-Person Entity?

So the day approaches, and the Upland Amazon Fresh will hold its grand opening on Thursday, May 1.

Amazon Fresh, Upland, California.

Wonder if the bear will show up.

Image from https://abc7.com/amazon-driver-bear-delivery-in-upland-caught-on-video/11503470/

What? You forgot about the bear?

“Yes, that’s an Amazon driver in the foreground, raising his hands to try to scare a bear away so he can make his delivery. He was successful. 

“The full Storyful video can be found here. (And of course it’s a Ring video. You didn’t expect a Nest video, did you?)”

I wonder if the bear’s paw will work with the palm vein reader.

Imagen 3. What’s the Amazon One error rate for THIS demographic group?

By the way, this is a reminder that Bredemarket provides its services to local Inland Empire businesses also. I can offer

  • compelling content creation
  • winning proposal development
  • actionable analysis

If Bredemarket can help your stretched staff, book a free meeting with me: https://bredemarket.com/cpa/

And one more thing…

After I wrote the main body of this post, I realized that I accidentally wrote the Bredemarket trifecta, covering all three of my concentrations:

  • Identity (Amazon)
  • Technology (Amazon)
  • Inland Empire (Amazon)

If you’re concerned about Amazon taking over everything, don’t fear. It will eventually fail.

But until it does, I’m gonna make some money!

#fakefakefake

Earthquake Phone Alerts Work

Back when AOL keywords roamed the earth, you didn’t learn about an earthquake until you felt it. Now, sensors and smartphones attempt to provide advanced notice.

A little while ago my phone started beeping loudly. By the time I figured out why, I felt a strong jolt.

Luckily it was 90 miles away from me, and it was NOT a 6.0 as initially reported. (Helpful hint: an earthquake’s magnitude is never as initially reported.)

But it appears that many of us received advance warning.

Now if everyone can agree on the magnitude…

DoorDash Gone Wild

One semi-trendy AI application is to use robots to deliver physical items from businesses to consumers…where the robot figures out the delivery route.

According to Dennis Robbins, this is happening in Arizona.

After looking at the regulations, or lack thereof, governing delivery robots in the Phoenix area, Robbins goes into investigative mode.

“After a nice breakfast at IHOP, I found myself facing off with the DoorDash Polar Labs delivery bot.”

If you are not from the U.S., the acronym IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes. (Except for that time when the marketers went crazy.) Not that they’re international, but I digress.

So the delivery bot set out to deliver packages to a hungry customer.

“Anyway … I followed my little friend after it picked up an order from IHOP. Enjoy our strange little jaunt.”

I won’t give it away, other than to comment that AI is like a drug-using teenager who only half listens to you. (I’ve said this before, stealing the idea from Steve Craig and Maxine Most.)

Read the full story here at The Righteous Cause, including commentary.

From Grok.

Why Boomers Laugh at Open-Source Libraries

The first paragraph of this description may not strike anyone as humorous.

Larch is a open-source library and set of applications for processing and analyzing X-ray absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy data and X-ray fluorescence and diffraction image data from synchrotron beamlines. Larch provides a comprehensive set fo analysis tools for X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy (XAFS), including both X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy (EXAFS). Larch also provides visualization and analysis tools for X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectra and XRF and X-ray diffraction (XRD) images as collected at scanning X-ray microprobe beamlines.

But when I got to the beginning of the second paragraph, I lost it.

Larch is written in Python…

In case you missed it, this is a clear reference to a small scene from an old British television show.

Number 1…the larch.

And of course I referenced this clip myself in a February post.

(Larch image By Sciadopitys from UK – Larix decidua, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20413271)

Rippling Sues Deel in Federal Court

Defying a court order? No, not THAT; this is a private affair.

“[T]he alleged spy, when confronted last Friday at Rippling’s Dublin office with a court order to hand over his phone, fled to the bathroom and locked the door. When repeatedly warned not to delete materials from his device and that his non-compliance could result in jail time, the spy responded: ‘I’m willing to take that risk,’ and fled the premises.”

So far we have only heard one side. We will see what Deel says, and if it will claim that the honeypot email (claiming Rippling had a d-defectors (where d stands for Deel) Slack channel) was sent to more than three people.