Just days after getting a new CEO, Ring is angering customers by locking core features behind a subscription service.
Ring is one of the most popular home camera systems and is owned by Amazon. The company’s founder stepped aside as CEO last week, paving the way for former Microsoft and Meta exec Elizabeth (Liz) Hamren to take over.
Less than a week later, Ring has made one of its more controversial decisions, according to Android Central:
Starting March 29, 2023, all Ring customers will have to have a subscription in order to use the Home and Away modes in the Ring app. Additionally, new Ring Alarm customers will have to have a subscription in order to set or disable the alarm remotely, see more than 24 hours of event history, or even receive notifications from their Ring Alarm base station.
As Android Central points out, these types of changes paint a dim picture of the future of the smart home. Rather than consumers being able to purchase, own, and truly use their smart home devices, it seems companies are hell-bent on locking them into a quagmire of perpetual subscriptions for even the most basic features.
Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff has announced he is stepping down, paving the way for Elizabeth (Liz) Hamren to replace him.
Siminoff founded Ring and has served as CEO, taking the company from a scrappy startup to one of Amazon’s leading divisions. The executive penned a blog post announcing his decision to step down from the top job and re-focus on his passion:
Invention is my true passion. I am constantly looking at how we can adapt to deliver for our neighbors, which is what we’ve always called our customers. This is why I decided to shift my role to Chief Inventor and bring on a new CEO.
Hamren has been tapped to replace Siminoff as CEO, bringing years of experience at Microsoft, Meta, and Discord:
Today, I’m excited to introduce our new CEO, Elizabeth (Liz) Hamren, who is joining us most recently from Discord where she is COO. Liz has a long history in consumer devices and subscription services, building and launching some of the most innovative and beloved consumer products from Oculus to Xbox and more. When she and I met eight years ago, Ring was so small and I hadn’t shared our mission with anyone except our team, mostly because no one would listen. Even then, Liz understood what I was feeling about the space: Our work wasn’t about trying to make a faster chip or shinier plastic, it was about changing the way neighbors think about security for the better. I’ve felt a kinship with her ever since, and I am honored and excited to have her join the team on this mission.
Siminoff says this decision has been a long time in the making, first revealing the transition plan to employees in June 2022. At the time, Siminoff emphasized that the company would take the necessary time to find the right replacement, and he voiced his confidence that Hamren is that person.
Hamren Ring following a number of privacy and security scandals that have tarnished the company’s image. The tech industry in general, and Amazon specifically, are also facing greater legislative challenges and regulatory scrutiny, ranging from antitrust to privacy concerns.
Amazon’s Ring and Google Nest devices are popular home security options, but users may want to look elsewhere if privacy is a concern.
Ring and Nest devices are used in homes and businesses alike, but a new report says Amazon and Google are giving police access to footage from the devices without a warrant and without the owner’s permission.
The revelation occurred as a result of Senator Edward Markey’s inquiries regarding Amazon’s practices. The Senator has become increasingly concerned over the role private companies play in mass surveillance.
“As my ongoing investigation into Amazon illustrates, it has become increasingly difficult for the public to move, assemble, and converse in public without being tracked and recorded,” said Senator Markey. “We cannot accept this as inevitable in our country.”
In response to Senator Markey’s inquiry, Amazon acknowledged that it does provide law enforcement with access to user footage without permission or a warrant.
“So far this year, Ring has provided videos to law enforcement in response to an emergency request only 11 times,” the company wrote in response. “In each instance, Ring made a good-faith determination that there was an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to a person requiring disclosure of information without delay.”
Amazon is not alone in this practice. Google’s Terms of Service make it clear the company has similar policies.
“If we reasonably believe that we can prevent someone from dying or from suffering serious physical harm, we may provide information to a government agency — for example, in the case of bomb threats, school shootings, kidnappings, suicide prevention, and missing persons cases. We still consider these requests in light of applicable laws and our policies.”
Not everyone is convinced by Amazon’s response and it’s unlikely Google’s will score many points either.
“The ’emergency’ exception to this process allows police to request video directly from Amazon, and without a warrant,” writes Jason Kelley and Matthew Guariglia for the EFF, specifically about Amazon. “But there are insufficient safeguards to protect civil liberties in this process. For example, there is no process for a judge or the device owner to determine whether there actually was an emergency. This could easily lead to police abuse: there will always be temptation for police to use it for increasingly less urgent situations.”
Additional Privacy Issues
Sharing information with the police is not the only concern. Senator Markey, as well as the EFF, also raise concerns about the distance at which Ring devices can record audio.
“Earlier this year, Consumer Reports revealed that Ring’s audio capabilities are more powerful than anyone anticipated, collecting conversation-level audio from up to 25-feet away,” Kelley and Guariglia add. “This has disturbing implications for people who walk, bike, or even drive by dozens of these devices every day, not knowing that their conversations may have been captured and recorded. The company also refused to commit to eliminating the default setting of automatically recording audio.”
Ring has a longstanding history of privacy issues, and Google is no stranger to privacy controversies. The fact that both companies are sharing data without authorization, not to mention one of them broadly recording mass amounts of indiscriminate audio, should be a major concern for everyone involved.
Ring has announced it is now offering end-to-end encryption to protect videos through the entire process.
Ring made headlines in late 2019 when a number of users reported their video streams being hacked, and outsiders watching what was happening in people’s homes and even speaking to them. In some cases, the incidents took very disturbing turns, with strangers talking with children or going on racist rants.
It’s little wonder that Ring is rolling out end-to-end encryption, which the company is calling a technical preview at this point.
By default, Ring already encrypts videos when they are uploaded to the cloud (in transit) and stored on Ring’s servers (at rest). With End-to-End Encryption, customer videos are further secured with an additional lock, which can only be unlocked by a key that is stored on the customer’s enrolled mobile device, designed so that only the customer can decrypt and view recordings on their enrolled device.
Privacy, security and user control are foundational to Ring, and video End-to-End Encryption demonstrates Ring’s ongoing commitment to continually delivering enhanced privacy, security, and control to customers.
Ring’s announcement is a welcome upgrade…even if it is long-overdue.
Ring has issued a recalled for some 350,000 2nd generation devices due to fire hazard.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Ring doorbells have ignited 23 times, with eight reports of minor burns. The issue appears to be the result of the incorrect screws being used when installing the devices.
All told, there have been a total of 85 total complaints about the improper screws being sued.
“The video doorbell’s battery can overheat when the incorrect screws are used for installation, posing fire and burn hazards.”
Ring emphasized that properly installed devices pose no threat.
“The safety of our customers is our top priority,” a Ring spokesperson told CNET. “We have and continue to work cooperatively with the CPSC on this issue and have contacted customers who purchased a Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) to ensure they received the updated user manual and follow the device installation instructions.
After ongoing issues, Ring has informed users it is implementing a number of changes to improve privacy and security.
Ring’s blog post comes as the company is trying to do damage control over a number of mishandled privacy issues. First there were multiple reports of the company’s cameras being hacked, followed by VICE investigating the service’s security and finding it wanting, to say the least. The worst revelation came when the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) found that Ring was sharing personally identifiable data with a number of companies, without properly disclosing it to consumers. Ring’s response did nothing to help the situation, admitting they were sharing data with more companies than they said, but that customers should trust they were doing it responsibly.
In the company’s blog post, Ring tries to address multiple concerns, beginning with two-factor authentication.
“While we already offered two-factor authentication to customers, starting today we’re making a second layer of verification mandatory for all users when they log into their Ring accounts,” reads the blog post. “This added authentication helps prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to your Ring account, even if they have your username and password.”
The company also addressed its data sharing policies.
“Ring does not sell your personal information to anyone. We occasionally collaborate with third-party service providers that specialize in delivering different benefits, such as identifying and solving your problems faster when you contact Ring Community Support, providing you with personalized Ring offers and discounts, and communicating important alerts about your devices, like when your battery is low. Collaborating with these third-party service providers allows us to deliver the best possible Ring experience to you.”
Ring says it is implementing a number of changes. First it is temporarily pausing most third-party analytics data sharing. Second, the company is also providing customers a way of opting out of third-party data sharing for personalized ads.
Overall, this is a good first step for the company. If Ring had built its service with these steps already in place, they would not have spent the last couple of months losing customer trust and doing damage control.
Ring has been in the news for its ongoing struggles with privacy issues. Its latest response, not to mention its approach in general, could serve as a case study of what not to do.
Ring was first in the news over a number of incidents where individuals were able to hack the cameras, spy on and interact with the owners. Following that, VICE tested Ring’s security and found it was abysmal. The nail in the coffin was the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) investigation that showed Ring was sharing a load of identifiable information with third-parties. The worst part is that users were not notified of what data was being collected and shared, let alone given a way to control or opt-out of the collection.
Now CBS News is reporting that “although it confirmed that it shares more data with third parties than it previously told users, the company said in a statement that it contractually limits its partners to use the data only for ‘appropriate purposes,’ including helping Ring improve its app and user experience.”
Essentially, the company is saying “yes, we got caught doing something we shouldn’t have been doing, but you should totally trust us that we’re doing it responsibly.”
Ring’s troubles and their response should be a lesson to every company that deals with customers’ private data: A strong commitment to privacy should NEVER be an afterthought, add-on or damage control. In an era when hackers are eager to take advantage of weak data policies, when companies look to profit from their customers’ data and when an interconnected world means that a single breach can have far-reaching consequences—privacy must be built-in from the ground up.
The fact that it should especially be built-in from the ground up in a service that is designed specifically to protect user privacy and security should go without saying. However, since Ring obviously needed someone to say it, the company should stand as an example of what not to do when it comes to protecting customer privacy.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has discovered that Ring’s Android doorbell camera app is being used to surveil customers.
According to the EFF, the Ring Android app is “packed with third-party trackers sending out a plethora of customers’ personally identifiable information (PII). Four main analytics and marketing companies were discovered to be receiving information such as the names, private IP addresses, mobile network carriers, persistent identifiers, and sensor data on the devices of paying customers.”
Specifically, the data is shared with Branch, AppsFlyer, MixPanel and Google’s Crashalytics. EFF’s investigation was able to uncover what data was being sent to each entity.
Branch is a “deep linking” platform that receives several unique identifiers, “as well as your device’s local IP address, model, screen resolution, and DPI.”
AppsFlyer is “a big data company focused on the mobile platform,” and receives information that includes unique identifiers, when Ring was installed, interactions with the “Neighbors” section and more. Even worse, AppsFlyer “receives the sensors installed on your device (on our test device, this included the magnetometer, gyroscope, and accelerometer) and current calibration settings.”
MixPanel receives the most information, including “users’ full names, email addresses, device information such as OS version and model, whether bluetooth is enabled, and app settings such as the number of locations a user has Ring devices installed in.”
It’s unknown what data is sent to Crashalytics, although it’s likely that’s the most benign of the data-sharing partnerships.
The worst part is that, while all of these companies are listed in Ring’s third-party services list, the amount of data collection is not. As a result, there is no way for a customer to know how much data is being collected or what is being done with it, let alone have the option to opt out of it.
Ring has been in the news recently for several high-profile security issues, including its cameras being hacked and a VICE investigation revealing an abysmal lack of basic security features. While both of these can be chalked up to errors or incompetence, this latest discovery is deeply disturbing because it speaks to how Ring is designed to function—namely as a way for the company to profit off of surveilling its own customers.
Following reports of connected security cameras, such as Ring and Nest, being targeted by hackers, scammers are preying on people’s fears with a “sextortion” scheme, according to CNBC.
The scam relies on “social engineering,” or the ability to convince an unsuspecting victim do something they wouldn’t normally do, through the use of charm, guilt, shame or authority. The scammer has usually done enough research and has enough information and half-truths to make the scam seem credible.
According to CNBC, IT security firm Mimecast saw “a huge spike in the new tactic, with more than 1,600 scam emails intercepted in just a two-day period from Jan. 2 to Jan. 3.”
When describing this particular scam Kiri Addison, head of data science, said “this one is a bit different. It stood out, because it’s really convoluted in a way. It starts out with a single email saying ‘we’ve got some nude photos of you.’”
The email will include a link to a website showing Nest footage from an innocent area the person could have visited, such as a bar or restaurant. The idea is to make the person believe they’ve been monitored and recorded over a long period of time, in any number of situations, making it more believable they may have been recorded in a compromising position.
Ultimately, the victim is walked through the process of establishing a bitcoin wallet and paying the scammers $500 to keep their photos and videos from being released on porn sites. It’s important to understand there aren’t actually any photos or videos.
As CNBC points out, “if you receive a sextortion email, the best thing you can do is ignore it.
“Although internet-connected cameras and smartphones can be hacked, this is a very rare event. It’s practically non-existent for such a hack to be combined with an extortion demand.”
In the wake of reports of Ring devices being hacked, Amazon has informed senators of four incidents where employees improperly accessed user videos, according to Ars Technica.
Amazon was replying to several senators who have sent inquiries to the company regarding their Ring business. Originally, the inquiries centered around Amazon’s relationship with hundreds of law enforcement agencies to promote Ring’s cameras. As news of Ring’s security woes became widely known, a group of senators sent a follow-up inquiry regarding those breaches.
In their response, Amazon admitted there have been four employees in the last four hears who have improperly accessed user videos. In each case, according to the company, the employees did have legitimate access to user videos, however “the attempted access to that data exceeded what was necessary for their job functions.”
Amazon says swift action was taken to fire the employees involved and “take appropriate disciplinary action in each of these cases.” In addition, “Ring periodically reviews the access privileges it grants to its team members to verify that they have a continuing need for access to customer information for the purpose of maintaining and improving the customer experience.”
Even with these steps, this is unwelcome attention for a company trying to prove its products can be trusted.
In the wake of multiple hacks and a subsequent lawsuit, Ring is off to a promising start at CES 2020, unveiling a new privacy Control Center, according to CNN.
Ring has had a tough few weeks as multiple incidents surfaced of strangers accessing customers’ camera feeds. In one incident, a strange man talks to an 8 year-old girl via the camera in her room, while in another case a man subjected a couple to racist comments about their son.
While Ring said these incidents were not the result of a breach of their systems, and were instead indicative of people refusing passwords that may have been hacked or accessed elsewhere, VICE tested Ring’s security and found it was abysmal. In particular, Ring offered no way of knowing who else may be accessing a camera feed—or if anyone else has ever accessed it.
The announcement of the Control Center should go a long way toward addressing these concerns. The new tab provides a way to see who is accessing feeds, as well as whether a camera is being shared in the Neighbors app. The new feature will give users the ability to adjust the privacy settings for all of their Ring devices from a central location.
The company plans to continue giving users more control and simplifying the interface as the Control Center evolves.
CNET is reporting on the latest example of security cameras exposing the very people they’re supposed to protect.
According to the report, Netherlands resident Dio clicked on the Xiaomi camera feed on his Google Nest Hub, expecting to see a blackboard he had the camera pointed at for test purposes. Instead, he saw a stranger’s kitchen. Repeated attempts showed a random collection of other people’s cameras, only occasionally displaying his own.
At this point, no one is aware of the cause of the issues or whether it is on Google or Xiaomi’s end. In the meantime, Google has disabled Xiaomi integration until a fix can be implemented.
“We’re aware of the issue and are in contact with Xiaomi to work on a fix. In the meantime, we’re disabling Xiaomi integrations on our devices,” Google told CNET, although they did say they were not aware of other instances of this happening.
Ring has been under fire recently over a number of hacking incidents, and security camera maker Wyze suffered a high-profile data breach. These incidents continue to demonstrate the need for IoT companies, especially ones in the security market, to place a greater emphasis on security protocols and testing.
TMZ is reporting that Ring and its parent company, Amazon, are being sued in federal court in California, claiming they have failed to protect users.
Ring made headlines a couple of weeks ago when a number of cameras where hacked. In one particularly disturbing incident, a camera in an 8 year-old girl’s room was hacked, with the hacker talking to her, claiming to be her best friend. There have been other incidents as well, with a woman woken by a hacker shouting at her and a couple subjected to racist comments about their son.
To make matters worse, VICE tested the Ring devices and found their security was abysmal. There was no way to see if anyone else was logged in to the camera, nor was there a log of who had accessed the device in the past. In other words, once a camera is hacked, there is virtually no way of knowing it has been compromised.
The lawsuit’s plaintiff, John Baker Orange, seems to have a similar story as the other hacking incidents. He claims that “someone hacked into his outdoor security cameras and started commenting on his kids who were playing basketball … encouraging them to get closer to the camera.” If the claim is true, it could be the earliest known example of Rings being maliciously hacked, as Orange claims the incident occurred last July.
For a company specializing in security hardware, failure to provide basic security measures is beyond abysmal—it is unforgivable. It’s a safe bet this won’t be the first lawsuit Ring and Amazon face.
Ring made headlines last week when multiplehacks were reported, with some disturbingresults. In the wake of the reports, Ring tried to assure users that its network and systems had not been compromised and that the hacks were the result of users reusing passwords from other, compromised services.
Not content with that explanation, the journalists at VICE took it upon themselves to test Ring’s security firsthand. The results were…unfortunate…to say the least.
“Motherboard purchased a Ring camera to test what sort of security protections are in place to stop or slow hackers trying to break into Ring accounts. After setting up an account, the Ring app, and the camera itself, we shared the email address and password to the camera interface with multiple reporters who used both virtual private network software to connect to the camera from IP addresses from all over the world as well as physically being located in other countries.
“We logged into the Ring app and website from the U.S., U.K., Spain, and Singapore, in some cases simultaneously and from various devices and browsers that had never been used to log into the platform before. At no point did Ring trigger any sort of alert, such as an email notification, to check that the IP address the system had never seen did indeed belong to the legitimate camera owner. Gmail, for instance, may email you if it detects a suspicious login attempt from a new location, a new device, or a new browser.
“On a desktop web browser, someone who is logged in is able to watch historical, archived footage. From a smartphone app, someone who is logged in can watch live and historical footage, listen through the camera’s microphone, speak through the camera’s speaker, play an alarm, see the name of the specific Wi-Fi network the camera is connected to, see the address the user originally registered the Ring camera with, see the phone number a user has entered into the app, and see nearby crime ‘incidents.’”
VICE goes on to highlight that Ring provides no way of seeing who is currently logged on to the device, despite allowing multiple people to be logged in simultaneously. The device also provides no log to see who has accessed it in the past. In other words, if a hacker manages to gain access to a Ring device, the owner has absolutely no way of knowing—other than obsessively monitoring the little blue light on the front of the camera. Even then, that only indicates someone is live-streaming the camera feed at that exact moment.
The bottom line is that Ring provides a deplorable level of security for a device whose sole purpose is to increase security.
In the wake of multiple hacking incidents, Ring is recommending users change their passwords, while at the same time reassuring users the company has not been compromised.
In recent days, there have been multiple reports of Ring devices being hacked, with some terrifying results. In one case, a Ring device in an 8-year-old girl’s room was hacked. A man’s voice can be heard talking to the girl, claiming to be her friend. There have been similar incidents in Georgia, Florida and Texas.
Following the reports, Ring investigated the incidents and found no evidence of unauthorized intrusions into their network or systems. According to the company, “malicious actors obtained some Ring users’ account credentials (e.g., username and password) from a separate, external, non-Ring service and reused them to log into some Ring accounts. Unfortunately, when people reuse the same username and password on multiple services, it’s possible for bad actors to gain access to many accounts.”
The company goes on to recommend some common sense suggestions, including activating two-factor authentication; using strong passwords consisting of upper and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols; adding shared users rather than sharing credentials; regularly updating passwords and not using the same passwords for multiple services and apps.
This latest issue is another example of how an increasingly interconnected world requires individuals to learn and practice cybersecurity best practices in order to keep themselves and their families safe.
Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff has a rags to riches story that most entrepreneurs can only dream of. He was famously turned down on Shark Tank only to later sell his company to Amazon for $1 billion just this past February. Siminoff says he is now appearing on an upcoming Shark Tank episode on the other side as one of the Sharks. Even though he was turned down he says “I really have no animosity for any of the Sharks.”
Jamie Siminoff, CEO of Ring, discusses his return to Shark Tank as an investor, the Ring integration with Amazon, and the true reason for the success of the Ring product line on Bloomberg:
New Technological Innovations Coming to Ring Soon
We are doing a number of things around battery life. One is around solar where we are adding a lot of solar accessories to our products. We are also going to be coming out with some other technology innovations that we will be announcing over the next couple of months.
A lot of that technology comes from the integration that we have been able to do with Amazon, now being able to leverage a much bigger pool of technology and experts that we just couldn’t as a small independent company.
Amazon has done a wonderful job of securing and protecting the privacy around their customers. We’ve focused on that for our neighbors. We are one of the best solutions for security in the neighborhood and I think we will just let customers continue to choose that.
We Are the Market Leader Because Ring is Effective
From the competition side, we’ve had literally hundreds of people come into the market. Why we’ve been able to keep such a large market share I believe is because we really are there to deliver effective affordable solutions to our customers.
We are not just about selling a product, it’s about selling something with effectiveness and we’ve really been able to prove that. A study we did with the New York police showed we were able to reduce burglaries by 50 percent. It’s really about that effectiveness of our solution not just about the particular hardware product.
I Have No Animosity for Any of the Sharks
I think as an investor now that I’ve been able to go to the other side of the Tank I’m sure I will miss the next big Ring because investments are very tough to pick. Who’s the best, who’s not? I really have no animosity for any of the Sharks. That platform is really what helped build Ring into what it is today so I’m thankful that we just had the opportunity to be on it.
I do wish that we had gotten money at the time because I was broke and it would have been very nice to have had that money, but we still made it. What I tell any entrepreneur that doesn’t get the money either from Shark Tank or another investor is we were turned down over 100 times and you just got to keep going.
You’ve all heard the story of Jamie Siminoff, creator of Doorbot, later renamed Ring, who was famously rejected on national TV on SharkTank, but then went on to create a wildly successful business. Earlier this year Amazon paid a reported $1 billion in cash for the business.
Here are the key highlights of how Jamie and his small startup hit it big:
From a SharkTank Reject to an Amazon Success
If you can get acquired by Amazon your about as lucky as you get because they really do let you just keep going. Five years ago I was very much on the other side. I was on Shark Tank looking for money trying to get an investment. I did not get one on the show and now it’s funny because everyone says to me, well you were so smart not to take that money. I’m like no, I was driving back from there to my garage almost in tears broke. I actually needed the money.
I think Shark Tank has been a great show for families. Families watch the show, people watch it with their kids, it’s aspirational, and it shows that people can do things. It obviously has to be entertaining because it is TV so you need people to watch it but I think it has been good for overall for startups in general.
For Ring, we were Doorbot at the time, it gave us awareness and credibility that we never would have had that sort of jumped us up. It was a great platform for us to launch off of and we really used it. We turned out to be the largest company ever to be on SharkTank and it was it was a great experience.
We Were the Consummate Hustlers
We were the consummate hustlers. Looking back at those days, you work the booth at TC, you go to CES, you just grind. You wear your shirt everywhere, you just grind and embarrass yourself. I think that level of a start-up at the beginning you almost have no shame. You have to just put yourself out there, get the stories out there, and get the name out there. You have to focus on the business, but you have to hustle.
I always get asked by people that have a startup, what worked? What they really want is the one thing. They want me to tell them we did X, and then I can just go do X and be successful. The truth is it’s like 5,000 things that you have to do to make a successful company. The first thing though is you have to have a reason to be a business.
A Company Should Start With a Core
At Amazon, they call it thinking from the customer. That’s starting with the customer and working backward. We called our customer’s neighbors, so we always start with the neighbors and it’s always around a mission to reduce crime in neighborhoods. As a company you should start with some core that says why am I hustling, why am I trying to track you down at CES to get you to write a freaking article? You have to have that reason.
There are a thousand things you have to do and wearing the shirt yeah, it’s all these little things. Wearing the Ring shirt, for example, creates a conversation on an airplane with someone who asks a question and then that leads to something. My family’s laughed at me because I literally wore the Ring t-shirt almost non-stop for seven years!
Why Did I Sell Ring to Amazon?
Why Did I sell Ring to Amazon? You hear all this stuff like this did you sell out? The company was started with a mission to reduce crime in neighborhoods. From day one that’s been our mission. We’re going to reduce crime in neighborhoods by delivering effective and affordable products and services. We were working with Amazon on some integrations and other things and when Amazon came to us they had bought into the idea that the mission to reduce crime in neighborhoods made sense for Amazon on a strategic level. For Ring that became the best possible outcome, the fastest and most scalable with the best foundation. Amazon has enabled us to accelerate our business.
The Truth of Business is Luck
It’s cool when you get inside Amazon. They really do start, and this is from Jeff down, with customer backwards and infinite truths. Are people going to want to have a safer home and neighborhood in 50 or 100 years? Yes. They look at these like bigger truths around things. When they’re making these big decisions it’s really about an infinite truth of something that can make a customer’s journey or life better.
The truth of business is luck, luck, luck, luck, luck. I worked hard, I focused, I did everything right, but the amount of luck that happened along the way, getting on Shark Tank and having the right investors come when they did, having a house where if the freaking doorbell had reached to the garage I’d probably be here trying to pitch some other hardware thing in the roundup group.
Especially at this scale, to build a business to the size that we have so far and to have that success I think luck is a huge part of it. Timing is not in your control, you don’t know what’s gonna happen next year or the year after and all of these things went our way. You know, luck.
Its been almost a year since the 2012 World Series when the San Francisco Giants came out undefeated over the Detroit Tigers. Before his trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers, relief pitcher, Brian Wilson, was apart of the championship winning team. While there was a slight misunderstanding of logistics before his trade, ultimately there was no ‘bad blood’ between the pitcher, or the Giants’ franchise. So, what was his purpose in confronting Giants’ CEO Larry Baer?
Immediately after the Dodgers-Giants game, it was quite clear that Wilson felt some kind of way about the man, as he deftly made his way across the field to the opposing dugout. However, the purpose for his rant had nothing to do with anything confrontational. Once again, it was all logistics.
Wilson felt it was time to inquire about his 2012 World Series ring that he never received. Although he was traded, he rightfully deserved the ring he works so vigorously for, so he felt compelled to go directly to the source for a definitive answer. Once Wilson had blown off enough steam, Baer ventured to the another area of the field, retrieved the ring, and returned to pass it on to Los Angeles’ personnel.
While the scene was quite disconcerting, Baer made an effort to maintain a professional stance, personally delivering the ring to personnel. Following the exchange, Giants spokesperson, Staci Slaughter weighed in on the misunderstanding:
“We have been for seven months trying to give him his World Series ring, and tried these past three days. It’s been more challenging than we expected. We’ve given the ring to the Dodgers and he now has it. We really tried to do the right thing. We invited him to the ring ceremony. A number of members of our organization repeatedly reached out to him and we didn’t get any response,” she said. “It’s just unfortunate, because he was an important member of our organization,” admitted Slaughter.
CSNBayArea.com reported that when Wilson was questioned in regards to the confrontation with Baer, he coolly said, “It was just a conversation between me and him.”
Yesterday’s New York Giants game in East Rutherford wasn’t just ‘any given Sunday’ for former NFL coach, Bill Parcells. It was a day of commemoration. The former Giants’ head coach received his Pro Football Hall of Fame ring in an honorary ceremony during halftime at the Giants-Broncos’ game. Parcells took the field along with five other Giants’ legends to stand before a sold-out crowd of onlookers basking in their success.
According to NJ.com, Parcells simply described the auspicious occasion as, “special.” He was honored on his own stomping ground in a stadium where so many of his memorable football moments where forged. “At my age, I have a little more sensitivity and appreciation for the history of the game,” admitted Parcells. He reminisced about his tenure with the Giants stating that the best thing about working for the team was the ability to work in ‘his own backyard with the team he grew up rooting for.’
As a dominant figure in some of the most compelling victories in Giants’ history, Parcells’ legendary stature comes from years of hard work and persistence. In 1979, he made his NFL debut with the Giants’ in the capacity of defensive coordinator. The New York native was ‘excited’ about starting his professional football career. “This is where it started for me in terms of opportunity. Someone took a chance on me as an assistant coach. So I’ll always be grateful to the Giants because of that.” Gradually working his way up the coaching totem pole, Parcels became the Giants’ head coach from 1983 to 1990. Throughout his 7-season tenure with the Giants, Parcells clenched two Super Bowl championships. (Super Bowls XXI and XXV.)
Parcells, now 72, held a head coaching position in the NFL for 22 consecutive seasons. In addition to coaching the Giants’, Parcells was also head coach for the New England Patriots, New York Jets, and the Dallas Cowboys during the 22-year span. Parcells overall coach record was 172 – 130 during the regular seasons, and 11 – 8 in the postseasons.
As Yahoo News is reporting, a man has forged his wife’s wedding ring out of a meteorite and posted the gallery of its completion on Reddit.
The user, laporkenstein, got fed up with the idea of paying thousands of dollars on his wife’s wedding ring. Instead he decided to do something memorable and save a whole lot of cash in the process.
So he bought a Gibeon meteorite online for about $200. He then spent about $100 dollars on books and forging equipment, and set to work. Lucky for us, he documented the whole process in a photo journal he submitted on Imgur and posted on Reddit.
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Here, he cuts a chunk out of the meteorite with a bandsaw.
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The selected piece of Meteor.
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The forge. Used for crafting the the strips and getting the final shape.
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The metal strips, forged separately and fused together.
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Making the final strip of metal.
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The process of creating the rings shape involves hammering the strip over a steel cylinder.
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He files the ring down to a smooth finish before etching and the final patina.
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The final ring after etching and patina.
Judging from the photos, he spent a great deal more than $100 on equipment. I suppose he could have rented out the facility, but the forge had to have been pricey.
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