That's to its credit if it wants to attract an audience like the characters it depicts, but, really, beneath lines like "we have to dog-food our hardware" … and "I don't crowdsource my clothes," "Betas" is Amazon's bigger bangier theory, right down to the socially challenged Indian nerd whose parents want to marry him off so they can have grandchildren.

For instance, in the hallowed halls of software companies you'll hear the term "dog-food" used as a verb. The phrase "to eat our own dog-food" is well established to mean that software developers should actually use the products they develop. Hence, Microsoft would dog-food their e-mail software before making it public. Or not.

Microsofties made famous the expression 'eat our own dog food,' in reference to using the company's software for its own internal projects. Apparently, softies at other companies have picked up the phrase, but shortened it to a verb, as in 'We need to dog food that product.'