I'm in that class. I really liked it at the start, but that week and a half where they had issues really threw my schedule off. Probably going to have to drop if I can't catch up tonight.
IMHO, the class is much more useful for understanding the business and marketing side of things (the "philosophical" side of the class) than for the tech they are presenting. Sadly, there hasn't been as much of the philosophical as I would have liked and some of their early tech suggestions seem odd (at least to someone already familiar with a linux environment).
We use powered pallet jacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallet_jack). The catch with those is that a lot of items are close enough together in the warehouse that most guys end up walking alongside their jack. Still, it beats manually dragging two pallets' worth of product on what could end up being a two mile trip per order.
I work in a distribution center (not one of Amazon's and not on the floor). What they're describing in the article is pretty much industry standard for non-robotic picking. It's a very difficult and demanding job and we're very up front about that. People take the job figuring they can sling a few boxes and a large percent leave within their probationary period because they underestimate the work no matter how much you try to set their expectations.
I'm not saying Amazon is a benevolent employer (we pay well over minimum wage because of the nature of the work), just that nothing in the article was shocking.
IMHO, the class is much more useful for understanding the business and marketing side of things (the "philosophical" side of the class) than for the tech they are presenting. Sadly, there hasn't been as much of the philosophical as I would have liked and some of their early tech suggestions seem odd (at least to someone already familiar with a linux environment).