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I love the "cool" factor of this; it just looks cool. Chris's addition of voice controls is equally cool. The appeal to average people is cool; the hacking to

I love the "cool" factor of this; it just looks cool. Chris's addition of voice controls is equally cool. The appeal to average people is cool; the hacking together of so many tools is cool. I'm curious where stuff like this heads...

netsharc 10y ago
At first sight, yes, but do we really need to be able to read Hacker News on (voice) command? Or even the weather for that matter. To me it feels like a "We were promised flying cars and we got 140 characters" kind of future.
- melling 10y ago
  Yeah, I know what you mean. I like to rip people who actually build real stuff from behind the glow of my computer. Why can't they simply build Jarvis and be done with it? I could do that if I wanted to. Do I need to explain sarcasm? Probably. Anyway, the challenge is to do better, not to criticize.
  - NickBusey 10y ago
    So unless we feel motivated to construct a 'better' smart mirror, we're not able to point out that we think the very idea is silly? I mean, I appreciate the effort, and it's really a cool build, but rather pointless in the end. Is that not a valid point of discussion?
    - melling 10y ago
      Don't limit your imagination to a mirror. The OP wanted to build and learn. Might be kid's stuff or pointless to you. He shipped his version 1.0. That's more than most.
- Uehreka 10y ago
  In building new intents and views for the mirror, it's kind of trial and error as to what will be actually useful and what won't. The weather intent has been genuinely useful. I can wake up in the morning, say "Alexa, ask XANA about the weather", and get back a chart that shows the exact info I want. I use this pretty organically (I don't just force myself to use it) every day, and I've found myself using my weather app less. I just find it to be a lower friction interface. The Hacker News intents were a cool proof of concept, and I was hoping they would help me waste less time on HN by getting a summary of the important stuff without access to the full site. While I still like it and use it from time to time, it isn't as viscerally useful as the weather intent.

netsharc 10y ago

At first sight, yes, but do we really need to be able to read Hacker News on (voice) command? Or even the weather for that matter. To me it feels like a "We were promised flying cars and we got 140 characters" kind of future.

melling 10y ago
Yeah, I know what you mean. I like to rip people who actually build real stuff from behind the glow of my computer. Why can't they simply build Jarvis and be done with it? I could do that if I wanted to. Do I need to explain sarcasm? Probably. Anyway, the challenge is to do better, not to criticize.
- NickBusey 10y ago
  So unless we feel motivated to construct a 'better' smart mirror, we're not able to point out that we think the very idea is silly? I mean, I appreciate the effort, and it's really a cool build, but rather pointless in the end. Is that not a valid point of discussion?
  - melling 10y ago
    Don't limit your imagination to a mirror. The OP wanted to build and learn. Might be kid's stuff or pointless to you. He shipped his version 1.0. That's more than most.
Uehreka 10y ago
In building new intents and views for the mirror, it's kind of trial and error as to what will be actually useful and what won't. The weather intent has been genuinely useful. I can wake up in the morning, say "Alexa, ask XANA about the weather", and get back a chart that shows the exact info I want. I use this pretty organically (I don't just force myself to use it) every day, and I've found myself using my weather app less. I just find it to be a lower friction interface. The Hacker News intents were a cool proof of concept, and I was hoping they would help me waste less time on HN by getting a summary of the important stuff without access to the full site. While I still like it and use it from time to time, it isn't as viscerally useful as the weather intent.