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The Terrible Truth About Alexa

11 points by jbegley 8y ago

omnifischer 8y ago
Actually, the terrible truth about gizmodo is the praise they gave to amazon echo show. why do these publications have 'cognitive dissonance'? Please. https://gizmodo.com/the-amazon-echo-show-is-the-best-dumb-smart-machine-in-1796380588 https://gizmodo.com/the-amazon-echo-show-is-the-best-dumb-sm...
- iamdelirium 8y ago
  People are allowed to change their minds, why aren't publications? Also, you should realize that the two articles have two different authors.
mikestew 8y ago
"Why doesn't it work this way?" "Why doesn't Amazon do this thing?" "Why, why, why?" Umm, why did you buy one in the first place, and after such revelations, why do you continue to have one in your house? Instead of just listing reasons that one should not buy such a device, the article came across to me as, "man, I really love this Alexa thing, but it creeps me out. Why can't Amazon...?" rather than just throw the thing in the trash if it bothers you that much.
- mikece 8y ago
  I'm curious how many people didn't buy these but got them for free as part of some other package (like renewing service on Verizon). Personally, I won an Echo Dot at a programming meetup but haven't had it plugged for over 15 months.
  - mikestew 8y ago
    Hmm, a good point I didn't even know to consider. I'm over here in the Apple camp thinking that such things cost $350 a pop.
mikece 8y ago
While it's possible to request from Amazon everything that they (claim to) have on their servers from our Alexa devices, it would be better if there was some way to explicitly deafen the devices. I had been using my Echo dot primary as an audio source to my living room speakers. But since it's not possible to know when the room audio is being piped back to Amazon I unplugged it. If there was a way to explicitly not wake to an audio prompt but only to a touch command I would consider plugging it back in... but I really don't trust it. So these days my living room speakers are fed by a very old iPod touch.
- Slippery_John 8y ago
  I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "a touch command", but you can always hit the mute button which physically disconnects the mic circuit.

11 points by jbegley 8y ago

Actually, the terrible truth about gizmodo is the praise they gave to amazon echo show. why do these publications have 'cognitive dissonance'? Please. https://gizmodo.com/the-amazon-echo-show-is-the-best-dumb-smart-machine-in-1796380588 https://gizmodo.com/the-amazon-echo-show-is-the-best-dumb-sm...

iamdelirium 8y ago
People are allowed to change their minds, why aren't publications? Also, you should realize that the two articles have two different authors.

mikestew 8y ago

"Why doesn't it work this way?" "Why doesn't Amazon do this thing?" "Why, why, why?" Umm, why did you buy one in the first place, and after such revelations, why do you continue to have one in your house? Instead of just listing reasons that one should not buy such a device, the article came across to me as, "man, I really love this Alexa thing, but it creeps me out. Why can't Amazon...?" rather than just throw the thing in the trash if it bothers you that much.

mikece 8y ago
I'm curious how many people didn't buy these but got them for free as part of some other package (like renewing service on Verizon). Personally, I won an Echo Dot at a programming meetup but haven't had it plugged for over 15 months.
- mikestew 8y ago
  Hmm, a good point I didn't even know to consider. I'm over here in the Apple camp thinking that such things cost $350 a pop.

mikece 8y ago

While it's possible to request from Amazon everything that they (claim to) have on their servers from our Alexa devices, it would be better if there was some way to explicitly deafen the devices. I had been using my Echo dot primary as an audio source to my living room speakers. But since it's not possible to know when the room audio is being piped back to Amazon I unplugged it. If there was a way to explicitly not wake to an audio prompt but only to a touch command I would consider plugging it back in... but I really don't trust it. So these days my living room speakers are fed by a very old iPod touch.

Slippery_John 8y ago
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "a touch command", but you can always hit the mute button which physically disconnects the mic circuit.