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Depends on how you cook. I like to cool big complicated meals that take hours. At any given time I will have 3-4 timers going concurrently. I need to know which
by IgorPartola 5y ago
Depends on how you cook. I like to cool big complicated meals that take hours. At any given time I will have 3-4 timers going concurrently. I need to know which timer is going off. Also my hands are often covered in food as I am cooking and washing them to set a timers slows me down.
When walking into a dark room carrying a heavy box it is often easier to use a voice assistant to turn on lights. It’s also frankly more fun.
What you are looking for is not a home assistant. You want an accountant + QuickBooks. For $1000/year or so you can get both and be happy. Intelligence is often cheaper than artificial intelligence.
- WalterBright 5y agoI admit I don't cook much. As for turning on lights when carrying, that's why I have an elbow! The switch is at elbow height. > It’s also frankly more fun What, this isn't fun? https://www.amazon.com/Clapper-Sound-Activated-Switch-White/dp/B000O7L364 https://www.amazon.com/Clapper-Sound-Activated-Switch-White/...
- jjeaff 5y agoI'll wager you don't have kids. I'd have to spend half an hour a day traveling around the house turning off light switches countless times if it weren't for an easy "hey Google, turn off the kitchen lights" or "turn of all the lights".
- f1refly 5y agoWe didn't have home automation when my grandparents where kids, when my parents where kids, when me and my brother where kids. We managed to turn off the lights. Have you considered to just teach your kids to turn off lights? It's not like flipping a light switch is an impossible task for a kid, they even managed to flip it when turning the light on!
- jjeaff 5y agoMy grandparents got along fine as kids with an outhouse and no computers at all. So I'm not sure what your point is. For one, my grandparents, didn't have nearly the number of light switches even with a comparable house size. And "just teaching" kids to turn the lights off is quite laughable. My kids know how to turn off lights and know they should turn them off when they leave the room. But knowing and always remembering to do it are two different things. I also forget to turn them off sometimes. I remember my dad grumbling quite a bit about having to go around turning off the lights or having to run back in the house after you get outside and see the lighted windows. Just one less little hassle.
- f1refly 5y agoOkay, but your parents had just as many light switches growing up. > But knowing and always remembering to do it are two different things. I also forget to turn them off sometimes. What is "sometimes"? You wrote "I'd have to spend half an hour a day traveling around the house turning off light switches countless times" which is definetly not normal and a clear case of your parenting not working. I also "sometimes" forget a light. About once a year, tops. I don't see how this isn't your brains failing to manage a very basic every day task.
- WalterBright 5y agoA friend of mine solved that problem by replacing the light switches in the kids' rooms with those 30 minute timer switches.
- f1refly 5y agoHis kids have to run to the switch every thirty minutes after the lights went out on them? That sounds horrible. Like those toilets that leave you in the dark if you're not fast enough, only the timers don't even care if you move and also in the room they spent most of their time in. Abysmal.
- WalterBright 5y agoI agree. I was assigned KP duty when I misbehaved. It was brutal. I'm still in therapy for it.
- blowski 5y agoI often seem to spend half an hour telling Siri to do something that takes 10 seconds to do myself.
- WalterBright 5y agoI can't get it to open the pod bay doors, either. Time to go unscrew its higher brain functions.
- joshspankit 5y agoTime for an ESP8266 and HomeAssistant
- joshspankit 5y agoThough I will say: Siri wins the timer battle. You can trigger Siri and say only “3 minutes” for her to set a 3min timer. Most of the time Google needs “Set a timer for 3 minutes”.
- Handytinge 5y agoWithout trying to sound critical, I've just taught my kids to turn off the lights when they exit the room.
- jjeaff 5y agoMy kids forget a lot the younger they are. But even I forget to turn off the lights a few times a day.
- duckmysick 5y agoIt looks to me like the OP wants a personal assistant in a form factor. A flexible CRUD app with voice commands assisting you with finances, correspondence, legal affairs, scheduling, reminders. It's much more difficult than home automation, but I think this is the direction we're heading into. The incentives are there, because access to such data is valuable.