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Amazon had an insane number of people working on just the alarms feature in Alexa when they interviewed me for a position years ago. They had entire teams devot

by ttul 2y ago

Amazon had an insane number of people working on just the alarms feature in Alexa when they interviewed me for a position years ago. They had entire teams devoted to the tiniest edge case within the realm of scheduling things with Alexa. This is no doubt one of the biggest use cases in computing: getting your computer to tell you what to do at a given time.

qgin 2y ago
Recurring schedules across time zones is an unbelievably maddening thing to implement. At first glance it seems simple, but it gets very weird very quickly.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Yeah summer time in different countries switching on different days and often in a different direction (other hemisphere). I used to work on such matters and those weeks were the toughest.
  - ethbr1 2y ago
    Developers when they first start working with time across timezones: "This is a technical problem." Developers after more research: "Oh... this is a political problem."
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- uncomplexity_ 2y ago
  this. some people cant even wrap gheir heads around it, taking hours and hours of discussions. still my favourite problem though.
echeese 2y ago
Considering my iPhone alarm still sometimes fails to go off (it just shows the alarm screen silently), I'd be inclined to believe you.
- emptiestplace 2y ago
  https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/9/24340238/apple-iphone-alarm-broken-timing-failed https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/9/24340238/apple-iphone-alar...
  - yakz 2y ago
    Whenever I have to wake for something that I absolutely can’t miss, I set 2-3 extra reminders 5 minutes apart precisely because of this “silent alarm” bug. It’s only happened to me a couple of times but twice was enough to completely destroy my trust in the alarm. The first time I thought I just did something in my sleep to cause it, but the UI shows it as if the alarm worked. I’m lucky to have the privilege that if I oversleep an hour or so it’s no big deal, otherwise ye olde tabletop alarm clock would be back.
    - emptiestplace 2y ago
      I love the questioning my sanity before I've completely opened my eyes part. It's like a jump start to my day.
    - pedroslopez 2y ago
      Hah - I also just assumed that I was turning the alarm off in my sleep without noticing. I started doubting it and really wish there was a log of when you tapped snooze or stopped the alarm... This is too much of a dev feature for apple to implement and there are probably third party apps that do this, but meh
- ineedasername 2y ago
  Thanks for that— I though I was going crazy (well still could be I guess) or had some strange habit or gesture I didn’t realize was silencing the alarm somehow.
android521 2y ago
And gmail schedule delivery just won't work if you want to email yourself a month later.
paul7986 2y ago
Open AI just needs to create & release their own phone with Microsoft's help! H.E.R. the movie phone. Apple has not innovated in years and a GPT Phone where your lock screen is a FaceTime call like UI/UX with your AI Agent who does everything for you would give Apple a run for it's money! Pick up your phone & see your agent waiting to assist & it could be skinned to look like a deceased loved one (mom still guiding your through life). To get things done it would interface with other AI Agents of businesses, companies, your doctor, friends & family to schedule things & used as a knowledgebase. Maybe this is their step towards creating said agents?
- elicksaur 2y ago
  > your lock screen is a FaceTime call like UI/UX with your AI Agent who does everything for you I just… don’t want this. I don’t think anyone I know wants this.
  - paul7986 2y ago
    Cool, thanks for the comment! I use chatGPT now for almost everything and when in the car have full back n forth conversations to get things done (or as a knowledge-base) there too. Recently i was discussing with it how do i properly get rid (junk) my old car in Pennsylvania. It provided all the steps and gave me local businesses. Though it didn't call them or interface with them to find their available times/costs, tell me such details & have me instruct it to schedule my preferred choice. Which i wish it did and prompted thoughts how it could do so, as technology that gets adopted mostly is tech that has simplified our lives. I think my concept above is similar to what was seen in the movie H.E.R. (Joaquin Phoenix & Scarlett Johansson starred) so it's not that crazy or odd. Throwing in skinning it to be whoever like a deceased loved one, might to probably is.
    - elicksaur 2y ago
      I wouldn’t want my grandmother “skinned” as a bland amalgamation of all of the internet’s text. That’s fucking horrifying. H.E.R. is a deeply unsettling movie.

by ttul 2y ago

qgin 2y ago

Recurring schedules across time zones is an unbelievably maddening thing to implement. At first glance it seems simple, but it gets very weird very quickly.

wkat4242 2y ago
Yeah summer time in different countries switching on different days and often in a different direction (other hemisphere). I used to work on such matters and those weeks were the toughest.
- ethbr1 2y ago
  Developers when they first start working with time across timezones: "This is a technical problem." Developers after more research: "Oh... this is a political problem."
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
uncomplexity_ 2y ago
this. some people cant even wrap gheir heads around it, taking hours and hours of discussions. still my favourite problem though.

echeese 2y ago

Considering my iPhone alarm still sometimes fails to go off (it just shows the alarm screen silently), I'd be inclined to believe you.

emptiestplace 2y ago
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/9/24340238/apple-iphone-alarm-broken-timing-failed https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/9/24340238/apple-iphone-alar...
- yakz 2y ago
  Whenever I have to wake for something that I absolutely can’t miss, I set 2-3 extra reminders 5 minutes apart precisely because of this “silent alarm” bug. It’s only happened to me a couple of times but twice was enough to completely destroy my trust in the alarm. The first time I thought I just did something in my sleep to cause it, but the UI shows it as if the alarm worked. I’m lucky to have the privilege that if I oversleep an hour or so it’s no big deal, otherwise ye olde tabletop alarm clock would be back.
  - emptiestplace 2y ago
    I love the questioning my sanity before I've completely opened my eyes part. It's like a jump start to my day.
  - pedroslopez 2y ago
    Hah - I also just assumed that I was turning the alarm off in my sleep without noticing. I started doubting it and really wish there was a log of when you tapped snooze or stopped the alarm... This is too much of a dev feature for apple to implement and there are probably third party apps that do this, but meh
ineedasername 2y ago
Thanks for that— I though I was going crazy (well still could be I guess) or had some strange habit or gesture I didn’t realize was silencing the alarm somehow.

android521 2y ago

And gmail schedule delivery just won't work if you want to email yourself a month later.

paul7986 2y ago

Open AI just needs to create & release their own phone with Microsoft's help! H.E.R. the movie phone. Apple has not innovated in years and a GPT Phone where your lock screen is a FaceTime call like UI/UX with your AI Agent who does everything for you would give Apple a run for it's money! Pick up your phone & see your agent waiting to assist & it could be skinned to look like a deceased loved one (mom still guiding your through life). To get things done it would interface with other AI Agents of businesses, companies, your doctor, friends & family to schedule things & used as a knowledgebase. Maybe this is their step towards creating said agents?

elicksaur 2y ago
> your lock screen is a FaceTime call like UI/UX with your AI Agent who does everything for you I just… don’t want this. I don’t think anyone I know wants this.
- paul7986 2y ago
  Cool, thanks for the comment! I use chatGPT now for almost everything and when in the car have full back n forth conversations to get things done (or as a knowledge-base) there too. Recently i was discussing with it how do i properly get rid (junk) my old car in Pennsylvania. It provided all the steps and gave me local businesses. Though it didn't call them or interface with them to find their available times/costs, tell me such details & have me instruct it to schedule my preferred choice. Which i wish it did and prompted thoughts how it could do so, as technology that gets adopted mostly is tech that has simplified our lives. I think my concept above is similar to what was seen in the movie H.E.R. (Joaquin Phoenix & Scarlett Johansson starred) so it's not that crazy or odd. Throwing in skinning it to be whoever like a deceased loved one, might to probably is.
  - elicksaur 2y ago
    I wouldn’t want my grandmother “skinned” as a bland amalgamation of all of the internet’s text. That’s fucking horrifying. H.E.R. is a deeply unsettling movie.