Daily Archives: September 26, 2015
Alexa . . .
Since the frack was down most of the day (we only had 91 vehicles come in) and nothing much else happened, I thought maybe this would be a good time to talk about my new Amazon Echo.
To say it’s my favorite new toy is an understatement. It maybe my favorite new toy ever. Or at least it’s in the top three, along with the Lionel train set I got when I was 10, or my first computer, an Exidy Sorcerer I got in 1978.
Though when I think about it, my first ‘computer’ was a Geniac I got when I was 9.
Anyway, I digress.
I’m sure most of you are familiar with at least one of the voice-activated digital assistants, like Siri, Cortana, or OK Google. Well the Amazon Echo is all that, and more. And even better, it’s hands-free, kind of an OK Google on steroids.
You can ask her any question, and get an answer, even if she doesn’t know it.
I say ‘she’ because she is a ‘she’. And her name is ‘Alexa’. Or at least ‘Alexa’ is her wakeup word, like ‘OK Google’, or ‘Siri’. You can also use ‘Amazon’, but that’s no fun.
You can ask her, “What’s the weather today in Dallas?” and she will tell you.
And once you set your location, you can ask her “What’s the weather today?” or “tomorrow”.
You can ask her to set an alarm for 10pm, or set one for 15 minutes.
If you link you Google calendar to Alexa, you can ask her, “What’s on my calendar for Friday?” and she will tell you.
A week or so ago when I was replacing the thermostats in our rig’s water heater, I was down on my knees in the bathroom and wanted to double-check what the temperature rating was. So I said, “Alexa, what is 60 degrees Centigrade in Fahrenheit?” And she came back, “60 degrees Celsius is 140 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Note that she not only gave me the correct answer, but she corrected me with the more modern Celsius, rather than the older Centigrade. And also she was in the living room while I was in the bathroom working and she still heard me.
The Echo has seven microphones spaced around her circumference, so it doesn’t matter which direction the question or request is coming from.
And Alexa even has a sense of humor. You can tell her to “Open the pod bay doors, HAL”, and she say, “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’m not HAL and you’re not in space.”
Or you can ask her to tell you a joke. “What did the zero say to the eight?
“Nice belt.”
Tomorrow I’ll have some more info about Alexa, including what has turned out to be our favorite feature. Stay tuned.
Speaking of tomorrow, Jan of course has gone into giddy overdrive because of our upcoming Anniversary Eve afternoon off. We’ll head over to Shreveport about 1pm for 6 hours of fun and frolic. Or maybe just dinner, shopping, and a movie.
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Thought for the Day:
“The work never ends…always another palm to grease…always another weak sister that needs shoring-up”. – J. R. Ewing
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