Amazon Echo Club

[Tarana]

I have it from a good source (30 year cook on Navy ships) that there were military specifications for S*** on a Shingle.

For anybody who cares, Woot has refurbished Amazon Tap for $49. I was very, very tempted, but I'm able to plug my dot in everywhere I need it. The wifi range in the back yard is zero, so then I revert to downloaded stuff on Ipod.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I have it from a good source (30 year cook on Navy ships) that there were military specifications for S*** on a Shingle.

Creamed chipped beef on toast. Not much of a mystery. I've never tried it , even in the Navy, but I hear it's pretty good when done right. First thing I learned in the Navy was "be nice to the cooks."

[OtinG]

I ate it a lot growing up in the 1960s. My family wasn't dirt poor, but the budget was often really tight, so Mom knew how to squeeze a penny until it squealed. SoaS certainly is not a gourmet meal, but it is filling and can be at least somewhat tasty. During WWII my Dad spent three years of combat duty in the SW Pacific theater campaign and even though he was Army they were often being hopped from island to island on Navy ships. He said he thought SoaS was really good compared to the bland K Rations the Army guys ate most of the time. But he said the Navy guys were used to better meals, actually cooked and warm meals, so they tended to turn their noses up at the SoaS. His brother who served in the Navy told him that the ships usually served the SoaS when they were transporting Army troops. Sort of a don't feed the good food to the unwanted guests kind of thing. But the Army guys were just happy to have a warm meal and a warm bed for a change. They mostly lived on the ground in the jungles during the war. So I guess it is about what you are used to and how picky you are and how you associate the food being served.

I also heard SoaS was served when supplies were running low because it was easy to make out of just a few supplies. That makes sense. Most Navy guys now have not served in a slugfest war like WWII when ships and personnel could not be swapped out and resupplied as often as they prefer. Sometimes supplies got stretched pretty thin. They had to make do with what they had.

[wodin]

Siri and Alexa walk into a bar:

[CRussel]

So, after several days with my new Fire TV Cube, I can safely say I'll love it -- just as soon as it's had about 3 or 4 firmware updates! Buggy?! Oh, yeah. It hangs up or gets confused about once a day. So far I've only had to hard boot it twice, but I've definitely had to switch to the remote at least once a day.

[wodin]

Here's what people actually ask Amazon's Alexa*

I think they missed controlling smart home devices.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by CRussel

So, after several days with my new Fire TV Cube, I can safely say I'll love it -- just as soon as it's had about 3 or 4 firmware updates! Buggy?! Oh, yeah. It hangs up or gets confused about once a day. So far I've only had to hard boot it twice, but I've definitely had to switch to the remote at least once a day.

Definitely glad a took a pass on the early testing of the Cube, in other words, decided not to be an early buyer/owner. I tried finding some stuff to watch on my Fire TV last night and was totally frustrated at the mess Amazon calls a Home screen. What a cluttered mess that is difficult to navigate! Then I tried to pull up the A&E app and it could not get past the login screen. Likely A&E's lack of programming skills, but still it was another fail. I finally gave up and used Roku which is much easier to navigate, but it still needs a lot of thoughtful improvements as well. IMO, streaming boxes and services just are not well thought out as far as interfaces go, especially voice interfaces. Maybe it is because I don't think like a Millennial--but I'm glad I don't. After all I've 40+ years of life experience beyond them. I still find it much easier to discover things to watch on video services by using my eyes and looking. I do not see much use in trying to use my voice in the discovery process at the current time. I'm sure using voice search/discovery will improve over time, but at the current moment in time I spend more time arguing with Alexa and Siri than I do getting the correct results. Voice commands can work well if you know the title you want to watch, but they fail in the discovery process IMO.

This morning I tried to set up Alexa for podcasts, and I followed some online advice that suggested installing the AnyPod skill (app) in Alexa. Then I proceeded to try a simple command like "Alexa ask AnyPod to play PD Stories" which is a PodCast series by Tom Morris Jr. who cohosts A&E's Live PD TV show. (Apparently AnyPod didn't have that one, even though the online gurus claim it has almost all podcasts available. More inaccurate reporting from tech guys, IMO.) Anyway, Alexa responded that she was going to play OCD Stories for me. Perhaps listening to stories about people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is entertaining, but that is not what I wanted to listen to, so I said "STOP". That should have been the end to it, but no, Alexa then proceeded to ask me 3 or 4 more questions trying to figure out what I wanted her to do. It was annoying and useless as the questions had almost nothing to do with listening to a podcast and wasted my time. Multiple "STOP" commands later, she finally shut the heck up. Finally I opened iTunes on my MacBook Pro and quickly searched for, located, downloaded, and played an episode of PD Stories. I should have simply done that to begin with. Much faster and cleaner, more intuitive, and my MBP didn't argue with me or get uber confused.

[CRussel]

I, OTOH, am quite glad I opted to be an early buyer of the Cube. Yes, there are some teething pains, but they'll get fixed. That's the beauty of cloud and dedicated devices like this -- they just push down new firmware and/or software as required. And meanwhile, navigating by voice actually works and is way better than any other way.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I, OTOH, am quite glad I opted to be an early buyer of the Cube. Yes, there are some teething pains, but they'll get fixed. That's the beauty of cloud and dedicated devices like this -- they just push down new firmware and/or software as required. And meanwhile, navigating by voice actually works and is way better than any other way.

To each their own. I'm glad it works for you, but for a lot of people voice control of TV and streaming doesn't work well at all, and I'm one of those. But on the other hand, I much prefer Roku over Fire TV, so the Cube is not even on my radar anymore...

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Definitely glad a took a pass on the early testing of the Cube, in other words, decided not to be an early buyer/owner. I tried finding some stuff to watch on my Fire TV last night and was totally frustrated at the mess Amazon calls a Home screen. What a cluttered mess that is difficult to navigate! Then I tried to pull up the A&E app and it could not get past the login screen. Likely A&E's lack of programming skills, but still it was another fail. I finally gave up and used Roku which is much easier to navigate, but it still needs a lot of thoughtful improvements as well. IMO, streaming boxes and services just are not well thought out as far as interfaces go, especially voice interfaces. Maybe it is because I don't think like a Millennial--but I'm glad I don't. After all I've 40+ years of life experience beyond them. I still find it much easier to discover things to watch on video services by using my eyes and looking. I do not see much use in trying to use my voice in the discovery process at the current time. I'm sure using voice search/discovery will improve over time, but at the current moment in time I spend more time arguing with Alexa and Siri than I do getting the correct results. Voice commands can work well if you know the title you want to watch, but they fail in the discovery process IMO.

This morning I tried to set up Alexa for podcasts, and I followed some online advice that suggested installing the AnyPod skill (app) in Alexa. Then I proceeded to try a simple command like "Alexa ask AnyPod to play PD Stories" which is a PodCast series by Tom Morris Jr. who cohosts A&E's Live PD TV show. (Apparently AnyPod didn't have that one, even though the online gurus claim it has almost all podcasts available. More inaccurate reporting from tech guys, IMO.) Anyway, Alexa responded that she was going to play OCD Stories for me. Perhaps listening to stories about people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is entertaining, but that is not what I wanted to listen to, so I said "STOP". That should have been the end to it, but no, Alexa then proceeded to ask me 3 or 4 more questions trying to figure out what I wanted her to do. It was annoying and useless as the questions had almost nothing to do with listening to a podcast and wasted my time. Multiple "STOP" commands later, she finally shut the heck up. Finally I opened iTunes on my MacBook Pro and quickly searched for, located, downloaded, and played an episode of PD Stories. I should have simply done that to begin with. Much faster and cleaner, more intuitive, and my MBP didn't argue with me or get uber confused.

If there are too many questions, just tell it to shut the f*** up. When I did that once it replied something like "that's not very nice", and it did shut up. So I got what I wanted.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

If there are too many questions, just tell it to shut the f*** up. When I did that once it replied something like "that's not very nice", and it did shut up. So I got what I wanted.

I'll have to try that when she gets off on a rant. I've been reading (having her read to me) the Jane Yellowrock series, and the ninth book is "Dark Heir". Alexa keeps serving up Stephen King's "Dark Tower" and it's a real PITA to get her to shut up.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

If there are too many questions, just tell it to shut the f*** up. When I did that once it replied something like "that's not very nice", and it did shut up. So I got what I wanted.

I actually did that, but she gave me a definition of one of the words I used and then tried to peddle some movie/show titles to me with that word in it. I didn't use the F bomb though, maybe I should have. They need to add a quick command for stopping her completely, like perhaps "Alexa, shut up" or "Alexa, just forget it".

Between the constant miscommunications between us humans and Alexa type devices, and those devices typically having a mission to rent or sell us stuff and thus push same our way, it can be very frustrating. Also I find their ability to predict what we are searching for to be very lacking. Perhaps their prediction algorithms work better with younger people, but they obviously don't have much clue as to what an old fart like me is trying to search for. Personally I wish Alexa or Siri would simply say, "I cannot find that" or "I don't know" rather than just keep blubbering on to the point of dominating the conversation and trying to push other stuff on us so we will buy or rent it. That's why I like using Roku. I can use my smartphone or tablet to run the Roku Remote app and simply, quickly type in what I want to find without all the miscommunications and constant sales pushes. The Apple TV can use a BT keyboard to accomplish the same thing, but Apple TV is on the bottom of my list of streaming devices due to their lackluster list of services offered. My old Apple TV is collecting dust on a shelf now.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I actually did that, but she gave me a definition of one of the words I used and then tried to peddle some movie/show titles to me with that word in it. I didn't use the F bomb though, maybe I should have. They need to add a quick command for stopping her completely, like perhaps "Alexa, shut up" or "Alexa, just forget it".

Between the constant miscommunications between us humans and Alexa type devices, and those devices typically having a mission to rent or sell us stuff and thus push same our way, it can be very frustrating. Also I find their ability to predict what we are searching for to be very lacking. Perhaps their prediction algorithms work better with younger people, but they obviously don't have much clue as to what an old fart like me is trying to search for. Personally I wish Alexa or Siri would simply say, "I cannot find that" or "I don't know" rather than just keep blubbering on to the point of dominating the conversation and trying to push other stuff on us so we will buy or rent it. That's why I like using Roku. I can use my smartphone or tablet to run the Roku Remote app and simply, quickly type in what I want to find without all the miscommunications and constant sales pushes. The Apple TV can use a BT keyboard to accomplish the same thing, but Apple TV is on the bottom of my list of streaming devices due to their lackluster list of services offered. My old Apple TV is collecting dust on a shelf now.

When I started reading your reply I thought you meant that you got the definition of the F bomb.

I'm pretty sure that you have to use the F bomb to get it to shut up like I did.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

When I started reading your reply I thought you meant that you got the definition of the F bomb.

I'm pretty sure that you have to use the F bomb to get it to shut up like I did.

LOL, no I called her the "B" word. For some reason she thought I wanted a definition for that word. I tried to get her to stop at the point but she proceeded to suggests titles of movies and podcasts with the "B" word in the title. In the past I have used the F bomb with her and it always invokes a snarky, angry reply, but yes she does shut up after that.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by OtinG

LOL, no I called her the "B" word. For some reason she thought I wanted a definition for that word. I tried to get her to stop at the point but she proceeded to suggests titles of movies and podcasts with the "B" word in the title. In the past I have used the F bomb with her and it always invokes a snarky, angry reply, but yes she does shut up after that.

Obviously if you are calling Alexa a bitch you need to know what the definition is because it certainly didn't fit where you said it did.