Amazon Echo Club

[CRussel]

We have the lights in three rooms, and a stairwell, controlled by a combination of plugs and switches. It's actually proved quite useful. Now that it finally works.

At first, it was kind of hit or miss whether Alexa could talk to the necessary Kasa app, but all that seems to have been resolved with the most recent device firmware.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by ApK

I took it out of the box, configured it, updated it....and put it on a shelf cuz I don't know what I want it for either.

But, hey, $10.

I figure I'll eventually use it for Christmas lights, at least.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Ok, thanks. Yes, I'm still trying to get ONE LAMP to turn on via Alexa but it never seems to see it. I put it away because I was just frustrated with it. Maybe I'll try again. I used to use the Clapper for that lamp, but it eventually wore out.

Originally Posted by Catlady

I still haven't taken my recently purchased smart plug out the box. It just seems like such a hassle, and I'm not even sure what I want to connect to it. I think I'm firmly rooted in the 20th century, not the 21st.

Another point of possible failure is the interconnections (plural) between the smart device(s) and Alexa. Involved in all this complexity is your WiFi system, Alexa and her connection to your WiFi and to her servers in the cloud, your smart device(s) and their connection to your WiFi and possibly to their cloud servers, et cetera. If anything fails at any connection, then epic failure occurs. Each smart device has its FW that allows it to handle commands, and Alexa has her FW doing the same. They are supposed to follow a set of standard protocols. Do they interpret to standards the same? Probably not. Is this like someone from east London trying to communicate with someone from the deep south in the USA wherein both are using a large amount of colloquial language components. Probably. There can and probably will be confusion. With Alexa, confusion equals epic fail. If she gets confused, nothing will get done.

Add to that the issues with Alexa hearing you--issues with microphones, with background noise, with your voice at any given time, et cetera.

Sometimes I just want to toss her out of my house!

[ApK]

It's a minor miracle that any of this stuff works at all.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by CRussel

We have the lights in three rooms, and a stairwell, controlled by a combination of plugs and switches. It's actually proved quite useful. Now that it finally works.

At first, it was kind of hit or miss whether Alexa could talk to the necessary Kasa app, but all that seems to have been resolved with the most recent device firmware.

I'm using a few Kasa LED bulbs, and they do work fairly well with Alex. But I have to be careful of naming schemes that are too similar in Alexa's viewpoint. Apparently Living Room Light and Bathroom Light were too similar and confused her, so now I use Living Room Lamp and Bathroom Light. But there are still failures whenever there is a tiny little glitch somewhere along the pathways of connection between these devices.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by ApK

It's a minor miracle that any of this stuff works at all.

True. As far as wireless connectivity goes, that is because there are no redundant connections. Any glitch equals failure. If your WiFi hiccups at the wrong time--failure. If Alexa's cloud servers hiccup at the wrong time--failure. If your (so-called) smart device hiccups at the wrong time--failure.

[wodin]

This Man's Amazon Alexa Is Extremely Creepy And It Needs To Be Killed With Fire

[OtinG]

Interesting. I just asked Alexa, "What are chemtrails?" She gave me the proper, accurate definition. I've never heard her utter any demonic laughs either. I didn't read the guys whole article, but either it is humor not intended to be taken as fact, or he is full of it.

Hey man, that looks like dog poop. It smells like dog poop too. It feels like dog poop too. Ewwww, it tastes like dog poop too!!! It is dog poop.

We often hear of bizarre tales about Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and the rest, but unless they can be reproduced I always remain skeptical.

On the other hand, I get the wrong questions answered all the time because Alexa and Siri have worse hearing than mine, and I often wind up arguing with them to complete an action.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Interesting. I just asked Alexa, "What are chemtrails?" She gave me the proper, accurate definition. I've never heard her utter any demonic laughs either. I didn't read the guys whole article, but either it is humor not intended to be taken as fact, or he is full of it.



We often hear of bizarre tales about Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and the rest, but unless they can be reproduced I always remain skeptical.

Skepticism is fine, but surely you're aware of the difficulty in reproducing certain kinds of weird little glitches in a system as complex as Alexa. With all its external factors, distributed servers, async lookups, events, hardware variations, config permutations and wide variety of listening environments, some behaviors are downright non-deterministic.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by ApK

Skepticism is fine, but surely you're aware of the difficulty in reproducing certain kinds of weird little glitches in a system as complex as Alexa. With all its external factors, distributed servers, async lookups, events, hardware variations, config permutations and wide variety of listening environments, some behaviors are downright non-deterministic.

Or maybe it's just that she's possessed.

[OtinG]

Or maybe it is just more fake news which permeates the internet. That is my best guess.

[Tarana]

Hey, new Echo feature: Announcement. It was great!

"Alexa, tell everyone breakfast is ready."

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Hey, new Echo feature: Announcement. It was great!

"Alexa, tell everyone breakfast is ready."

Cool, what are we having

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Cool, what are we having

Gotta have some mystery in life.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Gotta have some mystery in life.

That sounds like the setup for what the guys in Navy called S**t on a Shingle! That is, dry toast with some kind of sauce poured over it, and one only hoped it was a meat sauce.



Yummy!