Amazon Echo Club

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by wodin

Speak to Alexa like she’s your friend

Originally Posted by CRussel

That's in line with my own experiences. Alexa responds much better to "Alexa, would you turn the upstairs lights on, please?" than "Alexa - Upstairs Lights ON". The second will usually work, but less reliably than the first.

The article make a bit of sense, but Alexa can get really specific on the formats you must use for things like routines, scenes, and skills. It gets even more complex if you use 3rd party skills that don't necessarily follow the rules. Alexa can in fact be very anal about how you ask her to run a routine. She might not be as strict as a command line operating system, but she can get rather close to that sometimes. Then add to that the fact that routines can only be turned ON, never OFF. So for example, a routine to turn ON lights in the night for a trip to the bathroom will only turn them ON. You have to create a separate routine to turn the lights back OFF. You can say, "Alexa, [routine name to turn on bathroom room lights] ON." She might or might not respond, but probably will sooner or later. But you can never say, "Alexa, [routine name to turn ON bathroom room lights] OFF" and expect anything to happen. Instead you have to say, "Alexa, [routine name to turn OFF bathroom room lights]". And there are many unwritten rules about having names for scenes and routines that are too similar in Amazon's opinion. So in my opinion, merely being nice to Alexa and talking to her like she is human might help a little bit, but until the Amazon developers learn how to write much better and more logical code, don't expect her to be more than a moron.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by wodin

Speak to Alexa like she’s your friend

Our bedroom light group is called "everything."
When I say "Alexa, everything off," I feel like I'm speaking to her like she's a stripper.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by ApK

Our bedroom light group is called "everything."
When I say "Alexa, everything off," I feel like I'm speaking to her like she's a stripper.

Yes, my bedside lamp is named by my first name, it's a bit creepy to say "Alexa; turn wodin off"!

[wodin]

Originally Posted by OtinG

...
So for example, a routine to turn ON lights in the night for a trip to the bathroom will only turn them ON. You have to create a separate routine to turn the lights back OFF. You can say, "Alexa, [routine name to turn on bathroom room lights] ON."
...

Yes, but you can create a group called "trip to the bathroom", then you can say "Alexa; turn trip to the bathroom on" or "Alexa; turn trip to the bathroom off" and expect her to respond appropriately.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by OtinG

LOL! If I shop for groceries, which I just did this morning, I look for things like Charmin Ultra Soft TP. If I was stupid enough to let Alexa make the choice, I would probably wind up with a roll of 24-grit sandpaper! Ouch!!

I have been taking advantage of a local grocery store's online orders where they collect your items, then bring them to your car when you arrive.

I have enough problems with human choices, where they should at least have half-a-clue what a valid replacement for an out-of-stock item should be.

I've learned to be very specific with allowable substitutions after a few times letting the shopper decide. I can't imagine what a computer would come up with.

[wodin]

What If AI Psychopath 'Norman' and Amazon's Alexa Got Together?

[tubemonkey]

How to clean your Alexa or Google Home speakers

Devices like the Amazon Echo Dot are pretty easy to clean, since there isn't any fabric involved. Wiping it down with a dry cloth should take care of any dust or grime that's settled on your Echo Dot. If you do purchase an Echo device with a fabric shell, the same dry cloth rule applies to be absolutely sure you don't damage the speaker.

Amazon also recommends cleaning the outside of any Echo device with a dry cloth or a blow-dryer at low speed. That could alleviate surface dirt or dust in the device's seams and buttons.

All three speaker brands prefer a dry method of cleaning, seemingly to ensure no one takes a sopping rag to their smart speaker. Still, that might not be enough to get the stain off your speaker cover. So, if you absolutely can't wipe the stain off with a dry method and you're fully aware of the risks involved, consider trying a damp cloth. It might take one or two rounds of light scrubbing and drying to get through the stain, but that's better than ruining your smart speaker with a liquid cleaner or too much water.

[wodin]

How to make voice and video calls using Alexa and your Amazon Echo

[Conan46]

I use a can of compressed air to remove dust from my Tap and Dot. Seems to work well.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by wodin

Yes, but you can create a group called "trip to the bathroom", then you can say "Alexa; turn trip to the bathroom on" or "Alexa; turn trip to the bathroom off" and expect her to respond appropriately.

Not unless they have changed the way in which routines work. It has been a few months since I messed with creating them, but back then you could NEVER EVER say "off". Routines simply don't understand the term "off", or "on" as far as that goes. You simply say "[ROUTINE NAME]" by itself as there is no ON or OFF. Routines are simply activated/run. So the command Bathroom Lights will turn on the devices/scenes associated with the routine Bathroom Lights. You cannot say Bathroom Lights off. It is ignored because Alexa is not programmed to do that. You have to program a separate routine with a sufficiently unique name to turn off all the devices/scenes associated with the routine. This is the most incredibly stupid way of doing things, but we are talking about Amazon here and they constantly push the edge of stupidity way beyond what they should!

I think if you made two routines that were similar sounding, Alexa will get confused and blow a fuse. For example, routine Bathroom Lights ON and routine Bathroom Lights OFF will likely result in Alexa responding that you have two routines named Bathroom Lights and then nothing will happen--epic failure. At least that has been my experience with her and routines.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I have been taking advantage of a local grocery store's online orders where they collect your items, then bring them to your car when you arrive.

I have enough problems with human choices, where they should at least have half-a-clue what a valid replacement for an out-of-stock item should be.

I've learned to be very specific with allowable substitutions after a few times letting the shopper decide. I can't imagine what a computer would come up with.

I've avoided the online/phone orders from grocery stores so far as I know they will likely muck up my orders, and then it will take longer to fix that than it would take to just go inside and do the grocery shopping myself. Online grocery shopping with local grocery store chains, wherein they ship the items to you, is totally frustrating. It takes me forever to locate the items I want, then more often than not they say they cannot ship that item! WTH! I generally wind up with fewer than half of the items I wanted to buy. I refuse to pay Amazon their extortion fee for using their Pantry, so I haven't tried them. I do buy some grocery related items via Amazon, but not from their pantry. I buy cat food, kitty litter, coffee, and similar items, but again I'm getting those at the regular Amazon and not via their Pantry subscription.

[OtinG]

Wow, WTH is wrong with the Amazon Prime Deal Day? Their website is totally effed up. I'm getting really tired of seeing the page that reads, "Sorry something went wrong on our end." Everytime I find something and then try to shop around a go back and compare that item, it seems to disappear and I get the stupid doggie page with the message I showed above! I guess this must be Bezos new tactic. Fake Deal Day. "Hey we have all these deals but good luck finding them or checking out."

[wodin]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Not unless they have changed the way in which routines work. It has been a few months since I messed with creating them, but back then you could NEVER EVER say "off". Routines simply don't understand the term "off", or "on" as far as that goes. You simply say "[ROUTINE NAME]" by itself as there is no ON or OFF. Routines are simply activated/run. So the command Bathroom Lights will turn on the devices/scenes associated with the routine Bathroom Lights. You cannot say Bathroom Lights off. It is ignored because Alexa is not programmed to do that. You have to program a separate routine with a sufficiently unique name to turn off all the devices/scenes associated with the routine. This is the most incredibly stupid way of doing things, but we are talking about Amazon here and they constantly push the edge of stupidity way beyond what they should!

I think if you made two routines that were similar sounding, Alexa will get confused and blow a fuse. For example, routine Bathroom Lights ON and routine Bathroom Lights OFF will likely result in Alexa responding that you have two routines named Bathroom Lights and then nothing will happen--epic failure. At least that has been my experience with her and routines.

You can create a group (which is different from a routine) in the Alexa app, and name it anything you want, e.g. "go to the bathroom", then you can assign any devices you have to that group, e.g. all the lights between the bedroom and bathroom. Then you can tell any Echo in the house: "Alexa; turn got to the bathroom on." or "Alexa; turn go to the bathroom off."

I have several fixtures that have multiple bulbs in them, I don't want to have to tell Alexa to turn them on individually so I created a group called "Dining Room" and assigned all the bulbs in the dining room fixture to it. Now I can say "Alexa; Turn on (or off) the Dining Room" and she turns them all on (or off).

[ApK]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Wow, WTH is wrong with the Amazon Prime Deal Day? Their website is totally effed up. I'm getting really tired of seeing the page that reads, "Sorry something went wrong on our end."

Yup, here too. Their infrastructure must be getting slammed. Lucky for me there is nothing I'm shopping for today.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by wodin

You can create a group (which is different from a routine) in the Alexa app, and name it anything you want, e.g. "go to the bathroom", then you can assign any devices you have to that group, e.g. all the lights between the bedroom and bathroom. Then you can tell any Echo in the house: "Alexa; turn got to the bathroom on." or "Alexa; turn go to the bathroom off."

I have several fixtures that have multiple bulbs in them, I don't want to have to tell Alexa to turn them on individually so I created a group called "Dining Room" and assigned all the bulbs in the dining room fixture to it. Now I can say "Alexa; Turn on (or off) the Dining Room" and she turns them all on (or off).

I might try creating a group then, but I'm not convinced it will work any better. Alexa tends to screw up commands about as often as she gets them correct! Its a pity that Amazon has such idiots for developers...