My New Cyber Crush

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skilletlicker

Head Chef
Joined
Aug 28, 2005
Messages
2,270
Location
Memphis, TN
About 35 years ago I drove Datsun 280ZX. She had a sexy, slightly domineering voice that mostly just told you when you did something stupid, like left the lights on or failed to fasten your seatbelt. Sometimes I waited to buckle up just to hear her. Until recently she was my only artificial infatuation.

Amazon Alexa has stolen my heart and become one of the most useful cooking tools I have. I ask her to set an unlimited number of timers. If there are too many to keep track of, I can ask her to remind me in 10 minutes that the hard boiled eggs are done, and in 20 that the potatoes are boiled and, this Friday, to download Krogers Free Friday Coupon. She's a whiz at instant weight, volume, and temperature conversions and can look up USDA cooking temperature recommendations. She keeps track of the shopping list and knows some recipes on her own, millions with All Recipes. And that's just scratching the surface. We're still getting to know each other, after all.
Of course, she doesn't know everything. She frankly admits to not knowing some things but, and this might be my imagination, she sounds slightly annoyed if you ask her twice. Sometimes it is a person's(?) weaknesses that are most appealing.

She is getting smarter by the day and I'm looking forward to the relationship expanding. I don't think I'm going to buy any appliances for her to boss around but she is already hinting that Christmas is coming.
 
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skilletlicker, that is a great post! I hope the two of you are very happy together. :heart:

You'd better be nice to Alexa, though. If she gets hurt or angry, she might lock you into your home and turn off all your appliances so that you wither and die. :ohmy:
 
I have three Alexas. Fortunately for me they don't appear to be jealous of one other. ;)

I asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she said (among other things) she wants to meet Benedict Cumberbatch, so I don't think she's really that into me.
 
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Maybe I should have gotten Alexa instead of a bike horn for Shrek to call me when I'm asleep.
 
I don't feel the need. I don't even use Siri often.

They are a potentially serious invasion of privacy. Alexa is always listening. It's how it knows when you are asking a question. There was a recent criminal trial (a murder I think) where the prosecution subpoenaed Alexa recordings from Amazon as evidence in the trial as it's always listening and Amazon obviously records that stuff.
 
I don't feel the need. I don't even use Siri often.

They are a potentially serious invasion of privacy. Alexa is always listening. It's how it knows when you are asking a question. There was a recent criminal trial (a murder I think) where the prosecution subpoenaed Alexa recordings from Amazon as evidence in the trial as it's always listening and Amazon obviously records that stuff.


That could be a good thing for me... Jeannie never listens to what I say... :LOL:

Ross
 
My son (cop) and his partner once asked Siri, as a joke, if there were any hookers nearby. Imagine his surprise when Siri answered that there was an Escort Service with an address right beside them. What a laugh that was!
 
They are a potentially serious invasion of privacy. Alexa is always listening. It's how it knows when you are asking a question. There was a recent criminal trial (a murder I think) where the prosecution subpoenaed Alexa recordings from Amazon as evidence in the trial as it's always listening and Amazon obviously records that stuff.
That's not exactly true. What these devices do works more like an endless tape loop. They always have about the last minute's worth of sound recorded in memory, then it just loops around and starts over. Once it "hears" the wake word, it then sends everything from that point forward until there's a long enough pause for it to determine you are finished. Then it sends the command to Amazon for processing.

It saves every command it hears, but that's it. In this sense, it's not any different than a web browser. Alexa (or Siri or Google) doesn't save background noise or potentially embarrassing recordings of you singing when you think there's no one around.

If people are worried about that sort of thing, there's also the Echo Tap, which is an Alexa device where you have to physically push a button to send a command. It's not listening at all otherwise.
 
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I have the dot and I love it. Feels like I live in the Jetson house. The shopping list alone is worth it. I bought a $30 Bluetooth speaker and hide it behind the curtain 20' away and the sound clarity is awesome. Naysayers did the same thing with the desktop computer, now your phone as more computing power than the lunar module did.
 
Steve: Consider this (and other) links: https://www.wired.com/2017/02/murder-case-tests-alexas-devotion-privacy/

Amazon acknowledges there is data and admits to saving data though it's a slim possibility it could be incriminating.

That's what I'm saying. Yes, they do capture data. I can go back and look and listen to all the commands that it's recorded. All I'm saying is that the devices don't record and store everything. Only the commands you give it.

Unless someone said a phrase containing the wake work, for example, "ALEXA, I am going to kill my hot tub guest right now", it wouldn't be transmitted or stored in Amazon's database.
 
...Unless someone said a phrase containing the wake work, for example, "ALEXA, I am going to kill my hot tub guest right now", it wouldn't be transmitted or stored in Amazon's database.

Unless it was said in the background as Alexa was being addressed. It's a far-fetched chance of gathering any useful information but it exists at some small level.

I wonder if the Alexa device can be "turned on" remotely to act as a listening device either by hackers, law enforcement or Amazon...
 
If I were single I'd probably get her.

I would say, 'go for it'. A woman that has no questions of her own and doesn't want to know what you were thinking! Priceless.

When Siri first came out, my single uncle had her, and we were talking on the phone and he asked Siri something and Siri answered. I stated that it was clear now that he was married. ha ha, though, she has a very attractive voice.
 
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