Alexa Is Fired

[MrBoat]

Yes, after months of wonky performance and it not getting requests even remotely close to what I asked for, I have relegated the dots to the junk drawer. I knew it was too good to be true when I got the things, but they were cheap enough so. . .

I am laying in my bed, and I ask Alexa to play me a song. That's all I wanted. I know what I want, or I would have asked for more to start with. Now that the volume is well up, being that some streamed songs are weak on sound level the song plays and I am done and am about to get up anyway. But that's not good enough for Alexa. She has to ask me, in a sound level that is much louder than the song ever got to be, if I would like to hear more songs related to this? Never even made it to the volume cntrl on the remote fast enough. I know, there are probably some settings to fix this, but I can't be bothered with something that has way too many options to explore. It never used to ask me extra questions unprompted before.

I have a song I want to hear. Alexa has managed this request before. 2 word song title, followed by a one word band name. What she replies back is a 5 word title and a half sentence for a band name that doesn't even have close to the same mumble signature, if that's what I was doing. No, I tried it 5 different ways. As clearly as I could say it, slowly enough as to really clearly separate the words and give the fookin thing some time to reason it out. Now I look/sound like I am talking to something that is mentally challenged. Not getting caught doing that anymore. I'm on the verge of sarcastic fake sign language along with my new speech impediment that tries to get my point across to this dummy. And when she screws up my selection, her selection ends up being some underground rap garbage. Something I have/would never choose in my 4 years with this device.

Okay Alexa, you can't hear or understand me, let me just search it myself (I see 6 different versions of the song on amazon music) and type it in via the Alexa app? I can control the volume and such from there so, why not just give me this option, instead of talking to this dummy? The option may very well be there, but it's not right up front where an old roller like me can find it.

The dot is not powerful enough to hook to my active speakers. It's not much better than my android phone, since the powers that be became concerned for my hearing and limited my phone's output in which to make it pretty much useless in that role as well. So, what now, I need to add a better, more powerful preamp in this chain to fix this?

Basically, after 4 years of using this device, it has caused me more anguish than pleasure or satisfaction. Gave it many chances or avoided it altogether. I'm just not patient enough for buggy tech things. I am putting my CD player back in service for bedroom music.

 

[fmw]

Computers can't think. They can only follow programmed code. They don't understand you. They put your words into a database to come up with matches for a response. The search can be wrong. The database an be wrong. You could be wrong in using the best words to guide it. It is impossible to create code that will work with every one of the billions of people on the planet. Knowing this I never spend a nickel on these devices. I think you did the right thing.

 

[MrBoat]

Computers can't think. They can only follow programmed code. They don't understand you. They put your words into a database to come up with matches for a response. The search can be wrong. The database an be wrong. You could be wrong in using the best words to guide it. It is impossible to create code that will work with every one of the billions of people on the planet. Knowing this I never spend a nickel on these devices. I think you did the right thing.

Yes. I have realized I am not willing to go the extra programming needed by me to maintain these smart devices. Same with the phone. Only thing I use it for is phone calls. All other internet use is consolidated to the home front. It can wait until I get home. It's nice to not know what awaits. That anticipatory, surprise element of life that has all been replaced by perpetual, instantaneous information.

Alexa does ok, considering how far-out some of my requests can be, but I am tired of talking to it. If I could control it or it would pair up with the Amazon music app on the phone, that would be better. More often than not, I was using pandora thru the dot, by just choosing a radio station based on a particular artist to get me close to what I actually felt like hearing.

Now there is wifi for my window AC that went buggy after only two years. I don't use it. But there it decided to start beeping randomly. That is the problem these days. The engineers are too young. If they had come from the hands-on era, they could know that these things that they design for convenience, really aren't. They are more redundant than convenient. Take ziplock bags for instance. Everything under the sun comes in a ziplock now. The newer rip and zip types, where it has the little notches to tell you where to rip the seal off, work maybe half the time. We already had this solved 20 years ago. Now I end up scissoring half of them and moving the contents into a better system. At least with the old single use plastic, I knew what I was going to need ahead of time. So now I must buy extra bags just to cover this new tech.

ETA: I don't miss the dot. I don't miss the dummy repeating everything I tell it back to me and everyone else, either. Good riddance.

 

[lovinthehd]

I just can't bring myself to talk to electronics let alone have them "listen" to my environment....just don't find it particularly useful, but do find it creepy.

 

[WookieGR]

To successfully use any Alexa device, proper pronunciation and specificity are key. We've been using several Echo Dot's for well over 6 years and have had very few problems. I won't say NONE but an acceptably low amount. We even recently got the one in the living room to random play all the music off our music server via PLEX which offers a superior music selection than what Amazon's algorithm is capable of.

 

[Verdinut]

At present, I am using Helix which is provided by Videotron, my TV program supplier. It's based on Comcast's X1 platform and I've had it for about a year.

I can record programs with it. Helix suggests that I say "View my recordings" to view the list of recorded programs. But when I say "View my recordings", it most often comes with "Youtube my recordings! After awhile, I got fed up with the situation and started to just say "My recordings" and it works well with this call. I also use my finger to select channels instead of calling them.

That situation reminds me of a deaf person hearing something else than what was said. That often happens to me now since my hearing acuity has recently worsened. I intend to have my hearing verified next year and I will most likely be advised to use one hearing aid device.

 

[fmw]

Yes. I have realized I am not willing to go the extra programming needed by me to maintain these smart devices. Same with the phone. Only thing I use it for is phone calls. All other internet use is consolidated to the home front. It can wait until I get home. It's nice to not know what awaits. That anticipatory, surprise element of life that has all been replaced by perpetual, instantaneous information.

Alexa does ok, considering how far-out some of my requests can be, but I am tired of talking to it. If I could control it or it would pair up with the Amazon music app on the phone, that would be better. More often than not, I was using pandora thru the dot, by just choosing a radio station based on a particular artist to get me close to what I actually felt like hearing.

Now there is wifi for my window AC that went buggy after only two years. I don't use it. But there it decided to start beeping randomly. That is the problem these days. The engineers are too young. If they had come from the hands-on era, they could know that these things that they design for convenience, really aren't. They are more redundant than convenient. Take ziplock bags for instance. Everything under the sun comes in a ziplock now. The newer rip and zip types, where it has the little notches to tell you where to rip the seal off, work maybe half the time. We already had this solved 20 years ago. Now I end up scissoring half of them and moving the contents into a better system. At least with the old single use plastic, I knew what I was going to need ahead of time. So now I must buy extra bags just to cover this new tech.

ETA: I don't miss the dot. I don't miss the dummy repeating everything I tell it back to me and everyone else, either. Good riddance.

I have never been a fan of neckties or computerized answering machines. The former are discomfort for no benefit and the latter are just a way to avoid speaking with customers.

 

[MrBoat]

To successfully use any Alexa device, proper pronunciation and specificity are key. We've been using several Echo Dot's for well over 6 years and have had very few problems. I won't say NONE but an acceptably low amount. We even recently got the one in the living room to random play all the music off our music server via PLEX which offers a superior music selection than what Amazon's algorithm is capable of.

Been using it pretty much since it came out, or the ones I have are first gen, at least. I speak clearly. Even more so when talking to anything voice. I have this friend that is totally deaf. Still, he does his best to verbalize what he wants to say but he doesn't speak well. I end up talking the same way back to him, even though I have no speech impediment otherwise. I end up talking the same way to Alexa.

I don't miss it. Quit using it at work as well. I had not realized how inconvenient/tedious the process had become until kicking it to the curb. Has since been replaced with more tried and truer, set and forget options. Had a brainiac friend recently hack into the root of my phone and turn the volume up for me. It was restricted via some android concerns for my hearing. As such, it did not always have enough power, depending on what album I was streaming. Dire Straits "On Every Street" album, for example, was too faint, even with all volumes maxed. This was a condition with the dot, too.

These "smart" devices end up being in the same type of convenience realm as automatic toothbrush pasters, and other things that really never needed any help. That same feeling one might get prewashing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. The one thing that had never happened to me in 50 years of music listening though, was anything causing me such perpetual aggravation. It had it's chance. It amused me for a while but has since worn out it's welcome.

I filled out some online survey about my phone. One of the questions was to name an older technology that the convenience of cell phones had replaced. I said, "turn signals."

 

[j_garcia]

Alexa never got hired here

 

[MrBoat]

Alexa never got hired here

I enjoyed firing her. I got a few years out of it. If they had evolved it to be better, instead of just more, I would have been ok with it. I should be nicer about it. The technology is pretty amazing, even with it's limitations. Still don't miss it.