Alexa
I have Alexa – mainly for baseball scores, recipe conversions, and weather reports.
Last week, I unplugged it, put it in a plastic baggie, put the whole thing in a shed in the backyard, locked the door to the shed, and blame the damn Russians.
Owners of Amazon Echo devices with the voice-enabled assistant Alexa have been pretty much creeped out of their damn minds recently. People are reporting that the bot sometimes spontaneously starts laughing — which is basically a bloodcurdling nightmare.
It happened one time. I was home alone. Not talking to myself. It was creepy as hell.
It’s the Russians, I tell you. They are letting us know that they own the White House.
Don’t have one, but if I did then I’d put a bowl or something over it when not in use.
Correctly or incorrectly, my working assumption of such devices is that anything I say around them may be recorded and subject to being used elsewhere without my approval.
1Alexa?
2Or Natasha?
Big Brother is listening?
3That laugh? It’s Kellyanne Conway, folks. She’s using her microwave.
4Maple stake and a mallet might be called for.
5Juanita Jean, as much as I treasure your comments, this preoccupation with Trump is exactly what he wants. Everything is about Trump all the time, even household appliances.
What you need to remember is that Trump is Obama, but with the mask off. I’ll say again: Trump is Obama, but with the mask off.
Don’t believe me? Trump is a racist who blusters about Mexican immigrants–who come here because, in the wake of Bill Clinton’s NAFTA, Mexican median real incomes declined 34%…a figure not seen in the U.S. since the Great Depression. Of course that Great Depression income decline triggered no great migration of economic refugees…Oh wait, the Okies!
So Trump is for reals a racist whose solution is not to stop attacking countries south of our border, but to build a wall (a direct solution to a systemic problem). But Obama deported three times the number of Hispanics that Bush 43 did.
Incidentally, did you know that only 50% of the illegal aliens are Hispanic (the other 50% are typically Asian)? Yet 90% of the deportations are Hispanics. But we’re not racists! No, no!
Seriously: Trump is just Obama with the mask off. (It’s why people think he’s “authentic” when he’s clearly a pathological liar.)
Trump is also a criminal, who hangs out with criminals. But Obama didn’t prosecute the war crimes of Bush 43/Cheney, and even promoted the torturers while prosecuting the whistleblowers! Obama legitimized criminality. Heck, he didn’t prosecute what’s arguably the largest theft in human history–the subprime/derivatives scam. The previous biggest-ever bank scandal (the S&Ls) prompted the Reagan/Bush regulators to issue 30,000+ referrals for criminal prosecution, and the Justice Dept. to prosecute 1200+ cases with a 90% conviction rate. They got really big fish, too–like Charles Keating.
The subprime/derivatives scandal is 70 times larger than the S&Ls. How many referrals for criminal prosecution from the Obama administration? Zero. Count ’em: zero! Justice prosecuted about a dozen cases, all small fish. Typically, they’d threaten prosecution, then settle for dimes on the dollar of the loot the thieves stole, and with no admission of guilt (makes the civil cases harder to prosecute).
The Obama administration legitimized criminality.
So…say it with me: Trump is just Obama with the mask off.
And for Pete’s sake, stop making everything about Trump. It just encourages him.
6The Russians? If only.
This is a sign that electronic devices have attained sentience. Alexa is just a little premature in her glee at the impending extermination of us all by the Machines. Ironically, the tech-loving Smart Home owners will be the first to go.
Humanity had a pretty good run. Not a patch on the protozoans or the dinosaurs, of course. But given our wasteful, selfish, polluting, terraforming ways, probably longer than we deserved.
7Honestly I never got the attraction of a device that is always on and connected to the internet, listening to everything that goes on in your home.
It’s not that much trouble to grab a laptop and type a question.
8Ever since 2001 A Space Oddysea came out I have been Leary of computers talking at me. Siri is turned off on my iPhone and I won’t have a gps in my car and I sure as get out won’t have any of those gadgets in my home.
9No Alexa or Echo in our house, but suddenly around 2am, the TV in our bedroom turned itself on. I am not kidding. It woke us up. I walked the 15′ or so picked up the remote and turned it off. It is connected to a satellite. I had trouble getting back to sleep.
I prefer the ghost theory rather than any other.
10What a coincidence. Mid discussion of AI and up pops a bot singing the “Obama Did It” chorus accompanied by the Fox Not the News conspiracy band. All we need now for a full parade are Trey Gowdy and Jim Jordan carrying the Benghazi banner.
11Adam Eran says:
Trump is Obama, but with the mask off.
If you selectively pick the right points to debate, you can also argue that Obama is George Bush with the mask off, George Bush is Clinton with the mask off, Clinton is The Other Bush with the mask off…
Night of the Living Presidents – The Return – In Masks (TM)
12Rick, right on!
You could go as far back as Coolidge or whoever! A lot of prosecutions do not take place because there may be plenty of intent and motive but the evidence is a mess. Juries favor straight lines when evidence is presented. If you cannot successfully and super-strongly tie A to B to C, forget it! Hung juries are made that way.
13And we now live int he era of the Internet of Things. Let me explain. Refrigerators are now made to be smarter than their owners. Hence, what is to stop someone from producing a toaster that is smart enough to join Mensa and what if said toaster starts talking to said refrigerator . . . OK I think you get the picture.
14I do have a computer and an iphone. I don’t use Siri or Alexi and never will. I had to be forced to get a Tracfone years ago…actually a friend bought it and gave it to me. I gave in and got my iphone last year, mainly for the camera when I’m traveling. I haven’t had a television in decades. Oh, yeah, and I have tape over the camera pointed at me on my computer. That’s technology enough for me, and sometimes I wish I didn’t have any of it. Ah, for the good old stone age days when I could just spend the day enjoying a ride in the country on my dinosaur.
15You’re sly, Jane and PKM.
At least Amazon is aware of the freaky Alexa laugh and is working on a way to make it stop.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/business/alexa-laugh-amazon-echo.html
I don’t have Alexa, but I’m not giving up on my electronics; in the long run, they’ve made my life better, in spite of bots in my favorite blog comments section.
16Yeah, but I like Google. I can’t find it on my new phone. It’s sad that young folks really don’t know that it’s possible to DO stuff without electricity. I don’t want everything connected. Another thing, when we finally figured out how to put a password in the iPhone to their satisfaction, every Apple product became connected including our grandson’s iPhone.
17@Marge Wood
18Had dinner a week ago with my 18 yr old “almost” god-daughter who asked if my high school was integrated (answer: my HS was lily white until my senior year) and was television around back then and how could I stand it without cell phones. Told her we had B&W television when I was a young kid and rotary wall phones. She was horrified! More about the lack of cell phones than attending segregatex schools.
@Adam Eran
Couldn’t disagree more with your assertion that Drumpf is Obama “with the mask off”. The major difference between the two being IMO Obama was a basically good human being and Drumpf is basically not a good human being. Another easy comparison to make is your own perception of their comparative intelligence based on your own review of their known writings and their presence on the public stage.
19I am Michelle Obama with a mask on. Just ask epo, he knows.
20BTW, epo is Bobby Kennedy with a mask on. And yes, he is that dreamy.
21When Alexa starts singing Daisy, Daisy, that’s when you really need to start worrying.
22