OP’s clarification must come from the ambiguous HN title.
742 karma · joined September 30, 2013
I use both (albeit more Alexa than Siri, both just for a really limited functionality set), and FWIW, I believe Alexa is worse than Siri. It can do two things at the same time though (just as your example: "turn on X and turn off Y", "turn on X for Y seconds", and things like that).
I also feel that it has gotten worse over the years. I read about the possibility of microphones getting dust and therefore capturing worse audio, so I got a dust blower (for other reasons, too), but it didn't solve anything.
After listening in the app what Alexa picks up (from an Echo and Echo Dot, both 4th. Gen), I have to say that they use really shitty microphones. Furthermore, I have been testing Whisper extensively last month, with audio coming from low-quality sources, and I think a similar model would interpret a lot better my voice than whatever Amazon is using.
It's not [0]
They are going to buy the 800$, any of the two, complain when it inevitably "works slower" in a couple of years (if they are lucky), and buy a new 800$ once again then. I don't see the manufacturer's motivation to offer upgradable RAM.
I was always amazed about a past acquaintance whose PhD thesis included game theory applications, as she was studying the breeding and feeding behaviors of some random bird.
Although a koreader integration would be great, there are tablets with both Android and iOS, as well as eReaders with the former.
Italian and Spanish also share lots of idioms, too.
[0] https://www.research-in-germany.org/idw-news/en_US/2023/10/2...
The “conclusion” was that people looking for the cheapest stuff are going to inevitably buy at the cheapest end, provoking a race to the bottom for manufacturers. People who like brands, quality, or status will go to the high end, independent of price, creating incentives for the companies to just sell things more expensively for a higher margin. There just wasn’t (according to the comments) enough market mass (nor business interest) to cater for that middle spot that ironically so many of us are looking for.
Last time I went to an Apple Store I asked about repairing the power button of a (then) three year old device and the answer was “buy a new one, your device is too old”. So, I put in doubt that they favor repairs, as in the end new devices make more money.
Needless to say, my device still works perfectly (except for the button) two years after that comment, and probably will do so for several years more.
> [...] If a book bores you, leave it; don’t read it because it is famous, don’t read it because it is modern, don’t read a book because it is old. If a book is tedious to you, leave it, even if that book is 'Paradise Lost' — which is not tedious to me — or 'Don Quixote' — which also is not tedious to me. But if a book is tedious to you, don't read it; that book was not written for you. Reading should be a form of happiness, so I would advise all possible readers of my last will and testament—which I do not plan to write— I would advise them to read a lot, and not to get intimidated by writers' reputations, to continue to look for personal happiness, personal enjoyment. It is the only way to read.”
Anyway, being science/academic books/papers the point of discussion in the thread, I doubt one would always have the privilege to just leave it.
From the Encyclopaedia Britannica [0]: __These conspicuous declines in diversity are referred to as mass extinctions__
> It also doesn't mean all species who didn't thrive would be lost - many would be affected but not existentially so.
But this is not a fact, it is a conjecture. On the other hand, we do have declining numbers of a big number of species. Unless the tendency reverts, constant long-term declining numbers will be an existential threat.
> I'm reminded of George Carlin's joke about the planet being fine long-term, we're the ones who will be screwed.
That's true, for sure. But asides from "the planet" and "we", there are also all the others.
I think that being responsibles for it is even more of a tragedy.
I’ve installed home assistant recently too for the flexibility, but until I get a zigbee stick I still depend on Alexa as the interface with the lights.
I forgot to say that the problem mostly occurs when I ask Alexa to set the (unspecified, but hopefully the one belonging to the room the corresponding Echo is) light's brightness to X. Sometimes, in that case, it turns on the light from the other room.
I didn't check the audio transcript when this happens though, that's a good one, thanks.
It also fails hard with Internet. I’m sick of being on my living room asking Alexa to turn on the light just to get the bedroom light turned on (each room has its own Alexa/Light pair, so there should be no confusion).
[0] https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119175 [1] https://github.com/Readarr/Readarr
United States vs. Microsoft Corp, 2001? [0]
And ongoing: United States vs. Google LLC (2020) [1] and United States vs Google LLC (2023) [2].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_(2...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_(2...
Edited: formatting
But the score I am speaking of was something different: it was the reputation assigned by Microsoft (i.e., something internal) to the IPs from which we sent e-mails. This score was used to determine how many e-mails sent from those IPs would pass/fail MSFT's filters. And to have access to the score and improve it, we had to pay a 3rd. party :).
I felt outraged at the moment because it was clearly a "pay-to-play" scheme, but ~8 years ago the number of Hotmail/Outlook addresses in my country was definitely substantial. Probably it still is.