JackbyDev

I never dove into the skill API, but I'd imagine you're setting phrases up. Can LLMs really help there? Like asking Alexa general information, I could see how LLMs were helpful, but asking it to turn lights on, how would that help?

Every damn smart light skill has different syntax and there is no way to get the Alexa app to just fucking tell me what the syntax is. The "nui' (no user interface) approach is cute but really falls flat when trying to do complex tasks or mix brands of smart devices.

Also, it might be Google that does this more often so I won't blame Alexa necessarily, but a lot of times when I ask things to play my liked songs I end up getting a song called "my liked songs" to play. It hasn't happened in a while so however I am phrasing it must be correct now but it's not something I'm super consciously aware of.

Was it by the way? Say "Alexa, turn off 'by the way'."

Well, obviously it operates on what it believes is a keyword. It does not have magically divine insight. Are you trying to imply they make them overly sensitive? I don't see the problem. Imagine the opposite. If they responded to less things they thought were keywords people would just think they're broken.

This isn't even conspiracy loads of people report Alexa going off randomly without any sort of prompt. Don't tell me the device isn't listening closely to every little conversation you have.

This definitely is conspiracy. You're claiming that Amazon is secretly conspiring to make Alexa devices behave differently than they advertise them to. That's like the definition of conspiracy lol. But that aside, I really don't believe this. What's the exact claim, that they're always listening? No, they don't. People can analyze the traffic and tell that's false. That they're intentionally overly sensitive? I have an easier time beginning to buy that but I still think we'd see more quantitative articles about that if it were true. Like we haven't had whistle blowers or security researchers saying anything like that.

"Alexa, turn off 'by the way'."

You're welcome.

Not everyone has them though

If it's not something I expect people to read in a print format I'm absolutely willing to do that.

PDFs break my brain. It's 2024. Unless you truly intend for something to be primarily and only read in print why use PDF? And I know everybody is able to host HTML because usually everyone is grabbing these PDFs from a webpage.

Edit: down voters, convince me on valid uses of PDFs for things that aren't meant to be printed. At least list some. I'm aware this is an extreme opinion. It's one I've thought about a lot, but I just can't think of any. For things that are meant to be printed then I agree they're the best. Everything else I think HTML is better for because it can be resized arbitrarily and isn't bound to a specific layout. Also copying text from PDFs is bonkers.

I disagree. We should nationalize it.

As much as I don't want Meta to be part of the fediverse, it's still exciting seeing federation being considered by a major tech company.

I get that. I think there are higher highs and lower lows. I honestly can't even begin to imagine what it'd be like dealing with two or more breakups at the same time.