Alexa Galnet Skill

[Pete S]

Ladies and Gents. Do understand the technology you are placing in your homes. Purchasing is turned on by default.

https://youtu.be/oI2KLIULjXc

Honestly, after the Snowden revelations, why anyone would want a live mic in their home 24/7 is beyond me.

It's a good shout, adding a pin code to purchasing is fast, simple and removes any issue around accidental purchases.

As for having a mic in your home 24/7 the same Snowden revolutions showed us that if you have a mobile phone 'they' can turn on the mic and force your phone to pretend that it's off. Amazon's already shown they're willing to fight requests to the data Alexa collects so I guess, ultimately, if you're concerned about Alexa you should definitely be concerned about your mobile phone too as most people have that on them 24/7 [up]

 

[GG7]

Thanks for the feedback, that's the first conundrum I hit during development and I know exactly what you mean. Let me go over a little of the logic behind the choice to play all articles:

That leaves us with 3 options:

1) Leave it as-is and accept that sometimes we'll end up skipping some non interesting briefings
2) Develop a new Flash Briefing that is filtered to 'Story' news items only (it would need to be a separate Flash Briefing with a new name)
3) Develop a stand-alone skill that can be filtered on demand but would need invoking specifically each time you want the news (e.g. Alexa, open Elite Dangerous News)

I'd welcome your view on which one fits your desired use case the best (and anyone else's take on this as well)

Thanks for the informative response Pete!

I think option 2 sounds good to me! I don't have a problem with a secondary version with a different name. I know the timing of this thread put us on the morning of the TICK, so a lot of the GalNet content is automated stuff today, but this does happen every single week, and there are also other automated posts posted each and every day that contain long strings of system names etc. etc.

All of which Alexa struggles with pronouncing in any recognizable form! lol!

 

[GG7]

As for having a mic in your home 24/7 the same Snowden revolutions showed us that if you have a mobile phone 'they' can turn on the mic and force your phone to pretend that it's off. Amazon's already shown they're willing to fight requests to the data Alexa collects so I guess, ultimately, if you're concerned about Alexa you should definitely be concerned about your mobile phone too as most people have that on them 24/7 [up]

Agreed!

A lot of faux outrage over nothing really. -- A Smart Phone is a lot less secure with all these things than an Echo. Bad guys know how many people own smartphones, and there are a heck of a lot more of those devices out there than Echos.

Actually, I don't own a cell phone of any kind. I live up in the mountains and we have zero coverage, so they are useless up here.

 

[mathwuy]

Thanks for the informative response Pete!

I think option 2 sounds good to me! I don't have a problem with a secondary version with a different name. I know the timing of this thread put us on the morning of the TICK, so a lot of the GalNet content is automated stuff today, but this does happen every single week, and there are also other automated posts posted each and every day that contain long strings of system names etc. etc.

All of which Alexa struggles with pronouncing in any recognizable form! lol!

I had the same pronounciation issue with my wiki skill. For instance, Thargoids are pronounced Th-goods. ��

 

[shadragon]

Agreed!

A lot of faux outrage over nothing really. -- A Smart Phone is a lot less secure with all these things than an Echo. Bad guys know how many people own smartphones, and there are a heck of a lot more of those devices out there than Echos.

Actually, I don't own a cell phone of any kind. I live up in the mountains and we have zero coverage, so they are useless up here.

Yes, it must be faux outrage. The US government has not engaged in anti-constitutional surveillance on their own citizens (and the world). They have not repeatedly lied about it to their congressional oversight committees. Nor have they undermined the entire security of the Internet by keeping Day One exploits in their backpockets as weapons.

Must be nice to live on a mountain where you can waft away troubles with a casual flicking of the fingers in an offhanded manner.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I'm not sure why I would share my gaming habits on such a level with big data?

 

[Taranis Dekker]

Yes, it must be faux outrage. The US government has not engaged in anti-constitutional surveillance on their own citizens (and the world). They have not repeatedly lied about it to their congressional oversight committees. Nor have they undermined the entire security of the Internet by keeping Day One exploits in their backpockets as weapons.

Must be nice to live on a mountain where you can waft away troubles with a casual flicking of the fingers in an offhanded manner.

Indeed so... smartphones may be insecure and .gov can remotely do this or remotely do that... but why would you purposefully add another easy-to-abuse device to your home?

Even if .gov never exploits the Alexa or whatever other similar devices are out there, why would you open up your home to a company that wants to know everything it can about you? It's like those LG TVs that monitored in-room voice and sent it off to some server in the far east. Alexa is a godsend to the "security" entities of the world.

No ta. bah humbug and all that.

 

[VonBlade]

Honestly, after the Snowden revelations, why anyone would want a live mic in their home 24/7 is beyond me.

As someone who has been on the internet since the days when you were assigned a number as your email rather than choosing a username, and has visited all the dark corners that still exist even though Facebook and similar sites have attempted to put a veneer of respectability onto the information superhighway, I completely know how dangerous the net is and wouldn't remotely want a live microphone listening in my house all the time. It's just insanity. Sure the intelligence people can break through stuff if they want to, but having a microphone is inviting them in.

It's the difference between locking your front door knowing a determined burglar will get in, and opening the front door and putting a "get it here" neon sign on your lawn.

 

[GG7]

Funny...

All this self importance. As if any of these agencies even know we exist, leave alone care about what we are saying in our living room.

 

[Pete S]

Well this thread took an interesting turn.

If you don't have an Alexa device and don't intend to get one this isn't really the thread for you. I'm more than happy for people to debate the pros/cons of internet connected devices with microphones attached to them but that's a very different conversation to the one we were having here

Thanks for all the feedback so far on the Flash Briefing skill, would love to hear how you're finding it after a weeks use (after the novelty has worn off and a full news cycle has happened)

 

[Pete S]

Hey all, it's now a little over a week and I'd love to hear how you're finding the skill

Grateful if you could give me a view on what you like most and what you like least. I know that the scope of the Galnet News Flash Briefing is small but it's useful to understand if there's a common frustration. If you've stopped using it I'd love to know what was the primary factor behind that.

Thanks!
Pete