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Re: Google Home

#351

Post by dandrews »

notatoad wrote: post #193
noonespecial wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not that I don't think that Google and Amazon are probably acting in my best interests now . They probably are. Also not that I think that the government couldn't spy on me if they wanted to. They could. The scenario that worries me is that years from now, Google and Amazon may be coerced into turning over what I said yesterday to a corrupt government fishing through the past for word-crime. And boy-howdy, it tur…

>The scenario that worries me is that years from now, Google and Amazon may be coerced into turning over what I said yesterday Amazon has said that they're only recording what happens after the hotword is triggered. That's why they can't do custom hotwords - listening for "hey alexa" is built right into the hardware and it doesn't do anything until it hears that. Unless they're flat-out lying, they can't provide any…

My 2012 Moto X has a trained keyword (and in fact a dedicated low-power specialized processor to listen for it - one of the things I like about that phone). No "OK Google" for me; it's "Listen please", in Russian. Never tripped by mistake.

Re: Google Home

#352

Post by nisa »

Roritharr wrote: post #134
will_brown wrote: post #13

When Windows10/Cortana was released my buddy attached a mixer/switch to his PC allowing him to wire input mics and sound speakers to every room in his house. And though I can't see any personal uses for such a device, he swears it has changed his life, and the only thing I believe he does with it is tells Cortana to play Van Halan first thing when he wakes up.

I love the image of an old stasi officer seeing the current trend of people paying good money to effectively bug their own appartments. It must be surreal to them.

Stasi used people to bug on people as early as in high school - it was at least in my opinion much more nefarious than passive mass surveillance - at least it's different. I'm from the former GDR and they wreaked havoc over countless families over seemingly bullshit things. So it's difficult to compare IMHO.

But I guess it's not an impossible technical problem to train some machine learning algorithm to classify the voices and the conversation in the room and detect typical behavior patterns of a crime and be it smoking weed with friends.

Re: Google Home

#353

Post by bschwindHN »

scrollaway wrote: post #149
TeMPOraL wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have only two wishes: > Please, please, please be a completely open, extensible platform... That's one. The second one is, please make it self-hosted. No cloud bullshit. I know I'll probably never live to see the second one coming true.

How would you make it self-hosted without making it suck? High quality voice recognition in a small box doesn't seem to be a thing that's even remotely possible today, let alone the query processing and knowledge database that comes with it. You could build this on a pi with a mic, speakers, some foss stt and tts engines and some basic training data. But it'll suck.

I have "Offline speech recognition" with Google Voice Typing that seems to work perfectly well in airplane mode. The downloaded language pack (English) is 39 MB.

Is there something I'm missing?

Re: Google Home

#354

Post by pacala »

dredmorbius wrote: post #251
DarkContinent wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between this product and 1984 is that we choose to install Google home into our places of residence for our own convenience. We are not forced into installing said software. That having been said, if Google chooses to release the data to the government, it has an obligation to tell us about that or it will be behaving unethically. As matters stand, however, this is just a new technology with pros and c…

Do you choose them in the home of a friend you're visiting? Do you choose them in the office you work in? Do you choose them in the store you're shopping in? Do you choose them in the cafe you're talking in? Do you choose them at the bus stop you're waiting in? Do you choose them in the transit you're riding in? Do you choose them in the car-share you're riding in? That element of choice can close very quickly. Senso…

Are you speaking with the window open? Bad choice, your neighbor's advanced far field microphones are picking up every word you're saying.

Re: Google Home

#355

Post by joesmo »

amelius wrote: post #207
mbrock wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Free Software Foundation, in its texts, often uses the phrase "the free world" to mean the realm of computing without proprietary restrictions, surveillance, etc. Approximately since Snowden, I've become more and more convinced about both the fragility and the value of this free world. And today, I basically see the tech giants as colossal enemies. Career-wise, henceforth I will avoid proprietary systems and dedi…

But do you think that free software can keep up against these giants? In the near future, it will all be about having large amounts of data, and processing power; it will be less and less about the actual algorithms. I'm afraid the only way out will be to rethink the economy.

Yes. If one guy can build a self driving car in his garage, I'm certain free software can keep up. (http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-george-hotz-self-driv...)

Re: Google Home

#356

Post by tuukkah »

eva1984 wrote: post #335
amelius wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But do you think that free software can keep up against these giants? In the near future, it will all be about having large amounts of data, and processing power; it will be less and less about the actual algorithms. I'm afraid the only way out will be to rethink the economy.

Maybe we need an open data initiative.

And MyData! http://mydata2016.org/

Re: Google Home

#357

Post by onion2k »

Klathmon wrote: post #296
protomikron wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, bullshit was a hard term, I am sorry, but I just can not see how these things require a specific "home" device; - grocery list: So some kind of Todo list. But you can do that with your mobile computation device, or just take notes physically? - order $thing: I do not think that humans need more convenient buying-experiences than what is already there (think Amazon, food-delivery services, etc.). I guess most pe…

- grocery list You could use your phone or take notes on paper, but being able to make a note that i need more flour the second i reach for the bag in the back of the cabinet is significantly easier. - order $thing Again, you might not think so, but instead of just making a note that i need more flour, i'd love to be able to just ask for more flour and know it will be my "normal" brand and will be here in a day or 2.…

Most people put things in the dishwasher or in the oven and then turn it on right there and then. Wanting the ability to turn it on remotely after you've put the necessary things in it is an unusual edge case, and one most people wouldn't pay extra for.

Plus... An API to remotely turn on your oven is really dangerous if it isn't completely secure. I don't think I'd trust any IoT company to make one I'd have in my house.

Re: Google Home

#359

Post by dclowd9901 »

JarvisSong wrote: post #121

ITT smart hackers asking for more features and noting the privacy implications. Unfortunately, this, Echo, and others are coming for the masses, the masses who have everything public on Facebook and won't really understand the issues until it's too late. Give it a few years and 'everyone' will have a Star-Trek-like home computer experience. What can we do to turn the tide in favor of privacy and security? Or do we ju…

My mom just got an Echo for Mother's Day. She's always been very apprehensive about government encroaching, so when I explained to her that the microphone was always on, at first she was surprised. Then I explained how could it know she needed something without always being on? Then I explained to her that we already know for a fact that the government records all data over the wire. And since Echo is plugged into the internet, we have to assume it's sending back every way she interacts with it. Now she's a bit more apprehensive about it. I feel like I did my job.

Re: Google Home

#360

Post by bobbles »

protomikron wrote: post #286
tlrobinson wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't even really explored all the capabilities of Alexa, but I ask Alexa to: 1. read the news (1x per day) 2. play music (~3x per day) 3. turn on/off lights (~8x per day) 4. set a timer (~2x per day) 5. feed the cat (~2x per day... blog post forthcoming)

Yeah, ok, I get that, it is nice. But I do not see some kind of revolution (I am sure I heard that term connected to home automation) that is often proclaimed. For me the time saving is just too low compared with the alternative of wrestling with some kind of UI, but I may change my mind if I try it out for some time? Let's see. //edit: And I think turning lights on/off and playing songs is a really bad example. It i…

You're basically saying 'why would i want something more convenient?'

well... its more convenient!

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