Amazon has ruined the name Amazon. A word that used to command respect and awe now connotates shipping waste and overworked warehouse laborers.
It probably now commands even more widespread respect and awe - but for the corporation.
Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
61–70 of 153 posts
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#62Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#63Yes, and the internet has ruined the name Karen, too.
Yep, they basically "cancelled" an entire name. I know two people named Karen, both of whom are kind and sweet ladies, and they are sick of it. I am just hoping that my name is not next.
It's a meme. Nobody called to "cancel" the name.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Imagine your own name being used as a term for ridicule or poking fun. You mean like "a John"? Or "Dick"? Or "a big Charlie"? These things are old as sin, stuff like this will probably exist forever. Forbid it as much as you want, it will always come back one way or another. Or is the problem that now they "trend female", whereas they historically trended male? I have a pretty simple name, but because it was used i…
I'm not calling for censorship. Growing a thicker skin is a virtue. But it'd be nice if the people promulgating the trend also stopped to think about it. > You mean like "a John"? Or "Dick"? Or "a big Charlie"? This has been the case for so long that parents have had ample time to stop naming their children this. They recently renamed a nearby bridge in Georgia from "Dick Hunter Memorial Bridge" [1,2]. [1] http://eth…
> parents have had ample time to stop naming their children this.
I think it would be very depressing to abandon a glorious name like John just because a bunch of prostitutes use it as shorthand.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know an Alexa and she says the same. I'll admit I hadn't thought about it before but it does sound like an incredibly annoying thing to have dropped on you from on high: constant jokes, if anyone addresses you in an Amazon-enabled home all kind of crap gets triggered... I can see why people are infuriated by it.
People are like that. Ask a tall person if he's tired of people asking, "What's the weather like up there?" My first name is associated with a catch phrase of a particular era, and I can judge how old someone is by their reaction to it. You live with it. You move on with your life.
Wonder how Boomer Esiason is taking to “Hey Boomer”
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not calling for censorship. Growing a thicker skin is a virtue. But it'd be nice if the people promulgating the trend also stopped to think about it. > You mean like "a John"? Or "Dick"? Or "a big Charlie"? This has been the case for so long that parents have had ample time to stop naming their children this. They recently renamed a nearby bridge in Georgia from "Dick Hunter Memorial Bridge" [1,2]. [1] http://eth…
> parents have had ample time to stop naming their children this. I think it would be very depressing to abandon a glorious name like John just because a bunch of prostitutes use it as shorthand.
It’s a nickname for toilet, I think that’s the bigger issue. But I know lots of Johns all ages, it’s not going away.
With the right last name, Richard can be carried with pride. I’ve met a Steele and a Hardin, they were perfectly happy to have their last name included.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We shouldn't abuse people's names by using them for products, gross generalizations, etc. It's poor taste, and it frequently hurts people unintentionally. In the case of Alexa and Cortana, the intention is to treat the machine as a person you can talk to. It’s intentional that it has a human name.
Should have just called it "Computer" like on Star Trek. Or let you give it whatever name you like. It's your device, in theory.
IIRC, the word 'Alexa' and the configurable alternatives 'Echo', 'Amazon', and 'Computer' are encoded into the firmware of the device itself with a wide variety of different accents accepted. Using an arbitrary word would mean everything the device hears would need to be constantly sent to Amazon so their servers could detect your custom wake word or you'd need to train the device to use your custom wake word, which would never be as accent complete as the built in wake words. That might be fine if it's just you or if everyone in your household are willing to also go through a voice recognition training session with the device.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#68If amazon ruined the name it was surely when Alexa was first used as a spyware IE plugin and it's accompanying website popularity ranking.
I'm kind of surprised they ever used the brand for anything after that.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#69Would have been interesting to see data-points from before 2015...
'The year when the name Alexa was most popular is 2015. In that year, the number of births is 6052, which represents 0.311 percent of total female births in 2015.' From https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/babyname.cgi
Yeah but I am interested in looking at the trend line then doing a regression discontinuity analysis.
Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Should have just called it "Computer" like on Star Trek. Or let you give it whatever name you like. It's your device, in theory.
IIRC, the word 'Alexa' and the configurable alternatives 'Echo', 'Amazon', and 'Computer' are encoded into the firmware of the device itself with a wide variety of different accents accepted. Using an arbitrary word would mean everything the device hears would need to be constantly sent to Amazon so their servers could detect your custom wake word or you'd need to train the device to use your custom wake word, which…
> Using an arbitrary word would mean everything the device hears would need to be constantly sent to Amazon
Isn't it pretty well accepted that is already happening? It's why I'll never have one of these things in my house. That and I don't like talking to machines (unless I'm cursing at them).