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The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

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Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#521

Post by myrmidon »

AlexandrB wrote: post #476
myrmidon wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A significantly better metric to compare would be median hourly wage (ideally, purchasing power adjusted, but that's hard). The US average is actually behind wealthier European nations there (Ireland, Scandinavia, Benelux, Switzerland, Germany): 20$/h compared to ~20€/h. Purchasing power adjustments would also probably favor Europe I guess. So the much stronger US GDP/capita output apparently does very little for the…

> Purchasing power adjustments would also probably favor Europe I guess. I doubt it. Germany and especially Switzerland have a quite hight cost of living. Coming from Canada, I get sticker shock every time I go to the US because of how cheap everything is. I had the opposite reaction going to Europe (except for Italy). It would also be interesting to compare take-home (after tax) pay.

You are 100% right about Switzerland (but its so far ahead that adjustments would not matter too much), for the others its probably barely double digit percentage adjustments.

My personal experience is that German supermarkets are priced extremely competitive (Lidl/Aldi specifically), and Italy felt more expensive by comparison to me (except maybe for local produce and cheese).

Comparing after-tax pay instead would help the US pull ahead for sure, but I feel a bit mixed about that because those taxes pay for stuff like child- and healthcare, which in the US is probably significantly more expensive out-of-pocket than the median EU citizens pays in taxes for the same.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#522

Post by arwhatever »

eadmund wrote: post #194
tanepiper wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laughs in European Consumer Protection How's that "break regulation to innovate" working out for US?

Well, the per-capita GDP of the poorest U.S. state — Mississippi — is greater than that of the U.K., France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Poland and many others, and within 10% of Finland, Germany, Belgium and Austria. 34 of the 47 European states have lower per-capita GDPs than Mississippi. The median per-capita U.S. state GDP is $78,649; the median per-capita European state GDP is $28,713. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.or…

Notwithstanding the other comments about the effect GDP per capita might or might not have on individuals, how much of this GDP difference is driven by the strength or weakness of consumer protections within a given economy?

Is higher GDP per capita truly a strong argument against consumer protections?

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#523

Post by pbhjpbhj »

throwawayffffas wrote: post #312
bognition wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Estimated GDP in 2024 28.9 T vs 2025 of 13.3 T That’s a huge gain in 20 years. Where is the commensurate equivalent growth in housing, education, healthcare, cheap food, etc… There is a huge disconnect between GDP increase and the economic pressure the majority of Americans feel.

The richest man in the world in 2008 was Warren Buffett with a net worth of 62 billion dollars. Now with 62 billion you are not even in the top 20. So the growth went into wealth inequality.

You see the contradiction between this and your previous post?

Here you say we can't eat/shelter better with GDP increases because they aren't distributed; there you said that [spending on] ability to eat/shelter was what they measured.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#524

Post by margalabargala »

sitkack wrote: post #508
margalabargala wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap and ubiquitous surveillance is the norm in the present.

Every Tesla is constantly recording, so if anyone has been within 50 feet of a Tesla, they already have your picture.

Between cell phones, IOT doorbells, and incredibly inexpensive security cameras, even a world free from Tesla has cheap and ubiquitous surveillance.

But you're correct, Tesla is yet another among the multitudes with a robust surveillance network

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#525

Post by iugtmkbdfil834 »

balamatom wrote: post #337
crims0n wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are vastly underestimating how many of us choose to play the game, whilst simultaneously being aware of how shitty it is.

So what does this awareness gain you, other than a constant background suffering of cognitive dissonance?

While I have some level of appreciation of what you seem to be trying to do, I can't help but wonder as to what you believe you gain by this exchange. I don't automatically disagree with what you are saying, but you seem intent on riling people up. Is there a larger purpose behind it?

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#526

Post by cjaybo »

smallnamespace wrote: post #440
venusenvy47 wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally assume that they wouldn't be processing all sound at all time from a device because it would be massively expensive for them. Obviously, it's technically possible that they could be, but I don't see how it would be financially possible. If we talk about targeted surveillance, then that is certainly financially possible. But I find it unlikely I would be targeting among the millions of people using these.

Advances in AI are bringing down the cost of processing audio by perhaps 5x a year, and has been doing so for several years now. The risk is that it becomes worthwhile for someone to record everything now and process it later at their own leisure.

The primary cost in this case is raw storage and bandwidth. What is AI doing to reduce that cost? Also what source confirms that “processing audio” is 5x cheaper because of AI? Seems like a dubious claim.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#527

Post by [deleted] »

HideousKojima wrote: post #366
letier wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how it interacts with life expectancy. There is a huge difference between Mississippi and the UK: 78.6 years for males and 82.6 years for females in the UK in 2020 to 2022. 68.6 years for males and 75.2 years for females in Mississippi in 2020 and 67.7 years for makes and 74.3 years for females in Mississippi in 2021. Might go up a bit if you have 2022 numbers, but the difference is huge.

Life expectancy differences in Mississippi vs. the UK is largely due to race. Mississippi is about 36% black, and blacks in the US have a 5+ year shorter life expectancy than whites.

[deleted]

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#528

Post by freejazz »

bko wrote: post #436
jpalawaga wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do those same people also care about quality of education, availability and utility of public transit, etc? Or is the size of your home the only factor in what makes somewhere livable?

I don't think anyone really cares about "public transit". I think people care how convenient their life is. Why should I care if I take a bus to work or drive? I prefer whatever is best for me. I would look at cost + time. For instance, if it costs me an extra $2k per year for a car but it saves me 30 minutes round trip, and my time is worth more than $20 an hour (assume work 200 days per year), then car is better. A…

>I don't think anyone really cares about "public transit". I think people care how convenient their life is. Why should I care if I take a bus to work or drive? I prefer whatever is best for me.

Let me take a guess, you are an American, living in a city without good public transit.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#529

Post by walterbell »

reverendsteveii wrote: post #485
TriangleEdge wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alexa listens to more then the wake word. I've had this recommend products on Amazon while my wife and I were having a conversation at the dinner table. It also recommended calling 911 while I was talking about fire. It's a spying device people willingly put in their homes for the convenience of a timer you can active with your voice. Edit: It could be that it activated mishearing "Alexa". I don't have hard evidence…

https://moniotrlab.khoury.northeastern.edu/publications/smar... Let me float an idea based on this study: it doesn't need to listen for more than the wake word (and some variations of same) in order to activate pretty regularly. The study indicates that just watching TV in a room w an echo device will cause it to wake 1-4 times per hour with half of all wakes resulting in at least 4 seconds of recording and virtually…

> wouldn't have it announce the fact that it heard one

Alexa has an option to play a sound for "Start of Request", i.e. wake word heard.

There is a ring light on the device, blue when it has heard a wake word, red when the hardware mute button is pressed.

Re: The Alexa feature "do not send voice recordings" you enabled no longer available

#530

Post by hiccuphippo »

voidUpdate wrote: post #96

Do people really enjoy talking to their home devices? I've always felt really awkward telling my phone to do something, especially in public, like I don't feel like everyone else needs to hear about what I want things to do, so I just prefer to type something. I know there are some people for whom its an accessibility thing, where they have difficulty typing or reading, but I've never really seen the point for averag…

I've had colleagues tell me their young kids try to ask Alexa to play music in school or other places. There's a future when talking with your devices will be normal and people will be puzzled when it doesn't work.
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