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Username cannot contain 'clyde'

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Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'

#101

Post by tomcam »

dchest wrote: post #66
jeffbee wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, TIL. Is that documented anywhere? I confirmed that you're right by trying to create a new address, but I've never heard of this rule before.

It's a common security practice, to prevent scammers from using official-looking usernames, or even tricking services that verify domain ownership by sending email to postmaster@ or admin@. Such lists are usually kept secret, but there are a few open source word lists that people can adopt for their services, for example, https://github.com/shouldbee/reserved-usernames .

I discovered it innocently. I wanted to create a gmail address named support{myfirm}.gmail.com. Of course I instantly understood what you point out but then I had to discover all the other edge cases.

Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'

#102

Post by FeepingCreature »

blowski wrote: post #68
deafpolygon wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbf, some of them deserve it.

Strong disagree. The whole "Karen" meme reeks of old-fashioned misogyny wrapped up in 2020s language. "A woman, complaining? How dare she!". I recognise the meme is about entitled women being rude, but that behaviour is hardly isolated to women.

As Scott says in Weak Men Are Superweapons [1], a meme aimed against a specific, easily disliked subgroup is unavoidably an attack on the entire group by association.

It is impossible to say "Karen, who is a woman, bad" without implying "women Karens, women bad." Or if there is a way to disentangle them, it certainly won't fit in a meme.

[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are-superweap...

Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'

#103

Post by ojhughes »

Stevvo wrote: post #69
Thorrez wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon: Alexa Microsoft: Cortana Apple: Siri Discord: Clyde Google: Google Disclosure, I work at Google.

Cylde is notably the only male assistant. I guess Discord know their customers.

According to Siri: “Animals and French nouns have genders, I do not”

Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'

#105

Post by blowski »

FeepingCreature wrote: post #102
blowski wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong disagree. The whole "Karen" meme reeks of old-fashioned misogyny wrapped up in 2020s language. "A woman, complaining? How dare she!". I recognise the meme is about entitled women being rude, but that behaviour is hardly isolated to women.

As Scott says in Weak Men Are Superweapons [1], a meme aimed against a specific, easily disliked subgroup is unavoidably an attack on the entire group by association. It is impossible to say "Karen, who is a woman, bad" without implying "women Karens, women bad." Or if there is a way to disentangle them, it certainly won't fit in a meme. [1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are-superweap...

Perhaps that hints at the problem of intentionally developing a meme stereotype, and then using it as a stick to beat people with. The bar for having that stereotype becomes ever lower, and thus the set ever bigger. People then self-censor perfectly acceptable behaviour to avoid being part of the set.

Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'

#106

Post by benwad »

thayne wrote: post #50
boxed wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Written like that Google suddenly looks like geniuses.

Well, the verbification of the word google introduces its own difficulties there. The ideal would be for the voice assistant to have some completely unique word, ideally with sound combinations that are very rare in your native language. And if for some reason, that still doesn't work for you, have a way to change it. Or maybe just not have a default, and require users to pick their own keyword.

Ok Google, Google "Google"

Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'

#107

Post by billpg »

DangitBobby wrote: post #74
happymellon wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Computer! Earl Grey. Hot. I can't think of many words that rhyme with computer so would get picked up.

My roommate had an Alexa and we changed the wake word to computer... Didn't last long. Apparently the word computer comes up on casual conversation much more than you probably think.

Welcome to the life of someone actually called Alexa.

Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'

#108

Post by jdsnape »

causi wrote: post #47
boxed wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Written like that Google suddenly looks like geniuses.

At least in the naming, sure. Everything else, not so much. I had to switch my whole house over to Echos because you can't change the wake word on Google Home. Every time I said, say, "Hey Google, turn the bedroom lamp off", the Home in the bedroom would say ok and turn the lamp off, both phones in the room would activate and complain that they didn't have a device named lamp listed, and every other Home in the house…

That's interesting, I did some digging into Apple device communication and it turns out they have a protocol called CompanionLink that handles this exact circumstance - devices can communicate securely with each other and decide who is going to handle the Siri activation - HomePod's seem to get preference, then phones then laptops. I'm surprised Google hasn't done something similar.

Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'

#109

Post by withinboredom »

causi wrote: post #81
bobsmooth wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't change the wake word because a separate, dedicated chip is listening for it and is not connected to the rest of the device except to wake up the main processor.

Considering how warm Google Homes stay even when idle I seriously doubt the main processor is ever going to sleep.

Heat is dissipated when electricity goes unused too (usually by dumping it in some load resistor) so it’s possible the extra electricity is just generating heat, waiting to go to the processor. I’d lol if they have 5v coming in, and they’re stepping it down to 3.3v for the wake word processor (hence heat) while the main processor runs at 5v.

Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'

#110

Post by withinboredom »

thayne wrote: post #50
boxed wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Written like that Google suddenly looks like geniuses.

Well, the verbification of the word google introduces its own difficulties there. The ideal would be for the voice assistant to have some completely unique word, ideally with sound combinations that are very rare in your native language. And if for some reason, that still doesn't work for you, have a way to change it. Or maybe just not have a default, and require users to pick their own keyword.

In English, there’s only one word in the entire language with a ts sound (pizza) that’s not at the end. They probably could have come up with a name utilizing that fact, making wake words super “easy” to recognize and hard to accidentally say.
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