441–450 of 582 posts
It's amusing to think that there is an elegant solution to this problem in text --- quoting --- which unfortunately a lot of the population doesn't understand beyond one level at most, but also cannot easily be expressed verbally.
Dear Google/Alexa/Cortana/Siri product managers in the streaming audio space, here is what we actually want: * "never play that song ever again" * "add to my blocked list" * "set the plays limit for Baby Shark to once per day" * a feature that prevents interpretation of any phrase leading to the same result, if the response to that result led to a "stop!" or "for fuck's sake!" within the next ten seconds. i.e. stop d…
Google has responded correctly to "never play that song again" for me in the past. Same with "hey google, fuck this song". I don't know if it explicitly "downvoted" the song or not, but the song was immediately skipped and I hadn't heard it any time soon after. That said, I've refrained from using my google puck in recent months and it had been regressing pretty heavily when I did, so I can't guarantee that still wor…
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Could not agree more. Even little stuff like my son who is on my family plan. He used Google Play Music all the time with no problems. When they forced us to move to YT Music, now it won't let him get the app because he's too young and YT isn't allowed. So I either have to give up all the parental controls that I need and use, or he can't access the family plan music subscription that I pay for and used to have with…
Unfortunately the problem with self-hosting these things is actually obtaining the content (mainly regarding movies since iTunes song purchases haven't been DRM protected for a long time). Getting the right set-up for removing DRM from your uhd/hd blu-rays is hard since hardware is constantly being updated (you might have to purchase second-hand blu-ray readers), and downloading them is technically illegal even if yo…
I try to buy all my audio books from Downpour since they are DRM free, and music as you mentioned isn't a problem. I was very into music in the 90s/00s and bought nearly every CD I wanted and I ripped them into mp3s years ago. I may just budget a $100 or so to buy mp3s I don't have that I still want to listen to, and cancel YT music.
I don't often buy ebooks since I love physical paper, but when I do I try to buy DRM free or use Calibre/Apprentice Alf to strip the DRM and convert to epub.
Movies are a real challenge though. Plenty of older stuff I have on DVD and it's easy to rip, but it does take an enormous amount of effort to rip blu-ray. I may try to do an OTA antenna hooked into Plex for most of TV, but will probably keep CBS all access and a couple others for movies/shows/etc. So I'll self host most things :-D
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4 minute timers are hard. I normally drop the ‘for’ and it gets super confused. “Set a four minute timer”
You can also say "Set a timer for four minutes".
I used to come home and say “Ok Google, turn on the lights.” 80% of the time my lights would turn on. 20% of the time, I’d be greeted with: “Ok, playing ‘Turn on the Lights’ by Future on Spotify.” And I’d stand there in the dark, listening to music I don’t like, questioning my life decisions.
Hey Pal! for Edinburgh
Hey Jimmy! for Glasgow
Yo! for LA
Oi! for NY
Doode for SF
etc
My fucking Google Home can't even figure out how to play the auto playlist "My Likes" on YouTube Music. Previously, I could say "Play my Thumbs Up" and it could do so on Google Play Music. It keeps playing a song called "My Likes". Jesus fucking Christ, Google. If I say "Play my My Likes playlist" something random happens. Do these guys even use their product? I'm just glad this album didn't come out before the force…
YouTube music has been a really mixed bag. Disappointed by the forced transition.
The "solution" is to cast the tab. Which means lower bitrate, no music controls, and if you cast to a display device, the whole tab screencasts etc.
I guess it's because nobody important uses the web anymore? Or something?
(Disclaimer: I work at Google. But not on YTM. Most Googlers I know have switched to Spotify, including myself.)
I used to come home and say “Ok Google, turn on the lights.” 80% of the time my lights would turn on. 20% of the time, I’d be greeted with: “Ok, playing ‘Turn on the Lights’ by Future on Spotify.” And I’d stand there in the dark, listening to music I don’t like, questioning my life decisions.
The new Android 11 power menu screen has been a life changer for me. I now control my lights with my phone 90% of the time since it's literally one power button click away, and I always have my phone on me.
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That's because it was hardly a product name - they just slapped their corporate name of top of the respective noun...
Well they've named it Google Assistant. I think I'd prefer "ok/hey assistant".
I refuse to use a service that requires me to say its globally recognized name so often I will probably become brainwashed to it. And then there's the older hacks with TV commercials that took advantage of those defaults, and the (cooler) hypersonic transmitted voice command attacks, or the ones delivered by vibrating the device's microphone with a laser, etc.
None of these attacks would have worked if the product trigger wasn't so predictable from the get-go.
Eventually even Raspberry Pi stopped using the default pi/raspberry default combination. How we invoke our voice-activated programs should be treated with equal care.