I never got around to taping the camera of our newer computer. Just as well, since we now have to have Zoom meetings with doctors.
Order of Kilopi
I never got around to taping the camera of our newer computer. Just as well, since we now have to have Zoom meetings with doctors.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
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Remember when it turned out that the iRobot company was recording the pathways their vacuuming robots took through your home, thus having partial maps of where you live? And those Fit-Bit-like wrist devices that had GPS, and turned out could record the pathway you took when you ran for exercise, causing the devices to be banned from some military bases?
Black electrical tape means no regrets.
https://www.consumerreports.org/room...out-your-home/
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42853072
Last edited by Roger E. Moore; 2020-Dec-26 at 04:25 PM.
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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Sweep for bugs!
"Alexa, are there any listening devices in my house?"
...Not trivial and not really amusing.
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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Okay, I laughed out loud there.Originally Posted by Noclevername
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
Mostly HarmlessI have 3 Google Home minis and they prefer my voice. My son scream "oh, no" when I say, "Hey Google..." For whatever perverse reason, if you bring a Google device into my home and connect it the wi-fi, it takes up the default spot for responses. My son's phone often answers me even when I'm talking to a completely different device. Even when it's in his pocket. It's weird.
Solfe
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Alexa is very voice-selective. I often have to repeat commands from my sister like Sigourney Weaver's character in Galaxy Quest.
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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Interesting. I’ve been surprised how good Alexa is. I use it for a food shopping list (it’s really helpful to call out things for a list, rather than try to remember later to write it down) and on rare occasions it has gotten an obscure name wrong but often it surprises with what it gets right. I do remember once where it consistently didn’t understand me even when I repeated common words with very careful enunciation, but I’ve forgotten exactly what I was saying at the time. That’s the negative side though - unlike a person, it won’t easily learn what it gets wrong. On the other hand, my older attempts with voice recognition, even Dragon Dictate (which was supposed to be very good) led to too much frustration for me.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." — Abraham Lincoln
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
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Ours seems to favor responding to male voices over female. Not shocking for a Silicon Valley tech-bro product.
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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Things in my house I have declined to connect to the internet:
Samsung Smart TV
LG Refrigerator
HVAC system
Water treatment system
Standby Generator
Kind of stuck with the HP printer, because WiFi is the ONLY way to connect it to your computer!
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
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Not necessarily - it could be blocked from accessing the internet. It *shouldn’t* need to access the internet in order to communicate with a computer on the local network, but some devices are designed to require internet access even when their main function should be internet independent. Mostly because it gives companies ways to monetize your use (Smart TVs tend to be sold at lower prices because they are subsidized by streaming services and such that have apps loaded into the TV).
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." — Abraham Lincoln
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
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Archaeologists have uncovered a fast food outlet in Pompei.
What's amusing me at the moment is that there are frescoes of the food served, like a chicken, and ducks.
And a horse. The article doesn't mention the horse.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
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Hmm. My trusty copy of Food In The Ancient World From A To Z claims that the Romans didn't eat horsemeat except in an emergency. Maybe it's just a decorative picture of a horse? (Or maybe a dog, when I look at it closely.) There's a mythical hippocampus round the corner, too, which I presume is decorative.
Grant Hutchison
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Termopolium; good word, I wonder why it did not feature in my school Latin classes?
sicut vis videre esto
When we realize that patterns don't exist in the universe, they are a template that we hold to the universe to make sense of it, it all makes a lot more sense.
Originally Posted by Ken G
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of course.
From the wilderness into the cosmos.
You can not be afraid of the wind, Enterprise: Broken Bow.
https://davidsuniverse.wordpress.com/
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I see what you did there.
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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See also https://apnews.com/article/animals-c...b4cdda704fcfe1 for details on the Pompeii restaurant.
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
Moderator
Or maybe the reason they're considered mythical today is the Romans "fast fooded" them into extinction.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov
You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views.
Doctor Who
Moderation will be in purple.
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Maybe the horse means they have a drive-thru service.
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I notice one news article uses this word, while another uses "thermopolium". Which is correct? I assume "thermo-" is right.
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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Oh dear...
Oh, ok.Other human remains were found inside one of the counter’s vessels....
Meanwhile, back in the 21st century, the following passed through my mind a few minutes ago:...possibly placed there by those excavators centuries ago.
"I'll have to halve a bagel so I can have half a bagel for breakfast."
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
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^^^Other human remains were found inside one of the counter’s vessels....And a nice Cianti. I think we all see where this is going. Those wacky Romans.At the bottom of a wine container were traces of ground fava beans...
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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Maybe the Romans ate seahorses.
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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Yes, Latin thermopolium from Greek thermopolion--a place where food and hot drinks are sold. Run by a thermopolite, which is useful way to address snack-bar owners: "Ave, worthy thermopolite, and I'll have one of your black-pudding rolls and a flat white, soon as you like."
Grant Hutchison
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I dunno. But once you've eaten the chosen mount of a sea nymph, you'd probably be well advised to spend the rest of your life as far from the sea as you could get.
Grant Hutchison
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It is definitely a dog.
Illustrations of dogs are often used to show that a butcher's wares are desired by hungry canines, so must be good.
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Yes. And I guess the nereid, hippocampus and dolphins may actually relate to the name of the establishment, in the manner of an inn sign.
Grant Hutchison
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One of the cable channels we get has a show called "Living Alaska." It's a reality show where they show people who are wanting to move to Alaska, and the various properties they look at, and then ends with them deciding which property they're going to buy. I don't see the appeal, personally, but my wife watches it sometimes.
At any rate, the amusing thing is that we caught the end of an episode where the property which the family ended up deciding to purchase was referred to as "the Peters Creek house."
I was like, "Hey, I know that guy!"
Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn
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A nereid, a hippocampus and a dolphin walk into a thermopolium...
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"I haven't had a bite in days!" said the nereid.
"Neither have we!" said the hippocampus and dolphin.
So the thermopolium patrons bit them all!
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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