I woke up while it was still dark this morning, so I put in my headphones and started watching Doctor Who "Knock Knock." Just the stereo version from iTunes and not the full 3D audio, I guess, but it was still pretty effective sitting in the dark.
Then Alexa turned on the lights. Christine had given the Echo the voice command from the other room, but I couldn't hear it with the headphones on, so it was a bit...abrupt.
At my house, we're not quite to the point of Scotty in Star Trek IV in our expectations of audible communication with computers.
You remember:
We're getting better, however, and surprisingly Christine, who is usually skeptical of new technology, is leading the way.
Last Christmas, 2015, I asked for a couple of things, and an Amazon Echo was on the list. For most of the holiday season, I thought the Echo-shaped package under the tree must be the fulfillment of that request.
Turned out to be a new martini shaker. Good gift, just not an Echo.
I re-submitted the request last September and got an Echo for my birthday.
Since then it has moved from the living room, where I spend a lot of time grading and used it for random Wikipedia questions, to the master bedroom where Christine can access it as she gets dressed in the mornings.
Bondage
Christine's kind of bonded with Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant persona app thingy,
in fact. It's to a point I think they talk about me when I'm not
around.
Christine's even a little defensive of Alexa if I slip and call her Siri. They may talk about Siri when I'm not around also.
I now hear weather and news updates being conjured along with a lot of song requests, playlists and calming nature sounds. Also: occasional arguments over station changes in Pandora. Alexa doesn't give up on Willie Nelson easily.
My use of the Echo "skill" Ditty isn't quite perfect either. Echo's features are called skills in this new world nomenclature, and new skills can be periodically applied. Ditty lets you create songs from random phrases, taking your words and assigning tunes from a variety of musical styles. I got a reasonably good country tune out of the words: "Welcome home Christine." Tunes, er, ditties about the cats haven't produced anything I want to save and share via Twitter, though that's an option.
Activating the meditation-themed Thrive "skill," can be challenging at times as well. Makes you need a calming meditation after talking Alexa into activating it.
We progressed recently to being able to turn on a couple of lights by voice command, something they promise in the ads. That requires smart home plugs, though they're not quite as smart as I'd hoped. Some routines can be established, but you have to sweet talk Alexa for that also.
I thought that was going to throw Christine off, but she's taken to that as well after an unfortunate incident in which she discovered her phone charger had been crowded out of its usual outlet.
We've moved past that, though I think she takes a bit of pleasure in saying: "Alexa, turn on the bedroom lamp" while I'm still asleep.
Things have a ways to go before we get to where the 21st Century home looked in the 20th Century. I'm just hoping they don't turn out like this old Warner Brothers cartoon:
I can't really testify as to the reading experience. Christine is the BlackBerry user in our household, but Campfire has released the graphic novel I created, The Dusk Society for BlackBerry devices.
Actually Christine uses a Storm, and I'm sure this is targeted more to tablets, but if you're a digital comics reader you now have one more option. It's also in the iBooks store, if you're among the few who happen to own iPads.
Someday, I may do a post detailing editorial changes made to my original script. For example, I didn't telegraph the monster on the first page, and some of the more "expository" dialogue isn't mine.
Still, my core story is in the pages, however you get to the tale, and I particularly like the way one of the young heroines gets chemistry class dismissed, before focusing her intelligence on more meaningful pursuits like monster hunting.
I've been so busy of late, I haven't had time to be excited about the new season of Doctor Who. It's kind of interesting how the phenomena has transformed.
Took a year for Season 1 to air in the U.S. I can remember visiting the official site one day to discover the TARDIS materializing on White House lawn.
Now we get the Christmas specials on Christmas night, and a new season is here almost as quickly as it airs in the UK. That's the force of demand and technology, I suppose.
The lack of anticipation almost makes U.S. viewers take it for granted.
Seeing the first U.S.-lensed scenes evidenced in the trailer helps with my excitement. Let the countdown begin.
Addendum
And what should arrive in my RSS feed this afternoon but an interview with lead writer Steven Moffat on the evolution of the series. Read it
I used to say, in those ancient days of 2005, it would certainly be nice to have my iPod and my cell phone wed.
Around that time Christine crunched some numbers and determined we'd come off well going to pre-paid cell phones.
They announced the iPhone, right after we bought these really nice LG phones that looked like racing cars. Alltel apparently sponsored a NASCAR driver. Who knew?
Anyway, with new phones and an insanely cheap payment plan, let's just say we weren't going to be moving to mechanized looms very quickly in our household.
Flashforward. I've finally worn Christine down. I got an iPhone for Christmas, so 2010 will be my 2007.
I promptly seized the 21st century technology and downloaded a couple of 19th century novels via an app called Stanza, though I got an app called Epi from Epicurious.com shortly afterwards.
That puts recipes and beer ads at your fingertips, so if you find great mahi mahi at the grocer--no more regretting you didn't look up a mahi mahi recipe before you left the house.
I'm hopeful that Christine will see the value in that just like The Bob Newhart Show reruns on Hulu helped her understand the virtue of an HDMI cable stretched across the living room from computer to TV.
I don't know if it will radically revolutionize my life otherwise, but utilizing the Twitterrific may soon improve my ability to type with my thumbs.
