So fun fact, you can change what Google assistant responds to. For a while I had it set as computer, but it felt too awkward.
I’m going to find something else other than Hey Google cause that’s dumber
I think it would probably be pretty easy to trigger just talking to people too. Stuff like “I’ll check on my computer to see what my email said.”
I got my first Alexa the moment they added the computer wake word. Using computer as a wake word fucking sucks. When I finally get around to spinning up something open source, I’m gonna try using “Clockmaker” in reference to the SciFi series inspector Dreyfus by Alistair Reynolds
I think I’m going to use Computer G, like Slumlord Millionaire.
“Hey Google” gets triggered all the time on my phone without saying “hey”, and Google is a word that gets used a lot more than “computer” these days.
Once I took my car in to get serviced and I walked up to the desk to check it in and the lady said, “good morning!” Then I said, “good morning!” Then my phone said, “good morning!”
Yeah, that was a big reason too, thinking back on it.
I actually have mine set like that right now! False positives are pretty low for me… except for when I watch Star Trek. Then my device chimes in whenever a character calls for it.
I’ve been rewatching Discovery, and it’s made me learn that they talked to the computer a whole lot more in season 1… the interruptions seemed to drop off significantly after that.
Makes me think of how I always used to wonder what would happen if you had The Clapper connected to your TV when The Clapper commercial came on. Would you keep having to clap to turn your TV back on?
Really any loud noise could trigger it. I don’t recall TVs really doing it, though. Maybe if the volume was way up, but in general I think they ignored normal levels of sound.
My curiosity came from the old lady at in bed the end of the commercial who claps her TV off and then just sort of passes out.
When did they enable that?!?! I tried to change it to “computer” years ago since I wanted to live in a Star Trek fantasy, but I couldn’t.
I could’ve sworn I remember this being an option the first time I started using Google’s voice commands, but I just left it on the default.
Pretty sure you can just ask it to
Yeah, I think that only happened in your head. A Google search tells you, you can’t change it.
Wasn’t it just “computer” ?
McCOY: Perhaps the professor could use your computer.
NICHOLS: Please.
SCOTT: Computer… Computer!
(McCoy hands him the computer mouse which Scott tries to use as a microphone)
SCOTT: Ah! Hello computer?
NICHOLS: Just use the keyboard.
SCOTT: The keyboard. …How quaint.
Nobody remembers poor Cortana :(
Nobody used that piece of crap.
I wonder how such a big company like Microsoft can fumble major parts of their OS so many times.
Because they literally don’t care. As long as their OS is passable, they will keep the lion’s share of the market. They have more money than most governments, and their headquarters is a giant city, with hundreds of buildings, a shopping mall, a bank, a soccer field, restaurants, hair salons, etc. They would have to do way worse for it to actually impact them. Their code is dozens of years worth of bugs stacked on top of bugs, and they just keep chugging right along, printing money.
Everyone hates Cortana
Pepperidge Farms does…
I miss when Cortana was Cortana.
By the mid 2300s and TNG they had relearned that ideal wake-words are 3 syllables.
Com-put-er
A-Lex-A
Hey Goo-Gle
Hey Jar-Vis
Hey My-croft
etcBack in the 90s Mac OS had voice recognition, complete with a wake word. There were a few default actions, and you could write your own Applescripts to customize things.
I remember messing with this in the late 90s. You could set the computer to listen to “computer” just like Star Trek. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do anything more advance than the demo features because of being a dumb kid but it was neat!
I have a vague memory of that.
Computer says no!
“Ah… quaint.”
OK computer
That can work with Alexa; there’s a selection of different wakewords.
They all suck though.
“Hey Siri” and “Ok Google” are pretty useful if you have a smartwatch. Just to send texts if nothing else.
