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[Tuicemen]

With the release of the X10 Wi-Fi unit looking like a good dream turned bad I thought my system here wasn't going to expand much.
I have had Voice command of X10 here for a few years with BVC, ihouse, and PCC (not all at once)
I continue to use PCC for Voice however I now have an Amazon Dot added to my setup.
My wife always thought I was nuts talking to my PC (Barbie, doll she calls PCC) however I've now caught her on a number of occasions talking to Alexa.
Over the years My wife has grown to love most of my X10 setup.
Having the ability to turn on her Christmas tree with a remote was the first thing that impressed her now she can do it just saying "Alexa, turn on Christmas tree".
Alexa uses the cloud something I have never been a fan of but this thing is fast with responses!
Getting weather and news flashes is faster then the PC using any program I've played with.
I expect my system here to now have a large growth spurt as I thing of new things I can do with Alexa.
Since I had a mini PC dedicated for my PWS (personal weather station) I installed BWS systems  on it to expand Alexa's ability.
I already had AHP installed on this  so with a CM19 plugged in and Alex10 I can turn it into my main HA PC.
This mini doesn't have the power to do voice control but my dot is now handling most of that ( at least from the living room).
 

[HA Dave]

...... Alexa uses the cloud something I have never been a fan of but this thing is fast with responses!
Getting weather and news flashes is faster then the PC using any program I've played with.
I expect my system here to now have a large growth spurt as I thing of new things I can do with Alexa.....

I've been preaching the gospel of the cloud! The cloud, smart phones, and tablets... and everything spoken to. That is the future (or at least... todays future).
 

[Tuicemen]

To be honest most things I have used that are cloud based have left a sour taste.
It is nice to see something that performs well using it.
However I'd still never use it for something critical like heat.

[HA Dave]

.... However I'd still never use it for something critical like heat.

LOL

[Brian H]

One issue with the cloud I have seen.
If it goes down sometimes large portions of the USA go down.
Comcast's X1 system is cloud based and I have seen large portions of the country loose all access with a cloud crash.

[HA Dave]

One issue with the cloud I have seen.
If it goes down sometimes large portions of the USA go down.
Comcast's X1 system is cloud based and I have seen large portions of the country loose all access with a cloud crash.

Yes (If the correct tense is used). Some severs have failed in the past. It is safe to assume... that in some small scale of other servers will fail at some point in the future.

"Cloud" is plural. There is no singular cloud. "It" cannot fail.... because "it" is not an "it". Comcast is cloud based, my dentist's records, tax preparer, the grandkids school records, my email, my entire retirement, banking, and health records, the gas and electric company I depend on.... for MY heat..... are ALL cloud based. They don't all use the same servers, although the same data is backed up on a spectrum of servers... and some may actually share some server farm space somewhere at some time. The cloud has already grown to the point where a mass failure is statically impossible.

In fact.... I think at this point.... we are completely Skynet ready. (cloud humor) Everyone knows you can't kill Skynet.

The USA runs an old "backbone" telecom system which I am sure just about history too. Yes... we have had phone, internet, electric, and even natural gas. and bridge outages. But the cloud isn't any iffier than my power or cable is.

I know not everyone is merging calendars, and actively exchanging data. But there isn't anyone reading this post... that isn't completely already cloud connected.     

[Tuicemen]

I find myself looking for ways to customize my Amazon Dot. I like the fact that I can customize the PC voice And would love to get the two sounding as close to the same as possible.
I see you can't change the wake word for Alexa to what ever you want just like you can for the voice I use with PCC.
However I just discovered I can change Alexa's voice somewhat by changing the language settings.
Switching to English (United Kingdom) changes her voice.
Still the two aren't even close but maybe a voice set for the PC will come out shortly sounding similar to Alexa.

I guess one could record Alexa's voice (with the simon says option) to play back threw the PC as a wav file instead of using TTS
I may play with the blue tooth connection and see what is possible when Paired with the PC this may at least make for a clean recording possibility.

[HA Dave]

Between Alexa, Siri, Kate (the Kate16 voice I use with my BVC), and my wife..... there's a lot of women-talking going on around here.

I mostly depend on Kate for reminders and alerts. Siri is very handy for requesting she send my wife a text message, dial a number, or produce a map, etc.. But for the normal things (that people ask cloud based computer voices).... I sometimes accidently ask Siri... when I mean to ask Alexa. An age thing I guess.

I've found limited ability to change Alexa's name (either Amazon or Echo). And apple only allows Siri. BVC can be configured to anything (I call it "computer"). But so far.... we may be stuck-short of a universal companion with the same name, voice, and memories.

[Tuicemen]

Between Alexa, Siri, Kate (the Kate16 voice I use with my BVC), and my wife..... there's a lot of women-talking going on around here.

here too!
I hadn't realized the dot was so limited with activation phrases I had assumed it was similar to the echo.
I attempted to pair the dot with my windows 7 PC  which it does but requires drivers which it can't find
I'll see if I have better luck with Windows 10.

[racerfern]

I attempted to pair the dot with my windows 7 PC

Why would you want to do that?

[Tuicemen]

It was more an experiment to see if it was possible to record Alexa responses.
I managed to successfully pair it with win 10 however instead of it playing threw the PC the PC plays threw it!

[dave w]

Between Alexa, Siri, Kate (the Kate16 voice I use with my BVC), and my wife..... there's a lot of women-talking going on around here.

  This was a "Depends Required" statement for me.

[bkenobi]

Better check what they are saying.   

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-alexa-gets-childs-request-really-wrong-offers-up-porn-2016-12-30

[Tuicemen]

I guess once the grand kids can walk around I'll have to move my Dot and maybe turn it off while their visiting.
Amazon has stated issues like this have been fixed.

While reading threads at the Unofficial Amazon Echo forums  I found a thread which lead me to test Alexa's attention phrase once again. It was stated you could drop the "A" and just use "Lexa" users stated they had a better response.
That attention word does work with the Dot How much better remains to be seen but for now I'll be testing the Lexa attention word.

[HA Dave]

..... It was stated you could drop the "A" and just use "Lexa" users stated they had a better response.
...... I'll be testing the Lexa attention word.

The [modified] Lexa attention word worked fine with my DOT.