After I mentioned that I use my Amazon Echo daily in the last post, I got an email asking, “for what?”. Well, let’s see. Our Echo lives on a side table in the family room, near artwork of a robot and his girlfriend by Jason Sho Green. Appropriate, right? Our home has an open layout…
Thank you for all your kind comments about Jakob. Once the waves of grief subsided, I started finding peace with his death. His illness was never going to have a happy ending and it’s a relief to let go of the constant tension of worry and sadness. I don’t have to dread a new crisis each time…
My household is not on the bleeding edge of technology early adoption, but we’re usually in the first wave. So, when my husband switched in a new router for the one provided by our cable/internet company, I knew that we would have a lot of devices to update. At last count, those include: 2 actively…
Silver lining: while my broken leg heals, I’m in a good position to reflect on how personal technology can play a role in surgical recovery (or temporary/permanent disability, or quality of life for the elderly). Now that I have the energy to sit at my computer for a while, I’ll reflect on how that technology…
Disney MagicBand This is about user experience, not just about Disney. You can sneer about Disney if you like, but they are awfully good at designing and managing the experience in their American parks and hotels. The first time I saw “cast members” in Florida vacuuming up puddles after a brief rainfall, I must have been…
Try to discuss data privacy with someone outside of the tech world and an indignant, “I don’t have anything to hide!” usually comes up. Yet most of those people not only have locks on their doors, they have doors! Maybe even curtains or blinds on the windows. What nerve, wanting to choose who can rummage through their personal…
My Echo arrived on Christmas Eve and I’m happy with her as what I expected her to be: a music player with some bonus features. As a digital assistant, she’s woefully incomplete. For the sake of not twisting my brain too much, I’ll refer to the Echo as “Alexa” and with feminine pronouns, since Alexa…
Ever start to write about a topic that’s just too large, leaving you wallowing in drafts and rewrites for days? I did that with a post I began on the weekend, so I started another post to publish while I was thinking. Wouldn’t you know it, the second post is turning into a monster, too. A couple random…
Really, Amazon? Give a gal (and her credit card) a break! Now tempting me is the Amazon Echo, announced and offered today. What the hell is it? Well, it’s a speaker, streaming audio device, and a digital assistant (like Google Now or Siri without a screen), and as TechCrunch points out, it could be a cash…