Category: Technology

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Technology

Alexa as service, Echo as interface

Today, Amazon released new versions of its tablets, as well as a new Fire TV. The latter is generating interest in part because Alexa has been added to it. This means you can use the new Fire TV in a manner similar to the Echo, and be able to play favorite TV shows, too.

The new device supports the new 4K Ultra HD in addition to 1080p, promises to eliminate buffering, supports all the popular streaming apps, and has voice search enabled on the remote. I hope Amazon has improved the remote, because I’ve found that Echo’s remote is no where near as sensitive as the Echo device is, itself.

I like the video support, but I have a Roku and I don’t have a 4K Ultra HD TV, yet. What I’m more interested in, is the Alexa integration. Watching the demo video at Amazon, Alexa will display an answer to the TV rather than verbally.  (Engadget notes this, also.) If you have it play music, it uses your TV’s speakers.

Of course, this is a double-edged sword. If you have an Echo and the new Fire TV in the same room, you’re going to have contention over which device answers when you call out, “Alexa…”. While watching the Amazon demonstration video, my Echo responded when the voice in the video asked, “Alexa, what’s the weather?” I’m rather hoping that Amazon gets away from only allowing one to use Alexa, or Amazon, as the device voice indicator.

I’m also assuming you do have to have the TV on for the device to work. Currently I use Echo’s timer functionality, as well as have it play music while I’m working. I wouldn’t want to turn my TV on for both. In this regard, Echo wins. Echo also has smart home integration, which the Fire TV currently lacks.

From a developer perspective, the Fire TV demonstrates Amazon’s new Alexa Voice Service Developer Preview. If you’re a developer, and you have a device with a microphone, a speaker, and an internet connection, you can interface with Alex as a service. First thing that comes to my mind is this opens up some interesting possibilities if you like to tinker around with microcomputers, such as Raspberry Pi. However, I’m not sure how open Amazon is to people tinkering with the service. The sign-up for the developer kit seems to assume you’re a developer for a company with a product to sell.

Like Roku.

This new developer kit joins with the existing Alexa  Skills Kit, where you can create an app that can be installed on an Echo (and possibly other Alexa devices, eventually), such as my favorite, Cat Facts.

Node.js developers, note that Node.js figures heavily with both kits. See? Your mad  programming skills just found a new outlet to explore.

Amazon made, what I feel, is a very smart move with its recent innovations. Rather than compete directly with device companies who control marketplaces, such as Roku, it’s taking the same type of functionality (video streaming), and integrating it into the smart home controller environment. It’s similar to Google’s new OnHub, which takes Wi-Fi routing into the same environment.

Exciting times. Let’s just hope security is considered first, rather than last, with all this cross-line innovation.

 

Categories
Burningbird Technology

Server is moved

Moving to a new VPN (Virtual Private Network) was as simple as signing up for a second Linode instance, and then building it to my specs. Eliminating half the cruft I had on my old system saved about 40GB of space. Now I have room for all new cruft.

I decided to stay with Drupal for this site. Frankly, I just don’t want to muck with content systems anymore. I have a couple of new sites on WordPress, this on Drupal, and that gives me a foot in two worlds. I was reading that the Drupal 8 upgrade should be button-press easy, especially if you haven’t customized your site. Sure sounds simpler than fighting to get it into WordPress.

Linode’s new billing system made the move a whole lot easier, and cheaper. I was only charged for the double VPN until I dropped the original once the move was finished. I think I’ll take this approach the next time there’s a major Ubuntu upgrade. Not only can I cleanly upgrade, this approach gives me a chance to clean my system.

Categories
Burningbird Technology

Mind the scaffolding

image of destroyed front porch

I have attempted to upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 from 12.04.5 three times, failing each time. The points of failure are complex and seemingly many. I can ignore the necessary upgrade until 12.04.5 hits end of life in 2017, but whatever cruft is preventing a clean upgrade may be allowing all sorts of bad things. I also use my server as testing environment for all of my books, which means I’m constantly installing and uninstalling a host of software. When I ran

ubuntu-support-status

I was surprised at how many packages I have installed that are no longer supported.

No matter how much I want to avoid it, It’s time to clean up my system.

Not just clean up. I want to move my site to HTTPS/SSL. The new Let’s Encrypt Certificate Authority should be in business in September, simplifying the process for obtaining an SSL certificate, and removing a major obstacle for making this move.

I’m also looking at migrating my site(s) back to WordPress from Drupal. Drupal is a marvelous CMS when you like to tinker under the hood, or you have a business site that needs extensive customization and complexity. But it’s not a good CMS when you don’t have the time to tinker, and you just want a place to write. With the upcoming changes for Drupal 8, I realized that I could either migrate to the new version, or I could migrate to WordPress: the work would be the same.

The advantages to WordPress is it is geared more towards just having a place to write. There is also more updated support for social networking, commentary, mobile devices, and a larger pool of weblog themes. Drupal is powerful, but I’m finding many of the modules I’m interested in have erratic support, at best. The Drupal environment is set up in such a way as to channel all interest in a certain functionality into one module. This is fine, except when the module developer tires of it, and no one picks it up. WordPress fosters a more competitive environment for functional extensions, so you’re almost always going to be able to find a supported plugin for what you need.

Moving from WordPress to Drupal is a snap, but the reverse isn’t true. In fact, it’s been downright ugly in the past, requiring either a great deal of hacking, or an expensive migration service. Thankfully, this has changed with a new PHP script and associated tutorial, both of which help remove most of the pain. I hope.

I expect, though, that my site will end up even more fractured than it is now, with my many moves between domains, weblogs, and software—not to mention removing dated content, and merging and splitting weblogs. Such is life. One of the advantages of today’s web environment is it’s adaptable to change. A broken link is no longer the anathema it once was, and 404 errors are like gray hair and bad knees: a sign of increasing maturity.

All of this is my way of saying that things are going to be erratic around here for the next couple of months. Of course, I’ve been so quiet in my space for so long that folks might not even notice the erratic nature of my web site. I’m hoping to get better about this, too.

Categories
Social Media Technology

Facebook’s astonishing fail

update

I did find a reference to this type of behavior…from 2010.

What I suspect happened is some very old security code accidentally got compiled into the Facebook server app, in relation to the company’s new security feature, and I just happened along when it was exposed.

Either that, or I stumbled into a time vortex.

earlier

I treated myself to a new smartphone today. Among the apps I loaded was Facebook. I had copied my password from Dashlane and was ready to go, when I ran into something new:

Facebook’s new security system.

To prove I am who I am, Facebook displayed a set of images, each with a set of names, and asked me to pick the person who matched the image. OK, this ought to be good.

The first was an obviously 30+ year old photo of a chubby baby. So who is it?

I’d have a hard time recognizing one of my own baby pictures, much less the folks on Facebook. Especially considering many people, such as myself, don’t even use photos of themselves as their Facebook profile pictures. So, next image, please.

The next showed a cartoon strip, with a square around one of the panels. The security question then asked who the image was. I can tell you that it isn’t Barbara Schmitz or Nanny Baker.

The third showed an image I did recognize: Mr. Presidential Candidate Rand Paul. Which means it wasn’t Kevin Stamps or John Doppler.

The thing that saved me was when another photo of a woman looked like Sarah Barnett. Thankfully, Sarah also had a conference pass around her neck with “Sarah Barnett” printed on it. But by that time, I’d taken too long or missed too many images, or some such thing, so I had to start over.

Facebook…you’ve taken “being completely unaware of how people use your web site” to a level never before heard of, or seen. And then you exceeded it by using your complete lack of understanding to form the platform for your new security system.

Categories
JavaScript Writing

JavaScript Cookbook 2nd Edition: Live and Personal

JavaScript Cookbook cover

The second edition of the JavaScript Cookbook just went live at O’Reilly. If you’re wondering why I haven’t been writing about technology as much lately, it’s because I was saving all my tech writing mojo for the book.

We went a somewhat different path with the second edition. I spent a lot less time on syntax, and a lot more on JavaScript in use. When I wrote my first book on JavaScript, in the dark ages that was the mid-1990s, syntax was about all you had with JavaScript. Now, JavaScript is everywhere. It’s the programming language that ate the world.

Well, nibbled the world. JavaScript is still that friendly, approachable language, even with the new ECMAScript additions. JavaScript has never roared; it’s meowed and purred its way into our lives. Good kitty. Nice kitty. Here, have a closure.

In the new edition of JavaScript Cookbook, I covered JavaScript in the browser, and re-visited our old friends (Ajax and the JS objects), yes. But I also spent a considerable time covering JavaScript in the server, in the cloud, and in our mobile devices. The only environment I didn’t cover is the open source hardware, DIY, wearable world, and that’s because I feel these need more preliminary introductions to the environment, so you don’t do something like fry your new Raspberry Pi. Or Computer. Or shirt.

I will never join with those who are critical of JavaScript. I have always had fun with this language. There’s just so much you can do with it.