The Smart Home

someday it will end up listening & recording everything you do

> someday it will end up listening & recording everything you do

Some say it's already doing that!

I've heard that too - but not sure if true - however don't want it in my house

> someday it will end up listening & recording everything you do
> Some say it's already doing that!

In case it's not evident already, I am a bit of a geek. I have close to half of my house fully automated with Alexa. I say "goodnight Alexa" and it turns off certain lights, checks that my garage doors are closed and locked and it locks both my from and backdoors. I use it for music, and all my TV's are all set up with Amazon TV.

Absolutely the best thing I ever did and I'm saving a ton of money. I got a gig FIOS internet connection for $69 bucks a month. I now use Hulu for live TV with DVR and 50-channels with HBO and Showtime on every TV in this house and I can take it on the road with me. That's costing another $59. When you add prime that comes with our sub we have for Amazon and Netflix for $10 a month, there is more TV then anyone could ever watch.

Compare that to the $280 for 5-TVs from FIOS and I'm way ahead of the game with a much better service. It takes a little getting used to at first, but I will never go back to cable TV.

What I find funny is my 26-year-old son doesn't like talking around it because of the listening thing. And it freaks me out how if Alexa does a search for an item I will start getting web ads for it.

We all will have some type of home AI someday, no doubt.

Does anyone here remember the days charter and party boat captains required you to leave your phone home or check it with the mate? Well, this is kinda like that. It's inevitable.

It's up to you on how much tech you want to live with.

I have front and back porch lights that turn on when it gets dark and turn off when it light out My house is smart on the outside dumb as rocks on the inside I wonder why

That’s hysterical Boss.

L:DL

> I now use Hulu for live TV with DVR and 50-channels with HBO and Showtime on every TV in this house and I can take it on the road with me. That's costing another $59. When you add prime that comes with our sub we have for Amazon and Netflix for $10 a month, there is more TV then anyone could ever watch.


Was considering losing "the dish" and switching to Hulu, BUT Hulu up here doesn't have a live CBS channel, nor PBS which are 2 important channels at Chez Roccus.

Here's an IMPORTANT GEEK ALERT!!!

Was at my daughter's house last week and it seemed her 33 MB internet was struggling, which amused me because I do fine at 6 MB. I realized she had added a new Smart TV via WiFi while I have all of my streaming devices wired into the home network. I "suspected" the TV, but the lag was apparent on any WiFi devices even when the TV was "Off". The conundrum started my pocket protector started to "itch" when I remembered that modern TVs are never really OFF, but really in "Sleep" mode when you turn them off. I hypothesized that even in sleep mode, the TV was sucking up WiFi bandwidth. Fortunately her wireless router was just below her TV so we ran an ethernet cable and guess what, no more slow WiFi. Moral of the story - design your LAN so bandwidth hogging devices are wired, not connected via WiFi.

> I have front and back porch lights that turn on when it gets dark and turn off when it light out My house is smart on the outside dumb as rocks on the inside I wonder why
:LOL::LOL::LOL:

> In case it's not evident already, I am a bit of a geek. I have close to half of my house fully automated with Alexa. I say "goodnight Alexa" and it turns off certain lights, checks that my garage doors are closed and locked and it locks both my from and backdoors..

LMAO !!!! Who would a guessed. I have an Alexa also but i don't say "Goodnight" to her. I say Goodnight to Gracie. ;) I like her because she flashes her pretty lights at me when i'm going to receive my Amazon order and will keep me posted. Oh and where else could i go and say "Alexa play Woolf Crick Pass by CW McCall" and she will play it while no one else will even know WTF i'm talking about. :giggle: So yeah that's the smartest thing in this house. o_O

You guys have to get this, a microwave where you can tell Alexa to push the button!

[[COLOR=rgb(147, 101, 184)][SIZE=5][FONT=times new roman]Amazon microwav[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]]('https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07894S727/ref=ods_gw_ha_sr_dc_jan19?pf_rd_p=e3a16294-8a8e-4915-bd8a-fb2afd2978f4&pf_rd_r=5S49VGC2HJS0VDEVQN0K')[COLOR=rgb(147, 101, 184)][SIZE=5][FONT=times new roman]e[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

> You guys have to get this, a microwave where you can tell Alexa to push the button!

[[COLOR=rgb(147, 101, 184)][SIZE=5][FONT=times new roman]Amazon microwav[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]]('https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07894S727/ref=ods_gw_ha_sr_dc_jan19?pf_rd_p=e3a16294-8a8e-4915-bd8a-fb2afd2978f4&pf_rd_r=5S49VGC2HJS0VDEVQN0K')[COLOR=rgb(147, 101, 184)][SIZE=5][FONT=times new roman]e[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]
I definitely need that! I read that there will be water faucets that are Alexa enabled. Over 10-million products are rolling out over the next few years that are Google and Alexa enabled!:eek::eek::eek:

I can't get too crazy though because there's all that fishing stuff I need too :)


I got enough issues living in an analog home lol. That Hulu setup George mentioned sounds like the right move for me. Got the optimum triple play and I’m paying over $250 a month for 3 TVs, phone, and internet. I don’t even have DVR. I’d rather just pay for internet, a home phone, and Hulu.

This thread made me go and complain to DirecTV, they knocked $60 off per month for "Loyal Customer" so I'm down from $116 to $56 a month. Works for me.

'

Big Brother is watching

you mean listening don't you?

> I definitely need that! I read that there will be water faucets that are Alexa enabled. Over 10-million products are rolling out over the next few years that are Google and Alexa enabled!:eek::eek::eek:

I can't get too crazy though because there's all that fishing stuff I need too :)

How lazy are we becoming as a society that we can't just walk over & turn the light on/off or work the faucet? I mean 99.9% of the time you're standing right in front of the faucet because you just used it or are about to use it.

My brother & sister in law bought me these remote outlets for Christmas. *"You have to have these. They're great."* You plug in your various appliances or lights & you can turn them on or off with a remote. Like I don't already have enough remotes laying around.
:cautious:

It's not like I'm living in a mansion or something that I can't walk the 10 to 20 feet and go *"click"* & turn them off.
:whistle:

When I got home I put them some place & don't even remember where that some place is right now.

I'm not against technology or anything - but - I am against useless technology.

ps - this isn't directed at you George - just the whole thing in general