morning

or $TIME_OF_DAY wherever you are

Hey @JennyD. How goes it?

It's good! I've spent a few months working with Atlassian stuff. Now I'm back to PKI, which I enjoy more - trying to build something that abides by three different standards for security is a lot more clear and comprehensible than making Confluence run properly...

How are you?

@JennyD I'm doing ok, thanks. Does being featured in a magazine get you job offers? Just curious. :-)

@FaheemMitha Yes, actually... I've gotten several calls from recruiters. But I'm still happy where I am.

@JennyD Ah, ok. It's good that you're happy where you are.

@FaheemMitha As long as I get projects that are interesting and/or with clients that I like working with I won't have any reason to leave. I might be able to get better pay somewhere else, but I'm comfortably off and don't actually need that.

@JennyD Is the job market generally good where you are?

@FaheemMitha In IT, yes - especially among senior people. We've been trying to hire more people with the same kind of skills and experience as I have, and they're really few and far between.

@JennyD I see. I suppose experience is important. And by definition, cannot be gained quickly.

@FaheemMitha exactly. We do have one trainee position but we can't really handle more than one. The current one is learning fast though and I hope he'll end up working with the same stuff I do - he's smart, thorough and methodical.

@JennyD I suppose sysadmin work requires smart, thorough and methodical. Otherwise bad things can happen. When recruiting, what are your important criteria, and do you put much weight in references?

@FaheemMitha Being willing to learn and adapt is very important. As for references, it depends on the reference - if a person is recommended by someone we already know, like another employee, it will of course carry greater weight than if it's some random ex-boss.

@JennyD Ok. Incidentally, I really don't like the IT acronym. Though unfortunately it seems to have gained general currency.

@FaheemMitha I agree.

In an episode of IT Crowd, it's mentioned that Jen thinks it stands for "Internet Things". And really, I don't see why it shouldn't.

Hey folks ! Can guys with reopen votes capability reopen this post please : unix.stackexchange.com/q/336149/85039 I've no rep to do so on this site, so can't cast one myself. Question , IMHO is pretty clear , and I understood it right away , but apparently to some users it wasn't . I've edited it and clarified. Plus OP accepted my solution there, so I guess I've kinda nailed the meaning of the question there.

Thanks in advance

@Serg done!

Thank's , Stephen. OK, I'll be in AU room if anyone needs clarification there.

@Serg Reopened. I edited to remove the extra words you added though since heemayl had already posted an answer dealing with 2 words per line as in the original question, so adding more words invalidates his answer.

@terdon that works. Thanks. :)

@HNSingh I can't be sure from what you've said here but that sounds like a better fit for Stack Overflow instead. Make sure to show the code you have and explain exactly what you need (what does "call a user" mean, for example).

@Serg np

@Kusalananda :)

Indeed

@Kusalananda Yeah, my PhD was on genome annotation/gene prediction/comparative genomics so I've used my fair share of Ensembl tools.

@Kusalananda Well put.

@terdon That's a Chatty Chat Room.

@FaheemMitha Yes, the AU room is quite lively.

@terdon And you still manage to get work done?

I do my best :)

So this Alexa thing records everything by default, and uploads it to Amazon? If so, all the dictators in history are having a good laugh about it, wherever they are. That's a spybot.

@terdon Being Super Cool probably helps.

Too true.

@terdon Which bit?

That being super cool helps. I'm lucky that way.

Ah. I thought maybe you were agreeing about the spybot thing.

@terdon :-)

@HNSingh I don't think there are any "inbuilt" features to do that, but maybe you're looking for FreeSWITCH, Asterisk, YATE, etc.?

@FaheemMitha no, it only records and sends what you say after the keyword ("Alexa", "Echo", or "Amazon")

@derobert Ah, ok. How long after you say those keywords?

@FaheemMitha Until it detects end-of-speech. There is probably a maximum length, too, but not sure what it is.

At least when it's working normally, there is visual (and, optional, auditory) confirmation both at the start and end of recording

@derobert Ah. Do you have one of those things? Or know someone who does?

Still sounds like a slightly dicey thing to have lying around.

@FaheemMitha I have 5 or 6 of 'em...

@derobert yikes

(Of course, if the NSA orders you a special Echo, I'm sure the lights are a firmware thing, so they could disable that. Etc.)

Do your Echo things talk to each other?

It would be like a Ray Bradbury short story.

Only to the extent that they prevent two or three of them from responding, only the closest ( = hears you best) one responds. Other than that, not really (unfortunately, I wish they did more).

... that's actually fairly recent, before November or so they'd both respond.

Hmm. So why do you have multiple units?

Different rooms

So you actually use them then?

yeah. Mainly as light switches and timers. Sometimes to play music (but the speakers really aren't that good, so...)

oh, and alarm clocks

I thought they were quite expensive.

I imagine you can buy cheaper switches and timers.

Echo Dots are $50, so not really. The normal Echos are more, only have two of those (the rest are Dots)

I see.

Well, a Hue dimmer switch is ~$30. And can only control one group of lights (without weird things done to it).

An Echo can control any group you want.

So, this thing?

amazon.com/All-New-Amazon-Echo-Dot-Add-Alexa-To-Any-Room/dp/…

@derobert So, good value for money?

Yep, I have three of those. And one 1st gen Echo Dot. And two Echos. So I guess 6.

@FaheemMitha Wouldn't have 6 of 'em otherwise!

Fair enough - dumb question.

Google Home can do most of that stuff, too. Though it has the unfortunate effect of also interrupting you when you're talking to your phone, and telling you it can't do that.

It (Google Home) does Hue, not sure which other smart home things—Alexa does almost all of them. Mainly because its been around longer, I suspect.

Google Home seems a little better at answering random questions. Like, I was surprised when I asked it how many Pokémon there are, and it gave a comprehensive answer...

@FaheemMitha good value for money for Amazon

@Gilles I don't follow.

the main purpose of that gadget is to let them make more money

zero-click purchase

@Gilles I see. Can't you turn it off?

@FaheemMitha sure, but then it's an expensive paperweight

@Gilles Yes, @terdon linked to that earlier.

@Gilles But it presumably does other things.

Also, I'd use them for playing music more if either of them could actually handle classical music. They can't. The idea that a work might consist of multiple tracks, or the same work could be recorded by hundreds of different people, or even that there is this thing called a "composer" who frequently isn't the person playing the music, are all well beyond both Amazon and Google.

@derobert Bummer. Amazon/Google should hire you. You'd educate 'em.

I'm guessing with proper classical support, they could sell an entire extra 10 devices a year!

:-/

I imagine it's not too high a priority for them.

@derobert I think you're underestimating the number of classical music listeners.

So, apparently if you ask your devices what the cast of Sherlock is, they will tell you.

@FaheemMitha Maybe. But also the crossover between classical music listeners and tech early adopters. Though Amazon apparently sells a lot of Echos (and refuse to say exactly how many, though)

@FaheemMitha yeah, I think they'll both do that. I've asked Alexa for cast members before.

@derobert That sort of thing could be mildly useful, I think.

So are the timers! I can be holding a hot pan, etc. and yell for Alexa to set a timer.

Though they'd also need to be reliable to be useful.

It can do multiple timers too, unfortunately you can't label them (on Alexa, Google Home can). When Alexa finally gets that, it'd be worth the $50 just as a kitchen timer. I mean, a normal multi-timer is already $30 for a reasonable quality one...

@FaheemMitha Timers are fairly reliable.

@derobert Ok.

And it does announce back what it did, so you know if it got it wrong. Thankfully with timers, that's fairly rare.

@derobert I didn't know there were such things as multi-timers. Isn't technology wonderful?

@FaheemMitha they're pretty useful if you have more than one thing cooking at once.

@derobert I can imagine.

It's also nice that, for the longer timers, I can check on them from my phone....

Or the computer.

Alexa's "flash briefing" is also fairly useful (it plays the news, e.g., from NPR, BBC, etc.).

Google has a similar thing, though with less options so less useful

@derobert So, did any of your devices ever order anything by accident from Amazon? :-)

@FaheemMitha Nope

@derobert Good to know.

You can set a PIN which will prevent that entirely...

And you get free returns on Alexa orders anyway

I see.