Resistance is futile... ALEXA!

Will you eventually replace your analog sound system with digital music streaming?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 15.5%
  • No

    Votes: 49 84.5%

  • Total voters
    58
  • Poll closed .
If you're a tin foil hat type, perhaps consider the Mycroft AI project. It runs on your own hardware, even a Raspberry Pi. Hopefully, it's a bit more useful than the voice assistant built into my car...

https://mycroft.ai
 
If you're a tin foil hat type, perhaps consider the Mycroft AI project. It runs on your own hardware, even a Raspberry Pi. Hopefully, it's a bit more useful than the voice assistant built into my car...

https://mycroft.ai

Luckily I am not. I understand what data gets “harvested” and what is done with it and I am good with that. I just think the ones that say never payments, shopping, etc online are fighting a losing battle. If your on here, then your data is out there, if you have a bank account all that info you are trying to protect is out there, your bank does everything with your account via the interwebs. That $100 deposit you just made isn’t saved on the hard drive at that tellers station. It only takes a small amount of due diligence.

Now dealing with the avg person in public, rather not but I do and can be quite social ;)
 
Luckily I am not. I understand what data gets “harvested” and what is done with it and I am good with that. I just think the ones that say never payments, shopping, etc online are fighting a losing battle. If your on here, then your data is out there, if you have a bank account all that info you are trying to protect is out there, your bank does everything with your account via the interwebs. That $100 deposit you just made isn’t saved on the hard drive at that tellers station. It only takes a small amount of due diligence.

Now dealing with the avg person in public, rather not but I do and can be quite social ;)

I agree with your statement.. we are always going to be subjected to some type of OL/Offline via a network invasion.. even if passively done. It is inevitable given the government and privately owned industries have embraced the means as a way of doing daily business :dunno:

Soooooooooo.... whether you are imaged, stream connected or blue-tooth to a device or service, guess what!? You are now identified and "cataloged". To bring this home, having worked with a car business in the business of moving vehicles. The newer vehicles have on-board trip and action recorders.. or bka "black boxes". Owners and insurance companies can easily reference and see your actions executed in that vehicle. So you may say, "I braked".. but the recorder says... :deal:

My point is this, WE are no longer "an island". Remember the song? And this option is inescapable and elusive in our ever growing and willingness to interact via silicon intelligence!

As for not liking to be about people... I love them all :bigok:... They remind me how "simple" I can be at times.. :rflmao:
 
:dunno: .. This lazier fare attitude on the new tech of the brave new world reminds of rather gung ho attitude of a Marine recruiter friend of mine back in the late 70's .. he would say "Don't worry about getting killed in Combat, when your times up .. its' up". I would respond "True enough .. but you won't catch me taking a nap on the local railroad tracks". My point was .. I can't reduce all the risks but one can take reasonable prudent precautions. No Alexa type products in my house. For those that like them .. knock yourself out & enjoy. :biggrin:

article-2477864-1905589D00000578-380_306x423.jpg
 
:dunno: .. This lazier fare attitude on the new tech of the brave new world reminds of rather gung ho attitude of a Marine recruiter friend of mine back in the late 70's .. he would say "Don't worry about getting killed in Combat, when your times up .. its' up". I would respond "True enough .. but you won't catch me taking a nap on the local railroad tracks". My point was .. I can't reduce all the risks but one can take reasonable prudent precautions. No Alexa type products in my house. For those that like them .. knock yourself out & enjoy. :biggrin:

Exactly, that’s why I said this ;)

It only takes a small amount of due diligence

:beerchug:
 
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That marine friend you had @Condorsat reminds me of the whole Viking thinking. They thought the story of your life (skein, maybe is how it is spelled?) was woven by the "old Mother" long ago, and it mattered not what you did.

Sounds horribly irresponsible to me. Anyway, carry on.
 
We have an Amazon Echo, and a Dot in our house, and while I will never give up my hi fi set-up, I'm not so big-time that I can't put on Alexa! I often put her on while in the kitchen washing dishes. I'll ask her to play a particular artist, and I've learned about some great recordings by playing her. And the audio is nice for what it is.
 
I don't have anything to do with Alexa-type devices but I do stream the majority of my music at this point in my life. I have a music streamer connected to my system with Tidal HiFi capability and Roon software because I absolutely love being able to explore and discover new artists that I don't have in my collection.
 
Resistance is easy here .

Well put Sir. and I agree !!

No remote controlled ceiling fans here, either.
No NSA financed tracking "Smart Phone", as well ..
And no.. I don`t fabricate, and wear tinfoil hat`s too ..

And I can still remove the battery from my $ 50.00 flip phone, and when I`m forced to purchase a smart phone, and I can`t remove the battery, then over night, or when not feeling the need to use it, well there is always a small metal cash box for my impromptu Faraday enclosure for it when there is no option/choice any more !!

Try to sniff my ass through that "Spygle, when the smart phone is 'purportedly off "!!

The, "give me convenience, or give me death" mentality, is not in my mindset, as I`ve learned, usually there is a price to pay.
 
Qualified response:

While I responded "no", I have, in fact, replaced "the sources", swapping out both TT and CDP in favor of a dedicated "music file server" laptop, on which is stored @ any given time approximately 300GB of (lossless, FLAC audio codec) music "folders", i.e., artists and albums (studio and "live", including ROIO, material). I play these @ the laptop, out a DAC > integrated amp > speakers. Sometimes I even skip the DAC > IA step and go laptop > bluetooth speaker, utilizing the DAC @ the laptop, which is excellent.

Regarding "streaming", I doubt I'll ever do it.. simply uninterested in hopping aboard this or that web-based "service" for musical content when I have, @ my disposal (and growing weekly) approximately 4TB of "music", again, almost ALL of it lossless FLAC, between my "cloud" and external hard disc drive (cold) storage devices. I am able to obtain pretty much anything I want in the way of studio-recorded or live-captured "officially released" material, which is about the only listening I do where streaming might serve a role; re: listening to my ROIO collection, no streaming service exists that could even come close to the trillions of bytes of unofficial "live" captures I have been collecting for the last 20 years. Thus my approach is a hybrid of analogue and digital that's trending, increasingly, @ all digital playback.
 
Well put Sir. and I agree !!

No remote controlled ceiling fans here, either.
No NSA financed tracking "Smart Phone", as well ..
And no.. I don`t fabricate, and wear tinfoil hat`s too ..

And I can still remove the battery from my $ 50.00 flip phone, and when I`m forced to purchase a smart phone, and I can`t remove the battery, then over night, or when not feeling the need to use it, well there is always a small metal cash box for my impromptu Faraday enclosure for it when there is no option/choice any more !!

Try to sniff my ass through that "Spygle, when the smart phone is 'purportedly off "!!

The, "give me convenience, or give me death" mentality, is not in my mindset, as I`ve learned, usually there is a price to pay.

I'm inclined to agree. Such devices as this "Alexa", "Dot", etc., smack of the musical equivalent of "The Clapper". Kitsch and lethargy, if not sloth, spring to mind.
 
P.S. While I do @ times admit to "missing" the ritual of handling and playing vinyl, I do not miss having to jump up every 22-27 minutes to "change sides", if not whole LP discs. And @ 80 minutes max, CeeDees were becoming just as tedious, especially re: ROIOs where, e.g., a typical Zeppelin show circa '75 runs 190-200 minutes and many (nmany) others @ least 100+ minutes. The laptop "player" can handle the whole ****in' thing. Sure, there are DVDs that can accommodate (much) longer runtimes, but why burn shit into those and end up w/ miles-high piles of "hard" media? And don't even suggest DVD, et al, as "additional archival" entities: 2TB of 'cloud' + 8TB of external HDs are quite adequate for archiving the material.
 
P.P.S. Lastly, re: "streaming" services: Here today, sure, but will it/they be here tomorrow? And even if it/some/they are, @ what (additional) cost, given inflation, client demand and/or technological changes/shifts, etc.?
 
This thread always makes me think of my GF’s brother and sister-in-law that left their 6 figure jobs and bought a 25 acre farm in Missouri to go off grid and homestead. :confused:

Makes me giggle :rolleyes:
 
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Get a spin on this situation..
I have a very old Dell Lap top, that I bought refurbed back in 2009, that I use as one of my ripped music backup storage computers, and no other use.
I installed a fresh/clean Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit install, years back on a new SSD. No Dell apps, or drivers anything installed, that I`ve found.

When Win.10 free upgrade via MS was available a few years back, I decided to go for it, and with Win 10`s more recent updated feature, it allows one greater privacy control after MS was taken to court.
I have all available privacy "invasion" settings set for max privacy.

Anyway, every time I boot it up, no matter whether it was 7, or 10 installed, the on board camera`s picture taking light would flash, like it was taking a pic of whoever was in front of the computer ! I could understand if it flashed during POST, but it waits until the OS is booting !!

Ok, so it would seem simple enough to disable/uninstall the camera, well it`s not available in the bios to do so, and even when I disable it in Devices, and uninstall it`s driver, both there, and in programs & features, when I reboot it`s reactivated the camera, in both devices and reinstalled the driver, and app !! :eek:, o_O, :confused:, :mad:
I even tracked it down in the registry and deleted it ! WTF !!

And that machine`s SSD has been deeply scanned both installed and offboard, to see if it has Spyware, virus, etc. embedded, and none was indicated !!

All 4 other lap tops I own(3 Gate Way`s, 1 small MacBook, and a HP`s onboard camera`s are disabled/uninstalled, and stay that way !) :thumbsup:

However, blue painter`s tape is still covering all my lap top`s camera`s lens, and a small wad of coax seal over the built in microphone hole, to make sure ! :thumbsup:

God Damn!! "Smell of Dell" !! :mad:

Now, where did I put my "Tinfoil Hat"? HA !!! :crazy:
 

Anybody see the Oliver Stone movie Snowden? That was some scary stuff to me.

Yes.. the movie Snowden was really intense and revealing but truth be told, folk have been eavesdropping since the ham radio :dunno:

Correct me if I'm wrong, there is a statute that states you must not listen to intercepted communications whether phone or other.. does that still exist?
 

Anybody see the Oliver Stone movie Snowden? That was some scary stuff to me.

Yep, and that’s my point. You can do your due diligence keeping your money fairly “safe” but at this point in time it’s pretty much a lost cause for anything else. If your posting on this site your out there, and you don’t even need to post. ;)

:whip:
 
Yes.. the movie Snowden was really intense and revealing but truth be told, folk have been eavesdropping since the ham radio :dunno:

Correct me if I'm wrong, there is a statute that states you must not listen to intercepted communications whether phone or other.. does that still exist?

Yes .. but there was no reason for the ass clown in the video to be watching the girl undress. No need to be concerned though .. I'm sure that never happens in real life. :cool: Myself .. I don't leave my laptop open when not in use and I damn sure would not have in the bedroom.

Yep, and that’s my point. You can do your due diligence keeping your money fairly “safe” but at this point in time it’s pretty much a lost cause for anything else. If your posting on this site your out there, and you don’t even need to post. ;)

:whip:

I'm not one who believes it's a lost cause. Not a bad idea to be aware of what's possible w/ modern tech. Don't post your closely held secrets on Facebook .. as an example. Good lesson from the movie.
 
P.P.S. Lastly, re: "streaming" services: Here today, sure, but will it/they be here tomorrow? And even if it/some/they are, @ what (additional) cost, given inflation, client demand and/or technological changes/shifts, etc.?
I think that’s why I have to vote ‘no’.

I’ve dabbled with streaming; I tried out Apple Music with their free trial, and have paid for the odd month here and there when it’s a busy travel season. My library(yeah, you know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout) has some cool free streaming options that I use, too. I dig a few Mixcloud cats, and a few other DJ types that are out there.

But to replace my personal library? Heck no. Those streaming services have a lot more content than I do obviously, but I’ve got content that they don’t have, too. And GOOD content.
Is that going to correct itself in the future? Or get even worse? I know where I’d put my money.
 
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