Excuse the hyperbole, but we’ve always wanted to use a click-baity sort of headline — just to see if they work. That being said, we’re not going to spoil the fun. To find the answer, you’re going to have to watch the video. Don’t worry, however — bad things rarely happen when Linux is involved.
The Screening Room
We found this short eight minute video quite by accident while searching through the FOSS Force News Wire looking for something else. In it, we find the well known open source community manager, Jono Bacon, at home, apparently alone and in his kitchen, recording himself as he plays with his newly acquired Google Home device. This surprised us, as we didn’t know he actually had a home. It seemed to us he spends all of his time in his office, and we figured he lived there. We were also surprised to find him alone. A community manager, we figured, is absolutely always surrounded by his community.
There were a few other things we learned from watching this. For example, who would’ve thought Bacon to be an Iron Maiden fan? Living in the Bay Area, and with his community minded career, we figured his taste would lean more towards the Airplane — you know, “We can be together” and all that. One of us figured him to be a British Invasion type — but we’re pretty sure that was the result of stereotyping. Evidently all assumptions were wrong.
As the device was a gift Google handed out at an OSCON dinner, sort of like swag, we know that the cynics among you are going to jump to the conclusion that this is actually something akin to an advertisement, or perhaps a product endorsement. Nah. He’s just having a little fun — and maybe thanking Google for the cool gift. Remember what your mama taught you about manners.
Anyway, the Bacon roast is over. Enjoy the video.
My wife got one free with her new phone. To us it didn’t seem that smart or useful. I set it up with a dummy email account and put it in my 8yr old son’s room. He and my 4 yr old daughter get a kick out of asking it stupid questions…
@Christine, what happened to the comments made yesterday?
@tracyanne Our server hiccuped or something, causing our theme to reset itself to its default settings. As it would take a full day or more to reconfigure the theme, we restored our DB from our most recent backup, which was made before your comment. Sorry.
Listen carefully – he was asking for the concert of Testament. Maiden is for the schoolboys compared to them…
@Christine, in the immortal words of Ned Kelly “Such is life”
Yeah,….no. No thanks. I mean its cool and everything, but because I don’t know who (or what) is listening on the other end of that thing when I’m not talking to it?….then I don’t want it in my house. I dunno, maybe I’m just old fashioned, but it seems there’s this incessant “push” to connect every part of our lives, and I for one don’t think that’s a good idea….if you’ve never read “1984” by George Orwell, you should stop what you’re doing, go out and buy the book, or download it to your Kindle and read it. Things are headed in that direction, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see it: Moving away from ATM cards that you swipe to the “chip” / so called “biometric identification devices” that will allow you to go to the doctor, or make reservations, or flight plans, then when you arrive at your destination?, they scan a “chip” that’s just below the surface of your skin and it will tell them everything they need to know about you (does this sound like the “Serial Numbers” that the Jews had imprinted on their bodies in the Nazi era?) / Software on your phone that can track you / software in cars that can track you / everything in your home being “connected” (to WHAT!!??) / “smart” light bulbs / smart TV’s / smart dishwashers / smart refrigerators, to me?…it seems like there’s some unknown group of people who are adamant about being attached to every part of your life…and I for one do not subscribe nor support that kind of thinking, so while Google Home might be a nice novelty act for when people are there, and it might add some convenience to your life by giving you up-to-the-minute news reports, it still doesn’t appeal to me in the least, sorry, no “Ok Google” in MY house!
I’m just sayin’
@Eddie G.
As I already posted, before the Database hiccup, It’s definitely not the sort of thing we want in our home. I just hope I never have to insist that any of our friends turn the damned thing off, before we visit with them. It may ruin a good friendship.
@tracyanne
> I just hope I never have to insist that any of our friends turn the damned thing off, before we visit with them. It may ruin a good friendship.
There are ways to handle that (be sure to read the mouseover text too):
https://xkcd.com/1807/
>> Excuse the hyperbole, but we’ve always wanted to use a click-baity sort of headline — just to see if they work.
1) It worked.
2) It won’t work again because I’m unsubscribing.
@Conrad So a site you know, and evidently like and trust, decides to have a little good natured fun — and is very upfront about it — and you decide that means we’ve sold out to the dark side or something? Have a sense of humor, man.
@Mike, I’ll be sure to keep that advice in mind
@Christine, loved the click baity headline, though, as I click on every headline, I’m not sure if it worked, you may need to try again
1. Just a stupid ad.
2. Jono is NFI about privacy and neither does this site.
First and last visit.
@NOYFB: How do you know this site has no idea about privacy if this is your first visit?