rotateleftbyte

k2kw said:

Alexa is so easy to interact with.   If Google can add the same flexible to its assistant then Google Home can become an even bigger hit.

Remember that you are the product with the Amazon and Google devices. They are only in it to get the data on your lifestyle, conversations and well... all that stuff about your family and friends. Plus what you watch one TV, talk about, swear about, what Footbal team you follow, what car you drive, who your insureres are and just about your whole life right down to the smallest detail.
These devices are IMHO far more intrusive into your life than Facebook etc could ever be.
If you want them and you know the impact that these things could have then go ahead and give them your life lock stock and barrel.
I won't and that's for sure.

I do all my browsing on Amazon from a Linux VM now. The VM gets restored to the original state after every use. This is just to keep the 'we thought you might like...' tracking down to a minimum. It is also done via a VPN tthat has an endpoint in another country.
I am probably paranoid but I did work for an internet Ad agency for a couple of years so I know what goes on with your data. Thankfully, I got out.
 

rogifan_new said:

pulseimages said:

Damage control!

Damage control? Did you actually read their report? They got wildly different battery results and on the high end much higher than anyone else has gotten. How could they publish a report with such variation?

How? Page hits. That's what it is all about these days.

From my years in software development and testing, I'd never have publisted (even internally) a report with such variations. I'd go back and look at why there were such variations.
Repeatbility is the name of the game. Then others can duplicate your results to validate them. This makes no claims as to the validity of the tests but just that here is a test method that done 'N' (where N is > 5) times gives these results.
That said, all that takes time and money and effort and discipline. All of those are in short supply these days.

One nasty and convoluted software bug inside an Operating System Device Driver once took me close on 3 months to fix. The first 2.5 months were spent trying to replicate the problem in a reliable, repeatable and measurable way.  Once that was done it was easy to apply various solutions to solve the problem until we got one that was rock solid. Only then did we commit the patch into the mainstream kernel.
In latter years (pre 2001) we could not spend even 20% of that time fixing bugs. We had to apply a patch and let the users test it for us. Nothing has changed since. Probably got worse.

Just look at how MS have messed up DHCP on windows 8/8.1/10
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/12/ongoing_windows_8_10_dhcp_problems_affecting_all_isps/

And you don't get to say NO to the updates on W10.

Are you sure you want to switch?
{written on a 2015 15in MBP that has not yet been upgraded to Sierra. Maybe over the holidays, I'll get round to it.}