RUN TCP/IP | Morgan Lucas is Tech Blogging

     Can I make an Alexa Skill That Searches Bing?   I use Bing as my search engine, and would love it if I could ask Alexa and have that trail of searches attached to my account to look back upon.  Fun fact: When you ask Alexa a question, it's already using Bing. But it's not using my account. So let's see if I can walk through the idea.  Questions:  Alexa searches the internet when you ask it a query. What specifically does it search? It's own database of information? Is it like ChatGPT where the system is not directly connected to the internet but has all of the internet up until a certain point in the past?  Can I make an Alexa Skill that attaches to a dataset of information I host on AWS? The preliminary search reveals Knowledge Skills , which seems to be "give us information and when people ask about it, we can just tell them within the scope of our knowledge." Would I need AWS to make an Alexa Skill at all? Most likely; When you cre...

 I like no- or low-code solutions to things. I've often wanted to simply push a button or move some GUI around and have the code implement itself.  I've thought about building something that's like a customer relationship management (CRM) system for keeping up with my network better than my little spreadsheet where I click links and then go like something. The general idea in this CRM Development is:  To have a GUI to add people to a NRM (Network Relationship Management).       Attach it to a database (MySQL is what I went with eventually using Amazon Relational Database service, but you can use PostGRES, and probably others).     Make sure components are connected to each other in the retool interface. This video is a good start. Watching the tutorial video, heard some SQL commands and went 'Oh no 😳" before going "Wait I know basic SQL", which is good, because you'll see.  When you get set up, there's a plethora of resources you ...

 This is a blurb of a post - I played around in the environment for a bit and didn't complete it. Sometimes, projects just go unfinished. It's not my greatest ambition in life to make an Alexa skill. The instructions are a bit out of date, I had to create a new role from policy templates, which took me to several other screens. You have to make about 2 separate accounts - One main AWS one, and one Amazon Developer one.  "earnings"? Something to consider... 'You can provision your own back-end resources or you can have Alexa host them for you.' I suppose I could actually use the Azure equivalent of Lambda if I wanted to. My favorite part so far has been thinking of the invocation words - You can't use a handful of them. I want to make Alexa going 'Hello, World' to make sense in context. I almost put in 'Bye world' but that sounds very morbid. I'm guessing this Utterance Profiler does this: "What word could you say to make this work?...

CNET Articles: Glasses , Ring , Earbuds I wanted to post something before I go to GHC 19 next week (They offered me a ticket!), and luckily, Amazon has come through, in yet another bid to get Alexa inside my home. Re: Echo Frames ; You can also swipe the side of the glasses to get more information, set reminders and use smart home gear while on the go.  They must mean the side of the frames. I wear glasses, and the idea of swiping the side of a lens to do anything makes my soul leave my body. It seems a handier option; Not a fun or engaging one like the missing in ordinary action Google Glass. Talk To The Hand with Echo Loop - It's a ring with a button that you press and talk to Alexa. It buzzes if you have a notification and can partner with Amazon Sidewalk, so you can control your home outside your home. It's like a smartwatch but with no screen. Imagine losing it and someone has control to your smart devices. From a collaboration with Bose comes Echo Buds...