The Pickled Egg Library

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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by myglaren »

A recent discovery that may interest members.

I have an Alexa Dot Echo that I use mainly to listen to music in my 'workshop' (spare bedroom full of junk).

Through ARRSE I found that Alexa has numerous 'Easter Eggs' one of which is to say:

"Alexa, open the pod bay doors"

To which Alexa responds:

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that. I'm not HAL and we are not in space"

I got my 12 year old grandson to do it on Saturday afternoon but it went right over his head - I thought that he had seen 2001 but apparently not.

In fact, I thought that he had watched it here - my DVD.

Went searching for the DVD and it is nowhere to be found. Presumably loaned out never to be returned, as with so many of them.

I did find it on YouTube but it was crap, fortunately on one of the comments there was a link to an excellent copy in The Internet Archive.

A bit of digging reveals that there is a plethora of information, books, audio and videos available. Lots of stuff from NASA.

The Internet Archive.
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

:rofl2:
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by CitroJim »

Robyn has an Alexa... It's a clever little gimmick... She uses it, amongst other things, to compile shopping lists and at times Alexa has got it hilariously wrong :lol:

Allegedly, they're good when cooking as you can set timers and so on without covering your timer in flour/oil/whatever is all over your hands at the time...
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

Talking about voice controlling of computers, I play the game "Elite: Dangerous" a lot. This game supports the voice recognition program "Voice Attack". One player had set up his copy, and the command for 'Boost' (nitrous oxide for space ships) was "Hit It". He was docking his Imperial Clipper (large, elegant looking ship), and was within the docking hall when his three year old daughter said, clear as a bell, "Hit It". His Clipper hit the Boost, the back of the Station, and the REBUY screen in that order! (REBUY, in the game, is, in effect, the insurance excess on your ship. I have, for an example, an Anaconda fully kitted out and worth 540Mcr, but the REBUY is around 20Mcr).
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

A little bit of discussion on electric bikes on another thread so something which is right up the PE Library's street in the category "limited interest but fascinating if you like that sort of stuff", I give you...

Electric Bike History, patents from the 1800’s

The most revolutionary bit, probably literally,....

"This patent from 1896 (only a year later!) from Charles Theryc, shows a brushed planetary-geared hub-motor! The sun-gear is a 10T, the single planet-gear is a 24T, and the ring-gear is a 56T, for a total RPM reduction of 5.6:1"

And the best photo

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/letter ... 806/#large

From the days of white polo necks, sensible loose fitting black shorts, and well manicured hair and moustaches and that certain je ne sais quoi.

Regards Neil
Last edited by NewcastleFalcon on 20 Nov 2017, 19:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by myglaren »

myglaren wrote: 20 Nov 2017, 07:06 A recent discovery that may interest members.

I have an Alexa Dot Echo that I use mainly to listen to music in my 'workshop' (spare bedroom full of junk).

Through ARRSE I found that Alexa has numerous 'Easter Eggs' one of which is to say:

"Alexa, open the pod bay doors"

To which Alexa responds:

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that. I'm not HAL and we are not in space"

I got my 12 year old grandson to do it on Saturday afternoon but it went right over his head - I thought that he had seen 2001 but apparently not.

In fact, I thought that he had watched it here - my DVD.

Went searching for the DVD and it is nowhere to be found. Presumably loaned out never to be returned, as with so many of them.

I did find it on YouTube but it was crap, fortunately on one of the comments there was a link to an excellent copy in The Internet Archive.

A bit of digging reveals that there is a plethora of information, books, audio and videos available. Lots of stuff from NASA.

The Internet Archive.


I think the point of the post may have been overlooked - it wasn't the Alexa but The Internet Archive that was supposed to be the point of interest.
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by CitroJim »

Love that tandem :D
NewcastleFalcon wrote: 20 Nov 2017, 18:57 From the days of white polo necks, sensible loose fitting black shorts, and well manicured hair and moustaches and that certain je ne sais quoi.


The outfits may have looked good but believe me, the modern 'technical' fabrics work far and away better than the woollen outfits of yesteryear..

Just see what Tim Moore has to say about authentic 1914 outfits made of merino wool when he rode the route of the horrendous 1914 Giro'd'Italia... He was not impressed...

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1094974/gironimo/

This is a crackingly good read... Very funny and you don't need to be a dyed-in-the-wool cyclist to appreciate it :)
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by myglaren »

Something that may interest some of you.
I started a free Kindle book, The Forgotten Women Heroes: Second World War Untold Stories.

It is proving to be better than I expected.
Wikipedia entry is about a Polish girl, Maria Krystyna Skarbek.
Just one of her exploits:
On 13 August 1944, at Digne, two days before the Allied Operation Dragoon landings in southern France, Cammaerts, Xan Fielding—another SOE agent, who had previously operated in Crete—and a French officer, Christian Sorensen, were arrested at a roadblock by the Gestapo. Skarbek, learning that they were to be executed, managed to meet with Captain Albert Schenck, an Alsatian who acted as liaison officer between the local French prefecture and the Gestapo. She introduced herself as a niece of British General Bernard Montgomery and threatened Schenck with terrible retribution if harm came to the prisoners. She reinforced the threat with a mercenary appeal – an offer of two million francs for the men's release. Schenck then introduced her to a Gestapo officer, Max Waem, a Belgian.[38]

For three hours Christine argued and bargained with him and, having turned the full force of her magnetic personality on him... told him that the Allies would be arriving at any moment and that she, a British parachutist, was in constant wireless contact with the British forces. To make her point, she produced some broken... useless W/T crystals.... 'If I were you,' said Christine, 'I should give careful thought to the proposition I have made you. As I told Capitaine Schenck, if anything should happen to my husband [as she falsely described Cammaerts] or to his friends, the reprisals would be swift and terrible, for I don't have to tell you that both you and the Capitaine have an infamous reputation among the locals.' Increasingly alarmed by the thought of what might befall him when the Allies and the Resistance decided to avenge the many murders he had committed, Waem struck the butt end of his revolver on the table and said, 'If I do get them out of prison, what will you do to protect me?'[39]

After Cammaerts and the other two men were released, Schenck was advised to leave Digne. He did not and was subsequently murdered by a person or persons unknown. His wife kept the bribe money and, after the war, attempted to exchange it for new francs. She was arrested, but was released after the authorities investigated her story. She was able to exchange the money for only a tiny portion of its value
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by CitroJim »

Wow! That looks a good one Steve :)

I can't read via Kindle so I'll see if I can find a paper copy... Those are just the kid of books I love...
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by myglaren »

You can read them on your laptop too Jim.

Although it is very good, there are only three stories in it.

Another interesting thing about her (Krystyna Skarbek) is that she knew Ian Fleming and was the character that "Tatiana Romanova" was based on :)

And coincidentally I have just finished another Kindle book - fiction this time but with a lot of historical fact in it, about the real Tatiana Romanova (Grand Duchess of Russia, murdered along with her family by the Bolsheviks).
Best book I have read in ages - "The Secret Wife"
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by CitroJim »

myglaren wrote: 23 Nov 2017, 17:02 You can read them on your laptop too Jim.


Sadly not Steve, I can only read a book in the traditional way.. Bound pages printed on paper!

My laptop is for email and Internet only - and then not much of either...

I'm a bit of an old technophobe these days really and getting worse as i grow older :twisted:

I'm regressing - look at my cars ;)
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by myglaren »

^ I too used to think that way until I inherited my wife's Kindle. Hardly ever read print books any more.
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by CitroJim »

myglaren wrote: 23 Nov 2017, 17:54 ^ I too used to think that way until I inherited my wife's Kindle. Hardly ever read print books any more.


I've got a Kindle Steve, had one for years now and used to love it and find it excellent until I fell ill... I was a very early adopter...

Since the onset of my cognitive issues I can't use it, likewise I have great difficulty with video however it's delivered... Hence my TV remaining unused for months on end...
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by myglaren »

Sorry to hear that Jim, hadn't realised it was that bad and encroaching on so many aspects of your life.
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Re: The Pickled Egg Library

Post by myglaren »

Re: the Alexa - ask it if GCHQ is listening.
Response can be worrying.
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