- Joined
- Apr 21, 2015
- Messages
- 588
I ended up with two google home minis a few months ago (when they were on sale at half price).
Pretty neat little little gizmo.
(If, that is, like me you assume the phone in your pocket is already recording everything you say for big brother, and you can tolerate the thought of a live internet-connected mic in your home...)
Anyway ... I finally got smart and put one in my shop.
Voice commands are really great when I’ve got my hands covered in grease or otherwise occupied, or when the sharpie in my pocket runs dry.
Here are some of the things I’ve used it for:
“Hey google, add some WD40 to my shopping list.”
“Hey google, remind me to start cleaning up for dinner at six pm”
“Hey google, play some gypsy jazz”
“hey google, turn it up to 80%”
If you have smart lights or outlets you can tell it to turn them on or off. You can even control a tv if you’ve got a chromecast hooked up.
In addition, it can even do simple math, including basic trigonometry. It gives most results to thousandths (three decimal places). I haven’t figured out any way to do grouping, so you have to remember results in your head, though. Irritatingly, it also defaults to radians rather than degrees.
Say you you want to know the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with a 4” rise and a 7” run:
“Hey google, what’s 4 squared plus 7 squared?”
The answer is 65
“Hey google, what’s the square root of 65?”
Square root 65 is approximately 8.062
(Now you know the length is 8.062”)
If I wanted to know the narrower angle of that triangle:
“Hey google, what’s 4 divided by 8.062?
The answer is approximately 0.496
“Hey google, what is arc sine 0.496 in degrees?”
Arc sine 0.496 is approximately 29.736 degrees
“Hey google, remember that the angle is 29.736 degrees”
“Hey google, what is my angle?”
I remember you told me the angle is 29.736 degrees
Now if I can just figure out how to get it to tell me cutting speeds and feeds for various materials, or tap sizes for various bolt sizes, etc.
Pretty neat little little gizmo.
(If, that is, like me you assume the phone in your pocket is already recording everything you say for big brother, and you can tolerate the thought of a live internet-connected mic in your home...)
Anyway ... I finally got smart and put one in my shop.
Voice commands are really great when I’ve got my hands covered in grease or otherwise occupied, or when the sharpie in my pocket runs dry.
Here are some of the things I’ve used it for:
“Hey google, add some WD40 to my shopping list.”
“Hey google, remind me to start cleaning up for dinner at six pm”
“Hey google, play some gypsy jazz”
“hey google, turn it up to 80%”
If you have smart lights or outlets you can tell it to turn them on or off. You can even control a tv if you’ve got a chromecast hooked up.
In addition, it can even do simple math, including basic trigonometry. It gives most results to thousandths (three decimal places). I haven’t figured out any way to do grouping, so you have to remember results in your head, though. Irritatingly, it also defaults to radians rather than degrees.
Say you you want to know the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with a 4” rise and a 7” run:
“Hey google, what’s 4 squared plus 7 squared?”
The answer is 65
“Hey google, what’s the square root of 65?”
Square root 65 is approximately 8.062
(Now you know the length is 8.062”)
If I wanted to know the narrower angle of that triangle:
“Hey google, what’s 4 divided by 8.062?
The answer is approximately 0.496
“Hey google, what is arc sine 0.496 in degrees?”
Arc sine 0.496 is approximately 29.736 degrees
“Hey google, remember that the angle is 29.736 degrees”
“Hey google, what is my angle?”
I remember you told me the angle is 29.736 degrees
Now if I can just figure out how to get it to tell me cutting speeds and feeds for various materials, or tap sizes for various bolt sizes, etc.