Hosting a skill for the Amazon Alexa platform can be more or less involved, depending on the implementation language and hosting platform you pick. If you have some experience with the Java-Servlet life-cycle, then implementing a skill in Java, using Amazon’s Alexa-Skills-Kit library for Java, available in this Maven Repository and on Github, becomes an […]
Audio Routing and Recording
Originally, an iPod connected to your Mac, would show up in the Spotify app, allowing you to copy songs to the device and enjoy them later, when untethered. Not anymore. Fortunately, the analog loophole still exists; but admittedly, it’s a very inconvenient way to replicate the above mentioned lost functionality. Step1: Install the Soundflower kernel extension, which […]
Installing Tomcat on macOS 10.12 Sierra
The Servlet 4.0 specification is out and Tomcat 9.0.x does support it. Time to dive into Tomcat 9. Prerequisite: Java Since OS X 10.7 Java is not (pre-)installed anymore, let’s fix that first. As I’m writing this, Java 1.8.0_111 is the latest version, available for download here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html The JDK installer package comes in a dmg and installs […]
The Conversational User Interface is a Minefield
Cross-Post from my article on Medium The path to an acceptable Conversational User Interface is heavily mined and booby-trapped. Let’s not fall into the IVR trap, but create a humanized and personalized user experience. [IVR – Interactive voice response is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice […]
Updating the Nexus 6P to Android 7 Nougat .. Now!
Here are the steps to update your Nexus 6P to Android 7 (final) release. Step 1. Install Android Studio Download and install Android Studio from here. If you think you already have everything you need, at least verify your adb version like so: .. Check adb version adb version Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.36 Revision […]