r/mildlyinfuriating • • 8h ago

Ruined by Technology When we’re not looking, Alexa displays the wrong time. I finally caught her on video.

39.1k Upvotes

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12.2k

u/Pumpkin_Cheap 8h ago

Am I the only asshole thinking its just a screensaver made to look like a clock?

2.2k

u/Bright-Pilot-3970 8h ago

No that’s exactly what I thought. I just assume it plays random things or the 7am if nothing else is selected.

553

u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace 7h ago

Or maybe it just sleeps from the last time it was used

198

u/ActualWhiterabbit 6h ago

Just like me

12

u/cardfire 3h ago

slow clap

2

u/TheHobinator 4h ago

Underrated comment haha

1

u/ishpatoon1982 2h ago

It's pretty rated...

9

u/peldazac 7h ago

if it is displaying something that would be the screen saver. Going to sleep means not showing anything

5

u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace 7h ago

I guess I just consider them to be the same mode, but you are probably technically correct. Sleep mode on some things puts them in a low power standby mode and is used as a misnomer so I would consider this to be that kinda thing where it goes idle and doesn't update until woken back up.

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u/Haifisch2112 8h ago edited 8h ago

OP spoke to ot and woke it up. It didn't play anything random.

66

u/BigNnThick 8h ago

Do you know how screensavers work?

-39

u/Haifisch2112 8h ago

It's not a screensaver, dipshit. It goes into sleep mode after a short time of not being used and the screen stays on whatever was displayed at the time. When OP spoke to it and woke it up, it came out of sleep mode and the time was on the screen.

22

u/BigNnThick 7h ago

Nice comment edit dipshit, completely changed what you said. You realize it tells us you edited it right?

-14

u/Haifisch2112 7h ago

I didn't change anything but spelling. So unless you have proof otherwise, stop running your mouth.

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u/BigNnThick 7h ago

Changed it for spelling but the spelling is still wrong? Okay buddy.

-5

u/Haifisch2112 7h ago

First you think Alexa is considering, now you think I'm changing my comments. Go outside and touch grass.

8

u/gorpie97 7h ago

Sigh.

Reddit indicates when a comment has been edited.

It's considered intellectually dishonest to edit your comment without indicating what you edited.

You're simply saying "trust me, bro", and based on the tone of your comments I can't imagine many people wanting to.

EDIT: See the little asterisk after the time stamp on the comment? That's the indicator.

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u/LiminalGossamer 7h ago

How did you two manage to escalate this entirely inncouous comment chain so quickly lmao, whether or not a stranger's clock uses a screensaver is not this serious

1

u/fatpat 4h ago

redditors be redditing the reddit

0

u/Haifisch2112 7h ago

Probably because I'm giving perfectly reasonable, rational, and actual responses as to why it happened. But everyone want to read more into it than what it is like we're on the verge of being taken over by Alexa and they just can't let it go.

2

u/LiminalGossamer 6h ago

Respectfully: I think it's actually because you called them a dipshit for no reason

9

u/wmmameansbeerrun 7h ago

It goes into sleep mode after a short time of not being used and the screen stays on

Also known as a "Screensaver"

-5

u/Haifisch2112 7h ago

Two different things. But if you want to think Alexa is planning a takeover by lying about the time, you go for it.

7

u/LiamOmegaHaku 7h ago

did...did anyone say that? I think it was just mostly people thinking it's weird. not that it was an apocalypse indicator.

Also, going to sleep in dark mode to preserve the screen is what we call a screen saver. Just because it's not a pipe maze or an anime girl fucking doesn't mean it isn't a screen saver. a sleep mode screen is still to save the screen.

4

u/BigNnThick 7h ago

Are you have like a psychotic episode? No one said that...

2

u/wmmameansbeerrun 6h ago

Your life must be a weird existence

2

u/Glittering_Crab_69 7h ago

Do you know how screensavers work?

1

u/ecafyelims 5h ago

maybe 7am is the alarm?

1

u/cyrustakem 4h ago

but why not just turn off the fkn display to save power? if it's not even showing the time, this is just stupid and wasteful.

but sometimes i forget programmers nowadays are just fkn incomptent morons and care not about saving power or making things efficient, likely because management is a bunch of fkn idiots trying to squeeze the life out of everyone with ridiculous timelines and enshitifying products.. i fkn hate it here in the tech world

1

u/soda_cookie 4h ago

Maybe 7:00 a.m. is the alarm time and the screen saver shows the alarm?

1

u/Bright-Pilot-3970 2h ago

That could also be it. How the fuck was that upvoted 1700 times.

3.4k

u/Haifisch2112 8h ago

It was in sleep mode and still had the last time displayed on it before it went into sleep mode.

1.7k

u/Tom_Ace2 7h ago

What's the point of showing the wrong time then? Why not just show nothing?

743

u/TSM- YELLOW 7h ago

Bug or oversight. It is not updating the time when it is in sleep mode but the screen is still on. Perhaps sleep mode stops it from adjusting the display time value because the screen used to be off. Then they decided they wanted to keep the screen on to show it was still powered or to show some wallpaper or something, and someone didn't notice that this would sometimes show the clock and not update it.

232

u/mashmaker86 7h ago

This sounds like a legitimate bug to me. Adhoc, but valid. No tester would allow that to pass.

87

u/JunkyardTornado 7h ago

Tester wont pass it? Maybe. Management tells them to push? Likely

12

u/Ok-Detective-8903 7h ago

Nah, "LLM slop reviewer" writes LGTM and sends it off.

14

u/NeverTriedFondue 6h ago

Let's Gamble, Try Merging?

5

u/Ok-Detective-8903 6h ago

Ha! I like that

3

u/NathanSMB 7h ago

No tester would allow that to pass.

When it comes to time issues a lot of things get overlooked. I'm a software engineer. QA have found plenty of bugs I have missed and I appreciate the fuck out of them. I also could totally see this passing QA by accident.

3

u/mashmaker86 7h ago

Yeah I'm QA. I miss things all the time. I would get into trouble for missing something like this. Not fired, but it would come up for sure.

3

u/NathanSMB 7h ago

I mean yeah, but at least where I work it would come up in a retrospective. Like hey we had this problem how do we make sure it doesn't happen in the future. Come up with an actionable plan. Move on. It wouldn't come up in a performance review unless it was a repetitive problem.

2

u/mashmaker86 6h ago

Fortunately I'm a contractor so I'll never get a performance review. I could be laid off at any moment, but hey, every day is a gift!

8

u/drawkbox 7h ago edited 7h ago

Most likely by design to save power for when users are in the vicinity. Very common flow for low power and processing capable hardware.

18

u/Saucermote 7h ago

But makes it completely useless as a clock you might want to look at when you wake up in the middle of the night and want to know how many more hours of sleep you can have.

1

u/drawkbox 6h ago

True but it probably is able to wake up on any movement.

Alexa has motion sensors and the only reason the dude saw this was the sneaking in the door out of range. Inside the room it probably never shows this.

6

u/Saucermote 6h ago

Would it detect someone on the other side of the room, hidden almost entirely under covers, in the dark, only poking their head up to look at the clock?

3

u/drawkbox 6h ago

Alexa has computer vision Camera-Based Detection and audio Ultrasound-Based Detection so probably but yeah there might be a gap there.

Computer vision in the dark usually is dampened for noise so it could miss small movements.

Ultrasound detection uses doppler so it could also miss if the person moved really, really slow.

The clock still works in that state and alarms would go off, the screen is the battery/power/processor drain so even if it was dimmed or wrong it would update on events.

But there might be a gap where if you were super still and made no sound and opened your eyes slow that it wouldn't pick it up and if the placeholder screen has a time you'd see it wrong. Then you'd move your head in disbelief it is 7:00 and it would change.

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u/TSM- YELLOW 6h ago

I suppose OP would know, but 7:00 exactly seems likely to be a placeholder value rather than coincidentally being the exact offset from its last updated time. Someone didn't change the variable from the placeholder in that part of the code and it went live.

1

u/drawkbox 1h ago

Yeah definitely seems like a placeholder or screen shot for a kiosk display or something. For it to be exactly 7:00 it seems likely.

8

u/mashmaker86 7h ago

Low power settings are common, but they are not supposed to display misleading information.

3

u/drawkbox 6h ago

True. As others mentioned, probably a screensaver or static page it switches to. Definitely seems like placeholder.

2

u/StephenFish 5h ago

No one is doing testing anymore -- everything is AI and AI is stupid.

1

u/theflanman 5h ago

The majority of Amazon software doesn't have dedicated testers, devs have to handle it.

1

u/gadda4 1h ago

Maybe no tester did ever sneak up to it.

2

u/DouchecraftCarrier 5h ago

My Google Home display does the same thing. I have a basement office so I will keep my front window camera streaming to it for long periods of time and most of the time when I turn the stream off what comes up for a moment right after is the clock from when I turned it on several hours ago.

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u/FierceDeity_ 3h ago

Even the always on display on Android phones doesn't have that kind of bug, and those devices are on battery. Damn, Amazon. Good job. lol

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

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u/mashmaker86 7h ago

I'm not defending Amazon, I'm accusing them of a software defect.

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

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u/TSM- YELLOW 6h ago

Just to be sure, that was not me. Also want to say, saying "they made a mistake, here is how it might have happened" isn't defending them.

1

u/mashmaker86 6h ago

Oh they're accusing me of being you? Wait no I'm still confused. It's only mildly entertaining to figure out what TheGloomyWoodpecker is on about. Unfortunately their account is private so there is a high likelihood of it being a bot.

1

u/MechanicalSideburns 5h ago

Lol, this whole comment chain reads as one guy rapid-fire switching back and forth between accounts. Like, how would you have even known about TSM's comment above this one? You weren't tagged, and it wasn't in response to one of yours. You should have just deleted the first comment and moved on.

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u/TSM- YELLOW 6h ago edited 2h ago

Looking at the chain of replies, it looks like what you said could have been me.

edit: This is was a screenshot. This is why whatever is going nuts is happening and I will look at the comments tomorrow for some funny replies or if it spirals into a huge argument.

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u/mashmaker86 6h ago

Does something about my account seem inauthentic? Sorry are we fighting? If I offended you, I apologize. It was not my intention. It's possible you accidentally responded to the wrong comment.

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

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u/mashmaker86 6h ago

Wait I thought that's how public comments worked. I didn't realize that was considered a private conversation.

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u/mashmaker86 6h ago

Woops I think you're right! I mean nobody here is defending Amazon, but I believe I mistook your comment as a reply to mine.

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u/5tigma 7h ago

Busy using those precious processor cycles for surveillance…

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u/enigmamonkey 6h ago

That's where the real money is.

•

u/DrMobius0 50m ago

These days I assume there's a good chance the code running it is AI sloppified.

2

u/The_Once-ler_186 6h ago

I use to have the windows screensaver ‘bubbles’ which fucked me like this. You can still see the screen’s clock but it stays at time screen saver started

2

u/mashmaker86 6h ago

That is trash!

1

u/multiarmform 4h ago

because its all one big simulation, nothing actually exists outside your view and only renders as you move just like a video game. the sim tries to conserve energy when it can. of course im just kidding

......... unless?

1

u/BumWink 3h ago

I feel like default screensavers have gotten way, way worse over time.

I mean we used to have stuff like aquariums, fireplaces, etc. in the early 2000s, idk why tvs & things like this Alexa can't without jumping through hoops of downloading an  app & running it on wifi...

0

u/DontAskAboutMyButt 4h ago edited 4h ago

It’s probably the default/debug/backup screensaver that shows if there some glitch making the others unavailable, it’s probably not meant to be seen under normal conditions.

The reason that they chose to pick a random time to display is likely because an engineer asked a product person what they wanted on the backup screensaver and they said “idc whatever you want” and the engineer, to themselves, said “well I have this time template screensaver already done, I’ll just throw that in, no one will see it anyway”

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

16

u/fineline99 7h ago

Lol what...?

No one is saying conspiracy theories, just crap design.

5

u/Zaidufais 7h ago

How can you be this angry and be a Rush fan?

5

u/berenstein-was-fine 7h ago

Jeff bezos isn't gonna give you any money for being unreasonably rude to people online over his crappy products.

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u/dontchewspagetti 7h ago

Yeah overwatch does this with its times too.

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u/dvdmaven 4h ago

I've had several flip phones over the years and when I closed them they retained that time and displayed it for a few seconds when I reopened them. Probably part of the power saving.

0

u/cyrustakem 4h ago

then turn off the fkn display, who programmed that sht? a 5 yo? or maybe it was the stupid ai and no one reviewed the fkn code

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u/WallBurnt 7h ago edited 7h ago

Screen savers exist to keep from burning images into a screen. It works by making sure all the pixels on the screen don't stay static for too long.

This is the exact opposite of what a screen saver does.

But most screens we use now don't need screen savers.

Edit: Added "most" because of OLEDs.

18

u/Turnip-Toffee 7h ago

oleds do benefit from burn in protection again, but you might as well just turn them off completely when not in use, so screensavers still aren't useful

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u/Puzzleheaded-Sea1157 7h ago

oleds kinda do, samsung actually has a feature (im sure other brands as well) where the items in the top menu bar always move around a couple pixels in the x and y to prevent burn in

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u/PollutionOnly 7h ago

Yes, most OLED monitors have a pixel-shift feature and other similar tools to fight the burn in.

Some also run an automatic pixel cleaning program (others require you to activate it manually but I’m pretty sure every OLED monitor has that feature built in nowadays) when the monitor is turned off or falls asleep and higher end OLED monitors even have some sort of detection where they’ll detect static UI elements (taskbar, minimap on some video games,…) and they will shift the colors slightly or have the pixel shift stronger in those areas.

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u/clearhit 7h ago

Wait that's why they are called screen savers

...I always just thought it was for aesthetics

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u/No-Mouse 6h ago

Aesthetics are still part of it, because otherwise they could just as well display random noise. No need for anything fancy.

The reason we have screen savers at all is to prevent burn-in. The reason we have so many cool ones is aesthetics (and, probably, bored programmers).

14

u/branks4nothing 4h ago

society peaked with flying toasters and it's been downhill ever since

3

u/ashgs872tbhjs 3h ago

I believe you mean the pipes on Windows XP

1

u/CaptainTurdfinger 2h ago

I'm more of a psychedelic maze man myself.

1

u/Nikkishaaa 2h ago

I fucking LOVED that game. Simpler times

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u/antonimbus 3h ago

Well, this is the comment that makes me feel old for today. Thanks for that.

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u/combover78 5h ago

CRTs can suffer a thing called "burn in" where if a static image is left for a long period it can permanently burn that image onto the screen. Screen savers were devised so that there is always a moving image being drawn to the display to circumvent the possibility of burn in. Modern displays aren't susceptible to burn in so screen savers have mostly fallen out of use. Plus energy saving considerations just put everything to sleep on fairly short intervals.

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u/CaptainTurdfinger 2h ago

Some cell phones, tablets, and monitors still suffer from burn in

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u/PixelatedGiant 2h ago

I have a friend who does not like when his phone screen goes to sleep during a call. He probably turned sleep off because every single phone he has ever owned has had the call screen burned in.

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u/NoveltyPr0nAccount 5h ago

Not trying to get personal but are you comfortable saying how old you are and if you think your level of knowledge amongst your peers is typical?

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u/StephenFish 5h ago

Just take a look at any old arcade game with a CRT when it's powered off. You can still see the title screen burned in. I worked in an arcade for a few years repairing and setting up game cabinets. Our workshop where we kept spare parts had some leftover CRTs from decommissioned cabinets and I always knew what game they came from.

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u/tedsmitts 6h ago

We should bring back screensavers imo, I know it's a bad use of electricity but we're doing data centres now so I should have like, Microsoft's old aquarium thing going instead of just darkness.

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u/combover78 5h ago

You can still set a screensaver on Win 10. Not sure about Win 11 since I don't have that.

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u/DazzlingRutabega 4h ago

OLEDs are by far the best vs screen burn-in. However the real reason screen savers even exist is CRT monitors. Tubes have a much worse burn in rate than LCD panels.

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u/FierceDeity_ 3h ago

People who've seen CRT burn in before can relate lol

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u/CocoMilhonez 7h ago

Same thing I thought. And I've been on the internet enough to not consider myself an asshole for thinking that.

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u/cutcss 7h ago

@OP now we you to sneak on Alexa and wait a minute so the timer changes so Sherlock here can be sure it's not a screensaver 

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u/Tetraoxidane 6h ago

That would be a hilariously dumb screensaver.

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u/DigiornoDLC 5h ago

My initial assumption was this is a screensaver that uses images provided by OP and OP put up an image that makes for an interesting post on Reddit.

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u/Solenkata 4h ago

Why not a screensaver with the clocks actual time on it lol

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u/kitifax 4h ago

Because OP is being trolled by a family member

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u/I_Got_Ur_Number_8675 4h ago

You are not the only asshole. I am one too and I have one, so I'm at least two assholes

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u/aslum 3h ago

My thought was it just doesn't bother to update the display until it thinks there's someone in the room. If OP left for work at 7 and just got home would easily explain the two times listed.

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u/notfromchicago 3h ago

We've had screen saver clocks since windows 95. Even if it is just a sleep screen it could display the correct time.

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u/Onedortzn 3h ago

Why would you be an ashole? That's literally whats happening

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u/sleepyotter92 2h ago

my first thought too, but then look at the date, it says the right date, Saturday October 4th. If it was a screensaver, it could have any random date, for it to have specifically this date is waaaay too much of a coincidence.

There must be some weird glitch going on that makes the clock on sleep mode not be up to date

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u/GravyPainter 2h ago

I to am an asshole. The backlight came on when switched to the right time.

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u/TheMildEngineer 2h ago

Is it when the alarm is scheduled?

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u/ashleyriddell61 2h ago

Screen cap photo, then selected as screensaver. Been there.

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u/Reverend_Lazerface 2h ago

"I got myself a smart clock!"

"Wow that's cool, what kind of smart stuff does it do differently from a regular clock?"

"Gets tired and lies"

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u/ShdwWzrdMnyGngg 1h ago

I think someone is pranking OP. And that's hilarious.

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u/Hilaritytohorror 1h ago

I bought one and can’t figure out anything it does. So, I believe so.

Editing to add: I realize you are referring to only the feature displayed here, but I wanted to express my dissatisfaction with whatever these devices are supposed to do.

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u/YouGlittering9156 7h ago

You mean OP is trying to deceive everyone for some reddit karma? No!!! They would never!