Its that time of year where people are just about to get some new technology. I suspect a big item this year will be the Amazon alexa devices, with the big push that Amazon have been giving it and it having moved from the realm of geeks to the main stream. Amazon have also decided that the voice interface is the future, very Star Trek style. I actually full agree with them, have some sort of intelligence that you can just ask and get answer from, ask to do some kind of tasks or just provide you with some entertainment is amazong. I'm not lazy but having a child really makes you realise that not having to find an item and press it to enable things to happen is an amazing idea.

So, we take something that I already think is a very cool idea and gadget and in my need to keep learning and you have the perfect hotbed of me losing quite a few evenings understanding and playing with writing some alexa skills. While I wont go into any detail here, sufice to say you can make it serverless and stand it all up using the systems in AWS. Throw in a little bit of python or javascript and boom, you have a skill. The timing was right with the release of my skill, for a few months they had been giving away free t-shirts, the month my skill got accepted, I got a very cool hoodie.

So, the shameless plugs, the first one I am very proud of, UK number ones, all the UK chart number ones. Give it a date and if the charts existed, it will give you an artist and title.

The second was just an attempt to get an alea device, yep, two skills and as yet I dont actually own an Alexa device. This one isnt quite as exciting but was actually a load more work

So, add them to your new device that you open on Christmas day!!