This is, I guess, the wrap-up to the previous Alexa post. In a weirdly timely fashion, I got the hoodie ready for a cool week in Orlando. 35 degree weather is cold here!
It may not be a green jacket but I like gray best. Publish an Alexa Skill; get a Hoodie!
Turnaround time from submission to Amazon response was but a few days. My skill was rejected because I hadn’t properly setup ‘out’ links from skill.
The root cause was that my links were going to the rss page itself. I did not know why I even needed links; I thought it was part of the RSS Feed Spec Amazon required. However, In the Amazon Website, you can click ‘read more’ for ever news item read
This was an easy enough fix. I just used Google to take care of the outbound link and resubmitted my skill. I also added a case for when there hasn’t been a notable death in a while.
I got a response in a few days telling me that now my skill has been approved and you can see it in Alexa’s Skill site.
I am really impressed with the Alexa Development Ecosystem and the capabilities of the platform. It has been a breeze to find my way around. This changes everything in development. I believe it will not take long before there’s Alexa’s everywhere doing so many useful things.
Motivation often comes when multiple things come together. I started running three years ago when my (first and second) doctor said I was fat, Zombies was all the craze and Zombies Run, the phone app, was created. I’ve since made running a part of my life and my life is much better now but I digress.
Sometimes, the end results are not this significant. Regardless, Amazon recently discounted the Amazon Echo to $40, I had a week of forced vacations at work and also had to sit house while some tile work. On a very sour side note, a lot of notable people are passing away. This past week, George Micheal, Carrie Fisher (and Carrie’s mom, Debbie Reynolds) and Vera Rubin left us. Having been playing with Alexa for a few days, I wondered: ‘How difficult would it be? – to have Alexa tell me who just died’.
Mario Talavera Writes 