July 2006 - Posts

Explaining to Mom
Everyone is talking about that Windows Vista Speech Recognition demo at the Financial Analysts Meeting . For a while the CNBC coverage was the #1 download on Google Video; on Youtube it's been viewed over 40,000 times. There are at least two T-shirts Read More...
Posted 31 July 06 06:37 by sprague | 4 Comments   
I'm sorry, I didn't catch that
Rob Chambers thinks that demo problem at the Financial Analysts Meeting was an audio gain bug in a recent build, which sounds right to me. Those of us who use Vista Speech Recognition every day know that it's pretty hard to screw up that badly in normal Read More...
Posted 28 July 06 09:23 by sprague | 1 Comments   
Vista speech demo failure
Okay, okay, so we screw up sometimes too. Like I said yesterday , it's easy to laugh at the people who do these things, but sometimes it happens. Demonstrating speech is much harder than using it. I don't know much about this particular incident. My team Read More...
Posted 27 July 06 02:21 by sprague | 12 Comments   
Spelling company makes spelling error
Ooops, a company that sells spell-check software for web sites has had to reissue a press release that contained spelling errors. It's easy to laugh about these things, but in this case apparently it wasn't the company's fault: their PR consultant took Read More...
Posted 26 July 06 05:02 by sprague | 3 Comments   
Dragon 9
Lots of great articles and press about Dragon Naturally Speaking and their latest version. You can see comments from our speech architect Rob Chambers in this Cnet News.com article. One thing David Pogue got wrong in his NY Times article about DNS9: It's Read More...
Posted 25 July 06 10:11 by sprague | 4 Comments   
BillG on Speech Recognition (last 10 years)
Matthew Paul Thomas has a list of public remarks on speech recognition by Bill Gates. It's easy to pick on someone afterwards, so you might chuckle a little to hear some of the ways Bill has predicted the mainstreaming of speech. We tend to overestimate Read More...
Posted 24 July 06 02:30 by sprague | 0 Comments   
Read the International Herald Tribune from your car
International Herald Tribune is one of my favorite newspapers, one I enjoyed regularly while living in Tokyo in the 1990s. They recently started a new Audionews feature on their website http://www.iht.com . I'm a pretty regular podcast listener (I listen Read More...
Posted 24 July 06 11:41 by sprague | 0 Comments   
Dangers of Voice-activated systems [the Onion]
The Onion reminds us of the perils of SR. Read More...
Posted 19 July 06 06:57 by sprague | 0 Comments   
Psychiatric office DTMF line
Tilda Brown, our speech lead, passed around a funny MP3 audio of the answering machine at a psychiatric office. Logan Lindquist has it posted on his site. Read More...
Posted 18 July 06 04:27 by sprague | 1 Comments   
TechEd videos on line
There are soooo many videocasts and podcasts out there that I want to watch. When I get some spare time, one that I'd like to check out is the TechEd briefings . It's a great way to understand what's really happening at Microsoft, but if you're from out Read More...
Posted 14 July 06 01:53 by sprague | 1 Comments   
Gateway PC is promoting Vista SR
Look what Gateway is promoting on its Vista web site: http://www.gateway.com/vista/index.asp?page=features Read More...
Posted 13 July 06 01:45 by sprague | 0 Comments   
Latest on SAPI 5.3
People are asking, so I asked Chuck Opperman (our API PM) to summarize the latest on how to get the SAPI 5.3 bits. Here's his answer: < http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/downloads/products/getthebeta/ > That can get you the components. Now, Read More...
Posted 12 July 06 03:16 by sprague | 0 Comments   
Interview with Jordan Cohen
see this interview in the latest ACM. Read More...
Posted 12 July 06 08:33 by sprague | 0 Comments   
More from our biggest fan
[via CBS Marketwatch ] CAPE TOWN (MarketWatch) -- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates Tuesday said there was an 80% chance the company's next-generation operating system, Vista, would be ready in January. ... He said Microsoft was investing $8 Read More...
Posted 11 July 06 05:59 by sprague | 0 Comments   
What's wrong with minivans?
Ken, lead tech writer for Speech Server, shakes his head at the recent controversy among some MSS people over whether real men can own minivans. Hey, I'm way past this and I love my new Honda Odyssey . I sold my 7-year-old Ford Windstar last week and Read More...
Posted 10 July 06 06:00 by sprague | 6 Comments   
Talking iPods
The Scotsman reported over the weekend on a patent application from Apple Computer for a way to convert music track names into speech: TTS on your iPod. The problem is much harder than it looks. Do you know the correct pronunciation of all the groups Read More...
Posted 10 July 06 05:45 by sprague | 0 Comments   
SNL at the Mariners/Tigers Game
The team went to see the Seattle Mariners play the Detroit Tigers on Friday night: Most people brought their kids, so of course I brought mine too: (this photo, by the way, is taken at the far end of the field, not near the good seats the SNL team enjoyed Read More...
Posted 09 July 06 08:23 by sprague | 0 Comments   
International product development
I've been in Redmond for two years now--basically a lifetime--and finally had a real chat with my old friend John McConnell, who I've known since Apple days. I wanted mostly to just catch up of course, but my excuse was to tell him about all the progress Read More...
Posted 08 July 06 03:44 by sprague | 0 Comments   
Our next offsite
Does this look like fun or what? Flyaway Indoor Skydiving puts you in a room attached to a windtunnel, where a 120mph column of air is blasted at you. With a little training, you can learn to "fly" 6 feet off the ground. I'll have to remember that for Read More...
Posted 02 July 06 03:03 by sprague | 0 Comments   
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