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Speech Recognition Software
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Feb. 3rd, 2007 @ 04:55 pm
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I've been trialling the speech recognition software for the last day or so and it's a lot easier and more accurate than I expected. That said I think it'll be better for e-mails and letters them for writing novels - purely down to me and the way I compose. I tend to write and edit at the same time - write a line, decide it doesn't scan, tinker with it, notice something in the previous paragraph, go back and change that etc. Which is not ideal for speech recognition software.
But it is easy to switch between the software, mouse and keyboard - so getting the best from each.
One thing I have noticed is memory problems - not mine for once - but the software. Dragon naturally speaking seems to use a lot of memory and I had trouble running Dragon and other background tasks at the same time.
However, this post has been composed entirely using speech recognition software. So the trial continues - watch this space...
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News Roundup
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Jan. 16th, 2007 @ 09:59 am
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Tribble Alert! A certain tribble, whose name I can't reveal until tomorrow (for cliffhanger reasons:) has been contacted and photographed. Story and pictures will appear in tomorrow's Kitten's Guide.
Garden news: a rabbit (hopefully not one of the large German variety) is working its way through our Spring cabbage. We tried covering them with flowerpots - the cabbages not the rabbits - and that worked. When we remembered to do it. Covering and uncovering cabbages every dusk and dawn for three months is an easy task to forget - especially when it's pouring down with rain.
Sheep news: Scrappy Ewe is back with the flock after three days in the stable resting her leg. She started limping last week and we brought her in to have a better look. She's still not completely sound but part of that was her fault - trying to climb over the stable door to get back to her friends. Animals do not know the meaning of 'it's for your own good.'
Lambing News: Lambing should start around March 12th. And, yes, we will be setting up the LambCam again. So update your diaries - baby lamb pictures from mid-March.
Software news: I received my Dragon Naturally Speaking Speech Recognition software yesterday so sometime this week I'm going to install it and give it a go. Should be interesting. I suffer from Pirate's syndrome - the more I listen to my voice, the more I notice the West Country twang and before I know it I've broken out into broad Pirate.
Oo, aarrr, me 'ansome, open thy files.
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Speech Recognition Software
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Jan. 5th, 2007 @ 03:43 pm
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This is something I've been thinking about for years but never got around to trying. For one, I'm an inveterate polisher - rarely does my first draft of anything last five minutes before I have to tinker with it. So how would speech recognition software handle that? Is it easier to edit with voice or mouse?
And then there are the interruptions. My study has no door - everyone walks in - humans, cats, dogs, the occasional chicken. Would my text become littered with unexpected additions - clucks, purrs and cries of 'haven't you mowed the lawn yet!'
Not to mention the screams of 'No! Get down' from me when one of the cats decides to use the computer, or my shoulder, as a jumping off platform in his or her pursuit of a wayward fly.
But...
It would remove the keyboard as a source of unexpected Polish dialogue whenever Kai walks across it. And improve my posture - years of hunched up typing too close to a monitor can't be good for musculature or eyesight.
So, when today I received an email inviting me as 'one of the most popular and interesting UK bloggers' to trial Dragon Naturally Speaking - I thought, "why not?"
So, in a week or so, when I get the software, I'll pilot it on the blog and see what happens. I suspect I'm too much of an obsessive polisher to use it all the time but it might be useful way of getting that first draft down. Time, as is its wont, will tell.
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Gloomy Sunday - The Legend of the Most Dangerous Song in the World
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Oct. 31st, 2006 @ 03:39 pm
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Last weekend I almost died.
I heard the opening two words of Billie Holiday singing "Gloomy Sunday" and it was touch and go for a few seconds but I survived. Hundreds of others haven't been so lucky. According to the New York Times 'Gloomy Sunday' has caused more deaths than any other song - over a hundred suicides - leading to the song being banned in the UK, the US and France.
It's an amazing story. And one needing to be told.
It starts in 1933 when Hungarian composer Rezso Seress broke up with his girlfriend on a Sunday. In utter despair he pens 'Gloomy Sunday.' The first publisher rejects his song as too depressing. The second commits suicide. But the third sees the potential and publishes 'Gloomy Sunday' throughout Europe.
People start dying immediately. In Berlin a man shot himself after telling relatives he couldn't get that damn song out of his head. In Rome, an errand boy heard a beggar humming the tune, got off his bike, gave the beggar all his money and jumped from the nearest bridge. In one year alone in Hungary seventeen suicides were found with notes quoting the 'Gloomy Sunday' lyrics.
Of course sceptics dismiss these claims as anecdotal, quoting the rather strange fact that Hungary was so well known for its high suicide rate that seventeen people found dead in one year clutching the lyrics to a song was 'par for the course.'
In 1936 the song reached New York and was marketed as 'The Hungarian Suicide Song.' Within a week a typist had gassed herself, requesting 'Gloomy Sunday' be played at her funeral.
As the death toll mounted, a third verse was added to the song. A happy verse that was intended to counter the depressive urges of the first two. A verse that said: wait, it was all a dream, she's not dead, there's no reason to commit suicide and, look, the sun's coming out!
It didn't work. The power of 'Gloomy Sunday' wasn't confined to the lyrics. It was the dirge-like melody. As the BBC found out when they banned 'Gloomy Sunday' but allowed an instrumental version. A recording was made and released on a 78. Which caused panic in North London when a woman kept playing the record over and over. Neighbours banged on her doors, the police were called, the door forced open and ... she was found dead inside - of an overdose.
With the BBC, the US and France all banning the song, another attempt to rehabilitate 'Gloomy Sunday' came in 1978 when English psychologist, Sir Edmund Hendricks, suggested an alternative third verse. Sir Edmund was a controversial figure in the world of psychology and a strong proponent of stiff upper lips and 'tough love.' His third verse went along the lines of: pull yourself together! You think Sunday's bad wait until Monday and you have to go back to work!
This re-released version sparked the infamous 'I don't like Mondays' California school shootings.
So, urban legend or frightening fact? The jury, what's left of them after four hung themselves, is still out.
But judge for yourself. Here's a short sample of the song and here, below, are the English lyrics as translated by Sam Lewis. To cut the death toll (this is a responsible blog) I've added a new, and very happy, third verse with a tempo change in the middle and a singalong ending.
Sunday is gloomy, my hours are slumberless
Dearest the shadows I live with are numberless
Little white flowers will never awaken you
Not where the black coach of sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thought of ever returning you
Would they be angry if I thought of joining you?
Gloomy Sunday
Gloomy is Sunday, with shadows I spend it all
My heart and I have decided to end it all
Soon there'll be candles and prayers that are sad I know
Let them not weep let them know that I'm glad to go
Death is no dream for in death I'm caressing you
With the last breath of my soul I'll be blessing you
Gloomy Sunday
Happy are bunnies, with white furry fluffy tails
Dolphins are laughing and playing with big blue whales
So put away the noose, flush the tablets down the loo
Slam that oven door and put the gun back on the wall
Always look on the bright side of life...
Singers who have recorded this song include Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Bjork, Sarah McLachlan and Elvis Costello. Some are still alive. Not composer Rezso Seress however. In 1968, you guessed it, he committed suicide.
So, what's your saddest song? Mine isn't 'Gloomy Sunday' or even 'Honey' by Bobby Goldsboro or 'Seasons in the Sun' by Terry Jacks' or any song by Leonard Cohen. It's the last verse of 'Puff the Magic Dragon' which should have been banned years ago. Even today I have to run from the room before it gets to that last verse.
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