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GOOG-411's "Biddy-Biddy-Boop" Sound Backstory
Chris Albrecht writes "The bippedy-bippedy-bippedy sound you hear when using 1-800-GOOG-411 is actually a senior voice designer at Google. (Here's the sound.) The technical term for that noise is the 'fetch audio,' and it's more complicated to design than you'd think. For the first time, the voice of GOOG-411 talks about how he came up with it, how important that sound is, and how people now ask him to 'perform' it."
Is that you?
Well I speak Swedish and all I can say is that is one big potty mouth he's got there.
No wonder his sister got bitten by a moose.
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
this is what $600 a share gets you...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
If you slow it down, or play it backwards (or both) is there is hidden message?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Almost every automated system has the equivalent of a voice expert or a speech scientist whose job is to do things like this.
Every time you call an IVR or reach an automated speech system, someone's worked at it to make it not just functional, but also usable and friendly.
Give it a rest. It's only the audio equivalent of an hourglass cursor.
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
... I'd be changing carriers.
Google - we expect much better from $600/share.
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
Wouldn't it have been easier to have just made that sound by audio recording a dying cat?
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
It is quiet, but possibly the problem is that your Mac defaults to a rather low sound level out of the speakers. My G4 certainly did, and even listening to music was annoying because it was so quiet, even with the audio turned up full.
The fix is of course simple and entirely intuitive, as are all things on a Mac.
a) open iTunes
b) In the Window menu, choose Equalizer
c) Crank the Pre-amp setting to 12
Now all of the audio on your Mac will not only be loud enough to hear, it will be louder than the same audio on a PC, which can only be turned up 10
Three Squirrels
... created by the senior hourglass expert.
To me it sounds more like "giggety giggety."
The revealing backstory about the Googleplex's custom-made toilet paper. The technical term is actual 'bathroom tissue', and it's more complicated to design than you'd think. For the first time, Sergey Brin discusses the choices of materials and the unparalleled softness, and how often he gets thanked by Google employees after they wipe their asses.
Actually, the audio hourglass cursor first created by the senior hourglass expert was green-lighted by the Senior VP for Cursors, but nixed by the Chief Audio Officer or CAO. External audio/cursor mediation consultants were brought in and a compromise was reached by which the same sound would be re-recorded, but this time under the auspices of the CAO's handpicked Special Cursor Liaison Officer to the office of the Senior VP for Cursors.
<caseykasem>and that boy grew up to be ... Paul Allen.<caseykasem>
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
YouTube video
Dark Helmet: Now what is it?
Radar Technician: I'm having trouble with the radar, sir.
Dark Helmet: What's wrong with it?
Radar Technician: I've lost the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps.
Dark Helmet: The what?
Colonel Sandurz: The what?
Dark Helmet: And the what?
Radar Technician: You know. The bleeps. [makes bleep sound effect]
Radar Technician: The sweeps. [makes sweep sound]
Radar Technician: And the creeps. [makes creep sound]
Dark Helmet: [to Colonel Sandurz] That's not all he's lost.
c) Crank the Pre-amp setting to 12
Somehow, "This one goes to twelve," doesn't have quite the same ring as, "This one goes to eleven."
News for diggers, stuff that nobody cares about.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
At least someone realises that we're not all Americans ... YET! Muahahaha!
Comment of the year
I try to maintain pristine language, really I do, but on a really bad day I had to talk to Sprint customer service and the automated voice system really started to get on my nerves the second or third time I had to talk to it and I let slip a few choice non-G-rated phrases. I was transferred to a person faster than any other method I'd tried before or come up with since.
Back in my day when we chiseled our bits into stone and sent them by mule train from village to village...
Somehow, "This one goes to twelve," doesn't have quite the same ring as, "This one goes to eleven." Ah, but this is slashdot. He was using base 9.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
You really need to be more careful. The entire rest of the page was rendered in a warm and fatherly voice thanks to you. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but I kept thinking, "Get back to the music already!"
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.