Even if you model the human voice perfectly, you still have a major flaw with any automation. It can't understand what it is reading, and thus, can't place emphasis on words or tweak the timing between words like a good orator does.
That said, most people I know are pretty shitty speakers. I understand the dynamics of speech performance from acting. An ok actor memorizes lines. A great actor understands the underlying meaning of the line, why it is important, and how to communicate its importance to the audience.
Hmm. To tell you the truth, it still sounds like Victoria from Mac System 7.
The problem with computer voices is they always sound like a distracted speaker. They don't understand what they are saying, and thus, cannot do the subtle emphasis or timing adjustments a real orator does. I'll pay $60 for a book on tape read by a human, and listen for hours on end. I can't listen to a computer for more than a page, even for free. Speech is a performance art.
Today's sound you will not get out of your head brought to you by:
A vocaliod singing "Only Time"
Re:Britney could sing if she wasn't on dark side
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You're absolutely right though, the way things are currently --- she might as well be replaced by a Vocaloid.
Oh god, someone get the echo of the Vocaloid's rendition of "Oops I did it again" out of my head!
Re:Actually, I just found my PHD Project!
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I don't know, tandomly crappy music sounds like a pretty good description for it. Kind of like a tandom bike with a single rider, and a pair of pedals that just seem to move on their own.
Of course that second ghost rider can't steer, or even help push. But it sure looks like the bike pedals itself.
Re:Here's where to order (for Win XP/2K) in Decemb
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Synthesized Singers
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· Score: 1
Hmmm. Fonts. Sounds like they want to do to singers what computers did to typesetters...
Who mentioned Cat5 Cable? 10base5. You know- ThickNet, shielded coaxial cable? You could probably lift a pickup truck with that stuff.
My bad. You get so many typos on SlashDot, I thought he hit 5 instead of T and was talking about 10baseT. The thought that 10base5 was itself a wireing standard didn't cross my mind.
The answer is simple; host your own website. I've been hosting etoyoc.com from my living room for (lets see 2003-1998=5) 5 years now. It's been through 3 service providers, has been hosted off of DSL, a Wifi link, and a T1 at work. The server itself is a patchwork of leftovers from the "real" machine.
I even had the presence of mind to reprogram the personal web-space from my school account to redirect to my present one before I left. That page has been up for so long asking for "Sean Woods" gives you me as the #1 link on google. Impressive considering "Sean Woods" was a character in a Tom Clancy novel, and seems to dominate all of the rest of the links.
Back on point, running your own server doesn't cost much. Spare parts, a broadband connection with a static IP, and a little knowhow. Around Philly a place called MartNet used to have a ghetto colo where you provided the box, and they provided power and T1 access for $100/month. They don't anymore (ratzen fratzen) but if I had an old warehouse that's the business I would be in.
Hmmm. Data warehousing. Data center in a warehouse...
The building went up in 1932. Our problem isn't unused cabling (of which there is plenty.) We have unused natural gas lines!
But back on the subject, running through the basement is a massive nasty bundle of electrical and communication cable. It runs along the ceiling and seems to get bigger around every rennovation. When you talk about trunk lines, this literally grows like one.
I lucked out in that one of my predicessors ran multimode fiber back in the early 90's. Lots of multimode fiber. Finding the endpoints is like a treasure hunt, though. You read old diagrams with descriptions like "Future Earth" and "Optics", only to discover that "Future Earth" is not the traveling exhibit space, and the "Optics" exhibit is now a utlilty space inbetween the new "Sports" exibit and the "Changing Earth", which hasn't since I was a kid.
Actually fiber optic cable would have worked better. The glass core is quite strong. I've heard stories of people successfully using a pickup truck to run fiber.
Cat5 is flexible plastic wrapped around a soft metal. It pulls apart like taffy under extreme conditions.
Besides, it is perfectly reasonable for a stretch of fiber to run 1000-2000 meters. Cat5 craps out at 100 meters. If I had to choose my repelling apparatus, the orange jacketed stuff wins every time.
Our data center is also the distribution point for telephone in the building. We don't have a phone switch. All of our lines go out to TPC, and come back. Lots and lots of punchdowns.
Our floor is covered with telephone cable clippings. The best use I've found is to cut them into 5" lengths and use them as twist ties to hold bundles of working cable together. My KVM switch went from a mess to something sexy. My fiber cabinet finally looks presentable. The trick is to make bundles of smaller bundles. Start with a bundle of 3 cables, then bundle 3 of those bundles.
I agree that this will allow mankind to take music in new directions. But I'm still iffy on whether this is a good thing or not. People with good singing voices are no farther away than your local church, high school, or university. So the issue isn't the availability of singers for cheap.
My problem with it is that we are rather quickly writing ourselves out of the picture as useful to the world. At what point do we decide that improvements from "efficiencies" exceed the damage to our economy from lost jobs.
I'm starting to wonder if many of the "insurmountable problems" implementing AI were just part of a job action by the first generation of American programmers.
I'm just waiting for the day they drive prices so far down that paying for individual items is too expensive. Oh yes, at some point employees will be too expensive too. Just walk in, grab what you need, ignore the voice directing you to the automated sales counter.
Even Darwin thought evolution was divinely inpired. What you describe is an artificial creation of man. And note, 4 billion years of evolution have not produced what you described. Could there be a reason perhaps? Could it be that hugely efficient things aren't very good at adapting? If you had one species of organism that dominated the entire planet, all it would take is one virus, one shift in climate to wipe it out. Entirely.
We have been monitoring the sun from satellites for 40 years. We have been observing the sun with telescopes for a little over 400 years. Our collective experience with the Sun might be about 40,000 years.
And we think we really understand this object that has been generating energy for 4 billion years through a process we are only now developing theories about. Lets have some humility humanity!
Slashdot Mirror
That said, most people I know are pretty shitty speakers. I understand the dynamics of speech performance from acting. An ok actor memorizes lines. A great actor understands the underlying meaning of the line, why it is important, and how to communicate its importance to the audience.
All right, I'm being a snob. I admit it.
The problem with computer voices is they always sound like a distracted speaker. They don't understand what they are saying, and thus, cannot do the subtle emphasis or timing adjustments a real orator does. I'll pay $60 for a book on tape read by a human, and listen for hours on end. I can't listen to a computer for more than a page, even for free. Speech is a performance art.
Most people can sing a 5 years old. It's maintaining a singing voice after they hit puberty that is impressive.
A vocaliod singing "Only Time"
Oh god, someone get the echo of the Vocaloid's rendition of "Oops I did it again" out of my head!
Of course that second ghost rider can't steer, or even help push. But it sure looks like the bike pedals itself.
Hmmm. Fonts. Sounds like they want to do to singers what computers did to typesetters...
Listening to it makes my rasssodock really snappy-snappy. It puts me in the mood for some ultraviolence.
My bad. You get so many typos on SlashDot, I thought he hit 5 instead of T and was talking about 10baseT. The thought that 10base5 was itself a wireing standard didn't cross my mind.
I even had the presence of mind to reprogram the personal web-space from my school account to redirect to my present one before I left. That page has been up for so long asking for "Sean Woods" gives you me as the #1 link on google. Impressive considering "Sean Woods" was a character in a Tom Clancy novel, and seems to dominate all of the rest of the links.
Back on point, running your own server doesn't cost much. Spare parts, a broadband connection with a static IP, and a little knowhow. Around Philly a place called MartNet used to have a ghetto colo where you provided the box, and they provided power and T1 access for $100/month. They don't anymore (ratzen fratzen) but if I had an old warehouse that's the business I would be in.
Hmmm. Data warehousing. Data center in a warehouse...
But back on the subject, running through the basement is a massive nasty bundle of electrical and communication cable. It runs along the ceiling and seems to get bigger around every rennovation. When you talk about trunk lines, this literally grows like one.
I lucked out in that one of my predicessors ran multimode fiber back in the early 90's. Lots of multimode fiber. Finding the endpoints is like a treasure hunt, though. You read old diagrams with descriptions like "Future Earth" and "Optics", only to discover that "Future Earth" is not the traveling exhibit space, and the "Optics" exhibit is now a utlilty space inbetween the new "Sports" exibit and the "Changing Earth", which hasn't since I was a kid.
Cat5 is flexible plastic wrapped around a soft metal. It pulls apart like taffy under extreme conditions.
Besides, it is perfectly reasonable for a stretch of fiber to run 1000-2000 meters. Cat5 craps out at 100 meters. If I had to choose my repelling apparatus, the orange jacketed stuff wins every time.
Our floor is covered with telephone cable clippings. The best use I've found is to cut them into 5" lengths and use them as twist ties to hold bundles of working cable together. My KVM switch went from a mess to something sexy. My fiber cabinet finally looks presentable. The trick is to make bundles of smaller bundles. Start with a bundle of 3 cables, then bundle 3 of those bundles.
The result looks almost organic.
(As he sips his generic diner coffee, after finishing a call on his noname phone.)
I find people who post anonymously complaining about something they control to be annoying.
Oh hay watch out, ... out of ... the way
I'm back-ing up
please get
Oh please get lost
or you'll be crushed
Scoot and live an-other dat.
My problem with it is that we are rather quickly writing ourselves out of the picture as useful to the world. At what point do we decide that improvements from "efficiencies" exceed the damage to our economy from lost jobs.
I'm starting to wonder if many of the "insurmountable problems" implementing AI were just part of a job action by the first generation of American programmers.
So how long until we have a computer to do the job of record executive? Muahahahah.
Walmart has never been about brand recognition. Brands are nice but they have regularly slit the throats of big names for cheaper suppliers.
(Ogg hits Ugg in the head with a stick)
"It's RED!"
(Ugg hits Ogg in the head with a rock.)
"It's YELLOW!"
(Both look up)
"Many pretty colors. Ogg say Red and Yellow."
"Ugg say Red and Yellow"
"Ogg say Orange you glad we can agree."
Well, until the manage to burn all of the available fuel, laying waste to countrysides at a time.
Oddly as a college dropout, taoist, socialist, bohemian, redical I agreed completely with your post on the role of immigrants in America.
I'm just waiting for the day they drive prices so far down that paying for individual items is too expensive. Oh yes, at some point employees will be too expensive too. Just walk in, grab what you need, ignore the voice directing you to the automated sales counter.
Even Darwin thought evolution was divinely inpired. What you describe is an artificial creation of man. And note, 4 billion years of evolution have not produced what you described. Could there be a reason perhaps? Could it be that hugely efficient things aren't very good at adapting? If you had one species of organism that dominated the entire planet, all it would take is one virus, one shift in climate to wipe it out. Entirely.
And we think we really understand this object that has been generating energy for 4 billion years through a process we are only now developing theories about. Lets have some humility humanity!