Tom Waits - World-of-Newave.info http://answers.world-of-newave.info/tom-waits.htm Latest news and articles about Tom Waits en-us Copyright (c)2004-2008.§/Newave SARL. All rights reserved. webmaster@world-of-newave.com (Webmaster) Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:39:55 GMT Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:39:55 GMT Newave Lisa XML Engine v1.0 - http://www.world-of-newave.info/about.htm 60 http://www.world-of-newave.info/images/wi8831.gif World-of-Newave.info - Knowledge and Informational Database http://www.world-of-newave.info/ 88 31 {LITERATURE > CYBERPUNK} - M.I.A. Down In The Hole http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/literature/genres/cyberpunk/m-i-a-down-in-the-hole-2008119068.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/literature/genres/cyberpunk/m-i-a-down-in-the-hole-2008119068.htm Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:18:34 GMT A new video, "S.U.S. (Save UR Soul)," directed by (a very pregnant) M.I.A. and featuring Blaqstarr mashup/covering Tom Waits' "Way Down In The Hole," which various artists have covered as the theme song for HBO's "The Wire," with M.I.A. crooning about her laptop. On the video's lo-fi look, from the YouTube credits: "cheapest video ever made , i spent $9.95 on it." On Myspace, M.I.A. blogs: Me and Blaqstarr found the image at the end from a Joy Division video and thought about the election and thats how people want you to see the world , black/ white , good/ evil, jesus/devil for you the words are Obama vs Mc Cain for me its terror vs genocide simple maths so we put it on at the end to show how far we've gone and how far we've come, i have to start staying at home more because i dont think i can fit through my front door anymore but i want this to do the traveling for me.... Boingboing.Net M.I.A. Down In The Hole {new window}   Www.Boingboing.Net - A new video, "S.U.S. (Save UR Soul)," directed by (a very pregnant) M.I.A. and featuring Blaqstarr mashup/covering Tom Waits' "Way Down In The Hole," which various artists have covered as the theme song for HBO's "The Wire," with M.I.A. crooning about her laptop. On the video's lo-fi look, from the YouTube credits: "cheapest video ever made , i spent $9.95 on it." On Myspace, M.I.A. blogs: Me and Blaqstarr found the image at the end from a Joy Division video and thought about the election and thats how people want you to see the world , black/ white , good/ evil, jesus/devil for you the words are Obama vs Mc Cain for me its terror vs genocide simple maths so we put it on at the end to show how far we've gone and how far we've come, i have to start staying at home more because i dont think i can fit through my front door anymore but i want this to do the traveling for me....
M.I.A. Down In The Hole - Boing Boing {...}
Published: November 5, 2008, 11:18 pm - Indexed: November 7, 2008, 8:32 am - Page Size: 48KB
Category: Arts > Literature > Genres > Cyberpunk

]]> Arts > Literature > Genres > Cyberpunk {EUROPE > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Adrian Searle on The Killing Machine an installation by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/news-and-media/adrian-searle-on-the-killing-machine-an-installation-20081078535.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/news-and-media/adrian-searle-on-the-killing-machine-an-installation-20081078535.htm Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:14:45 GMT The machinery busies itself around the chair, which looks as though it has been reclaimed from the surgery of a dead dentist. Vicious probes articulated on necks that look suspiciously like the arms of old Anglepoise lamps lunge forward and go to work about an invisible body. There's no one strapped into the chair, but you get the idea. The devices go in, stabbing and swiping. Lights go on and off. Audience participation in the operation of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller's 2007 work The Killing Machine would liven up their show at Modern Art Oxford no end. As it is, all we're allowed to do is push the red button that sets the thing in motion. Can I sit in the chair? Please, Mum, please!As the machine gets into the swing of things, an automated drum beats, and more drumsticks have their way on an electric guitar that has been plumbed into the superstructure of this grisly yet risible tableau. A disco ball starts spinning overhead, filling the room with movement and light. This, I suppose, is to illustrate the ecstasies and agonies of the prisoner, who by now will have been partially shredded by the enthusiastic and tireless operations of the pneumatically powered machinery. The Killing Machine is based on the device in Kafka's 1919 short story In the Penal Colony. This has never struck me as one of Kafka's better works. At the heart of the tale is a fiendish mechanised harrow that carves or tattoos the sentence handed down to the prisoner into his flesh. Kafka seems to relish his detailing of all the embellishments and refinements too much. The artists, according to the catalogue, were also thinking about the death penalty in America. The Killing Machine comes at the very end of their exhibition. It is the coup de grâce, the finale, the main attraction. But it's a flop. No one is even mildly appalled. We've seen and heard too much for this to touch us. Show us how waterboarding works. Show me those pictures from Abu Ghraib again, or those things the junta did down in Argentina. How about a public stoning? Compared with real life, this is entertainment. The work of Cardiff and Miller has a lot going for it. It is accessible, sometimes spooky and disturbing, sometimes enigmatic and strange. The Canadian couple have been working together since the 1990s and have had many exhibitions around the world. They've won prizes at the Venice Biennale; they've shown in America, Europe and Australia. They make audio pieces, they work with orchestras, they make complex installations and tease us with their elusive stories. They are popular and accessible. I want to like them more than I do.Cue thunder, flashing lights and a grainy overlay of crackly old records, the long-dead voices of muffled tenors and warbling divas. In the middle of the gallery is a ramshackle hut from which most of these lights and sounds emit. We peer in from the surrounding darkness. Old radios flicker into life and decrepit turntables stop and restart at the whim of a spectral DJ, whose disembodied voice has been distressed by hard times and bad living. His woman has gone, and the voice tells us that the place is falling apart. "The animals are taking over. The weasels eat the mice and the squirrels. If they start on the records, I'll have to poison them ..."We are interrupted by an invisible train, clanging and rattling through the gallery, the noise projected from speakers dotted around the walls. This is fun. Maybe his baby left on the train; maybe she tied herself to the tracks - anything to get away from that damn voice and those old Enrico Caruso records. "It's only an opera, after all. Everyone dies in the end," says the voice, wearily. Maybe it was cliches like this that drove her away. Finally, waves of taped applause fill the space. Then an orchestra fires up, and the whole farrago starts all over again.Opera for a Small Room is something of a tour de force. Inspired, in part, by an old collection of opera LPs found in a sale, its most salient influences were apparently Krapp's Last Tape, by Samuel Beckett, and Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire. But an artwork can be less than the sum of its influences. To me, the unavoidable model for the unseen narrator is less Beckett's Krapp, with his old spools of memories, or the old man in Wenders and Peter Handke's filmic homage to Berlin, than Tom Waits, with his ruinous voice, his rancid memories and stewed regrets. He don't need no installation. He can do it all in a song. Even though there is much to like about Cardiff and Miller's work - its layerings of fiction; its plays on time and space, place and situation; its technical sophistication - it frequently misses the mark, or is so overegged as to make us not care very much about it. At their worst, Cardiff and Miller just do too much, and direct the spectator too much. In Oxford, we are plunged first of all into the 1995 installation The Dark Pool. This is yet another junk-shop house of memories and ghosts. Imagine one of Mike Nelson's scary rooms or an early Ed Kienholz installation redone as a ghost story, the key to which is in a dusty old suitcase slung onto a table. In the suitcase is a model lake. It is night. The shore is strung with little lights. Some cars are drawn up and tiny people stand on a beach next to the brown water. This is great - it reminds me of an early Peter Doig painting - but there's too much else going on in this meticulously dressed stage set for any of it to really matter. Many artists have attempted similarly complex installations: think of Nelson, Kienholz, Ilya Kabakov, Juan Muñoz, Gregor Schneider, Christoph Büchel, and most recently Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, in her installation in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. Success or failure of their works is never a matter of realism, but of a different kind of complexity and engagement, and the purchase they can make on our imaginations. Only two works here demonstrate why Cardiff and Miller have achieved such a high international reputation. One is a slide lecture, with a wonky screen on a stand, a projector, a few rows of chairs. We hear the artists discussing the slides as they try to find an order that tells the story of Miller's grandfather's trek across Canada to New York, in order to see a cancer specialist. On the way, he took lots of pictures of the Rockies, the prairies, waterfalls and lakes. We overhear the artists' fractious conversation. Our imaginations are engaged mostly because they have introduced just a small slippage between the familiar and everyday, and the story they are trying to impose on these old and faded transparencies. It's a very simple conceit, and doesn't depend on a lot of paraphernalia.Similarly, their 1999 Muriel Lake Incident is a miniaturised cinema mounted in a big plywood box on a stand. You look into the darkened box, and there are rows of seats and balconies, with a distant screen. This is a great play on scale. Don the headphones and you're in there, too, watching. You want to turn and tell the couple whispering and munching popcorn behind you to shut up, but there's no one there, apart from their voices over the headphones. The mind wills it to be real. There is also a slippage between the little black-and-white movie on the screen, and events taking place in the model cinema itself. For a moment you forget where you are. The film jams in the projector, celluloid burns and shots ring out. Did something happen in the movie, or did it happen in our heads? This is deftly done. We never forget we are embroiled in an illusion, but it captivates us none the less. It doesn't need all the overdone theatrical flim-flam, the ghost-train histrionics. If only the magic were sustained elsewhere. ? Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller's The House of Books Has No Windows is at Modern Art Oxford until January 18. Details: 01865 722733 or modernartoxford.org.uk Artguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Guardian.Co.Uk Adrian Searle on The Killing Machine an installation by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller {new window}   Www.Guardian.Co.Uk - The machinery busies itself around the chair, which looks as though it has been reclaimed from the surgery of a dead dentist. Vicious probes articulated on necks that look suspiciously like the arms of old Anglepoise lamps lunge forward and go to work about an invisible body. There's no one strapped into the chair, but you get the idea. The devices go in, stabbing and swiping. Lights go on and off. Audience participation in the operation of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller's 2007 work The Killing Machine would liven up their show at Modern Art Oxford no end. As it is, all we're allowed to do is push the red button that sets the thing in motion. Can I sit in the chair? Please, Mum, please!As the machine gets into the swing of things, an automated drum beats, and more drumsticks have their way on an electric guitar that has been plumbed into the superstructure of this grisly yet risible tableau. A disco ball starts spinning overhead, filling the room with movement and light. This, I suppose, is to illustrate the ecstasies and agonies of the prisoner, who by now will have been partially shredded by the enthusiastic and tireless operations of the pneumatically powered machinery. The Killing Machine is based on the device in Kafka's 1919 short story In the Penal Colony. This has never struck me as one of Kafka's better works. At the heart of the tale is a fiendish mechanised harrow that carves or tattoos the sentence handed down to the prisoner into his flesh. Kafka seems to relish his detailing of all the embellishments and refinements too much. The artists, according to the catalogue, were also thinking about the death penalty in America. The Killing Machine comes at the very end of their exhibition. It is the coup de grâce, the finale, the main attraction. But it's a flop. No one is even mildly appalled. We've seen and heard too much for this to touch us. Show us how waterboarding works. Show me those pictures from Abu Ghraib again, or those things the junta did down in Argentina. How about a public stoning? Compared with real life, this is entertainment. The work of Cardiff and Miller has a lot going for it. It is accessible, sometimes spooky and disturbing, sometimes enigmatic and strange. The Canadian couple have been working together since the 1990s and have had many exhibitions around the world. They've won prizes at the Venice Biennale; they've shown in America, Europe and Australia. They make audio pieces, they work with orchestras, they make complex installations and tease us with their elusive stories. They are popular and accessible. I want to like them more than I do.Cue thunder, flashing lights and a grainy overlay of crackly old records, the long-dead voices of muffled tenors and warbling divas. In the middle of the gallery is a ramshackle hut from which most of these lights and sounds emit. We peer in from the surrounding darkness. Old radios flicker into life and decrepit turntables stop and restart at the whim of a spectral DJ, whose disembodied voice has been distressed by hard times and bad living. His woman has gone, and the voice tells us that the place is falling apart. "The animals are taking over. The weasels eat the mice and the squirrels. If they start on the records, I'll have to poison them ..."We are interrupted by an invisible train, clanging and rattling through the gallery, the noise projected from speakers dotted around the walls. This is fun. Maybe his baby left on the train; maybe she tied herself to the tracks - anything to get away from that damn voice and those old Enrico Caruso records. "It's only an opera, after all. Everyone dies in the end," says the voice, wearily. Maybe it was cliches like this that drove her away. Finally, waves of taped applause fill the space. Then an orchestra fires up, and the whole farrago starts all over again.Opera for a Small Room is something of a tour de force. Inspired, in part, by an old collection of opera LPs found in a sale, its most salient influences were apparently Krapp's Last Tape, by Samuel Beckett, and Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire. But an artwork can be less than the sum of its influences. To me, the unavoidable model for the unseen narrator is less Beckett's Krapp, with his old spools of memories, or the old man in Wenders and Peter Handke's filmic homage to Berlin, than Tom Waits, with his ruinous voice, his rancid memories and stewed regrets. He don't need no installation. He can do it all in a song. Even though there is much to like about Cardiff and Miller's work - its layerings of fiction; its plays on time and space, place and situation; its technical sophistication - it frequently misses the mark, or is so overegged as to make us not care very much about it. At their worst, Cardiff and Miller just do too much, and direct the spectator too much. In Oxford, we are plunged first of all into the 1995 installation The Dark Pool. This is yet another junk-shop house of memories and ghosts. Imagine one of Mike Nelson's scary rooms or an early Ed Kienholz installation redone as a ghost story, the key to which is in a dusty old suitcase slung onto a table. In the suitcase is a model lake. It is night. The shore is strung with little lights. Some cars are drawn up and tiny people stand on a beach next to the brown water. This is great - it reminds me of an early Peter Doig painting - but there's too much else going on in this meticulously dressed stage set for any of it to really matter. Many artists have attempted similarly complex installations: think of Nelson, Kienholz, Ilya Kabakov, Juan Muñoz, Gregor Schneider, Christoph Büchel, and most recently Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, in her installation in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. Success or failure of their works is never a matter of realism, but of a different kind of complexity and engagement, and the purchase they can make on our imaginations. Only two works here demonstrate why Cardiff and Miller have achieved such a high international reputation. One is a slide lecture, with a wonky screen on a stand, a projector, a few rows of chairs. We hear the artists discussing the slides as they try to find an order that tells the story of Miller's grandfather's trek across Canada to New York, in order to see a cancer specialist. On the way, he took lots of pictures of the Rockies, the prairies, waterfalls and lakes. We overhear the artists' fractious conversation. Our imaginations are engaged mostly because they have introduced just a small slippage between the familiar and everyday, and the story they are trying to impose on these old and faded transparencies. It's a very simple conceit, and doesn't depend on a lot of paraphernalia.Similarly, their 1999 Muriel Lake Incident is a miniaturised cinema mounted in a big plywood box on a stand. You look into the darkened box, and there are rows of seats and balconies, with a distant screen. This is a great play on scale. Don the headphones and you're in there, too, watching. You want to turn and tell the couple whispering and munching popcorn behind you to shut up, but there's no one there, apart from their voices over the headphones. The mind wills it to be real. There is also a slippage between the little black-and-white movie on the screen, and events taking place in the model cinema itself. For a moment you forget where you are. The film jams in the projector, celluloid burns and shots ring out. Did something happen in the movie, or did it happen in our heads? This is deftly done. We never forget we are embroiled in an illusion, but it captivates us none the less. It doesn't need all the overdone theatrical flim-flam, the ghost-train histrionics. If only the magic were sustained elsewhere. ? Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller's The House of Books Has No Windows is at Modern Art Oxford until January 18. Details: 01865 722733 or modernartoxford.org.uk Artguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Adrian Searle on The Killing Machine an installation by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller | Art and design | The Guardian {...} Cardiff and Miller's intricate installations have won prizes galore. But is their new show too keen to shock? By Adrian Searle {...}
Published: October 23, 2008, 12:14 am - Indexed: October 23, 2008, 10:39 am - Page Size: 77KB
Category: Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > News and Media

]]> Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > News and Media {NORTH AMERICA > RENTALS} - $950 Room for rent in Huge 2BR flat (mission district) $950 http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/950-room-for-rent-in-huge-2br-flat-mission-district-20080931931.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/950-room-for-rent-in-huge-2br-flat-mission-district-20080931931.htm Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:32:54 GMT * Available Oct. 1st. (earlier if need be) * Huge 2nd floor flat. * On Valencia St. between 20th & 21st. * Washer, dryer, dishwasher. * Completely remodeled in recent years. A little about me: I am a 34 year old straight male waiter. I have a huge appetite for books; just about anything I can get my hands on. Defiantly left of center politically. Love Tom Waits, Pavement, Pixies & public radio. I'm a big time foodie, and nothing goes with good food like good wine. I have been known to dabble in film making (it's what I went to college for), but nothing professionally. I love sleeping in, and am a bit of a gamer (actually this is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me & have been known to spend hours at the computer). I'm not a partier but do occasionally go for a drink after work or have people over, though when I do it's planned rather than spontaneous. I am looking for a responsible nonsmoker to share this awesome apartment. The rent is $950 plus 1/2 of utilities. I pay the same. A recent credit report would be great. There will be a lease so please be prepared to pay a security deposit (also $950). Please note the photos were taken by me before I moved in, there is furniture now (except in the room that's for rent). Sorry, no pets. Sfbay.Craigslist.Org $950 Room for rent in Huge 2BR flat (mission district) $950 {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - * Available Oct. 1st. (earlier if need be) * Huge 2nd floor flat. * On Valencia St. between 20th & 21st. * Washer, dryer, dishwasher. * Completely remodeled in recent years. A little about me: I am a 34 year old straight male waiter. I have a huge appetite for books; just about anything I can get my hands on. Defiantly left of center politically. Love Tom Waits, Pavement, Pixies & public radio. I'm a big time foodie, and nothing goes with good food like good wine. I have been known to dabble in film making (it's what I went to college for), but nothing professionally. I love sleeping in, and am a bit of a gamer (actually this is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me & have been known to spend hours at the computer). I'm not a partier but do occasionally go for a drink after work or have people over, though when I do it's planned rather than spontaneous. I am looking for a responsible nonsmoker to share this awesome apartment. The rent is $950 plus 1/2 of utilities. I pay the same. A recent credit report would be great. There will be a lease so please be prepared to pay a security deposit (also $950). Please note the photos were taken by me before I moved in, there is furniture now (except in the room that's for rent). Sorry, no pets.
$950 Room for rent in Huge 2BR flat {...}
Published: September 22, 2008, 4:32 am - Indexed: September 22, 2008, 7:37 am - Page Size: 6KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals {INTERNET > W} - Deconstructing Google Mobile's Voice Search on the iPhone http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/deconstructing-google-mobile-s-voice-search-on-20081194418.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/deconstructing-google-mobile-s-voice-search-on-20081194418.htm Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:43:02 GMT I've experimented with audio transcription lately, but always with big, clumsy humans. I'd happily use cyborgs speech recognition software, but even today, automatic conversion of voice-to-text is still flawed. Naturally, I was intrigued when Google announced they were adding voice searching to their Google Mobile iPhone app. Google's flirted with voice-to-text conversion in the past, with GOOG-411 and their Audio Indexing of political videos on YouTube. But this is the first time they're offering a web-accessible interface for speech conversion, albeit completely undocumented, so I decided to poke around a bit to see what I could find. Over the last few hours, I've been analyzing the traffic proxied through my network, trying to reverse-engineer it to get to something usable, but I've hit my limits. I'm posting this with the hopes that someone out there can run with it and find out more. Behind the Scenes Here's my best guess: When you first start speaking into the microphone, the iPhone app opens a connection to Google's server, waits for you to finish talking, and then does a quick and dirty conversion into a smaller binary representation of the waveform. (And I do mean tiny. These files are between 100-300 bytes.) These binary files aren't the audio, read the Updates section below for more. The waveform image is generated on the phone and displayed along with a "Working" indicator and the adorable "beep-boop" sounds. In the background, the binary file is being sent as a POST request to http://www.google.com/m/appreq/gmiphone. Here's what the headers look like: POST /m/appreq/gmiphone HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Google/0.3.142.951 CFNetwork/339.3 Darwin/9.4.1 Content-Type: application/binary Content-Length: 271 Accept: */* Accept-Language: en-us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Pragma: no-cache Connection: keep-alive Connection: keep-alive Host: www.google.com The response from Google is an even smaller binary attachment. This is probably just an encrypted or compressed version of the converted text. In this case, for the words "chicken soup." These binaries are irrelevant — read the Updates section below for more. HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/binary Content-Disposition: attachment Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:06:53 GMT X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff Expires: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:06:53 GMT Cache-Control: private, max-age=0 Content-Length: 114 Server: GFE/1.3 After receiving the binary response to the POST, a second request is triggered, this time a GET request to clients1.google.com with the converted voice-to-text string. GET /complete/search?client=iphoneapp&hjson=t&types=t &spell=t&nav=2&hl=en&q=chicken%20soup HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Google/0.3.142.951 CFNetwork/339.3 Darwin/9.4.1 Accept: */* Accept-Language: en-us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Pragma: no-cache Connection: keep-alive Connection: keep-alive Host: clients1.google.com The response is an array of search terms in JSON format, for use in search autocompletion. ["chicken soup",[["http://www.chickensoup.com/","Chicken Soup for the Soul",5,""],["http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/","Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul",5,""],["chicken soup recipe","489,000 results",0,"2"],["chicken soup for the soul","1,470,000 results",0,"3"],["chicken soup dog food","462,000 results",0,"4"],["chicken soup with rice","467,000 results",0,"5"],["chicken soup diet","453,000 results",0,"6"],["chicken soup from scratch","364,000 results",0,"7"],["chicken soup for the soul quotes","398,000 results",0,"8"],["chicken soup crock pot","604,000 results",0,"9"]]] Aaand that's as far as I can get. Help! Unfortunately, until I can figure out the format of the binary request and response to/from Google, playing with the voice recognition features is out of reach. How much processing is happening on the phone, and how much on Google's servers? If it's happening remotely, in what form is the audio being transmitted and the results being returned? As Ilya points out in the comments, the response binary file is too limited to even hold the text. Any ideas on cracking this mystery would be hugely appreciated. Anonymity for Google insiders is guaranteed! Updates As several commenters figured out, and confirmed to me by Google, the audio is being sent to Google's servers for voice recognition. The two binaries I posted above aren't the actual transmission, and are actually identical for every query, so can be disregarded. Sorry about the red herring. Gummi Hafsteinsson, product manager for Google's Voice Search, says, "I can confirm that we split the audio down to a smaller byte stream, which is then sent to Google for recognition, but we can't really provide any details beyond that." Responding to my request for a public API, he added, "I appreciate the suggestion to provide voice recognition as a service. Right now we have nothing to announce, but we'll take this feedback as we look at future product ideas." Also, Chris Messina discovered some secret settings in the application's preferences file, including alternate color schemes and sound sets for "Monkey" and "Chicken." Beep-boop! Next step: Can anyone figure out the format of the audio and spoof a request to Google? Some commenters think it's in AMR format, which makes sense.  Waxy.Org Deconstructing Google Mobile's Voice Search on the iPhone {new window}   Waxy.Org - I've experimented with audio transcription lately, but always with big, clumsy humans. I'd happily use cyborgs speech recognition software, but even today, automatic conversion of voice-to-text is still flawed. Naturally, I was intrigued when Google announced they were adding voice searching to their Google Mobile iPhone app. Google's flirted with voice-to-text conversion in the past, with GOOG-411 and their Audio Indexing of political videos on YouTube. But this is the first time they're offering a web-accessible interface for speech conversion, albeit completely undocumented, so I decided to poke around a bit to see what I could find. Over the last few hours, I've been analyzing the traffic proxied through my network, trying to reverse-engineer it to get to something usable, but I've hit my limits. I'm posting this with the hopes that someone out there can run with it and find out more. Behind the Scenes Here's my best guess: When you first start speaking into the microphone, the iPhone app opens a connection to Google's server, waits for you to finish talking, and then does a quick and dirty conversion into a smaller binary representation of the waveform. (And I do mean tiny. These files are between 100-300 bytes.) These binary files aren't the audio, read the Updates section below for more. The waveform image is generated on the phone and displayed along with a "Working" indicator and the adorable "beep-boop" sounds. In the background, the binary file is being sent as a POST request to http://www.google.com/m/appreq/gmiphone. Here's what the headers look like: POST /m/appreq/gmiphone HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Google/0.3.142.951 CFNetwork/339.3 Darwin/9.4.1 Content-Type: application/binary Content-Length: 271 Accept: */* Accept-Language: en-us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Pragma: no-cache Connection: keep-alive Connection: keep-alive Host: www.google.com The response from Google is an even smaller binary attachment. This is probably just an encrypted or compressed version of the converted text. In this case, for the words "chicken soup." These binaries are irrelevant — read the Updates section below for more. HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/binary Content-Disposition: attachment Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:06:53 GMT X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff Expires: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:06:53 GMT Cache-Control: private, max-age=0 Content-Length: 114 Server: GFE/1.3 After receiving the binary response to the POST, a second request is triggered, this time a GET request to clients1.google.com with the converted voice-to-text string. GET /complete/search?client=iphoneapp&hjson=t&types=t &spell=t&nav=2&hl=en&q=chicken%20soup HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Google/0.3.142.951 CFNetwork/339.3 Darwin/9.4.1 Accept: */* Accept-Language: en-us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Pragma: no-cache Connection: keep-alive Connection: keep-alive Host: clients1.google.com The response is an array of search terms in JSON format, for use in search autocompletion. ["chicken soup",[["http://www.chickensoup.com/","Chicken Soup for the Soul",5,""],["http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/","Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul",5,""],["chicken soup recipe","489,000 results",0,"2"],["chicken soup for the soul","1,470,000 results",0,"3"],["chicken soup dog food","462,000 results",0,"4"],["chicken soup with rice","467,000 results",0,"5"],["chicken soup diet","453,000 results",0,"6"],["chicken soup from scratch","364,000 results",0,"7"],["chicken soup for the soul quotes","398,000 results",0,"8"],["chicken soup crock pot","604,000 results",0,"9"]]] Aaand that's as far as I can get. Help! Unfortunately, until I can figure out the format of the binary request and response to/from Google, playing with the voice recognition features is out of reach. How much processing is happening on the phone, and how much on Google's servers? If it's happening remotely, in what form is the audio being transmitted and the results being returned? As Ilya points out in the comments, the response binary file is too limited to even hold the text. Any ideas on cracking this mystery would be hugely appreciated. Anonymity for Google insiders is guaranteed! Updates As several commenters figured out, and confirmed to me by Google, the audio is being sent to Google's servers for voice recognition. The two binaries I posted above aren't the actual transmission, and are actually identical for every query, so can be disregarded. Sorry about the red herring. Gummi Hafsteinsson, product manager for Google's Voice Search, says, "I can confirm that we split the audio down to a smaller byte stream, which is then sent to Google for recognition, but we can't really provide any details beyond that." Responding to my request for a public API, he added, "I appreciate the suggestion to provide voice recognition as a service. Right now we have nothing to announce, but we'll take this feedback as we look at future product ideas." Also, Chris Messina discovered some secret settings in the application's preferences file, including alternate color schemes and sound sets for "Monkey" and "Chicken." Beep-boop! Next step: Can anyone figure out the format of the audio and spoof a request to Google? Some commenters think it's in AMR format, which makes sense. 
Deconstructing Google Mobile's Voice Search on the iPhone - Waxy.org {...}
Published: November 18, 2008, 1:43 pm - Indexed: November 19, 2008, 9:03 am - Page Size: 54KB
Category: Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W

]]> Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W {PROGRAMMING > COLLECTIONS} - classtailfile http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/programming/languages/php/scripts/collections/classtailfile-20081179720.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/programming/languages/php/scripts/collections/classtailfile-20081179720.htm Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:12:54 GMT Package: classtailfile Summary: Watch log files to return newly added lines Groups: Files and Folders, Logging, PHP 5 Author: maaskaas Description: This class can be used to watch log files to return newly added lines like the Linux/UNIX tail -f command. It opens an existing log file and seeks to the end of the file. The class checks whether any new lines are added. If a new line is added it is returned immediately. Otherwise it waits for a configurable time interval before it checks again whether the log file was updated. Phpclasses.Org classtailfile {new window}   Www.Phpclasses.Org - Package: classtailfile Summary: Watch log files to return newly added lines Groups: Files and Folders, Logging, PHP 5 Author: maaskaas Description: This class can be used to watch log files to return newly added lines like the Linux/UNIX tail -f command. It opens an existing log file and seeks to the end of the file. The class checks whether any new lines are added. If a new line is added it is returned immediately. Otherwise it waits for a configurable time interval before it checks again whether the log file was updated.
Class: classtailfile - PHP Classes {...} This class can be used to watch log files to return newly added lines like the Linux/UNIX tail -f command. It opens an existing log file and seeks to the end of the file. The class checks whether any new lines are added. If a new line is added it is returned immediately. Otherwise it waits for a configurable time interval before it checks again whether the log file was updated. {...}
Published: November 15, 2008, 5:12 am - Indexed: November 15, 2008, 12:32 pm - Page Size: 27KB
Category: Computers > Programming > Languages > PHP > Scripts > Collections

]]> Computers > Programming > Languages > PHP > Scripts > Collections {COMPUTERS > HARDWARE} - Microsoft waits 7 years before fixing security exploit http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/hardware/microsoft-waits-7-years-before-fixing-security-2008116249.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/hardware/microsoft-waits-7-years-before-fixing-security-2008116249.htm Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:46:00 GMT A security patch seems to have skipped Patch Tuesday for the last seven years. News.Cnet.Com Microsoft waits 7 years before fixing security exploit {new window}   News.Cnet.Com - A security patch seems to have skipped Patch Tuesday for the last seven years.
Microsoft waits 7 years before fixing security exploit | Negative Approach - CNET News {...} A security patch seems to have skipped Patch Tuesday for the last seven years. Read this blog post by Dave Rosenberg on Negative Approach. {...}
Published: November 12, 2008, 3:46 am - Indexed: November 12, 2008, 8:45 am - Page Size: 79KB
Category: Computers > Hardware

]]> Computers > Hardware {EUROPE > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Customer services employees more likely to pull a sickie http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/news-and-media/customer-services-employees-more-likely-to-pull-20081125311.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/news-and-media/customer-services-employees-more-likely-to-pull-20081125311.htm Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:03:58 GMT Perhaps it is the stress of dealing with cranky members of the public. Or maybe they are just bunking off to escape the sheer boredom of sitting in front of a computer screen, day in, day out. But whatever the reason, it emerged yesterday that people who work in customer services, including call centre operators, are more likely to call in sick than any other workers in Britain.Official data from the Office of National Statistics found customer service workers almost twice as likely to take time off sick as the average employee. In the survey, 4.8% had taken at least a day off in the previous week, compared with the national average of 2.5%. It certainly might explain those long waits, listening to the hold music, receiver pressed to your ear.An inquiry to the Call Centre Management Association, to see if anyone might hazard a guess as to why the industry suffers an unusually high number of sick days, was met with an answer machine.Karen Darby, a call centre veteran who founded the price comparison service SimplySwitch, was not surprised by the figures and said they had little to do with call centre workers being more sickly than average. "It is a reflection of the type of people who work in call centres," she said. "They are notoriously underpaid and, you know, if you pay peanuts ..."Absenteeism and attrition are the two biggest issues you face. Not many people will admit this but some call centres will go through 100% staff turnover every year."Claudia Hathway, editor of Call Centre Focus magazine, was a little more sympathetic. "It is an incredibly stressful job. They are on the phone dealing with quite complex problems and often people who are not very happy that they are calling you."In total, the quarterly Labour Force Survey from the ONS showed that 5.8m sick days were taken across the country last year. Women (2.9%) are more likely to go off sick than men (2.2%). Younger age groups, doubtless plagued by hangovers, are also more likely to be off than older workers. Public sector workers are off sick far more frequently than those who work in the private sector, 2.9% against 2.4%. Sickness rates among civil servants are even higher, at 3.5%.Perhaps a little surprisingly for disgruntled commuters, only 0.8% of transport workers, including train drivers, pilots and air traffic controllers, had taken any time off - making them the most reliable workers in the country.Work & careersguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Guardian.Co.Uk Customer services employees more likely to pull a sickie {new window}   Www.Guardian.Co.Uk - Perhaps it is the stress of dealing with cranky members of the public. Or maybe they are just bunking off to escape the sheer boredom of sitting in front of a computer screen, day in, day out. But whatever the reason, it emerged yesterday that people who work in customer services, including call centre operators, are more likely to call in sick than any other workers in Britain.Official data from the Office of National Statistics found customer service workers almost twice as likely to take time off sick as the average employee. In the survey, 4.8% had taken at least a day off in the previous week, compared with the national average of 2.5%. It certainly might explain those long waits, listening to the hold music, receiver pressed to your ear.An inquiry to the Call Centre Management Association, to see if anyone might hazard a guess as to why the industry suffers an unusually high number of sick days, was met with an answer machine.Karen Darby, a call centre veteran who founded the price comparison service SimplySwitch, was not surprised by the figures and said they had little to do with call centre workers being more sickly than average. "It is a reflection of the type of people who work in call centres," she said. "They are notoriously underpaid and, you know, if you pay peanuts ..."Absenteeism and attrition are the two biggest issues you face. Not many people will admit this but some call centres will go through 100% staff turnover every year."Claudia Hathway, editor of Call Centre Focus magazine, was a little more sympathetic. "It is an incredibly stressful job. They are on the phone dealing with quite complex problems and often people who are not very happy that they are calling you."In total, the quarterly Labour Force Survey from the ONS showed that 5.8m sick days were taken across the country last year. Women (2.9%) are more likely to go off sick than men (2.2%). Younger age groups, doubtless plagued by hangovers, are also more likely to be off than older workers. Public sector workers are off sick far more frequently than those who work in the private sector, 2.9% against 2.4%. Sickness rates among civil servants are even higher, at 3.5%.Perhaps a little surprisingly for disgruntled commuters, only 0.8% of transport workers, including train drivers, pilots and air traffic controllers, had taken any time off - making them the most reliable workers in the country.Work & careersguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Customer services employees more likely to pull a sickie | Money | The Guardian {...} People who work in customer services more likely to call in sick than any other workers in Britain {...}
Published: November 12, 2008, 12:03 am - Indexed: November 12, 2008, 10:05 am - Page Size: 89KB
Category: Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > News and Media

]]> Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > News and Media {BY SUBJECT > INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY} - Top Candidates for Barack Obama's White House CIO Square Off http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/by-subject/information-technology/top-candidates-for-barack-obama-s-white-house-cio-20081123613.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/by-subject/information-technology/top-candidates-for-barack-obama-s-white-house-cio-20081123613.htm Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:02:56 GMT Who's in the running to be Barack Obama's chief technology officer? Who isn't? Leading technology CEOs such as Google's Eric Schmidt, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer have all been mentioned to fill the post, along with former Bill Clinton FCC chiefs Reed Hundt and William Kennard, just to name a few. The most likely frontrunner, though, is Julius Genachowski, the man in charge of selecting the nation's first CTO. - While President-elect Barack Obama meets in Chicago with his transition team, all of tech waits to hear if Obama will name a cabinet-level chief technology officer, as he championed during his campaign for the White House. InterActiveCorp executive Julius Genachowski and Sonal Shah of Google.or... Eweek.Com Top Candidates for Barack Obama's White House CIO Square Off {new window}   Www.Eweek.Com - Who's in the running to be Barack Obama's chief technology officer? Who isn't? Leading technology CEOs such as Google's Eric Schmidt, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer have all been mentioned to fill the post, along with former Bill Clinton FCC chiefs Reed Hundt and William Kennard, just to name a few. The most likely frontrunner, though, is Julius Genachowski, the man in charge of selecting the nation's first CTO. - While President-elect Barack Obama meets in Chicago with his transition team, all of tech waits to hear if Obama will name a cabinet-level chief technology officer, as he championed during his campaign for the White House. InterActiveCorp executive Julius Genachowski and Sonal Shah of Google.or...
Top Candidates for Barack Obama's White House CIO Square Off: Who's in the running to be Barack Obama's chief technology officer? Who isn't? Leading technology CEOs such as Google's Eric Schmidt, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer have all been mentioned to fill the post, along with former Bill Clinton FCC chiefs Reed Hundt... {...}
Published: November 7, 2008, 10:02 pm - Indexed: November 8, 2008, 11:26 am - Page Size: 82KB
Category: News > By Subject > Information Technology

]]> News > By Subject > Information Technology {EUROPE > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Fraser waits for appeal decision http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/scotland/news-and-media/fraser-waits-for-appeal-decision-20081055737.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/scotland/news-and-media/fraser-waits-for-appeal-decision-20081055737.htm Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:46:29 GMT Nat Fraser begins another appeal against his conviction for murdering his wife Arlene in Elgin. News.Bbc.Co.Uk Fraser waits for appeal decision {new window}   News.Bbc.Co.Uk - Nat Fraser begins another appeal against his conviction for murdering his wife Arlene in Elgin.
BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Fraser waits for appeal decision {...}
Published: October 31, 2008, 2:46 pm - Indexed: November 1, 2008, 10:52 am - Page Size: 45KB
Category: Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > Scotland > News and Media

]]> Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > Scotland > News and Media {EUROPE > COMPUTERS AND INTERNET} - Intel misses Competition Commission deadline http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/business-and-economy/computers-and-internet/intel-misses-competition-commission-deadline-20081034925.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/business-and-economy/computers-and-internet/intel-misses-competition-commission-deadline-20081034925.htm Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:34:04 GMT Chip giant waits for court decision Intel has missed the deadline to respond to the Supplementary Statement of Objections sent by the European Competition Commission in July.? Theregister.Co.Uk Intel misses Competition Commission deadline {new window}   Www.Theregister.Co.Uk - Chip giant waits for court decision Intel has missed the deadline to respond to the Supplementary Statement of Objections sent by the European Competition Commission in July.?
Intel misses Competition Commission deadline ? The Register {...}
Published: October 28, 2008, 3:34 pm - Indexed: October 29, 2008, 1:30 pm - Page Size: 24KB
Category: Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > Business and Economy > Computers and Internet

]]> Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > Business and Economy > Computers and Internet