1) Not likely, the video is on SoundHound's YouTube channel - they're not hiding anything
2) I honestly don't know how they're processing it that fast... it likely isn't cloud based otherwise there would be a delay between upload/process/download... this seems nearly instant which means they either have an insane compression algorithm, a special microphone setup, or are running a local setup that improves speed beyond real world (ie: wifi with the server right next to them)
3) Yes, they repeat some of those phrases in their advertisement... while I'm sure they have some natural language logic, it's likely they're using common questions/web queries to optimize those answers... so while I doubt it could answer something like "Who was the captain of Serenity?" it'll do well with more common queries with easily accessible 3rd party services.
4) Yes, I do. Not the number of days between those dates but the number of dates between specific dates is a function I use. Normally through websites that calculate it for me.

Any recommended settings? It's not exactly intuitive for a non-audio guy.

What's it called? I want to install it! :)

Touche.

First thing is install a new browser, second thing is install adblock plus, the third is to install VLC.

Those friends of flesh and bone, they come over and play video games. It's this fun thing called LAN parties or just co-op gaming... heck even solo gaming on different systems is fun. It's also how I keep in touch with family who live in different provinces/countries. I wouldn't know my nephews at all if I couldn't game with them on XBL.

Who knew it wasn't 1960s anymore?

If you're an Xbox gamer it gives you your Xbox friends/chat/achievements. It's not actively updated but it's still supported by phone support and all the services are still active. It's a piece of crap software but I've got Xbox copies of a lot of the games, the duplicate purchases were entirely motivated by the xbox achievements which I can no longer get.

Looks like you're one of them. It hasn't been that way for some time. The "Do not update" option was changed to "Only update this game when I play".

Steam is the only problem in the situation. I don't care if developers patch out GFWL so long as [b]I[/b] am not [i]forced[/i] to install their patch. Steam is the party that forces patches on its users. Several of the games I have been able to unpatch because I had recorded the keys but the majority I am unable to. Once unpatched the GFWL functionality is still there and works perfectly, including multiplayer.

Hilarious!

I wouldn't include any new tech in my home... the tech I'd include is like that system was. It doesn't exist yet and I'd have to create it myself.

My personal issue is with removing GFWL when that was the specific reason I bought them. My hobby is getting Xbox live achievements and ~30 of the 44 GFWL games I purchased were through Steam. Everything would have been fine if I had the choice of when to apply patches but Steam forces them on you either through auto-updates or on launch. GFWL has been stripped out of a half dozen of them and another half dozen are "update pending" so that if I ever launch them again they get patched too. This is compounded by the fact that Steam, along with these patches, included a patch of their own which removes the product key from your system. This prevents you from using your key to activate a pirated copy to restore what you'd originally purchased.

That specific scenario aside, the bigger picture is that any update can remove/change any feature at any time. Something you love about a product can simply vanish and you have no recourse. I was reading about an early access game (Starforge) that did just that and had the balls to try and sell some of it as DLC. The early access factor meant they couldn't really complain but there's nothing stopping any developer from doing that sort of thing at any time with any content.

They refuse to refund after forcing patches on users which remove functionality from them.

That's the slippery slope that led to Cable TV.

In other words, I'll be moving to the next service that does not advertise. Or just torrent/stream (with adblock of course).

The industry has had numerous attempts at self-regulation and failed. AdBlock may not be the 'right' ones to determine what is acceptable but they've taken up the responsibility and have done it in a way that seems acceptable to consumers. So while they may not be 'right' in the long run, they're 'right for right now'.

The larger point about the second one was that sacrifices can be made to make things affordable. Not every site needs every feature or the ability to do what the big boys do. Or identifying the level of interaction you can support and limiting users to that amount of interaction (ie: only so many comments per month or whatever)... there's a lot of solutions to resource issues but most people just see the basic in/out calculation and none of the possibilities in between.