dritan - Slashdot User

Microsoft bungles DTV transition 1

Submitted by dritan on Sunday June 14 2009, @01:02AM

dritan writes "While most of the transition to digital seems to have gone smoothly, those who use Windows Media Center saw their screens go dark. Users from across the country are complaining that Media Center did not pick up changes to channel assignments that took place on Friday. Microsoft's implementation uses a static channel list that is distributed with the program guide to determine what frequency is assigned to each channel. Someone forgot to update those lists. Users either have to wait for Microsoft to fix the problem, or manually edit the configuration files."

A Better Alternative to ISP DNS->

Submitted by

gmgartner

on Tuesday June 19 2007, @11:45AM

gmgartner writes "The article "25 web Sites to Watch" on the PC World site had a few worthy sites, not 25, but that's just my opinion. One that really got my attention was www.opendns.com. As a parent, it's nice to have content filtering that I don't have to configure and monitor — and pay for. As an IT consultant to small businesses, I see an excellent solution for companies looking to reduce the amount of non-work related web surfing that goes on in the work place — believe me when I say that this happens a lot more than bosses would know or admit. OpenDNS claims to have faster response times to, giving me a better internet experience. I'm not sure by which metrics this is measured, but I have notice a bit quicker response time in my day to day activities — just like when I was a kid: I could run faster with my new sneakers!"
Link to Original Source

How to approach Internet startup investors?

Submitted by

centered

on Tuesday June 19 2007, @11:31AM

centered writes "I'd like to start an Internet company. To maximize return I'd like to approach people to invest in some development and then a bigger launch, rather than just a grass-roots, trickle revenue approach. However, I'm not sure what the landscape for investors has become since the bubble up to the current day. It seems there's a lot of ambiguity/disagreement as to what the future of the Web is for business. Furthermore, I can't find resources to help me understand how Internet companies that are starting up today are getting resources to do so.

The company I'd like to create will offer services over the Web to registered users, in the field of computer security. I'm aware of more recent terms such as ASP (application service provider), Web 2.0, Web Services, but are these terms still taken seriously by investors? What is the general opinion of investors as to characteristics that would make an Internet startup company viable? Where can I find the resources to help me develop my company into and define it as a company with such characteristics?"

What's the best Speech Recognition today?

Submitted by StonyCreekBare on Friday April 20 2007, @10:48AM

StonyCreekBare writes "A client wants to build a kiosk system intended to interact with the user entirely via speech. Speech Recognition is absolutely key to the success of the project, so an excellent speech recognition engine is absolutely key to success.

Key requirements are Speaker Independence, and a large vocabulary, with a great deal of flexibility for recognizing arbitrary speech. The system needs to interact with arbitrary speakers on a walk-up basis.

I have built a reasonable "Proof-of-concept" prototype using an L&H / Windows based system. I was quite pleased with the overall performance of the system, and believe an optimized system could do even better. My goal is not so much to improve the recognition performance (although there is room for improvement), as to improve the system reliability and to have more control at the system level.

There seems to be two candidates to supply the system. Microsoft and Nuance.

The Microsoft Speech SDK has the unfortunate circumstance of being innately wedded to Windows, and all the other viable systems (such as L&H, and Viavoice) seem to have been acquired by Nuance. Microsoft's system seems to require a lot of training to perform well, which is unacceptable. At least the L&H system is truly speaker independent. I would greatly prefer to use a Linux or BSD solution, if viable, so that requires a *nix compatible solution.

I have seen some other systems, mostly proprietary systems for telephony applications. e.g. Sprint, to name one. I hear about other systems such as Sphinx from Carnegie Mellon, and a system from Phillips, both of which I do not know much about and do not know anyone actually using.

What are Slashdot users experiences with the various systems available? Have I overlooked any good candidates? What is the "bleeding edge" in reliable speech recognition? Am I going to be forced to use Windows?

-Stony"

Comment: A complete transition is impossible... (Score 1) 1615

by dritan on Thursday November 04 2004, @10:14AM (#10723392) Attached to: Could Nuclear Power Wean the U.S. From Oil?

...because there are millions of vehicles on the roads that still require gasoline. Nuclear power could be a good replacement for fossil-fuel based power plants, but for the existing fleet of private vehicles, it just won't happen.