#speech

Fun fact: the klattsch app is built on a free, MIT-licensed speech synthesis engine. The klattsch npm package is the engine under the hood, meaning you can drop this voice directly into your own games. Here’s a quick guide on how to do it, complete with examples.

If you are a 20th century relic like me, it is incumbent upon you to remind the generation that grew up inside the algorithm that another world is possible, and that we know this because we lived it. We were able to style a MySpace page in any way that we wanted; the code for LiveJournal was entirely open source so there was no part of the algorithm that was unknowable. A blog like the one you’re reading right now could be made by anyone, and put up for pennies, and nobody could stop it from being read by millions of people. (And that last one? It’s still possible.)

Of course, mocking the sitting president has long been a cornerstone of pretty much any late-night program throughout the medium’s history. Trump has been the butt of countless jokes over the years. What’s happened to Kimmel is an escalation in every way, a chilling precedent that could have further consequences if it isn’t swiftly undone. How Kimmel himself reacts to the situation will be important—he’s a major celebrity, a multi-time emcee of the Academy Awards who’s been hosting TV shows since the 1990s. There’s a chance network television could become even more reticent to broadcast anything remotely provocative, which in turn could also inspire blowback from their audiences.

Sam is a very small Text-To-Speech (TTS) program written in C, that runs on most popular platforms. It is an adaption to C of the speech software SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) for the Commodore C64 published in the year 1982 by Don't Ask Software (now SoftVoice, Inc.). It includes a Text-To-Phoneme converter called reciter and a Phoneme-To-Speech routine for the final output. It is so small that it will work also on embedded computers. On my computer it takes less than 39KB (much smaller on embedded devices as the executable-overhead is not necessary) of disk space and is a fully stand alone program.

Sam is a very small Text-To-Speech (TTS) program written in C, that runs on most popular platforms. It is an adaption to C of the speech software SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) for the Commodore C64 published in the year 1982 by Don't Ask Software (now SoftVoice, Inc.). It includes a Text-To-Phoneme converter called reciter and a Phoneme-To-Speech routine for the final output. It is so small that it will work also on embedded computers. On my computer it takes less than 39KB (much smaller on embedded devices as the executable-overhead is not necessary) of disk space and is a fully stand alone program.

So here’s my plea to the “decency” police—Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Gov. Bobby Jindal and their many parrots: Defend speech you don’t agree with. Stand up for the right to an opinion you don’t share.

So here’s my plea to the “decency” police—Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Gov. Bobby Jindal and their many parrots: Defend speech you don’t agree with. Stand up for the right to an opinion you don’t share.

Well, Kirk Cameron, here’s the thing. You are correct when you say you should be able to express your moral views on social issues, and as a staunch defender of the First Amendment, I will defend to the death your right to say whatever ridiculous, ignorant and bigoted thing that has been fermenting in that cracked clay pot you call a brain pan. But the First Amendment also means that when you say such things, other people have the a right to mock you and the silly, stupid words that have dribbled out of your skull through that word hole above your chin. If you call someone “unnatural,” they might call you an “asshole.” That’s the deal.

Well, Kirk Cameron, here’s the thing. You are correct when you say you should be able to express your moral views on social issues, and as a staunch defender of the First Amendment, I will defend to the death your right to say whatever ridiculous, ignorant and bigoted thing that has been fermenting in that cracked clay pot you call a brain pan. But the First Amendment also means that when you say such things, other people have the a right to mock you and the silly, stupid words that have dribbled out of your skull through that word hole above your chin. If you call someone “unnatural,” they might call you an “asshole.” That’s the deal.

It’s an experience that’s being replicated by women around the country: despite plentiful online information about actual places to get an abortion, Siri doesn’t seem to provide it. It’s a similar experience for women seeking emergency contraception: in New York City, Siri doesn’t know what Plan B is and, asked for emergency contraception, offers up a Google results page of definitions. Didn't we learn from HAL 9000 that it doesn't really pay to give your tools their own opinionated personalities?

"It’s unclear whether SOPA’s authors intended it to cover these websites that are vital to whistleblowing and human rights. If they didn’t, they need to press re-set; and next time, consult with the numerous Internet communities the bill could affect, rather than exclusively Hollywood lobbyists. But the immediate need is clear: the bill must be killed. If you care about free speech and a free Internet, act now!"

"This literally threatens our children, and there can be no higher priority than keeping our children safe." Just Usenet? Why not just shut off the whole net?