Acme Voiceworx

May AVT: Will Windows 8 Make Tablets More Useful?

Steve — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 03:55:07 +0000

In an article in the May 2012 issue of AVTechnology magazine, we muse on whether or not the Microsoft’s introduction of Windows 8, which includes a version that runs on ARM processors and promises to provide a Desktop environment which will handle the Office suite on a tablet.

The real question would seem to be “Will the ARM version of Office make tablets as useful for content creation as they are for content consumption?” Because otherwise the likes of Samsung, Nokia, and Dell will settle for what’s left of the market after Android and iOS have their share.

PromptBuddy reviewed in RAP February issue

Steve — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:39:54 +0000

I just finished reviewing the PromptBuddy product from Wells Park Communications, for the February issue of Radio & Production magazine.

Designed for use by voice artists producing IVR prompts and narrating e-learning projects, PromptBuddy records and automatically trims voice prompts from scripts. It works and is beyond simple to use. However, it does have limitations that may make it unsuitable for some projects. It does not compare to similar products like, for example, Word2WAV. It’s also a bit fiddly to use as a result of its compromises.

On the other hand, it’s inexpensive and does what it’s designed to do.

Loudness Revisited in January RAP

Steve — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:23:37 +0000

January’s issue of Radio and Production magazine features my article that examines and explains the new “LU” or Loudness Unit. It also describes how it came to pass that, at least in Europe, the LU is rapidly replacing the familiar “VU” or Volume Unit as a means of measuring amplitude.

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Three sets of headphones in the November 2011 of RAP

Steve — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 12:45:20 +0000

When the last pair of longstanding favorite AKG K-240 headphones (the regular 240 model) finally gave up the ghost, it was time to go shopping. Yes, I’ve listened to some of the recent crop of celebrity-endorsed headphones — they were uniformly bad with sloppy, overhyped bass — and found them completely unsuitable for production work. The most interesting production-grade headphones were the beyerdynamic DT 1350 Professional Headphones, the Ultrasone Pro 750s, and Shure’s SRH940. In the November issue of Radio and Production magazine I’ll tell you how I think they stack up.

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Steve Jobs

Steve — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 05:20:06 +0000

Most of what needs to be said about Steve has already been said by others, and better than I could have done, so I won’t even attempt to add to it.

However, Steve Jobs has been partly responsible for my ability to make a living for the past 30 or so years. That must be acknowledged, and I am grateful for it.

Thanks you, Steve, and Godspeed.

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HTTPS Everywhere

Steve — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 06:25:35 +0000

As most of you know (or certainly should know), a secure web page is one whose URL begins with https:// where the “s” after the “http” indicates that the page uses a secure HTTP protocol (http over ssl, actually) to display the contents of the page. For example, most webpages that accept credit card information are secure and use https, but most social media sites do not.

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Sound Forge Pro 10 reviewed in November 2009 RAP

Steve — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:07:54 +0000

The November issue of Radio & Production magazine features my review of Sony Software’s latest release of Sound Forge, labeled Pro 10. You won’t find a lot of new features, but there are a couple that are compelling enough. No, the major improvements are in workflow and in the user interface, and these are substantial. I like it.

What’s kinda funny is that Sony pulled a quote from my review and used it in an email campaign advertising a free webinar on Forge 10:

Steve Cunningham, (Radio and Production Nov 2009) writes “Sound Forge Pro 10 is to version 9 as a 2010 Ford Mustang is to a 1969 Boss Mustang… still wicked fast, still sounds like business, but so much easier to drive.”

Don’t misunderstand me… I like publicity as much as anyone, and the pull is a direct quote — yup, I wrote that. What’s amusing is that at no time did I ever speak to anyone at Sony Software, either before or after I wrote the review. Furthermore, I bought the upgrade and paid for it myself (which I think is as it should be). But my contact info is in there at the end of the article. I’d have thought they’d send a note asking if I objected to their use of it, or at least telling me they were going to use it.

Makes me go “hmmm…”.

The most exciting announcement at AES 2009…

Steve — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:17:29 +0000

The 2009 Audio Engineering Society Convention (aka the 127th AES) in New York City got underway today in the Jacob Javits Center. Early reports from attendees include comments about how much smaller the show is than in the recent past — less than half the exhibit space — which is understandable in the current economy.

We all know that the recording industry is undergoing a painful transformation into, well, many of us are not sure exactly what it will become. But times are definitely tough… one observer sent me a picture of what they consider the most exciting announcement to be seen so far, shown here.

It speaks volumes, doesn’t it?

Radio: just another iPod app

Steve — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:49:36 +0000

Microsoft is comparing their new, upcoming Zune HD to Apple’s iPod Touch. In an interview with c|net’s Ina Fried, the GM of Zune global marketing went so as far as to say “This device is created to go head to head with the iPod Touch.” That’s debatable, according to Christopher Breen writing in MacWorld online.

I say, big deal. So the Microsoft Zune flack gets dissed by the iPod/iPhone/iSteve flack. Whatever. What is interesting is the one Zune HD feature that Mr. Breen thinks not much of a feature at all:

Radio. HD Radio, at that. Here’s his quote:

“…Microsoft, from all appearances, is jamming its fingers in its ears and sing-songing “iPod! iPod! iPod! We have radio, iPod doesn’t!” as if radio, of all things, is the killer app (which, if you really want it on your iPod touch, can be had via one of a handful of apps).”

The inference is clear and comes right out of Jerry Del Colliano’s playbook. Radio? That old thing? What’s next? A built-in ashtray and cigarette lighter? Goodness, why did Microsoft even bother?

This devaluation of radio is not surprising, coming from an iPod fan. However, what I find jarring is how quickly radio has become just one of 10,000 other 99 cent apps that can be installed on your iPod.

That is, if you really want it in the first place.

Spam is now 90 percent of all email

Steve — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:53:43 +0000

According to this article in c|net, Symantec’s MessageLab released a report last Monday that claims just over ninety percent of global email traffic is now spam, after a five percent increase from April to May 2009. The report also indicates that older, established sites are now being used to host various types of malware more often than newly-minted sites. Spammers are attacking these older and more trustworthy domains, compromising them so that they become hosts and distribution points for malware and spam content.

Contrary to some popular notions, this report claims that spam originates evenly from three geographic areas: the Americas are responsible for about 35% of spam, versus 32% from Europe and 28% from Asia. About 58% of all spam comes from known botnets evenly distributed around the globe, although the botnet known as Donbot is alone responsible for 18%.

A botnet is a (usually) large group of computers that are all infected with virus, worm, or Trojan horse software under a command-and-control infrastructure. The originator, or “bot herder” issues commands to the infected “Zombie” computers to send or relay spam messages, as well as send out copies of the infected software in an attempt to gain control of additional, weakly-secured computers. It has been estimated that nearly one-quarter of all computers on the Internet are infected Zombies.

What can you do about all this? Not a great deal, unfortunately. Using anti-virus and anti-spam software, and updating it regularly, is the only way of combatting the flood of Internet spam and malware. In addition, most ISPs implement anti-malware software on their email servers — Google’s gMail service features one of the better anti-malware software suites.

But the bad guys are still out there, and they’re very busy. It pays to be vigilant, folks.