Saturday, April 20, 2013

The Boston Marathon Explosion : Afterthought

It has been a crazy week.  Lives were crazy for Bostonians ...... and perhaps all Americans.   From the explosion to the capture of suspect were only 5 days.   I still feel still disoriented from the whole event.  

I feel the warmth from friends and families: there were more than 20 messages from facebook, linkedins, twitters from all over the world to ask about my situation in Boston.  They are all friends who never been to Boston so they don't know that Copley square is a well-known shopping area and only few who are affluent enough would live there.   Saying so, I was lucky enough to decide not to return books to BPL central that day.   But I was shock by the whole thing.  Some describe it as the most devastating terrorist attach since 9-11.  I have to concur.   Even though we can't establish a direct link between the two suspect and any terrorist organizations yet,  the event is at least be inspired by on-line instruction on how to make improvised pressure cooker bomb. 

To even now, no one could clearly explain the motives of the suspect.  Family members are giving confusing answers on psychological profiles of the suspects.   It's hard to judge at this point and may be we should hear more from the authorities. 

My condolences to the families of all victims, to the transit police officer who died at the front-line, to all who was injured.   I sincerely hope the Boston authority can soon help us understand why the tragedy happens. 

Arthur



Thursday, April 04, 2013

Wednesday Speech-related Links

CMUSphinx:

CMUSphinx on Kindle Touch  (cmusphinx.org Yay!)

Business

Nuance Unveils Voice Ad

Why Carl Icahn's Buying a Stake in Nuance

This is indeed a big development for ASR industry because it makes a rather constant revenue stream as compared to sales of software or professional service.

Arthur

Sphinx on Kindle

http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/2013/03/speech-recognition-on-kindle-touch-with-cmusphinx/

Love the current trend that Sphinx is everywhere.