mjmooney Posted August 5, 2017 Author VT Supporter Share Posted August 5, 2017 15 minutes ago, wazzap24 said: Why is Siri so awful in comparison to the Google version? Dunno, but after a lifetime of being perfectly happy with technology, I've finally hit the old codger barrier with voice recognition. I just feel uncomfortable and embarrassed talking out loud to a machine with a name. Won't do it. Keyboard interface only for me. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazzap24 Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 2 minutes ago, mjmooney said: Dunno, but after a lifetime of being perfectly happy with technology, I've finally hit the old codger barrier with voice recognition. I just feel uncomfortable and embarrassed talking out loud to a machine with a name. Won't do it. Keyboard interface only for me. I'd never do it in public, but it's handy in the car and at home occasionally. I've got a pretty thick brummie accent, but Google is fine. Siri often doesn't even come close, it's worse than Apple's predictive text. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted August 5, 2017 Author VT Supporter Share Posted August 5, 2017 The missus wants to get Google Home, so she can do things like change radio channels in the kitchen while she's busy preparing food. I'll probably give in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted August 5, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted August 5, 2017 1 hour ago, mjmooney said: The missus wants to get Google Home, so she can do things like change radio channels in the kitchen while she's busy preparing food. I'll probably give in. That will be my old codger barrier. No way will there ever be a device in my house that purposefully listens to every conversation I have. (Yes, I know my phone can sort of hear me at the moment but not to that level) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 5 hours ago, Tegis said: That will be my old codger barrier. No way will there ever be a device in my house that purposefully listens to every conversation I have. (Yes, I know my phone can sort of hear me at the moment but not to that level) That's not what you were saying yesterday in your kitchen... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted August 5, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted August 5, 2017 15 minutes ago, Ginko said: That's not what you were saying yesterday in your kitchen... But I wasn't home yesterday...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 25 minutes ago, Tegis said: But I wasn't home yesterday...... Well someone was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted August 6, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted August 6, 2017 What the requirement is for a VT thread to be "hot". Other than a disappointing Villa result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted August 6, 2017 Administrator Share Posted August 6, 2017 25 minutes ago, Shropshire Lad said: What the requirement is for a VT thread to be "hot". Ten or more posts in the last two hours. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted August 6, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted August 6, 2017 18 minutes ago, limpid said: Ten or more posts in the last two hours. Thanks, I shall wonder no more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
il_serpente Posted August 7, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted August 7, 2017 Are the various English accents (dialects?) so geographically pure that you Brits can pinpoint what part of the isles someone is from just by listening to them? This young lady would have you believe that this is generally the case: I can certainly distinguish differences between different English speakers and can generally pick out when someone is Irish or Scottish (obviously speaking English but can't for the life of me understand what they're saying...see Paul Lambert), but beyond that I'm lost. Are you all really able to nail down someone's region of birth? Do you have the same difficulty distinguishing American accents, or can you easily recognize a New Yorker, southerner, midwesterner, Minnesotan, etc.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted August 8, 2017 Author VT Supporter Share Posted August 8, 2017 6 hours ago, il_serpente said: Are the various English accents (dialects?) so geographically pure that you Brits can pinpoint what part of the isles someone is from just by listening to them? Yes, of course. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 I reckon I could nail the general area where someone was from by listening to their accent, sure. In most cases at least. I've also grown up around enough American TV that I could distinguish between a fair few of their accents, but not all of them. I can recognise a New York, Boston, Californian, Texan, Louisiana...an, North Dakotan and have a shot at recognising a generic mid-western accent, I'd say. But I'd struggle with a number of others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Weirdly I can pinpoint pretty much all regional accents in england, aside from Birmingham/Black country/Wolves etc. They do all sound the same to me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8pints Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Whenever the subject of accents comes up, I always think of this video Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted August 8, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted August 8, 2017 8 hours ago, il_serpente said: Are the various English accents (dialects?) so geographically pure that you Brits can pinpoint what part of the isles someone is from just by listening to them? This young lady would have you believe that this is generally the case: I can certainly distinguish differences between different English speakers and can generally pick out when someone is Irish or Scottish (obviously speaking English but can't for the life of me understand what they're saying...see Paul Lambert), but beyond that I'm lost. Are you all really able to nail down someone's region of birth? Do you have the same difficulty distinguishing American accents, or can you easily recognize a New Yorker, southerner, midwesterner, Minnesotan, etc.? I think it depends how well you know the countries. For England, I could definitely tell what area of the country they're from. Midlands, Yorkshire, Lancashire, North East, London, South West etc. I probably couldn't be more specific than that. Ireland I know fairly well so i'm decent at picking out a Cork accent or a Dublin accent etc, and I'd guess most English people would struggle beyond noticing they're Irish. But Scotland I'm rubbish. I can tell a scottish accent, but I've no idea what part someone is from. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted August 8, 2017 Author VT Supporter Share Posted August 8, 2017 Two Scottish cliché accents - the 'see you, Jimmy' Glaswegian, and the posh 'Miss Jean Brodie' Edinburgh. Then there's the singsong Shetlands accent that sounds Scandinavian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 2 hours ago, Seat68 said: Weirdly I can pinpoint pretty much all regional accents in england, aside from Birmingham/Black country/Wolves etc. They do all sound the same to me. i personally think the difference is the black country has far more colloquialisms the black country dialect is basically made up words 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 14 minutes ago, villa4europe said: i personally think the difference is the black country has far more colloquialisms the black country dialect is basically made up words There seems to be a fairly intense debate amongst linguists as to whether the Black Country dialect is in fact the closest link to Middle English, or if that claim is basically rot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted August 8, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted August 8, 2017 How is it so difficult to find a painter/decorator/tiler in West London? I've lost count of the number of people I've contacted through checkatrade and only one of them has ever replied and that was to tell me he was too busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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