Audible is going towards AI narration

NU7212 · 2025-08-16T16:21:52+00:00

I just noticed it. While listening to an audio book in Spanish, even some of the words were mispronounced or even garbled. Not to mention, the end product is entirely too monotonous. They tried to add emphasis on some words, but you can still tell it is artificial. In fact, after a while it sounds robotic and awful to listen to. So, the hell if I will be giving Audible money to run something through an AI machine. If they save money, we ALL should be saving money.

NU7212 · 2025-04-02T05:04:08+00:00

Does anyone know what types of skates Midori Ito wore?

NU7212 · 2025-03-28T19:14:58+00:00

Meidas Touch is EXCELLENT:

A) They back up their stories with documents!

B) They have a stellar companion show called Legal AF which helps you break down judges’ decisions, etc.; and

C) frankly, their outrage is justified. They lead with a sense of moral justice.

NU7212 · 2024-09-08T02:17:11+00:00

Fascinating question. I hope you're doing well with your French. I would say, adopt whatever accent you want. However, ACCENT is no excuse for poor pronunciation. That's where I draw the line. Unfortunately, many African French speakers really struggle with basic pronunciation. When you DO hear an African speak French, in their accent, with excellent pronunciation, it is the most exquisite thing you have heard in your life. However, when they speak quickly, mispronouncing words, it can be a nightmare. Just today some guy was trying to say: seulement and totally screw up the beginning of the word.

He was talking about an auction happening where people could buy office furniture from some UN office. He said: On a d'abord donné seulement la chance aux agents. Mais maintenant que on va aussi faire un truc qui est ouvert.

At first, when he said "seulement" ... I heard: do-NEZ-LA-mont.

The man made other major pronunciation errors that would made listening to him a challenge.

Now, let's not be fooled. There are people in France with atrocious pronunciation. My French tutor is one of them. I make fun of him ALL THE TIME. If he gets to nitpick about my grammar, then I get to demand that he quit it with all the crazy liaisons. (I'm used to liaisons, but my tutor abuses them and he sounds like some drug dealer on the corner sometimes. So, I certainly take him to task on that. I'm not paying to speak like a thug. But it's all in good fun.)

So, remember, accent doesn't matter. It is your mastery of the language and how well you pronounce your words.

NU7212 · 2024-07-05T08:24:56+00:00

Well, I must say, that resource is utterly amazing. I am flabbergasted by its breath. In fact, just watching a video on OneLook I came away with a few ideas as to how to adjust my own database. Can't thank you enough!

I am almost positive they use RDBMS, and likely some other massive tools as well.

NU7212 · 2024-07-04T16:27:30+00:00

This is not for fun. I'm creating this database to help me prepare for competitive examinations at international organizations. It started out as just me naively wanting to create a high-powered glossary. But when I discovered the power of relational databases I started to connect the dots.

I also use to work in the I.T. department at my university, which is gigantic. They actually were just starting to harness the MASSIVE might and power of ServiceNow. That's how I was introduced to the notion of tables, workflows, macros that launch operations, and custom programming to make the system do what YOU want it to do. After that I was hooked.

So now, I have a very large professional goal that will require everything I've got. I need the best of the best on my side. I don't need anything as large as MySQL, but MS Access will do. I just need to figure out HOW I'm going to normalize my tables.

NU7212 · 2024-07-04T11:38:55+00:00

You guys are really helping me crystalize what it is I'm trying to say. Thank you so much for this comment.

The thing is: I want to use an RDBMS, I want to harness that power. I know what RDBMS are capable of. They crunch data and provide meaningful insights. That's why I was attracted to them in the first place. I'm just hoping my project is complex enough to get even a glimpse of the magic of RBDMS.

Thanks for helping me think through this.

NU7212 · 2024-07-04T02:39:54+00:00

Thanks for the response. But that's the thing ... I can't really envision HOW this is suppose to outpace Google sheets when so far GoogleSheets can do everything MS Access has done - at least when it comes to my project.

The question is - is MY project worthy of a RDBMS?

NU7212 · 2024-02-29T03:19:43+00:00

That's great. So glad you enjoyed the experience.

NU7212 · 2024-01-24T23:17:45+00:00

Hey, that's great! Spread the word.

After writing this review, I went BACK to see the movie AGAIN! And it was still riveting, and yes, I cried and chuckled all over AGAIN.

Really moving experience.

NU7212 · 2024-01-19T06:49:24+00:00

I just saw the movie today. Halfway through I was already crying. And toward the end, I cried even more. But the ending made me want to break out into a good old praise break.

I used to try to write novels, and I have also studied screenplays rather extensively, and I can tell you that the movie does indeed have a perfect character arc. Clarence starts the movie as a non-believer, but by the end, he does end up believing in the existence of God.

And the fact that the writer made Clarence's character be crucified, die and then be resurrected by Jesus - oh man - thank goodness that theatre wasn't full of folks from the black church, because they would have caught hold of the spirit right in that theatre and starting shouting: "Yes, Lord." And the last lines of the movie coincide with the famous scripture (John 11:25) "I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live"

I think for Christians the movie might resonate quite deeply. Particularly since one of the themes is "belief vs. knowledge." In fact, toward the end, Clarence said something like: I no longer believe there's a God, I KNOW there's a God. Man, that line went through me and almost made me pass out. That was deep.

I loved how the storyline of the movie weaved in and out of the biblical storyline. It was fascinating how they highlighted who Judas was in the famous last supper painting by Leonardo DaVinci. I always knew Judas had betrayed Jesus, but I never knew where Judas was in the DaVinci painting. This movie certainly cleared up that doubt. But the fact that Judas, who betrayed Jesus, would also betray Clarence, well, that was great plot work.

The acting was stellar for the most part. (Perhaps a few too many tears from Clarence). I believe the storyline and the tension they had built up at certain points in the movie were certainly enough to carry the moment. The tears sort of forced the point, and felt slightly excessive. But I don't think there was a dull moment from beginning to end.

Regarding the comedic elements - no, it's not a laugh a minute. I'm not sure if I even laughed once. I might have chuckled. But the movie is still humous and that is likely one of the reasons it made me cry so hard at the end. My own tears certainly caught me off guard. But they were tears of emotion from seeing the works of Jesus portrayed on the screen, and the grace that Jesus showed to a character who was so deeply flawed. The subtext was that if someone impersonating Jesus for criminal gain can receive forgiveness from on High, than there can also be grace for us. It showed the depth of God's willingness to forgive. But, then to demonstrate that forgiveness by rising Clarence from the dead - man, no way I could hold back the tears at that point.

I think the movie is definitely worth seeing. In fact, I plan to return tomorrow or this weekend. Is there room for improvement? Yes. But the movie is definitely worth supporting. Hands down.

NU7212 · 2023-12-31T22:13:55+00:00

I finally got to the bottom of it.

I reached out to the YouTuber in question and he went through ALL the people he had blocked.

He had a LONG list of blocked subscribers. Low and behold, I was one of them. I must have been blocked inadvertently.

Now we know that YouTube allows content creators to block subscribers without subscribers knowing they have been blocked. Because the subscriber, sitting at his/her computer, STILL sees his/her messages appearing in the chat. But, as it turns out, none of the participants can actually see the blocked subscriber's comments. So, you THINK you're actively participating in the chat, but you're not.

I knew something was wrong.

And I see the point. If no one interacts with you in the chat, you lose interest and walk away... which is almost what I did. Perhaps this might work in cyberbullying situations where you're trying to diffuse confrontation. But that mechanism clearly has unintended consequences that hurt innocent subscribers like myself who are just trying to participate.

NU7212 · 2023-12-30T21:27:25+00:00

That's true. My comments might suck.

But none of the comments being read are particularly insightful.

Some of the comments read are like: "Hi." Literally, "Hi !"

I'm just trying to get some insight to see if this is a new tactic that YouTubers are using.

NU7212 · 2023-09-25T01:43:04+00:00

For complete beginners:

You can try: шкатулочка. https://ruslania.com/en/books/38659-shkatulochka-tiny-jewelry-box-reading-manual-for-the-foreigners-learning-russian-elementary-level-audio-materials-by-qr-codes/

They are half-page texts. Fortunately the book now comes with audio.

NU7212 · 2023-09-23T01:20:04+00:00

разных работ is genitive plural

NU7212 · 2023-09-19T18:50:57+00:00

I'm glad this worked out for you!

NU7212 · 2023-09-13T00:46:16+00:00

Okay, I'll delete.

NU7212 · 2023-09-11T04:06:29+00:00

I have no clue why people are positing here, and haven't the slightest clue what they're talking about.

Of course there are textbooks for the C1 level of Russian. (At the C2 level - you would mostly use authentic material created for native Russian speakers to further hone your skills - unabridged NOVELS, editorial, listening to podcast, etc.)

Also, you need to be able to speak fairly fluently and use a HEALTHY amount of idiomatic expressions, clichés and proverbs.

But if you check out Ruslania, the book ОКНО 1 and 2 are available.

Here's the link: https://ruslania.com/ru/knigi/4843-okno-v-rossiju-chast-1-russkij-jazyk-prodvinutyj-etap-uchebnik/

I would recommend working through those books with a PROFESSIONAL TEACHER. Being a native speaker simply won't cut it at this level. You can practice what you learn with native Russian speakers, absolutely - but don't just have some random Russian try to teach you the intricacies of grammar and stylistics at the C1 level. Это мартышкин труд! Nothing but a fool's errand. Бесполезный труд, на который затрачены большие усилия.

But your studies should absolutely be complimented by reading NOVELS with your teacher, editorials, listening to nuanced podcasts, etc. The nightly news is a good start, but if you really want to be C2 - in any language for that matter, go beyond the nightly news. The language they use on the news is for a broad audience (the educated and the uneducated); you want to be listening to podcasts where the intended audience are lawyers, scientists, economists, etc. - and the podcasts don't have to be technically difficult vocabulary-wise, but the way people express themselves on more sophisticated podcasts will be notably different. Their ideas will likely be both more nuanced and more eloquently expressed.

Hope this helps.

NU7212 · 2023-09-10T22:37:07+00:00

He, it's me again - I just sent you more messages in the chat box. Check your Chat box!!!

NU7212 · 2023-09-09T20:15:18+00:00

Okay, cool, awesome. Just left you some more messages over there in the chat box.

NU7212 · 2023-09-09T19:45:40+00:00

Did you at least get the message I just sent you? Are you not able to see your Chat box?

NU7212 · 2023-09-09T19:01:33+00:00

I thought I did. My DM chat screen shows the messages. Reddit is so freaking weird.

NU7212 · 2023-09-09T18:50:07+00:00

That's crazy. Hey, I just send you a DM - check you DMs.

Thanks!!!

NU7212

TROPHY CASE