Speech Recognition Software that came with Vista

Speech recognition in action:


What is the second commandment of god?
The second commandment of the garden is: adult shalt not take the name of the lord thy garden in vain

What is forbidden by the second commandment?
The second commandment forbids us to offer garden and of his saints go to the end last line speak with you reverence and garden or his saints borrow sacred persons and things

What is commanded by the second commandment?
We are commanded by the second commandment two speak with reverence of god and of his saints, and of sacred persons and things, and to keep OUR LAW FOR and valves

How should we use the name of god you love?? Yes
We should always use the name of god we had great respect and reverence.

What is a vial?
I have our is a binding promise made to god to do something that is especially pleasing to him.

What is an awful
An old is the calling of god to witness that what we say is true, or that we would do what we promise.

When the is an awful lot for? Foreign ought to be lawful we must have sufficient reason for taking it and, and we must say only what is true, after all is only what is lawful.

What are the chief send some against a the second commandment?
But you sins against the second commandment, blasphemy, perjury and caressing.

What is blasphemy?
It is blasphemy to express contempt of garden, or of sacred persons or things in so far as they are dedicated to god.

What is your injury?

Hmmm. This software needs work.

Literacy and Numeracy

The draft plan (link from title of this) invites comments. I sent in this:
Dear Sir/Madam,
The quality and training of Primary teachers is critical
for success. We have to stop appointing teachers who
are afraid of Maths.
I favour making it a requirement for entry to ITE that
candidates have grade C in HLC maths, or an equivalent level
in some other jurisdiction. No ifs or buts.
Also, given my experience of incoming students with HLC Maths,
I favour further academic study (at least 15 ECTS credits)
in Maths (apart from study of Maths Education and methodology)
as part of teacher training courses.
This will ensure reasonable competence and
confidence in future teachers, in relation to Maths.

Similar requirements in English would be reasonable.

Your report does not deal with Irish, the state of which just makes
me weep. But there is a point to make. I date the really catastrophic
decline in the teaching and learning of Irish as following the
elimination of the HLC Irish requirement for entry to
the training colleges. After that, I started meeting teachers
at Parent-teacher meetings who could not conduct a simple
discussion with me in Irish about my childrens' progress.
You can't improve or even maintain
standards, if the teachers are incompetent.

We also need another report about science in primary schools.

Best regards,
Tony O'Farrell

The Recorded Music Business

OK, so now I see that perhaps the industry has a future, after all. My first reaction to Youtube was that it should completely kill the business: Why would anyone ever buy a record again? But it turns out that you can listen to a song, but not a whole quartet, sometimes not even a whole movement, without interruption. For instance, I find half of the Beethoven Grosse Fuge, and the thing just stops slap in the middle. It seems the Youtube rules don't let you upload the whole movement. In the sixties, I used to hate turning over LP's in the middle of a piece, although it was better than what our parents had, when they had to play twenty or thirty 78 rpm records to hear a single piece. I thought we were finished with that kind of thing.
Also, I don't care much for the videos that go with the music. Is there a purely aural equivalent of Youtube? Youspeakers?