An Interview With: Jennifer Chase
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Uncategorized
1. Please start by saying a little about yourself.
I have a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology. Up until about five years ago, I worked in the corporate world in the area of business and accounting. I decided to change my current path into the criminal justice field, but an interesting thing happened during that process. My love of writing took over and I decided to write my first novel. Writing wasn’t anything new to me, I’ve written articles, copywriting, screenplays, and other types of stories throughout my adult life. I published my first novel in 2008.
2. Now please tell us about your books.
I’ve been a big fan of thrillers, mysteries, crime fiction and anything with a suspenseful storyline. I love to write thrillers and crime fiction. Compulsion and Dead Game are two books in an ongoing series that revolves around Emily Stone who hunts down serial killers and child predators anonymously, then emails her investigation to the local police. She’s been described as a vigilante detective or an angel of justice. My third novel Silent Partner pushes a K9 cop into the dark world of police corruption and a taunting serial killer.
3. When did you decide to be a writer?
I can’t say that I decided to become a writer because I’ve been writing for most of my life. In a way, it chose me. It gets into your blood and you begin to live, eat, and breath it. Maybe there’s a gene for it? Life is too short not doing what you love to do. Since 2008, I’ve not looked back after deciding to pursue my writing career.
4. Was it difficult to get a publisher for Compulsion?
I weighed the pros and cons of a traditional publisher and becoming an independent self-published author. I decided that I wanted to get my first book out and to test the waters to see if my book was something that I could build an audience. I looked around at publishers and decided to go with Outskirts Press, Inc. It was a good experience at the time and I learned quite a bit how publishing and marketing worked. I published my second book Dead Game with Outskirts Press, Inc as well. This time around, I wasn’t as thrilled, so I researched becoming my own publisher JEC Press. I couldn’t be happier. It was the best decision that I could’ve made. Now becoming a publisher is not for everyone, but it’s worth your time to investigate all avenues in order to make an informed decision for your books.
5. Are there any authors who particularly inspire you?
Yes, many authors, but the two that stand out the most to me are Dean Koontz and Jeffrey Deaver. I love the way these authors spin a story and create characters. I’m a big fan of Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series with a quadriplegic criminalist. I find it inspiring how they build their stories, pacing, and the intricate twists and turns. I love that! Also, I like the way that they both can write male and female characters equally well.
6. Are the events in your book inspired by real-life events?
My first book Compulsion was actually loosely inspired by my experience of living next door to a violent person who threatened my life on a regular basis for more than two years. Talk about stress! Everything finally worked out fine. I met many members of local law enforcement, learned about crime and investigations, and decided to go back to school to study forensics and criminology. I took this bad situation and turned it into something good in my life. It’s proof that something good can come out something bad.
7. Tell us a bit about your latest book?
I just released my third Emily Stone Thriller, Dark Mind. I write all my books in the series to stand-alone.
A Serial Killer Plagues an Island Paradise…
Vigilante detective Emily Stone continues her covert pursuits to find serial killers and child abductors, all under the radar while shadowing police investigations.
Emily searches for an abducted nine-year-old girl taken by ruthless and enterprising slave brokers. Following the clues from California to the garden island of Kauai, she begins to piece together the evidence and ventures deep into the jungle.
It doesn’t take long before Emily is thrown into the middle of murder, mayhem, and conspiracy. Locals aren’t talking as a serial killer now stalks the island, taking women in a brutal frenzy of ancient superstitions and folklore. Local cops are unprepared for what lies ahead. In a race against the clock, Emily and her team must identify the killer before time runs out.
8. Are you ever tempted to write different types of stories?
Yes, I’ve toyed with the idea of writing more horror influenced stories, and even a zombie story. My first and most favorite type of stories are thriller and crime fiction, but you never know what I’ll come up with next.
9. What was your most exciting moment about being an author?
It’s the most exciting moment when you physically hold that novel in your hands. There’s nothing quite like it. Everything you’ve worked so hard for and spent all of your time on comes together in a reality. No matter how many books you write, every finished physical book is as exciting as the first.
10. What will you be working on next?
I’m currently working on a couple of horror short stories that I will post on my blog. I will be writing the next Emily Stone Thriller this year as well. You can find out all the most up to date information about my books and me at: http://authorjenniferchase.com/
SOPA
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Uncategorized
If you’ve been on the internet in the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed that there’s something going on. Something called SOPA that seems to be annoying people and causing protests, such as Wikipedia blacking out its site for 24 hours. In case you’ve somehow missed it, SOPA is a bill being pushed through Congress in the USA with the supposed goal of stopping piracy on the internet.
But I’m sitting typing this blog post in England. Surely a law being passed in the USA doesn’t apply to me. Right?
Actually, it does, largely because of the ridiculous definitions of foreign or domestic sites that are included in the text of SOPA. These definitions seem proof that whoever wrote the bill doesn’t really understand how the internet works. Websites are divided into two buckets: those that are domestic to the USA and those that are foreign. How is this decided? By where the domain name was registered. So you could have a web designer in the UK building a website, hosting all the data on a server in the UK, targeting content at UK customers, talking about things relating to the UK – but it could be classed as a domestic site under SOPA if it has a .com domain name registered in the USA. There’s no thought in the bill for where the data resides, where content was created, where users are or many other elements. So, despite the fact I’m in the UK, my blog would count as a domestic site as far as SOPA is concerned.
There are some other major issues with SOPA, as it is currently written. One of them allows sites to be taken down for suspected pirate activity. Note the word: suspected. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? A company that makes all their money online might have their site taken down because someone accuses them of pirate activity, even if they’ve done nothing wrong. This would be enough to put many start-ups out of business completely. It also opens the door to potential abuse. If two companies are offering competing services in the same area, one could accuse the other under SOPA to get the website taken down. While most companies wouldn’t dream of doing something like this, the fact that it would be possible, even easy, to do so, would open the door for those with less of a social conscience to completely abuse the system for their own gain.
Aside from the ease of abuse, there is a big problem with the fact that SOPA would call for the entire site to be taken down. Let’s say, hypothetically, that there was a single blog hosted on blog.com that was engaged in dubious activity. Under SOPA, the whole of the blog.com domain could be stopped, including my blog and hundreds of others that have done nothing wrong. A law to block or take down offending content is one thing, but what’s allowed by SOPA would be the equivalent of blowing up a small down in order to kill an individual living there. The bill takes overkill to extremes.
Then there’s the issue of what counts as pirate activity under SOPA. A single link to a site with illegal content would count, whether it’s deliberate or not. On this blog, I get hundreds of spam comments, often with links to random content. Most are automatically filtered by the system and sit in a pile awaiting moderation. But they’re still on the site. If a spambot posts a comment that contains a link to some pirated material, my site is instantly in violation of SOPA. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t me who posted the link, or that I would delete the comment on my next trawl through the moderation pile.
So, under the SOPA rules, hundreds of perfectly innocent blogs could be instantly pulled down without trial or due process, because a spambot posts a comment on a single blog with a single link to pirated content.
There’s an anti-SOPA petition that included a link to a copyrighted image on a post on the White House’s website. Under the terms of SOPA, the White House website is now in violation and the US government could arrest the US government, put them in prison for five years and fine themselves millions of dollars. Read about the ridiculousness here. Or you could just go and sign the petition.
The ideas behind SOPA are reasonable. The bill proposes to stop online piracy and make sure that people who create content get the money they should for it. As an author, I don’t want to lose royalties because someone pirated an ebook of my novel. So I agree with the principles behind it.
But what’s actually described in the text of the bill just doesn’t make sense. It would damage individual creative as well as companies. It is too full of loopholes that could be abused and would let authorities act on mere suspicion rather than proof. And it probably won’t stop piracy.
It could cause massive amounts of hurt with very little benefit.
SOPA, in its current form, needs to be stopped. Then the US government can sit down with experts who actually understand how the internet works and come up with a bill that would achieve the desired effect without causing problems for millions of innocent people.
Review: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Book Reviews, Fantasy books, Uncategorized
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is one of those books I can come back to again and again. I recently bought a new copy and this edition includes introductions written by both authors. One includes a comment about Good Omens being the most repaired book they see because people read it so much it falls apart. There’s a mention that when they see a new copy, it’s usually because the owner’s gone and bought it again because they lent it to a friend and never got it back. This made me laugh; guess why I’d had to buy a new copy?
Good Omens is the story of the apocalypse, drawing on a lot of Biblical material. Crowley is a demon. Not just any demon, he was the serpent in the garden of Eden. Now he lives on Earth, messes around with humanity and generally has a good time. His opposite number is an angel called Aziraphale. The two of them have reached an understanding, allowing them to divide up England comfortably (both of them claiming credit for Milton Keynes). They’re not exactly friends, but they’re able to meet amiably despite the fact that one reports to heaven, the other to hell.
All seems to be going great until Crowley is given a child to place with a human family. This child is the antichrist, which means that the end of the world is imminent. Crowley and Aziraphale agree to team up in order to prevent the apocalypse. Unfortunately for them, due to incompetence, the child is misplaced and grows up away from the influence of either heaven or hell. Meanwhile, Anathema Device is using the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Angus Nutter, the only entirely accurate book of prophecies in existence, to try and pinpoint the antichrist.
As the end of the world nears, the unknowing antichrist’s powers start to manifest, causing chaos around the world.
As well as the main characters, there’s an interesting mixture of supporting characters, including: Shadwell, a witchfinder obsessed with how many nipples people have; Newton Pulsifer, a witchfinder who’d really love to work with computers; the Them, a gang of kids who follow the antichrist; Madam Tracy, part-time painted jezebel and medium; the four bikers of the apocalypse; and the four other bikers of the apocalypse, who didn’t make it into the book of Revelations.
The whole story is a light-hearted adventure full of bizarre situations and amusing occurrences. But, at the same time, it touches on some interesting issues of free will, religion and destiny.
I would strongly recommend this book. Maybe you’ll end up with a much-repaired copy because you’ve read it too many times.
Tags: adventure, books, fantasy, novels, pratchett, review
Technicality Man: Chapter 7
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Uncategorized
The Adventures of Technicality Man: The Rise of COMPSCI
Chapter 7: Concerning Desert Islands
“Why are they called desert islands?” asked Bemused Girl, “I don’t see any desert.” She stared up the beach to where a lush jungle spread over what could be seen of the island.
“It probably means deserted,” suggested Chesty Cough Girl. They had climbed out of the impressively wrecked plane which had crashed conveniently within wading distance of shore. Just as they reached the beach and assessed their collective injuries (a grazed cheek, a small bruise on the upper arm and a mild headache) the ruined mass of metal turned in mushed paper and sank into the depths of the sea.
Technicality Man checked the water’s depth and frowned. He glared at Continuity Leopard who just shrugged and insisted that since the plane had sunk he wasn’t about to unsink it.
Origami Man emptied his pockets of a slushy paperyness. He looked fairly despondent as he failed to separate pages.
“Any chance of making a boat?” asked Technicality Man. Origami Man shook his head, dumping the papery pulp on the ground. Technicality Man noted down the details so as to report him for littering when they found a suitable authority figure.
“Any ideas?”
“I could probably find some bluetac in the jungle.” Traditional Bluetac Gatherer found herself the focus of five pairs of eyes asking her what use that would be.
“Well, we’re not stuck here,” said Technicality Man, “we’re a lot less than half-way through the plot. We’ve got to get off this island for the story to continue.”
“Unless the story carries on here,” said Bemused Girl. She noticed the surprised looks of the others, “What? I’m allowed to give answers as well as questions.”
“She’s got a point,” said Technicality Man. “We should look around and see if we can find something evil to stop.”
They set off up the beach and into the tree line. It didn’t take long for them to be completely dry, their durable supersuits showing no marks from their adventures so far. The jungle didn’t contain any of the perils of British woodlands: nettles, thistles, bunnies. Instead there were a whole new range of dangers: scorpions, plants with enormous thorns, the inevitable coffee shop.
“There’s got to be at least three people here for a coffee shop chain to invest in the site,” said Chesty Cough Girl.
Insects hovered around them, buzzing in their ears unpleasantly and biting any available patches of skin. At least four team members complained they were being bitten more than any of the others.
“We need to consider utility belts,” said Chesty Cough Girl, “with things like insect repellent in.”
“I’ve seen some that even have shark repellent,” said Traditional Bluetac Gatherer.
“At the very least,” said Technicality Man, “we should have a waterproof container of paper.”
“Why is it that we’re always relying on my power?” asked Origami Man, “Can’t the rest of you do anything useful?”
“I kept Non-Sequetor Alien Invasion occupied,” said Bemused Girl.
“We’re bound to run into guards,” said Chesty Cough Girl, “and you’ll need me to frighten them off.”
“I squished that sweet guy,” said Technicality Man.
Continuity Leopard managed to convey his indispensability when they fell into a ditch that was right in front of them without anyone noticing it. They ignored his rather smug expression as they climbed out and continued their journey
“I can…” began Traditional Bluetac Gatherer, “I… um… Damn! I’m surplus to requirements. I’m going to die.”
“No.”
“Of course not.” The others all protested the idea.
“You won’t die because… um… because you’re the comic relief.”
“The comic relief. The comic relief! I’d rather be the one who gets killed to show the situation’s serious.” She sulked off through the trees muttering “comic relief” under her breath in an aggravated tone.
“At least Comic Relief’s more amusing than Oxfam,” Origami Man called after her.
Storming ahead, Traditional Bluetac Gatherer was the first to spot the evidence of a secret underground lair. It was hard not to spot a six foot diameter air vent. Especially after falling in it.
The team managed to find vines suitable for climbing conveniently hanging from nearby trees. They climbed down the air vent into what appeared to be a power core for a secret base. It certainly had all the signs of a power core: rows of glittering lights, a strange glowy thing in the middle of the room and sparks shooting between metal poles in a way designed to cause a law suit. Or maybe they’d just overdone the Christmas lights.
“Ooo, shiny,” said Traditional Bluetac Gatherer, staring at a glowing blue column that looked as though it had been nicked from the engine room of a starship. “I didn’t know they made lava lamps that big.”
“So, where are the guys who run this place?” asked Bemused Girl.
“Maybe they’re on strike,” said Origami Man, “there have been a lot of problems in the evil unions lately.”
“Let’s have a looked round,” suggested Technicality Man, pointing out a door. He probably should have looked out of it first, but no one chopped his hand off. The team set off into a long tunnel, built of old concrete and with the lighting set to creepy. Bulbs were strategically placed to cast strange shadows and illuminate faces at odd angles. The background music was also helping to set a worrying mood.
No doubt they’d be attacked soon. They were long overdue.
Bemused Girl ducked as several small, black somethings appeared out of nowhere, whizzed overhead and vanished again.
“What the *#!- were they?” she asked.
“They looked like commas.” said Traditional Bluetac Gatherer. As the next one appeared, she glared at it until it glued itself to the wall. It was an exclamation mark.
“I thought, you could only do that to paper,’ said Technicality Man.
“Writing counts.” She did a little, celebratory dance at having done something useful with her powers.
“Actually, arithmetic count’s,” said Technicality Man.
“Why are we being attacked – by punctuation,” asked Bemused Girl. The rest of the team shrugged and glanced around at the others for an answer. Bemused Girl focussed, concentrating her power on Technicality Man until he was unable to resist giving an answer.
“Something, must have happened to Correct Punctuation Lion.” he said.
A semi-colon hit Chesty Cough Girl full in the coughy chest, knocking her several metres down the corridor. She was stopped by the electricity meter.
“& Obscure Usage of a Semi-Colon Ocelot;”
A swarm of interabangs flew at Origami Man’s face. Continuity Leopard snapped a few of them out of the air. He considered the taste, then swallowed the rest.
“This, is. ridiculous:” said Traditional Bluetac Gatherer.
“Can”t you) do something…’ Technicality Man asked Continuity Leopard, Cant you-claim emergency ¬ powers or something.”
Continuity Leopard considered this, then nodded.
The little black dots disappeared. Bemused Girl got up. She’d been knocked down while wrestling a particularly vicious question mark.
“OK,” she asked, “so what could have happened to Correct Punctuation Lion?”
“Clearly he’s not in control of his domain,” said Technicality Man.
“But is it just him? Or them, if you think Ocelot’s down too?”
Technicality Man glanced round at the others, hoping they would give him an explanation. He found his gaze drawn to Origami Man, noticing for the first time the smouldering good looks of his team mate.
Fifteen minutes later, he shrugged his cape back on. “I think we can safely assume Sexual Attraction Lynx is out of action.”
“But clearly Prudish Manx is still around,” said Chesty Cough Girl, “seeing as the narrative just skipped the gay sex completely.”
“Can we just pretend this didn’t happen and get on with the plotline?” asked Technicality Man.
Tags: adventure, Original fiction, superheroes, Technicality Man
Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Uncategorized
My first reaction on reading this book was that I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. These books have taken off enormously and seem to be everywhere in book shops. So I gave the first one a try. After all, I like thrillers.
My initial disappointment probably comes down to the simple fact that I think the novel is misclassified. I wouldn’t describe this book as a thriller. It’s a mystery. A who-dun-it. In my mind, a thriller has to be thrilling. There has to be a sense of excitement and adventure and danger that keeps you turning the page to figure out if and how the characters will escape. There are some elements of that in this book but they come a lot later in the story and make up a very small portion of the novel.
If you can accept that the novel is a mystery rather than a thriller then it has its merits. It’s very well-constructed. Clues are left going through the book but I only got a couple of them. I certainly didn’t guess all of the mystery. The whole thing is obviously expertly planned to keep you wondering what the answers are to the questions.
There are two main characters in this book: Blomkvist and Lisbeth, the girl for whom the book is named. The character of Lisbeth is fascinating. She’s unusual and has a really interesting perspective. She’s highly intelligent but somewhat cut off socially from the norm. She doesn’t really deal well with other people and so those parts of the book from her viewpoint are fascinating. Unfortunately, most of the book focused on Blomkvist who was a little dull.
I thought the book started off very slowly. There were some points near the beginning when I was getting a little bored waiting for something thrilling to happen or some mystery to be presented. Once the mystery was revealed, the book picked up considerably. The book almost has two stories. One is the mystery of what happened to Harriet Vanger, a girl whose murder Blomkvist is trying to solve, and the other is about Blomkvist’s magazine. The former is much more interesting than the latter. So I began to lose interest again after Harriet’s story was resolved and it all became about whether Blomkvist would save his business.
Still, if you like murder mysteries, it’s worth giving this a try.
Tags: mystery, novels, review, Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Technicality Man: Chapter Three
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Original fiction, Technicality Man, Uncategorized
The Adventures of Technicality Man: The Rise of COMPSCI
Chapter 3: Concerning Interviews
The celebratory party lasted a while. It continued until most of the guests had passed out drunk and then kept going when they came round and started drinking again. Technicality Man had not experienced a party on such a scale since he’d left university. Even at university, he’d only experienced it because there’d been one going on on the floor below his room when he’d been studying for his finals. This was the first time he’d been an honoured guest.
Normally, his position at parties was hiding somewhere in the corner or, more usually, looking at the drunken Facebook pictures three days later because no one had bothered to invite him. This time, he was surrounded by people treating him as a friend.
He loved it.
At last, the party came to an end. The guests stumbled home or, in extreme cases, were wheeled away on trolleys. Technicality Man managed to find his bleary-eyed way home with a little help from Continuity Leopard. Then he stood there in his miserable flat with only a leopard for company. He sat down in his normal chair and felt the combined agony of the hangover together with the knowledge that his life was going back to how it had been.
For one brief, glorious moment, he’d been one of the greatest heroes in the world. He didn’t want to go back to being a disregarded near-nobody.
As minutes became hours and the hangover was driven off by an assault of time and paracetemol, the realisation remained. He didn’t want to work alone anymore. The idea had settled in his mind and wasn’t about to shift. Right now, he was well thought of in the superhero community. He was in a position where he could convince someone to work with him. He thought of Alchemisto with his sidekick, and Geologist Man with Team Geode, and started to draft the vacancy advert.
Three days later, he held the interviews. He hadn’t specified whether he was hiring a single sidekick or putting together a full team. He’d thought it better to wait and see the applicants before deciding that. There was a knock on the door and he let in the first candidate. Chesty Cough Girl handed over her CV and then took the seat she was offered.
“So, tell me a little more about your powers.”
“When I cough, I can convince people they’re about to die of some hideous illness unless they get away from me. They tend to run off screaming. It’s great for getting rid of guards.”
“Perhaps a demonstration,” suggested Technicality Man. He immediately regretted it. He left her filling out paperwork while he took a bath in disinfectant.
The next candidate was, thankfully, less disturbing. He opened the door to find Bemused Girl standing outside.
“Is this the right place?”
He let her in and she explained about her power, which was apparently to look confused until someone explained things to her.
“It’s a great sidekick power but once the villain’s explained the intricate workings of the doomsday device, someone still has to stop it. I’ve done some temp work as a sidekick to Full Time Job Man but he was always too busy for any real heroing.”
It sounded like a useful power, but she gave a nervous, “Erm.” Fiddling with the hem of her shirt, she spoke, “I’ve sort of started dating Good For Nothing Boy. Is that a problem?”
Technicality Man explained that the Laws of Narrative Practice contained several loopholes allowing for relationships between those working for opposite sides, particularly if it gave opportunities for angst, kidnap or sexual enticements. He went on to talk about examples where hero-villain love affairs had caused crucial plot tension. He began to detail the five varieties of possessions that would allow such emotions. Then it occurred to him that he’d been talking for almost an hour. She was good!
Once she’d filled out the forms and signed the trial contract, it was time for the next interview. It was a hero he’d never met before.
“So, what’s your power?” he asked Origami Man.
“Allow me to demonstrate.” Origami Man took out a large sheet of paper. His hands moved in a blur as he made a series of intricate folds. When he finished, there was an instant when he held a detailed representation of a gun, then the model transformed into a Killo Zap Blaster Ray Gun.
“Will it work?”
Technicality Man managed to stop him demonstrating just before his flat gained an unexpected window.
“Impressive,” he said. “I’m curious though, why aren’t you applying to join one of the more influential teams?”
“I tend to get as far as saying I fold paper and they end the interview.”
“What else can you make?”
“Just about anything if I have a big enough sheet of paper. It’s not a good idea to let these things get wet though. They’re still made of paper after all.”
It was hardly surprising that Origami Man made short work of the necessary forms so Technicality Man had a bit of time to relax before the final interview. When she arrived and explained her powers, Traditional Bluetac Gatherer sat there looking faintly embarrassed.
“You stick paper to things?”
“Um. Yes.”
“Anything else?”
“I can find bluetac under almost any circumstances.” Technicality Man restrained himself from asking what possible use that would be in saving the world. After all, there were some who’d thought that super-powered pedantry was useless.
“I know it’s not much,” she went on, “but I’ve got quite a good series of puns about sticky situations.”
Technicality Man considered this. After all, they were up against Geologist Man’s Awesome Powers of Rock (TM) as a catchphrase and all heroes knew not to underestimate the value of a truly awful pun.
As he hesitated, he saw her expression. She didn’t expect to get the position. He realised he was looking at someone who’d been rejected so many times she took it as a matter of course. So he offered her a job.
He’d done it.
Despite his own doubts, he was now the leader of a power team. Still, there was a lot of work to be done. They needed to find a base of operations, train together and acquire a nemesis. Most important of all, the team needed a name.
Tags: adventure, Original fiction, parody, science fiction, superheroes, Technicality Man
Tech Tuesday: Voice Activated Technology
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Tech Tuesday, Uncategorized
In today’s Tech Tuesday post, I’m going to talk about voice-activated systems. This has been a staple of science fiction for years. People giving vocal commands to computers instead of pressing buttons. They are more common in television shows and films than in books, no doubt because it makes it easier for the audience to follow what’s going on. By speaking a command to a machine, a character’s plans are revealed to the audience without having to rely on exposition.
Voice-activated systems are a wonderful idea and something that has been worked on for years. Unfortunately, the reality of current systems can be summed up in this clip from the recent Star Trek movie:
The problem is accents. The same language can sound completely different when spoken in local accents. A Yorkshireman sounds nothing like a Cockney and someone from Birmingham sounds nothing like someone from Glasgow.
Voice-activated technology has reached the level where I can phone up a computer system and, through spoken commands, get it to play my voicemail or recite my email. Unfortunately, I work for an American company so this software only works when I fake an American accent. Our company briefly turned on a feature on our messaging servers that provided a text transcript of voicemails. It worked perfectly if the person leaving the message had an American accent. The feature was turned off when it became apparent that the main purpose was to provide us amusement as we collected the hilariously misinterpreted outputs when anyone else left a message. I think my favourite was the message that ended, “Cheese pizza buy.” Needless to say, the actual voicemail had nothing to do with ordering pizzas.
You can train voice-recognition systems. Most voice recognition systems come with some sample text to read that covers a wide enough range of words for the computer to get a handle on the speaker’s accent. There are two problems with this. One is that such training will only work on an individual. The other comes when, for example, you’re dictating an email and want to include in the text the same word that is the command to send the finished email.
Voice recognition systems have come a long way but still a long way to go before they’re ready.
Tags: future, sci-fi, science fiction, Star Trek, technology, voice activiation
