[nylug-talk] Sound Analysis and CPU power

[Ruben Safir]

 was having an interesting discussion this past weekend with a young man
 who is interested in the mystic arts of sound analysis with Free Software.

 We were talking about the raw power of the current crop of available micro-
 computers.  Normally I can say without even giving it much further thought
 at the new systems are so powerful that the tasks they are assinged to do with
 normal business applications should not only cause them no troubles, but that
 their potential is so far greater than what people use them for, that it
 really is like using a bazooka to kill a fly.  It seems that the spread 
 between software design and hardware capability just grows larger every week.
 And yet we are plagues with crappy software design everywhere we look.  While
 GNU systems are far more advanced that wintel software, they still suffer
 essential flaws in software design which limits the usage of computers.

 Why should any current dual core have troubles with linear video editing while
 streaming information, running encypted channels, and doing advanced tele-
 communications work?  

 Meanwhile, this genetleman was saying that the sound analysis programming
 he uses runs into problems with realtime usage.  At first I thought this
 was another case of just bad software design.  But as it was explained
 it might be very well the case that the analysis of sound can be a tough
 nut to crack even for a modern dual core intel chip.  Why is it that
 we still don't have fundementally sound software for voice recognition and
 dictation will all this power under the hood?  Is it that we reach hardware
 threasholds, or is it just poor software design and not enough qualified
 engineers interested in the problem?

 Ruben

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"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.<
You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess you missed that one."