Well, it turns out it wasn’t that hard. After just a couple of hours of playing around with VoiceXML, I managed to create a Tellme extension that works. Call Tellme at 1-800-555-TELL Say extensions Dial 00613 Dial or say your 5-digit zipcode Listen to the candle-lighting times for your area If you want to see […]
I just thought of a new project for my Jewish Calendar website. I want to create a Tellme extension so people can call an 800 number to get candle-lighting times. Over the past 4 years, I have used my hebcal.com site as an experimental test-bed for various web technologies. It all started when I wanted […]
Article about Udi Manber in New York Times Science Section: Human or Computer? Take This Test. As chief scientist of the Internet portal Yahoo, Dr. Udi Manber had a problem: how to differentiate human intelligence from that of a machine. By Sara Robinson. The guy is brilliant. Amazon.com is lucky to have him. Yahoo! was […]
It was over before it even had a chance to begin. The judge dismissed the jury today with the thanks of the court. He gathered us all around, explained to us that the case had been resolved without the need for a trial, so we were all free to go. He didn’t say it explicitly, […]
I showed up for Jury Duty today at the criminal courthouse in Downtown LA. I’m completely filled with a sense of civic pride and good old-fashioned patriotism. As I mentioned yesterday, I think that serving on a jury is one of the major duties of a citizen, right up there with paying taxes. (Pop quiz: […]
I got a notice in the mail saying that I was summoned for jury duty at the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. So I called this weekend to see if they actually wanted group number 2 for court location 11, and sure enough, I’m actually scheduled to report at 7:45am tomorrow morning. So it […]
In CNET News.com today: Liquid Audio to evaporate. The company’s board of directors votes unanimously to dissolve the company and distribute its cash reserves to shareholders. Pretty pathetic. Liquid was one of the very first innovators to attempt to make a legal online music system in the Napster age. The fact that they’ve gone out […]
Udi Manber gave the first talk of this year’s Jon Postel Distinguished Lecture Series today at UCLA. It seems fitting that I should have a link to Udi’s book on Amazon.com at the beginning of my review of his talk; he started working for Amazon just about a month ago. While a handful of professors […]
An important test for the DMCA begins this week. Acording to Wired News, Opening arguments begin Tuesday in the copyright infringement case against the Russian coding firm, a trial expected to test the limits of federal copyright law. Programmer Dmitri Sklyarov will be on hand to testify for both the prosecution and the defense. I’m […]
I’m off to UCLA to hear a lecture for my CS239 class. Here’s the abstract: For the prepared and alert entrepreneur, “Opportunity knocks far more than once.” Indeed, as the subtitle implies, the challenge is to erecognize the right opportunity and then stay focused on it. Many factors can lure one into taking the wrong […]