mikeymo's place

Voice command is nothing new to Android ; indeed, it has been included from day one. My Froyo-powered Optimus has a great voice command utility - press one decicated button and say "Open Blogger" and the program opens. Ditto for voice dialing, and of course voice search is great.


But with the release of the iPhone 4s and its Siri utility, Indian softwere company Dextera took on the the challenge of creating a passable alternative for the more popular Android platform. In an eight-hour coding frenzy, they came up with Iris. (That's eight whole hours.)


Now, Iris is in no way up to the task of challenging Siri - yet. The program is still in alpha development, however, Dextera has been releasing regular updates, and the program has been getting a lot of buzz in tech media and blog circles. I couldn't resist dowloading, and giving it the most basic of commands.



Classic

 What Iris brings to the table over Androids voice command utility is an odd sense of humor. One is not really sure what one is going to get when posing a question. This one made me laugh out loud.



I see the resemblance






From what I understand, Siri can use some of the iOS productivity tools, but is still struggling with the hardware integration. Iris is in the same boat, it seems. But I have no doubt that as this segment develops, we are on the way to having phones that do what we say, with a little wit tossed in. Just to make things more interesting.

Oh, and if you haven't figured it out yet, Iris is Siri spelled backwards.

A couple of weeks ago I downloaded the upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10 - Oneiric Ocelot. The word Oneiric relates to dreams, and I'm not sure if this is wishful thinking on the part of Canonical, or if it hits right on the money.


Oneiric Desktop with Lens (and my own spiffy wallpaper)

 If you switched to the Unity desktop in Natty, then this upgrade will not be much of a shock for you. Indeed, Oneiric's version of Unity is a lot easier on the eyes than the previous release, and continues to refine the experience. Unity's "lenses" get an upgrade, making them more usable as well as more attractive. If you didn't switch, then get ready to, as there is no longer an option to switch back to Gnome. Gnome 2.x has been fully replaced with Gnome 3, and Unity is the only front-end that ships with Oneiric. Of course, you can find the Gnome 3 desktop on your own or use XFCE.

If you do, you'll be using the improved Ubuntu Software Center. (Unless you're a die-hard who still perfers Synaptic - which you will have to get on your own, as it's no longer installed by default) The Software Center continues to get better and faster, including a "Top Rated" section that makes use of social rating. The Software Center also supports OneConf, which lets you sync your applications across several machines.

Canonical continues to tweak small things as well; the shutdown button has changed to a gear, and includes a bunch of other (confusing) options. Also, there is no restart option on the menu itself - you have to select "Shut Down" and then you'll see it on the popup. The Dash button has lost it's place on the top taskbar and moves to the top of the dock Unity Launcher.



Classic Menu Indicator (Ubuntu Studio)

 The Dash and its Lenses are better and faster, but are still not as intuitve and the Gnome menu or apps like Gnome-Do. While I had switched to Unity with Natty, I also use the Classic Menu Indicator package, which puts a nice button on the taskbar and re-creates the Gnome-style menus. Also, Evolution is gone, replaced by Thunderbird as the default mail handler. (I use Gmail for everything, so I don't really care.)

There are a couple of quirks, most notably (and annoyingly) with the notification balloons. They never bothered be before, but they do now. When I unsuspend, my wireless connection picks right up, but the notification system doesn't seem to get the message. I get the "disconected" balloon, and it won't go away for a long time, unless I manually close it out. Minor, but annoying. Also, there are occaisions when I have to click a button on the Launcher more than once. Other than that, it seems pretty bulletproof.

All in all, a minor but functional upgrade. If you're still using Maverick and waiting to test the waters, it's safe to jump in. If you want to wait, the next LTS release will be 12.04 (Precice Pangolin) in April '12.

It's hard to imagine that this is the second-to-last DC*B album.  That this is the second-to-last time I will freshly sample the awsomesauce that is the Crowder band.  That it's almost done.

While we wait for the band's magnum opus, the upcoming Give Us Rest (A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys]), the boys from Waco have given us a little Christmas present in the form of Oh For Joy. 

There are a couple of must-have Crowder albums - notably A Collision, Remedy Club Tour and Sunsets and Sushi - and this is one of them.  A full-on Christmas album!  Awesome.

The amazing thing about this record - which so many Christmas records lack - is how true the band stays to the spirit of these songs; the dignity and honor they bring to this sometimes solemn, sometimes powerful music. "Joy to the World" is pure worship, and David's plaintive voice really leads you to a joyful place.  "The First Noel" is equally beautiful - acoustic guitar and violin bringing the mellow tune to a place it seldom goes anymore.  One song that does have a very "Crowder-like" twist is "Angels We Have Heard on High," done as a bluegrass number complete with banjo and fiddle.  Dave hold off on the "Gloria in excelsis Deo" lyric until the end, when you've almost forgotten about it.  "O Come, O Come Emmanuel is hauntingly beautiful, building to an epic crescendo of "Rejoice!"

Right then, the album goes smoothly from studio to live, without skipping a beat.  "O Holy Night" is one of my favorite songs, and this is now my favorite rendition, with a lovely acoustic accompaniment. The same goes for "Silent Night," treated with wonderful dignity and beauty.

Finally, in a truly epic ending, Dave gives a short comment on the twelve days of Christmas, and the band launches into a note-perfect rendition of the Trans Siberian Orchestra's "Carol of the Bells (Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24).

The band may be moving onto other things, but this album is destined to be a standard for a long time to come.  A fitting offering for their penultimate album, and a Christmas record that brings honor and solemnity back to the genre.