Brendan wrote:
The problem with English (I'm not sure about other languages) is that some words sound the exactly the same (there, their, they're; or, oar, ore; weather, whether; etc)
In mandarin it's much worse
Brendan wrote:
The end result is a high chance of speech recognition guessing wrong (and the user having to stop and spend time to correct it).
It is the context that is used to correct a guess. Next goes word combination statistics and many other methods. And as the end result we have even audio interpreter that translates speech in one language to another (
like this).
Brendan wrote:
The other problem is that you need "command words". For example, maybe the system accepts "next window" to switch to the next window (same as "alt+tab" with keyboard) and that means you can't enter a sentence like "Jim cleaned the first window quickly, but the next window took longer".
If you are in the text input mode then it is logical to disable any spoken commands. Just as simple.
Brendan wrote:
Note: a good typist can type 80 words per minute (or 80*6/60 = 8 characters per second), but with a small number of commands you can assign one command per key and in that case the same typist might reach 8 commands per second (or higher if the keys are chosen well - e.g. think of how quickly a hard-core gamer would be able to press the WASD keys during gameplay). Even for the shortest command words few people are able to speak that fast.
But majority of people are not good typists. So, they accept the speed that is available today. But the most interesting part is about a technology evolution - if now it is acceptable for some uses, then tomorrow it will outperform any typist. Yes, we need some time for the technology to be mature enough to satisfy all needs, but today it has reached the acceptable for some uses level and text entering is now acceptable (while still not perfect).
Brendan wrote:
embryo wrote:
Then you should study any preferred multitiered client-server application. They typically perform a lot of processing AFTER a data is got from a database. And a typical client here is an ordinary web-browser, which just visualizes data and receives user's actions. Web servers also perform some processing in form of client request management and underlaying layer invocation. Also there is a lot of communication logic on the server side (all those web-services, message queues and so on). Add here a lot of security applications (like firewalls and cryptography servers) and you will get an interesting picture of hundreds of server side agents working for a middle class enterprise. And it's all about shifting processing from client PCs to the enterprise server network, which gradually transforms into a form of a cloud that is still misunderstood by many people.
All of this has been around (on servers and not desktop PCs) for decades - it's not an example of something that was done on desktop PCs and got shifted to "cloud".
It's an example of "more than databases only" server world. And it shows the need for a lot of servers.
Brendan wrote:
And then they spend 100 000 $ on the additional Internet bandwidth they need.
Middle level enterprises can afford to buy an office building, then why they can't afford to buy one fiber cable? And it's capacity is
up to 1 petabit.
Brendan wrote:
Where you live, do you have a toilet? Surely it'd be cheaper (due to economies of scale) to have shared public toilets (like, a single massive "toilet cloud" in the middle of the city). Does it matter that you'd have to spend 20 minutes travelling just to get to a toilet (or that there's a strange guy taking photos of you while you're doing your business), or that cost is only one factor to consider (convenience, speed, security, flexibility)?
It is often the case when there is only one toilet in an apartment. So, can you imagine when many kids are having so much trouble when they need to line up near the toilet? But for some reason the toilet is still just one for a whole apartment. And the analogy here is very clear when we replace kids with businesses and the toilet with a cloud.
Brendan wrote:
Would you do your accountancy using a large company and upload all your financial details for them to store indefinitely (without strict rules that govern credit card information usage); given that even a cheap smartphone has enough processing and storage to do it anyway, and that (unlike social media and online shopping) giving data to anyone else isn't required?
The strict rules are just matter of an agreement. Today it is a non-disclosure agreement that has a very suitable pattern for such situation. Is it so complex to sign an agreement?
And smartphone's power is not enough for the accounting data processing of a middle level enterprise. Also, the accounting is just a small area if compared with business data like
OLTP or
SCM or
CRM or many other types.