It's been a busy summer. I have been doing contract work for a couple organizations, and one in particular kept me very busy in June. They are threatening to keep me busy for the forseeable future, which is a good thing. We will see.
I got the new version of Festival compiled and running on SPARCL15. All I want now, is a selection of voices for it. The old Festival voices won't work with the new version. I tried to contact Alan Black, Festival developer, of the Center for Speech Technology, at the University of Edinburgh. It appears he is on vacation for the summer, so I will have to wait until he returns. I have a working speech system, using an EMICS II module, but it just isn't as good as Festival. If there is a chance I can still use Festival, I shall wait a little longer for it. After that, I must move SPOCS forward.
machine SPARCL12 is still our main SPOCS system, and is running well. We had our water well pump replaced recently. I noticed that SPOCS is reporting that the new pump runs a LOT less than the old pump did. The fellow who installed it said the pump was new technology; both the motor and the pump are more efficient then older models. The data from SPOCS seems to bear this out. I double-checked the connections by which SPOCS monitors the pump, but found no problems. Can't wait to see my electricity bill for this month...
Good Night, Ma and Pa Wolfe, wherever you are.
LEFT: The home of SPOCS: DellroyGMs' lab.
CENTER: The Penguin Farm. machines SPARCL12, L10, L11, & SPARCL14.
RIGHT: finally off the roof.
