Re: OS questions draft, III

[EAMorical@aol.com]

Pete I saw your new post. I won't be able to comment till tonight.
I grabbed the computer while people are at lunch.

In a message dated 8/9/98 11:58:59 AM EST, pete_st_onge@iname.com writes:

<< 
 !* ability to integrate computer with communications devices
 !  (telephone, video conferencing, etc)
 > ! [was: telephony (integrating computers and communications) [needs help]]
 
 [This is pretty broad. What if we tease these out a little bit more]
 
 * Being able to use your computer to:
  - dial the telephone for a voice call
  - send and receive faxes
  - answer calls (answering machine)
  - voice mail for several people
  - fax-on-demand
 
 * Being able to use your computer to communicate / conference with
   others using audio / and video?
 * Being able to use your computer for speech to text transcription
   (ie. NaturallySpeaking or ViaVoice-type stuff)?
 
  >>
Very very good. By the way the Linux Journal's survey of software
people would like ported to Linux (http://www.linuxresources.com/wish/)
has Via Voice listed. This morning Via Voice had 11 requests.
For more background on Pete's questions see (http://www.infoworld.com
/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?/features/980202speech.htm) This was a top
news story six months ago. Just a couple of quotes. "Systems that
recognize ordinary speech are sweeping through the call-center market
and are poised to dramatically alter the very nature of desktop computing."
and "Picture the road warriors in your company for a moment. Using
laptops, they probably log in to the corporate network several times per day.
But what if, instead, they used their cell phones, which seem glued to their
ears anyway, to check their e-mail and their voice mail, as well as to query
the order-processing system and pull documents from a file server? And
that's just in-house use. Now imagine that every telephone in every home
is a Web browser. How robust did you say your extranet is?"
Back to Business User -- Mid/Large Office, call-center in the above quote
is referring to computer telephone integration (CTI) servers. The fight is on
the Microsoft and Intel developed Telephony API (TAPI) vs the Novell and
AT&T developed Telephony Server API (TSAPI). Microsoft has TAPI 2.0
integrated into NT4.0 and as they push the price down, CTI apps are
appearing in SOHO's. Thus I would like help stir things up by adding the
following questions:

*Is it important for you to have caller information appear on your computer
screen as you take phone calls.

*Would you like to be able to use a phone to speak to a computer.

On a little different topic home automation.

*Would you like to be able to remotely communicate with your home
automation system.

Another thought, question for software section.

*Is it important for you to have speech recognition software.

Finally for this piece one last issue. Concerning the following question
from the original draft III post.

*multi-users (several people have ability to use one
machine at different times)

Is multi-users a clear distinction from multi-user. A multi-user OS is
definitely one where more than one person can use the computer at
the same time. This is why I previously proposed

*multiple-users ()
*multi-user ()

and for consistancy

*multiple languages  ()
*multi-languages ()

However if I would go along with

*sequential users ()
*concurrent users ()

Oh! By the way do the language questions refer just to written languages
or now that we're into speech recognition also spoken languages.
All for now. Tonight multimedia and multiheaded.

Bob