HN user

djvv

36 karma
Posts4
Comments14
View on HN

I ran a similar but smaller network back in high school. I was in Bulgaria but the setup was exactly the same. Me and several other kids wanted to play Starcraft and dial-up was bad. We bought a lot of cable and connected 3 apartment buildings.

Soon our neighbors learned about the network and started asking if they can join. At the peak we had wired about 20 families, this was all supported by me and a friend. The incentive for me was free internet and some side income.

In retrospect I find it amazing that such DIY approach brought us in the top of the internet speed rankings surrounded by the most developed countries in the world.

I completely agree, as someone who grew up in East Europe and is now in the US. The contrast between my childhood and what I see here is huge. And before someone counters that I come from an uncivilized place let me say what I saw 4 years ago while living in Amsterdam. Kids who were in 3rd or 4th grade would bike to school alone, crossing streets with traffic and so on.

Does anyone know of software that does speech to IPA (or any phonetic representation)?

If such a thing exist then it should be possible to write a program which compares the users pronunciation to the official one and gives tips and exercises on getting closer to the proper way of speaking. I can see some difficulties with differences depending on the speakers native language and the target language.

What do you think?