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Re: [microsound] Accelerated listening



Ian, There's an easier way to read NYTimes articles without the annoying
registration: use http://news.google.com

When you access a nytimes article through news.google, it adds
'&partner=GOOGLE' to the URL, resulting in something like this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/02/technology/circuits/02spee.html?ex=1065672000&en=dbaa522ea17eef2a&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

The article's about the fact that we can understand speech much faster
than we can possibly get the words out of our mouths:
 
"In normal conversation, only a small part of the brain is taxed,
leaving excess processing power to be used for listening for lurking
predators, filtering out background noise or simply daydreaming. 

But speeding up speech on analog equipment like cassette decks
traditionally led to the dreaded chipmunk effect, making long-term
listening untenable. Digital time compression, however, works by
discarding tiny segments of repetitive audio (for example, 30
milliseconds of a vowel) and reconnecting the remaining bits, leaving
the pitch unaltered."

On Fri, 2003-10-03 at 08:56, Ian Andrews wrote:
> >http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/02/technology/circuits/02spee.html?pagewante
> >d=print&position=
> 
> I know that I've asked this before but could everyone please preface these
> postings of URLs with a few words about why they find them interesting.
> 
> This one unfortunately requires setting up an account (or its not working),
> something I'm unwilling to do without a bit more persuasion.
> 
> ian

-- 
http://alex.bash.sh

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