[DECtalk] question about Kurzweil 1000 voices

Don Text_to_Speech at GMX.com
Tue Jun 15 22:05:40 EDT 2021


On 6/15/2021 6:43 PM, Blake Roberts via Dectalk wrote:
> You made some great points regarding trials. It makes sense that I could extend
> a trial period by instaling software on a different computer at some future time.

Yes.  If the owner of the product wanted to prohibit this, they would do
something like give you a "key" -- tied to your particular PC and the time
at wish it was issued (i.e., "expire 30 days from this date").

But, then I could have a friend request a trial license for HIS computer
and work around the terms that way.

You can argue that reinstalling -- on a clean windows machine (even if it
is the same old machine with a wiped disk) -- is TECHNICALLY within the
limits of the license.  If you run VMs, this has obvious ways of bending
the rules -- perhaps a bit too much?

And, if I really *am* trying to compare one product to another, then
is the trial period sufficiently long for me to make a meaningful
comparison?

I spent a great deal of time evaluating synthesizers before writing mine.
It's not the sort of thing you can do in a day -- or a month!  It's not like
checking to see which calculator gives you the correct answer in the
least amount of time.  Or, has the most "functions".

One synthesizer may pronounce:
     "The polish maid was asked to polish the silverware"
while another doesn't.  How do I know which test cases to evaluate
until I hear ONE of the synthesizers screw up on something that
I possibly hadn't tested on the others.

So, now you have to go back and try THIS on each of THOSE.

> Yes, I am interested in OCR which has speech output. I own a license/serial
> umber for a slightly old version of Abbyy FineReader which functions on Windows
> 10. However, I prefer using OCR which can talk on its own (self-voicing with no
> screen reader required).
>
> Hmm, I have two old OpenBook versions sitting in a shipping box. OB version 8
> was not compatible with Windows 10 when I updated my computer from Windows 7
> some years ago. After Kurzweil 1000 evaluation period is near expiration, I
> might get the most recent OpenBook CD I possess and see if the OpenBook disk
> (and associated serioal number) will work on current version of Windows 10.

You might also try running OpenBook in a Windows 7 virtual machine.
This isn't exactly as convenient as running it directly on W10 but
can likely give you that original functionality.

[Sorry, I don't run W10 so can't help, there.  But, I imagine there
is a "compatibility mode" that can be set up like XP mode under W7]



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