Category: News

YakiToMe – a text to speech service with a podcast option

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

YakiToMe.comJust the other day I was reading a rather long blog post from TheFix-Online.com (a review of Subterranean Online’s Spring 2008 issue) when I suddenly got tired of looking at my monitor. I really wanted to finish reading the review, but I had a few pressing household tasks I needed to do, and I knew if I didn’t finish reading the review right then, I’d never get to it again. So, I wondered, is there a way to get this into my ears instead?

47 seconds later…

There was!

I found this…

YakiToMe is a web-based text to speech service that will turn any block of eText into a computer voiced MP3. Even better, it can podcast that article, book or story right to your MP3 player!

Check out the two samples I made for public consumption (both are just a couple excerpted paragraphs so as not to ruffle any copyright feathers). And FYI, you can make much longer files!

Sample 1: From TheFix-Online.com a review of Subterranean Online’s Spring 2008 issue

Here’s the original eText review.

Here’s the unique YakiToMe link for it:

|FAIR USE TheFix-Online.com’s review of Subterranean Online’s Spring 2008 magazine|

Direct download |MP3|

Podcast feed:

http://www.yakitome.com/cgi-bin/rss.py?uID=7206633907&sID=16083&aID=16688

Sample 2: From The Sacramento Bee‘s website, an article about Robert Silverberg

Here’s the original eText article.

Here’s the unique YakiToMe link for it:

|FAIR USE Back from the future – For 55 years, sci-fi writer Robert Silverberg has guided readers on journeys of infinite …|

Direct download |MP3|

Podcast feed:

http://www.yakitome.com/cgi-bin/rss.py?uID=7206633907&sID=16085&aID=16690

Subsequent fiddling with the service show that you can get better voices too. Cool huh?

Posted by Jesse Willis

Bill C-61’s impact on LibriVox.org (it’s bad)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Fair Copyright For CanadaLibriVoxSolid! Check out THIS open letter from Hugh McGuire, (the founder of LibriVox.org) written to Jim Prentice and Stephen Harper. The letter is posted up on the LibriVox blog, and was mailed to the Industry Minister and the Prime Minister, it fully illustrates just two examples of how by being a LibriVoxateer (someone who volunteers to make audiobooks for the public domain out of public domain books) you can become a C-61 criminal. You know there’s something wrong with a piece of legislation when volunteers working from their home recording studios, on public domain materials, for the public good, are made liable for hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of damages!

Posted by Jesse Willis

A proposed bill to amend Canada’s Copyright Act

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Commentary

Fair Copyright For CanadaA week ago the minority federal government of Canada, and Industry Minister Jim Prentice, tabled an amendment to the Copyright Act. Entitled Bill C-61, its purpose is to bring Canadian copyright law into compliance with the current WIPO treaty (this despite their being no international legal obligation to implement WIPO – it hasn’t been ratified by Canada). Prentice states in a Toronto Star letter to the editor that C-61 will allow…

“…the recording of webcasts [I think he means podcasts and/or streaming audio or video] and TV and radio programs” such recordings may be “enjoyed at different times; music to be copied on devices such as MP3 players; and the copying of books, newspapers, videos and photos into different formats.”

But, Prentice doesn’t mention that these are all liberties we Canadians already had without C-61. What he fails to mention is that the bill actually curtails citizen (and consumer) liberties. Bill C-61 criminalizes the removal of DRM and encryption. Bill C-61 criminalizes recording from broadcast streams and archiving for your own personal library. Bill C-61 is our very own version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

What C-61 intends to achive:

-The plan is to make any streamed digitally recorded media like streaming audio (and video) legal only for an unspecified time – until you listen to it (ya that’s right an unspecified time until you listen to it). This means you won’t be able to archive something you recorded in a digital format even though you acquired it legally, and you can’t hang on to it for fear of being accused of not listening or watching it in a timely manner? WTF!?

-There is a $500 statutory damage minimum for possession of a single file freed from crippling DRM. With some audiobooks each CD has 99 tracks. That’s $49,500 for one CD. WTF!?

-Any circumvention of DRM, even on files you’ve owned for decades, files you’ve purchased, been given as a gift, or inherited, will be deemed a violation and subject you to a $500 statutory damage minimum (per file). WTF!?

-It will be illegal to transfer DRM’d files to your own iPod or portable media player (you can’t strip-out the forced ads out of DVD that you own either). WTF!?

-It will be illegal to make your media player compatible with an incompatible (but legally purchased) media files if it has DRM. WTF!?

I call this crap. It shall not stand.

Here’s the stuff to get you informed…

The bill itself [READ IT HERE]

Video of the press scrum after the bill’s introduction (CBC Newsworld) coverage on the introduction of the new bill (watch fast because the videos may be illegal after the bill is passed)…

And commentary from Business News Network…

And most damning of all the Industry Minister’s 10 minute interview on CBC Radio One’s Search Engine podcast |MP3|.

There aren’t a lot of good reasons for joining facebook. This is one! As of today, Thursday, June 19, 2008, a week after the bill was tabled in Parliament, 70,000 Canadians have already joined the Fair Copyright For Canada Facebook group to protest Bill C-61.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Mark Time and Ogle Award winners…

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

Mark Time AwardsYay! I can finally spill the beans! Who said I couldn’t keep a secret? Congratulations to winners of this year’s Mark Time Award for Science Fiction Audio, and Ogle Award for Fantasy/Horror Audio productions!

The Mark Time Awards are sponsored by MISFITS, and will be presented at Convergence on July 3, 2008 in Bloomington, MN.

Here are the awardees being honoured:

MARK TIME AWARDS

GOLD
Space Casey
Written & Produced by Christiana Ellis
SpaceCasey.com

SILVER
Androids and You
By Bill Stuart
Adapted & Produced by David Hinde Chapman
Rattenfanger Radio

HONORABLE MENTION
Mission Control
By Cynthia McGean
Produced by Sam A. Mowry
Willamette Radio Workshop

OGLE AWARDS

GOLD
The Stuff of Myth
Produced/Written by Roger Gregg
Crazy Dog Audio Theatre

SILVER
The Dead Girl
Written & Directed by Kyle Hatley
Produced by Robert Arnold
Chatterbox Audio Theater

and

Something Wicked This Way Comes
Produced by Chris Snyder, Mark Vanderberg, Jerry Robbins
Written by Ray Bradbury
Colonial Radio Theatre

HONORABLE MENTION
Afterhell, Volume 3: Bloodbath at the Giallo Hotel
Produced by Joseph Medina and Jamie Lawson
Ollin Productions

Congrats to everyone, and thanks everyone who sent in entries. You gave me some awesome audio cinema to listen to!

Posted by Dani Cutler

Canadia: 2056 – Season 3?

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

Canadia: 2056 Season 2Matt Watts has posted an update about everybody’s favorite Canadian radio drama, Canadia: 2056 to his blog. –

Matt sez:

While I was at the CBC today, we talked about the possibility of a 3rd season… And we don’t know what to do…

I would love to do a 3rd season, not just because it’s a job, but because I have a great time putting this show together… It’s a great group of people, and I love the world that’s been created.

The success of a show like this is tough to gauge… There are listener numbers, but it doesn’t tell us a whole lot.

So, without sounding like I’m trying to solicit “fan mail” I’m putting this out there:

It wouldn’t hurt to write the CBC and ask for a 3rd season, if you want one… Even if it’s a simple: “I’m a fan of this show and I’d like a 3rd season please”.

Of course, you can be more enthusiastic if you like, I’m not going to dissuade you.

Here’s the address to send something to: [email protected]

It’ll go to my producer, who will forward it to the powers that be.

This isn’t an attempt at starting a campaign, it’s just that we could all benefit from a better picture of how many people are actually listening.

So… let’s get writing folks. I’m excited about the idea of a third season, but I’d probably just as excited to hear a new Matt Watts SF show – maybe even more so. I’m betting most folks still haven’t heard either of Matt’s “Steve” series – it’s got the same flavour, comedy, satire SF, but a completely different setting.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Parsec Awards – and what should be an award winning promo

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

The Parsec AwardsThe nominations for the Parsec Awards are closing at midnight the 15th of June!

There are two promos for it. One is a short, straightforward, and frankly a snorringly normal promo |MP3|. The other is dynamic, hilarious and informative! I’ve heard this second promo a few times now, on different podcasts and I think it holds up to repeated listening. Have a listen to the tag team of Scott Sigler and J.C. Hutchins telling all about the nomination cutoff date for the Parsec Awards |MP3|.

Posted by Jesse Willis