The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Speech and Computer, SPECOM 2021, held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in September 2021.* The 74 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 163 submissions. The papers present current research in the area of computer speech processing including audio signal processing, automatic speech recognition, speaker recognition, computational paralinguistics, speech synthesis, sign language and multimodal processing, and speech and language resources. *Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SPECOM 2021 was held as a hybrid event.

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research. Humorous, surprising and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street. What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant and vengeful? Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure and responsibility, distilling the world's wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith and human nature, while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its readers.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Text, Speech, and Dialogue, TSD 2023, held in Pilsen, Czech Republic, during September 4–6, 2023. The 31 full papers presented together with the abstracts of 3 keynote talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 64 submissions. The conference attracts researchers not only from Central and Eastern Europe but also from other parts of the world. One of its goals has always been bringing together NLP researchers with various interests from different parts of the world and promoting their cooperation. One of the ambitions of the conference is, not only to deal with dialogue systems but also to improve dialogue among researchers in areas of NLP, i.e., among the “text” and the “speech” and the “dialogue” people.

As videos are so much important todays, I believe that everyone must have some knowledge on creating and editing videos for of common tasks required by his personal or business use. This book has mainly an objective to evaluate some text to speech converters, voice changers, video editors, cartoon animators and video recording and live streaming programs. As I am Arabic, I gave special importance to look for the best tools that can convert Arabic text to voice with good quality because of the lack of these tools. And I also gave special importance to look for the best tools that can change the voice tune as a lot of people don’t like to make videos with their voice for special reasons. Then I gave quick guide on how to use the two important video editors, VSDC Free Video Editor and Camtasia Studio. Then I gave quick guide on how to use two websites that enable people to create cartoon animation videos in a simple way, https://www.animaker.com/ website and https://www.powtoon.com website. Then I gave quick guide on how to us one of the best animator programs, which is Reallusion Cartoon Animator 4. I explained also how it is possible to make face mockup through Cartoon Animator 4Motion Live 2D Plugin. Then I introduced Adobe Character Animator as alternative program to make face mockup. Finally I explained about one of the video recording and live streaming programs, which is OBS Studio. I mentioned briefly how to setup OBS studio to create livestream video on Youtube and Facebook. At the end, I showed how to use Voki website to create customizable speaking avatars This work is divided to the following sections. 1. Some tools to reshape the Arabic letters so they can be converted to voice in other tools. 2. Some tools to convert English text to speech TTS. 3. Some tools to convert Arabic text to speech TTS. 4. Evaluation of some voice changers 5. Creating video of audio file with list of images (slideshow) using VSDC Free Video Editor.: 6. Screen capture using VSDC Free Video Editor. 7. Video capture using VSDC Free Video Editor. 8. Using https://www.animaker.com/ website to create simple cartoon animation video. 9. Using https://www.powtoon.com website to create animation video. 10. Using Camtasia Studio Video Editor 11. Using Camtasia Studio Recorder 12. Using Reallusion Cartoon Animator 4: 13. Making Face Mockup on Cartoon Animator 4 through Motion Live 2D Plugin 14. Introduction to Adobe Character Animator 15. Setting OBS Studio for live stream: 16. Creating live stream video on Youtube with OBS studio: 17. Creating Live stream video on Facebook with OBS studio: 18. Using Voki website https://www.voki.com/ to create customizable speaking avatars.

The Streaming Media Bible is the authoritative and comprehensive guide for producing professional-quality streaming media over the Internet. It provides an overview of what streaming media is, how it can be used and the tools and software programs available to consumers and businesses alike. It covers all aspects of streaming media, from the capturing, creation and optimization of source media files, to encoding and serving files over sites using the primary available technologies. Throughout the book, the streaming process is dissected and separated into its component pieces: original media creation, encoding, and serving. All three major streaming media systems (RealNetworks' RealSystem, Apple QuickTime and Microsoft Windows Media) are covered. ABOUT THE CD-ROM Includes a cross-platform CD-ROM with software and examples: RealPlayer, RealProducer, RealServerBasic Windows Media Technologies, Windows Media Player 8, Windows Media On Demand Encoder, Apple QuickTime Player, QuickTime Encoder, SoundForge XP or CoolEdit, sample audio clips, sample video clips, video tutorials, and sample code libraries.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Speech and Computer, SPECOM 2022, held as a hybrid event in Gurugram, India, in November 2022. The 51 full and 9 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 99 submissions. The papers present current research in the area of computer speech processing including audio signal processing, automatic speech recognition, speaker recognition, computational paralinguistics, speech synthesis, sign language and multimodal processing, and speech and language resources.