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From: info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac)
Newsgroups: fa.info-mac
Subject: SmoothTalker(tm) Warning
Message-ID: <2427@uw-beaver>
Date: Tue, 4-Dec-84 03:53:19 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.2427
Posted: Tue Dec  4 03:53:19 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Dec-84 23:51:26 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beave
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 76

From: wasser_1%viking.DEC@decwrl.ARPA  (John A. Wasser)

		Beware of Smooth-Talking Software Vendors!
				or
		The First Byte may not be the last!

	I purchased a copy of SmoothTalker (by First Byte) recently 
	(at least I thought that was what I paid for... see below) and 
	would like to warn people what they are getting into.  I made 
	the purchase based on the SmoothTalker Demo Disk that I saw 
	and heard at a computer store.  What I got is not what I 
	expected from the demo (or from	previous experience purchasing 
	software). 

	When you open the box (after having paid your $150) you find
	out that they didn't include the Female voice (mentioned in 
	the demo) on the disk.  You have to send for the free backup 
	disk (the built-in manual says $15 backup disk) to get the
	Female voice.

	When you start SmoothTalker you are assaulted with six screens
	worth of legalese in the form of a "License and Use Agreement".
	The full text of the agreement is too long to post (Please send
	mail if you want a copy) but here are some of the more odious
	points in it:

		1) What you purchased is a SINGLE-USER, SINGLE-CPU,
		   NON-TRANSFERRABLE license.

		2) First Byte (the publisher of SmoothTalker) owns the
		   software and any copies you make AND ANY SOFTWARE
		   DEVELOPED USING THEIR SOFTWARE.  You cannot make
		   copies without PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION.

		3) The program is sold "AS IS" and can be as full of
		   bugs as they like.  They only thing that they 
		   Warranty in any way is the disk on which the
		   software is shipped.

		4) If you sue them, you can only recover the purchase price.
		   If they sue you, they get legal fees and more.

	It gets worse!  The only way to use SmoothTalker (currently) is
	to have it speak a text file.  You cannot currently call
	SmoothTalker (V1.0 as shipped) from ANY programming language.  
	(Remember that if you do, the program legally becomes theirs and 
	you can't use it on any other Macintosh.)  The program works
	fairly well on plain English text... except for the falling
	inflection that falls at a constant rate (falls more on long
	sentences than short sentences) and makes it sound like the
	speaker.. is... running.... d o w n.  The text file can be 
	phonetic but cannot (it seems) be mixed English and phonetic.  
	There is no way to have a text file converted to phonemes, and
	English text is read in chunks of about 3 to 6 lines with
	long pauses in between.

	One bright spot:  I have it on good authority that if the master
	disk (which is copy-protected, by the way, with bad sectors) is
	write-protected (uncover the hole), you can accept the license
	agreement without changing the disk.  This way you can check out
	the software without loosing your chance to return it to the
	dealer for a refund (which is what I intend to do).

	"Let the buyer BEWARE... but let him also be INFORMED!"

		John A. Wasser
		New England Computer Society
		SIGMac Founder

Work address:
ARPAnet:	WASSER%VIKING.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
Usenet:		{allegra,Shasta,decvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-viking!wasser
USPS:		Digital Equipment Corp.
		Mail stop: LJO2/E4
		30 Porter Rd
		Littleton, MA  01460