RLPF.ar

Some time ago, I posted that I was trying Dragon NaturallySpeaking using wine, a Linux program that emulates Windows system functions so that (in theory) you should be able to run Windows software directly in a Linux desktop. That proved to be less than successful. Usually I would have to reboot the machine to launch NaturallySpeaking, and even then, the chance of it working properly was no more than 10-15%. "Well," I said to myself, "if I have to reboot anyway, I might as well boot into Windows where I know dictation will work." That's not a great solution either, since there's no way to get information out of Linux software in the middle of dictating.

(It's no surprise that wine would have trouble with NaturallySpeaking. Dictation software has to hook pretty deeply into keyboard handling and also integrate with text editors, so that it knows which words in the document corresponds to which dictation results. Most programs don't have to go down to that level and work okay with an emulator, but dictation is just too much.)

Enter VirtualBox, which runs a "guest" operating system (e.g. Windows) within Linux. That has been nothing short of brilliant. It's not completely static-free, but it's a huge improvement over multiple reboots a day. NaturallySpeaking is stable and responds well, and I can copy text directly from the virtual machine into a Linux window (no more temporary files).

It still looks a little funny to me to see XP on my Ubuntu desktop, but there it is, working smoothly. (Click the picture to see full resolution.)

Thursday night was a concert by the Conservatory's symphony orchestra, playing works by the composition faculty. A mixed bag, as is usually the case with new music concerts. One of the younger faculty studied in France, and it shows: his work had a sensitivity to gesture, mature harmonic vocabulary and detailed, rich orchestration easily on par with Western composers. The second half featured works in a more conservative, "Beijing" style. They seemed to hew pretty close to what must have been the musical standards of the Cultural Revolution. Such music is not to my taste, though I understand why it exists and what purpose it serves.

The orchestra plays well, with only occasional rough edges. Wind and brass tuning takes experienced players and careful rehearsal (think of the best moments from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's brass section); even the best college-level orchestras stumble here and there in this regard. I heard at intermission that the modern-style pieces were a new experience for the young musicians. Despite the challenges, they coped well -- no crash and burn incidents!

Next on my calendar is a concert next Tuesday of traditional Cantonese music. I'm looking forward to hearing the differences between this regional style and other Chinese musics.