How to add speech recognition to any website with HTML5

speech-webkit-demoSince Apple’s Siri voice recognition/voice control has again got back in focus of the crowd.  But Siri is far from being the only working voice control solution. There were already a number implementations before, some good some bad, and there is still far more than just Siri.
How you can “install” a voice recognition into your website with just one line of code, is what I want to show you today. The whole thing is based on HTML5 and is established as an  input element-tag.
And this is how it works:

<input type="text" x-webkit-speech />

Who wants to see the speech recognition in action, should go over there.  The only downside of this solution is the fact, that this speech recognition is far from cross-browser compatible. So at the moment it’s only implemented in Google’s Chrome browser. However, I could […]

News flash – the shop is opened!

amazon_logoIt’s once againt time for a small update, so once again there is something new at this blog. At the top menu, a new item called “Shop” has been added. Yesterday I created an tiny aStore, that’s how Amazon calls its custom shops.
Therefore the products are not from me but from various retailers. The shop here in the blog is basically an selection of items from the Amazon range, handpicked by myself.
All products in the shop are either owned by myself, so that I can recommend them with a clear conscience or they’re products, which I think are worth to be recommend and relevant to one or more of my blog articles.
If you buy something, I get (on average) 5-10% commission of the selling price. With a purchase through the shop you can support me and my work. Among other things, […]

404Checkr – a fast and free bulk link checker

404checkr_logoThis article is dedicated once again to a small self-creation. So it’s about a little tool of mine, which I have created acouple of days ago, as in most cases, out of necessity. So I was recently looking for a opportunity to check a large list of links as easy as possible to identify the dead links out of it.
The initial situation
At least if you have to check 20 or more links for their validity by hand, you realize that ther must be a better and faster solution. Therefore I have written a small program in C#, which helps you to check as many links/urls as you like for their validity. I have named the tool “404Checkr”, whereby 404 refers to the HTTP statuscode 404, which says that a page/file could not be found.
What does the 404Checkr?
The 404Checkr can handle an […]

The Restart Page – restart as the whim takes you

Some time ago, Falk (who is also responsible for NetzBlogR.com) shared a link on Facebook to a site which got my attention. Although it’s a small site, it’s very entertaining. The page is called “The Restart Page” and does not more or less, than it’s title promises.
Currently 17 operating systems are offered. By clicking on the respective “Restart” button for the OS, a realistic restart animation/simulation is offered.
the_restart_page
Whether the whole thing makes sense and offers great value, I doubt it. But anyway it’s nice to see it and thus all got a great job at such a gray Sunday like today.
What I would find interesting: Did Apple’s Rhapsody really started such slow? Because if so, you could cook a barrel of coffee and install Windows x-times, until Rhapsody is started. Phew, I love my Windows 8 – cold booting […]