WombatNation

The Austin Capital Metro CIO deserves a lot of credit for owning up on the Austin CapMetro blog to some major issues with their IVR applications for bus schedules, etc. It sounds like they have some grammar definition, timeout setting and confidence level setting issues with their app, though it is harder to know for sure without taking a look at it. I would love to help, but it depends on how they have written the app.

I do have to disagree with one of his other IVR-related posts where he states that:

But when a rider calls in to find out how to get from Downtown to Highland mall in the shortest time possible, an IVR will not do a good job of handling this question (a lot of human judgment and discretion is required which an IVR just can’t muster).

You would be surprised how well a speech app can handle that kind of problem. Of course, it won’t be cheap, as you have to think through the common starting and destination points callers might use, know when to ask for more detail (downtown isn’t sufficient info for providing directions unless you are in Mayberry RFD), algorithms for computing shortest time based on the schedules, etc., but it can definitely be done. Now, there are certainly many customer service kinds of apps that are very difficult to handle with a speech app, but directions is not one of them.

In deciding whether it is worth building an app for this function, you have to look at the total number of minutes of calls like this being handled by live agents. If the number is low (and “low” varies with the complexity of the problem, and thus the solution cost, of course), then it may better to leave the calls to a small number of trained agents who can handle many other types of calls. But, once you want to offer this service beyond regular working hours or if you expect the call traffic for this type of call to be very spiky, it may be worth building an app to take the calls.

Just finished watching Germany play Turkey in one of the semifinal matches of the Euro 2008 tournament. I enjoyed a smooth, malty Jubelfestbier from Bamberg during the match in support of Germany, though I’ve been very impressed by the Turkish team, and am sorry to see them go. They made some amazing comebacks, but time ran out on them tonight.

There have been some incredibly exciting matches in this year’s tournament. From the complete domination of the Dutch over Italy and France, Turkey’s astonishing last minute heroics against the Czech Republic and Croatia, to the skillful attacking from both sides in Germany versus Portugal, it’s been a great tournament for a neutral spectator.

In today’s match, Germany’s Philip Lahm was burned time after time on defense, especially on the Turk’s second goal. On the other hand, the referee should have awarded the Germans a penalty kick when a Turkish defender clattered into Lahm just inside the penalty box. Instead, he didn’t even call a foul. But at the end, Lahm became the hero by scoring a brilliant goal in the last minute of regular time.

I would normally pick Spain to easily defeat Russia in the other semifinal (after all, they already beat them 4-1 in group play), but the Russians have pulled themselves together and are playing great soccer. This is by far the best Russian team I’ve ever seen, but I still think the Spaniards are the best team and have the best chance to win it all.

I finally got around to posting some photos from the epic cabin fire. Since I’m not keen on image crawlers indexing my photos, you’ll need to copy this into the location box on your browser after that http:// thingie.

www.wombatnation.com/gallery/cabin_fire/

Here’s a couple samples. The first is the fire raging full on in the attic. The silver bars are the reflective parts of one of the fire trucks parked out front. Thanks to the fireman, parts of the house were actually saved.

This is what happens if you watch too many reality shows.

Sometimes there are obvious connections between the books I read consecutively, but I never expected a fistula-based connection. A month or so ago I finished reading the bicep builder Quicksilver (Volume One of the Baroque Cycle) by Neal Stephenson. I don’t often read 900+ page books, but this one was worth it. Not sure I will make it through the similarly long volumes two and three, though. Life is only so long.

Quicksilver is a historical novel set in Europe covering a few decades around the year 1700. The Sun King, Louis XIV, plays a small, but very influential, role. Louis also has an anal fistula removed using state of the art medical practices for that time. That is, a doctor performing the operation the first time using a pair of scissors. Although based on historical events, Quicksilver is, of course, fiction. The retelling of the surgery is fiction, but the actual operation really did happen.

Next up, I decided to read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by fellow Oakland resident Mary Roach. So far, I’m finding Stiff to be even more enjoyable than Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.

Well, stuff my mouth with biscuits if not more than 28 pages into Stiff I’m reading about Louis’ anal fistula operation again.

By the way, I recommend all three books. While Amazon reviewers agree with me on Stiff, Quicksilver and Spook get only 3.5 stars. Poor Neal is condemned like William Gibson to get bad reviews for not writing every book to be exactly like earlier cyberpunk novels. Spook gets dinged for making fun of the people she interviews and writes about. Excuse me, but those people are looney. I’m amazed she gave them the benefit of the doubt for more than ten minutes. I think she did a great job with the topic.