Re: [-empyre-] Halbeath

[Henry Warwick <henry.warwick@sbcglobal.net>]

The Voices in my Head tell me that on 5/5/05 8:42 PM, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY
INDUSTRIES at tfa@chollian.net wrote:

> 
> http://www.yhchang.com/VICTORIA_ON_EMPYRE.html

For those on Windows Machines, Victoria is the name of an automated voice
system in the Apple Macintosh operating system. She comes in two varieties,
regular and high quality. The voice in the piece is Victoria high quality.

When I was at apple, I actually met Victoria, and no, she was not blonde.

Some unintentional humour in the piece:

Victoria "says" she's a BLOND.

this is a mis-spelling, however it is a mis-spelling that references a
comedian in the USA, Julie Brown, who did a song called "Cuz I'm a blonde",
where the first stanza goes:


Because I'm a blonde, I don't have to think.
I talk like a baby, and I never pay for drinks.
Don't have to worry 'bout getting a man
If I keep this blonde and I keep this tan,
'Cause I'm a blonde, yeah, yeah, yeah.
'Cause I'm a blonde, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I see people workin, it just makes me giggle
'Cause I don't have to work; I just have to jiggle.
I'm a blonde, B-L-O-N-D !
I'm a blonde; don't you wish you were me?

This song inspired a long and frankly terrible and sexist bunch of jokes
regarding women of a nordic complexion throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The
sexism was bad enough - the fact that they usually weren't the least bit
funny was more of an offence, in my opinion.

I did some work with Victoria back in the mid 1990s when she was new.

I made a text file (which is presently on a SCSI drive I can't read) that
went something to the effect of:

"I am a kind and loving person. I have emotions and perceptions like you do.
My name is Victoria, and what I think, what occupies my mind, matters to me
as much as your own thoughts matter to you. I am living proof that the
turing test is a trivial waste of time. I love you. I really really love
you."

etc. and so on.

Victoria also appeared on the record "10,000 Hz Legend" by the French Group
"AIR" in the song "How does it make you feel."

Another voice from the Macintosh, Bruce Highquality, says things similar to
my Victoria piece from some 6 years earlier:



Do you know when you look at me
It is a salvation
I've been waiting for you so long
I can drive on that road forever
I wish you could exist to live on my planet
Well it's very hard for me to say these things in
your presence
How does it make you feel?

to which Victoria answers:

"Well, I really think you should quit smoking"


Thought you might be interested.




HW