There isn't a strong pattern when narrowing to a single voice, but the ElevenLabs voices in general are much more easily mistaken for a human compared to any other provider we're currently using.
Apple doesn't publicly comment on how the chart rankings are calculated, which is why we can't draw strong conclusions, but our understanding is that this would do the job. Since the somewhat catastrophic failure of the charts a week ago its clear that Apple did update their algorithms, but its not clear how (and some of the same players identified in the blog are still ranking highly).
We can't say for sure how the charts are being gamed, but there is strong evidence that its related to a pay per play scheme to pump subscription numbers in a small time window. The implication of the graph visualization is that the same iTunes users are subscribing to all of the suspect shows, and all on one storefront (the U.S.).
That is a great question - we actually didn't consider using elastic search, we went with Solr because we use it for Octopart and are experienced with it so it made developing ThriftDB easier. We're evaluating other options now and will have a look.
Thanks for the feedback - you're right, the TOS prohibition was overly restrictive, we've removed the deep-linking clause.
As far as attribute comparison, we are constantly trying to add more attribute data into our system, but we're still lacking in that department. We do have some data on sample rates for adcs though:
http://octopart.com/partbrowser#search/requestData&start...
(this link is to our new partbrowser interface - we've been working on designing a new interface specifically with engineers in mind)
If you have any other suggestions or ideas, definitely let us know.
I think this is more because of the community in the Bay Area rather than how far Chicago is. Most of my non-techie friends from U of I did move to Chicago. Chicago seems to be a hub for all big ten grads to move to. My techie friends who did stay in Chicago tend to have crappier jobs than those who went to the Bay area.
This is particularly embarrassing as the state has a very good flagship tech school at the U of I (the most visible internet product coming from there being paypal, which ended up being based in California).
I know the Dawdle team really well, they are very hardworking guys (who love video games) and have put a lot on the line for Dawdle to succeed - I really hope it does.
I've also used Dawdle before - it was quick and painless to buy a video game.
I went to U of I and am pretty happy with the education there. It is generally very good in engineering so you'll be able to explore a lot within that discipline (I started in computer engineering, and finished in physics), and engage in some great research opportunities. I was in-state and the extremely affordable tuition is probably the biggest reason I went, though I doubt the out of state tuition is unreasonable. I'm not sure what it takes to get legal residency in Illinois, but if you plan carefully you might be able to get it after your first year.
And, you'll probably have a pretty decent social experience. Going to a Big 10 school with one of the largest greek systems in the country can be fun, even if you're not a big college sports or frat fan (and, who isn't a sorority fan?).
I'm a little wary of doing that - presumably they'll start pushing back and getting on credit card shit lists is something that makes me feel even more helpless than not being able to cancel something.
That is a really good idea - I had the same issue with a wireless provider I signed up for (Deep Blue Wireless, if anyone has ever used them) previously.
Regardless, I think it is a pretty shady business practice to obfuscate the process of removing charges which were signed up for. It can be done really well - Netflix has made it really easy, and because of it I am willing to go back and forth as a subscriber. At this point I will never sign up again for a LinkedIn business account.