I got voice recognition working. I'm not sure why the way I called the sink function made it work but I'm more about results right now. This small example had me rolling on the floor laughing.

<?php
/* 
 * Search this for more info on the voice stuff:
 * Automation Interfaces and Objects (SAPI 5.4)
 */

//directions: 
//php friend.php
//then fire up windows voice recognition and turn it on and say stuff

$voice = new COM("SAPI.SpVoice");

print "Hit control+c to end.\n";
print "Friend: Hello friend!\n";

$voice->Speak("Hello friend!");

class listen
{
    
    function Recognition($StreamNumber, $StreamPosition, $RecognitionType, $ISpeechRecoResult)
    {
        
        $phrase = $ISpeechRecoResult->PhraseInfo;
        $text = $phrase->GetText();
        
        print "\nYou:$text\n";
     
        
        global $voice;
        $say = array('oh', 'nice', 'humm', 'interesting', 'you dont say', 'uh huh', 'right', 'what', 'ha ha', 'you have got to be joking', 'right back at you buddy');
        $idx = rand(0, count($say)-1);
        
        print "Friend: " . $say[$idx] . "\n";
        $voice->Speak($say[$idx]);
        
    }
    
}

$recog = new COM("SAPI.SpSharedRecognizer");

$context = $recog->CreateRecoContext();

//SRERecognition = 16 (default)
//SREAllEvents = 393215
//$context->EventInterests = 393215;

//try to listen to events on context
$listen = new listen(); //event handler
if (!com_event_sink($context, $listen, "RecognizerStateChange"))
{
    print "Unable to sink events\n";
    exit;
}

$grammar = $context->CreateGrammar();

$i = $grammar->DictationLoad();

$s = $grammar->DictationSetState(1); //1=on, 0=off

while(true)
{
    
    if(!com_message_pump(1000))
    {
        print ".";
    }
    
}

?>

In case someone needs a skeleton sink for ADODB.Connection events:

class ADOConnectionEventSink    {

    function BeginTransComplete( $translevel, $objerror, $status, $objconn )    {
        return 0;
    }

    function CommitTransComplete( $objerror, $status, $objconn )    {
        return 0;
    }

    function RolbackTransComplete( $objerror, $status, $objconn )    {
        return 0;
    }

    function WillConnect ( $ConnectionString, $userid, $psword, $options, $status, $objconn )    {
        return 0;
    }

    function ConnectComplete ( $objerror, $status, $objconn)    {
        return 0;
    }

    function Disconnect( $status, $objConn )    {
        return 0;
    }

    function WillExecute ( $src, $cursortyp, $locktyp, $options, $status, $objcomm, $objrs, $objconn )    {
        return 0;
    }

    function ExecuteComplete ( $recaffected, $objerror, $status, $objcomm, $objrs, $objconn )    {
        return 0;
    }

    function InfoMessage ( $objerror, $status, $objconn)    {
        return 0;
    }
}

// later on...
$db = new COM("ADODB.Connection", NULL, $charPage);
$sink = new ADOConnectionEventSink();
com_event_sink($db, $sink, "ConnectionEvents");
//...