Here there be Dragons...

Recently an old keyboard overuse injury has flared up again. Aside from the the exercises that I need to do to overcome it, the other thing that seems to be helping is that I have installed Dragon simply speaking.

I remember trying out an IBM product called "VoiceType" some years back. That product was quite good although it did tend to confuse my voice with that of the dog. Strangely enough, it would never listen to anything my wife said - possibly a bit like myself :-)

At the time I installed Dragon, my hopes weren't very high. I figured that if things had changed drastically in the industry, I would know about it.

Dragon still isn't perfect, but people can come up and bother me at work and their words are not recorded. I still need to correct Dragon quite frequently, but it gets it right more often than it gets it wrong.

I'll post and update after I have been using the software for a bit longer but you may be happy to know that this blog was written using the software.

Comments

Brian Robertson said…

I have just resurected my voicetype 3.00 and installed it on my laptop.

I wondered if you can help me.
Having installed the programme and it working well.
On reboot I discover that THE PROGRAM IS WRITING THREE SMALL FILES(database files starytuk.add) TO A SUB DIRECTORY CALLED 'PROGRAM" ON THE MAIN TREE. This is conflicting with the system and the "program files" directory at the same level. On re booting i am asked to rename the directory but the programme of course makes another directory.

Is there a way of rewriting these files to another directory even to the programme directory or a patch to help in this problem.

2:12 am

Gavin Bollard said…

Hi Brian,

I've had a look at voicetype and it looks to me like it uses the \Programs rather than \program directory (which shouldn't cause conflicts).

I'd suggest that you uninstall it and try for a custom install.

If you can't do that, then rename the directory and then...
Do a search through the registry for it (this is likely to be painful because of the number of things using c:\program files) and replace occurances.
Change the the startup directory on the icon
Look in the programs folder for any INI files and change them.
Look in the windows folder (Win.ini and system.ini) as these are old style install files - and change any references you find.

Voice recognition has moved on a long way since voicetype and I'd recommend that you look into dragon. It's a lot better.

Good luck.

Gavin.

12:21 pm

How to Change Your Notification Options for New Lotus Notes Mail in version 8.x

Don't worry, I'm not patronizing you (my readers), I just decided to re-document this for one of our internal users and thought you might want to be able to use it in your own user documentation. WHAT IS THIS DOCUMENT ABOUT? Some people who don't get a lot of mail, like to be notified when such an event occurs. Notification can be; via a sound via a pop-up box via the system tray (where the computer clock is) The pop up box looks like this; Other people, who like myself, get too much mail would rather not be notified. The aim of this document is to tell you how (and where) to turn these options on and off. CHANGING YOUR SETTINGS To change your settings from the Notes 8.x client; On the Menu, click File , then Preferences... On the left hand side , click on the little plus sign to the left of Mail to expand the options. Click on the option marked Sending and Receiving . In the middle section, under receiving, you can control your notifications. If you untick the box mark...

How to Create a Bootable DVD Using Nero Burning ROM 9

I often need to create bootable CDs and DVDs but it's weird because I frequently end up buring myself a new coaster instead. It's not that the process is difficult, just that nero has a few too many options and I forget which ones to choose and end up picking the wrong one. I figured that the best way to avoid this mistake in future would be to write the steps down. Procedure Insert CD or DVD into your DVD Burner. Start Nero Burning ROM 9 Choose DVD-ROM (Boot) or CD-ROM (Boot) depending on what you're creating You'll be prompted for a disk image source. Choose a Nero Source - you'll usually find them somewhere like this... C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero9\Nero Burning Rom\DOSBootImage.ima Leave the Boot Locale as English - unless you really need a different keyboard layout Tick the box marked [X] Enable Expert Settings Choose Hard Drive Emulation and leave any other settings as they are. Click the button marked New Add any files you want but don't try to add operati...

How to Create an Auto-Response Mail Message in Lotus Notes 8.5.3+

Why would you do this? Suppose that you have an externally accessible generic email address for your company; support@mycompany.com or info@mycompany.com. You might expose this to the web and allow people to send messages to you. Setting up an auto-response email will tell the senders that their message reached its destination and that it will be dealt with accordingly. It's also good practice to include links to FAQs or other useful information. Why 8.5.3 The techniques we'll be using here work in older versions of Notes but some of the options seem to have moved around in 8.5.3. I figured it was a good time to show you where they've moved to. The Procedure Start Domino Designer and open the Mail file to be modified. A really quick way to do this is to right-click on the application tab and choose "Open in Designer". In the Left hand panel of designer, expand Code and then double-click Agents. A new window should appear. Click the action ...

Real World Computing

Search This Blog