I have been writing a lot about Dragon NaturallySpeaking Software lately. I absolutely love how it saves me time writing posts. If you see the post before this one, it is almost 700 words. I used the software and with editing (mainly because I decided to reword things), it took less than 10 minutes. This software is a bloggers dream. Life is so much easier when I can write a 700 word post in the little bit of time I catch here and there during the day. The best thing is that I am not the only one who thinks so:
Drew of the BenSpark has put together a great little video demonstrating Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Drew has been blogging for quite some time and he might just be one of the best mobile bloggers that I know. He is probably more famous for his picture a day work as he is an excellent photographer. But I can’t help be amazed at how much content he creates and the high level of quality in that content.
He’s definitely a blogger that employs best practices when he finds them. And based on this video, it looks like he might see some potential in Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Now I am not trying to put an endorsement in Drew’s mouth. Time will tell, but I do think he is off to an excellent start.
You’ll notice in his video, that the sound quality of his video is excellent. That’s actually an important aspect for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I don’t mean that you need good video quality or sound quality in a video to make Dragon NaturallySpeaking work. However you do need a good microphone, and it should be a noise canceling microphone at that. The better the sound quality, and the better able your microphone is to remove other background noises, the better your system will be able to recognize the words that you say as fast as you say them and transcribe them accurately.
Now Dragon NaturallySpeaking comes with a noise cancellation microphone that works very well when you buy it out of the box. Drew is working with a download version that does not come with a microphone, and so he had to supply his own.
As I write this article, I am using a wireless headset microphone from Logitech. I’ve been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for almost two years now, but I’ve just recently untethered myself from Dragon NaturallySpeaking and started using a wireless headset microphone with noise cancellation capabilities. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 does have the capability of working with Bluetooth wireless microphones, but my particular microphone runs on 2.4 GHz wireless technology. Now if you live in a household or work in an office environment where there are a number of systems or phones or microwaves, you may experience some interference with this particular headset. In that case, you will probably be better served with either a Bluetooth headset or a headset that is capable of being plugged directly into your computer through the microphone plug or through USB. I don’t have that issue, and so I do get excellent quality with little to no interference at all.
So if you take an interest in Dragon NaturallySpeaking and want to try it for yourself, I highly recommend that you get a boxed version of the software which you can order from Nuance online. You can even get a good deal on a Bluetooth wireless headset and a bundled option from Nuance. If you’re looking for entry level pricing, you can start using the software and get a headset microphone for as little as $99.
To put that in context, I’ve taken three typing classes over the years to boost my typing speed and spent essentially three semesters practicing at typing. It wasn’t the only thing that I studied, but I spent a lot of time building up my typing skill. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you can invest $99, invest an hour installing the software (I’m being very conservative with that time estimate) and as little as 10 minutes training the software to recognize your voice before you can be off and running typing at 150 words per minute!
That is pretty amazing, and well worth the value of $99. Not to mention if you spend a little extra and get a wireless headset microphone, you can pace around your room or your office, you can exercise, or do a number of different things other than sit at a computer desk staring at your computer all day long. $99 basically gives you your freedom,and who wouldn’t want to type at 150 WPM for $99?
Best regards,
Brett Bumeter
www.softduit.com
My name is Brett Bumeter, and I wrote the article above and 4 1/2 minutes. The article is about 659 words long, and that translates into 144 words per minute. Add in two minutes for editing, and that’s still 100 words per minute!
I hate when your day starts off so well and then quickly goes downhill from there. Sunday morning was one of those days. Sunday started with the kids sleeping in till ten. Yes, ten. I was just as surprised. I also decided that we were going to go to church. I swear my husband is sometimes worse than the kids because he whined more than they did. My kids have not gone to church very often which I know is my fault. However, since Madison might go to Catholic school next year, I felt we should definitely go to mass. Mass was at 11:30 AM, so we had plenty of time to get ready and go. We made it to church with plenty of time to spare. Will made it about three fourths of the way through the mass before I had to take him out. Madison lasted till about five minutes left. However, she had to go to the bathroom, so she had a good excuse. we liked the church. Madison told us she loved it and wanted to go back. After that, Madison wanted to go to Denny’s and get alien pancakes. That is her favorite food. Since she was good in church, we decided to go there and eat dinner. lunch took forever but it was good. After that, we decided to go get Bill, Will, and Madison’s hair cut. That also went well. We came home, and Bill noticed that Madison seem to have gone to the bathroom quite a bit while we were out. After being home for about 30 minutes, Madison was in the bathroom about four times. I asked her if it hurt, and she told me she had “hot pee”. as a woman, this definitely sounded like an urinary tract infection. I personally have had a ton of them. Now, it is Sunday afternoon, so there was not a whole lot of places we could go. I first tried CVS minute clinic, but they would not treat her because she was under 12. I took her to the local urgent care. We got there one minute before they closed. However, at CVS, Madison had went to the bathroom. She did not have to go when we got to urgent care. She also was refusing to drink any water. While we were there she went four times, each time she only went about four drops. the ended up giving us an antibiotic and sent us home. However, Bill and I had a dinner downtown at Navy Pier for his work. It started at six. I got out of the doctor’s office at six. Downtown is over a half hour for us to get there. Seriously. in my area, I went to the only Walgreen that was still open. I hate that Walgreens, because they have horribly slow service. They told me two hours, I told him I would be back in a half hour. I went home and got ready in about 20 minutes. While we were gone, Bill had packed the kids bags to spend the night at grandmas. we packed the kids in the car and headed back to our brains. Of course, her prescription was not built yet. Also, while we were waiting in the car, Madison had to go to back them. I then had to take both kids out of the car and go into Walgreens. In the meantime, Bill had gotten her prescription and could not figure out where we went. we finally caught up to him, and we were on our way. Bill and I ended up being around an hour and a half wait for his dinner. However, they had just sat down to dinner when we got there, so our timing was great. The party was actually pretty fun. All in all, I guess it was not that bad of a day — the afternoon just stunk. Madison is doing well now. I swear, my kids never get sick during the week — the only get sick after hours or on the weekends.
Bill just called home to let me know he is coming home early. Since we haven’t had a chance yet to get pumpkins, we are going to go grab some tonight. I know that Madison is going to be super excited. She has been asking for a week when we can carve some pumpkins.
Ever have one of those days? I did today. Instead of my normal Tuesday routine, I got stuck doing other things I didn’t really feel like doing. If you read my last update from when we went to the doctor’s office, Madison needs to get a hearing test done. I finally got around to calling the school district today, and what a mess. Instead of being able just to schedule her for hearing test, they are making her go through an entire preschool screening again. Unfortunately, this means I had to prove residency once again. This is no easy task. To prove residency in my district, you have to bring in your tax bill, two utility bills, an original birth certificate, and your drivers license. Unfortunately, that isn’t always so easy to find. I spent the entire time while Madison was a preschool looking for these items. My other problem was that the school closed at 4 PM.This normally wouldn’t be an issue except Madison had preschool until 3:30 PM. It takes me around 15 minutes to get from my house to her preschool. In theory, I should have made a back In plenty of time. However, I got stuck by two trains. I then turned on the wrong street to go to the school and got a bit turned around. What a mess! Luckily, I got there with five minutes to spare. I literally ran into the building with the kids. Thank goodness the woman was nice, because it actually took me till five after four for me to finish all the paperwork. Seriously, there was so much paperwork it was like signing mortgage papers. Now, I have to sit and wait for school to call me back and schedule a screening for preschool. I seriously don’t understand why they just can’t do the hearing screening like I asked. I think the lady said that testing would start November 7, so at least we don’t have to wait that long. It’s just frustrating because Madison won’t qualify for free preschool, so this is just a waste of my time.
I am not sure if this made the national media yet or not. However, my Cook County Sheriff has stopped evicting people from foreclosed properties. They have found that a good percentage of people they were throwing out of their houses were renters who did nothing wrong and didn’t even know that the house they were living in was being foreclosed. From now on, banks will have to present his office with a court affidavit that proves the home’s occupant is either the owner or has been properly notified of the foreclosure proceedings. Illinois law requires that renters be notified that their residence is in foreclosure and they will be evicted in 120 days. However, it is evident, that isn’t happening.
“My job as sheriff is to follow court orders, absolutely,” he said. “But I’m also in charge of making sure justice is being done here and it is clear that justice is not being done here.”
Bravo Tom Dart! Since this isn’t an election year for you, I am glad to see that you are standing up for the little people. I doesn’t surprise me that you are already being sued for this decision. However, I personally think you are doing the right thing!
$99 basically gives you your freedom,and who wouldn’t want to type at 150 WPM for $99?![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1a26ea03-a73f-4039-ba35-235ea75be4f9)
Bill just called home to let me know he is coming home early. Since we haven’t had a chance yet to get pumpkins, we are going to go grab some tonight. I know that Madison is going to be super excited. She has been asking for a week when we can carve some pumpkins.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b3f05bbf-3b1e-48b1-97a0-71d42d918301)
Ever have one of those days? I did today. Instead of my normal Tuesday routine, I got stuck doing other things I didn’t really feel like doing. If you read my last update from when we went to the doctor’s office, Madison needs to get a hearing test done. I finally got around to calling the school district today, and what a mess. Instead of being able just to schedule her for hearing test, they are making her go through an entire preschool screening again. Unfortunately, this means I had to prove residency once again. This is no easy task. To prove residency in my district, you have to bring in your tax bill, two utility bills, an original birth certificate, and your drivers license. Unfortunately, that isn’t always so easy to find. I spent the entire time while Madison was a preschool looking for these items. My other problem was that the school closed at 4 PM.This normally wouldn’t be an issue except Madison had preschool until 3:30 PM. It takes me around 15 minutes to get from my house to her preschool. In theory, I should have made a back In plenty of time. However, I got stuck by two trains. I then turned on the wrong street to go to the school and got a bit turned around. What a mess! Luckily, I got there with five minutes to spare. I literally ran into the building with the kids. Thank goodness the woman was nice, because it actually took me till five after four for me to finish all the paperwork. Seriously, there was so much paperwork it was like signing mortgage papers. Now, I have to sit and wait for school to call me back and schedule a screening for preschool. I seriously don’t understand why they just can’t do the hearing screening like I asked. I think the lady said that testing would start November 7, so at least we don’t have to wait that long. It’s just frustrating because Madison won’t qualify for free preschool, so this is just a waste of my time.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=aeefec26-29d3-4881-b5f3-da7ce5de2ed0)
