Great Buy on 1 Terabyte Hard Drive at Buy.com

Last week I mentioned my plan to pick up a 1 terabyte Western Digital MyBook external hard drive.

Well they are on special right now at Buy.com.

I’m still holding out for the device that I can connect to my network through the ethernet and then connect to 1 terabyte of space via my wireless router from anywhere in the house or login from the internet while traveling.

The drive I’m referring to is the World Edition MyBook.

That said, paying $199 for a 1 terabyte Western Digital MyBook is a steal compared to the rates I’ve seen at office stores and even online.  I think that price is good until Friday, the 16th if I understand Buy.com’s weekly specials correctly.

Voice Transcription with MP3 Player Voice Recorders

Next up, I’m also going to be testing out Creative Zen MP3 players and their ability to record voice notes which can be transcribed with Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.  I’ve been working with a Creative Zen V this evening, trying to figure out the file conversions first.  It records in 32 bit WAV and it needs to be 16 bit WAV I believe, but there’s something else that I’m not getting quite right.  I think maybe I need to also convert Stereo to Mono and something else.

Then this weekend I will be test driving a regular Creative Zen (the video, picture and MP3 player).  This is a 4gb and newer than the Creative Zen V.  I looked originally at Wally World where they were $120 in the store ($10 cheaper online) but only $90.99 at Buy.com plus they give you a $10 rebate that was not available at Wal-mart, so you can get a 4GB Video MP3 Player Creative Zen at Buy.com (technically better than a 4gb IPod if you follow CEA reviews and awards) for about half the price of an IPod and $40 less than you would pay at Wally world.

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In Perusing through several new social networking concepts I came across a social networking talent site called Gonnabe (www.gonnabe.com).

They offer talented individuals or parents of talented kids the opportunity to network together at a professional level, develop their skills and build out their portfolios and offerings.  Think of it as a LinkedIn for entertainers or parents of future entertainers.

Now, I like the concept that Gonnabe offers up for a couple of reasons. 

1. They facilitate people to work together and grow together.  Too often creative types are pitted against each other in a zero sum game that does not benefit consumers.
2. They are utilizing web 2.0 concepts of bringing people together to reduce costs and increase speed and efficiency.  Instead of say parents having to cart their kids off to LA, they can conceivably make forward progress without having to relocate or travel.
3. This encourages the masses to improve their skill sets. 

That last point is very important.  In an American Idol type of contest, they essentially weed out creativity and originality as they race to identify a single person that can win a popularity contest, so that a record company can then control a limited resource in a single artist.

Under this methodology, many artists can network together, improve themselves, their skill sets and offer up more very good content without people being subjected to a monopoly on the artist or their performances.  This increases both the quantity and quality of entertainment and media and that is a philosophy that I tack after as well.

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I learned a new thing about Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 when I transcribed multiple MP3 files into text this evening. 

I had 6 documents (recordings) that I needed to have transcribed.  I opened up Dragon Pad (the Word Pad like program that comes with Dragon Naturally Speaking).  I then used the Transcribe Recording program to select MP3 sound files of my voice one at a time and have them transcribed into text within the same document.

It was a slightly repetitive process as I do not have a batch transcription capability with my version of Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.  (this may come with the mobile version, but I can not attest to that).

The interesting thing that I learned

After completing 6 transcriptions, with the text transcribed onto the same document, I was able to go back and select text from any of the 6 transcriptions and play back the voice file that went with the transcription. 

Plus, I could even correct that text to help train my computer for greater accuracy.

Finally, the original MP3 files did not have to remain on my computer.  I was able to play back the voice with the text, even after I had removed the original MP3 file from my computer.

The MP3 file was actually on my pocket recorder stored in flash.  I disconnected the card from the USB and could still play the file back.  This signified that the transcription process actually copied the sound file into or with the dragon pad document.

How Long does the Sound File stick with the Document?

The sound file and ability to listen to the voice with the play back function remained until I closed the document. I tried saving the document, closing the document and then re-opening the document in Dragon Pad.

Once it was reopened, I could no longer listen to the voice file that went with the transcribed text.

All in all I was impressed with this functionality as I tested it and learned some of the new boundaries.  Its not a deal maker or breaker for this software, but under certain circumstances it is useful to understand.  Its not so great that I’m going to call up my futures broker in the middle of the night and go long on Nuance stock or something.

However, if you ever run into a situation where your computer crashes and a document gets closed down prematurely, it would be my advice to simply run the original voice file through the transcription again and start over again if you need the ability to go back and compare the text to the original voice file.

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Last month I picked up a little hard drive, and it has rapidly become my favorite new electronic gizmo.  Its a hard drive and that may not sound glamorous or even as fun as GTA IV, but it just might be.

Its a 320GB Western Digital hard drive.  Its completely powered by USB, so I do not need any extra power cables or anything.  Its just a little longer than my Treo 700 and its half as thick!

This drive works with USB 2.0 and the drive is fast.  One of the things that I like about it is that its easier to add on to a laptop than doing a hard drive upgrade.

My current laptop has a 120 GB hard drive, and its pretty much full with pictures and video (from all of the tutorials and Camtasia videos that I create.

Upgrading a laptop hard drive is expensive and a little tedious.  But you can just plug in and play this micro monster.

Plus, its generally cheaper than upgrading your laptop hard drive too.

This only costs $135 at Buy.com for example.

Other Sizes

Now, I needed a lot of space because of my video work, but you can get smaller sizes (for less money too).   The 160 GB version from Western Digital is featured as one of Buy.com’s weekly deals with free shipping no less at a total of $79.99. 

Its the same size in physical dimensions and looks the same as well.   Or the in between size is 250 GB and costs about $113.  Color is not important for me, but if you are looking for color, they come in just about everything under the rainbow from black, red, blue, yellow, orange etc.  If you want sturdy and tough, there is a titanium cased version that typically costs an extra $10.

Now if you go looking for these, they are in the ‘My Passport’ Line.  There is also a ‘My Book’ line as well.  The My Passports are the thin little USB powered hard drives.

When You Need a Terabyte Drive

The My Books are named because they are about the size of a thin Harry Potter Book, but they have the added capability of being able to hold up to a terabyte of data and they can be configured to run on a network all by themselves.  I’m looking at getting one of those terabyte drives next.

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I have a Sony IC Recorder ICD-UX70.  It is not sold to work with Dragon Naturally Speaking 9, but works just fine.  It cost me $100.  For $200 you can buy a Sony Recorder that comes with Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 software, and I consider that a great bargain.

I bought my software, Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Preferred, over a year ago and bought the recorder later.  In total I spent $150 for the software and $100 for the recorder.  Total $250.

Since the Sony IC recorder doesn’t come made for DNS 9, I had to do some trial and error testing to figure out the best settings on my recorder for Automatic computer transcription.  (I recorded something on my sony recorder by speaking into it.  Then ran the mp3 file it generated through Dragon Naturally Speaking 9, which transcribed my voice into text.  You can see the results below for each of the recording quality settings on my Sony IC Recorder.

This is the original Text that I read aloud:

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 9 is the most accurate speech recognition product Nuance has ever developed - delivering up to 99% accuracy! Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 9 is the ideal solution for busy corporate professionals who want to work faster or organizations looking to keep people with disabilities, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, on the job.

Here are 4 quick tips to duplicate my results or just get good results for every day voice transcription. 

1. If you run a file through transcription and it seems to get it dead wrong, or if the first few words are incorrect, try running the file from the beginning all over again.  Sometimes your machine just needs a fresh start at a transcription. 
2. Hold your MP3 recorder a couple inches to the side of your mouth.  I hold mine with my right hand to the right side of my mouth so that it doesn’t pick up my breathing too much.
3. Plus, when creating a voice file that should be transcribed, I try to allow 5 seconds of silence at the beginning of the recording to give my computer time to start the transcription process.
4. Set your microphone sensitivity to low

This is the Transcription results at 5 different quality settings. 

Note. I have not trained the software to work with my digital recorder.  I did not make any effort to correct the transcription.  If I had subsequent transcriptions would have substituted the word ‘nine’ for the number 9 for example.

ST - 192 kbps - Very Accurate, bit rate might consume too much memory, but fine if you will sync up file on rapid basis (37 seconds 887 kilobyte file size)

Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional nine is the most accurate speech recognition product nuances ever developed-delivering up to 99% accuracy!  Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional nine is the ideal solution for busy corporate professionals who want to work faster or organizations looking to keep people with disabilities, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, on-the-job.

 

STSP - 128 kbps  - Very Accurate, Recommended, also good for Podcast quality (37 seconds 589 kb)

Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional nine is the most accurate speech recognition product nuance has ever developed-delivering up to 99% accuracy!  Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional nine is the ideal solution for busy corporate professionals who want to work faster or organizations looking to keep people with disabilities, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, on the job.

STLP - 48 kbps - Decent and definitely workable (36 seconds 218 kb)

Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional nine is the most accurate recognition product new one is ever developed-delivering up to 99% accuracy!  Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional nine is the ideal solution for busy corporate professionals who once worked faster or organizations looking to keep people with disabilities, such as carpal tunnel syndrome on the job.

SP - 32 kbps - Not Optimal, but could be better (35 seconds 141 kb)

Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional nine is the most accurate beach recognition product and once is never developed-delivering up to 99% accuracy!  Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional nine is the ideal solution for busy corporate professionals want to work faster or organizations looking to keep people with disabilities, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, on-the-job.

LP - 8 kbps - Not Recommended - Barely Functional (34 seconds 34.7 kb)

Him in an in him or over and and and and or allowing for which you will will work for your or should look to the work of the to him or her on.

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