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Here’s my first attempt trying to transcribe a voice file recorded on a Sony IC voice recorder ICD-UX70 with Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Preferred.

DNS actually makes a mobile edition, but I just have the Preferred edition. So I’m trying to do this basically using non-standard equipment.

That said, I found this to be relatively easy. I need to make a few minor adjustments to my technique, but all in all it worked pretty good.

The level of accuracy at the beginning of the transcription (first couple sentences) was not as high as DNS normally is when recording straight through a microphone on the computer. But towards the end of the recording, it seemed to rapidly improve.

Plus, after the transcription session, I went through the entire document and made corrections within the Dragon system so that it could learn from the mistakes made with the Sony recorder. I’m going to repeat that a few more times to see if I can continue to get better results.
The audio that goes along with this post is the audio from the recording session.

Below you will find the transribed text (Post Correction):

This is a test for Dragon Naturally Speaking a digital recorder and I’m going to be importing the voice file into my computer after I connect my digital voice recorder to my computer through its USB slot. I then have to run import function with my computer and Dragon NaturallySpeaking pulling in the voice file into Dragon NaturallySpeaking in MP3 format. In the past I’ve tried pulling in MP3 files and converting them into wave files. This time I’m going to be trying to pull it in using an MP3 file and see if Dragon NaturallySpeaking can turn transcribe it better than it can as a WAV format. This Sony recorder comes with a user’s manual that recommends the MP3 format as opposed to the wave file.

So now I will see if this version works better. I’ve tried the WAV format once and it didn’t work so great however at the time I was using the recorder with the mic sensitivity set at an incorrect setting which brought in a great deal of exterior noise.

This time I had the microphone settings correct and I am hoping that the MP3 format as prescribed by Sony will help transcription more correctly.

The other thing that I have to work on is learning how to train Dragon naturally speaking for my voice recorder. I’ve never trained Dragon NaturallySpeaking for a voice recorder before, and so this will be a new experiment for me. Currently, I am driving down the street in my car making this recording. Driving a stick shift, and it makes a voice transcription little bit tricky.

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Well that’s the end of this proof of concept. I now know that I can take a simple little pocket recorder, keep a voice record, write an email, or even a book, almost anywhere from a plane to an airport to an Outer Banks rentals cottage on the beach and even on my kayak.

This is just one more way to un-tether me from the wires of my computer when I need a little more space or flexibility.

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This was one of those weekends when James Bond movies are played in a marathon like loop.  During one of the commercials in between they started talking about the top James Bond Cars ever.

I was somewhat surprised to see that they were almost entirely focused on recent James Bond Movies as opposed to the older movies with Sean Connery and Roger Moore.  I kind of suspect there was a bit of commercial product placement going on.  In my opinion the cars of James Bond movies in recent years have been a little tame.

Sure they are beautiful cars and can probably run circles around the cars from 30-40 years ago, but there is just something a little less dramatic about them.

Personally my favorite cars are the Aston Martin DB5 from Thunderball with Sean Connery, and then there is that submersible car that Roger Moore drove into the Mediteranean. 

Those seemed like spy cars to me with all the romantic notions of suspense and gadgets and out of this world technology.  The recent stuff like the BMW that Pierce Brosnan drove by remote cellular phone can be had by just about anyone these days. 

The run flat feature didn’t even seem that cool.  I had a humvee and a 5 ton truck with the same feature when I was in the Army, big deal!

Truth be told I will probably not end up with a submersible amphibious sports car, nor a DB5 anytime soon, but maybe someday I’ll pick up a car with the same number plates at least.  That does seem to be one of those trends that just doesn’t let up.  Accessorizing your techno thriller spy car just wouldn’t be the same if you end up with a less than cool number plate on the behicle. 

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I attend several trade shows and I have a house full of promo pens from these shows. As a small business owner I am familiar with the cost of these promo pens, and I’m also familiar with the fact that the promotions do actually work. A free pen isn’t going to convince you to buy something, however it will remind you of several key ingredients that you may need to buy something. The name of the product, a phone number or web URL and maybe the name of the company.

This of course can backfire if you go out and purchase. She promo pens that only work for half a day and get thrown away your become extremely annoying. It is important to get good-quality promo’s.

Now at CES, a place where I receive zillions of promo pens each year, I saw an interesting gadget. It was a Bluetooth mouse that docs inside your laptop into the slot where you would normally put a wireless card, I apologize I suddenly have forgotten the name of that slot at my PMCIA, but I’m in a remote place without Internet connection today and I don’t have the ability to confirm that.

Regardless this was a cool little mouse it literally fits inside any laptop, and its Bluetooth. It is sexy design and all that good stuff, but as I was thinking about these promo pens I pick up from CES, and as I was thinking about all of the free flash drives I also receive (another great way to run a promotion at a trade show) it dawned on me that these Bluetooth mice might make excellent promotional gifts.

They are small and compact, the kind of cool looking, and there’s something that any traveler with a laptop could definitely benefit from having. Their only missing one key ingredient. I missing an ink pen.

As I do most of my work on a computer I rarely need an ink pen but every now and then I get a phone call and I need to take a note and I’ve got too many screens open on my computer and I just can’t find a screen with a blank space. So I dig around for a pen and usually jot something down with the pen.

It sure would be cool if the pen were built into one of these Bluetooth mice that can be stored in my laptop. Then I would always have a wireless mouse and any pen with me at all times because I’m never even be without my computer!

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Samsung has made an advance in LCD technology that could gain them some ground in the thin phone wars.  They have created a technology that allows them to display two different images on two different sides (front and back) of the same LCD screen.

Many mobile phones offer a front and back view of an LCD screen.  This is actually 2 different screens displaying the same image or mirror image that is.

Samsung’s advance will allow them to remove one of those LCD screens from their phones that have a flip capability.  This will save 1 mm of space in phone design for flip phones.

Currently, Samsung has one of the slimmest phones on the market, the Samsung X820 which measures in at 6.9mm is not a flip phone and will not benefit from this advance.

Motorola, the company that started the race in slim phones, currently offers the slivr which measures 8 mm.  It is not a flip phone either.

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