I have never been much of a golfer myself, at least not since I was a teenager. Something happened during the later stages of my teenage years that created what can only be described as a deadly slice. I’m not talking about a slice that ruins your golf game, I’m talking about a slice that ruins somebody’s face standing perpendicular to your swing.

So I stay away from golf, however it is amazing to witness just how much the technology of golf has improved in the last few years. Callaway golf clubs can help Tiger Woods hit the ball 25 to 40 yards further than he could with an ordinary club. Titleist golf balls can also add a few yards over a lesser golf ball.

More people are improving their game which technology than they are with practice. That makes it easier for your average person to get into the game and enjoy and that’s good for the golfing industry. It’s a good example of what technology can do to make life more enjoyable. Personally I’ll contribute to this by staying off the golf course in keeping everybody a little safer.

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Sometimes Dragon NaturallySpeaking works so well that you become overconfidence capabilities.  I get a ton of use of this product now, however on occasion the program seems to take a nap or maybe a daydream is a better descriptor.

Sometimes I think the program does live up to its claims of 99% accuracy.  However there seems to be a few circumstances where it falls far short of this claim.

1. If you hibernate a PC or don’t shut down and restart on a regular basis, over time the program will definitely become less accurate.  I’m sure this has a lot to do with RAM utilization and number of other aspects, but as a user that doesn’t matter to me all I know is that the program stops working as well as it used to work.  This is problematic because you build up trust in the program and expect it to work, and when it starts to make substitutions for words you don’t catch it is easily as you might have if you didn’t trust the program.
2. Another problem occurs when you run it with many other programs that are RAM hogs.  You get the same result of slow down performance, and the same problem of potentially not catching a mistake as your expectations have risen.
3. Another problem is that on occasion when you start to speak after you haven’t use the tool for a few minutes or after you’ve just turned on the microphone, there is sometimes a delay.  Now the weird part is that DeLay sometimes results in the words actually been transcribed, only say 40-60 seconds after the fact, and sometimes it doesn’t transcribe it all.  So when you first start talking you need to make sure that the transcription has started with you and that the program is actually ready to write.  You turn the program on and it’s almost like you have to ask your computer, “Are you really paying attention to me?”
4. you also have to be very careful in two circumstances that seem to come up with often enough for me to note them.  One of those is the situation where you’re composing an e-mail, and a strange noise in the background (my dog barking at home for example) apparently sounds to the computer just like the command to send an e-mail.  This results in the unfortunate sending of e-mail before it’s really ready to go.  Another problem that occurs, happens during the use of several different WYSIWYG HTML editors (DNS nine actually got those last three words correct on the first try!).  In some HTML editors something goes a little screwy with DNS nine sometimes.  What I’m trying to write text with the transcription program it sometimes rates it and it HTML portion without the appropriate tags and sometimes it doesn’t.  I see this happen on a regular basis in Windows live writer and on an occasional basis in Macromedia’s Dreamweaver. 
5. Finally DNS nine also sometimes forgets to make the appropriate distinction between simple words like ‘in’ and ‘and’ making what appears to be random substitutions of those words throughout a given discourse.  This is definitely problematic and not something that pops up on spellcheck, and due to the nature of some training that I’ve received in speed-reading I don’t always catch it when I approve the document.  It’s important to note all of these issues and try and remain cognizant of them so that you don’t develop and overconfidence in the software.

At the end of the day it’s a great tool and say the significant amount of time.  You have to be wary of becoming overconfident, picture that guy in the cheesy Viagra commercials who has just received a new boost of confidence.  You need to be aware of these limitations such that you can look out for them and avoid them.  If you can maintain that the tool will definitely increase your productivity and improve your computing experience.

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I’m working on my third day using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  Today I’ve been getting better at using a digital recorder in conjunction with dragon.  I can record anything on my digital recorder, transfer the wave file over to my computer, and use the Dragon NaturallySpeaking transcription capability to convert it into text.

Keep The Recording Rate High Enough to Transcribe

I’ve used a digital recorder for quite a few years for lots of different purposes.  In the past, I always used the lowest compression method of proximally 16 kB per second.  This allowed me to maximize the amount of recording time I can get on a memory card.

The quality is just fine for my purposes at this recording rate.  However, recently after I’ve started use Dragon NaturallySpeaking I’ve learned that if I use a higher compression rate 43 kb or higher fat dragon can then transcribe the sound files I make with my digital recorder automatically.

This is extremely convenient now. I can take my voice notes transcribe them into text and they can be searched through various different search tools on my computer, such as Google desktop. 

Don’t Forget the Punctuation

The only downside is that if I want to utilize Dragon NaturallySpeaking I need to remember to make my voice notes with punctuation such as, saying the word ‘Period’ or ‘Coma’. 

I’m truthfully very amazed at just how well this system and software works with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  When I was attempting to do research on the product, several of the reviews led me to believe that the digital recorder device might not be compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  It’s now my experience with one device, but as long as you’re wave compression rate is high enough to probably be okay.

Potential Usage

With this capability I can write a paper or an e-mail or dozens of e-mails.  I can read an e-mail that comes in on my phone and I can respond to it in full without having to type my thumbs into nubs.  I can respond by a voice file. 

I can then transfer it to my computer and convert it to transcribed text. Then I can copy paste it into e-mail and send it back.  This may not work for every short little e-mail.  However in those cases were an important e-mail comes in on my phone and a short response won’t work, I can give it a detailed response, while the topic is fresh in my mind.

Hands Free Phone Microphone

Now I just need to find a hands-free microphone for my phone, and I could write lengthy e-mails while driving.

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This is a test to see how Dragon naturally speaking works with word.

This is the first document that I am testing using Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred 9 from Nuance one of the funnier things that I noticed while going through the trial and demo is that when I try to say my own name, which is Bumeter, Dragon Naturally Speaking thought that I said ‘pubes are’, and then ‘be a major’ and then ‘viewed me turn.’

I have also noticed that the headphone that comes with the software works very well, but it is very uncomfortable on my head. It’s a little too tight for comfort and squeezes my skull pinching the skin just above my right ear.

In general the program seems to be fairly accurate even as I type this second paragraph. I now need to learn how to compose sentences using Dragon Naturally Speaking. I am very used to typing very quickly with my keyboard leading the thoughts flow out of my head into my fingers and now I have to push those same thoughts through my voice.

Plus I have to specify punctuation with my voice. My fingers know how to do this automatically. My voice is out of shape. However this should help me avoid repetitive stress injuries in the future as I can balance the amount of work I do with my fingers versus the amount of work that I do if my voice.

I’m especially impressed with the speed of the translation that Dragon Naturally Speaking provides. When I type, I’m not really a loss for words. When I speak and dictate I had to pause and think about my next sentence. I suspect this is something that I will learn to do over time.

I also find that I read this sentence that I just spoke after it types and Dragon Naturally speaking. So I say a sentence and then look back and read the sentence with my eyes. That doesn’t feel too natural right now however this is just the first document that I’ve done.

I’ve already typed 336 words. That doesn’t take much effort at all, and my hands doesn’t notice the work at all either. In fact I am literally sitting here twiddling my thumbs. I’m sitting about 4 feet away from my computer, and I have the zoom function on Microsoft Word cranked up to 150%. I have a wired microphone, the same microphone that is a pain in my head. So I can’t pace or walk around too much, but that’s okay.

I can just sit here and type all night long in the computer keeps up with me. “Now will you look at that it’s another hundred words.”

So now that I think I have a pretty good handle on this transcription process, I’m going to do two things. First, I’m going to write some blog articles. Second, when I get a little tired, I’m going to pull in some voice files that I have and see if I can transcribe the files with this program.

The function that gives me the most trouble is the function and Dragon Naturally speaking allows me to jump to the end of a document. The keywords for that command are “go to bottom.” I find myself repeating that command over and over and over and the cursor does not go to the bottom. I have no trouble going to the top but I can’t seem to race to the bottom to save my life.

So as I conclude this initial tester review of Dragon Naturally speaking, I thought I would try my name one more time.

My name is Brett be a better, my name is Brett view meter, my name is Brett view meter.

My name is Brett Bumeter.( I had to spell that with the voice editor this last time.)

Well, that’s okay most people can understand my last name either so I guess I can’t expect too much from a computer program.

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After getting lasik surgery about six years ago, I saw the light and realized that I needed to be more careful on my second go around at protecting my eyes. That day I went out and bought the best pair of UV protection designer sun glasses money could buy, at least money that added up to $320.

That was 6 years ago and the sun glasses lasted a long time, but I am older and wiser. These days I would look to our new sponsor CTS Wholesale Sunglasses. They provide Wholesale Fashion & Sports Sunglasses. I am not talking about some ad saying that the price is wholesale, but it really looks like a normal price. I am talking about buying a case of designer sunglasses for the price of a single pair!

See for yourself by looking at these Wholesale Fashion Sunglasses. Some of these sunglasses are less than a dollar a pair. For that kind of money I could have purchased 350 pairs of sun glasses and worn a different pair of sun glasses every week for the last 7 years!

Now I am not suggesting that you should be excessive. There is a practical aspect to this. My wife always loses her sun glasses and she usually does it when we are on the road. So she ends up spending $10-$20 for glasses at a gas station or mall to get through the trip. For $25 she could buy a dozen sun glasses and keep 3-4 pairs in the car readily available for her, any guests we have riding with us or even the kids.

My eyes steadily got worse over the years until I had lasik. Now they are holding their own and its partly because I protect my eyes. You can do the same, but it does not have to cost you a fortune.

View More info in Press release here

Technorati tags: Saving Your eyes, sun Glasses, UV protection

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I’m resurrecting a theme on my improving technology series. Today, I just wanted to review the technology of non lethal suppression weapons like tasers and things like mace pepper spray.

I first saw my first stun gun back in 1995, when I was fresh out of the Army and running a bar before I moved back to Illinois to go to college.

One night some guy came driving down the street in a van, and came into the bar offering to sell me a stun gun or some stereo equipment out of his van.

It was kind of a weird experience, but I didn’t realize why this guy would even have this type of an option until I learned that tasers, stun guns and many types of non lethal suppression weapons are not legal in all states, while guns are legal in all fifty.

If that isn’t a stupid paradox I do not know what is. It seems to me that the technology has continually improved in these types of weapons over the years. I remember my mother owning a tear gas pen that fired the tear gas with a charge that was triggered with a primer that you would find in a real bullet. It made one hell of a bang, but just sprayed dust.

These days you can dial up or dial down the stun on a taser, you can aim it much more effectively, and the fact that you can shoot it at all (as opposed to the old version that required that you be within arms length of your assailant) is a major advantage. But why do legislators want to prevent people from owning these items for self defense? It seems a lot safer than allowing everyone to run around with a lethal weapon after all.

The technology may have matured over the years, but the politicians don’t seem to have followed the same learning curve.

* This article is sponsored but the views and perspective are all our own.

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  Samsung announced this week that they have already begun providing samples of their 16GB NAND flash memory product to customers.  Samsung is hoping to start mass producing this product during the first quarter of 2007.

As samples were released prior to CES it is likely that Samsung will attempt to confirm and accept orders for this new product during CES such that the initial manufacturing build can commence in time to meet a 1st quarter launch.  Instead of surprising customers with a new product at CES Samsung is opting to work with their customers as a partner enabling them to review the product, make their purchasing decision in a timely manner, and then answer follow up questions and close deals when face to face with customers at the show.

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Hurricane Katrina helped to demonstrate to all of us the hard way that we need to take action ourselves to save our own skin sometimes.

We can not necessarily rely on the government planners or rescuers to protect us before its too late. This means that we need to be prepared for many different situations. Many things can go wrong even if you do not live by the coast.

In a tornado, the main thing we need is a place to go for emergency shelter.

FamilySafeShelterms.com recently provided a press release describing how they have been working for many years to provide some of the highest quality storm shelters made out of steal construction. Their goal is not to provide the lowest price at any cost but to provide the safest product and protection.

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Identify Improvements in Progress

Diesel technology is delivering higher torque and horse power and better fuel efficiency with many new electronic and mechanical components to make the technology more dependable and more effective.

Why is the owner making the changes

The entire truck industry has embraced this and worked to increase capabilities and performance.  There are many examples of this with the Ford Powerstroke, Dodge Cummins and even the Chevy Duramax.

What is the expected impact of the Change

Dependability of diesel trucks and cars is increasing while mileage and Diesel Performance increase in tandom.

Is the improvement on Target or a mis-direction

This improvement is headed in the proper direction. The potential has been there for several decades but has only really taken off in the last half dozen years with the explosion in popularity of trucks combined with the increase in oil prices that drove demand for more fuel efficient vehicles.

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