David Gulbransen

Wise Up, Suckers

  • All About Dave!
    • The Basics
    • Simpsonized!
    • My Tattoo
    • My Motorcycle (R.I.P)
  • Professional Info
  • Friends
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Preaching to the Perverted (Blog)
You are here: Home / Archives for Technology

Speaking, Naturally

September 21, 2007 by Dave!

I write a lot. I write for work. I write for school. As a result I spend a lot of time in front of the keyboard. Lately, my wrists had been giving me some problems. Ironically, most of my wrist problems don’t come from the keyboard but the mouse.

Regardless, I decided it was time to try something different. So I broke down and bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking, it’s pretty weird actually trying to get used to speaking instead of writing. It’s almost as if speaking engages a different part of my brain than writing does. Although the words come out faster, it takes me longer to think about exactly what I want to say. When I’m typing, it seems as though the words just naturally flow out of my fingertips.

I am pretty impressed with the accuracy of the speech recognition. After a short training session, NaturallySpeaking does a pretty good job of keeping up with my speech. It is a bit strange learning the command structure for corrections, but I’m sure that will come with time.

David Pogue was right about running NaturallySpeaking on the Mac. And yes, NaturallySpeaking actually got “David Pogue” right on the first try. Hmmm… I’d really like to get it running on my MacBook with Parallels. I installed NaturallySpeaking on my Windows partition, but was not able to get it working well with Parallels. So instead, I’m booting my machine into Windows with Boot Camp, and dictating in Windows applications natively. That really is not the way I would prefer to use the application, but since there is no Mac version I don’t really have a choice. Are you listening Nuance?

Another annoyance is the microphone comes with NaturallySpeaking. It’s pretty cheap. No, scratch that. It’s beyond cheap. In fact, when I first installed the application it kept telling me there were problems with the volume on my system and the sound quality. In the troubleshooting it suggested trying another microphone, which I did. The microphone I ended up using is a three dollar super cheapie I picked up at NewEgg for Skype when I was traveling. Seriously, it was $2.99. NaturallSpeaking didn’t have any problems with the three dollar, super cheap microphone, but continues to have accuracy issues with the microphone that was actually supplied by Nuance with the software. Again, are you listening, Nuance?

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the experience. It’s definitely going to take some getting used to, but I can see how it will be a productivity boost once l get used to speaking instead of typing and after I spend a little more time training the application better. But booting into Windows to use it on my Mac is going to suck. I may give iListen a try…

For now I’m giving it three out of five stars. Speech recognition is definitely more impressive than it used to be, but it’s still not the seamless experience it needs to be in order to really change the way that I work every day. And it should run on a Mac, too.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Technology

Mod Blanc

September 8, 2007 by Dave!

Pilot G2 “Gel Ink” (4) for $8.

Mont Blank Rollerball Refills (2) for $10.

Cut less than 1/8″ of plastic off the end of the Mont Blanc refill and replace the G2 cartridge.
Amazingly fine writing instrument for $7. Net savings of over $200.

I’ve been meaning to try this trick for a while, and tonight I finally did it. It took me longer to open the pen/refill packages than to do the hack.

Now, granted, the pen doesn’t have the same weight in your hand as a Mont Blank, which is part of what makes them such a pleasure to write with. But for the difference in price, I’ll take my mod-G2. It does write as smooth as glass. And if you’re a dork like me who is always losing pens anyway, it’s much better to lose a $7 “Mod Blanc” than a $200+ Mont Blanc.

Yes, I’m a pen nerd.

[Via Instructables]

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Technology

Positive Marketing and Positive Sales

June 27, 2007 by Dave!

Seth Godin has a good post today about positive markeing versus negative marketing with respect to Verizon’s attitude toward fighting the iPhone. This reminded me of an experience I had last year with a new system we were purchasing for work.

The system was an expensive hardware/software combination. But that isn’t important. What is important is that there were multiple vendors competing, each with different marketing approaches. Two sales teams stick in my mind from this experience: one was very positive, one very negative.

The positive team emphasized _their_ product’s strengths. They listened to our needs and they tailored every presentation to how their product’s features met our needs, or helped us solve a problem in a unique way. Aside from a brief comparison to the competition’s products in our initial meeting, I don’t think they mentioned their competition once.

The negative team spent nearly as much time denigrating (or attempting to) the competition’s products as much as they did promoting their own. They would talk up a feature for a few minutes and then waste our time and theirs telling us about which of the competitors didn’t have that same feature, or implemented it in an inferior way.

The problem with this approach–and I think this scales for big or small purchasing decisions–is that as an educated customer, I’m doing my own research. I’m talking to the competition. I’m seeing exactly what features they have and don’t have. So when you’re pitching your products to me, I don’t want to hear your opinion about the competition–I want to hear about your product.

It’s not hard to see which team was more pleasant to deal with. And ultimately, which team do you think won the contract? It was the team with the superior product, of course, whose features best met our needs. But do you suppose that if the negative team’s product really met our needs and was really best of class that they would have felt the need to spend so much time trying to cut down the competition?

If you want to learn more on how to improve your productivity with AI systems, you can click onĀ Salesforce and see how your team can have various benefits working with AI systems.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Technology

Improving Tradeshows

June 21, 2007 by Dave!

So, I’ve been here at a large trade show in CA for the week, and I’ve noted somethings that would really improve the show and make it a better experience, for me–and others I’m sure…

1. Chairs. There is a dramatic shortage of places to sit. Part of this is by design, of course floor space is limited. But it was consistently a problem to get a seat to grab a bit to eat, or to look at the floor map, or to rummage through my bag for something. There was a huge area of seating… in the basement of the convention center. Away from everything else, including the food vendors. Really poor planning, if you ask me.

2. Wi-Fi. I am posting this from my Mac, via wi-fi. And I’m paying for it. Yes, in 2007, a major _technology_ conference doesn’t have free wi-fi. This is just idiotic. I went to a vendor party the other night, where a lot of money was spent on games, food and other crap. The vendor could have easily spent a little less on throw-aways, and instead, sponsored free wi-fi for the show. It’s not like the vast majority of people here don’t have laptops and the need to check e-mail. Yes, the show provides a “Cyber Cafe” for free–but in the days of POP/IMAP and laptops, this is pretty antiquated. Give us wi-fi already. Sheesh.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Observations, Technology

Ridiculous Disclaimers

June 20, 2007 by Dave!

I’m in California all this week for a conference, which so far has been kind of a bust. It’s a regular annual technology thing, with some training seminars and a lot of vendor exhibitions. Unfortunately, there just haven’t been many things I’ve seen here that I didn’t already know about. The web and the speed of transmission of information has really changed what conferences *should* be, but that’s for another post.

This post is about one of the training seminars. Now, keep in mind that most of the attendees at this conference are technology professionals. They make their living working with technology.

Today, I attended a session, which had typical PowerPoint handouts, but the second slide (after the title) was a huge “WARNING”:

“Materials may not be recorded or copied or used for any for-profit purpose or any other event use without prior permission. Violators will be prosecuted.”

First, the whole point of getting the information in the seminar *is* to use it for-profit: to expand your skills and increase your business. Now, I do realize that this disclaimer is really meant to try to discourage people from stealing the slides for their own presentations, but honestly, is this really necessary? More to the point, does the presenter think it’s _effective_? It won’t stop a real jackass from stealing the content, it doesn’t really provide any legal protection (a simple copyright notice at the bottom would have worked) and it insults the intelligence of the rest of us.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Blawging, Law, Technology

DLG in the ATL

April 25, 2007 by Dave!

I’m in Atlanta, blogging from the Emory Conference Center, which I might add is quite nice. The facilities are cool and the staff are just the friendliest and helpful people…

I’m here for a work conference, which sucks because I won’t really get to see much (okay, any) of Atlanta, but the conference itself is pretty cool–met some really great people so far, very nice, in a similar line of work, so it promises to be a productive conference.

I don’t normally blog about work, and this isn’t really an exception. But I just had to say that so far, what I’ve seen of the Emory campus (which is limited to the Conference Center area and the Mill House) is just beautiful. If you ever have the opportunity to go to a conference here, I’d recommend it.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Technology, Travel

Un-Conference: LexThink

January 29, 2007 by Dave!

Over at LexThink they are undergoing some changes, with an updated logo (that still leaves _a lot_ to be desired, in my never humble opinion) and a new tag line, “the legal unconference company.”

One of the LexThink principals, Dennis Kennedy has a nice roundup of un-conference posts and I wanted to throw in my two cents.

I’ve only had the pleasure of attending one LexThink event, Blawgthink 2005, but it was one of the single best and most productive conferences I’ve been to. There are some different opinions on what an “unconference” is or should be, but I think that LexThink does a tremendous job with their implementation/interpretation.

I think is important to realize that an “unconference” does not mean “unstructured”. Instead, the structure is organic and comes from the desires and goals of the attendees, not a mandated structure from the conference organizers. The result is that you learn far more in an unconference session (generally)–at least I do.

That isn’t to say that every session is a hit. It takes the right presenter to be fluid enough to work well in an environment that isn’t rigid and pre-planned. That’s one of the LexThink strengths–finding the right people. It also takes an open mind and a willingness of the attendees to take charge of their own agenda and not to settle for being spoon fed information. Sometimes, one or the other isn’t there and the result is a lack-luster session.

But surprisingly often, the attendees are excited about having some input and step up, and the presenters are excited about the interest from their audience. The excitement is contagious, a feedback loop of sorts. When everything comes together, the result can be a fantastic, interesting, and *productive* session where more information flows in all directions and learning abounds.

I know I sound a bit like an evangelist, but seriously, give an unconference a try sometime, it’s worth the risk. It won’t cost you anything but time and chances are you’ve wasted plenty of that in traditional conferences already.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: BlawgThink, Law, Technology

Disposable Printers

January 23, 2007 by Dave!

My wife and I have a Samsung ML-2510 laser printer at home. It’s a nice little printer–definitely not high volume, but for the limited printing we do at home, it’s been great.

Well, recently, the toner has started to fade. No big deal, it just needs a new cartridge. So I go on-line to order a new cartridge, and I discover this deal to purchase a new printer for $59.99. How much for a new toner? $77.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Technology

Delicious Library

January 5, 2007 by Dave!

I’ve been meaning to check out Delicious Library for a while, even more so after I went to the Evening at Adler last year.

Well, as usual, I kept putting it off. And then along came the MacHeist bundle which included Delicious Libary, and so I didn’t have any excuses anymore.

Holy crap. What a fantastic application. Wow. This application is exactly why I went back to using Macs (after quite a long hiatus). The concept is simple: catalog your CDs, DVDs, Books, and video games. It’s the execution that is brilliant.

What makes it brilliant is the leverage of the iSight. You see, there’s no typing in titles, song tracks, descriptions, and all that. You just fire up the iSight, and you get a video window “scanner” (complete with red laser lines across the window). Just hold up the bar code on the item and *blip* Delicious Library scans it, looks up the info for the item and imports it into your library.

All the info you could ask for is right there… title, tracks, descriptions, ratings (from Amazon, etc. You can add your own ratings, locations, notes. And best of all, it’s a great, straightfoward interface that takes virtually no time to learn.

Amazing.

This is the kind of application that makes computing a joy. My only regret is that I didn’t play around with it sooner. Now I’m going to go on a rampage, importing everything I own.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Technology

Microsoft: We can’t even *give* Vista away!

December 28, 2006 by Dave!

Okay, that’s not quite true. But apparently, after the flack they received for trying to buy reviews and snow the blogosphere give prominent bloggers a chance to preview Vista on swanked-out, fugly, yet free laptops, it turns out, Microsoft wants the laptops back.

Classic. Let’s hope Microsoft executed Vista better than they’ve executed this PR campaign. Or maybe this is what happens when you try to buy a viral marketing campaign… and do it poorly.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Filed Under: Blogging, Technology
« Previous Page
Next Page »
www.flickr.com
My Photo Stream...

Recent Blog Posts

  • The Most Important Person in Your Family
  • Ribs
  • Blawg Review
  • Blawg Review #321:
  • SodaStream. Now I’m carbonating everything!

Categories

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2023 David Gulbransen · All Rights Reserved

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.