Bytes and Bites

Bytes and Bites From Altitude Data And no, that's not my computer. Not me either, but hey. Sometimes I learn things that some folks might be interested in, sometimes I just run across a particularly interesting case, or make new connections or observations that eventually wind up in the bottom of my ever growing pile of other soon-to-be moot bits of data stored on my biological hard drive. Might call it a mental compost heap. Tech is sorta like a garden, if you think about it. The veggies you live on, the flowers for fun, the weeds that come from nowhere and the bugs you hate. The compost of the ancient stuff. (From, like, last year.)

Speech Recognition


Okay, I admit it, I'm weird. I watch documentaries over dramas, prefer history over fiction, and would just generally like to learn something whenever I can. Don't know when or how that started, but I can remember as a kid being taken to historical sites and being fascinated, trying to think what it would have been like to be there when history was being made. (Although one of the biggest things I remember about Gettysburg was the dead copperhead in the bottom of the trash barrel.) I have always liked figuring out how things happen, how they work, and how they connect. So maybe it was just inescapable that I was a Trekkie before the term existed. Lots of other folks were, too, and the futuristic technology from the show inevitably made its way into our reality. Even the speech control.

Windows 7 supports it natively, which has camps sprouting up on the side of the old standby Dragon, and in the opposite corner with Windows. I have worked with both, and overall there are pros and cons with each. As with lots of computer changes, it is generally most comfortable to stay with what you know, but if price trends and stability reports are any indication, Dragon may be on its way out. So heads up to any of you hard core Dragon users, be prepared to have to consider some further changes down the road. Who knows? Maybe they can work out the bugs that plague it with Windows 7 installs, maybe not. Heck, it took Microsoft a couple years to work out the Vista kinks and release 7, maybe Dragon is just in the same situation. Either way, there will be options, it just isn't going to be like Scottie issuing engineering commands on the Enterprise for a long time still.

DATE POSTED: 02.17.2011

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