Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Today I hope to demonstrate the product Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which is capable of translating your spoken language into written texts for various kinds of documents. If the demonstration goes well enough perhaps you could imagine yourself using such a product. The company Nuance that produces the product claims you can produce the documents 3 times as fast as you can by typing.

I first became aware of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking on a visit to Fry's electronics store. There was a man standing in the big aisle where you enter the store with headphones on. He was demonstrating the product. I was amazed at the fluency with which he was able to speak, and the speed with which the words appeared on the screen. The demonstration was memorable for me and after a few more trips to the store I purchased version 4. That was 1999. This demonstration is using version 13 which came out in 2014.

Over the years a number of competitors come and gone. Currently Google is pretty well known for accepting search commands that are voice activated. When you use Google voice, translation occurs in the cloud, not on your own computer. I have tried to use Google voice to produce documents and I miss the various aids to making corrections.

When I first started using voice dictation, it required training for an hour which involved having you read text into the computer from various forms of literature. My early attempts to produce documents contained so many errors that the document was more hilarious than sensible. Over the years the requirements of training have shrunk until for many people no training at all may be necessary. People make statements about an accuracy rate of something like 95%. Generally I think it understands me better than my friends do.

There are many versions of Dragon naturally speaking. My partner Edith's Doctor uses the medical version with it's medical vocabulary to summarize her doctors visits, with his instructions to stay healthy. There are many different deals for many different prices. I expect to pay $99 for a package with headphones and a CD disc. Macintosh versions will have different version numbers.

Opening number of the Hip Hop dance Showcase last Saturday

You have to be there to feel the enthusiasm as fans of each dance company see their own come on stage. I took an 8 week workshop starting in September and ending the Saturday before Halloween. I got into this from taking an exercise class billed as Hip Hop Cardio Dance. Learning some new moves every month holds my interest better than using exercise machines. 

The workshop gets the participation of some members of crack dance team FBC (Funk Beyond Control) from the host dance company. We also have some parents of kids in the kids dance workshop. The kids usually steal the show. There are dance crews from other guest dance companies, and sometimes high school dance teams where it is a school activity.There is a mother and daughter in this lineup. 
‪#‎hiphop‬ ‪#‎dance‬ ‪#‎halloween‬ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLDU-e-My9U&list=UUCfLnMRkua4HnI5Fo6nDaVA

NewCo SF 2014

I went to a conference on Thursday and Friday. Not the kind where a thousand people meet in a hall. This was an opportunity to visit a workplace of a company, in a group of 20 or 30 people. Most of the host companies have a business plan that features innovation. Conference is free, or you can pay $90 to sign up a few days earlier.

The web page to select a company to visit –Organized by Time of day. Each hour and a half time slot. One hour presentation, and a half hour travel time to the next location. Twenty industry categories, color coded in a column on the right.

AIA SF Visited American Institute of Architects – AIA SF is on Sutter Street, in the Financial District. Presentation by Bonnie Bridges, partner in a firm that prepares workspaces for startups that just got a ton of money. She hopes her projects have a useful life of 5 or 10 years. Sigh.

CoLiving in the Western Addition. SF House Tour. Who are these people?

StumbleUpon – Groundbreaking startup from years ago. Suggests webites you might like. Sold several times. Most recently, EBAY sold it back to the founder. I couldn’t get to SOMA district fast enough. The subway train never came.

AppMesh – Founders worked at SalesForce.com for six years. SalesForce is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) company. Two ideas, 1. Sales managers love it but salesmen have too much work required. 2. You are going to use your phone, not your computer. They got 3 million backing to spend. Rented prime space on Grant Ave, a block and a half from Chinatown.

See their workstations pushed out of the way for the presentation.

650 Townsend – A building housing 20 startups. Toastmasters Officer training happens next door at 600 Townsend.  The largest tenant is Practice Fusion. They produce freeware for health records. Doctors get to pocket more money instead of paying many thousands for the Epic medical records system. Supported by ads for Pharma products. Also easier to learn than Epic.

Game tables at 650 Townsend.

USF Professors. New Data Science curriculum. Remember when Computer Science was a new curriculum? Undergrad curriculum 4 years and masters 1 year program.

Hightail – The only host company I visited that was serving free beer. Began as YouSendIt. Allowed you to send bigger attachments than email. Now you can store all your files there. Very technical presentation. This woman didn’t pay the $90. She paid $40 to park her car.

NewCo07a SeaGlass Restaurant – At the Exploratorium. The presentation theme was they want your food to raise questions in your mind. The plight of the honeybees. They served a sample dish of honey in the honeycomb wax. You could chew on that for awhile. 

New home of the Exploratorium,

Chrome Bookmarks Lost

Yesterday I learned that while there is a single login for Google Apps, there is a separate login for Google Chrome, that controls syncing your bookmarks and search history. Logging on to Gmail does not log you on to Google Chrome. How to log on to Google Chrome seems pretty obscure to me.

Somehow I synced my bookmarks with Edith’s bookmarks on this computer only, which only have five items in one folder. I spent several hours trying to get my bookmarks back.

I finally got them back by removing Google Chrome from the computer, especially removing also the history, and downloading it afresh.

I don’t understand enough about how Google syncs your bookmarks. I think my problem was I made Edith the first user. I never figured out how to delete the first user. She was first user among three first users. You can add accounts to accounts in a sort of master-slave relationship.

For now I will not be logging on to Google Chrome on anybody else’s computer, let alone the library or job-seekers services. I also worry that Edith has another computer on this network, and Google may have copies of the rudimentary bookmarks file on their servers, and Edith may sync to them and lose some links to recipes.

Starting a Power Lawnmower

Do like this (click here) ---> Pull the cord

My first yarn of the new year (Told backwards)

They just forgot to tell somebody they should have.
Oh, I am talking about the sailboat. They put in for the night safe and sound.

The moral of the story is supposed to be that communication is good.

My new crew was actually a talkative bunch.

It’s just that the girl complained to her father, and the whole crew just wasn't speaking to each other.

It turned out to her surprise that she was supposed to be paired with the deck hand.

It seems that the engineman had invited the coxswain's daughter on a double date.

Gradually over the next week I learned that I didn't have the whole story.

I thought it was a magnificent piece of teamwork.

The coxswain drove the boat away from the pier down St. Mary's River along the American side,

After the deck hand cast off the line,

Soon after the engineman started the engine,

and all without a word being said.

As a reservist I had been added to the three-man crew of a patrol boat.

A sailboat had been reported missing the day before and we called off the search on account of darkness, to be resumed at first light the next day.

I was performing two weeks summer training at the lifeboat station just downstream from the Soo locks at Sault Ste. Marie Michigan.

There is a term. I first learned this term in the Coast Guard reserve.

You look out the window and it still looks dark except that sky is noticeably lighter now.

It is a magical term for a magical time of the day.

I woke on New Year's Day at first light.

My first yarn of the new year.

My first yarn of the new year

I woke on New Year's Day at first light. It is a magical term for magical time of the day. You look out the window and it still looks dark, except that the sky is noticeably lighter now. I first learned this term in the Coast Guard reserve. I was performing two weeks summer training at the lifeboat station just downstream from the Soo locks at Sault Ste. Marie Michigan. A sailboat had been reported missing the day before and we called off the search on account of darkness, to be resumed at first light the next day. As a reservist I was added to the three-man crew of a patrol boat. The engineman started the engine, the deck hand cast off the line, and the Coxswain drove the boat away from the pier down St. Mary's River along the American side, all without a word being said. I thought it was a magnificent piece of teamwork. Gradually over the next week I learned that I didn't have the whole story. It seems that the engineman had invited the coxswain's daughter on a double date. It turned out to her surprise that she was supposed to be paired with the deck hand. She complained to her father, and the whole crew just wasn't speaking to each other. They were a talkative bunch. The moral of the story is supposed to be that communication is good. Oh, and the sailboat. They put in for the night safe and sound. They just forgot to tell somebody they should have.