MSSpeech Forum : What's on your computer? https://www.msspeech-forum.com/ Copyright (c) 2006-2013 Web Wiz Forums - All Rights Reserved. Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:37:48 +0000 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:24:26 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 12.02 360 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/RSS_post_feed.asp?TID=37 <![CDATA[MSSpeech Forum]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/forum_images/msspeech_forum.png https://www.msspeech-forum.com/ <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : I brought Craig&#039;s computer...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post218.html#218 Author: ramble
Subject: 37
Posted: 10/Dec/2008 at 12:24pm

I brought Craig's computer back to him yesterday.  Installed Vista on it, added memory and reconfigured his email.  We went thru the SR tutorial and replied to an email.  It worked beautifully.  He is in awe of it and is well on his way.  I was concerned that he might get into areas where he would get stuck but he tried the mouse grid and worked his way thru a couple of problems.]]> Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:24:26 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post218.html#218 <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : Jerry, I can hardly contain my...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post208.html#208 Author: ramble
Subject: 37
Posted: 03/Dec/2008 at 5:11pm

Jerry,

I can hardly contain my excitement over this.  Craig's laptop is relatively new, although it may not have the Duo Core processor.  He used to compose music through it as he was also a musician.  I listen to his Christmas music all the time during the season.  My guess is that the memory will be there as his sampling program is most likely a memory hog.  He is having dinner with his mom tonight (his birthday is tomorrow) and she will be telling him about this.  I am keeping positive thoughts for this working.
]]> Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:11:10 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post208.html#208 <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : ramble wrote:Hi Jerry,You probably...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post207.html#207 Author: Jerry
Subject: 37
Posted: 03/Dec/2008 at 4:25pm

Originally posted by ramble ramble wrote:

Hi Jerry,

You probably get asked this quite a bit.  My brother in law has MS and has lost the use of his hands.  He is currently running XP.  Would it make more sense to go to Vista or try ViaVoice.  Funds are limited.

Thanks


Hello Ramble,

It is good here from you. Welcome to the forum! This is a very good question and a great deal depends on the status of your brother-in-law's computer. By status, I am primarily concerned about the age of the computer. I could not recommend going to ViaVoice at all for someone who has lost the use of their hands. Navigational control is one of the benefits of using today's voice dictation products. It is vastly improved.

As Marty indicated, moving to Vista does require a certain level of hardware performance. Microsoft makes available a program on their website which will actually diagnose your computer's performance and advise you on whether not your computer can handle Vista. Vista comes in a number of varieties and the program would indicate which one can be supported on your computer. Minimally, if the computer can run it, Vista Home Premium would be highly recommended by me and is available on Amazon for $89 as an upgrade to XP. Of course, that includes Windows speech recognition and it would be an economical choice given that money is an issue. If the computer needs to be upgraded to run Vista, then the overall cost of this project would be more.

Another alternative would be to purchase Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred. You would not need to upgrade the computer and the price would be somewhere around $140.

One other issue that needs to be considered is the issue of how your brother-in-law intends to use the computer. If he does a great deal of writing then accuracy is also an important issue and an upgraded microphone might be important. Marty is the expert on that and can make recommendations for you. Also, the environment that he plans to use the computer in plays a part in this as you would want good noise cancellation in a noisier environment. That is primarily a function of the microphone.

I hope that this helps. Let us know how it works out. I would be really interested in hearing how you resolve this issue.

]]> Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:25:09 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post207.html#207 <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : Thanks, Marty. I will be seeing...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post205.html#205 Author: ramble
Subject: 37
Posted: 03/Dec/2008 at 12:23pm

Thanks, Marty.  I will be seeing Craig tomorrow or Friday and will get a closer look at his laptop.  The WSR toolkit is very affordable.  Some of the Dragon products are not.  The Vista option sounds like a very exciting option for him.]]> Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:23:54 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post205.html#205 <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : ramble wrote:You probably get...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post204.html#204 Author: mmarkoe
Subject: 37
Posted: 03/Dec/2008 at 11:45am

Originally posted by ramble ramble wrote:

You probably get asked this quite a bit.  My brother in law has MS and has lost the use of his hands.  He is currently running XP.  Would it make more sense to go to Vista or try ViaVoice.  Funds are limited.
Two summers ago, before the release of  the Vista operating system, I was invited to Redmond Washington by the Microsoft speech group to preview Windows® Speech Recognition. The very first statement made by the head of the workgroup was that the workgroup was charged by management with creating a speech interface that would help people with disabilities use a computer. I believe that they've done a very good job of speech enabling almost every function.
 
Therefore, I would recommend going with Windows Speech Recognition. ViaVoice used to be a very good program, but is basically software that has not been developed in over five years. There was one small upgrade so that it would work with office 2003.
 
The only caution I offer is that you may need a more powerful machine to run the Vista. At a minimum, I recommend a high-end Pentium 4 (preferably a Core 2 Duo or better) with at least 2 GB of RAM and 3 GB or 4 GB if you can afford it. If your machine meets these requirements, I say go for it.
 
Do you know about the WSRToolkit? This software adds many of the functions from Dragon NaturallySpeaking and ViaVoice you would expect. As your brother-in-law has a disability, he can apply for a free copy of the WSRToolkit.


Edited by mmarkoe - 03/Dec/2008 at 11:45am]]> Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:45:05 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post204.html#204 <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : Hi Jerry,You probably get asked...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post203.html#203 Author: ramble
Subject: 37
Posted: 03/Dec/2008 at 10:34am

Hi Jerry,

You probably get asked this quite a bit.  My brother in law has MS and has lost the use of his hands.  He is currently running XP.  Would it make more sense to go to Vista or try ViaVoice.  Funds are limited.

Thanks
]]> Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:34:43 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post203.html#203 <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : A while ago, I said that I would...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post193.html#193 Author: Jerry
Subject: 37
Posted: 18/Nov/2008 at 9:40pm

A while ago, I said that I would share with you some details about my computer. Being a bit of a geek myself, I designed and built it around the Intel core 2 duo at 2.4 GHz about 2 years ago as an upgrade from an older Pentium 4 processor. I read about the release of Vista and kept its hardware requirements in mind. It includes 2 gigs of RAM and a Radeon X1950 series video card. For audio, I use the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum.

In putting this computer together, it had to be able to serve 2 important sides of my life. One side is that I am a musician. The other side is my professional life which absolutely requires voice dictation capability due to my disability. The musician side of my life had some legacy hardware associated with it that would be quite expensive to upgrade with no practical reason for doing so. Some of the hardware would not work in a Vista system due to driver incompatibility. So I have a dual boot system with multiple hard drives to handle Windows XP professional (the musician side) and Vista ultimate to handle my professional side. As such, I get to personally experience the debate about which is better, Windows XP or Windows Vista? I vote hands down for Windows Vista but that's a whole other issue.

The benefit of building your own computer is that you can usually build a much stronger computer at a lower price and that was my experience. When I think about the issue of using computer technology to compensate for physical limitations, cost must be a factor that is considered by the consumer. The setup that I use cost much less than the equivalent computer purchased through HP or Dell. It does so because I was able to bring in much of the software that I already had. For Vista, I did upgrade my office applications to take advantage of some of Vista's features.

Where voice dictation is concerned, you do not need a killer computer to experience a very positive use of voice dictation software. If you can run Windows Vista on your computer you have a built-in voice dictation program that is capable of doing some wonderful things. Hopefully, the upcoming new version of Windows (Windows 7) will offer an even better voice dictation experience. For power users, it is very hard to beat Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 for speed and accuracy.

Wouldn't you know it? Just as I am really comfortable with this computer, Intel has just released an incredible new processor...Confused

]]> Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:40:08 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post193.html#193 <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : Hi Frank Abbott: Thank you for...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post170.html#170 Author: GM W
Subject: 37
Posted: 01/Nov/2008 at 6:22am

Hi Frank Abbott:
Thank you for this. 
At the moment I'm only interested in WSR and I will try out your suggestions as time goes by.  This is all very reassuring.
 
Regards - GM W
 
]]> Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:22:00 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post170.html#170 <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : I thought others might give you...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post169.html#169 Author: fabbott
Subject: 37
Posted: 31/Oct/2008 at 9:46pm

I thought others might give you directions to some of these groups, but just so you don't have to go a long time without some guidance, I would recommend two to you.

The first one is dedicated to Windows Speech Recognition and has been quite active related to the use of macros.  It has a large collection of macros that others have written.  Founded by Itamar, perhaps the first person who was a cheerleader for WSR, it is a Yahoo group, and you have to join (free), but it is really helpful.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ms-speech/messages

The second is one run by Skip, this one is older and has contributors both for WSR and Dragon NaturallySpeaking (along with a few holdouts for ViaVoice), it also will give you a lot of ideas. 
www.speechcomputing.com

There are others that may be more focused on Dragon, but you are probably more interested in the ones with WSR elements.  Martin and his moderators have done a really good job focusing this forum on WSR, and they should be commended for their efforts.

Frank Abbott


]]> Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:46:09 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post169.html#169 <![CDATA[What's on your computer? : Hi Jerry: I am happy to be...]]> https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post168.html#168 Author: GM W
Subject: 37
Posted: 30/Oct/2008 at 9:05pm

Hi Jerry:
I am happy to be onboard and to have people to discuss my problems and frustrations with MSR.
  Thanks and good wishes -GM W]]> Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:05:12 +0000 https://www.msspeech-forum.com/whats-on-your-computer_topic37_post168.html#168