Phone, Phone on the Range

So it's time for another post again. The cell phone. Do people actually buy cell phones and change them? Keep on updating them?

I have an old-fashioned cell phone. The fact that I have a cell phone at all, is a rather big deal. I don't go much away from where I am, and have very little need to be contacted when I'm out in the street. Although I was one of the first to have a home computer many many years ago, I was one of the last to have a cell phone. Well I wouldn't say one of the last in the country. Because who knows? Neither did I take a poll nor do I know what other people have.

But I finally did get one, and it was the rather bulky type. So now I am looking for something a little bit more streamlined that would fit easily in my pocket. I don't need many fancy bells and whistles. I don't need net connections, 3-D iPod type movies, or to read my Gmail or news articles.

But I would like a camera. I would like a phone that has camera capabilities built-in. But I sure don't want to pay for it. And I have a contract already so I'm not looking to change.

I am stuck with what I have.

Life goes on.

The age of memories

The creeping fear of age has a way of creeping up on all of us. I just don't have the same sprightly step that I used to have years ago. I'm sure that could be expected. But I really don't know where my life is headed. And the problem is as time continues to disappear, there's less and less left to live.

Yesterday I purchased a lottery ticket for about $50 million. Well, the ticket cost the buck. No real expectation that I would win the thing. But they have that fantastic cliché, "you never know," so every once in a while I allow myself to indulge in my fantasies and I actually pay the dollar. Someplace in my be full thoughts, I consider that maybe there's something patriotic in supporting the lottery. The money goes to build bridges isn't that so?

For a dollar I indulge in a dollars worth of fantasy thought to approximately a minute or two. You know the spiel, what kind of house I would purchase, what country I would live in, what I would do with the remainder of the money. But of course at the end of the day my numbers were not picked and I did not win.

I wasn't upset. I couldn't expect otherwise. If I won $50 million somehow I don't think I'd know what to do with it. Yes, of course I'm ready to try.

We live in a certain dull circle of boredom and inertia, living our own dismal lives of quiet desperation, preparing, no, waiting for the big grand reaper to come and take us away.

I wish I could say that some grandiose events occurred in my life that made my life outstanding. Well, I did get to witness many grandiose events even though I was not really a cause of any of them. Perhaps one of the most significant was that I lived through the computer revolution. I had a brother-in-law that was a computer programmer on the old IBM of the 50s and 60s. The machine was as big as a room and all it would do was read numbers off a punch card.

In 1982 I purchased my first home computer -- a TI-99/4A Texas Instrument home computer. I'm not going to tell you how primitive it was, do a google on it and you'll see for yourself.

Today I sit by a computer that is powerful enough to run a nuclear power plant, and yet it sits on my desk with plenty of room to spare.

And I've seen the evolution of dictation software. Today I can speak and all of my words are transcribed. Or videotaped. Except we don't use tape anymore.

Time In

So there hasn't been an entry here for a long time. In a way that's criminal. Well, not really criminal because a blog after all is not an obligation but a choice. No one is forced to dictate to blog. It's an option we have and perhaps an option we use.

Having said that, I could not withhold from placing an entry here regarding the phenomenal upgrading of Dragon. Version 10 in my opinion is so much more superior to version 9 and all the other previous versions. Now maybe that's just the luck of the Irish. But I find that version 10 runs a much more smoothly, the words simply roll onto the screen much faster, and the accuracy -- the accuracy!-without even doing much training, is astounding.

I don't know what else I can tell you. I know that this program comes with more features than the previous versions. But I'm not really that concerned with them at the moment. Some of them let you browse the web verbally. I am going to explore those features in the future. But what impresses me most right now is simply the fact that the dictation is much smoother

I like it!

Out of It, Into It

There has to be a clear explanation as to why certain things seem to go in a way that was not expected. There is no rhyme or reason to certain directives, they just seem to come out of nowhere.

With that in mind we can understand the delay in blogging. It happens and it doesn't happen but when it happens it happens and that's just the way it is. I'm not sure exactly what to say in a way that would make a specific logical progression between the last blog entry and this one. Does it really make a difference? I doubt it.

But the accuracy that is found in dragons naturally speaking, is encouragingly amazing.

The ability to rile the feathers, then accelerate the speech capability to the extent that words just continue to flow both from the mouth to the screen is a phenomena that has evolved in the last few years. Nothing that can't be as stupendous and momentous as that for a writer. Although there are those who think that the writer has to see the screen or the printed words to be a will to progress, my view is that verbal vacation can shortly replace that. People need only close their eyes, focus on the thought that they wish to express, and express it in a streaming fashion.

The necessity to be able to dictate directly on to the blog panel, -- on the screen -- and not necessarily have to copy and paste from another box -- window -- is a very helpful mechanism and tool. To be able to dictate on the fly, with no limitation in terms of time and space, regardless of whether or not the accuracy level is perfect or imperfect -- allows for a flow of communication that is not hindered by any external circumstance.

This of course occurrences such as these are very enlightening. Can a person right a quickie 1000 word essay this way? I cannot think a reason why not. Can a person dictate a 50,000 word book? -- once again, why not? Although 50,000 words might not be that much after all.

What do we have to learn from all of this? They have to learn the necessity for brevity of time. It's necessary to say things quickly add occasion so that it shall be transcribed in a way that will be legible, and will be publishable. I think those are two very important and critical factors. It is important that the words be legible, in this case legibility means the ability to comprehend the fault of the writer despite the fact that there might be a typo or two here and there. The other is the ability to have the words published in a fast and meaningful way, so that from any corner of the world, a person with a laptop even and a copy of the dictation software will be able to dictate their faults and have them properly transmitted.

A thousand word text even on a 506K modem can take but a few short minutes. It's not necessary to fix specific typos, such as the 56 in the previous line, because anyone who reads this and has the slightest modicum of technical know-how will be able to decipher the information that is there.

Of course with faster Internet connections there is no shortage of speed. A writer or reporter on the scene, a journalist in the marketplace, or a business person needing to convey important information: can all simply dictate their message in a very quick way and have it transmitted text word to its final and rightful destination. The AP, Reuters, and other news services can have its reporters dictate their story send the wrong material over to their editors, and have edited and ready to print immediately. The Internet makes the immediacy and urgency of the story very much alive. Print media will never be the same since the advent of the Internet. Digital material and data will be the ultimate communicator.

Never lose the message.

Dates and Numbers

What does it help that the calendar has changed. Yes, it's a new year and a new cycle. But does that really cause any significant change in a person's life from day to day?

The big 2008 has come. It's going to be an election year, so that will affect some people. There is a new fiscal calendar and that will affect others. But by and large, years come and go, months come and go, and people's individual daily lives are not affected by the calendar numbers.

I have to figure out how to file certain technical papers for some projects that I'm working on. And frankly, it is a real pain. Because I'd rather not be the one responsible for it, and I would rather not have to figure out all of its intricacies. The deadline is coming and the burden rests upon my weary shoulders.

But hey, it is a new year. Let it be. Let it be. Let it be.