Monthly Archives: May 2009

Tip: Use TinyURLs to tame long Web addresses

Long URLs are awkward in many situations, most especially on Twitter, where character count is paramount. The Firefox Tiny URL Creator add-on gives you more room by reducing any URL to just a few characters.

Tiny URL creator also solves an occasional issue with the Utter Command Site List. The Site List — the list of websites you can get to using a single speech command — handles URLs of up to 100 characters. The Tiny URL Creator eliminates this limitation.

To set up the Tiny URL Creator, download it. It will add a menu item to the Firefox Tools menu. To create a URL from the current URL in Firefox say “Under t t c” to click Tools/Tiny URLCreator/From Current URL. Creating a tiny URL puts it in your system clipboard. Say “This Paste” to paste it anywhere.

See the UC Exchange page UCandFirefox  for more details.

Have you found Firefox or Thunderbird add-ons that make things easier when you’re using speech? Tell me about them – reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.

Tip: Rudolf Noe’s Customize Your Web

Rudolf Noe, creator of the Mouseless Browsing add-on, is beta testing a new add-on that gives nonprogrammers extensive control of the Web.Noe’s Customize Your Web Firefox add-on allows you to specify that certain things happen every time a given webpage comes up. You can control where the focus is, click a button automatically, change how webpage elements look, and even change how they’re arranged on the page. Customize Your Web also contains a macro facility that allows you to attach keystrokes to elements on a given webpage. The key thing about the extension is it provides extensive control without having to program.Two of the simplest abilities — controlling where the focus is and clicking buttons, are fairly easy to implement. The focus ability lets you, for instance, open the Google Documents Site with the focus in the search bar. The click ability allows you to automatically login to any site.

To set up a focus change or button click on a webpage you go to that webpage, click the tiny Configure Your Web button in the bottom right corner of the screen right above the toolbar, click the element you want to affect, choose an action, then save what you have done.

You can name a Mouse Touch to click the Customize your Web button (see UC Lesson 10.24).

With just a little more effort you can specify keystrokes to do things like going down one search result, or click “Previous” or “Next” at the bottom of a search page.

If you assign the up and down arrows to go up and down by search result in a Google search, and Enter to click a selected result, you can then use the Utter Command speech command “3 Down · Enter”, for instance, to open the third search result down.

Noe’s video shows you how to use the extension in detail.

Also see UC Exchange page UCandFirefox.

Have you found Firefox or Thunderbird add-ons that make things easier when you’re using speech? Tell me about them – reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.

Tip: Rudolf Noe’s Customize Your Web



Rudolf Noe, creator of the Mouseless Browsing add-on, is beta testing a new add-on that gives nonprogrammers extensive control of the Web.Noe’s Customize Your Web Firefox add-on allows you to specify that certain things happen every time a given webpage comes up. You can control where the focus is, click a button automatically, change how webpage elements look, and even change how they’re arranged on the page. Customize Your Web also contains a macro facility that allows you to attach keystrokes to elements on a given webpage. The key thing about the extension is it provides extensive control without having to program.Two of the simplest abilities — controlling where the focus is and clicking buttons, are fairly easy to implement. The focus ability lets you, for instance, open the Google Documents Site with the focus in the search bar. The click ability allows you to automatically login to any site.

To set up a focus change or button click on a webpage you go to that webpage, click the tiny Configure Your Web button in the bottom right corner of the screen right above the toolbar, click the element you want to affect, choose an action, then save what you have done.

You can name a Mouse Touch to click the Customize your Web button (see UC Lesson 10.24).

With just a little more effort you can specify keystrokes to do things like going down one search result, or click “Previous” or “Next” at the bottom of a search page.

If you assign the up and down arrows to go up and down by search result in a Google search, and Enter to click a selected result, you can then use the Utter Command speech command “3 Down · Enter”, for instance, to open the third search result down.

Noe’s video shows you how to use the extension in detail.

Also see UC Exchange page UCandFirefox.

Have you found Firefox or Thunderbird add-ons that make things easier when you’re using speech? Tell me about them – reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.

Tip: Undo for closing a webpage


Ever close a webpage, then wish you hadn’t? In Firefox there’s a shortcut that undoes a tab close: “Shift Control t”.

Ever close several webpages in a row and wish you hadn’t? You can use the same shortcut to get back the last few pages you closed at once, e.g. “Shift Control t Times 3”. Here are some related commands: use “Document Close Times 3” to close tabs and “Control t Times 3” to open blank tabs.

Speak quietly and you don't need a big stick


Computers can be frustrating when they don’t act as you anticipate. You can anticipate better, however, if you know what they’re going through.

One thing I’ve found with speech recognition is when something is misrecognized the common instinct is to speak more loudly into the microphone — like you’re talking to a person who didn’t quite hear.

This usually makes things worse. Most good microphones are fairly sensitive, and are more likely to interpret the sounds coming out of your mouth more accurately if you speak a little softer rather than louder.

If you notice recognition falling off a bit, speak a little more softly. Picture someone onstage singing so loudly into the microphone that its distorted, and how nice it is when the person backs off a bit. Also think about putting the microphone further away from your mouth — I keep mine about 2 inches away.

Another common cause of recognition falling off is breathing into the microphone. It’s important that the face of the microphone is pointed slightly downward so you’re not breathing directly into it. Picture someone on an outside stage trying to use a microphone in a heavy wind. It’s lots easier to hear when the wind dies down.

Speak quietly and you don’t need a big stick


Computers can be frustrating when they don’t act as you anticipate. You can anticipate better, however, if you know what they’re going through.

One thing I’ve found with speech recognition is when something is misrecognized the common instinct is to speak more loudly into the microphone — like you’re talking to a person who didn’t quite hear.

This usually makes things worse. Most good microphones are fairly sensitive, and are more likely to interpret the sounds coming out of your mouth more accurately if you speak a little softer rather than louder.

If you notice recognition falling off a bit, speak a little more softly. Picture someone onstage singing so loudly into the microphone that its distorted, and how nice it is when the person backs off a bit. Also think about putting the microphone further away from your mouth — I keep mine about 2 inches away.

Another common cause of recognition falling off is breathing into the microphone. It’s important that the face of the microphone is pointed slightly downward so you’re not breathing directly into it. Picture someone on an outside stage trying to use a microphone in a heavy wind. It’s lots easier to hear when the wind dies down.

Speech recognition and Eastern equine encephalitis


I have a bone to pick with Nuance. I’ve several times seen Dragon NaturallySpeaking demonstrators wow people by saying a long phrase. “Eastern equine encephalitis” is a favorite. The implication is if computer speech recognition can get this difficult phrase right, it can get anything right.

The reality is just the opposite, and the demonstration gives people an incorrect mental map of how the speech engine works.

It’s important to have a good mental map of how something works. If your mental map is correct your instincts will be correct. If you’re working with a child you probably have an idea of the types of simple mistakes that child is going to make, and you’ll expect and have more patience for simple mistakes than when you’re working with an expert.

The NaturallySpeaking speech engine is different than either working with a child or an expert — it’s very good at some things, but not so good at others. The mix is different than it is with people. NaturallySpeaking is very good at identifying long words and even better at identifying common phrases — Eastern equine encephalitis is both and therefore very easy. It will rarely get this wrong. What’s more difficult for the engine is getting short utterances and uncommon phrases correct. If you give the speech engine more information to work with — a longer word, a phrase, or even the same word drawn out a bit, it has more information to work with and therefore does better.

A more impressive demo phrase for a speech engine would be “at up be”.

With the correct mental map of what’s easy and what’s difficult for the speech-recognition engine, you’ll instinctively speak in phrases and draw things out a bit if you see the engine start to make mistakes. This is probably different from how you tend to adjust to a person who isn’t hearing. In the case of a person a common instinct is to say one word at a time: “Eastern… equine… encephalitis”, which is more difficult for a speech engine.

The good news is a mental map works on instinct — if your mental map is correct, you often don’t even have to think about adjustments, they flow naturally. The bad news is a mental map works on instinct — if it’s incorrect your adjustments won’t work but it will feel like they should be working.