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.
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.
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.
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.
I’ve changed the way I position the mouse rulers, and it’s changed my behavior.
I used to leave Rulers in the default position of top and left. But lately I’ve been using them on the right and bottom, and and I’m liking this better for a couple reasons. I tend to notice them less when they’re tucked above the Taskbar and off to the right. So I tend to leave them on whether I’m using them or not. More important, they don’t change the position of windows, and so don’t affect named mouse touches.
(To change Rulers so they’re just on the right and bottom say “Rulers On”, “Rulers Right Bottom”)
Where do you like Rulers? Let me know here or e-mail at info at this Web address.
If you’re thinking about upgrading from Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard or Preferred to Professional now’s the time to do it (Utter Command runs on the NaturallySpeaking Professional engine).
There’s a Dragon NaturallySpeaking pricing special in conjunction with the 10.1 upgrade — for $300 you can upgrade to NaturallySpeaking Professional 10.1 (retail $899) from the much less expensive Standard or Preferred versions of Dragon 7-9. Dragon resellers are offering the special — here’s a link to one of them: http://www.1st-dragon.com/drupsa.html.
The special pricing is scheduled to last until June 30.
We’re on Twitter — sign up to follow Redstart’s tweets now: http://twitter.com/RedstartSystems
We’re on Twitter — sign up to follow Redstart’s tweets now: http://twitter.com/RedstartSystems
After working with Beta testers and presales customers for the past year, today we’ve announced the general release of Utter Command.
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It’s been a long time coming. It started 15 years ago when I got repetitive strain injuries in my hands. I first used the Kurzweil speech engine, and then, when it came out, the first Windows version of DragonDictate, the precursor to Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
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After several years of writing macros that were similar to everyone else’s — and that I often forgot — I started thinking about the way the brain works with language and started working on a more consistent system. Sometime after that we decided to make a general product out of it. We were thinking it would take six months. It’s taken five years.
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One of the reasons it took so long is we’ve produced thorough, cross-referenced documentation. Every command is explained. Many thanks to our beta testers, trainers, and presales customers for using and commenting on the UC command system, applets and documentation as we were developing and refining them. Special thanks to Laurie, our VP of QA, and Bill theTrainer for many reads through the documentation and many trips through the self-guided tours.
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And special thanks to Wren, a programmer who worked with us in the early days. The bird that appears in our logo is the Painted Redstart (we’d already named the company when Wren, also named for a bird, joined us).Â
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Note to presales customers: you should have received your general release copy of Utter Command. Contact us via the support email or Make a Comment contact form if you haven’t.
After working with Beta testers and presales customers for the past year, today we’ve announced the general release of Utter Command.
Â
It’s been a long time coming. It started 15 years ago when I got repetitive strain injuries in my hands. I first used the Kurzweil speech engine, and then, when it came out, the first Windows version of DragonDictate, the precursor to Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Â
After several years of writing macros that were similar to everyone else’s — and that I often forgot — I started thinking about the way the brain works with language and started working on a more consistent system. Sometime after that we decided to make a general product out of it. We were thinking it would take six months. It’s taken five years.
Â
One of the reasons it took so long is we’ve produced thorough, cross-referenced documentation. Every command is explained. Many thanks to our beta testers, trainers, and presales customers for using and commenting on the UC command system, applets and documentation as we were developing and refining them. Special thanks to Laurie, our VP of QA, and Bill theTrainer for many reads through the documentation and many trips through the self-guided tours.
Â
And special thanks to Wren, a programmer who worked with us in the early days. The bird that appears in our logo is the Painted Redstart (we’d already named the company when Wren, also named for a bird, joined us).Â
Â
Note to presales customers: you should have received your general release copy of Utter Command. Contact us via the support email or Make a Comment contact form if you haven’t.