I guess because I have always had such a relatively easy time collecting and accessing some of (what I consider to be) the most amazing old photographs and documents, and because there are still family members alive who remember the colorful anecdotes which accompany many of the photographs, I was a bit surprised when my boyfriend mentioned that he didn’t have very many pictures of his mother’s father, the grandfather who had died before he was born. Kevin also doesn’t know very many stories about this grandfather, because his mother has also passed. One of the few pictures that he does have of his grandfather is a formal photograph taken perhaps at age five or six; the photo measures 5″ tall x 3.25″ wide, and it has a little bit of damage and fading.

When I was offered the opportunity to review the Photofiddle process, and once I understood what they were capable of doing, I knew immediately which picture I would ask them to use…

… [visit site to read more]

I’ve been accused of keeping food a little too long in the refrigerator. So much so that I’ve noticed my daughter … [visit site to read more]

I’ve been using voice recognition software for a number of years. Back in my Windows days I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking Speaking. I started with Version 8 and the accuracy improved through my use of Version 9.5. (Version 10 has just been released and it promises to be even better!) When I made the move to Mac a little bit over a year ago I went searching for voice recognition software. I found and purchased iListen from MacSpeech. It worked well enough but was a far cry from the power and accuracy of Dragon. A few months ago MacSpeech updated iListen, (or more actually reinvented the software) and introduced MacSpeech Dictate. This was a giant leap forward, particularly because the new software employs the same voice recognition engine as Dragon. It works quite well.

There are two main components that impact the accuracy of creating text to voice.
The first is the quality of your speech. If you speak in a smooth, consistent manner, using, as the software suggests “a newscaster’s voice” you will have much better results than if you speak the way you would to a friend.

The second, and perhaps more important, is the quality of the microphone. A better microphone will cancel background noise and significantly improve your results.The best option I found was my Fujitsu Stylistic Tablet PC. It had array mics built in which filtered out noise quite well. As a result I was able to sit with the tablet on my lap and simply speak in order to write with tremendous accuracy. When I was using a desktop or laptop, however, the lack of a dual array mic meant that I needed to use a headset. My headset of choice was a noise canceling Andrea USB headset. For about $90 it worked incredibly well. It was, however, cumbersome, slightly uncomfortable, more than slightly inconvenient, and it made me look like a phone operator. But it worked.

A few months ago I noticed that a new wireless microphone had been released by Revolabs. The ex-tag microphone, while rather pricey at $250, promised excellent accuracy while cutting the cord. Mine came today and it is a small wonder. … [visit site to read more]

Question: What do phone manufacturers do when they’ve run out of innovations to add to … [visit site to read more]

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A few people who’ve applied the visit site to read more]

Except for the $13 per month fee, I’m all over this new lock series from Schlage. First introduced back in May 2008, … [visit site to read more]

If you’re a Sprint subscriber using a compatible phone (primarily their Motorola, Sanyo, Samsung or LG handsets are … [visit site to read more]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz6amk3P-hY

Don’t worry - I’m sure there’s going to be more - and hopefully better - videos in the Jerry Seinfeld advertisement campaign. In mid-August Microsoft announced they had hired Jerry Seinfeld for a rumored $10 million fee to star in what … [visit site to read more]