Today is Last Day 4 Great Deal on Dictation Software - Dragon Naturally Speaking for $30

The ability to speak aloud and have the words you say appear on your computer screen, ready for editing into a final product, isn't new.  Having it happen with 99% accuracy - that's a more recent development.  And Nuance is the company that has accomplished this and made its speech-to-text software available at a reasonable price point for most consumers. 

In fact, Nuance has produced a voice recognition software for several years now -- Dragon Naturally Speaking.  I've used this over the years after learning about it from Paperback Writer (who recommends this software periodically over at her blog).  Dragon Naturally Speaking consistently gets great reviews; in fact, the only real complaint of which I'm aware is that there is not a Mac version of the product. 

PCWorld gave DNS 10 a rating of 4/5 with one of its two "cons" being that the software was "pricey."  That's a complaint that has gone out the window. 

It's true that usually this software costs over $100.00.  However, Circuit City has a special deal that ends today.  Today, you can order the speech-to-text software for $30.00.  This is quite the bargain.  And if you miss today's great deal, there's still a chance that you can scarf up a bargain using an online coupon. 

Why would you use this?  Who would use speech-to-text software?

Maybe you have carpal tunnel syndrome and a keyboard is painful. 
Maybe you can't type fast. 
Maybe you like to dictate. 

Me?  I like to dictate notes to myself from various research sources as I surf the web, saving here and there to One Note as I go.  Saves me lots of time, really helps with organizing things.  I'll also use speech to text on some projects, clean things up with the keyboard later.

These are uses that I have for an older version of Dragon.  The latest version (DNS 10) also allows the user to dictate directly into Excel as well as Word, along with dictating emails directly in Outlook, updating the calendar, and searching in Google (and other sites like Wikipedia).  It will also let the user -- using voice commands alone, no mouse and no keyboard -- to flip between applications (for example, check email in the midst of writing). 

It's my understanding that there were some problems with installation on Windows Vista but Nuance helps you with good tech support (for free during installation) that helps overcome that hurdle and the latest version (the one on sale) supports Vista SP1 and SP2, 32-bit and 64-bit. 

I'm gonna get it. 

Computer Crash -5: Freebies and Deals I Found

Circuit City has an online outlet store that offers some very nice deals shipped directly to your home. I bought a printer/scanner/copier combo with shipping and handling for under $50. I bought my new desktop as a package (tower, monitor, printer) for under $500 at the store itself (Vista is hard on hardware budgets - you will need new peripherals - this package saved me $200+). I couldn't beat this deal online or on foot, anywhere.

AVG is an award-winning antivirus software package that is free, and highly respected among computer techs.

MozyPro offers a free remote computer backup service - store up to 2GB. (I bought a monthly service which is inexpensive - $13.95 for 20 GB.)

Yahoo.com offers free email with unlimited storage and automatic anti-virus scanning (you don't have to download any software for the antivirus scan).

QuickBooks offers a free small business accounting software package that allows customized invoices, checks, etc., and the ability to send invoices by email, saving them as .pdf files.

OpenOffice offers a free software suite that is truly competitive with Microsoft Office. Fascinating project, worth investigating even if you're not in the market for the software.

Microsoft Office 2007 offers free 60-day trials of all its packages (Word, Excel, etc.)

Computer Crash -4: Know Your EMail Address Information

When you get a new computer, you've got to gain access to your email accounts on that new machine. It's not difficult to do - but you do need your personal account information and this can be a real headache if you (like me) have several different email addresses, all feeding into (and out of) one Main Mailbox.

So, right now, take care of yourself by doing the following:

1. go to your email (I now use Windows Mail, before it was Outlook Express) and open up your email accounts;
2. for each account, open its properties, and write down the following: name, email address, incoming mail server, outgoing mail server, incoming mail server's user name and password, and whether the box for "secure password authentication" is checked; and the server port numbers for incoming and outgoing mail.

If you don't do this, you will have to call (and listen to music on hold) for each provider of your email -- if they have phone numbers and live support to provide. Some of these may not have your password for you, and you'll have to jump through hoops to get that re-set.

This project can be a big time-eater which you can easily avoid by having this info at the ready, just in case. I was glad I did.

Computer Crash -3: Have a Desktop Computer Over a Laptop

I've heard rumors that desktops are considered dinosaurs by some, and I'm afraid that they may be right. My latest walkthru at Circuit City and BestBuy found much less choice in the desktop products, and they were displayed sort of like stepchildren, in the back - out of the laptop limelight.

Personally, I like having a desktop and a laptop -- the laptop gives me freedom of movement, and the desktop is my sturdy, reliable workaday machine.

Laptops are vulnerable because of their free spirits ... leave them in the car, and risk the heat (or cold); drop them on the floor or just slam them on the table, they're hurt; and then, there's the danger of theft that's ever-present. They are also physically smaller machines, so you can't store as much on them; they've got less graphics capabilities; they're more difficult to upgrade; and they cost more.

My desktop - until it died this month - ran for me without a single problem for 5.5 years. Five and a half years. Of course, I added memory here and there, and I used it for work. No games, no movies.

I like, and want, that kind of continuity - transitioning of computers is a big headache.

Sure, you cull your files. Sure, you get a new, fun machine with lots of purdy extras. Sure, it only takes a couple of hours to physically install the monitor, and keyboard, and mouse, and printer, and speakers, and tower all together into your workspace.

Still, I hope and pray that it's another five years before I have to change my Main Work Machine again.

So, for me, if I have to choose just one computer, it's a desktop - hands down. However, having a desktop and a laptop saved my neck this month when the desktop stopped working. That laptop - which also crashed, due to a software glitch - kept me going until I could research and buy a replacement desktop.

Today, the little laptop is stable - but it runs on XP, and I'm wary of relying on it too much now that it's crashed on me. Paranoid? Maybe. But my plan is to replace the laptop with an new model, running on Vista - because for me, the optimal choice is to have both a desktop and a laptop, working in sync.

Budget-wise, my techs tell me this is smart: buy a sturdy, basic desktop and a nice but not tricked-out laptop, rather than put all your money into one machine. The sturdy desktop will work just fine for you, and you can add memory to the laptop (and other gizmos) over time, if you'd like. Works for me.

Computer Crash -2: ZoneAlarm and Norton and AVG Firewalls and AntiVirus

Zone Alarm Pro and Norton Security Suite gets lots of good reviews online - until you have a crash and you start reading the Forums and talking with techs. Some things I learned during my two computer crashes this month:

1. If you try to un-install either Zone Alarm or Norton, good luck. Both programs throw bits of themselves throughout your hard drive, and using their basic "uninstall" doesn't get rid of this stuff. While I was on the phone with ZoneAlarm, their "uninstall" caused my laptop to crash ... their tech was of no help here, he almost sounded more scared than I was.

2. Norton actually has a free download to get rid of the rest of its stuff, check it out at the Symantec site. Its name? The Norton Removal Tool.

3. ZoneAlarm does not provide a free download - removal tool. Instead, you have to manually go into the drive, and delete things from several different sources, stored under a variety of file names. True Vector doesn't get uninstalled when you do the basic Zone Alarm uninstall; its files are stored under prefixes that have nothing to do with ZA, Zone, etc. There are tech forums that give you the list of ZoneAlarm files to go delete, but they may not be complete for your version. I still have some Zone files in my laptop registry, for example, that my tech buddy has to remove.

3. Windows updates and firewalls can fight each other, and you're the loser. For example, ZoneAlarm denied access to the web for anyone who had the Windows update installed earlier this month - and ZoneAlarm issued an update to its own software to fix this problem (this upgrade also caused my laptop to crash; it was a very bad day). Same trouble for Norton firewalls, etc.

Solution? Techs I spoke with said they never allow automatic updates from Windows -- they have gone into ControlPanel and selected manual updating. This allows them to wait a few days, see if the Windows release is smooth, or if it causes problems. Like the one this month with all those firewalls ....

4. All the techs that I dealt with during my Computer Crash Experience (and there were a lot) were unanimous: they did not recommend using either ZoneAlarm or Norton. It was really a toss-up for which product was the most reviled - but I think Norton won on that score.

Two of the most knowledgeable techs had no antivirus system on their machines - or any of their families' machines. Never a problem, and they've been going without an antivirus software package for many years now (one guy, for five; another, for seven). As for firewalls, Windows has its own and most felt this was sufficient. Unless you're going to spooky sites, or keeping your "preview pane" open in your email, the techs didn't think there was a real problem. In their opinion, ZoneAlarm and Norton all too often produce the very virus result that they are sold to prevent.

5. If you just can't sleep without an antivirus program running, the techs all recommended AVG. AVG is free.

AVG gets glowing reviews, and offers a LinkScanner that works with Google, Yahoo, etc. so your search results automatically have okey-dokeys and warnings by the site names, before you click on them.

6. While the techs did hate Vista, they did report that Vista has lots of security stuff that XP, 2000, etc. do not have. Personally, I haven't had any problems with Vista, and it does have lots of security stuff here that I like.

Bottom line? On my third, brand-new computer, I'm running with Windows Vista and I did install the free AVG. I'm happy. I will never, ever use or recommend ZoneAlarm or Norton to anyone after my July Crash experience.

Computer Crash -1: MozyPro Remote Backup Review

Last December, I signed up for MozyPro's online backup service after checking out its five-star reviews and its low cost (I could backup 20GB for under $15/month). It appeared to be the best remote backup service on the web.

I was very happy with MozyPro - every night, it would automatically backup my files (including my email) and every morning, there was a nice little window letting me know I was safe. Sweet.

Then, my Workhorse Desktop started acting screwy. Freezing up, paralyzed mouse. It wasn't the skeery Blue Screen of Death, so I didn't panic ....

I need a computer to do my job, but no problem! I'd use Mozy Pro to backup my files to my Starbucks laptop, and my Workhorse would be free to spend a couple of weeks at the Repair Shop. (My Starbucks laptop is the one I take to the coffee house, or down to the Riverwalk, or whereever -- no financial info, just a few files ....)

Of course, all this happened on a holiday weekend (the Workhorse decided to buckle on the Saturday of the Fourth of July weekend). But this shouldn't be a problem: MozyPro should easily download what I needed, and didn't they have 24/7/365 live support?

Workhorse's window that Saturday morning comforted me that a backup had been done the night before, so I should have everything I needed over on MozyPro. Everything was looking soooo good.

It wasn't that pretty.

First, I learned not to trust the MozyPro notice window.

Luckily, MozyPro had completed a full backup on THURSDAY night - but this was the only backup that had really occurred in the past week to 10 days. Friday's work and Friday's emails were not picked up by MozyPro. Forget what the notice window tells you.

Second, that MozyPro live support sounded great - but just try to get through to the techies by phone.

I had a big, big problem finding a technical support phone number. I finally got one by calling the sales line (yes, they picked up just fine) and after initially being transfered by a sales rep, I got ahold of a tech support number. Here it is for you:

MOZYPRO TECHNICAL SUPPORT CAN BE REACHED AT 866-789-6699.

Then, you get to wait and wait and wait for a tech to answer the line. Here's a help: if they don't answer, call the Sales line and get transferred over (one of their reps told me they all office in the same space - techs and reps):

MOZYPRO SALES CAN BE REACHED AT 801-756-2331.


Third, calendar at least a full day to get a full restore.

After a full day of dealing with MozyPro, confirming that only one backup had occurred in the past week and getting live help on downloading that backup to my laptop, I then had another night and day (or two) in dealing with the actual restore.

Fourth, don't expect to retrieve all your backup in one restore file.

True, I had a lot of files - almost 2GB - to be restored. MozyPro didn't give me all those files in one restore file, though - although the techs told me this would be one quick, clean download. One big restore handled most everything. The next day, though, there was a little file - more to download. All the emails, as well as my favorites, address book, and some other stuff, came in this separate restore - which suddenly popped up about 12-24 hours after I first requested my files from MozyPro.

Fifth, expect lots of duplicate emails from MozyPro for around a week after you request your restore.

After I downloaded the restores, I got notices in my Yahoo mail for about a week - "restore complete," "need to restore," etc. - after I'd already restored everything. Apparently, there were duplicate restore files setting there, somewhere.

Bottom line:

1. MozyPro did save me - I did get all most of my files. I have my emails, I have my word processing documents, I have my publisher files. I may have lost my TurboTax and QuickBooks files (most of this was in hardcopy already, however) as well as some website designs made with a special webdesign software provided by GoDaddy.

2. MozyPro's tech support was helpful and human - when I finally tracked them down.

3. MozyPro doesn't always download even if that window tells you it does.

4. I will keep using MozyPro, but I won't be as trusting of the software. I'll double check the reality of those backups. And, I'll keep that tech support number handy.

5. In addition to MozyPro, I'll also keep hard copies of all my important, current workweek stuff - including emails, invoices, works in process - on a flash drive. I would have been in a mess if this had happened in the middle of the workweek, and I had to be down three days just to get myself up and running again. In a way, it was a blessing that this happened over a long holiday weekend (except for cancelling that picnic/BBQ ....).

Personal Post 22: Dealing With A Computer Crash

This month, I dealt with not one but two back-to-back computer crashes. I learned a lot, and I'm glad it's over. For the next several posts, I'll be sharing what I discovered - posting both here and on my Writer-Lawyer blog.

While it's true that all this computer info may not directly deal with the issue of simplicity, you're here -- reading this -- via a computer and this info might be useful to you, someday (unless you have a Mac, of course). Plus, I've included lots of freebie information I discovered in here, and other things that do dovetail into the Simplicity Lifestyle.

Personally, I went surfing around and telephoning and visiting techs for a lot of this information over a period of panic-striken, stressful days and I'm hoping that someone, somewhere will stumble upon this series of posts and get some benefit from the info I've accumulated.

If you're dealing with a crash as you read this - hang in there. It will get better! This too shall pass!!