Well I've taken the plunge. I have finally broken down and decided to dictate blog post, articles, and other documents. Speech recognition has come a long way over the years, and it's time I make use of it. Does that mean I'm getting typing altogether? Not exactly. One of the biggest problems is learning how to speak in a way that isn't exactly natural. It also changes the way I write.
One of the things that people who know me know that I am dyslexic. My hand writing is horrible and my spelling is so poor that it is not unusual for the spellchecker in each article I write to completely miss a word or two. It also means that even when I see a word misspelled it looks perfectly okay to me. So, between the spellchecker missing words, and my inability to spot incorrect words means I spend a lot of time editing and proofing all my work. For short e-mails this isn’t a big problem. But, on average my blog posts are between 1000 and 2000 words, this leaves a lot of room for error. So, here we are leaning on technology. It also means I can “write” while away from my computer via my Sony recorder.
I don’t know how well this is going to go but, with a minimum of training I was able to dictate this post via the crappy head set they ship with the software :)



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Posted by Steve Jones on 30 November 2009
Are you using Dragon? My wife's company makes it (Nuance) and she installed it when she broke her arm a few weeks ago. Way slower than typing, but it was handy. It learns pretty well and improves over time.
Posted by Wesley Brown on 30 November 2009
yep, picked up the preferred edition. So far it isn't that much slower for me but I only average around 20wpm after all the typeos.
Does she have a head set recommendation? The one they ship works but I'm sure there is something better out there for this.
Tell her they need to make a DBA edition so I can dictate queries!
Posted by Tim Mitchell on 30 November 2009
Be sure to post some follow-up thoughts after you've used the software for a while. I've considered trying out dictation software but I'm on the fence about its possible value for my usage.