Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Tools of the Trade for Networking and Writing

I like using personal technology to make more efficient use of my personal time and as an unapologetic techie, I have fun while doing it.  During the past year, I've been using Naturally Speaking 11.5 from Dragon (Nuance) to accelerate the process of moving the text of my latest novel from hard copy notebooks into a Microsoft Word document (see a related blog post here).  In the early days, the dictation went very fast and it was a nice change of pace from typing.  But more recently, as the manuscript has approached 100K words, the combination of Word and Dragon started to break down, with symptoms which included very slow response, loss not only of words but full paragraphs and a very slow reaction during the corrections phase.   

I put my problem solving hat on and tried an experiment.  I took the latest chapter I was working on and opened up a new Word doc, then loaded Dragon.  I started dictating and the results were near miraculous -- once again, the speech to text program had no problem keeping up and the corrections mode now worked smoothly again.  In essence, I re-learned an old lesson from my days in editing international standards -- Microsoft Word starts to become unstable when working with large documents, so it's best to work around that.  This workaround -- using a new document and then doing a cut and paste of the results into the large manuscript -- worked just fine. 

I'm also in the midst of a career change due to a re-structuring within my current company, so I've been using software tools in this effort as well.  In order to keep track of my networking and company research efforts, I'm using an Excel spreadsheet keep track of current activities and next steps.  In networking calls or meetings, I'm getting a lot of information, so I've recently started to use Naturally Speaking to dictate information into OneNote (I've previously blogged about the virtues of OneNote here and here).  Dragon and OneNote are an effective combination.  OneNote is much more lightweight than Word and is a good way to capture the essence of a meeting in a series of bullets. 

I've also been doing more updates on my personal web site and paying more attention to web analytics, but that's a discussion for another post. 

Do you like to use personal technology?  What are some of your favorite tools and tricks of the trade?    

Talking and Writing

This has been a busy writing week for me. I'm getting ready to attend the Muse and the Marketplace writing conference, put on by Boston's Grub Street, this Saturday. I've participated at the conference the past two years and have gotten a lot of value out of it. I blogged about last year's conference here.

I've also been working on my second novel for quite a while and recently finished my first draft. The catch is that about two-thirds of the book is still contained in four notebooks written in longhand. I am very pumped to get ALL of the text into my PC, but this will keep me busy for quite a while. Recently, one of my writing friends told me that she'd been having good luck working with the Dragon Naturally Speaking software from Nuance. Aha. Possibly a way forward which might give my typing fingers a break. So, I'm trying it.

I opened up the package this past weekend and loaded it onto my laptop. That part was simple. The next step was to find the time to get my user profile established. Since the software needs to recognize your speech and then turn it into text, tuning it to your individual speech is essential, or so it seems. The first time, I worked on getting the profile established. This was relatively painless. The software wanted me to read a few text selections, which included excerpts from John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech. That part was fun, though they cut me off before the exhortation concerning what you should do for your country. They also wanted to get samples of content from my hard drive. Hmm. I let them go ahead. Finally, the profile was done.

Next, putting the software to work. On the first night, I fumbled around and spent a lot of time making manual corrections. One annoying thing was that Microsoft Word uses curly quotation marks by default and Naturally Speaking uses the generic type. I did an online lookup and the consensus seems to be that editors don't care which one is used. However, a mix of the two is distracting, so that'll need to be resolved down the road. My first attempt to turn the curly quotes off didn't manage to penetrate the fog of Word's autocorrect logic. Anyhow, after an hour or so, I'd moved about 430 words to my PC. Okay, but hardly a breakthrough.

The next night I tried again. This time I was more persistent and started reading longer stretches of text. The results were encouraging. The software did seem to be making adjustments and I had many fewer corrections than on the prior night. Despite various distractions in the background -- the current broadcast of American Idol -- I kept at it. The results: 2300 words in about 2 hours. I was pleased.

Two days into the experiment, I'm enthusiastic about the possibilities for this software to accelerate how quickly I can turn my hard copy into editable PC-based text. I'm still learning more about the software -- for example, on it's correction features -- but it's already getting me thinking about how using this tool might change my writing process for the better. I'll keep at it and report back on this blog as I gain more experience.

Writer's Notebook: More on OneNote

In a recent blog post, I ruminated about the possibilities for using the OneNote software that comes with some versions of Microsoft Office 2007.  I'm pleased to say that I've been using OneNote both at work and at home, and it has really helped to declutter my life.     

So what do I mean by this?  As a writer, I've always got multiple projects going.  For example, I'm doing editing on one of my manuscripts.  Right now, I'm fine tuning the language in certain sections based on feedback from one of my beta readers.   However, the best phrases often occur to me when the word processor is not open and the computer might even be off altogether.  OneNote is a very lightweight way to take the odd scribbled notes -- from those times when the computer is down -- and file them away under a page devoted to current edits on the manuscript in process.   Later, when I'm ready to edit again, the notes are there, waiting for me to put them to use.  

In my work as a product manager, I've recently been in the throes of a product launch.  This entails a myriad of tasks and a boatload of details.  I've now covered a planning page devoted to the launch with all of these tasks, together with links to a variety of documents which have moved from draft to finished state, all safely under the watch of OneNote.  I know there are other ways of managing such tasks, but OneNote has seamlessly jumped into the breach, aiding and abetting me in this complex project, acting like the assistant  I might have had back in the days before the current lean and mean corporate era.  

My conclusion?  OneNote is the kind of software tool I've been looking for to help me organize my personal life and rely much less on scraps of paper.  I can definitely recommend it as being the most useful software tool I've encountered in recent years.   If you want to try it out, you can either buy the program standalone or get it in one of the many versions of Office 2007.  It's worth the effort. 

Why Faxes are still around

In the January, 2009 issue of Wired, there is an article called: Burning Question - Why are faxes still around?  Good question.  In the 1990's, I made a reasonably good living consulting with companies around the world about building, marketing and selling information about fax technology and its many offshoots with my company Human Communications.   During that time, computer based fax had a very good ten year run and the fax machine was everywhere, but the coming of the Internet threatened to change all of that.  

By the close of the decade, I was advising my clients to develop new business models that didn't depend so much upon fax.   However, at the same time, I was teaching them about the latest high speed fax (V.34 @ 33.6 kilobits / second) and about the new hot movement, Internet Fax.  

The conventional logic at the time was that the Internet was here and nobody needed fax anymore.  My view was much more complex.  I saw lots of good uses for fax as it existed, but wondered how people would communicate documents over the Internet.  

Now, it's ten years later, and fax is still alive and well.  It's not as sexy as it seemed to be in the early 90's, but fax machines are everywhere and fax servers are still very common in corporate offices, especially for receiving faxes that will be directed into email boxes.   Many corporate citizens never use fax at all, but it's a mode of communication that has fewer dependencies than email (can you read that attachment, does it contain a virus?) and reaches into the smallest office.  In my own case, it's still the preferred way to upload information to our corporate expense report system or to send on medical receipts to an insurance company.   

Fax.  It started running over telegraph wires, took all of the telephone technology developments in stride and now can run over the Internet.  It's not perfect, but it does the job of sending paper documents over phone or Internet lines very well.  So, think twice before you get rid of that fax machine or opt not to get the fax feature in your next multi-function printer.    

An Experiment: Making a DVD for the Holidays

I conducted an experiment today which turned out well. I decided my in-laws and my parents would enjoy a collection of family photos, and music that my son and I had recorded at various times during the year.

I pulled up the Windows DVD Maker under Vista, identified which photos I wanted to arrange in a slide show and then pulled in music that I'd recorded earlier this year for the First Tracks songwriting contest, along with with my recording of Calico Jack, a song written by two of my online friends.  You can listen to these recordings online here.  Then I asked my oldest son to contribute music that he'd recorded with his trio in the last couple of months.

In about two hours, I'd assembled the entire thing, a slide show with background music. The program has a useful preview feature, so I was able to weed out pictures with issues. Next, I burned the DVD. My in-laws were visiting, so I played the DVD for them after dinner. It provided an excellent way to share my travels and family pictures, not to mention the music. I've already burned another copy and printed out a jewel box cover to bring to my parents this weekend.

This technology stuff is pretty cool when it works!

Here's a couple of pictures that I used for the menu:  

Chinaman's Hat on Oahu, Hawaii

 

Carousel in front of Hotel de Ville, Paris, France

Happy holidays to all of my readers.  

Web 2.0 and Business Communications

TMC Editor Rich Tehrani just published an interview with me in one of the TMC blogs.   The title of the article is a bit misleading, I think, but the content is fine.  

In the interview, I talk about key trends for the year in Voice over IP and related parts of the telecom industry.   I tried to be consistent with my company's view on these matters, but the opinions are my own.  

The article is:  Dialogic: Communications Developers Should Focus on Web 2.0 and Open Source

If it were up to me, a more realistic title would have been:  "Coming soon: Web 2.0 Tools for a Business Near You".   But the TMC editors saw it differently.  

If you have any comments on the interview, let me know.   It also mentions that I'll be speaking at TMC's Communications Developer Conference on September 16 in LA.   My session is called "IMS and ATCA".   If you're in town, please stop by.  

Rollin' on the Rails

I'm on the train today, going from the Boston area to New Jersey. It will take a while, but I have twice as much leg room as a plane offers and only spent 15 minutes waiting for the train to arrive vs. the usual 1 hour+ drill at the departing airport. A new element for me on this trip is the addition of online access. I have been able to keep up on emails for work via a 3G card, which has worked very well for most of the trip so far. There are rumors of for pay wifi on the planes, but this service is available today from the normal wireless data providers. As I write, the sun has set and I'm passing a twilight view of the Manhattan skyline, which has tints of orange, blue, white and gray, layered like an upside down cake, with the bed of gray cumulus on top. Not a bad way to travel.

Going Online with 3G

As noted in one of my other posts today, I am in Los Angeles on business.   Up until now, my way of connecting to the net would be to look for a WiFi connection and hope for the best.   

Now, I have another way.   A colleague passed on their Sprint 3G card to me.  Voila!  I can now connect to the Net even if Wifi is either not available or only available at cost.   Already, I can see that this is very nice.   Like most techies, I like to be able to connect to the net with a minimum of hassles.   

As I sit here, I'm listening to a speaker from Nokia, who is talking about what he calls the transition to holistic mobility.   Key message: we are in the early days of mobile connectivity, but there is much more to come.   

This is good.  Most of my internet use for business is pretty lightweight, consisting of sending / receiving emails and checking the web; this card is really doing the job. 

For the most part, we are still not yet at the point where my mobile device also has a Wifi access in addition to 3G.  Ideally, both my PC and mobile device (in my case, a Treo) would be able to access both the cell network and the IP network.  We're not quite there, but there are some good signs.   The Iphone has taken steps in this direction, but still does not allow users to run VoIP apps over Wifi, which is purely an artificial restriction.    However, the iPhone web access works over both Wifi and GSM 3G. I can only hope that the bonds between the "dual mode" phones and the US network providers loosen, so that the user can choose which applications they want to run and do so without interference.   

Cloudy Day in San Jose

I got into San Jose last night to attend the VON show here.   It was rainy this morning, but is supposed to be clearer later.   I'm staying at the Sainte Claire, which is a really cute old style hotel, just across from the Convention Center.  It has in-room WiFi and other amenities like sitting rooms with brown leather furniture; pretty cool.   

After breakfast on the go at the little Italian eatery here, got my badge and went to the keynote by Jeff Pulver, venture capitalist Vinod Khosia and the master of telecom disruption, Niklas Zennstrom from Skype.   All of them seemed to be in agreement that IP Communications is in the process of changing yet again, as the widespread penetration of broadband is now making the addition of features like video as a media type possible and many companies are going out and seeking to innovate in both VoIP and related spaces.   Zennstrom showed the broad penetration of new apps for Skype, which has shown remarkable dexterity in the last year or so as a platform for innovation.  While the IMS community is talking about new services, the Skype community is making it happen, today.   There was also the interesting note that Skype can now be used to send money; this is one of the fruits of the EBay ownership, since Skype has been integrated with Paypal to produce this service, which should be a popular one between countries.      

Later in the show (Thursday the 22nd at 1:00), I'm on an pretty hot panel where we'll be looking at IMS vs. Peer to Peer for VoIP.  The participants include Jonathan Christensen from Skype, along with Moderator Stephane Teral of Infonetics, Ken Osowski from Pactolus and Frank Salm from Sylantro.   Hope to see you there. 

Multimedia Presentation

It's Super Bowl Sunday and it has been a busy weekend.   I'm getting ready for a trip to Vancouver for a 3GPP standards meeting this coming week, so I'm already in the mode of getting prepared, while getting things done around the house and in the office before leaving.   

Today, I was working with two boy scouts, including my oldest son, on preparing a multimedia presentation for an upcoming Court of Honor.   One of the other dads and I are the Merit Badge Counselors for the Computer Merit Badge.   As the coup de grace for the badge, we're working with the boys on this presentation.    We have a collection of digital pictures taken from a Klondike Derby held last weekend and these are being combined with incidental music which will be combined with the images to create a slide show.   

Today, we were collating photos and editing music.   I have a nice little music editor called Audacity.   I took some MP3s and stripped them down to include only the desired portion.  Then, these were copied onto a USB disk to load onto the other counselor's Mac.  He is using some Mac based tools to assemble the montage of slides plus music.   We'll finish it tomorrow and then do a dry run on a projection system at the church where our scout troop meets.    The neat thing is that the boys really like working with multimedia, so they have lots of ideas on story themes, use of the slides and associated music.   In turn, the other counselor and I have good software tools and lots of computer experience.   The result should be fun and a good learning experience for all.