T3CH releases Xbox Media Center to PC

This is a picture of my laptop running Xbox Media Center (XBMC). T3CH released a new version of XBMC on December 23, 2007, it contains a basic Windows version XBMC, this release is intended for developers of skins and scripts for XBMC. This allows for testing with out having to upload files to the actual Xbox every time a change is made. This is only a partial port, it only supports basic audio play back (no videos, no visualizations, no games). This release is only compatible with some graphics cards, it works on my laptop but not on my desktop. T3CH has said that there are no plans of abandoning the Xbox.

Modern

Morning and intertwineing

Ice Storm 2007, Maryville Missouri

I have taken a many of pictures of the ice, down trees, and snow from the recent ice storm, the whole collection is in my google photo album. Check it out!

One Note

Microsoft Onenote is an awesome note taking organizational tool. I used it too take notes in my Intro to philosophy class. I organized my notes after class. I don't know that I will really use this program even though I like it, I will probably just forget about it and and keep using Microsoft Word for note taking.

Scanning – OCR, Forms, Photo

Scanning is pretty useful, you can take hard copy of images text and forms and turn it into a digital version that can be edited, posted on the internet, or in the case of forms filled out.

OCR( Optical Character Recognition) allows you to scan text from any hard copy source, magazines, letters, books, or reports. This is an extremely useful technology, you can take any thing that is printed and convert it to a text document.

Omni Form is a really cool program that allows you to scan a form and then fill it out on computer and then print it off. This allows you to fill out forms in an extremely neat and tidy manor.

Photo scanning is nice for many reason, you can save and manage your personal photos, you can edit images, and do a variety of other creative projects.

Adobe Acrobat PDF

Adobe Acrobat is great it lets you create Portable Document Format or PDF files. These files can be used on any platform; Windows, OSX, Linux, BeOS, and many more. Another benefit is that the size of the document is smaller than a typical Rich Text Format or Microsoft Word document. This makes PDF an excellent choice for documents that will be transmitted over the internet. Another advantage to these documents is that Acrobat Reader(the standard viewer) cannot edit them, so when someone is viewing the document that is all they can do, they can not edit it. Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional allows you to create original documents as well as convert existing one. You should note that if you are planning on obtaining this software plan on spending at least $135, Adobe products are not cheap. How ever if you only wish to convert existing documents, here is a website that will do it for free. Doc2PDF Online. You simply upload the Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format document you wish to convert and enter you e-mail address(spam free), then in a few minutes a PDF version of your document is e-mailed to you. I personally with use this website more than I will use Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional.

10-Key

This was fun. My data entry speed has at least doubled. I use Keyboarding Pro Multimedia to improve my 10 key skill. This program was fun and interactive, it also gave me helpful reports at the end of each section. I can see many applications of this skill, professional it has many uses, many different fields involve data entry and being able to key quickly would help with any data regardless of it's nature. One personal use I can think of is computer games, some computer games have controls that can be customized and if you set your controls to the number pad you could me effectively navigate and play computer games. This kind of material is more what I think of when I think of a business or keyboarding class, doing this lessons was an "oldie but a goody".

Gateway Tablet PC

This is a nice device. I am glad it is a convertible and not strictly a Tablet. A Convertible Tablet PC has a keyboard as well as a Stylus. You can tap on the On Screen Keyboard, or you can use the real key board. I feel that this is a very versatile device with many possible uses.

I think it's main advantage over a normal laptop is the note taking capacity. I also think it is fun to navigate with the stylus instead of the mouse. I had become board using a mouse, and even the touch bad had lost its luster. I can't think of a single reason not to buy one of these great computers, they are really a blast to use and have no draw backs that I can think of.

Gateway Tablet PC A+

The Dell Axim

This device is amazing, it has Windows Mobile on, a pretty cool operating system. This device does almost every thing a computer does. The interface is great! I really like the desktop it is very organized and useful. The key board that came with works well too, it takes a little getting used to but after that it is same a normal keyboard and its tiny and goes anywhere.

The Dell Axim allows you to prepare documents any where with Microsoft Word Mobile. There is also a PDF viewer available here. The Axim also can connect to wireless networks. Additional it has inferred and bluetooth capabilities. If I had the funds I would own one!

Wacom Handwriting Tablet

(For better or for worse)

This is a cool device, I welcome the additional method of input. First off I think it is worth saying that on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University the Wacom Handwriting Tablet had some problems, software problems. Half way through the semester the use of Handwriting Tablet was scrapped, this was due to a software problem that could not be resolved. I have located a possible fix in the for this problem, visit this website for a possible solution to this problem, it appears to have to do with a Windows XP update.

I like the tablet, it is fun to draw with but the handwriting recognition is not as fun. For me it goes back to the fact I don't like to write, I like to type. However I do like to draw. I don't know that I would ever use this in an office environment but I would definitely use it at home to draw with. Over all I think this is a pretty cool device, if I had the funds I would buy one.

Hand writing recognition

This is a technology I personally will not be using much, that is because my writing skills are not great, additionally this technology is built to recognize cursive handwriting, I print. Having said that I am impressed with its ability to recognize my handwriting, seriously my handwriting is bad, and with the exceptions of "N", "M", and "F" it recognized about 90% of what I wrote.

I can't think of a situation where I would use handwriting over a keyboard or other input devices. I really dislike handwriting to be honest, thats one of the many reasons I love computers, they don't care how well I can write.

Machine Transcription

This is an interesting subject for me, I have always heard the ads on TV about get trained to enter the field of medical transcription, but I really did not understand what that was about. Have transcribed a few letter and had some of the ins and outs of it explained to me I understand the value of machine transcription.
Machine transcription requires a few basic materials:

• A Recording device
• A Playback device
• A means of controlling the play back (ie. a pedal)
• A device to enter the data on

Machine transcription works like this:

1. A person dictates what they want to have transcribed into the recording device
   
• They use keywords to indicate where new paragraphs begin such as "new paragraph" also names are spelled out so there is no confusion.
2. A person sits at a computer or typewriter and listens to the recorded dictation with a means of easily rewinding and fast-forwarding the recorded dictation. Then they type the letter (or other materials), fix grammar errors and other suitable changes to the material transcription is not verbatim.

After doing a few letters myself I was in the groove and ready to transcribe volumes.

Here is a link to a youtube video of an old transcription machine

I don't know that I am looking for a career in transcription but I am very glad to have this skill.
I think it is worth know, and not yet out-dated by technologies like speech recognition, maybe next year?

Zire Handheld

This picture was taken with the Zire handheld. I think it is useful to have a camera attached to a handheld. You can use the camera for many business and personal tasks. I enjoyed using the Zire handheld very much, but the image clarity leaves something to be desired. The main feature that sets it apart from a smart phone is that you can view and edit MS Word documents. I liked the keyboard to, it allow a much greater degree of productivity. It was like a tiny computer. However even if I ice the budget I would not buy one, at this time if I can't do something on my phone I will use my laptop. The main reason is that I don't want to carry a bunch of devices on my person, I want one device that does everything, the Zire handheld is not that device. It does not allow me to make calls or send e-mail.

Where clouds come from

This is the source of most of the clouds you see around Maryville and it's surrounding areas.

Dragon Naturally Speaking

I began using Speech recognition software in 1999, at that time I was only somewhat impressed with its capabilities, each command and word had to be entered and trained. Today Dragon Naturally speeking recognizes thousands of words after a few show training sessions where you read preselected text. Also you can export your user file to a USB dribe or a network drive and use it on any computer that has Dragon Naturally speeking.

I very much enjoy this software, I use it to write papers for school and prepare other personal documents. Now when I create a document the only thing that is only limit is how fast I can think. This has dramatically changed the way I use computers, even if I am not preparing a document I still use DNS to launch programs, click buttons on web pages, and close windows. I am amazed by how far speech recognition software has come and look forward to the future to see what improvements on input methods that will be made.

#1 Dragon Fan

Jared

Doom doom doom

This is doom this is doom.
NOTE:
I used this to test blogging from my phone. My phone (Sony Ericsson W580i, good phone) has a feature that allows you to blog images and text with the click of a button. Considering it involves typing with you thumbs, it is a pretty cool feature, I am glad I have this capability, I can instantly share photos with any one who has internet access, and I can do it from any where I have cell phone service.

About me

I like cookies, some pople call me on the phone , what am I doing this for?