OK, I'm glad I didn't pay for iListen or MacSpeech, whichever it is, because it's buggy as hell. Apart from the obvious fact that it can't dictate anything for shit, it crashes, it locks up the Mac (which is no mean feat, since OS X is solid as a rock), and just now, it decided not to let me bring any other apps to the front -- whenever I tried to switch to another app, it brought itself forward again.
In other words, at this point, its incompetence doesn't even have any entertainment value anymore. Into the Trash bin it goes...
In other news, I'm thinking about ditching Qualcomm Eudora. Time was it was a fantastic mail application, and even today, it's still pretty good. However, it's definitely showing its age... in particular, its "OS X awareness" is very poor, and it mangles HTML-enabled email very badly. The three alternatives I'm looking at, each of which has advantages over the others, are MS Entourage, Mailsmith, and Apple Mail. I've used Apple Mail in the past, and it sucked rocks. However, I'm told that since the last time I used it (about a year or so ago), Apple has made a lot of improvements to it, so it may be worth another look. Mailsmith is supposed to be a very powerful app, but I'm hesitant about using a client that can't display HTML email at all. I've been monkeying around a bit with Entourage, and it also looks very good, but it has certain weaknesses as well (its filters and junk mail don't appear to offer the flexibility that Eudora does), and I'd really rather not use Microsoft products any more than I absolutely have to.
Decisions, decisions... I may have to try all three of them and see what I come up with.
In other news, my web cam, Bluetooth mouse, and Bluetooth keyboard are supposed to be here today. Woot. :-) Can't wait to attach my notebook to my 17-inch monitor and speakers, turn on the keyboard and mouse, and play Halo. *grin* After I set up my webcam so Denise and I can see each other, of course.
I listed a whole mess of books on Amazon last night, and I hope to list the rest today. Another project I've been meaning to handle for some time, now almost completed. It feels good to be getting so much done around here.
Posted by Zathras at February 25, 2004 12:12 PMno matter how many years go by, they STILL haven't made a perfect dictation software. You could throw a gazillion bucks down and you still won't get nuthin'.
I still have my Logitech quickcam somewhere's . . . haven't used it in yrs though.
Posted by: Shaw at February 25, 2004 02:12 PMa few days after that post I chatted with P-man via his new cam and my very old logitech cam.
With his camera, Parrish looked like he was a kodak film. Me, on the other hand, looked like I was broadcasting from the Hubble Telescope. It was quite horrible. Check out a screen grab of Parrish's cam on my blog . . .
Posted by: Shaw at February 27, 2004 12:44 PM