Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Fresh Gear: Type with your mouth

A few months ago, I purchased a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. If you're not familiar with it, Dragon is a software product that allows you to talk to your computer, then types what you say.

When I began considering NaturallySpeaking, I needed to create a talk track for some PowerPoint slides. I found that when I sat down to type speaker notes something was lost from the way that I normally presented the material. To help make my speaker notes more conversational, I picked up a copy of NaturallySpeaking.

At first, I was a little skeptical, thinking, "Is this thing really going to work? After all I used to have a Newton and it never recognized my handwriting?" Nonetheless, I decided to give it a try.

I must say, I have been very pleased with the results. I haven't used the product that often, but there are certain circumstances in which I feel typing stifles my creative flow. In those situations (usually involving presentations) I fire up NaturallySpeaking, and start talking. And, I find I'm beginning to use it more often.

When you first install the product, you calibrate your headset microphone (one is included, but I've purchased a Logitech one that is smaller for travel, which I also use with Skype). You then go through a brief training session in which to read some sample text so the program can get used to hearing you speak. It then creates a user specific profile so that they can learn from you and get better or recognizing your speech over time. Even during the initial usage period, I've found NaturallySpeaking to be very accurate, and it gets better over time.

Now I can type pretty quickly, but I find I can produce a heck of a lot more text with NaturallySpeaking than I can in the same period of time typing of course, more is not always better, but I can't help think how much easier it would have been to write those papers in high school if I'd had NaturallySpeaking.

After a couple of sessions of using the product, you get used to saying punctuation words like "comma" and "new paragraph" as you speak, and it becomes very easy to remember all of the editing commands and other tools that are built in to NaturallySpeaking. By using the product's interface to perform the corrections, you help it improve its accuracy over time.

So, if you are a frustrated, hunt and peck typist (or you just want to let your hair down and start talking to let your muse flow) you might want to take a look at Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

By the way, this whole post was written in about eight minutes using NaturallySpeaking. And the only manual editing I did was the insertion of the hyperlinks and the image. I'm sure there's a way to do that with a NaturallySpeaking, but I have only really started using the product in the last couple of weeks and there are a whole host of commands I haven't even tried to figure out yet.

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[Updated] Keep your powder dry?

The new restrictions on carry-on items have put a cramp in my style, so to speak. I don't like checking luggage on short trips because of the extra time checking bags introduces, and the inherent risk of lost stuff (I've had my share of lost luggage and pilfered items from my luggage).

Since I can't carry gels, creams, or liquids in my carry-ons, I've ended up buying a lot of toothpaste and hair gel in hotel gift shops. Unfortunately, many of the hotels are out of these items and it's no fun to wander about looking for a drug store in an unfamiliar town - usually late at night. I also hate having to throw out perfectly good hair gel and toothpaste when I've only used one day's worth of them.

On the toothpaste front, I think I've found a solution: good old tooth powder. My grandparents used to use this stuff, and I haven't found it in a grocery or drug store locally, but I have found it online. I ordered mine through Amazon (there are a number of types and flavors to choose from). I settled on mint tooth powder from Eco-Dent, for $4.80 per package. Spendy? Yep. But easy to cost-justify when you compare it to the cost of toothpaste in hotel gift shops.

Now - does anyone have any solution for hair gel? I haven't found any "just add water" products for that...yet.

Update: I've received a few questions on how this stuff tastes. It's a baking soda base (sodium bicarbonate) and has a bit of sea salt in it, so it tastes a little salty when you use it. However, after trying it for a few days, I really like it. It leaves your teeth very smooth and clean, and the "aftertaste" is minty fresh and clean - not salty.

Also, they estimate that this 2 oz. container will be good for about 200 uses. Not too shabby.

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More tools before you fly

In the past, I've shared some of my tried & true tools for travel - here's a partial list:

Today, I'd like to share another resource: Flightstats.com

I found out about this from my colleague Tom, who turned me on to it when I told him about Seatguru. Some of the useful things you can do with Flightstats - all from one place with no hunting - include:

  • See the latest government air security bulletins
  • Find out what the typical security wait times are for your airport, by time of day (in graphical form, as shown here, also in a table by airline / concourse, with hourly detail)
  • Find out the historical on-time ratings for your flights (and even compare the on-time performance of flights you're considering)
  • Find out about airline mileage club promotions and other "specials"
  • Forums to share experiences with other fliers
  • And a lot more

They even offer an "All In One Widget" that lets you check flight status, view flight performance, sign up for notifications, and view current airport delays within the United States - right there on your desktop.

You need to register to get all the features, but it's free and their privacy policy is good.

Check it out - and make travel a bit more bearable.

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Travel Light: Kensington Charger

I like my laptop, but it came with a big, clunky power adapter that took up a lot of space in my bag. Additionally, my laptop's "default" adapter only worked on AC power outlets.

iGo is a no-go

For that reason, one of the first "Travel Light" purchases I made was an Auto/Air/Wall combo power adapter. The first one I tried was an "iGo" brand adapter. It was very pretty, and had all the functionality I was looking for, but I was very disappointed in the iGo. It was too bulky, the connectors weren't tight and kept coming undone, it overheated and shut off when I used it on planes, etc. I couldn't get my money back so I sold it for 10 bucks at a garage sale and vowed never to buy another one of their products again.

Kensington makes me happy

Next, I purchased a Kensington travel adapter that includes adapaters so I can run my laptop on AC or DC power, at home, on planes, or in cars.

The Kensington adapter also has multiple, interchangeable power tips so you can use it with a variety of devices or continue to use it if you change laptops. As you see in the picture above, can get a "Y" adapter to charge multiple devices at once.

As I mentioned in my post earlier this week, I tend to charge most of my extra devices via USB so I only really use this charger to charge my laptop (I then charge my other devices from the laptop's USB ports).

However, for devices that can't charge via USB, this adapter supports a large variety of devices with optional tips (the only tips it comes with are for laptops - you have to buy additional tips for other devices for a nominal fee). Mine came with a complimentary adapter to charge iPods.

Bottom line, this adapter is much thinner and lighter than the default adapter for my laptop, and has lots of expandability. I have found it to be very portable and extremely durable in a variety of situations. If you want to travel light, this will help.

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Travel Light: USB chargers

On the topic of traveling light, I have a guiding philosophy that helps quite a bit: Whenever possible, I charge my travel devices with USB.

In general, I charge things at night in my hotel room, so I turn on my laptop and charge devices off its USB ports. This approach comes in handy when traveling internationally, since I only need an international travel adapter for my laptop - not all the other devices.

On occasion, however, I need to charge one of my devices when it isn't convenient to boot up my laptop (after all, the laptop must be powered up to provide power to the USB ports). In those situations, I use a little travel charger, which I originally purchased for use with my iPod Nano.

This works for my Treo 650, my iPod, my camera, etc. and means I don't have to carry a bunch of different flavors of chargers.

I also carry a USB car charger in my suitcase, just in case (not in my laptop bag, since I don't use it as often). This can come in handy on road trips, long treks without my laptop, and also works in cars outside the US (in case I forget my adapter, or it's too bulky to carry along).

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