What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Volume 1 Number 14Click here to return to the back issues page.Click here to return to the main newsletter page.
The Naked PC - http://www.TheNakedPC.com
What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Publisher: Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee
Editor: Dan Butler
Contributing Editor: Al Gordon
This issue is for Thursday, December 17, 1998 - Vol. 1 No. 14
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Table of Contents
** 01. Letter from the Publisher
** 02. HAL 9000, Star Trek, Cerulean Blue Cars, and The State of
Speech Recognition Software by a Decade-long User
(by Al Gordon)
** 03. Low Tech Solutions for High Tech Problems (by T.J. Lee)
** 04. Does Your System Have Warts? (by Lee Hudspeth)
** 05. An In-depth Look at PRIME 97 for Word 97 - Bookmark Popup
** 06. Featured FAQ - Linux 101: A Primer to the Premier
Alternative Operating System
** 07. Featured Web Site - The Laffatorium
** 08. Featured Product Recommendation - Microsoft IntelliMouse
Pro
** 09. Featured Book Recommendation - "The New Way Things Work"
by David Macaulay
** 10. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and
interesting stuff
** 01. Letter from the Publisher
Welcome to another edition of TNPC. All of us here at TNPC would
like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a joyous
holiday season.
Getting some welcome recognition, The Naked PC was mentioned in
PC World magazine since the last issue (thanks to TNPCer Scott T.
for pointing that out to us). We'd like to thank the staff and
Tricia Harding over at PC World for the mention.
In TNPC #1.13 we recommended running MSConfig to control what
applications are being run when Windows starts up. This works in
Windows 98 but not Windows 95, which lacks this utility. Fear
not, there is an FAQ that addresses all the places in Win95 that
control which applications fire at startup:
http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/faqs/faq3456.html
We also commented last issue on the problem AMD was having with
its faster K6 CPU chips running under Windows 95. AMD has posted
a fix for this problem on its Web site:
http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/k623d/win95_update_k6.html
If you have not visited the TNPC Web site we encourage you to do
so. You can search back issues, join the Naked Horde, and check
out the current recommended book listings. Also be aware that you
can request back issues of TNPC via email. Send a message to our
MailBot and he'll shoot you back a message with instructions for
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mailto:mailbot@TheNakedPC.com
Remember, reader support is what keeps TNPC free, so please pass
a copy on to co-workers and friends (no spam please!), read and
frequent the sites of our advertisers, and always say "I saw it
in TNPC!"
Happy Holidays!
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** 02. HAL 9000, Star Trek, Cerulean Blue Cars, and The State of
Speech Recognition Software by a Decade-long User
(by Al Gordon)
"Open the pod bay doors, HAL."
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."
The H.A.L. 9000 of "2001: A Space Odyssey" fame pretty much is
the most user-unfriendly computer of all time, inasmuch as it
killed off all but one member of the crew of its spaceship.
Strangely enough, though, Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick
may have better caught the nature of speech-recognition software
than the ever-so-reliable and pleasant talking computers on "Star
Trek."
HAL, it turned out, committed murder because of a programming
bug. (Microsoft didn't exist when the movie was made, otherwise
they would have called it a programming "issue.") Given
conflicting programming instructions to always follow orders from
the human crew, but not to tell them that the mission's crew
objective was to search for extraterrestrial life, HAL had the
ultimate Fatal Application Error. Even before that, though, HAL
took instructions very literally, and accordingly, after the
astronauts got past the "gee whiz" phase, they perceived their
computer companion as being either stubborn or obtuse.
And stubborn or obtuse is pretty much how a typical user will
regard the typical speech recognition program on the market
today.
The technology has come a LONG way. I started using it nearly a
decade ago -- not out of enthusiasm for cutting-edge computing,
but because of RSI, which made keyboarding long passages of text
physically impossible. From that perspective, speech recognition
was a godsend, and the evolution has been amazing.
Consider pricing: in 1991, adopting speech recognition was an
$8,000+ proposition. You needed to buy a then-top-of-the-line 386
system, add a then-exotic sound board, and purchase a certified
reseller's consulting time along with the software, as the
manufacturers would not let users set up their systems un-aided.
Today any computer superstore or mail-order house can sell you
infinitely more advanced software for about 150 bucks, and it's a
quick install on any run-of-the-mill modern multimedia PC. (Let
me not over-sell the point, though. There is a trade-off between
speed and accuracy in speech recognition, so the better the
hardware, typically the better the performance of the voice
software.)
Operationally, the products have made a quantum leap from
"discrete speech" [when... you... had... to... speak... each...
word... separately... with... a... LONG... pause... between...
each... word] to "continuous speech" -- which is to say, everyday
conversational speech. Moreover, whereas the early systems
typically mis-recognized one out of every eight words (10, if you
were lucky), recognition levels are now in the 95% range.
I am using NaturallySpeaking from Dragon Systems Inc. (see
below), generally regarded as the top speech recognition system
on the market today. Also popular is ViaVoice 98, IBM's entry in
the field (see below). An emerging contender is Lernout &
Hauspie's Voice Xpress. L&H acquired Kurzweil (another pioneering
company), and has backing from Microsoft -- and you know what
that usually means. Microsoft, in fact, is quietly testing speech
recognition software under its own brand name. There is some
suspicion that had Windows 2000's shipping date not slipped so
much, some speech command-and-control might have been part of it.
NaturallySpeaking from Dragon Systems Inc.
http://www.dragonsys.com/
IBM's ViaVoice 98
http://www.software.ibm.com/speech/
NaturallySpeaking, ViaVoice, and Voice Xpress are all DICTATION
programs. They generally provide some kind of basic word
processing window into which you can dictate, and also the
capability to dictate within Microsoft Word and other
applications. NaturallySpeaking, in fact, ships with the Corel
WordPerfect Suite, while ViaVoice is included in IBM-owned Lotus
SmartSuite. None of them have extensive capabilities to command
and control applications. The big item in that market is L&H's
Kurzweil VoiceCommands, which Microsoft plugs as a Word add-on.
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloaddetails/voicecommand.htm
(Beware: this URL may wrap in your email reader)
All speech recognition systems, however, suffer from one inherent
accuracy problem: WE don't have especially high accuracy
ourselves, nor does the English language. Few of us have radio-
announcer-like voices that allow us to clearly enunciate each
word. Nor -- particularly if we are writing something from
scratch -- do we maintain a constant cadence. Pause an extra
millisecond between syllables and your dictation software, as
mine just did, can put up "sole bulls" instead of "syllables."
And even perfect diction doesn't solve the "2-to-too-two" kind of
problem. English is full of words that sound the same, and often
are hard to distinguish even in context. If I say, "two blue
cars," maybe I'm talking about a pair of blue cars, but I also
might have been saying "too blue cars," as a complaint about
excessive cerulean coloration.
Once there has been mis-recognition, the systems have ways to
make corrections. But they are tedious, time-consuming processes.
Also a chronic problem is that since speech recognition software
draws from a built-in dictionary, when it makes an error, the
mistake will still be a real word. And no spell checker will ever
catch it if you miss it. As the editors of this e-zine can
attest, odd words inevitably will creep into my writing. A Dragon
techie pointed out to me that, for this reason, obscenities are
excluded from the software's dictionary (and a user adds them at
his own peril). The company discovered the problem as the result
of an embarrassing moment at a trade show demo.
One my TNPC colleagues asked about the quasi-psychological
aspects of the technology. As he noted, we are used to the
tactile sensation of typing and it can feel odd to write without
it. I have found that the fact that the words come up on screen
when you say them, helps some. You also adjust with time. It
helps that I was a rotten typist, so that my dictation accuracy
is not much worse than my hunt-and-peck performance. Another help
is that I was a journalist in the pre-laptop era when dictating a
story over the phone to someone in the newsroom was still a
standard practice.
Still, what gives you a comfort level with your writing is a
personal thing. I feel most comfortable doing my dictation in a
private office. Working in a more crowded environment where
everyone can hear what I am dictating is the equivalent of having
the entire office looking over your shoulder while you are
typing. Again, this becomes less awkward with time, as your
dictation becomes less of a novelty in the office. But it still
bugs me.
The bottom line is that speech recognition right now is most
useful as a tool for those who need it to deal with disabilities
such as RSI or for those who have been using a dictation machine.
The frustrations probably make the technology unsuitable for
people who are effective on the keyboard. Unless you are really
dedicated, it is not the tool of choice for crash projects.
BUT...
Instead of being "just a generation away," speech recognition now
is just about there. Current high-end PCs have enough power that
a continuous speech program can crunch enough data to understand
the context in which a word has been used and thus improve
accuracy -- without paying a terrible price in dictation speed.
The hardware releases scheduled for the next year, plus the usual
upgrades to speech software, will mean that long before 2001
actually gets here, most users probably will be talking to their
computers.
"Rotate the pod, HAL."
(Al Gordon is a Boston-area journalist who writes on technology
issues. A TNPC contributing editor, he was Technical Editor for
"Outlook Annoyances." You can reach him at
mailto:algordon@TheNakedPC.com )
** 03. Low Tech Solutions for High Tech Problems (by T.J. Lee)
Here's a high tech problem that I've yet to come up with a good
low tech solution for (or any kind of solution actually). The
diskette/CD-ROM proliferation problem.
I've got perhaps 500 3.5 inch floppy diskettes in the closet of
my office. These are not archives, or even diskettes that have
anything on them I want to keep. I have them for when I need a
blank 1.4 Mb floppy (which seems to be less and less these days).
It's easier to email someone a file than go to the trouble of
actually mailing a physical diskette to someone anymore.
Why do I keep them? Because I'd feel guilty to just dump them all
in the trash. There may be ways to recycle them but if there are
I'm not aware of them. For awhile there I was getting 2 or 3 a
week in the mail thanks to AOL's manifest destiny attempt to
carpet the world with free AOL diskettes.
The nice thing I suppose is that they stack nicely and don't take
up too much space. Lately though I've noticed that my collection
of CD-ROMs is also getting out of hand. Face it, those 3.5"
diskettes are going the way of the dodo bird and now everything
from betas to AOL's renewed effort to spread their service shows
up on CD-ROMs. I've got 15 or so "must have handy" CDs cluttering
up my desk at any one time, about 50 empty CD jewel cases on the
shelf (I'm sure they'll come in handy for something although I
don't know what) and another 50 containing CDs that contain
programs, archives, TechNet, and sundry research stuff. What I
don't have is a good way to store them so that they're easy to
find when I need one and don't collect dust. Ever see those hat-
rack like floor stands that hold a jillion CDs? Can you say "dust
magnet?" My colleague Helen Feddema uses discarded baby wipe
dispensers to store CD-ROMs which is great as long as you know
someone with kids young enough to keep you supplied with the
plastic tubs.
Speaking of kids, mine have a ball with unwanted CDs. They make
fair frisbees and absolutely outstanding light reflectors. I just
wish there was a viable recycle program for them. And if you're
up on the latest in home entertainment there's the new DVDx
disks. You rent movies on them like you would a video and you can
watch it as many times as you want in 48 hours then it quits
working and you toss it in the landfill. Sheesh, I've just now
gotten into the habit of using the recycle bin in my office for
"all paper and paper products (please remove paperclips and
staples)." But tossing plastic disks in the trash is somehow
okay?
So let me ask you... do any TNPCers out there have a good (or at
least humorous) solution to the rising tide of unwanted diskettes
and CD-ROMs that threaten to engulf us? Do you dump or recycle?
We'll talk about more low-tech solutions in future issues. Send
your favorite "low tech solutions to high tech problems" to:
mailto:low-tech@TheNakedPC.com
** 04. Does Your System Have Warts? (by Lee Hudspeth)
Back in TNPC #1.9 I enumerated all the big and small warts on my
production PC at that time. Item 3 read "The dreaded Low
Resources warning message box appears randomly at least every
other day." That problem, which I'll abbreviate as the "LR crash"
here, persists to this day.
But, idle hands being the devil's playground, I haven't been
slacking off, nor has my PC. Since October 26th I've logged 30 LR
crashes. That's an average of one hard system crash every day
(every 0.91 days to be exact) if we count only weekdays as work
days and subtract five for my Thanksgiving holiday vacation. When
the LR warning message box appears I stop whatever I'm doing,
reach for my LR crash notepad, and jot down the following
information:
* date and time;
* running applications;
* activity that appeared to be the trigger (basically, what I was
doing when the dog-gone PC pulled the rug out from under me);
* and any recovery state information (speed-reading my log notes
the system had to be cold booted 29 times out of the 30, the one
exception I was able to coax it into a warm start).
My analysis of what's happening isn't complete yet because so far
nothing I've tried has worked! I'll dutifully report all the
hoops I've jumped through when this sad tale reaches its end;
however, here are the two remaining tricks I'll try over the next
two weeks. The first is to install MemTurbo (I just downloaded it
while writing this), a system memory defragmentation tool
suggested to me by several TNPCers and especially Bob and Tom R.
I hope to be able to trap LR crashes by setting MemTurbo's alarm
level just right to be able to snap back from these crashes.
We'll see. The final trick will be to completely reinstall
Windows 98 from scratch on my production PC. Not a big deal per
se, but I'm almost -- sarcasm on thick here -- having fun
figuring this wart out and conquering it, so I'll reserve the
scorched earth tactic for last.
(NB: I am not endorsing MemTurbo here, it's just a potentially
intriguing utility that might or might not solve my particular
problem. As I've said, we'll see. Merely by looking over its
feature set I personally place it into the "extreme power tool"
category, so if you use it then do so with appropriate care.)
Meanwhile, I recently had the wonderful occasion to upgrade to
Nico Mak's WinZip 7.0 from the rock-steady version 6.3. WinZip is
one of THE most indispensable utilities for any PC owner, and it
gets better with each new release. It has either a Classic
interface for power users or a Wizard interface for folks just
getting started with file compression/decompression. Either way,
the user interface fits like a comfortable glove. When you need a
special feature or tool, they're easy to find. The help file is
exemplary. It integrates right into Windows Explorer, making
common operations one-click wonders. Every time I've used this
product over the years I've always nodded my head in genuine
appreciation for a job well done. Gosh, give this one five stars!
<soapbox on> Eons ago I paid for my shareware copies, one for
each PC I work on, and it was money well spent. For those of you
still using a shareware version of WinZip beyond the initial
trial period, I'll bet you're tired of clicking the I Agree
button. Do yourself and Nico a big favor and register today.
<soapbox off>
Installing it over its prior version was so easy, graceful,
smart, friendly, and downright intuitive that it really perked me
up, gave me hope that there's a PC nirvana out there. Kudos,
Nico!
http://www.winzip.com
Installing WinZip brought to mind a tip I'd like to share with
you that could some day save you plenty of grief. When installing
on top of a registered version, WinZip is smart enough to tell
you your user name and registration code (it just prompts for
confirmation) so you don't have to have them handy. But I
couldn't remember if this was the case or not, so I made sure to
dig out my registered user names and passwords for each version
before the setup. I keep all passwords and related "resource
access" information in my Outlook Notes folder for expedient
searching, and once each month an Outlook Task reminds me to
export that data to an Excel workbook called Passwords.xls.
Naturally, Passwords.xls is itself locked with one password that
I won't ever forget (so the theory goes). I include that file in
my daily incremental backup regimen, so if my gargantuan Outlook
PST file -- a file that's in a proprietary format -- ever goes
south, there's a simple little Excel workbook I can open on
practically any PC in the world. Well, as long as I remember the
master password, or as long as I have the foresight to email-
forward it somewhere or carry it on a generic removable disk of
some kind. If I were truly paranoid I'd backup Passwords.xls to
an off-site Internet facility, now wouldn't I? If you have a
personal favorite low-cost, Internet-based offsite storage
service, I'm all ears.
Send your warts, solutions, and anecdotes to:
mailto:warts@TheNakedPC.com
** 05. An In-depth Look at PRIME 97 for Word 97 - Bookmark Popup
The newest version 1.1 of PRIME 97 for Word includes several new
utilities. Some, like Bookmark Popup, you'll wonder how you ever
did without. In TNPC #1.6 we covered PRIME Bookmark Manager, the
Swiss Army knife for Word bookmarks. PRIME Bookmark Popup
provides a single-click, elegant solution to a frequent dilemma
for bookmark aficionados: you want to see an instant list of all
the bookmarks in the document and just click and go to one of
them.
Now you can. When you click on the Bookmark Popup button it
displays an alphabetical list of all bookmarks, you select the
one of interest, and the selection moves there. The popup menu
also includes a single-click option to Toggle Bookmarks, saving
you lots of time having to navigate Word's labyrinthine dialogs
for this operation.
Simple, clean, and elegant, just the way we like 'em.
Bookmark Popup is one of dozens of productivity-enhancement
utilities in PRIME 97 for Word 97 (version 1.1). PRIME 97 for
Word 97 was selected as a Top Ten Office Add-In by the
prestigious PC World magazine. Order version 1.0 now and receive
a free upgrade to version 1.1 when it's released.
Check out a free 30-day trial at:
http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/software/p97wd.html
or order your copy via our secure server at:
https://fire.mslnet.com/secure/prime/order.asp
PRIME Consulting Group backs all its software products with a
lifetime, money-back, no-questions-asked guarantee.
Sign up to become a dealer for PRIME 97 for Word 97:
http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/software/dealer.html
** 06. Featured FAQ - Linux 101: A Primer to the Premier
Alternative Operating System
One of the most common questions we get here at TNPC is for more
information on Linux, the UNIX-based freeware operating system
that is finding more and more acceptance (and installations) on
both personal and corporate computers. This primer by Paul
Thurrott (with help from Larry J. Blunk) is a great starting
point if you're thinking of taking Linux for a test drive. Filled
with solid advice and helpful observations, Paul has put together
a short discussion of Linux that is both interesting and
informative. Paul also provides a number of links to additional
Linux resources.
http://www.wugnet.com/wininfo/win2000/not_nt/981203.html
** 07. Featured Web Site - The Laffatorium
There are a number of comedy and joke sites on the Web but what
caught our eye on the Laffatorium is it's all-out Christmas theme
for December. You can find some terrifically funny Holiday Humor
on this site, stories, parodies, jokes, and a fantastic jukebox
of holiday MIDI tunes (really good stuff). The archive has a ton
of humorous lists, tests, real-life humor, computer humor,
cartoons and more!
http://www.laffnow.com
** 08. Featured Product Recommendation - Microsoft IntelliMouse
Pro
Jim bought one of the original MS IntelliMouses and was very
underwhelmed to say the least. The wheel was awkward and he felt
the entire investment was shot. So it was with some reluctance
that he was convinced by none other than the Lockergnome himself,
Chris Pirillo, to try Microsoft's IntelliMouse Pro. But when
Chris speaks, savvy computer users listen and Jim gave the Pro
mouse a spin. What an improvement! The wheel is easy to use and
the software seems to work better with non-Microsoft
applications. If you've not tried the IntelliMouse Pro you
certainly should. Scroll bars may become a thing of the past and
the ability to resize Web pages in IE by holding down the Ctrl
key and spinning the wheel is alone worth the price. (Note from
Lee's office down the hall: for me it was love at first touch
back when I got the original IntelliMouse/IntelliPoint 1.0 beta.
But now that there's a Pro version, Santa, are you listening?)
http://www.beyond.com/AF23174/PKIN511817/prod.htm
** 09. Featured Book Recommendation - "The New Way Things Work"
by David Macaulay
Just how does an electric can opener work? Get the straight scoop
on how machines you use every day are able to do what they do.
The first version of "The Way Things Work" was on the New York
Times bestsellers list for 50 weeks. What does a carburetor, a
fire extinguisher, and a toilet have in common? This book will
inform you in a clear-cut, funny, and easy to understand way.
From modems to meat grinders, zippers, rockets and egg beaters,
you'll see what underlying principles govern the magic that makes
things work. Magnetism, gears, and electricity are all explained.
This book is a great book for any parent whose kid has ever
asked, "How does that work?"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0395938473/tnpcnewsletter/
Also available on CD-ROM:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789412535/tnpcnewsletter/
** 10. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and
interesting stuff
*-* Star Division is giving away single user versions of its
Windows 9x/NT StarOffice suite. Download it or for $39.95 order
the Deluxe version on CD with manual and support plus extras. The
suite consists of the Star word processor, graphics,
presentation, database front-end, HTML editor, mail/news reader,
scheduler, charting and formula editor. Star claims
interoperability with Microsoft Office products up to Office
2000. StarOffice has versions that run on Win9x/NT, Linux,
Solaris, OS/2 and Java.
http://www.stardivision.com/
*-* BugNet reports a bug in Excel 97 that causes Excel
spreadsheets with 12 digit numbers exported as .CSV files to
choke when imported into popular word processors like Microsoft
Word 97 or Corel WordPerfect 8. In either case you get an error
message rather than incorrect data.
*-* Windows 98 has a minor Y2K bug according to Microsoft.
Redmond has said that dates in the year 2000 could be displayed
incorrectly in what they're calling "rare scenarios," although
they stress there is no threat of data loss. Microsoft has posted
the Windows 98 Y2K update on the Windows Update page.
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
Or order the fix on CD-ROM by calling 1-800-363-2896.
*-* Microsoft has posted a patch to Excel 97 (SR-2 required) that
disables the CALL function when used within Excel worksheet
formulas. CALL lets you fire off other applications and DLLs from
within formulas and macros. The hoopla is that when you open a
spreadsheet with macros you get the standard warning and you
decide if you want to proceed or not. But if CALL is used in a
formula there is no warning. Of course the answer is not to open
any strange and/or booby-trapped spreadsheets. The Microsoft fix
is to completely disable the CALL function when used in formulas,
which is what the patch does.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q196/7/91.asp
*-* If you're gearing up for the new Euro you'll want to get the
Euro Enabled Fonts for Microsoft Office. You'll have to update
Windows or NT to support this new currency and then install the
necessary fonts
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/offeurofonts.htm
(Beware: this URL may wrap in your email reader)
*-* Microsoft is getting out of the ISP business. At least in
Canada where they have notified subscribers that by February 1,
1999, they'll have to find another provider.
**PLEASE SUPPORT TNPC BY VISITING OUR ADVERTISERS**
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