Speech-Recognition Software

Like Having a Secretary in Your PC

by David Pogue

TESTING, testing, one two three. Is this thing on?

Well, I’ll be darned. It’s really on and it’s really working. I’m wearing a headset, talking, and my PC is writing down everything I say in Microsoft Word. I’m speaking at full speed, perfectly normally except that I’m pronouncing the punctuation (comma), like this (period).

Let’s try something a little tougher. Pyridoxine hydrochloride. Antagonistic Lilliputians. Infinitesimal zithers.

Hm! Not bad.

Oh, hi, honey. Did you get to the bank before it closed? Oh, hold on, let me turn off the mike. Wouldn’t want our conversation to wind up in my column!

O.K., back again. The software I’m using is Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.0 (www.nuance.com), the latest version of the best-selling speech-recognition software for Windows. This software, which made its debut Tuesday, is remarkable for two reasons.

Reason 1: You don’t have to train this software. That’s when you have to read aloud a canned piece of prose that it displays on the screen ­ a standard ritual that has begun the speech-recognition adventure for thousands of people.

I can remember, in the early days, having to read 45 minutes’ worth of these scripts for the software’s benefit. But each successive version of NaturallySpeaking has required less training time; in Version 8, five minutes was all it took.

And now they’ve topped that: NatSpeak 9 requires no training at all.

I gave it a test. After a fresh installation of the software, I opened a random page in a book and read a 1,000-word passage ­ without doing any training.

The software got 11 words wrong, which means it got 98.9 percent of the passage correct. Some of those errors were forgivable, like when it heard “typology” instead of “topology.”

But Nuance says that you’ll get even better accuracy if you do read one of the training scripts, so I tried that, too. I trained the software by reading its “Alice in Wonderland” excerpt. This time, when I read the same 1,000 words from my book, only six errors popped up. That’s 99.4 percent correct.

The best part is that these are the lowest accuracy rates you’ll get, because the software gets smarter the more you use it ­ or, rather, the more you correct its errors.

You do this entirely by voice. You say, “correct ‘typology,’ ” for example; beneath that word on the screen, a numbered menu of alternate transcriptions pops up. You see that alternate 1 is “topology,” for example, so you say “choose 1.” The software instantly corrects the word, learns from its mistake and deposits your blinking insertion point back at the point where you stopped dictating, ready for more.

Over time, therefore, the accuracy improves. When I tried the same 1,000-word excerpt after importing my time-polished voice files from Version 8, I got 99.6 percent accuracy. That’s four words wrong out of a thousand ­ including, of course, “topology.”

For this reason, it doesn’t much matter whether or not you skip the initial training; the accuracy of the two approaches will eventually converge toward 100 percent.

NatSpeak 9 is remarkable for a second reason, too: it’s a new version containing very little new.

Yes, they’ve eliminated the training requirement. And yes, the new NatSpeak is 20 percent more accurate than before if you do the initial training. Then again, what’s a 20 percent improvement in a program that’s already 99.4 percent accurate ­ 99.5? That’s maybe one less error every 1,000 words.

(Nuance has done some clever engineering to wring these additional drops of accuracy out of the program. For example, the program has always used context to determine a word’s identity, taking into account the two or three words on either side of it to distinguish, say, “bear” from “bare.” The company says that Version 9 scans an even greater swath of the surrounding words.)

But the rest of the changes are minor. The top-of-the-screen toolbar has shed the squared-off Windows 3.1 look in favor of a more rounded Windows Vista look. You can now use certain Bluetooth wireless headsets for dictation, although Nuance has found only two so far that put the microphone close enough to your mouth to get clear sound. A new toolbar indicator lets you know when you’re in a “select and say” program like Word ­ that is, a program where you can highlight, manipulate and format any text you see on the screen using voice commands.

At least Nuance hasn’t gone the way of so many software companies, piling on features and complexity in hopes of winning your upgrade dollars. For the second straight revision, the company has preferred to nip and tuck, making careful and selective improvements.

Now, Nuance isn’t the only game in speech-recognition town. Microsoft says that Windows Vista, when it makes its debut next year, will come with built-in dictation software.

Nuance claims not to be worried, pointing out that Vista will understand only English. NatSpeak, on the other hand, is available in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, British English and “World English,” which can handle South African, Southeast Asian and Australian accents.

NatSpeak is also available in a range of versions for the American market, including medical and legal incarnations. Mere mortals will probably want to consider either the Standard version ($100) or the Preferred version ($200), each of which comes with a headset. Both offer the same accuracy.

The Preferred edition, however, offers several shiny bells and whistles. One of them is transcription from a digital pocket voice recorder. This approach doesn’t provide the same accuracy as a headset, and it requires what today is considered an excruciating amount of training reading: at least 15 minutes. But it does free you from dictating at the computer.

The Preferred perk is voice macros, where you teach it to type one thing when you say another. For example, you can say “forget it” and have the software spit out, “Thank you so much for your inquiry. Unfortunately, after much consideration, we regret that we must decline your application at this time.”

There’s also a $900 version called Professional, which offers, among other advanced features, complete control over your PC by voice; it can even set in motion elaborate multi-step automated tasks.

NatSpeak also runs beautifully on the Macintosh. The setup is a bit involved: you need a recent Intel-based Mac, Apple’s free Boot Camp utility, a copy of Windows XP, and a U.S.B. adapter on your headset. And you have to restart the Mac in Windows each time you want to use NatSpeak. But if you can look past all that fine print, NatSpeak on Macintosh is extremely fast and accurate.

If that sounds like too much effort, there is a Macintosh-only alternative: iListen ($130 with headset). Version 1.7, newly adapted for Intel Macs, offers better accuracy and a shorter training time than previous versions, though nothing like the sophistication or accuracy of NatSpeak. After 30 minutes of training, the program made 42 mistakes in my 1,000-word book excerpt, which the company says is better than average.

As for NaturallySpeaking: if you’re already using Version 8, it’s probably not worth upgrading to Version 9. Most people will find the changes to be too few and too subtle.

But if you’re among the thousands who have abandoned dictation software in the past, it’s a different story. Version 9 is a stronger argument than ever that for anyone who can’t or doesn’t like to type, dictation software is ready for prime time; the state of this art has attained nearly “Star Trek” polish.

Excuse me ­ what, honey?

O.K., I’m just finishing up here; I’ll be right down. Let me just turn my mike off.

E-mail: Pogue@nytimes.com

Angie's List

Angie’s List

Don’t know who’s the real deal? Consumer-rated site Angie’s List aims to help

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15150219.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_local

BY NIALA BOODHOO

nboodhoo@MiamiHerald.com

So it’s still hard to find a handyman to come out to your house? One new website is hoping to help.

Billed as a type of craigslist for home repair, Angie’s List (www.angieslist.com) is a consumer website dedicated to finding home repair professionals. It launched a few months ago in South Florida.

Founder Angie Hicks calls the website a ”glorified word of mouth network.” The concept is simple: Consumers sign up for the paid service, which is usually about $6 a month or $51 a year, plus a $10, one-time service fee. Right now, because the site is new to South Florida, it’s free.

Companies can’t put themselves on the list, although they are allowed a chance to respond to the reviews.

Once registered, users can search for anyone from a handyman to a mechanic, who are recommended and then graded in a simple A to F report card format by people who have hired the workers. They also can enter and rate contractors they have hired.

Once the site has been up for two years, each company’s listing will display an average of the reports it received. Companies are graded on punctuality, price, quality, and responsiveness, among other categories.

The site has really taken off in Miami — adding about 6,000 users in the four months it has been up.

”Miami has been a really good market for us,” said Hicks, who said the Miami Angie’s List has grown just as fast as other large cities it has recently entered. “People have taken to the service to us really quickly, which really reflects the need.”

The concept started in Columbus, Ohio, in 1995, and has since spread to 36 other cities with more than 300,000 registered users. The South Florida website, which launched in late March, lists more than 4,600 local contractors or other companies.

”Our goal is to get as much information out to consumers as possible,” said Hicks.

Hicks originally went door-to-door in Ohio to collect the consumer reports from friends and neighbors. A year later, she bought Unified Neighbors, an Indianapolis-based company, and modeled the current site after that business.

El Portal homeowner Barry Satz has already used the service to get air conditioning, plumbing and electrical work done at his home and office.

”It’s always hard to find reliable people,” said Satz, who has even found a tailor on the list. “Their method of having other people who have used the tradesmen you are thinking of using is very, very helpful.”

Choose great passwords

Choose (and remember) great passwords

by Gina Trapani

A secure, memorable password is easy for you to remember, and hard for others to guess.

Everywhere you turn you’ve got to come up with a password to register for something or another. Whether it’s the dozens of web sites that require you log in to use them, or your ATM card PIN, or your wireless network login, how do you decide on a new password? More importantly, how do you remember it?

Don’t use the same password for everything.

The problem with using the same password for everything you do is that if it’s compromised and someone finds it, the rest of your identity is at risk. If your mutual fund company, for example, has a security breach that exposes usernames and passwords, and you use the same login details there as your online banking and at Amazon.com, potentially thieves could not only compromise your mutual fund account, but your online banking account and credit card details stored in your Amazon.com account as well.

Remember 100 different passwords with 1 rule set.

You don’t need to remember 100 passwords if you have 1 rule set for generating them. One way to generate unique passwords is to choose a base password and then apply a rule that mashes in some form of the service name with it. For example, you may use your base password with the first two consonants and the first two vowels of the service name. Say your base password is “asdf.” (See how easy those keys are to type?). Then your password for Yahoo would be ASDFYHAO, and your password for eBay would be ASDFBYEA.

Something simpler - but along the same lines - might involve the same letters to start (say, your initials and a favorite number) plus the first 3 letters of a service name. In that case, my password for Amazon would be GMLT10AMA and for Lifehacker.com GMLT10LIF. (Include obscure middle initials - like your mother’s maiden name or a childhood nickname - that not many people know about for extra security.)

Before you decide on your single password generation rule, keep in mind that while password requirements are different for each service in terms of length and characters allowed and required, a good guideline is a password at least 8 characters long that includes both letters and numbers. To make a password even more secure - or applicable for services that require special characters - add them around it, like #GMLT10LIF#.

Choose your base password

Some options for choosing your base password:

• The first letter of a phrase or song refrain. For example, if you wanted to use the famous Jackson 5 song “I Want You Back”, your base password might be “IWUB.” Remembering the password is a matter of singing yourself the song.
• Use a pre-established keyboard pattern, like “yui” or “zxcv.” Just look at your keyboard to remember it.
• Use your spouse’s initials and your anniversary, like “TFB0602.” This one guarantees you won’t forget an anniversary card, either.
• For extra security, choose an easy to remember base, like your spouse’s initials, or the word “cat” and then shift your fingers up one row on the keyboard when you type it. In the case of “cat,” you’d get “dq5.”
• Then combine this base with some extra information unique to the service. A clever password generator bookmarklet creates a password based on a web site URL and autofills it when you visit that site with a click. View John Udell’s video demonstration of this bookmarklet in action. Another option is to simply use Firefox to manage your web site logins. See previous feature, Secure your saved passwords in Firefox for more information.
• One problem with rules-based passwords is that some sites have their own password requirements that conflict with your established password, such as “no special characters” or “at least 12 characters in length” or “all numbers/numbers and letters/just alphabetical.” In those cases, somehow you have to document or remember the exception to your rule for those services. On Friday we’ll cover tracking your passwords somewhere more secure than that sticky note on your monitor.

Top 10 MP3 players under $100

CNET: Top 10 MP3 players under $100

Electronic gadgets don’t have to be expensive to be good, and we can prove it. We scoured CNET.com to find the best MP3 players that can be had for less than a C-note. All the devices that made this top 10 list offer at least 512MB of storage and two or more of the following characteristics: good sound quality; a stylish, compact design; advanced features such as an FM radio or recording capabilities; and an impressive battery life. Of course, the best part is that none of them will break the bank. Find the right player for you with this list.

http://news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6090963-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

Calorie-count.com

http://www.calorie-count.com


Gives nutritional information for every franchise restaurant I can name, plus most every food you care to eat.