Dakota Today

*** Speech to text and text to speech

Dragon Dictate is commercial software that allows a computer user to dictate to programs and it converts a users speech into text.Going the other way from E-Book to audible speech can be done with free software developed by Ray Kurzweil for the American Society for the Blind.

If that BLIO program interests you or you know somebody perhaps in a nursing home who could make use of the program, you can download it from link below.

LINK: Download BLIO E-Book Reader

I heard about that software on SDPB-Radio a few years ago and tried it more or less as a curiosity,  It worked surprisingly well.  I then more or less forgot about it, but now have friends with severe vision problems or bored to tears in a nursing home and nursing home activity people have expressed interest in the program.  Of course, as they say, "Your mileage may Vary".

*** Stay tuned, so far my cold fingers work on a keyboard, and I hope you can keep using yours to get more and better information and utility.  Good Luck.--- Doug Wiken

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*** Serif Software sellers with accents and speech patterns to make them incomprehensible

I have purchased some Serif Software, and the price and value are usually right compared to products from Photoshop or Microsoft, etc.  However, Serif must have a call center staffed with people from third-world nations carrying nearly incomprehensible accents and speech patterns.I also don't appreciate calls to my cellphone carrying extra international tolls.

I tried to contact Serif, and their site forces you to register, etc.  I may have done that in the past, but frankly don't remember.  I might take time to dig through my stack of cards with log-in information, etc., but I am not sure.

I have a couple of suggestions to SERIF.  1. Get phone callers with language and accents suitable for different parts of the US. 2.  Consider taking over the call center that is being abandoned near Timber Lake, South Dakota  Plenty of labor and plenty of normal US English speech ability..  And one more-- a number 3. Start selling a very cheap or free version of TomeRaider e-book software. The author of it has abandoned it, but it is a very easy-to-use powerful bit of software of the kind Serif could well sell well and use to good use for digital instruction manuals, etc.

I am pretty sure this is all going to be ignored, but perhaps SD Employment people should contact SERIF about making use of a central US call center.

It is too damn hot to mess with new software or unintellligible or an unintelligible software salesman today..  Feels like temperature is over 100F degrees today.

*** Stay tuned even if you are still using dial-up internet and W95--- Doug Wiken

 

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*** Just what you need-- Computer "wallpaper"

I realize there are probably a few million images pushed as computer wallpaper.  Some work well with icons, others might as well be camouflage.

I was messing around with pasting a scanned image of envelope lining designed to prevent reading contents of the envelope.  It ended up making a good background for icons when used as "wallpaper".  You might like it or you might hate it, but take a look.  You might find it useful.

View this photo

Download it if you think it might work for you. Irfanview makes viewing and editing images very easy (depending on your screen settings, you may want to alter brightness, contrast, etc.) and also using an image for wallpaper very easy and very reversible. It is free.

Now, back to work rearranging farm yard following burial of part of GoldenWest's fiber optic lines for rural Tripp County.  This is much more of a project and also much more interesting than I assumed before all the machinery and workers, inspectors, et al showed up working hard...when they weren't standing around waiting for somebody else to do something.

*** Stay tuned even if you already have the best of all possible computer wallpaper--- Doug Wiken

 

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*** Fiber Optic cable on way to rural Tripp County

In the mixed bag of news today from GWTC or Golden West Technologies, we get news of a coming phone rate increase they claim is mandated by the FCC, but they will be letting West River customers call free to other West River customers and East River customers will be able to call other East River Customers.  This seems like a totally irrelevant separation.  For that "benefit" to mean anything to us, we would need to be able to also call eastern SD free.  This half-step is not quite enough to persuade many people to forget about cell phones and stop disconnecting land lines.

Below is image with text from GWTC.  On second and third reading, I am not sure if this means that GWTC rates were too high and adding on enhanced long-distance was a way to maintain the high rates, or for some reason, rates were too low and had to be raised and adding enhanced long-distance makes that increase more palatable.

Below is image with SD map showing GWTC exchanges.

On the other hand, yesterday, a cable plow, trencher, layer, whatever was unloaded in a road ditch near our farm.  Photo of the D6HLGP Series II Cat and the Bron V100 slit trencher are below.  Click on image for a larger version.

This big hunk of steel is apparently owned by NexLevel,LLC of Maple River, MN which company is laying the fiber-optic cable for rural Tripp County.  This should make internet service a bit faster here.

Guys working for GWTC said the actual cable placing will start sometime after May 23, 2013 which will give me some time to move junk around to make way for the machinery and cable.  They said project was expected to be finished by September 30, 2013.  There will be no service on the old copper coaxial line as the fiber-optic system is phased in.

*** Stay tuned for more on electrons converted to light and light to electrons.  Gee whiz.--- Doug Wiken

 

 

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*** GWTC Fiber to Home gets started

Most of us in rural Tripp County are tied to Golden West Technology for wired phones and internet service.  They charge too much, but they are what is available and phone and internet service from them have both been levels of magnitude better than when US West had a monopoly.

Earlier this spring GWTC had engineering contractors out getting easements for the new fiber-optic lines.  GWTC wants to get as much of it as possible off highway right-of-ways.

Anyway, a few days ago I got a call from GWTC.  They are starting to install the routers and powers supplies that will be used when the fiber optic line is installed later this year.  I assume the power is to run the modem and the interface between fiber and wire and the analog phones since no power will be conducted with the fiber-optic line.

Below is a photo of the inside part of the system.  Another box outside for the interface with the buried fiber optic line..

Click on image for slightly larger version. Actual device total size about 10" wide by about 15 inches top to bottom.

It was installed level and plumb, but my cellphone was obviously not level and plumb.

That's the news from Lake Waytoolate.  

Years ago when GWTC put in line to replace the very troublesome system US West had, I asked a rep from GWTC why they weren't installing fiber optic in same trench since it might only ad 5 cents per foot.  Even if it was dark fiber for a few years it would have made sense,   His response, "What would farmers ever need that kind of bandwideth for?"

So, now that we have that bandwidth, I wonder if GWTC will allow us to stream video or audio.  There old contracts banned that.

*** Stay tuned for more on this in the coming months--- Doug Wiken

 

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***Guest Post--Chuck Noble on XL Pipeline as Bad Idea

*** Dual "wheels" for computer drive management

Microsoft keeps making software more complicated with ever-changing commands and a learning curve tortured by obtuse twists and turns.  Windows explorer is OK for a lot of people, but a few "double directory" programs can make moving files and storing to flash drives, etc much, much easier and also more intuitive...at least from my perspective.

If the above makes sense to you, take a look at Briggs File Maven..demo available, but not freeware and System Commander from Marek Jasinski.

Briggs Softworks for File Maven and several other software products.

Free Commander by Marek Jasinski..Freeware: Regular Windows, U3. and Portable versions

I make no guarantees on these programs,  but I think most of you can find good uses for the software above and prices are reasonable.

And if you have a digital camera, and you need a free program to view or do primitive editing on, bulk resizing or renaming, etc. The freeware Irfanview program is a favorite of many thousands of users.  Not a dual-drive file manager, but two instances of the program can be loaded which makes some editing easier.  Download Irfan Skiljan's Irfanview and add-ons.

These are not in the PC World 101 list of sites.  More on that in a week or so.

***  Stay tuned even if the rain is not removing the snow where you reside--- Doug Wiken

 

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*** Extension Cords and Heaters Update

I suspect some of this kind of post is found very boring for some people.  My wife finds it amusing that "nerds" can get so interested in this kind of stuff.  Anyway... below is an image of a heater warning label I have not seen here in South Dakota on electric heaters.  It is from my friend John in California and for all I know may be a sensible California requirement.  Click on the image for a larger version.

Above is actually info from front and back of warning tag. Click on image for a more readable size.

John included more information which one might expect from an electrical engineer.  I will put that information into SD Science Junction.  It is the kind of information that conveys a message of the actual importance of science and engineering knowledge in general daily life..or possibly death if knowledge is absent or unavailable.

I also received more information from the SD Fire Marshall's office which parallels the above warning, but is not quite so easy to insert here.  You can download the PDF below.

Download Safe_use_of_power_strips-1

Thanks to Doug Hinkle of the SD Office and thanks to John for the information of his own experience with overheated connectors and his analysis of it.

I have looked at all stores selling cords and heaters here in Winner, SD again last week and checked my own connectors and cords and have found a huge gap between the data in the marketplace and the info from fire authorities.  More caution than suggested by product labeling here in South Dakota is warranted by experience here and elsewhere.

*** Stay tuned and be careful both out there and in there--- Doug Wiken

 

*** Guest Post concerning MagicJackPlus and GoldenWest

The information in italics below was posted as a comment, but I think it is fair and important enough to put it in here as a post.  I received essentially the same information from the SDPUC today.  There is more detailed information in the PUC message which I will try to dig out and possibly add and additional information  to this post.

Dear Doug, My name is Greg Oleson and I am the Director of Member Services, Communications and Government Affairs at Golden West. I hope you will allow me to respond to your Magic Jack post dated November 27, 2012.

Specifically, I would like to address the statement made by the Radio Shack employee that Magic Jack doesn’t work because in may be a problem with Golden West having no competition and thus may be blocking use of devices like Magic Jack. Golden West Telecommunications has no ability to block competitive service providers from entering its service area and/or individual local exchange areas such as Winner. Issues related to competitive entry are subject to both federal and state laws, and, generally, subject to only minimal rural safeguards that may be imposed by State Commissions. Any potential telecommunications providers interested in serving customers within Golden West’s service area are free to proceed before the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission and the Federal Communications Commission to obtain any necessary regulatory approvals that are required as a pre-condition to providing service.

Further, in regard to carriers providing only VOIP services (such as Magic Jack or Google Voice, for example), there are currently no state regulatory requirements that even apply and pose any sort of obstacle to the immediate provisioning of such services within Golden West’s service area.

Bottom line, there is no basis to contend that Golden West is in any way prohibiting or blocking VOIP services from operating within its service area. I hope I have cleared up any false notions or misunderstanding.

Let us know if you have any questions. Thanks. Greg Oleson

• Commenter name: Greg Oleson
• Commenter email: [email protected]
• Commenter URL: http://www.goldenwest.com

Thanks to Greg Oleson for the above. Now if I could get MagicJack to explain why they resist VOIP connections to rural areas...or even make an attempt to provide rational explanation for that or their premium pay services, would put a final nail in this discussion. *** Stay tuned for more...even if arcane technology is not your bag--- Doug Wiken

*** Another learning experience

Nothing is ever as simple as expected.  Of course some things should not be expected...such as a software program for burning CDs and DVDs being able to copy a DVD+R disc to a DVD-R blank disc.  A local computer store owner a year or so ago when I asked him what was the difference between the +R and -R versions answered, "The DVD-Rs work".

So, I have never bought a single DVD+R disc prior to today.  Of course, if the software designers have a program smart enough to recognize the wrong format for a DVD, they might have an error message that says something like, "DVD-R and DVD+R discs cannot be copied to each other;  please insert the correct type disc." rather than "Your disc is unwritable, please insert a good disc."

Anyway, in the process of copying and checking, I found out why the DVD my wife got from her HS class reunion organizers did not run after starting.  On a computer, a mouse click was required to get past the looping intro, on a DVD player, pressing "OK" seemed to get things past the loooing intro.

It really isn't all that hard to waste an hour or two.  Device ignorance helps a lot however. I did not have an internet connection to check where DVDs are, but now, you can read the tribulations of others getting past the obvious...maybe. 

*** Stay tuned for much more erudite nonsense...it is available all over--- Doug Wiken

*** Magic Jack Plus sort of works, but check the complaints before buying

I have been intrigued by Magic Jack and Magic Jack Plus for sometime.  First time was when I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of the night with their TV ad running.  Then I saw that Radio Shack stores were selling the product.  Black Friday special at local Radio Shack had it for $49 instead of $69..  Several of my friends seemed to me to be potentially  good clients for a less expensive "phone system" that worked via internet connection, so I bought the Magic Jack Plus.

First off, there is little on the package that is actually fully actual information, but more like assertions as it turns out.  A computer is required to set up the system even if you intend to use it only plugged into a router network.  Setup is not instantaneous by any means.  The device requires a large download and a minimum of 3 minutes of not touching computer keyboard, etc  This process actually took something like 15 to 30 minutes. Some of the instructions on packaging internally confict and are mutually contradictory.

Then if you plan to register for an assigned number for incoming calls and continued use, you can plan on another 30 minutes online filling in forms and rejecting charges that should not be necessary were package ads actually fully truthful.

Then once I did get it working, I found out it would not work with some South Dakota telephone systems.  Goldenwest, which is our local system, does not work with Magic Jack.  Trying to call a local number generates a Magic Jack response something like, "Conference calls and platform calls require a prepaid charge.  Contact my.magicjack....etc."  Well, I was not making a conference call and have not the foggiest idea of what is a platform call. Some other phone systems in South Dakota and Magic Jack also seem to be incompatible.

It does appear to work with cellphone systems and some of the South Dakota phone system providers.  I have connected with phones outside South Dakota.

Magic Jack tech service is a very slow chat system which will essentially shift you to their several pages of fine print terms of service with discussion of CLEC and ILEC, etc.

The incoming number seems to work.  I have received calls from cellphones and landlines to that number.

In short, take anything promised by the Magic Jack Plus TV ads and package claims with a grain of salt.  You may find it useful or not at all useful depending on your situation and the kind of phone systems you might want to call using Magic Jack.

After ripping the damnable plastic packaging to shreds and wasting about two hours getting everything set up, I will probably play with the thing till the "free" first year contract expires.  Before you buy it, check some of the complaints I found after running into the Magic Jack Plus "conference, platform pay wall" message.

Magic Jack Reviews and Complaints

Magic Jack and long-distance problems

This guy wants Magic Jack reported to BBC, FCC, and PUC

A tech page that once supported Magic Jack says, not so favorable now

The Ripoff Report on Magic Jack

And, the Magic Jack's fine print terms of service

Well, that should give you a bunch of perspectives if you are considering purchasing Magic Jack Plus at your local Radio Shack store or from a TV ad.  Despite the problems so far, it comes to something in the neighborhood of free lunch, but perhaps not nearly so free and tasty as some of the other options for phone via internet.   Let me know if you have good or bad experience or even if you find this post and links useful.

I stopped at the local Radio Shack and learned from an experienced clerk there that they tell everybody about the problem with local use of the Magic Jack.  Well not quite everybody, but she did suggest the real problem with the Magic Jack may actually be a problem with Golden West Telecommunications having no competition and thus may be blocking use of devices like Magic Jack.   I don't know if that speculation holds water or not, but seems it might be of interest to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.

Government agencies subsidizing nearly free phone service for indigents, might also be interested in a free-enterprise option for phone service actually costing about $19.95 per year (Internet connection and computer necessary however).

*** Stay tuned...Dakota Today and many other SD Blogs really are a free lunch...but also of varying quality and flavor--- Doug Wiken