Posted on 05/31/2008 5:09:53 PM PDT by Chickensoup
Because of an continuing disability of my hands I will need to move to speech recognition software. I need a laptop that can handle the internet, the software, Word and a few other programs. Internet recommendations say 2 to 5 gig of working memory to use Dragon expediently. I am having a difficult time finding a 3 to 5 gig laptop that is affordable. One can add memory but is it accessble?
Anybody been down this road recently. I would appreciate your input.
Bluetooth is a communication protocol with a brand name so it’s easy to identify.
So it can be used as a telephone, a wireless mike and to notify all the other geeks in the area that you have arrived....kinda like GAYDAR?
As for cancer - I've yet to hear a scientist explain why so many people exposed to high levels of mercury, lead, and all the rest of the ‘dangerous things’ that we've eliminated from our society lived to be a hundred years old, experiencing far worse smog, pollutants, etc. Could just be that it's what happens when people get older.
I agree.
I am having a good time though.
I should probably add alcohol, but I think that is against FCC regulations.
[shrug]
Well, look at it this way. You have only two choices of maker if you want *any* of the money you spend on a laptop to stay in the US. If you buy from anyone but Dell or Apple (or Gateway, but who’s dumb enough to buy their crap???), all your money goes overseas. If you buy Dell or Apple, at least some of the money stays here and employs Americans.
Thank you. I have never heard of them but the prices look great.
My Sony laptop has Vista Ultimate and the speech recognition is extremely good. It requires no training so you can start usig it right from the word go. I would recommend a bluetooth capable laptop with a bluetooth microphone so your voice can be picked up even if you aren’t directly facing the laptop built-in microphone.
If you buy Dell
The last time I bought Dells, the nice but incompetent lady from India and I got emotionally very close over a series of weeeks.
The SOB in Texas made me cry.
I buy American whenever possible, but not here.
Thank you though.
Lenovo is the Communist Chinese “company” that bought the PC manufacturing concern from IBM. So, buying a Lenovo is “really” supporting the Chinese.
Oh, and I forgot HP on the list of the few American companies there - but HP laptops are crap now too, so they’re right out.
Checked for rootkits lately? :P
My Sony laptop has Vista Ultimate and the speech recognition is extremely good. It requires no training so you can start usig it right from the word go. I would recommend a bluetooth capable laptop with a bluetooth microphone so your voice can be picked up even if you aren’t directly facing the laptop built-in microphone.
You can dictate reports and letters with it? is it very different from Dragon?
I have tried 3 different bluetooth headsets with Dragon. Far too much noise and low accuracy. Best bet is a USB wired mic. GN Netcom is by far the best and supremely comfortable.
Thank you.
My bed time
Thank you everyone. I have a direction to turn.
My goodness perhaps I could freep with Dragon.
No I get in enough trouble as it is.
G’night!
Sony has some nice dual core duo laptops with plenty of memory in the $1200 to $1500 range. I’ve used a number of different brands of laptops, but keep coming back to Sony Vaio for the best all-around experience. They all are packaged with Vista (which I prefer over XP Pro). Unless you have applications that are specific to XP, I see no reason not to upgrade to Vista. You will have trouble tracking down old drivers to run XP. Some hardware on the newer laptops is not XP compliant, so don’t think that you can simply backgrade to XP. It may work, or it may not.
IBM T30 will now handle 2 g mem. It is around 2 ghz, add a larger HD and you are set. They were made before the Chinese and can be found off lease for $300.
Microsoft insists there will be, but it has been a moving deadline so far, and given the PR problems with Vista, no one can say for certain when XP will no longer be available.
There are other technical means to obtain XP outside of official channels, but those methods are neither (a) legal nor (b) enterprise-trustworthy.
“You can dictate reports and letters with it? is it very different from Dragon?”
Yes. I’ve dictated manuscripts with it. I’m not sure which engine it uses, but it is probably Dragon. It doesn’t know some technical words, but you spell the words out. No problem. If you can’t spell, just take a good guess and then run spellcheck. You may have to manually fix it if it is a very unique word like retinopathy or keratomileusis or something like that.
Spekaing of medical terms, I would google medical dictation software and see what comes up. Virtually all medical records are now dictated online with speech recognition software whicha re very accurate.
Heh heh heh!
“Checked for rootkits lately? :P”
Unlike XP, Vista UAC won’t allow rootkits to run. Another reason to upgrade to Vista.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.