11
SHAWENON COMMUNICATIONS   
Effective Messaging
No. 70
January, 2012  
Greetings!

This year, I managed to make the holidays last. They began on Dec. 1 and ended on Jan. 4, when I made the annual pilgrimage to New York to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and to walk 60 blocks from Lord & Taylor to where I was staying. If you missed the December issue, be sure to check out my holiday highlight--swimming with the dolphins in Florida.

So now it's time to get back to work. As promised last month, this issue is packed with information. It even includes a special offer. You or someone you know can get a free email marketing audit. Just cash in the coupon at the end of this newsletter.

Again, as promised, the first article considers both the upside and the downside of my move to the cloud. The only thing missing from my life is the tablet. Maybe later in the year.

The second article explores the virtues of 21st century speech to text software. I've been watching this technology for over a quarter of a century, and I'm delighted to report it's really quite amazing.

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In This Issue
Cloud Computing Redoux
Talking to Dragon
Web Tips
Free Audit
Cloud Computing Redoux
Cloud Computers

I've been in the cloud for nearly two months. How is it working out? What are the downsides?

In the November issue, I talked about the rather painful process of moving to the cloud. With that behind me, I must say, I really like it.

My mission, you may remember, was to rid myself of a heavy book I carried everywhere. The book stayed home on my recent trip to New York City. I didn't miss it.

Thumbs Up

Frankly, I expected that giving up my paper calendar would be really hard. It wasn't. There's only one downside. I don't picture my monthly calendar in my mind the way I used to when it lived on paper in front of me on my desk. On the up side, I love having access to my calendar no matter where I am. The agenda feature displays my events in linear form, so I don't miss appointments. And I'm getting used to the different format.

Thumbs Down

So what about those downsides? I guess there are three.
  1. No Internet, no nothing. But you know what? It was that way before. As I've written previously in Web Words, when we lose power, or just the Internet itself, I'm out of business anyway. It's time to catch up on reading or clean out the closet. And I still have everything that was downloaded before the failure.  
  2. Server Crashes. Suppose Google's service goes down? I figure they would hear from lots of people should the whole thing tip over. Maybe this is another form of "too big to fail," but I feel such an outage couldn't last long. And I still back everything up (in the cloud, of course). But it's a different cloud.  
  3. Theft of property. OK so "they" have all my stuff. What are they going to do with it? Who is "they" anyway? Google themselves (or Apple if you've got iCloud) or some cyberterrorist who will get into Google's system? If they want to know where I'm going next week, they're welcome to the information. But I don't keep my passwords or any financial information online.
I'd be concerned if I didn't have support. But I pay for the service, so there's a real person available by telephone 24/7.

Bottom line? Best I can tell, the water's fine. Come on in.

Talking to Dragon

Dragon More than 40 years ago, I quit my job, sublet my apartment in New York City, packed a large suitcase and took off for Europe and the Middle East. My sabbatical lasted eight months and changed my life in many ways. When I left, I was an editor. When I returned, I was a writer. I made the transition because I spent many hours writing journal entries and penning lengthy letters home


Voice to Text

I never looked at any of this material until a few months ago. Then I installed Dragon Speaking Naturally from Nuance on my computer and started to read aloud to a headset. Dragon is touted to be 99% accurate, and I'd say it's getting close. You see, it learns. Don't ask me how it learns, but even when you use the keyboard to correct its mistakes, it gets more accurate.  Some of its mistakes are amusing--like "Animals people" when I said "And most people." Some of them are subtle like "when" for "one." And some it will never get right like "there" for "their."

But since I'm reading from text--well not text really, squinchy little handwriting--I can go back and make corrections. Dragon also requires you to say punctuation out loud. All of this necessitates careful re-reading, which is time consuming. So I'm not convinced it's more efficient if you're a good typist. But hearing myself read the material aloud adds a nuance (forgive the pun) that is worthwhile.

So, if you have handwritten letters, journals, notes or other material you want in machine-readable form, I highly recommend this product. There are a few competitors, but Nuance seems to have the lead in the field. I have the "home" version and it works well. And I'm using the microphone that came with the product without difficulty.

Computer Navigation

I've only experimented briefly with these features, but you can use Dragon to navigate your computer, compose email and search for things on the Web. This would have been a godsend when I dislocated my shoulder a few years back. Anyone who doesn't type well or has hand issues should definitely make the investment.  

Web Tips

Tips2I was surprised to discover recently that I've never included my top online resource in Web Tips. How can that be? One of my favorite sayings is "The obscure we think of immediately. The obvious takes a little longer."

Hidden-Tech.net is an amazing community of wise and generous souls who live primarily in the Pioneer Valley. They maintain a searchable email list of all manner of queries from the obscurely technical to the fiercely practical.

You can join by signing up on the Web site, but anyone can search past queries. The email list comes in two forms--a digest and individual queries. I recently switched to the digest, so I get a lot less email. But I also don't really see what's going on. So I might switch back. Even if you don't live in the area, check it out.    

And Finally . . .

Shawenon Communications collaborates with small businesses, solopreneurs, professionals and not-for-profits to get their messages across in the written word.


We specialize in electronic communications, including e-zines and other forms of email marketing, Web sites and social media.  We also ghostwrite articles and other business communications. As a solution provider, we resell Constant Contact's email marketing service.

 

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Sincerely,
First name
Susanna Opper
Shawenon Communications
413-528-6494


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