But first, let me address the obvious question:
Why Cheap and Sleazy?
Well, once upon a time I spent a year in a web design and development course, where we learned HTML, all about tables, frames and JavaScript ... and this site uses no frames, just a few tables, and very little JavaScript (unless you count that little bit of code that keeps my site from being framed in someone else's site) ... so, that's the cheap part.
As for the sleazy part, if you're here looking for pictures of nekkid folks, you'll just have to settle for my friend, Mr. Flash iPod!
A "Flash" iPod
This is about as sleazy as this site will get, thankyouverymuch -- unless you count some of my jokes, of course ...!
Also, Cheap and Sleazy refers to shortcuts, tips, tricks and ways to do things a bit differently for court reporting students and other Students of Steno.
Also, some of the pictures on my site link to other sites. If you don't click them, you may miss something ...!
Finally, to paraphrase the words of Dave Barry:
"If anything you read on this website makes you want to sue me, I was joking. Ha! Ha!"
Thanks, Dave!
(And now, without further ado ...)
My name is Glen Warner ('gdw' on a forum or two), and I am -- well, was -- a court reporting student at Seattle's (recently closed) Court Reporting Institute.
During a few bouts of insomnia ("Ah can't get no sleep," to quote Faithless' tune of the same name), I wrote a couple documents I thought my fellow CR students might find of use: A guide to computers, and a guide to buying steno machines, laptops, and CAT software. I used to hand these out to my fellow students as Word documents, but eventually decided to put that year long Web Design and Development program I went through to some use, and put it on the web.
I also, on occasion, solicit articles from other writers! If you have a new Fusion and don't mind sharing your thoughts with the readers of my (cheap and sleazy) website, send me an e-mail! I'd like a review that's a bit more substantial than the quick look I provided in my Technolust piece ... and that can only come from someone that has one, and has used it for a while!
And every once in a while, I do some updating ... but first, if this is your first visit to my (cheap and sleazy) abode, you should check out what's here.
Update (21JUL08)
New Gemini Coming ...!
No thanks to my incredible sleuthing skills, I got an e-mail from Jason Pardikes, the Head Guy In Charge over at the Neutrino Group. He was kind enough to update me on what's what with the new Gemini Reolution Grand --! His new e-mail was enough to help me locate the original e-mails, and included a new brochure.
Here's the skinny from those "missing" e-mails:
We are going to release a new machine called the Gemini Revolution GRAND! The Grand is the big brother to the Revolution and is the most adjustable and softest touch (adjustable to the very firm) machine you are going to find. Longer battery life than any other product, and like all Gemini products is fully ergonomic.
The feel compared to the revolution is softer and more "buttery." It's response time in terms of key return is great (we went to an Aircraft aluminum arm) so that we could lighten the machine and lessen the forces required to move the arms either in the up or down position. We choose Aircraft aluminum for its great strength, ultra light weight and resilient properties -- which means less likelihood of bending arms in a fall, or through improper packing. It also gives the machine a better side action response.
We have three package options for the machine: The Gold and Silver UMPC (not the PDA); the Bronze court package offers the PDA and all new Revolution Grands will work with the older PDAs as well.
As always we can upgrade older Gemini to the newest product, and we have also come up with a way to embedded a proprietary super slick compound directly into the metal arms a combs giving us that unique buttery feel and greatly reduced friction wear. And now we are offering the Grand in 32 colors ... and yes we will have the machine in Anaheim.
You can read more in the PDF.
Update (09JUL08)
Passport Update
There's a new note from Advantage Software on the Passport. I have placed it below the previous update for reasons of continuity and aesthetics ....
(Small) STENO-QWIK Update
By now the regular readers of ol' Cheap and Sleazy already know what the STENO-QWIK project is ... but for those of you who don't know, check the 11OCT06 update and the 05JUN07 update. I'll wait.
Back so soon, huh? Okay, here's the update:
Ms. More's 2007 newsletter has this little tidbit:
December: As the snow and colder weather here in Pennsylvania takes a grip, I have been mostly busy with learning new systems on which to write about. The sten keyboard is a fascinating one and should be able to be mastered very quickly when I finally get the book written.
In her last e-mail to me (sometime in May), Ms. More indicated that she was in Georgia, taking some time off ... and would be doing more work on the book. Hopefully, I'll have some good news about this soon!
Wine and digitalCAT: Sooooo Close!
As you probably will know if you scroll down far enough, I have been experimenting with Darwine (the Macintosh implementation of Wine) and digitalCAT.
Finally got the license issues resolved ... and fired up the transcript editor (build 190) ... and ... well, see for yourself:
DigitalCAT on Wine: Font Problems
I tried tweaking the font size everywhere I could, with very limited success:
DigitalCAT on Wine: Font Fix Attempt
Tried a few other things, like fixing the font for the line numbers, but could not touch them, apparently (*sigh*).
Next I tried installing my USB to serial adapter. That's when I discovered that the folder for the adapter's driver didn't have a .exe file in it, anywhere! :o(
Pesky USB Issue Rears It's Ugly Head
Worse, the version of Darwine I was running didn't have the libusb (USB library) files ... and the man I need to question about that is out of the country for a few days. Hopefully when he gets back, he'll post another version of Darwine with the libusb included ... and I'll also ask him about my font issue.
Update (05JUL08)
Just a few things today for your edifiction and delight (to coin a phrase I coin often):
Passport News
Found this e-mail posted in one of the CR forums:
Dear Valued Customer:
Within the next few weeks, we will begin shipping the eagerly-awaited Passport writer. As one of our first purchasers, you are entitled to a $500 discount off the regular price of $4695, so your cost will be $4195 plus $75 shipping and insurance, and any applicable local taxes.
To qualify for the discounted price and hold your place in line, we must hear from you within two weeks of this communication. Please indicate the keyboard configuration you prefer, and send a $500 deposit made out to our sister company, Advantage Technology, to the following address:
Advantage Technology
925 Central Parkway
Stuart, Florida 34994
Cordially,
Advantage Software
Looks like the wait is almost over!
New Passport Update (09JUL08)
I checked the Advantage Software home page today, and saw there was a new Passport update ... and since it's a short one, I grabbed it for your reading pleasure!
Delivery of Passport writers will begin by the end of July. The first several people on our waiting list have already been notified and offered an opportunity to purchase. If your name is on our waiting list, please be assured that you will be contacted in the order that it appears. The first Passports will go out slowly so that any unexpected problems can be expeditiously corrected. Thereafter, we will ramp up production as quickly as possible.
If you are not yet on our waiting list, but would like to be, please email writerinfo@eclipsecat.com. There is no cost or obligation. You will simply be offered an opportunity to purchase when we reach your number. Your continued patience is sincerely appreciated.
So ... it's coming! Really!
Little Words Machine
Reporter Priscilla Trillo posted a message on the NCRA Forum, telling how she beat a problem she was having with little words: She wrote a program that drills her on little words.
Little Words Machine Startup Screen
Naturally, I asked her if I could put her program on ol' Cheap and Sleazy, and she said I could!
I wrote a small manual to go with it (and asked for some improvements, which she'll get to sooner or later) ... and you can get it here:
Rules for Captioning
If you've watched some of the captions on TV of late, you may have noticed, shall we say, some disturbing gaffs: Misspelled words, words not matching up with what's being said, etc.
In an effort to correct these, er, discrepancies, the NCRA has released a 68 page document called "Captioning Style and Format Guidelines."
The Table o' Contents includes these gems:
- Captioning Definitions
- Slang/Poor Grammar
- Troubleshooting
- Realtime Skills for Captioning
- Obscenitites and Sensitive Words
- Parentheticals
- Phonetics
- Editing, Paraphrasing, Fingerspelling
While it doesn't say so in this document, if your a student and your school is telling you that when you hit 180 wpm you're ready to be a captioner, don't you believe it!! Here's a relevant snippet from the guide:
Online (realtime) captioning is used primarily for live broadcasts, such as news, entertainment, programs and sporting events. This style of captioning requires a skilled steno machine writer or voicewriter with a Total Accuracy Rate of over 98 percent and may be performed at speeds up to and possbly exceeding 300 wpm.
Hmmm ... I think I'll have to find someone to write an article about captioning and CART in the not-too-distant ....
Update (27JUN08)
Stenomaster Update
I'm sure you may have noticed that the Stenomaster website has been ... well ... a bit different these days.
I sent Mark Kislingbury an e-mail to find out what was going on. He sent me an e-mail:
Here's the status of StenoMaster, Inc. Jeniffer Aloysius, my former business partner, and I have agreed to part ways, and I will continue to run and grow StenoMaster. But I have not yet regained control of the website (which unfortunately is down), despite all my efforts to do so. So I am taking the necessary steps, attempting to regain control. In the meantime, StenoMaster is still running with 866-STENOMASTER as its phone number and is still selling The StenoMaster Theory and the Mark Kislingbury Short Stroke Dictionary.
I have also started a new venture, Magnum Steno, Inc., which unveiled my latest book, "Magnum Steno: Write Short - Write Fast!" last month, and I'm working on Magnum Steno's "Mark Kislingbury Speed Builder," which should be ready in less than a month.
Magnum Steno Logo
So for those of you wondering what was going on with Stenomaster, now you know!
LightSpeed II ...? Not Just Yet .....
As you might recall, I mentioned that the current LightSpeed writer would be getting some improvements ... you know, like a screen, internal dictionaries, audio, etc.
Alas, the LightSpeed II will not be launched this year -- but it will do "... everything that our competitor's writer does, and more ...."
In the meantime, LightSpeed users can expect a "... major software update," and new users can expect new key designs "to make switching to the LS easier."
Johnny tells me that Stenovations has plans to "... make a traditional computer keyboard but with the sensitivity adjustable for every key. This will be good for people with carpal tunnel and other hand issues.
As you might guess, that one will be sold not only to court reporters, but to the general public as well. Good deal!
Johnny mentioned the development of a "multi-touch pad," also intended to be sold to all. If you're not familiar with multi-touch interfaces, head down to your friendly neighborhood Apple Store and get one of the sales-folk to demo either the iPod Touch, the iPhone, or the MacBook Air.
Why multi-touch technology, you ask?
"Microsoft announced last week that Windows 7 will support multi-touch input," Johnny says.
Hopefully they learned something from this whole Vista mess ...!
Steno Speed Shifter
If you've used The Speed Teacher's "Stair Stepper" drill, Marc "Simply Steno" Greenberg's Steno Speed Shifter is for you!
Basically, this application will take an .mp3 or a .wav file, and let you set the speed to increase, say, 5 percent at, say, 10 seconds, another 5 percent at 20 seconds, etc.!
Best of all, you make those settings before you begin playing the file, so you don't have to touch it (well ... you will have to press the Play button!) once it's loaded and programmed.
To make it easier for you, it comes with "Tempo Templates" you can use to set the timing you want, or you can create your own, if you wish.
Note that it does not come with any dictations; you'll have to supply your own.
Did I mention it's only $18.00 (PayPal only!)?
Steno Speed Shifter
Gemini News
Well, I wish I had some --!
Some time ago, I got an e-mail from someone with information on a new version of the Gemini Writer. The contact told me there was a new and improved version coming out in the early part of this month ... unfortunately, I somehow managed to misplace the e-mail (I know it's in my In Box *somewhere* ..), so can't really say much about it, beyond that it's a mostly internal update due out ... well, sometime soon.
(*sigh*) I'll look around for the e-mail some more. Maybe I'll get lucky!
Wine and Bridge: A Match Made in Digital Heaven!
I stumbled across my installer for Bridge last night ... and since I haven't tried it since Wine has now reached version 1.0 (release candidates included), I decided to give it a try:
Bridge Running Under Wine
The picture is of Bridge running in demo mode on my Mac -- without Windows. Haven't tried to install Eclipse under Wine 1.0 as yet (managed to misplace the installer disk again --!), but my early attempts led to a freeze of some sort ... so while Bridge is up and running, I have no real way of testing it, beyond running this demo -- yet.
One day ....
Update (30MAY08)
Need a Mentor?
Howzabout a whole group of mentors?
If you answered yes to either question, you should check out the new Student Boot Camp topic over on the Depoman forum! You can directly access the forum here:
http://members.spboards.com/viewforum.php?f=6&mforum=depoman
Fancy Pants Loves Binita Blog -- Gone!
Yes, that's right ... the old blog is now gone! :o( But you internet-savvy students know where to go to look for it, right?
If not, you should re-read "Got Fear?"!
For those of you who have read "Got Fear?" and still have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the Way Back Machine!
Basically, you feed the Way Back Machine a web address of a site that has disappeared, like, say, Binnie's blog ... and up comes a list of pages that the Way Back Machine has archived!
For those of you who are on the impatient side, here's one such page.
Alas, no audio drills! :o(
Worse, several of the pages listed on the initial results page will not open! Something about a "Path Index Error," apparently. Hopefully that will get fixed in a couple months!
Update (19MAY08)
AristoCAT Update
I got an e-mail from the president at AristoCAT, Larry Hunt today. Seems he was upset about my saying that AristoCAT didn't import .rtf dictionaries.
Alas, that was updated on the main page (see the Vista Updates section in the Archives) ... but I somehow neglected to update The Good Stuff!
Fixed that ... and, since he invited me to ask him questions directly, I asked him about those missing hardware requirements for Vista.
Once he gets back to me, I'll look around at all the vendor's sites and see what's new with Vista support; it's been almost a year since I tried to get all that info together, so it's past time for a revisit!
Darwine Update
WINE (and Darwine) has reached version 1.0 (that's "Release "Candidate 1, in computer programmer speak) ... so naturally, I tried updating digitalCAT from the ancient Build 167 (Windows 98) to DC3.
DC3's transcript editor didn't work, so I deleted the newly created digitalCAT folder and decompressed the copy of the original (Build 167) digitalCAT folder, and applied a few updates, testing each step.
I got to Build 190 before I ran out of updaters (non-DC3 updaters, anyway) ... and as you can see, the Transcript Editor works -- except for that pesky licensing issue. Still working on that one.
digitalCAT Build 182 under WINE Release Candidate 1.0
As for the "Why" of the licensing problem, I started out with Build 167, and the license manager program didn't work properly, so now DC says I'm not authorized, based on the data saved ... well, somewhere ... from that license manager, so I'll have to get a code from Stenovations to see if the Transcript Editor will work ... or just crash.
Assuming that it does work -- as in, it doesn't quit when I enter the code -- the next hurdle will be with the USB adapter -- or getting digitalCAT to talk to my steno machine!
We'll see.
Update (10MAY08)
I have a small update to the Passport news from a couple days back ... and since it's such a small update, you can read it as an addition to the 08MAY08 update.
Sometimes You've Gotta Take Control ...
I'm sure you remember this advertisment for captioning that I posted in my 07APR06 update, right? If not, check the Archive page.
Okay, after having watched that video, do you know that you, as a court reporter, may be faced with a similar situation at least once in your career? Well, it's true ...!
But what are you supposed to do? Do you know?
Lisa Moskowitz knows. Better yet, she tells the tale in this thread on Depoman.com.
Even better, I have the audio file, and you can hear it here.
Update (08MAY08)
CSR Nation: My Space for Court Reporters
I've been remiss in not mentioning CSR Nation!
As it says above, CSR Nation is like My Space for court reporters -- but not just court reporters. Students, transcriptionists, videographers -- pretty much anyone who works (or studies) in this field can join. You can even customize your personal home page, and upload an .mp3 file for others to play while they read your life story! (mine is rather short; sorry about that!)
Once you've finished reading today's update, rush your buns (that's a technical term, by the way) over to CSR Nation.com and sign up today!
Naturally, this note will appear on the Links page as well.
Passport Delay ...?
If you're one of the millions of folks awaiting the release of Advantage Software's Passport, you may just have to wait a bit longer, according to the (very) brief update on the main page from last month. As for the why of it all, here's that brief note:
To improve realtime efficiency, the Passport software is being rewritten for Windows CE. While we're still working out some minor details with the manufacturer and can't promise a precise shipping date, we are optimistic that we'll be able to begin delivering the Passport within the next few months.
What that means is that "Unix-y Goodness" promised for the writer's operating system has been replaced by the same OS that runs the ProCAT Stylus.
I sent a quick e-mail to Developer Dave a couple weeks back to see what was going on, but haven't heard back. Hopefully once the Unix repairs are complete, the WinCE OS can be removed with a downloadable firmware update.
Hopefully.
Passport Update
Alas, it looks like WinCE may be a permanent feature of the Passport!
Seems that there was something missed in the software design phase that is vital to the "StenoVision" feature of the Passport, which neccessitates the rewrite of the writer's operating system (or "OS," in techno-geeky parlance).
Unless, of course, the suggestion I sent in an e-mail will do the trick ....
We'll see!
And in other news ....
Hosting Fees
In addition to it being my middle-niece's birthday yesterday (Happy Birthday, Marlo!), Brinkster, the company that hosts ol' Cheap and Sleazy, sent me a bill for $144.
On the plus side, that nifty "economic expansion" check should pay for it, and that's a Good Thing™.
"I Did It!"
"I Did It!"
(You have seen "Heroes," right?)
Yes, that's right: I finally managed to make the video for joining two pads of steno paper together larger (see Save a Buncha Money if you don't know what I'm talking about)!
Unfortunately, the video is also larger (from 1.9 MB to 4.1 MB), but at least you can see it more clearly.
Also, it seems that Microsoft made some sort of change in Internet Explorer which may cause this video to not display for those of you still using IE. There is some code I can use to bypass that problem, but then you'd be forced to click Okay in a lot of dialog boxes ... and I didn't want you to have to do that ... so if you're on IE and can't see the movie in the afore-mentioned article, get Firefox!
Browser Wars
(I don't remember where I got that picture ... but I like it!!)
"Sex ... and Power III:" The Update
Still working on it ...!
Yeah, I know ... but on the plus side, I found a new emulator that I need to test! Those results will be in that article.
In the meantime, I am (once again) in the process of moving ... so things may be on the hectic side for me for the next few days. Fortunately, ClearWire, my new ISP, is available in my soon-to-be new city, Lake Stevens, WA.
Update (24MAR08)
Attention Starving Students ...!
I got an e-mail the other day from Ms. Diana Van Dyke, a CSR in Southern California. She wanted to let me know about a website just for Starving Students™!
Diana pointed me to this site:
"So what?" you say? Well ... click the Questions and Answers link, and take a look at the software available. I'll wait.
Ah, back I see ...! If you're anything like me, you probably looked at every piece of software listed on this site for your particular platform (Mac or Windows; nothing for Linux folk, alas ...). You probably already downloaded some, right?
If not, let me tell you about a couple programs I found there. I've already mentioned Audacity, the free sound editing tool (see Different Dictation if you missed it) ... but what I haven't mentioned is a pair of programs called Genius (Mac only) and jMemorize (Windows only).
These programs are flash card programs -- except unlike those flash cards of yester-year, these keep track of what you miss, and quiz you on those cards again until you get it ... and sometimes even after you do, to make sure that you still have it!
I took the state capitals list that came with Genius as a sample file, and changed the capitals to the one-stroke brief Phoenix Theory has for states:
Steno States, from Genius
I haven't figured out how to take the quiz with my steno machine as yet ... but the point here is to help me remember those 50 strokes ... and Genius (or jMemorize) will help me to do that.
Finally, I replied to Diana's e-mail, but Earthlink's spam buster kicked it back for me to authenticate; did so, and it said this message is no longer in the Spam folder! So Diana, I was not ignoring you; just got beat up by the spam filter ... so here, in public, I want to say THANK YOU for pointing out this resource for Starving Students™!
Oh, by the way ... the above portion of this update is in the Links section.
STENO-QWIK Update
As my more regular readers might recall, sometime ago, I convinced Frances More, author of QWERTY-QWIK, to see if she could work her magic on the steno keyboard.
For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, Ms. More has figured out a way to teach people to touch type at at least 50 wpm in as littls as 30 minutes ... without having a keyboard in front of them!
Alas, she has been somewhat busy of late with other projects, but she has been ruminating on how to teach students how to memorize the steno keyboard like she has with the regular keyboard. Two more projects, and she will be on top of STENO-QWIK!
Stay tuned .....
Sex ... and Power Update
Alas, I haven't done much on "Sex and Power III" of late ... but I do have VMWare Fusion working, so I'd best get to it before it expires and starts asking me to fork over some $$$! :o)
As for when it will be done .... well, Soonest sounds good -- and this way, I won't have to worry about another "Plutonian Week" situation coming up!
Anyone remember those Plutonian weeks?
Rumors (on the Cheap and Sleazy Side)
Rumor has it that the price of the Lightspeed is going up on or near the first of April. I'll send an e-mail or two and see what's what.
Also, Stenovations has a new online store! Check it out here.
Update (23JAN08)
"Your Web Page is Getting Heavier ... and Heavier ...!"
Yes, that's right ... it looked like I had about a year's worth of junk -- er, junque -- er, information on ol' Cheap and Sleazy's main page, so it was past time (way, way past) that I put up another Archive page! If you're looking for stuff that happened in the last year or so, go here.
In other "news," I am still working on "Sex ... and Power Part Three" ... seems I misplaced a few screenshots -- most of which I (finally!!) have recovered (whew!!).
So .... Close!
As my regular readers might have heard -- er, read, we here at the Cheap and Sleazy Labs have been busy of late trying to get digitalCAT to work with Darwine, with some semblance of success.
Darwine Logo
That "success" was getting the Dictionary Maintenance program and the Transcript Editor of an older (Windows 98) version of digitalCAT to work -- but when the Transcript Editor ran, I immediately got an error message saying that "digitalCAT was not authorized on this computer."
I sent a quick e-mail (or two) to Johnny Jackson at Stenovations and shortly thereafter I got an e-mail from Support (Mr. John Sims himself, no less). He gave me some instructions to follow ("Open the License Manager, click Authorize, and e-mail the displayed code to Support").
No Site Code? No License for You!
Alas, there was no site code in the small window that opened when I followed the instructions ... so the Licnese Manager does not function fully!
Fortunately, Darwine is updated frequently, so ... perhaps one day.
At least the Dictionary Maintenance program still works; makes it easy to look up words I hear but have never stroked before!
Darwine and Dictionary Maintenance in Action!
One day, I hope to be able to run digitalCAT, Speed Teacher, etc. on my Mac -- WITHOUT Windows!
(*sigh*). One of these days.
Oh, and did I mention since moving from CrossOver Mac to Darwine, both the Speed Teacher and the Drill Machine quit working? (*sigh*). Two steps forward, and one step back ....
Speaking of Speed Teacher (and, by proxy, the Drill Machine), neither of these programs work with Darwine! "Two steps forward, one step back ..." (as Ms. Paula Abdul once said, back in the days of Arsenio Hall).
Update (15JAN08)
"Oops" Yet Again ...!
Yes, that's right ... seems the fires of creation that I dug into to create that Christmas poem made me forget that today was the first day of Mac World ... and the rumored flash RAM-based MacBooks were to be announced!
So, without futher ado .....
The MacBook Air: Thin is IN!!
The above picture was stolen -- er, borrowed from the folks over a MacRumors.com ... mostly because the pictures on Apple's website don't show how thin this baby really is ....!
Oops ... wait a minute ....
Apple Shows How Thin the MacBook Air is!
Where was I ...? Oh, yeah!
Specs:
- 1.6 or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2GB of RAM
- 80GB hard drive or 64GB solid state hard drive
- Built-in WiFi
- Built-in Bluetooth
- Built-in iSight camera
Note that the solid state drive will run you $999.
The guys at Mac Rumors.com wrote up a pretty good report on it; you can read it here.
Thin is IN!!
Update (13JAN08)
With apologies to all, in advance ....
'Twas a couple weeks after Christmas
And New Years Eve too
When I realized there was something
I had forgotten to do!
Seems I was remiss
In off'ring Season's Greetings
To all of the readers
Of ol' Cheap and Sleazy!
For those who felt slighted
Or dissed in the least
I have an excuse --
I've been busy these weeks!
Hard at work I've been
On "Sex and Power 3"
With testing of Windows apps
Running on my Mac Windows-free !
On I could go,
But spare you I will ...
Because poet I'm not,
And my raps are ill!
(Um ... sorry about that!)
Since I have been remiss in the holiday festivities, here's an old New Year's tune for you that I downloaded from ... well, somewhere ... and for those of you who didn't get your fill of Christmas tunes when they started playing on the radio just a few days before Hallowe'en, I still have U4IA's "Xmas Pudding Mix" and Necros' "Silent Night" for your listening pleasure ... definitely not what you heard on the radio!
Sadly ....
Alas, there have been a couple losses in the music community during the past few months: Jazz piano GOD Oscar Peterson, who died on the 23rd of December at the age of 82 (kidney failure), and reggae star Lucky Dube, who was killed from injuries sustained during a carjacking incident on October 18th.
Never got to listen to too much of Lucky Dube's music, but I started listening to Oscar Peterson when I was in high school, making my valiant attempts to play that big wooden box. His playing was definitely something to emulate -- or, in my case, aim for (never quite made it, though).
Gone ... but Not Forgotten
Fortunately, You Tube is your friend, for both of these artists! Go listen!
Warning!!
I discovered that listening to reggae while practicing steno is really ... well, let's just say that I had some serious trouble with the metronome going and trying to do Fast Track drills, or even the Speed Teacher drills, for that matter; seems the rhythm of the music interfered with the rhythm I needed to maintain to practice ...!
I'm sure there's a lesson in there ... somewhere.
Finally ....
I'm sad to report that efforts to get Eclipse to run under Darwine have failed, miserably! I got the Installer window, a dialog box about some sound driver or something needing to be installed, and then ... the big freeze!
Well, it was worth a try ...!
On the other hand, I did get an early version of digitalCAT to run -- both the Dictionary Maintenance program, AND the Transcript Editor ...!
Unfortunately, the License Manager pops up a dialog box that says "DigitalCAT Translator/Editor is not authorized on this machine," with an Okay button which, when pushed, quits digitalCAT.
Transcript Editor vs. License Manager (slightly modified screen shot)
Tried to get the Support to give me a license for further testing, but no joy ... but we'll see.
Update (18DEC07)
Mac Santa logo (from MacSanta.com)
Want Mac?
As you probably know by now, there has been a *lot* of interest in running CAT software on my platform of choice, the Mac.
If you have been reading ol' Cheap and Sleazy for any length of time, you might also know that I promised to write an article on this ... with the unlikely title of "Sex ... and Power (Part III)" -- and those of you who have been reading ol' Cheap and Sleazy for a while, know exactly what Sex and Power has to do with the Mac (and for those of you who do not, click here).
All that said, here's an update on the whole "Sex ... and Power (Part III)" piece (with apologies in advance to ... well, everybody!):
Better not shout
Better not whine!
Better not shout, I'm telling you why ...
Sex and Power III is coming soon ...!
Okay, so I probably shouldn't expect any calls from the Songwriter's Guild of America anytime soon (unless they have a "Cease and Desist" order in hand ... but you get the idea) ... but hopefully, this will be done in time for Macworld Expo 2008.
As for what's going to be in "Sex ... and Power (Part III)," there will be a discussion of what type of Mac to buy and where, good sources for refurbished products for my fellow Starving Students™ out there, a few links, the Windows options, and maybe ... just maybe ... a video of His Steveness' debut on American Idol!
His Steveness: The American Idol Debut!
Maybe.
Update (18NOV07)
Two items today: An announced update to an old program from the folks at Advantage Software, and another attempt to get things working with CrossOver Mac and Speed Teacher.
Building Bridges: Bridge 2.0
On the Depoman forum, I inadvertently started a fight about whether or not Advantage Software's claims of making the code for Bridge's refresh feature available to other vendors.
Bridge is a free application which allows court reporters to provide realtime to one (or more!) laptops ... and refreshes the laptop's screen when the reporter changes something -- in Eclipse, anyway.
As it says in the linked thread (and also referenced in a thread on the NCRA forum), I asked Johnny Jackson, Head Guy in Charge over at Stenovations if he had ever received any such notice, and he said he had not.
Candis Bradshaw did her own (more extensive) poll, and discovered that two other vendors had never heard of, nor received any notice about Bridge's refresh code ...!
Well. Fast forward a few months ... and there comes this notice about a forthcoming update to the (still--?) free Bridge software
While Bridge is of little or no use to students (though I suppose in theory you could hook your mom's laptop to yours and steno so she can watch), it might be good for those nearing graduating speeds! Check out those videos when you get a chance.
Speed Teacher and CrossOver Mac: Take Two
As you might have read in an earlier update, Steven Shastay (Da Man Hisself), recently updated the Speed Teacher to work with Vista.
You might also know (from another update) that I tried (and failed) to get Speed Teacher to work with CrossOver Mac -- which, for those of you that missed that update, allows someone with a MacBook, a MacBook Pro, or any Intel-based Macintosh to run some Windows software -- without actually having Windows installed.
Well, it took a misstep or two, but I finally decided to try installing the support files for the Vista version of the Speed Teacher, and removing and reinstalling the Speed Teacher under the XP Winebottle ... and ... well, take a look for yourself:
Speed Teacher Success -- Sort Of
Note that I have included a bit of my desktop to show you definitively that I am running the Speed Teacher as an application. You can see on the top left portion of the menu that it says "CrossOver" ... and no Windows in sight!
You can also see the X (as in "Mac OS X") in the top bar of the Speed Teacher window; see it there, on the left-hand side?
I was even able to register the program:
Speed Teacher Registration Window
Alas, when I set up the parameters (5 words, 260 wpm, top 1000 words) and hit the Start button, I got an error:
Oops ...
... and then the words on the top part of the Speed Teacher window vanished!
Where's My Text?!
So close ...!
Well ... back to the grind and the drugery of homework .... (*sigh* ....)
Update (16NOV07)
Please scroll down a wee bit and read the digitalCAT and CrossOver Mac (16NOV07) update ....
Update (15NOV07)
"It's Alive ... ALIVE!!"
After a bout of feverish testing here at the Cheap and Sleazy Labs(™), I have something really cool to show you:
The Drill Machine on the Mac ... WITHOUT Windows! (Check the menu bar!)
Wait ... I can hear it now: "So what?", you're saying, right? If so, take a good close look at that menu bar. See the blue Apple on the left? That, my friends, is my Apple menu ... which means that the Drill Machine window pictured above is running on the Mac .... without windows!! Check out CrossOver Mac to see what's what.
Alas, the Speed Teacher did not fare so well during that afore-mentioned bout of feverish testing:
The "Never-Too-Sufficiently-Damned Missing File Error"
Next up: DigitalCAT!!
.... right after I finish my mid-term, my final, my portion of a lengthy class project, and an e-learning assignment (*sigh*).
In short, it could be a while ....!
Stay tuned ....
Update No. Two (15NOV07)
I Tried, I Really Did ....
.... but it was nearly impossible to resist the temptation ... so (after a protracted battle between duty and Technolust) I yielded to temptation (and technolust) and did it.
Yes, that's right: I went on ahead and installed digitalCAT on my Mac, using CrossOver Mac.
Sadly, the results weren't as spectacular as they were for The Drill Machine, but it did look promising in the beginning:
Looking Goood ....
Alas, I could not get anything to actually work ...! Double-clicking the Transcript Editor did absolutely nothing ... and the only thing that reacted to a double-click was the Steno Editor and the Convert Sten8000 ... neither of which I use.
Oh, wait ... I take that back. The Dictionary Maintenance program kinda/sorta worked ... but it wouldn't let me open any dictionaries I created, so that was pretty much a wash.
"But Wait ... What's This?!?"
CrossOver Mac Wine Bottles
When I installed Speed Teacher, CrossOver Mac created a Wine (an acronym; it stands for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") Bottle -- for Windows 2000. Naturally I thought, "Shouldn't this be a Windows XP bottle?" ... so I created one.
Alas, I haven't figured out how to move everything from one bottle to the next ... but one of these days.
(*sigh*). Oh, well. Back to work!
Update: digitalCAT and CrossOver Mac (16NOV07)
Okay, a lot has happened since last night's attempts at getting DC working under CrossOver Mac here in the Cheap and Sleazy Labs(™) ....
First, I uninstalled all of the programs I had installed previously (The Drill Machine, Speed Teacher, and digitalCAT) under the Windows 2000 Bottle ... then I created a Windows XP bottle and reinstalled the Drill Machine and Speed Teacher (which, by the way, complained about the same missing OCX file ... grrr!!) and refused to run.
I then installed digitalCAT Build 190 again ... and this time, I actually got the Transcript Editor to run!
DigitalCAT Transcription Editor (Build 190): Success
Alas, I could not get the Dictionary Maintenance program to work ... so I installed a few updates, testing each time to see if the Dictionary Maintenance Program began working ... and I noticed the first thing to happen was that the Transcript Editor quit working ... and remained dead through all four updates I had.
I then uninstalled DC from the XP bottle ... and then I noticed, buried on that DC CD that I got from Stenovations all these years ago, a build for Windows 98: Build 167.
I then created a Windows 98 Bottle ... and installed Build 167.
First, I started the Dictionary Maintenance program -- without installing any dictionaries this time -- and tried to create a blank Phoenix Theory dictionary:
New Phoenix Theory Dictionary: Success!
Now, to import my .rtf dictionary into this blank one here ....
Importing the Phoenix Theory Dictionary: Success!
I then decided I'd better install the rest of my dictionaries (while I had the Dictionary Maintenance program up and running!) ... and then tried to run the Transcript Editor ... alas, no joy.
So, I now have, under the Windows 98 bottle, DigitalCAT Build 167, where the Transcript Editor doesn't work, but the Dictionary Maintenance editor does. In theory, if I update this Build 167 with the next update I have (167d, along with 179b, 182b, 188b, 189c, and 190d) one at a time, testing each time, sometime before I reach Build 190, I hope to have a fully working version of digitalCAT running in CrossOver Mac!
167d installed ... Dictionary Maintenance works, no joy with the Transcript Editor.
Well, I take that back. While switching between applications, I noticed the Transcript Editor's icon there, but it disappeared. Tried starting it again, and when I selected it, nothing hapened.
179b installed ... same results.
Now for 182b .... drats, the Dictionary Maintenance program quit working ...! No Transcript Editor either.
Installed 188b .... Dictionary Maintenance program runs, but doesn't see any of the dictionaries I installed before ...! On the other hand, the Transcript Editor works. Freezes everything (everything CrossOver-wise, that is) for a while when I selected Options --> Captioning ... but eventually gave me something:
Captioning Options, Build 188b
Alas, I had to kill the Transcript Editor after that, using the CrossOver Mac's built-in Task Manager:
The CrossOver Mac Task Manager
Hmmm. Well, back to the updates. Next up: 189c ... Dictionary Maintenance Manager works, but won't load or open any dictionaries ...! The Transcript Editor works, but no dictionary ... hmmm.
Well. May as well install the drivers for my Serial - USB device and hook up my steno machine -- assuming, of course, I can get the USB device to work ....
That's strange ... the driver is installed, but no way to see which port it's working on ...! Hmm ... a quick look at the CrosOver Mac's website reveals that nothing that requires a serial port is supported ... but they have received a few inquiries, and I found a terminal command that (in theory) would tell CrossOver Mac about my serial device.
Unfortunately, I have some weird directory issue that needs to be addressed (my terminal program seems to believe it's still running on my old G4 PowerBook ... and I'm not sure how (or *where,* even) to go to fix that ...!
I did, however, find out where my digitalCAT dictionaries were being stored. I tried double-clicking them, but I got the same message (you know: "Dictionary Not Found"):
"No Dictionaries for You!"
Well. Back to the upgrade follies!
190d is next ... (losing hope, here!)
DigitalCAT Build 190d Splash Screen
Arrgghh ...! Same problems. All I have left (update-wise) are the updates that create DC-3 ... so I'll try them, and see what happens. First up: an update dated August 8, 2006, number four: No joy ... and no Transcipt Editor, either ...!
Well. I've installed all the updates I have, but can't get this to run in a stable fashion. I'll try a few things before I give up entirely ... like, say, installing the 167 build into the Windows XP bottle, and upgrading it to the 190 level ... but it's going to be a while. Watch for an update below this entry in the not-to-distant ....
Update (13OCT07)
Speed Teacher News
The other day, I got an e-mail from Charmaine of CRI Dallas. She was wondering if I had any solutions to the "Speed Teacher Doesn't Like Vista" issue, among other things.
At the time I began to answer her e-mail, I only had a work-around for her ... but while detailing that work-around, I went to CourtReportingHelp.com and there, on the main page, as big as life (well ... more or less) was this headline:
"The Speed Teacher has been upgraded for Vista!!"
Check the Speed Teacher download page for the Vista download. Download and install the small set of files ... then download and install the Speed Teacher ... and no more Vista woes (well ... no more Vista woes with the Speed Teacher, anyway).
Give "The Shazz" a big round of applause!
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