Computer Chit Chat

Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Memory America

Friday, May 1st, 2009

Having worked in computer sales for a worldwide mail order retailer for over ten years, I’ve seen my share of websites selling computers and related products. There’s nothing I dislike more than a business website that’s so busy looking I can’t focus and can’t find what I want. When that happens it’s not unusual for me to look elsewhere to shop.

Memory America is a website that sells RAM memory upgrades, hard drives, laptop batteries, video cards, optical drives, networking products and computer gaming hardware. The site is attractive and easy to navigate. The products are neatly organized and laid out throughout the site. People shopping for memory are able to shop by which computer they have or by the type of memory that they need. I like that even computer model numbers are displayed in some places to make your selection easier.

What I like most about the site is that information on things like shipping, warranty and returns are very clearly available. As a shopper who occasionally has a question, I also appreciate that Memory America visibly offers a toll free number and an online chat feature. Information on the site is provided in easy to understand wording.

Memory America includes a link to the Better Business Bureau on it’s site, where no complaints are listed against them. A link to Yahoo shopping reviews is also included, where the overwhelming amount of reviews are glowingly positive and give high praise their service.

If you’re in the market for memory products, be sure to check out Memory America.

Posted in Reviews, Technology | Comments Off | Read more..

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How Dragon Naturally Speaking increases earnings and pays for itself

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

I have known about the software named Dragon Naturally Speaking for many years. When I was in computer sales I sold more than a few copies. Never having used it, I thought that what it did was type what you say. I didn’t know until I saw the below video, which was made by a fellow blogger named Brett, that Dragon can also transcribe recordings.

WPvideo 1.10

Download!

How cool is that! Brett’s also shared some information on how Dragon will quickly pay for itself, part of which I’ve shared below.

This is an excerpt from a white paper discussing how bloggers can earn more money through several different monetization and freelance writing services. It shows that bloggers that utilize Dragon Naturally Speaking can earn more money through these various services and how fast these extra earnings will pay for the software itself.

Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Blogger Break Even Analysis with TextBroker.com Earnings

I would like to walk you through several different scenarios to help all of us understand better what our words are worth.
I would like to start first by talking about a company that pays people to write. They pay them to write based on the number of words that are written. The company is called text broker.com and they are out of Germany and relatively new. I’m starting with TextBroker.com because the business model is very simple. The models will get more complex as I go through some of the other popular blog revenue sources.

Text broker.com will pay a person approximately 7/10 of a cent for a single word. They charge their customers approximately 1 penny per word. And they sell this service at increments starting at 100 words and go up from there.
That’s what they do; now let’s see how Dragon Naturally Speaking can pay for itself!
So, I’d really like to talk about how much you can earn from them based on how fast you type.
If you type 35 words per minute, and you typed for 50 minutes straight, you could theoretically type 1750 words.
Now at seven tenths of a penny per word, that work would be $12.25 per hour assuming that you take a ten minute break every hour. If you work four hours a day doing this, that would be forty-nine dollars per day.
If you could type 105 words per minute, that would be 5250 words in a fifty minute period of time. At that rate, you would earn $36.75 per hour assuming the same ten minute breaks every hour.

Obviously you can earn more if you can type faster.
If you could type 150 words per minute, then under this formula you could earn $52.50 per hour. That’s almost 5 times more than you can earn if you type thirty-five words per hour.
So in this example there is definitely a value in typing faster!
There is a cost associated with being able to type as fast as well. You could go and take a typing class and learn how to type 150 words per minute. That might take you many months of school, and many years of practice.
It’s also possible, that you may never be able to achieve that speed with your fingers.
Alternatively, you could buy Dragon NaturallySpeaking and be able to do it before the night was out. Dragon NaturallySpeaking costs $99 for the basic version and $199 for the preferred version.
As I write this, there are coupon code or discount code offers that you can use to save more money off that price. The coupon codes vary from $25-$50 off the price. Typically a bigger discount is offered for the preferred version, which I use myself.
Now in our example, if you bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking for ninety-nine dollars, and you did not use the coupon code to save twenty-five dollars, you would be able type 150 words per minute, and if you could previously type 35 words per minute, then based on the extra money that you could earn by typing faster, you would be able to pay for Dragon NaturallySpeaking in less than three hours of work using textbroker.com.
It kind of seems like a no-brainer. In many ways, it is a no-brainer with one exception. Not everybody writes for textbroker.com.
If you consider how much additional money you might earn by using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and consider how much more work you could do by being able to type at 150 words per minute, then you might be able to figure out how long it will take you to pay off the software with your earnings.
I will cover a number of other situations, which will highlight this using other examples where people that typically write a great deal, could benefit from using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
If you have an example that you would like to share, please let me know, and I will be more than happy to share it with everyone.

Nuance is allowing us to offer our readers a 25% Discount Coupon CODE Exclusive for Dragon Naturally Speaking, but you must click the image below and use this code (DNSMSBG) Together. Code will not work from other sources.

Get Dragon Naturally Speaking using Discount code DNSMBG. You can get 25% off Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred.

If you’re interested in reading the rest of the white paper, it’s available at http://www.softduit.com/mavenmappersinformation/category/software/dragon-naturally-speaking/

Thanks Brett, for the terrific info and letting me share it! I found the video and white paper very interesting and informative, and it gave me food for thought. I plan on picking up Dragon for myself after my next computer upgrade.

This post sponsored by Nuance.

Posted in Blogging, Free, Technology, This and that | 4 Comments » | Read more..

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Work smarter and healthier with Dragon

Friday, October 10th, 2008

I’ve had to use a computer for work for over fifteen years now. It’s become a necessity in the office, helping in productivity, accuracy and potential. While there’s not a computer in every home yet I do think we’re heading in that direction. With people like myself working at least eight hours a day on the computer, I think companies need to look into ways to make computer use safer and healthier for employees.

Here’s a quick video showing Dragon in action.

Several years ago I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in both my right and left hands. After several cortisone shots didn’t help I ended up having to have the surgery on my right hand. In the past month or two my left hand has started flaring up a lot. By lunch my fingers would be turning numb and by the end of the day my hands burning in pain. I reopened the workers comp case and the doctor asked me to try physical therapy and refitting my work station. It was at this time that I realized that the software Dragon Naturally Speaking would not only be extremely beneficial for me but it could reshape the workplace as we know it if used on a widespread basis.Dragon Naturally Speaking is a speech recognition application that works with many of today’s popular applications. When paired with a noise cancelling microphone and headset, Dragon can transcribe your spoken word at a speed of about 150 words per minute. An average person only types about 40 words per minute. On a good day when I’m not in pain I can only type at about 65-70 words per minute, so it’s easy to see how Dragon could save a lot of time in an employee’s day and increase productivity. To get a glimpse of what I mean, try taking Dragon’s typing speed test! .

Dragon Naturally Speaking has been around for years and is known worldwide. Besides being a powerful piece of software, it is also the engine underneath the Macintosh software MacSpeech Dictate. Both of these products are ready to use out of the box with no expensive training.

I think that if companies offered use of a product such as Dragon they would end up saving money over time, not only because employees would be more productive but also because they could save money on some workers comp related expenses. Dragon would be a very useful tool for home computer users as well. Bloggers are a perfect example. Many bloggers such as myself spend a lot of time online - their blog is an online home of sorts and the internet and other bloggers are neighborhoods and communities.If a blogger used Dragon they’d be more productive, leaving them time to do other things (or blog some more). I’d save hours if I used this to work on my blogs. I can only imagine how nice it would be to sit back and talk instead of type. Check out video of Brett, a fellow blogger, using Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 outside. How cool is that!

I’d give just about anything to use Dragon. My Compaq desktop can’t run it, but my MacBook Pro could run the MacSpeech Dictate. Now all I have to do is save up the money.

Posted in Blogroll, Business, Computers, Software, Technology | 1 Comment » | Read more..

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New way to buy from Amazon announced

Friday, April 4th, 2008

This week Amazon released a new way to shop at Amazon.com - text message shopping. The service is called Amazon TextBuyIt. To use it just send a text message to Amazon at 262966 that contains the product name, UPC code, ISBN code or keyword. You will receive a text message back. From there you can text m to receive more results, d for details or 1 to purchase. Any product in stock at Amazon will be available for purchase with this free service.

This must have been created for people like me who are stuck behind a firewall at work and can’t get on the internet, LOL.

Posted in Ecommerce, Technology | Comments Off | Read more..

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Lock down your credit

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Earlier this year a laptop belonging to Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield NJ was stolen and it contained the personal information of more than 300,000 people, me being one of them. It was at that time that I was forced to consider identity theft, and first heard of life lock.

Lifelock is a company that guarantees to protect the identity of their clients. Everyone can benefit from Lifelocks’s services. Hard working adults, both individuals and couples are common targets, but they are not the only victims of identity theft. Children are a big target because their identities are often left unchecked until they’re maturing and turning into adults so their identity may have been compromised long before. Noone deserves to be the victim of identity theft, especially a young person just starting out. People who have had their identities stolen are usually denied credit, because their credit has been damaged. Many people are judged by employers on the merit of their credit which could mean not getting a job or promotion. Here in New Jersey many find themselves not being eligible for insurance or paying a lot more for it because many of the auto insurance companies now factor your credit into your rate.

Noone is too old or too young to be concerned about identity theft. Every person should know the status of their credit and what’s on it. And anyone with credit should consider protecting it with Lifelock.

Posted in Technology, This and that | 1 Comment » | Read more..

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One person can be in more than one place at a time

Monday, February 11th, 2008

Just before the holidays the company I work for hired a guy specifically for server management and security issues. The IT guy we had didn’t have enough time in the day to do everything so they brought in a specialist for one of our most important areas. Right now our network is in one location. But as we continue to grow and if we expanded we’d need to implement something different such as a remote management solution. Uplogix has created the Envoy appliance so that someone like our one IT guy can administer several different physical locations. Now the old saying “one person can’t be in more than one place at one time” is no longer true, because these appliances stay on even if the remote network goes down so the admin can fix the problem and get things up and running again. And, to keep our IT guy happy, Uplogix makes sure the network is protected and secure by using the strongest standards. And to make all of us happy, Uplogix remote management will be increase efficiency and save the company money which should leave more money for the employees. That’s a win win situation.

Posted in Computers, Technology, This and that | 1 Comment » | Read more..

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Pragma. A pragmatic solution.

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

When I worked in mail order computer sales I started out selling products related to Macintosh computers to consumers. At that time I didn’t sell Macs, just everything related to them. As the company changed my position changed with it. With little notice I was thrown into the shark pool that is IT today, and was asked to sell to Fortune 500 and 1000 companies. I received some training in everything from cabling, backups and computers as well as some of the more specialized areas such as configuration of networks including servers. Yes, I’m one of those girls, the ones that know what many of the acronyms you hear mean. LAN, WAN, CRM, SSH, FTP, TCP/IP. The company I worked for often asked us, the sales reps, to position ourselves as a one stop shop for all computing products.

When calling to pitch networking and when responding to bids an answer I frequently heard was “we need a Secure Server and we’re looking at Fortress SSH with the client server”. Our bids frequently lost because clients felt that there were better products then what we had out there, and that those products were made by Pragma. Now that the company I worked for is no more and I am no longer in sales, it makes sense. Why wouldn’t a corporate client buy highly specialized security related solutions for their network from a catalog that carries everything from mousepads to servers? Because they needed their solution right the first time. And when you need something right, don’t you typically go to an expert? Someone who specializes in doing what you need? Of course you do. You would no sooner buy specialized software such as this from a one stop computer shop as you would buy a car from a bicycle dealer.

Pragma is an expert in servers, telnet and ssh software. That is all they do. Pragma is a Microsoft Gold certified partner, which means that they have proven they have extremely specialized knowledge to use in creating customer solutions, demonstrated excellence in customer satisfaction and received in depth training directly from Microsoft. They’ve been in business for more than sixteen years. And, I’m thinking that from a customer point of view, when your department is responsible for building your infrastructure you only want a solutions provider who’s been in the game for a while and knows the answer to your question because that’s the only product they carry, rather than someone who tells you they don’t know and to let you check with their tech (who is frequently another rep nearby). That’s the kind of provider that you not only want, it’s the kind you trust.

Posted in Technology, This and that, Work | Comments Off | Read more..

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Google on gas

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

Google and gas pump maker Gilbarco Veeder-Root announced a partnership that will bring Google to gas pumps in the US. The pumps will have an Internet connection and will use Google Maps to display maps on a small color screen. It was reported that users will be able to view local landmarks, hotels, restaurants and hospitals selected by the gas station’s owner, and then print the directions. No ads will be shown. Retailers that buy the new pumps will be able to make money by offering coupons on the service. About 3,500 of the pumps are expected to go into service next month.