Thursday 16 August 2012

Thursday Thoughts





Have I mentioned that I have a new phone?  It’s all singing all dancing.  My last one was as well but because it wasn’t on contract I couldn’t afford to do clever things like download apps and play with Google. So it was like an actor ‘resting’.   

 
One of the things I have played with was the microphone app that enables me to dictate my text messages.  My first attempt went like this:-

Once upon a time the walls a little white ball stop full stop stop com actually it was a little white ball that’s ball spell b u l l.  I’m not sure how much more clearly I can speak.  As you may have galliford I am using the microphone to send this. Confused written galley ford instead of gas lid that gathered spells g a t h e r e d.  Burger this for a lock stop. Should have been burger mark.  Bugger this for a walk.  That is mark l a r k . Find me. Are you goodbye good

Out of all that what confused me most was how it could quite happily invent a word – galliford – and yet fail to recognise the well know phrase or saying ‘Bugger this for a Lark!!’  which sums up how I felt about it.  At some stage if my eyesight gets substantially worse I may have to fall back on voice input but until then I’ll stick to pressing keys.

Those with iPhones have a friend called Siri who responds to their every command (sometimes).

 
I’ve been away from home - first at Helen and Ian’s and then at GB’s – for 45 days as I write this .  During that time I’ve managed to take 5,824 photos.  Many of those were taken as we travelled in the car and were mere hopeful shots of which the majority are only fit for discarding.  I’ve also been using it in place of a scanner for postcards and documents.  But that still leaves an awful lot of photos to look at and edit. 

Some of my favourites are from our visit to Cliff and Reef sands on the West side of the Island.




 



 Right, I'm off to have a ...


 Bye...

19 comments:

  1. You are on top form...I remember when I got Vista.( Nasty affliction was Vista). OH! The fun to be had. I purchased a microphone and dictated all my correspondence. Total gibberish it was. The sad thing? No one noticed!
    Love the last shot....Had I taken it before pub o'clock I would have rearranged the razor shell. Yours is better.

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    1. You said Vista Adrian. Wash your mouth out!

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    2. You said the V word as well GB - shame on you!

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  2. Good Morning, Intrepid,
    You will likely have been told this, but just in case you weren't told,
    those little voice gods of the IT world, like children coming into language, need a lot of 'training', and (I would guess) by extension, patience. At least that is the case for the computers that have speech possibilities according to my computer-challenging friend who, as a poet, takes great delight in the unanticipated words he gets and takes as gifts! Therein resides plenty of room for play. Take care and have fun! McGregor
    Good luck and have fun!
    McGregor

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    Replies
    1. I know the feeling your friend gets - I enjoy the same gifts that my spillchucker gives me all the time. Therein lies a blog posting one day, I think...

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  3. After seeing those wonderful pictures, if I didn't already live on Lewis, I would definitely move here!!

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  4. I tried Dragon Naturally Speaking a few times and lost interest. By the time I finished proofreading and editing, it was easier and faster for me just to type it all out. Add to that the fact that we Colonists tend not to write in the same manner as we speak, and well... it was messy.

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    1. I don't think anyone (except GB) speaks the way computers understand. Must be the way he were brunged up!

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  5. It's really interesting. Provided there is no public disturbance to be made I use Apple's Siri for lots of things and in particular for texts with no problems. Gaz, on the other hand, manages to get gobbledegook out of his iPhone. Things can only improve. Why, oh why, did I say that? I hope that the Fates are not listening.

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  6. fabulous pickies. I love all the different blues of water and sky. xoxo

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  7. the colors of the ocean, breathtaking! I'm glad that Adrian led me to know that in the last photo was a razor shell. :)
    I hate calling any business because of all the rigamarole one goes through to get to a human. And I have trouble on the phone when the "voice" of a business tells me to say whatever, and then I'm told "I'm sorry, yadda yadda." That's why I prefer e-mails!
    Did you realize that this post would open a "can of worms" for some people? Ha!
    Have a great relaxing weekend.

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    1. I'm allergic to the phone and that is one of the reasons! Another is when told to ''press button whatever' it forgets that some people have difficulty pressing a button while holding the phone to their ear!!!

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  8. You shouldn't make me laugh at the end of a post. You risk everything else being forgotten. Luckily it's hard to forget the colours in the sea in those first two shots - fabulous! Like the jumping up wave shot, too. But what really caught my fancy was the last shot, the speciality tea shop on the island I didn't know about. You and GB kept that one secret!

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    1. You should see the tea shoppe when it's busy, Pauline. There's mice and hedgehogs as well!

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  9. All those deserted beaches, blue water and cliffs hit me in a way that no desert island palm-fronded beach can.

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  10. I have microphone capabilities on my phone as well, but I haven't tried it yet. Shoot, my phone still creates words when I text. It's embarrassing to discover it after I've already pushed the send button.

    I love tea too. It is my preferred drink.

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  11. You're off to have a rabbit? Isn't that illegal over there? I mean, sheep are one thing...

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