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I spent more of my weekend and that I would have liked mucking about with dictation applications - - mostly ViaVoice X 3.0. ViaVoice has worked reasonably well on my iBook since I first installed it back in January. However, it's a finicky program that I find requires you to hold your mouth right, literally and figuratively, in order to keep it working, but it's fast and accurate, particularly if you stick to its dedicated SpeakPad application for dictating text. My problem started last week when I decided to try using a different USB microphone than the Andrea headset that shipped with the program. This was purely experimental. The Andrea mic works fine, and I find it reasonably comfortable to wear as headsets go, although I would really prefer a boom mic. I digress. Anyway, adding insult to injury, so to speak, not only would ViaVoice not respond to the other microphone, but when I plugged the Andrea back in it wouldn't work either. I tried running the "Audio Setup" routine in the ViaVoice Setup Assistant utility, which informed me that my mic didn't seem to be plugged in, and that I should check my connections and restart the computer. First I confirmed that the mic actually was plugged in by starting up iListen, which is delightfully unpicky about what microphones you use with it (although the MacSpeech folks recommend that you use a good - quality one for best results). iListen could "hear" the Andrea mic fine, as could the OS X Speech panel. I tried rebooting. No joy. Ah well, it was Saturday morning. Why not just cut to cut to the chase and reinstall the program? I dug out the ViaVoice install CD, backed up my user voice files, ran the uninstaller, and then reinstalled the program, which takes about twenty minutes. That accomplished, I started up ViaVoice, or tried to. Audio Setup still couldn't hear the mic. I rebooted the iBook again. Still nothing. Okay. I remembered that when I had trouble getting ViaVoice X to install on my PowerBook, IBM tech support advised me to create a fresh user account in OS X and install it from there. So I created a new account, logged out, logged in again as the other me, and ran the the ViaVoice installer again, as well as the ViaVoice 10.2.2 updater. Hooray! Audio Setup could now here the Andrea headset. Not so hooray -- I had to read through one of the training stories in order to do get the program to start up. Sigh. However, ViaVoice blows me away with how accurately it copies dictation with just the shortest training story read. Back into my main user account. Groan. ViaVoice still won't respond to the microphone on this latest fresh install when booted from this account (I had uninstalled my first reinstall attempt). I tried rebooting the machine; unplugging and replugging the mic. Nothing. I tried trashing all preferences files, etc. from the previous installation. No go. The Mac still worked fine with iListen. I gave up for the day and moved onto other things. Late Saturday evening and I had a (belated) brain wave. On Sunday morning, I opened up the Sound preference panel, clicked the "Input" tab, and low and behold, the input device had been switched from the Andrea headset to the iBook's internal mic. I switched it back. Started up Audio Setup. Now it could hear the Andrea just fine..... Doh. I then read that all - too - familiar first training story again before the program would start up so I could restore my backed up user voice files. Upon checking through the ViaVoice X User's Guide this morning before posting this article, I happened on the information (under the heading "Uninstalling ViaVoice" on page 81 if you're looking) that I could have dragged the packed-up user folder onto the Setup Assistant icon and restored them that way. Memo to IBM: It would be nice if you included this point under "Restoring a User" on page 55, which is where I looked before the fact. What I'm guessing happened is that when I connected to the other USB microphone, the mic input in the Sound preference panel got switched, although why that didn't prevent iListen and the OS X Speech function from hearing the Andrea microphone, I know not. Of course, I should have checked the Sound panel first rather than last. Hindsight's 20/20. Live and learn. Panther Finder Internet Banking in the Carolinas and Nearby Help! Catch up and Surpass Fast User Switching From Patrick Taw Dear Charles, I am sick of reading all of these technology sites which only focus on the very slick and cool transition effects of Panther's fast user switching. All they can talk about is how Windows was so cool and did it first and conveniently forgot that Apple has made it better. I'm not just talking about the better transition effect but also the speed of the switch. From the keynote that I saw on webcast, Job's only had to do two clicks to switch. For WinXP, the user must perform more clicks and wait for different dialogue windows and screens before the switch has been made. Now, I don't know enough of the new Panther switching to say if it also has the ability to specify what programs can be shut off during the fast user switch like XP but that's probably not important and probably a wasted feature. In XP, to switch, the user clicks Start, clicks Logoff, wait for the dialogue box, click Switch User, wait for the Logon Screen, and then finally click the user account to switch to. Panther only needs two clicks and no waiting for different screens and such nonsense. I bet Panther makes switching so fast and easy that the cancel button is not necessary becasue if you switched accidentally, then switching back is very fast and easy. I hope you tell the windows and linux people that their version isn't as cool and fast as they say it is. Thanks for listening. Patrick Taw
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Patrick.
Charles From Richard Taylor Charles, I am troubled by reports of the new Finder. I don't care for the brushed aluminum look, but I can accept it. Where I may draw the line is the loss of Mac's traditional user interface, replaced by what is essentially an upgraded column view apparatus. We Mac users have taken pride in the Mac User Interface which allowed for individual work habits. No one I knew used their Mac (OS 9) in the precise way I did, but it didn't matter. Macs allowed for individuality. We could do it our way. When I upgraded to OS X I discovered there were fewer choices. I chose to continue to have hard drives on my desktop (even though I placed aliases for the drives in the the Dock, but never used them). For me, spring-loaded icons was a deal-breaker because I filed things away using this device. In my mindset documents really are documents, icons really do represent hard drives and so forth. The desktop was liquid and real, an alternate universe. With Panther all that goes away. What I get instead is a Finder that is series of lists leading to other lists. Macintoshes are no longer flexible. We can't bend them to our needs, but instead are asked to work in a prescribed way. Isn't that how Windows does things? If I had not recently bought two iMacs for our home office, I would be seriously looking at other platforms. I won't upgrade to Panther because it means less freedom, and hence less computing power, no matter its extra features. Give me back the desktop and the Mac way of doing things. Richard Taylor Hi Richard; I agree that this doesn't sound auspicious. John Manzione of MacNet2, who has actually used Panther, says:
I suppose I'm (grudgingly ) willing to try too, but I'm not optimistic. I use Column View in OS X occasionally, but I've never warmed to it, and I dislike playlists. I really don;t like the way Bookmarks work in Safari, for instance. I continue to maintain that the OS 9 motif of Finder navigation and organization is head, shoulders, and torso superior to OS X, and it looks like Panther is going to be a giant step backwards from Jaguar in that department. Exposé? I've been playing with the WindowShade X 3.0 Minimize In Place feature, and it's not turning my crank. Just plain Windowshading is much preferable in my books. :-( Charles Internet Banking in the Carolinas and Nearby From Michael Koren Having read at great interest the fanfare made about Wells Fargo - here is another ... The ONLY (from my research) bank in the entire North/South Carolina and nearby area that is 100% Safari (even beta) capable is First Citizens Bank. Based on that promise I started banking with them and I've got to say that their system works flawlessly and is easy- a real delight! They told me that have a number of PCs including Macs set up in their support area to be sure all are happy. I think they ought to start marketing themselves to the very large Mac community in the Research Triangle here. Michael Koren I can't find anyone to help me and maybe you can't either but its worth a try. 2 things. Firstly I purchased Suitcase 10.2 & installed on my 17" Powerbook G4 last night and everytime it opens it crashes saying "Suitcase has unexpectedly quit"...can't even get into it. Downloaded 10.2.2 version today and the same thing...any ideas what's going on? Also a sporadic problems with Airport/signing onto AOL. Yesterday I was only 3-4 hours downloading files, went to sign off and couldn't "disconnect" from Airport so had to unplug to disconnect it. This a.m. tried to sign on and airport turns on and connects ok but when I try to sign onto AOL it goes thru all the steps and I get a black/white spinning cursor and then it just stops after a while and nothing. I'm not into AOL but can't quit it either, so have to force quit. Tried rebuilding permissions, fixing disk, spent 6 hours trying to sign on and nothing. Put the computer to sleep for 2 hours, came home and tried again and I got on OK. I did update Airport today but haven't had any problems today so far but sure it will happen again. Seems to go in spurts. Sometimes I can't disconnect and sometimes I can't sign onto AOL...Any ideas what's going on? I do appreciate any help.
Thanks.
Hi Gary; Try trashing any preferences your first Suitcase install created, and try a fresh reinstall of the 10.2.2 version. If it still doesn't work, contact the developer. As for the connectioin problem, I'm wondering if it's an AOL-related issue? If anyone in readerland has suggestions, let us know. Charles
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