Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by Carol; Portland, Oregon on November 27, 2009:

I was surprised to find a typo in your essay--until I saw that you'd dictated it instead of typing it. As a Premium subscriber, I'm accustomed to and appreciate your high standard of good grammar and accuracy.

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I went ahead and corrected it (thanks for pointing it out). Indeed, the errors it makes can be subtle ("and" when I said "an"), and thus hard to spot. As I said, I hope the software improves over time (and I expect it to! Not bad for its -- and my -- first try.) -rc

Posted by Ally; Kanata, Ontario on November 27, 2009:

I just wanted to mention that my brother, who is just an average Joe, started a Facebook group a while back about the hate he had for his Dell Computer and their terrible customer service. The name of the group could be offensive (there is swearing involved), so I won't mention it. He did not get a big following, just about 100 people, and most of them were just some of his friends. But someone from Dell happened to see it, and immediately sent my brother a brand new laptop. I just wanted to point out to some of the dumb people out there that in this age of Facebook, Twitter, and whatever else, there ARE ways to get your message out there to the big companies.

And on another point entirely....I do medical transcription for a living, so I don't want to hear good things about speech recognition technology!!! ;)

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Yes, posting in active "social" web sites can get attention too -- not an option when I had my Dell Hell problem. It's amazing how they want to help when people make a lot of noise; too bad they don't do a better job for people who try to get through on the "normal" channels. -rc

Posted by Michael; Pleasanton, California on November 27, 2009:

I have been using Dragon since 1997, when I was paralyzed in a car accident. I have found the various Dragon voice softwares invaluable.

The "subtle" errors are not always, but I have learned the importance of proofing something before I send it out. Even with that, an approximately 97% accuracy, without training, is impressive. Don't throw away the mouse and keyboard yet, though. Some things are still easier that way.

There's not that much difference, though, between the "Standard" and "Preferred" versions of 10, at least that I've seen. Between them and "Professional," on the other hand... And compared to Dragon Dictates or ViaVoice...

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Very cool that there's technology that enables you to be online more easily. I'm definitely assuming that I'll use mouse and keyboard a lot still, but I wanted to have the option of dictation for backup and such. Yeah, some of the errors are impressively bad, but no criticism here: it's amazingly good for virtually no training. I'll probably read it another selection so it gets better. (And I assume it gets better as I use it, and make corrections to what it "thinks" I said....) The linked Amazon page has a comparison chart for the versions. I definitely wanted what "Preferred" had over Standard, but didn't see a need for the next level, which requires a large price jump. Others will have other needs. -rc

Posted by Felix, Dutch Flat on November 27, 2009:

I worked at a court reporting computer firm, where our system transcribed the shorthand into English. Nothing terribly fancy, no grammar like French to English, usually just straight lookup. But it did have to make choices when several strokes could be translated into one of several choices, and the tie breaker was whichever choice used the most strokes in the first word. We heard that one of our customers was reprimanded by a judge for not proofreading enough to discover that "I'd like to have your input on this problem" should not have come out as "I'd like to have urine put on this problem"....

Posted by Cory, Topeka, Kansas on November 27, 2009:

I have about 100 Dell computers spread out through various clients. Overall satisfaction is very high - I think it helps that I know how to maneuver Dell's technical support and get them to do my bidding when something comes up.

That said though: for the most part, most of the machines reach end of life due to software changes than hardware failure.

I do think that out of all the big national companies, including Apple (which I have plenty of experience with too), Dell is about the easiest to get parts and services from.

Gotta Mac? Where we live it is a two hour drive to the nearest Mac store, and yes I have made that trip at Apple's bidding many times.

Posted by Tom, Vancouver, BC on November 27, 2009:

Good stuff Randy. In my career on the Internet I have been mistaken and received email for at least the following corporations and other entities: McDonald's, Yugo, the instructor of a CS course I had never heard of (and not from any college/university I could identify), someone who provides cracks for software, a paster [sic] of a church, an unidentified software company, and (most commonly, and probably like many other people) just some sort of overall Internet oracle to which questions of all kinds could be asked.

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Gee, "lucky" you! Maybe I'd get more if not for my PO Box: 666! -rc

Posted by Dean, Salem OR on November 27, 2009:

The Dell problems that people have had surprised me. In my office (I work IT) we went through hundreds of Dells from the first Pentium 60s (Intel CPU problem not Dell's fault) up to the Pentium 4s before our pricing agreement changed and we could no longer buy Dell. Our experience with Dell laptops, desktops, and servers (from 486 - Xeon) was very good. We had one model of machine that caused us problems, but tech support was always great and when there was a repair needed they were usually out within a day or 2 to do onsite repairs. Now recently I had a HP desktop that needed a motherboard replaced. After 2 hours on online chat with support, including telling them several times "I can't boot to a diagnostic CD because the computer won't get past POST" it took them nearly 3 weeks to get someone out to fix it. That's my HP Hell. Guess it can't be confined to one company. Oh, I tried to use my GOOHF card but it didn't work.

Posted by Kelson in California on November 28, 2009:

I used to have similar problems with email from dumb people in college. I ran a website for a club on campus called the Literary Guild. It was a creative writing club. We listed an email address on the home page (this was before spam was a major problem). We started getting angry customer service complaints from people who ordered books from "The Literary Guild," which didn't have a website of their own at the time.

I did the same thing you did: put a note up at the top of the page saying we weren't affiliated with them. Then made it bold. Then red. Then large type. And yet somehow people still managed to skip right past all the information about students, meetings in classrooms, college events etc. and decide we *must* be the place to contact about the group that ripped them off by not delivering a book that they ordered (or whatever the complaint was).

Actually, I still have to deal with misdirected mail from time to time at work, because there's another ISP out there whose company name is similar to our domain name. Every once in a while, I get tech support requests from their customers.

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The scary part? Your messages were coming from people who read, who tend to be more intelligent and informed than average.... -rc

Posted by Sam, Cincinnati, OH on November 28, 2009:

A well known observer of the American condition once quipped, "No one ever went broke under estimating the American public." It still seems apt!

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I agree, but I can still dream of a better day! -rc

Posted by Tom at Niagara Falls on November 29, 2009:

You are not alone with the dumb and stupid. I work retail and get asked "what is the price" a hundred times a day even though it is plainly posted, sometimes on large 1' by 3' signs which we have have taken to highlighting lately to no avail. A certain percentage of the population are here physically, but their minds are in a different world. It scares me driving home each evening with these idiots on the road where they can do real harm.