Gem Of Life Ep 10 & Happy Halloween To Our Friends & Customers

Gem of Life Episode 10 will be something i will be watching while at work and eating my breakfast at the store.  But for those who wants to watch it .. you can just hop over to my entertainment blog.  And a very Happy Halloween to all our friends from all over the world.. and our customers.. in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

Dragon Naturally Speaking

Now when our customers ask about voice recognition software I can show them this video so they can see just how it works. Seeing this video of another blogger working with it means there is no need for me to explain to them how it works or how it can help them. It can even help people with physical handicaps to do things faster. It’s affordable and one can type at 150 WPM for $99! Check out the video.

I just watched a great video by Owen the writer for www.u-g-h.com . Owen is a great blogger from the Isle of Man who keeps a couple great tech blogs and even builds plug-ins and widgets in his spare time from what I understand. I’ve known Owen for over two years now through the blogosphere.

I just finished watching the video Owen created after he agreed to try out Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred. What is really amazing here is that he created this video just a few minutes after he installed the Dragon Naturally Speaking on his machine.

Many people remember the days when it would take hours if not days or a week or more to train a voice recognition software program. Owen was able to install the software and use it to very good effect as you can see from the video above which has been embedded from YouTube.

Now he’s just getting used to the software and one of the things that you will notice is that his speaking style is a little slow and starts and stops a bit in between each sentence. He doesn’t have 2 talk that slow nor does he have to start and stop after each sentence. He could just keep talking in one continuous fluid verbal conversation with his computer. Dragon NaturallySpeaking even has the ability to automatically insert punctuation as you talk. The auto punctuation feature is not perfect, but it is a lot better than you might expect.

Owen is actually using the manual punctuation function where he specifically says each item of punctuation that he wants inserted into his sentences and paragraphs.

Regardless, as you watch Owen’s video and many other videos out there on Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, you can see just how fast it is and just how useful it can be for anyone that wants to be able to type on their computer and create text by using their voice and speaking to their computer. It’s a very liberating experience and as I write this right now I am using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, and I am pacing around my kitchen about 20 feet from my computer using a wireless headset microphone. I walk by my computer every few steps and glance at the screen to see if my computer is capturing the text correctly, but I probably don’t even need to do that because it is so very accurate.

That said, it is very important for new users to do a fairly good grammar check on the documents that they create with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. When you first get started, Dragon NaturallySpeaking does learn what you’re trying to say and it improves over time. So you will need to edit a little bit more when you first start, and it’s a good habit to pick up as you go forward because your speaking style is going to be much different than your normal writing style would be if you were typing with your fingers. It’s a different area of the brain and you will get a different result in your written documents when you use Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

This article is approximately 540 words long(pre-edit), and I wrote it in about three minutes. It also took me about two minutes to edit because I was going back and forth into another room to help my kids with their homework. Still, that’s approximately 108 words per minute including editing time!

My name is Brett Bumeter and I’ve been writing about Dragon NaturallySpeaking for almost 2 years now. I think this is a great product, however I also recognize that people really have to see this product in action in order to envision how I can truly help them in their work and in their lives. So I am working to bring many more videos of Dragon NaturallySpeaking to you since you can help figure out if this great tool that costs about $99 could help you type in 150 words a minute. I think it can, and I definitely think it’s worth it. You decide and you let me know what you think.

Best regards,
Brett
www.softduit.com

Magic Cards Anyone..?

Magic cards is something that PB collected for years.  A lot of trading and buying over was involved.. and in his collection .. there are lots to choose from.  I wouldnt’ know what the hell were Magic Cards till i came to Canada.. and I know PB would love to pick up this hobby again.. if he had the time.  But time does not permit it..  because we are really working a lot these days.

So what are Magic cards..?? it’s a game.. whereby you put cards together .. to win the other person.  Of course, it isn’t as simple as i had explained.. but i could never get into it.  On the other hand.. it’s a good break for us.. with so many ppl coming in to sell stuff.. *slap forehead*. At least these Magic card guys spent like hundreds of dollars and they came all the way from Annapolis Valley.

Web Hosting

For regular readers of my blogs, I am sure you would have noticed some major problems we had with our previous host (which I shall not name) about a month ago.  Regularly they would come up with messages that “we had exceeded our CPU limits” and at other times, they just gives you an error about some bandwidth thing.  But last month it was the worst, for 2 whole days the server was down and we were rendered helpless.  And guess what? A quick chat with support would have sent me flying over the counter to smack his head if he was in front of me because he suggested that I pay for dedicated hosting, which was 10 times more than what I was currently paying for shared hosting.

Now don’t get me wrong, dedicated hosting is great and comes with many benefits, but really for a blogger who uses less than 10 gb of space and 20gb of bandwidth do i really need dedicated hosting?  I might not be a geek but look buddy, I’m not stupid either. Canadian Web Hosting promises 99.9% up time guarantee, fast and reliable web hosting services with offices based in Canada at affordable prices to suit the individual blogger like you and I. Of course they also provide dedicated hosting for people and companies who need the extra power.  With a 30 day money back guarantee, if you are in Canada like I am, you should check their very attractive packages starting from just $3.95/month.

Gem Of Life Episode 8 Exciting !

My Gem Of Life Episode 8 is definitely a quick one to watch.  Our business is definitely far from what you watch in these Hong Kong TVB series.  Ours is definitely not so exciting .. and truth be told.. i doubt i am able to take that much excitment.. hahha!! can you imagine.. me jumping over the counter and smacking all these ppl in the show..??  yah..! if you donch know by now.. the famous word or sentence by this crazy chinese in Canada is.. “Where i come from.. we jump over the counter and smacked your head already” .. hahahha!! YUP..!! that’s what i tell my very ignorant and arrognant customers.  No fooling around with this crazy chinese .. helping the “ang moh” in his business.  Oh .. ok.. btw.. watch the real Gem of Life Episode 8 on my entertainment blog.  One has gotta find some form of entertainment right..?? since we missed home so much.

Town Election

About 10 days ago.. i went for my first election .. since coming to Canada.  This town is so small.. you wouldn’t think that we would have to go from one place to another.. to exercise my rights.  On top of having to run from one place to another to find out where we were supposed to go .. and vote.. i had to swear in .. and all.

I didn’t mind doing all that.. but there were really no need for so many polling stations.. because there were less than 3000 people in town itself.  On top of it.. swearing in .. in front of a line up is definitely a no-no..! it was a ridiculous sight and no privacy at all.

But having said all that.. this is YARMOUTH.. and we all know how things are being run here.  What can you expect right..??  Abosulte a waste of manpower.. and a pure waste of the tax payers money as per usual.  But the 4 that i had voted for won the election.. so i’m pleased.  I told one of the town council that i had voted for .. that all i wanted was transparency.. and i think i speak for everyone in this town.

Mortgage Professionals

At times like this where the world recession is looming over everyone’s head, one cannot help but think of how good it would be to lower one’s mortgage and save some money every month. A good mortgage professional with loan modification leads can definitely be helpful to make it a beneficial relationship.  After all, everyone can use a lower mortgage if you ask me and if someone were to offer it to me I would definitely welcome it.

The Bank Is Such A Joke

Sometimes.. i think the business banks are such a joke.  This was seen last week.. at a carpark next to our store.  I was happily taking picture of it.. to see if they would swing right out.. and offer me money for my business.. but nope.. no one came out..  till i was done with my photo taking.. and guess what..??  even when they saw me.. outside.. taking pictures.. they couldn’t even be bothered to say hi.  Such good business strategy.

Nice flashy car.. and all.. traveling Canada i supposed or the Atlantic Canada.. but what good did they do for us..?? the mom and pop store owners..?? NOT A THING..!  Get growing..?? yah right..!  Banks are stupid.

Christmas @ The Store

Christmas is just round the corner.. and it will always come faster than we expect.  Every year we hunt for good promotional items for our regular customers.. to thank them for their support and this year, it is of course the same. As you all know.. we do have some great customers at our store.. and therefore, it is only a good thing to do .. in return for their support.   Any suggestions..?

Gem Of Life Episode 6 & Our Movie Store

Gem of Life Episode 6 is what i was waiting to watch .. all weekend.  Finally..!! i get to watch here at the store.  The perks of owning your own business eh.  Well.. the joke is this.. and i always tell everyone.  We own a movie store.. meaning we rent movies… lots of movies… a few thousand at any one time… yet.. i can’t find the show that i want.  If TVB set up a chinese movie retailer thingie here.. i would be the first to apply to be their distributer.

As someone who owns your own video store.. we get to watch screeners.. and get free movies all the time.  The biggest movie supplier in Canada.. is about 4 hrs away from us.  The previous sales rep that we had was awesome.. but the current boss .. well.. lets say.. he was the one .. that we don’t do business with anyone.  Sad .. but someone who doesn’t keep to his end of the promise.. well.. you can imagine.. what we think of him right..??

The Gem of Life Episode 5 speaks a lot about retaining a company .. and how hard it is.. to keep one’s business from going bankrupt.. and we can relate to it.. of course.. owning our own movie store.  Say for example.. you pay like $30 for a movie.. and you rent it out for $3 (like we do) .. and the customer only rent it once.. and never came back with it (which happens a lot) .. then we lose $27 + taxes.. on top of having to make extra from the others.  It’s hard.. . i tell yer.. owning your own business. So yes.. !! i watch the Gem of Life.. anytime.. i get ahold of it.. too excited to wait till i go home. And if you want to watch it.. just hop over to my entertainment blog.

Mercedes-Benz GLK - My Dream Car

I can afford it! I can afford it!  Woohoo.  Starting only at $43K the Mercedes-Benz GLK, my dream car, is launching in January 2009.  Had I still been in Singapore this car would not be within my reach because of the taxes involved.  My very first car was a Merc 190 and it worked great for me because I was then only 22 at the time, but this new Merc Benz GLK is a small 5 passenger SUV which is perfect for me now because I have a family and can justify buying it.  You and I know that the the new Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class is a good, premium car. No one beats the Merc, in my humble opinion.

Gem Of Life Episode 4 & Gadget Time

The Gem of Life Episode 4 would usually be ready for watching first thing in the morning, but you see I have to get my lil’ princess ready for school and all so I really  have no time to watch it before rushing to the store.  Even though we are up by 7.30am at the latest we don’t get to do a lot, especially if the princess was up at 6.30am and we had gone to bed at 2.30am.  Yes! 4hrs of sleep… can die!

So what do I do?  I already have it on my home puter so I get this flash drive, which I call the “Key”, or USB Key, or you may even know it as a memory stick or more commonly as a thumb drive. Whatever you call it, I just stick it into a USB port on my computer and drag the files that I want onto the key and bring it along with me to work. Then I transfer that file to my laptop at work.  This way I get to watch my Chinese shows where ever I am. I even have my pictures everywhere I go too so I can work on them anytime I’m at a computer and not have to wait to go home to do my blog work.

Ok! See the “key” on the left side of this post? Yup, that one! It’s a personalized one, you can engrave your name on it, or put your company’s logo on it, and use it for yourself or give them away for gifts. To your girlfriend, or your wife’s extended family. Or like us, we can personalize them for Christmas gifts for our regular customers. After all, everyone needs a flash drive!  They are darn useful I tell you and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to use one.   So yes, go ahead and personalize yours and have some funny saying, or just your name, or your g/fs or whatever. You can order as many as you like, or even just one. They start at only $11.99 for a 1 GB, and even 1 GB does hold a lot I tell ya!  But it’s just fun to have something like that personalized, makes me feel so geeky!

PS : Oopssie..!! i forgot to tell yer all .. that if you want to watch the Gem of Life please head over to my entertainment blog.  You can either watch it there directly or just follow the link.

Does It Work..?

8 outta 10 customers that comes into our store.. and buys something from us.. ask this question… “does it work..?? “  or ” Is there anything wrong with it?”  What kinda question is that..??  do you go into someone store and ask something like that..?? tell me the truth now.. ??  These days.. we just find it so amusing.. that we tell them. .nah.. it doesn’t work.. we just like to display it .. for fun. It’s way too funny .. seeing their reaction when we say that.  I love our customers.. but some really makes me wonder .. hhahhahahaha!! i hope you are not one of those type of customers.

Town Election

The town election was over on Saturday night.. and the results were in early Sunday morning.  I was very pleased with the overall result because a lot of old croonies were ousted out this time and new town councils were elected.  The 3 that i had voted for were all in .. and so is the Mayor.  Now I can sleep a little better each night.. and hope for a better town.  Hopefully, we get invited for some golf session with the mayor.. for i heard he is a avid golf player,  so that i can show him our new Cobra golf set.  But I highly doubt .. he would even know who we are eh.

Preparing For Halloween

Halloween is round the corner.. but ever since the episode with the last employee being all stressed up because she had to dress the window.. we decided not to ask any of our employees to do anything anymore.  But Katelynn, our babysitter/store employee offered to paint the windows.. and promised she wouldn’t go to unemployment office to complain about having to paint the store’s window.. we let her.  But not before we made sure .. that it wasn’t too stressful for her.

Not bad at all eh..??  and for someone to say that they were stressed for drawing on the window.. when they had actually volunteered in the first place.. now that is too funny.  But we all get the big picture.. wherelse the unemployment office used this as one of the reasons to justify.. giving her unemployment for more than 1.5 yrs.  Collecting unemployment here means.. you get paid every other week .. without having to work.  Whatever you were making .. you get like 80% of what you made from your previous job.   Darn lucky hor..?

I seriously think that the system is flawed here.. but i hear that it is just as bad in the States.  The people who really needs the money .. they never get.. but those who don’t .. they get everything.  The people here .. even know exactly how to work the system.. it’s just too sad.. because people like that will never get no where in life.  Plus people who works so hard.. they get taxed left, right and center .. for the longest time .. ever since i came to Canada.. we never got our GST back.. like everyone else.  I have no idea why.. and they never ever explained it.

Gadget Info

Owning a computer store, even just being an owner by association, it means that I have to know a little about the geeky stuff too.  Like it or not, I do have to be able to understand our customers needs when the spouse isn’t around, else the customer will just leave the store and go somewhere else.

The Gadget Advisor is a relatively new site that is great for someone like myself who wants to find out the latest and the best gadget information in order to be able to carry on a decent conversation with our geeky customers and not sound like a fool.  Whether you are looking for information on online backups to recommend to your blogging buddies or universal remote controls to our older customers and even those networked media players that the spouse is very interested in, here is where I can explore and learn a  little bit more.  So no one can say we women don’t know anything about techie stuff.

Harper & The Liberals

So instead of wasting money on this .. why don’t you tell us .. what you Liberal would do for us Canadians..??  Politicians for you ..!!  It is election time again … this month.. and we’ve met Robert Thibault .. the only MP  .. who came around our business on Main Street, Yarmouth.  Unfortunately, this week.. i also heard from our customer.. who had immigration problems.. that Robert Thibault’s office refused to help .. because they are having an election.. !  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOooK .. so here we have someone who is running again to get elected.. and he wouldn’t even bat an eyelid to someone who is obviously in need of some kinda advice…??  Ya..!!  my thoughts exactly..!  sad.. sad..!!

Mingling With The Customers

In our kind of business, it’s important to know your customers.. and mingle with them.  Irregardless, whether they are young or old, you still need to know what makes them tick.. and what are their fancies.  Building a good repetoire with your customers is not easy .. and keeping the good ones are even harder.  Here the man mingled with the younger customers.. by playing the Rock Band game with them.

Our Customer/s Looking Better

Is it me.. or is our customers looking better each time they come into our store.. or if i met them outside.  Just today .. i saw one in the mall.. and I told her i almost couldn’t recognised her.. because she grew smaller.  Well.. she wasn’t fat by any means.. but she was big.. but today.. she looked so slim.. and so prettttttyyyy..!!!!  i’m envious… and totally in awe..1! i want to look as sleek as her.. i wonder if i take Fenphedra, will i get the same results..? I want to win my weight problem war..!!

A Week Of Thirsty Laptops

It had been a week of thirsty laptops/notebooks.  We’ve had some pretty nasty looking laptops come in that either had the cat pissed on.. or coke accidentally poured over it.. and as much as the man tried to clean and resolder them.. they don’t want to turn on.  Alot of time wasted.. yet not much money made.  *sigh* .. but that’s our job eh.

Then of course the man wants to be superman.. and repair or replace a DS screen for a customer.. and it took him like hours. . and for how much..??  $15 ..!!!  yes..!!  $15 !!!  i told him.. i will pay him $15 to spend an hour.. with his kid… instead of doing that thing.

Older Posts �