Over
the Christmas break, I met with a former colleague for lunch. It’s always a
pleasure meeting up with this colleague, who is enjoying his retirement. At one
point during our lunch conversation, we started talking about stocks. He told
me how he began buying and selling stocks as a teenager, and I admitted I
didn’t buy my first stock until I began working with our former employer. After
I got the hang of buying and selling stocks, I decided to buy a stock that specialized
in digital voice software. It was the late 90's, and there wasn’t a lot of
competition, so I decided to buy this company’s stock. The stock was around $50
a share in June. Within two months, it rose to about $175 a share.
When
I told my former colleague about this stock, he knew exactly what I was talking
about because he just bought digital voice software. He asked me if the company
name was Nuance, and I started to laugh because that was the company I had
bought stock in over a decade ago. (I don’t know if this is the same company,
because I couldn’t find matching stock prices on the web.) He stated he just
bought the software, and it’s been working great. It takes a while for the software
to get to know your voice and writing style, but after working in it, you get used
to the dictation and commands. He was very pleased with the software and I told
him I’ll have to look into it for my writing.
Yesterday,
we went to the post office to pick up a package. To my surprise, the package contained
digital voice software with a note from my former colleague stating that he
hopes it assists with my writing endeavors. Of course I had to try it out to
see how it works. I set up a profile, let it read my documents, and the more I
use it, the more it familiarizes itself with my voice. I’m sure the NSA would
enjoy this software… if they aren’t using it already. Anyways, I decided to use
it for this blog post. I dictated, made corrections, and started understanding
some commands.
I’m
on my third draft of my novel, Fogged up Fairytale, and I hope to use this software for revisions. It does
take some time getting used to, but not that much. I’ve been using it for several
hours with only a few problems with voice recognition.
I
must extend a huge thanks to my former colleague, who has been a loyal blog
reader and supporter of my writing. If it wasn’t for him, and many others who
have supported me along the way, I would not have achieved success with my
writing. I’m truly grateful for him and his continuous generosity.
If
you are interested in digital voice software, you can purchase it on Amazon.
The software is called Dragon Naturally Speaking. It’s by Nuance, and is a home
edition speech recognition software.
Has
there been a software or electronic device you recently purchased that you’d
like to share with others?
Stocks
and Presents,
Bea
I'm afraid that I'm not a big technology lover (despite needing access to the Internet everyday), but your post reminded me as to why I should invest in stocks at some point in my life. I just don't know how to go about it. :P
ReplyDeleteAlso it's good to have nice relationships with former colleagues. I quite often call one of mine at least once a month.
-Barb