graham’s blog

It’s (almost) the weekend

Rounding off the week it’s been busy at work with some nice projects on the go, mostly to do with records management and document handling. I’m still intrigued more than satisfied with my Logitech Digital Pen and appalled at my bad handwriting.

This is probably where mobile computing comes to the rescue of hidden social handicaps like bad handwriting and uncomprehensable speech. Fistly you have to write decently to increase the succes rate in transcribing handwritten text and lastly it is preferrable to have good speaking skills in order to use speech recognition correctly.

I try to have a social life and not spend more than 50% of my leisure time in front of a computer which is not as easy as it sounds - what’s your percentage?

So at home I watch some TV (mostly the BBC channels) and some shows on DVD. After reading Kathy Reich’s book “Cross Bones” I obtained the first season of Bones and my wife and I are currenlty watching it. It’s not bad. Not excellent but still very watchable. I like the characters and geta few laughs. The quality of the French subtitles leaves a bit to be desired but at least I don’t have to watch it dubbed in French. Quel horreur!

When I’m “working” at the computer I like listening to music but if my wife is watching TV at the same time I sometimes try listening with headphones and I’m getting quite a collection. The last ones I bought are a Logitech USB headset with mike but although I can dictate with them, too much ambient sound from the TV comes through and I have to push up the volume and it all turns into a sound-fight in the end (the TV almost always wins). I have some cordless headphones for use with my iPod or other MP3 players but these are not comfortable for more than a half-hour or so.

I’m contemplating getting some “real” headphones with noise cancelling  and ear covering features. What can you recommend? You will have to be quick as once I have something in mind I usually rapidly pass to a purchased solution!