Comments on: Kill “Qwerty”! (Guest Voice)

By: DLS

DLS — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:15:41 +0000

Isn't is just more gimmickry? Typing is not only not difficult, but widely practical. Besides, if you think it's bad enough when people use speaker phones (and speak into them loudly) in a cubicle near you, just wait until everyone is speaking loudly and firmly all the time.

QUERTY has been just fine, thanks. I suspect to this day the objections to it come from those who never learned how to touch type. (I learned in junior high school. It was very useful as well as interesting, and put me in a class composed of many girls. [wink]) In a few experiences at this or that Big Company, Incorporated I've made touch typing instruction as a suggestion for productivity improvement, without success. Too many people just have a mental block or are subject to intimidation about touch typing and persist with hunt-n-peck.

By: Dave_Schuler

Dave_Schuler — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:07:49 +0000

Perhaps my public speaking experience, (investor presentations and appellate court appearances), makes me quite comfortable thinking and speaking at the same time.

Or, maybe, as Sam Clemens put it as a lawyer you're able to talk without thinking.

By: Slamfu

Slamfu — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:04:14 +0000

Is this a for real article? Dictation maybe would be good for voice recog software but for just about any kind of data entry you are doing you'll want to have a smoother way of moving between fields than whatever method these things must offer. I can see a market for journalists, authors, and those who write long letters often, but that is really a small percentage of keyboard users. Granted, I haven't used any of these systems, and my opinion of voice recognition software is limited to those god awful customer service routing programs that ask you to repeat things 10 times until they kick you to a live operator who can understand you.

By: mikkel

mikkel — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:25:17 +0000

Thanks for commenting Marc. I can say from what I've read that Dragon has had a HUGE improvement in the last 3 years, so if you first heard about it longer than that then definitely give it a shot again. As for thinking and speaking at the same time, I personally think a lot of it is about personality type differences. I have given quite a few presentations and public speaking appearances in my day, but I need to process things internally and then project. Especially if it's something I know the processing time can only be a few seconds but it's still a separate step…so trying to talk and think at the same time messes up my thought process. When I wrote the paper and used Dragon I tried to talk as I thought and when that didn't work I tried thinking but then talking but kept being disappointed with what came out. I think
it's because my verbalization is normally as part of a conversation so I'm responding, while writing is an internal thought process that I drive…so trying to operate entirely on internal drive and then say something is very difficult.

Extroverts tend to be able to talk out their thoughts in real time (or even before the thoughts congeal) and would be more interested in this type of interface in general. Sorry that was probably way too much info about my thought process, but if you're interested in this stuff it's important to recognize the differences.

By: John Craft

John Craft — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:15:46 +0000

“It makes little sense, that in order to input information into a computer, or to use the many new instruments that permit text-messaging, we still have to use our hands and fingers.” Actually, it makes a great deal of sense. Imagine flying from London to Atlanta on an aircraft full of travelers working on spreadsheets, documents, emails, etc. Or working in a “cube farm” environment. Or being on a conference call and unable to work on a document because the speakers will “edit” your work. Or sending SMS from class, or the train. In other words, there are a tremendous number of environments where voice would be an awful way to “type,” and “QWERTY” (or AZERTY, or whatever your flavor) is far superior.

By: pabel

pabel — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:12:35 +0000

I have exercised my rights as managing editor and offered a slightly different take on — or is it an addendum to? — federal intervention in this process. All in good fun, of course: http://themoderatevoice.com/26599/federal-inter….

By: gadfly

gadfly — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:45:00 +0000

If there really is a huge market out there for this, why would a federal government intervention be needed to promote it? I don't see the market failure.

By: pachigordo

pachigordo — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:27:32 +0000

Thanks for the great comments – this is from the author in Phoenix. I heard of Dragon Speaking a while ago but some users did not like it. I will personally try it as soon as possible. I'm in professions (business & law) in which there are many documents (business plans, legal briefs) that can be fairly long-winded. I started typing before I started High School and due to piano playing and a lot of experience, I type very fast – faster than most secretaries. There existed competitors to Qwerty that were more efficient but I was surprised none were adopted when personal computers started. I also have my own office and not a cubicle. I understand many people who do computer programming or write short emails are not going to use this type of technology. Perhaps my public speaking experience, (investor presentations and appellate court appearances), makes me quite comfortable thinking and speaking at the same time. As far as metrification is concerned, it is long overdue, and perhaps a national coversion would create a lot of new jobs quickly in rewriting property descriptions, putting up new highway signs, and repackaging consumer products, to name just a few. I also heard that a cell phone can now be implanted into a person's head, so that might speed up communications, though I'm unsure of what happens if you don't pay your monthly bill. Thanks again and hope everyone stays positive in these tough economic times. — Marc Pascal

By: AustinRoth

AustinRoth — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:43:05 +0000

There are much better keyboard formats out there. They will be adopted as soon as we move to the metric system, rename fish 'sea kittens', and all start speaking Esperanto.

By: Dave_Schuler

Dave_Schuler — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:41:04 +0000

Marc, do you use Dragon NaturallySpeaking or one of its several competitors? If not, why not? If so, what has your experience been?

By: Jim_Satterfield

Jim_Satterfield — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:39:53 +0000

My boss is very happy with Dragon Naturally Speaking. As a programmer I agree with mikkel that most of what I do couldn't be done with any voice recognition software. Besides, imagine the nightmare of everyone in a cublicle farm talking to their computers. Maybe it would bring back the private office even if the walls were movable dividers.

By: Jazz

Jazz — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:20:13 +0000

This is such 2008 style thinking. Voice recognition? Bah! Give us telepathic mental interfaces! It's high time we do away with sound entirely and just start wiring mp ports into baby's skulls as soon as they are born. Then hook a wireless transmitter to them and it's hands free everything!

Seriously, I don't care for this article. Modern speech recognition is barely tolerable for writing casually and absolutely useless for programming unless you are disabled and have absolutely no other choice. Also, far too many people in our modern society barely have a tenth grade vocabulary and regional dialects screw everything up. Qwerty keyboards may be far from perfect, but they are at least standardized and we know how to use them to talk to our machines.

By: mikkel

mikkel — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:13:52 +0000

There is voice recognition software that is pretty good these days. I recommend Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking, and if you pay extra you can get technical packs for medical terms, legal terms, etc. so even highly technical things work ok. When I had tendinitis I wrote a scientific paper with it.

That said, I'm a programmer and a writer..and it is pretty much impossible to program with voice, and extremely difficult to write. I'm sure this guy is an extrovert, when I try to "write" by talking, it crowds out my thoughts.

That said there is no reason why navigation and texting can't be replaced by it when you're out and about...but the technology is already there.

Of course QWERTY should be killed and replaced....but that's because it's purposefully not efficient.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:02:24 +0000

Voice input isn't a bad idea, but it isn't really necessary. To avoid texting while driving, you can just call the person and use speakerphone. And in an office environment, the monotonous clicking of keyboards is a heck of a lot less distracting than listening to everyone else talk at their computers. Sometimes you want to send something private – setting up a doctor's appointment or writing a gossipy email to a friend are not generally the sort of things you'd want to say out loud in a public space. And with the advent of wifi internet access, more and more people will be using computers in public. If someone wants to develop this technology, that's great. But I don't think it's necessary, nor is it imperative enough to warrant that large a prize or Federal involvement.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:41:15 +0000

This is either very inept satire or a sad commentary on the technical knowledge of lawyers.