Fsync - welcome back old friend

Several years ago, I became really frustrated with Windows' off line drive function. You know the one where if you have network drives and you want access to the data when off line, you can ask Windows to make them available and it would sync them with local copies kept on your laptop hard drive. That way, when you are connected on the office network, you are working on the network version, and when on the road, you are working on the off line local copy, and any changes in either direction would be synchronised the next time you were back on the office network.

If it really worked like that, it would be perfect. The problem was though that in Windows 2000 and then later Windows XP, it never did really work. Sometimes it was just as promised, but more often than not I would be in another location and find that my local copy was somehow not available, or there would be large chunks of data missing, or the version available off line would be a least a few weeks out of date, even if I had been in the office recently.

At the time I tracked down fsync, by Vico Biscotti, which is a small command line utility for synchronising two folders from left to right, no more and no less. I then wrote a bunch of simple batch files using notepad to sync my network folders onto local directories on my hard drive, and then another set to sync them back. This worked very well, and never missed a beat. I would run one fsync batch file every time I left the network, and another one every time I rejoined.

It worked so well in fact that I had forgotten about it actually, and when I received my last laptop with Windows 7, I decided to try off line folders within Windows again, seeing as the rest of Windows 7 works so much better than most previous versions of Windows.

The first few months went well. Each time I needed them, the off line folders appeared to work as expected. Then one day, as luck would have it, just when I needed something really important, it wasn't there. I had experienced some syncing issues which I somehow didn't notice, until it was too late. Then there was another time, where I was on the network, checking out some of our customer profile files, and they appeared to be out of date. I was about to chastise some of our staff for not keeping the details current, when suddenly I noticed that my computer was using the offline copies rather than the live ones, even though I was connected to the network. That was the final straw.

I was stupid though. I started googling through various sync applications and tried several of them. They all seemed ok, but I kept coming across various issues, the main one being that they were often overly complicated. It was not always clear how directories missing on one side were going to affect directories on the other, and while it was possible to have version control etc, this was way more than I needed.

Thankfully it suddenly hit me, and I tracked down fsync again. It has had a couple of minor revisions since I had last downloaded it, but it is still just as simple and effective as it ever was. It still has all the same options to run in silent mode without prompting, and determining what overwrites and what doesn't etc. Most importantly though, it just gets the job done.

It is a command line utility so it is best suited for those like me who want to run a basic batch file or script unattended. If you need a GUI showing the source and destination folders etc, fsync is not for you. Also, I suggest you test your batch file first to make sure you are copying just what you want, and it is handling the deleting of missing directories on your target side as per your requirements. You don't want to accidentally wipe out any data you want to keep. Once you have the script doing just what you want though, you can save it and then just run it every time you need to, knowing it will work as expected every time.

I now have my off line folder system working just how I want it again with my work laptop, and I am now making full use of fsync at home to maintain backups of our media library from our media NAS onto our general backup NAS. Yes, I have two NAS's on our home network, geeky I know, but well worthwhile.

http://www.vicobiscotti.it/en/fsync.htm

Later.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 - a follow up

Now that I have been using this software for about a month, it is probably time for a follow up.

Voice dictation is certainly a great way to quickly get text into your computer. On my last trip, I had something like 26 customer meetings in three days during a conference, so it became a reasonably easy task to take my scribbled bullet point notes, and dictate them as more complete sentences to form my "typed" meeting notes. I did find that trying to dictate unusual company names did not work so smoothly unless I spelled them out them letter by letter every time, but I soon learnt to get around this by saying "the customer" and then doing a search and replace in Word later to insert their name.

For this particular application, Dragon NaturallySpeaking worked as or better than expected. The accuracy for my voice is remarkable, and the few times it does get something wrong, it is easily corrected. I have found that correcting the mistakes properly is a little fiddly, but is well worth the effort as the accuracy improves further for future dictations.

I have also now started to try using it for replying to emails and composing documents. So far it has not worked quite as well for me although the problem is with me, not the software. For example, I recently had to prepare a basic market status report for a new product, and so I sat down, donned the headset, and attempted to compose it from scratch using voice dictation. I failed miserably. As I sat there and tried to speak sentences as they came to my mind, they came out very haphazardly, and not only did DNS struggle to understand what I was saying, but even when it got things right, the quality of my writing was poor. It came across like someone who was just making up an answer to a question as they went along.

The problem seems to be with me and the way I write. I seem to be better at writing when I compose with a keyboard or even use a basic mind mapping tool like Freemind to get the main ideas ready. If I have to do the same by voice, I pause, say "um" a lot and generally come away not terribly convinced about what I have put together.

On the other hand, if I already have some notes, or even some basic bullet points for me to refer to, I can then do a reasonable job turning it into something useful by voice dictation.

There is certainly something to this Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, and I do not regret the purchase. The ease of use for my customer meeting notes alone has been worth the price of admission. I am learning however that I need to have a framework in place before I dictate. It is not a perfect solution for composing an opus from scratch.

This may be different for others, although when most people have to work through an awkward impromptu speech if they are put on the spot, there tends to be lots of "ahs" and "ums", so I am probably not alone.

Based on my experience so far, I still strongly recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 for someone who is looking for a quick way to get text into a computer, would like a break from the keyboard from time to time or needs an alternative text entry option due to physical difficulties etc. The accuracy is certainly more than acceptable for my requirements.

I just need to have a reasonable idea of what I am going to say, before I say it!

Later.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium Edition - initial thoughts

Hi there,

Just for a change I thought I would write about some new gadget or technology that I've been using lately. In my line of work it is necessary to regularly write notes about meetings I've had with customers and our business partners, plus general sales reports. I certainly have no real problem with generating typed notes, as I can type quite quickly, probably quicker than I can type. I do find however that sometimes it is easier to keep putting off sitting down and typing these reports, especially when I need to think through the words that I want to use first. It is one thing to quickly make bullet point notes in my notebook with my pen during a meeting, but it is then another to take these turn them into a cohesive and easy to read report.

In the past I've tried different ways to get around this problem. I tried using a small recorder to record the meetings I attended and then turn them into notes later. I found however that I would never get around to listening to the recordings and then typing them into a final report. A few years ago I also tried some voice recognition software but found at the time that my laptop was barely capable of running the progam and the accuracy was woeful. Then I tried using a LiveScribe digital pen. This worked in the sense that it gave me my notes in a digital form and I could even record the meetings and then later hear the audio that matched the text that I wrote down in the notepad. Also later, LiveScribe released software that enabled my hand written notes to be turned into typed notes. Again however unless I really wrote slowly and took care with what I was writing, the accuracy was pathetic. Anyone who has been in a meeting and needs to capture information that is being said very quickly knows that your writing tends to suffer as you quickly scribble it down.

Two weeks ago however, I decided to try voice recognition software again. My laptop now is much more powerful than when I used it last time, and also I had heard that the more recent versions were better with their accuracy when it came to interpreting non-United States accents. While I would not describe my accent as a broad Australian accent, I clearly say some words in an Australian way and I imagine this would be difficult for software that is not expecting it.

So I went out and bought Dragon Naturally Speaking version 11, Premium edition. Apart from the software CD and a quick install and user guide card, it also came with a basic wired headset. For the last two weeks I have been using the software to dictate my meeting notes, and also in some cases to reply to e-mails.

How well has it worked? Well so far, so good. Does it interpret my speech 100% accurately all of the time? No, of course not. It does however get what I'm saying correct remarkably most of the time. Yes, it gets caught on unusual company names, and it also does not get right the first time some of the product names that I deal with with my job. For general sentences however, it gets it right almost all the time. When I am not using industry related words or unusual business partner company names, it seems to get the sentences completely correct. I've also found that if I take the time to correct mistakes when I do use more unusual words or industry related jargon, it then gets it right most of the time when I next use those same terms.

Have I found the perfect way to record my meeting notes? I'm not sure yet, but this is certainly easier than sitting down and typing up my meetings after the event. I now find I can simply open my notebook, look through my bullet points and make up a sentence for each one and then read it out aloud. I then simply tidy up a few things and send out the meeting report. I am certainly now turning around my meeting reports much more quickly, and I also find using the headset and voice dictation a nice break sometimes when I'm travelling overseas. It's one thing to sit in front of a laptop for several hours and reply to e-mails, but clearly it is not as good ergonomically as sitting in your office with a proper screen and keyboard, so being able to sit back with the headset, think through my reply and then dictate it using my voices is a nice break from hunching over the laptop and its small keyboard and a mouse.

Let's see how it goes over the next one or two months and perhaps I will come back and comment further on this voice dictation software. Up to this point however I'm very happy with how well Dragon NaturallySpeaking is working. Just to prove the point this entire post has been voice dictated and across all of the text that you see here I think had to correct something like five words.

Not too bad really.

Later.

Den