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Monday, December 22, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
I can't drive 55....and blog
Sorry for the last post. I know, it was a little disorganized. But it was really an experiment to see how useful mobile blogging really is.
Last month I set up a Jott account to allow me to audibly blog while on the road. This worked very well, allowing me to set a speed dial button on my mobile and to have Jott take may ramblings, convert them to text and pass that to Blogger for posting.
A couple of caveats: first, Jott isn't 100% on the transcription, so you run the risk of having your thoughts translated into some wacky text. Second, the post gets posted automatically, before you have the opportunity to clean it up. Dangerous. Although that may just be a setting that I can change.
So, yesterday, I wanted to put it through the "acid' test. I wanted to try the same thing, but from my car, with the top down and using a wireless bluetooth headset for the phone. I figured that all of these audio variables should lead to some ammusing posts.
However, I have to give Jott a big kudos. Not only did it hear me pretty well, but it did a reallly great job of the transcritption. It wasn't perfect, but hey, I was traveling 50 miles an hour down a highway with the top down on a 1999 Pontiac Sunfire convertible. Not exactly the quietest car in the world. Jott was probably 97% accurate. That's pretty darn good, IMHO.
I really like the overall ability. Being able to post from anywhere at anytime, in near real-time, is awesome. And if that phone has a camera and e-mail access, you become a one-man reporting machine.
Not bad for combining the tools of two services that cost me absolutely nothing.
Last month I set up a Jott account to allow me to audibly blog while on the road. This worked very well, allowing me to set a speed dial button on my mobile and to have Jott take may ramblings, convert them to text and pass that to Blogger for posting.
A couple of caveats: first, Jott isn't 100% on the transcription, so you run the risk of having your thoughts translated into some wacky text. Second, the post gets posted automatically, before you have the opportunity to clean it up. Dangerous. Although that may just be a setting that I can change.
So, yesterday, I wanted to put it through the "acid' test. I wanted to try the same thing, but from my car, with the top down and using a wireless bluetooth headset for the phone. I figured that all of these audio variables should lead to some ammusing posts.
However, I have to give Jott a big kudos. Not only did it hear me pretty well, but it did a reallly great job of the transcritption. It wasn't perfect, but hey, I was traveling 50 miles an hour down a highway with the top down on a 1999 Pontiac Sunfire convertible. Not exactly the quietest car in the world. Jott was probably 97% accurate. That's pretty darn good, IMHO.
I really like the overall ability. Being able to post from anywhere at anytime, in near real-time, is awesome. And if that phone has a camera and e-mail access, you become a one-man reporting machine.
Not bad for combining the tools of two services that cost me absolutely nothing.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
This is Robert, I am...
This is Robert, I am currently traveling in my car. I am trying out some new tools today, I've got a Blackberry 8703e with a Jabra bluetooth headset. I am attempting to use Blogger from the car, audibly blogging via the Jott service. And you know, it's a convertible with the top down for that matter, so we will see how it turns out. Thanks.
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Friday, July 25, 2008
Try a video
Playing with more tools today. I am trying out a couple o screen capture and post tools.
The first one - Jing - I highly recommend. It is very easy to use to capture both desktop video as well as straight-up image shots. I use it regularly to grab images to throw into e-mails or notes. the only downside to thsi free application is the time/size limit of the video capture - set at 5 minutes. This is fine for most things, but is a little short for product demo movies.
The second tool, by the same company(Techsmith), is called Camtasia Video. You can check it out at at the Techsmith website. I downloaded the 30 day demo and I am giving it a spin. It has no time/size limitations and a whole lot more advanced editing capabilities.
Hopefully I will shortly post a quick demo of our CONTEX Summit/Unyte integration.
Here is a link to a test: Click Here
OK here is the sample:
The first one - Jing - I highly recommend. It is very easy to use to capture both desktop video as well as straight-up image shots. I use it regularly to grab images to throw into e-mails or notes. the only downside to thsi free application is the time/size limit of the video capture - set at 5 minutes. This is fine for most things, but is a little short for product demo movies.
The second tool, by the same company(Techsmith), is called Camtasia Video. You can check it out at at the Techsmith website. I downloaded the 30 day demo and I am giving it a spin. It has no time/size limitations and a whole lot more advanced editing capabilities.
Hopefully I will shortly post a quick demo of our CONTEX Summit/Unyte integration.
Here is a link to a test: Click Here
OK here is the sample:
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
New tool test for Polls
I am testing a new tool for polls. Stick with me here.
Try it out and/or leave a comment.
Try it out and/or leave a comment.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
So, it's been a week or so since I've had a chance to write, but it's been a busy few days. Upon returning from the sunny confines of Lost Wages (106 degrees F) I've been catching up on new stuff back at IX headquarters.
I don't know about you folks, but it seems like with the more tools that get rolled out - IM, web conferencing, new Office versions, RSS feeds, web site tools, adobe tools, IP phones, Blackberrys, Facebook, Talkcasts, MP3 players, cell phones, bluetooth earphones, webcams, IR ports, digital cameras, etc... - there are a couple of things that I now have bigs needs for:
1. Something to haul all the cables around in. Whatever happened to the notion of having one USB cable that connects with everything? Yeah, right. Between laptop power bricks, mobile sync cables, picture transfer cables and verything else, I almost need a sepeate carry bag just for the cables.
2. USB 2.0 ports. Just can't get enough it seems. My new laptop (Gateway 17 inch widescreen tablet) has three 2.0 ports on the side and another 2 in the docking station when I'm plugged in. And they're all full. Everything wants those USB ports it seems.
I just got delivered a 4-port USB hub (Belkin). I guess I'll try that tomorrow for all of my permanently connected devices such as mice, external backup hard drives, keyboards, webcams, etc...
The InfoComm show was good. We met a lot of interesting people that will hopefully lead to some additional business. That's the whole idea, right?
Speaking of trade shows/exhibitions, has anyone out there heard from the VON folks at all. We were regular exhibitors at VON Fall and VON Spring, but that company seems to have disappeared. I'd heard rumors before VON Spring that the company was in serious financial difficulties, but I guess I didn't know how bad. Nothing has change on their website since Spring VON, and at this point I have to assume that Fall VON is off the table.
I just heard a rumor the other day that VON neglected to let exhibitors know that VON Amsterdam was cancelled and that exhibitors showed up - in country - only to find out that there was no event. Boy, talk about ticked-off.
In any case, if you know of any concrete news, please let me know.
Compunetix business is brisk. Many of our new developments are taking root. CONTEX Report is finally released. This tool enables CONTEX owners to easily collect all events from the system in a SQL off-board database and thenuse crystal reports to schedule and generate standard and customized reports from the data. Pretty good stuff.
In our extensive work with CSPs, we found that no two provider customers have the same requirements with regard to what they want to report on. CONTEX Report allows them to dig as deep as they want into the raw data and create very sohiticated reports in a variety of formats. The reports can be scheduled to run regularly or just once, and can be automatically delivered to a seperate system for further processing or via e-mail to a collection of recipients.
It's the reliable, scalable reporting solution that we've been looking to develop.
OK, gotta run. I am going to try and blog later from my borrowed Blackberry. I am NOT a berry addict. In fact, I'd not used one before this week. I am using a friend's 8703e until my new Samsung SCH-i760 Windows Mobile smartphone arrives.
I can't say that I hate the Blackberry, but it's not what I would have chosen for a converged device. I DO really like the whole e-mail at your fingertips. I was always a little afraid of having an e-mail mobile client. I figured it would be too addicting. To some extent I was right, but the benefits clearly outweigh any downside. My wife might disagree.
But this specific device has no audio and no photo capability, so it's not the one for me. I also don't really care for the keyboard, although I understand that's a bit heretical. These boards are supposed to be the bees knees. Frankly I'd take my original LG EnV keyboard over this one. Everyone has caustioned me to just wait, that it'll take time to get used to. Well, maybe, but I've been using a keyboard phone for years. I just don't like feel or layout of this one.
But i'll try it out for a couple of weeks and then report back.
Take it easy!
I don't know about you folks, but it seems like with the more tools that get rolled out - IM, web conferencing, new Office versions, RSS feeds, web site tools, adobe tools, IP phones, Blackberrys, Facebook, Talkcasts, MP3 players, cell phones, bluetooth earphones, webcams, IR ports, digital cameras, etc... - there are a couple of things that I now have bigs needs for:
1. Something to haul all the cables around in. Whatever happened to the notion of having one USB cable that connects with everything? Yeah, right. Between laptop power bricks, mobile sync cables, picture transfer cables and verything else, I almost need a sepeate carry bag just for the cables.
2. USB 2.0 ports. Just can't get enough it seems. My new laptop (Gateway 17 inch widescreen tablet) has three 2.0 ports on the side and another 2 in the docking station when I'm plugged in. And they're all full. Everything wants those USB ports it seems.
I just got delivered a 4-port USB hub (Belkin). I guess I'll try that tomorrow for all of my permanently connected devices such as mice, external backup hard drives, keyboards, webcams, etc...
The InfoComm show was good. We met a lot of interesting people that will hopefully lead to some additional business. That's the whole idea, right?
Speaking of trade shows/exhibitions, has anyone out there heard from the VON folks at all. We were regular exhibitors at VON Fall and VON Spring, but that company seems to have disappeared. I'd heard rumors before VON Spring that the company was in serious financial difficulties, but I guess I didn't know how bad. Nothing has change on their website since Spring VON, and at this point I have to assume that Fall VON is off the table.
I just heard a rumor the other day that VON neglected to let exhibitors know that VON Amsterdam was cancelled and that exhibitors showed up - in country - only to find out that there was no event. Boy, talk about ticked-off.
In any case, if you know of any concrete news, please let me know.
Compunetix business is brisk. Many of our new developments are taking root. CONTEX Report is finally released. This tool enables CONTEX owners to easily collect all events from the system in a SQL off-board database and thenuse crystal reports to schedule and generate standard and customized reports from the data. Pretty good stuff.
In our extensive work with CSPs, we found that no two provider customers have the same requirements with regard to what they want to report on. CONTEX Report allows them to dig as deep as they want into the raw data and create very sohiticated reports in a variety of formats. The reports can be scheduled to run regularly or just once, and can be automatically delivered to a seperate system for further processing or via e-mail to a collection of recipients.
It's the reliable, scalable reporting solution that we've been looking to develop.
OK, gotta run. I am going to try and blog later from my borrowed Blackberry. I am NOT a berry addict. In fact, I'd not used one before this week. I am using a friend's 8703e until my new Samsung SCH-i760 Windows Mobile smartphone arrives.
I can't say that I hate the Blackberry, but it's not what I would have chosen for a converged device. I DO really like the whole e-mail at your fingertips. I was always a little afraid of having an e-mail mobile client. I figured it would be too addicting. To some extent I was right, but the benefits clearly outweigh any downside. My wife might disagree.
But this specific device has no audio and no photo capability, so it's not the one for me. I also don't really care for the keyboard, although I understand that's a bit heretical. These boards are supposed to be the bees knees. Frankly I'd take my original LG EnV keyboard over this one. Everyone has caustioned me to just wait, that it'll take time to get used to. Well, maybe, but I've been using a keyboard phone for years. I just don't like feel or layout of this one.
But i'll try it out for a couple of weeks and then report back.
Take it easy!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Well,
It's been such a busy show that I haven't had a great deal of time to write. But what a show! Huge doesn't begin to describe it. I was out here in Vegas for CTIA in March and this show seems even larger.
That being said, it's mostly and A/V show and conferencing and collaboration are clearly a distant cousin.
Of course Carol Zelkin and the IMCCA are doing all they can to change that. IMCCA is sponsoring the Collaboration Pavilion on the show floor - giving thouse of us in this segment a chance to highlight our solutions and they're doing a magnificent job. This pavilion allows the collaboration market to be group together and give attendees and easy why to locate and identify vendors that they want to visit.
IMCCA is also providing a great deal of content for some of the educational tracks for the Infocomm seminar sessions, as well as holding their annual forum for collaboration end users on Wednesday. This year was especially exciting with the increasing awareness, and interest in, telepresence and HD videoconferencing.
Compunetix VP Jerry Pompa participated in the organization's annual Lunch and Learn session on the status and future of collaborative technologies - hosted by the ever insightful Ann Earons. And a lively discussion is was. Jerry may have been outnumbered by the video vendor respresentatives (including Polycom, Tandberg, Radvision, and others) but he provided a nice balance by reminding the audience that very few succesful meetings occur without good, quality audio.
And yours truly gave my two cents in a well attended session on Web vs. Video conferencing. Great session, terrible title. Hosted by JPMC's David Danto, this session explored the critera that should be considered when deciding on the correct collaboration "tool" for your meeting. I'd like to say that I starred, but real props go to Martha Degraw of Intercall. Man, this is someone who really knows her stuff.
I'd like to post some more pictures of actuall show floor sights, But frankly, I haven't had a lot of time to go shoot pix. Between the speaking gig, meetings with customers and prospects, trying to stay up-tp-date with the office back home, and just genrally working the booth; it's been going a mile a minute. Hopefully I'll get out there a little later today.
That assumes that the old Kodak holds out. Apparently I have an issue with my camera or with the mem card. Started about two weeks ago and continues. I guess I'll try a new card first, although it may be time for a holiday upgrade on the hardware.
Lastly, for now, I'd like to give a shout out to the folks from Sonic Foundry. We managed to hook up last evening and thouroughly enjoyed every minutes. if you don't know them, get to know the product - MediaSite. You won't be sorry.
Ok, here's one picture from Aethra's exhibit that came through OK. Once again, some of the best looking video hardware on the planet.
It's been such a busy show that I haven't had a great deal of time to write. But what a show! Huge doesn't begin to describe it. I was out here in Vegas for CTIA in March and this show seems even larger.
That being said, it's mostly and A/V show and conferencing and collaboration are clearly a distant cousin.
Of course Carol Zelkin and the IMCCA are doing all they can to change that. IMCCA is sponsoring the Collaboration Pavilion on the show floor - giving thouse of us in this segment a chance to highlight our solutions and they're doing a magnificent job. This pavilion allows the collaboration market to be group together and give attendees and easy why to locate and identify vendors that they want to visit.
IMCCA is also providing a great deal of content for some of the educational tracks for the Infocomm seminar sessions, as well as holding their annual forum for collaboration end users on Wednesday. This year was especially exciting with the increasing awareness, and interest in, telepresence and HD videoconferencing.
Compunetix VP Jerry Pompa participated in the organization's annual Lunch and Learn session on the status and future of collaborative technologies - hosted by the ever insightful Ann Earons. And a lively discussion is was. Jerry may have been outnumbered by the video vendor respresentatives (including Polycom, Tandberg, Radvision, and others) but he provided a nice balance by reminding the audience that very few succesful meetings occur without good, quality audio.
And yours truly gave my two cents in a well attended session on Web vs. Video conferencing. Great session, terrible title. Hosted by JPMC's David Danto, this session explored the critera that should be considered when deciding on the correct collaboration "tool" for your meeting. I'd like to say that I starred, but real props go to Martha Degraw of Intercall. Man, this is someone who really knows her stuff.
I'd like to post some more pictures of actuall show floor sights, But frankly, I haven't had a lot of time to go shoot pix. Between the speaking gig, meetings with customers and prospects, trying to stay up-tp-date with the office back home, and just genrally working the booth; it's been going a mile a minute. Hopefully I'll get out there a little later today.
That assumes that the old Kodak holds out. Apparently I have an issue with my camera or with the mem card. Started about two weeks ago and continues. I guess I'll try a new card first, although it may be time for a holiday upgrade on the hardware.
Lastly, for now, I'd like to give a shout out to the folks from Sonic Foundry. We managed to hook up last evening and thouroughly enjoyed every minutes. if you don't know them, get to know the product - MediaSite. You won't be sorry.
Ok, here's one picture from Aethra's exhibit that came through OK. Once again, some of the best looking video hardware on the planet.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Setup complete. All VoIP devices
Setup complete. All VoIP devices are communicating properly. Show looks like it will be great. Stay tuned...
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Test Mobile Post
Here is a nice shot of my son Luke and his buddy Tony at a Pittsburgh Pirates game.
Obviously not collaboration-related, but I am trying out some new blogging techniques, and this picture was on my phone. Great stadium , BTW.
This is in prep for next week's InfoComm event - did I mention that Compunetix is in the Conferencing pavilion, booth 3380? I want to be able to snap photo's and send them directly to the space. Looks like it should be possible now.
I tried to use Blogger's Mobile Blogging tool, but for whatever reason, I could never recieve the token e-mail back from the service (required to activate) on my VX9800. In fact, everytime I tried, it caused the handset to reset and power cycle. Nice. Apparently a Verizon issue. Go figure.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
InfoComm 2008!
Just a quick post to talk about next week's InfoComm exhibit.
Compunetix will be at the InfoComm Show exhibit from Wednesday through Friday, and if you're looking for us, you can find us at Booth 3380 in the Conferencing Pavilion.
You can also catch us at some of the IMCCA Events that are happening throughout the week. Jerry Pompa (CSD Division Manager and IX VP) will be speaking at their Lunch and Learn on Wednesday (18th) and I amd sitting on a panel debating Web vs. Video Conferencing later that afternoon.
I'll post more and some pictures next week.
BTW, this was post via the very nifty Jott (http://www.jott.com/) service which I use regularly when voicemail just doesn't get it done.
Okay, well not much...
Okay, well not much as happened this week so I am just gonna leave a quick update and tell everybody do enjoy a Happy Father's Day.
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