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Pretty quiet day...
Sep. 29th, 2011 06:33 pmIt's absolutely marvelous to be together again!
And Galina was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I (finally) took out the original toilet fixture from the bathroom off the master bedroom, replacing it with a half- or full-flush fixture that we found at a reasonable price at Sam's Club some time ago.
And I was reacquainted with the honorable task of translating old, handwritten birth certificates, with all of their peccadillos of penmanship combined with odd place names and abbreviations.
And I cleared one of the table surfaces in the garage of books (even if something like 15% of them ended up in the room next to my office, for final review and disposition).
* * * The LiveScribe pen system consists of a smart pen (including a pen tip, microphone, speaker, and firmware) that is used in conjunction with specially printed notebooks to capture handwriting. My initial use for the pen was to keep track of my translation assignments, where it does an excellent job of letting me record what's important about the job on paper while at the same time maintaining an updated copy of each page of the job notebook digitally.
I finally put the LiveScribe pen through a more-or-less complete range of its paces yesterday as I took notes while listening to (and recording) a webcast. What's wild about the combination of recording and writing is the ability to listen to the recording and watch what was written "in real time" (or accelerated by 50%, which helps get over the boring parts). There are also a number of special "buttons" at the bottom of each page that allow the recording function to be started, paused, stopped, bookmarked, and a few other functions.
My first impression after the conclusion of the event is reasonably favorable, but there are a couple of fundamental weak spots to consider.
The first is making sure the audio you're recording is loud enough to be captured by the pen's microphone (and by this I mean "without having to undertake heroic measures to make the audio audible"), and the second is to realize that what you write (which is synced to what you're recording) and the "bookmarks" you embed in the audio track pretty much always occur after the interesting part, (e.g., if the speaker says something you want to make note of, any subsequent writing will occur... well... subsequently!).
One feature touted by the manufacturer is the ability to create so-called "pencasts," where you write and speak at the same time, thereby creating something a bit more... lively?... than a PowerPoint presentation. Something you can annotate in real time, with comments and arrows, etc.
An application in which this pen might really shine is while taking notes when interpreting, although some clients (and interlocutors) may not be too hot about the idea of what amounts to having the session recorded. Too, recording what's said won't really be of much use unless (a) you use the recording later to assess your own performance or to ask questions, or (b) you use the recording to summarize what was said at the meeting. (Normally, summarizing what was said is not a task that falls within the purview of an interpreter, but the ability to do so is valued by some clients and may make a difference in hiring decisions.)
I'll bet if I think about it, I can come up with several more ideas for this pen.
Cheers...
That said, the pen makes a good stab at addressing the basic problem with audio recordings, which is having to listen to them to capture the important bits. While one may not be able to place markers (scribbles or bookmarks) exactly, their placement ought to be close enough to make it easier to find the important stuff.
And Galina was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I (finally) took out the original toilet fixture from the bathroom off the master bedroom, replacing it with a half- or full-flush fixture that we found at a reasonable price at Sam's Club some time ago.
And I was reacquainted with the honorable task of translating old, handwritten birth certificates, with all of their peccadillos of penmanship combined with odd place names and abbreviations.
And I cleared one of the table surfaces in the garage of books (even if something like 15% of them ended up in the room next to my office, for final review and disposition).
I finally put the LiveScribe pen through a more-or-less complete range of its paces yesterday as I took notes while listening to (and recording) a webcast. What's wild about the combination of recording and writing is the ability to listen to the recording and watch what was written "in real time" (or accelerated by 50%, which helps get over the boring parts). There are also a number of special "buttons" at the bottom of each page that allow the recording function to be started, paused, stopped, bookmarked, and a few other functions.
My first impression after the conclusion of the event is reasonably favorable, but there are a couple of fundamental weak spots to consider.
The first is making sure the audio you're recording is loud enough to be captured by the pen's microphone (and by this I mean "without having to undertake heroic measures to make the audio audible"), and the second is to realize that what you write (which is synced to what you're recording) and the "bookmarks" you embed in the audio track pretty much always occur after the interesting part, (e.g., if the speaker says something you want to make note of, any subsequent writing will occur... well... subsequently!).
One feature touted by the manufacturer is the ability to create so-called "pencasts," where you write and speak at the same time, thereby creating something a bit more... lively?... than a PowerPoint presentation. Something you can annotate in real time, with comments and arrows, etc.
An application in which this pen might really shine is while taking notes when interpreting, although some clients (and interlocutors) may not be too hot about the idea of what amounts to having the session recorded. Too, recording what's said won't really be of much use unless (a) you use the recording later to assess your own performance or to ask questions, or (b) you use the recording to summarize what was said at the meeting. (Normally, summarizing what was said is not a task that falls within the purview of an interpreter, but the ability to do so is valued by some clients and may make a difference in hiring decisions.)
I'll bet if I think about it, I can come up with several more ideas for this pen.
Cheers...
That said, the pen makes a good stab at addressing the basic problem with audio recordings, which is having to listen to them to capture the important bits. While one may not be able to place markers (scribbles or bookmarks) exactly, their placement ought to be close enough to make it easier to find the important stuff.
