a. Apparently you were not familiar with voice recognition software.
Was it ethical for you to (presumably) charge this person for doing work for
which you may not have been qualified?
Were you qualified to recommend an appropriate computer system and the
appropriate software for this RSI client? Is it around double the stated
minimums in CPU and memory?
b. Do you know what party produces MFC42.DLL? You seem to be pointing at
Dragon, yet this is a Microsoft module. Are you implying that Microsoft
Windows95 is Beta software? (Many would agree if that is what you are
implying!!!)
c. For hands-free usage, I believe that Dragon Systems continues to recommend
DragonDictate, not NaturallySpeaking. I try to discuss these differences with
clients, and still try to fit the product to the needs of the individual. I
acknowledge that it is difficult for one to make the appropriate decision if
one does not regularly deal in this market. But this is not much different
than recommending NT Workstation vs. Win95, Novell vs. NT networking, Office97
vs. Corel 8 Suite, etc. Usually it requires some real experience and
training to make appropriate recommendations!
I've had startup problems with each of the above 6 major software packages yet
do not really think of them as Beta releases.
(I too get frustrated by the various faults that occur with Dragon and IBM
speech
recognition software yet realize that some are problems in software over which
they have little control.)
Have you found someone to train your client? Why did you presume that this
was "self-taught" software?
I can buy SQL Server off-the-shelf and it looks like it will do a lot for me
when I read its box. It doesn't mention that I might need some training and
a few hours of work to make it effective for me -- is that unethical?
Regarding the second, technical question:
What sound card/drivers are you trying to utilize? What version of Win95 is
being run? What version of kernel32.dll? What is the machine configuration?
What other programs, particularly TSR's, are installed? Have you contacted
Dragon Tech Support?
> Subj: prime time?
> Date: 98-03-08 13:47:05 EST
> From: BobLejeune@@aol.com (BobLejeune)
> Sender: voice-users@@voicerecognition.com
> To: voice-users@@voicerecognition.com
>
> This posting has two questions:
>
> One concerns ethics, the other is technical:
>
> 1) I'm new to this list, having "lurked" for about a week. I joined when
> one
> of my clients who has RSI asked me to set up her new computer which was
> purchased in order to use voice recognition software. When I saw all the
> troubles she was having just getting started with Dragon Naturally Speaking
> (Preferred) I began to have some questions concerning the ethics and legal
> liabilities of companies that so freely advertize this (beta!) software to
> people who are in desperate need--without appropriate warning concerning
the
> difficulties of making this stuff run even with top of the line hardware.
(I
> see that Scott Wright has voiced a similar question in a recent posting.)
>
> 2) My very frazzled client (and friend) has asked me to post the following
> concerning her latest problem with Naturally Speaking which I copy directly
> or
> summarize from her fax:
> It [Naturally Speaking] worked fine for about 15 minutes. Then I got the
> following error message: An unexpected C0000005 (EXCEPTION ACCESS
VIOLATION)
>
> has occurred. Information has been written to Dagon Log. The program will
> exit when the OK button is pressed....
>
> [two additional error messages were caused when searching for the elusive
> Dragon Log] An illegal operation shutdown message and : Naturally Speaking
> caused an invalid page fault in module MFC42.DLL at 0237:5F402181.
>
> There seems to be three different versions of MFC42.DLL (of different size
> and date) in three different directories. Could this be causing the
problem?
> If so, which one should be removed?
> ------------
> My client would be most grateful to anyone who can answer the second
> question.
> I think the first question ought to be discussed more extensively on this
> list.
>
> --Bob
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