[MV] Voice Recognition Issues

[Regina Sadono]

Dear All,

I have CTS in both hands and need to incorporate voice recognition into my
computer use.  Several years ago I bought iListen just to experiment with
voice recognition and I tried for days to train it, even starting over
several times, and never reached anything even remotely approaching an
acceptable accuracy rate.  Last summer, after the CTS diagnosis, I tried
again, still with poor results.  I was thinking about getting the newer
version, but most of the reviews on Amazon described exactly the same kind
of frustrating situation I had experienced with the older version.

At the same time was given DNS on my PC at work and almost fell over when I
found how easy it was to train and use with a very high accuracy rate almost
immediately.  I am a fundraiser and have to do a lot of different kinds of
writing using fairly technical language. Since I have a MacBook with Intel I
started looking into setting my home computer up so I could use DNS.  (I'm a
Mac person through and through!)

However, when I researched this I heard that there are bugs, and I am just
not computer savvy.  Plus I heard that running Windows on my Mac would make
me vulnerable to all the virulent computer viruses out there.  Since there
are so many experienced people on this list, I would like to find out if
either of these things are really true.

Also, what would I do exactly? Install Parallels, then Windows XP, then DNS?
I also heard that Windows XP runs better with Boot Camp for some reason -- I
think having to do with how much resources it uses up for your computer to
run both systems at the same time.  What is the difference between Parallels
and Bootcamp?  Are there any voice recognition products in the works for the
Mac that are commensurate with DNS?

One more thing, while I'm at it.... I have been a writer for all of my life
and find that it's a very specific process that starts with creating
words/sounds in the quiet of my mind and then these get recorded through the
activity of my hands either by writing or typing.  Writing is a very
specific neurological process and I have not been able to access this
process orally.  Speaking is a completely different neurological process and
puts me in a completely different place where I can't "compose." In fact
speaking seems to interrupt my writing process just like throwing stones
into a pond disturbs the water.  I'm sure others have gone through this to
rewire their writing mechanism for voice recognition and I would be very
interested if someone could write out the steps they went through or point
me to a place where someone has outlined these steps.

Thanks everyone for all of your help!

Warm regards,

Regina