Hi Mike, I'm about half way through your lecture tapes, saving them as both .wav and .mp3 files. The former take up about 800-900 megs a lecture, the latter one-tenth of that. I detect no difference in listening to them, but am continuing to save them as .wav in case that is better for a possible run though Dragon.
I'm not too optimistic on this, as I think it will be hard to 'train' Dragon for your tape voice, especially because some of the audio quality is pretty poor. I experimented with a few audio 'enhancements', but they did not make much difference. I ended simply running a cord from the tape deck RCA out to the minijack in on my desktop, and using the "Audacity" software available by free download. I also tried out a little gizmo from London Drugs marketed for converting LPs and tapes into CDs, but I actually thought the playback of the Audacity versions were better so I stuck with it. I have misplaced or lost the crude list of the contents of each tape I had printed up. I included one with the tapes I left you in Caracas, is there any chance it is available? If so, can you send a copy or bring it when you come? There are tapes for 2 different years, labeled Week x Lecture 1 or 2. I tried to distinguish the two when I listened to them by adding an "A" or "B", but I think there are some mismatches. I have completed up to "A" series" Week 9 Lecture 2, but I have no week 10. If you have the above list, can you check whether there was "A" week 10? I don't think I have any other tapes, but I don't remember one week being missing. I also have a copy of lecture notes by Martin but they are not complete and I can't remember if they are "A" or "B" series. It is possible I have mislabeled some of the "A"s as "B"s. For what I labeled "B" series there are 2 tapes for Week 9, Lecture 1 only for week 10 (this lecture breaks off), 2 for week 11 and 12, and lecture 2 only for week 13. I am in Cuba until Feb 26 and then will spend a week or so in Ontario on the way back, so we will probably miss each other. Simin will be back in Vancouver on Feb 26, so will you still be here, so you can pick up the audio files? Or can I leave them with a manager in your building or mail them to you there (what is your apt no and postal code?), or mail them to SFU Economics? I am rapidly running out of space on my spare hard drive so I will either have to burn CDs or DVDs (in which case I would probably zip the files first), or I will get another external drive, which I can use for extra backup security, and you can copy off that. Bill
