Posted by Tom Moertel
Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:20:00 GMT
When writing, I prefer to let drafts of my work rest for a few days before editing. That way I can proofread my writing with fresh eyes. When I don’t have time for this resting period, I often miss obvious mistakes because my mind gets so caught up in what I’m trying to write that it subconsciously fills in gaps and skips over errors when I’m proofreading. I see what I expect to see, not what’s really on the page.
Recently, I have found an easy, effective solution for this problem. What I do is run the Festival speech synthesis system in text-to-speech mode from the command line (festival --tts) and paste my writing into it. The computer then dictates to me exactly what I wrote, eliminating the opportunity for subconscious embellishments. I hear my writing for what it is, and the errors stand out.
If you find yourself proofreading on a tight schedule, give speech synthesis a try. It’s good stuff.
Posted in work, writing
no comments
no trackbacks
Posted by Tom Moertel
Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:22:00 GMT
I have some good news and some bad news. First …
The bad news
Today I discovered that funding for one of my projects
has dried up – at least for now. My client for the project is an
academic institution and subject to the fickleness of grants. I knew
this going in, and so I’m not shocked at the prospect of having
to freeze the project. It has happened before.
The project is very cool and just now approaching the fun stage where
people begin to benefit from it. I hope that the funding to thaw the project
out and resume work will be quick in coming. The reality, however, is
that project will likely be frozen for several months.
The good news
With the project on hold, I now have a chunk of spare time to work on
my neglected open source projects!
Things to do:
- Write something about
Test::LectroTest for
perl.com and the forthcoming Perl Hacks book.
- Create a movie showing Test::LectroTest in action. (As the
movies for Ruby on Rails demonstrate,
video is a great way to communicate complex ideas.)
- Prepare a talk or two for the fabulous Pittsburgh Perl Mongers.
- Hack with other folks:
- Catch up on my reading:
- Chat more on #haskell.
- Drink more espresso.
Anything else I ought to have on the list?
Posted in work
no comments
no trackbacks
readers
