Kathy Keefe

Bébé is a phantom poodle.  If you’re like me, I had never heard of a phantom poodle before that day she won my heart!  A phantom poodle is different only in its markings.  Typically black with silver and beige markings.  The beige/brown markings are the same as a Doberman’s markings… Pretty wild when you think about it and also different than any poodle I have had before.   When she joined our family, she was 5 months old and weighed 3 pounds.

It had been a long time since we had a baby in the house and the first time in 30+ years that we actually had a baby to train without the help of an older dog.  I guess I never realized how much help having an older dog can be in the training process, but I learned fast.   This little barrel of energy quickly changed my exercise routine to include stair climbing, a lot of stair climbing.  As she was only partially paper trained at 5 months, I wasn’t taking any chances and immediately wanted to get her house broken.  We have a great yard with secure fencing and lots of room to run and play.   Going up and down the stairs was the first challenge to overcome, as we live in a beach house and the house is one floor up.   Going up came much easier than going down, but with some coaxing and lots of patience, she “got it”.   We have a dog door she has the freedom to come in and out, or so we thought.  In reality she goes in and out of the dog door by herself to go to the deck or downstairs if someone else is going that way.   She is 11 months old now and in five months, we still haven’t figured out a way to convince her that it’s okay to go outside by herself, but on the other hand, the exercise of running up and down the stairs all day is great for me.  We spend a lot of time each day outside running and playing and one day she may decide that it’s okay to run and play outside by herself.  Until that day, I’ll enjoy every second I get to spend outside enjoying the yard with the birds, squirrels, and ducks, and of course Bébé, who is always capable of bringing at the least a smile, but most times many laughs a day while she continually is finding something new to do that never fails to amuse.

The time has been getting closer and closer for some time now.  Time that is to replace my computer.  It had acting up, slowing down, and in general sounding like a propeller on an airplane readying for takeoff.  Because I was upgrading operating systems, I did all the compatibility scans and had updated software in preparation for this.

Reinstalling the programs definitely took the greatest amount of time and even though I had transferred my settings, not all transferred correctly to the new computer, so they mostly needed to be reset.  Time consuming yes, but difficult to do not at all.

That is until I tried to actually work and transcribe a dictation file.  The recording loaded properly in the software, the foot pedal to control the recording was hooked up, but it turns out the foot pedal wasn’t working.  As I had done a compatibility scan, there was only one peripheral that I knew was not compatible.  As it turns out, the dictation software was completely compatible with the Win7, but the foot pedal for the software was no longer supported for Win7.  There are no compatible drivers available.  You can however by an updated foot pedal that is compatible with Win7.  Granted an additional expense, but hey if that’s the answer great, but wait, as I’m reading the specs on the foot pedal it states clearly that the foot pedal is shipped without any drivers and that in order to get the proper drivers you will be to update your software where the proper drivers are available.  I have completely compatible working software, but the only possible way to be able to effectively perform my job I am left with the option of buying an upgraded foot pedal that also requires upgraded software in order to make it work at a cost of $450 or trashing this software, which I have been using without complaint for the past 5 or so years and changing the entire system.

This is only one-half of the software actually, as I also have to consider the dictation software that is installed on my client’s computer.  One he uses every day to transmit his dictations and which I am quite certain will not be an option if and when he updates the computer system.

In the meantime, I trashed the software after much research; time spent on forums, and review sites and installed a very inexpensive system that thus far works perfectly with a standard USB Wave foot pedal.  I found a work around for the actual dictation files as they have to be converted from .dss to .wav in order to transcribe, but that fix was a mere $29, a wee bit less than the $450 it would have cost me to upgrade the original software.  In the next couple of months, I will also be changing out my client’s system, but as the set up is working, for now, it will stay as is.

This was a clear cut case where buying the best is not always the best way to proceed.  As always, I do my research ahead of time and this system was clearly the top recommended.  Of course there was no way to foresee the future and changes in technology that inevitably happen and thankfully not all software and/or hardware works the same, as I still am running some really old software without any issue.

The saddest part of the new operating system was having to retire my poor old laser printer that at a ripe old age of 12 years, still worked like a charm, and never let me down, and will have the opportunity to carry on for a new owner through Freecycle.