e-Tip #34 - November 2009 - Text-Only Version

<> Keith Vincent:  Merge Scopist Dictionary

Let’s say you’re a reporter who uses Eclipse and relies on a scopist to edit transcripts. When the scopist makes conflict choices, how do these get added to the reporter’s main dictionary to improve future transcripts? This is shown in two short movies in the dictionary section of Eclipse Visualizers, but it’s worth an e-Tip.

At the “Translate notes” dialogue, the reporter puts a check in the box next to “Make edit station info.”  Eclipse will make sure that the job dictionary contains a copy of each conflict that translates. The reporter sends this job dictionary so the scopist can see the conflict choices and, if necessary, select one that was not chosen automatically.  

The Eclipse scopist should have each reporter set up as a separate user. That creates a main dictionary for each, which can start off empty.  If the scopist makes a choice that implies a new conflict resolution rule, the info will be added to the scopist’s main dictionary.  Thus, \street\Street may have known 25 rules, but in the scopist’s main dictionary it now knows 26 rules.  

After editing, the scopist sends several files to the reporter -- the text file, the job dictionary, and also the scopist’s “main” dictionary.  The scopist’s main dictionary could then be deleted so that it again starts off empty. 

After getting the scopist’s “main” dictionary, the reporter can open it and examine it, perhaps deleting some entries.  The reporter can then use “Block write” to copy the remaining entries from the scopist’s main dictionary into the reporter’s main dictionary.  Eclipse will merge the rules that are contained in the two dictionaries.  The next time that \street\Street occurs, Eclipse would use rules learned from both the reporter and the scopist.

Want Visualizers? Press F1 and search for “Working with a Scopist.”  Then use the Visualizer icon on that page of the Help system.



<> Wil Wilcox:  Bounceback Backup Software


For years we've been recommending the ABSplus Automatic Backup System by CMS Peripherals (www.cmsproducts.com.) They were one of the first companies offering external hard drives with software for automatically backing up your computer, and they are still one of the best.  The beauty of this Automatic Backup System is that once you've installed the software and configured it to your liking, backing up your computer has never been so easy.

In the years since the Automatic Backup System was first released, many other companies have made available competing hard drives.  With so many to chose from on the market, it's easy to find a great deal and be tempted to pick up another brand.  For instance, I just purchased a 1-terabyte Iomega eGo USB desktop hard drive.  However, I prefer using the time-tested and very trustworthy Automatic Backup Software by CMS.  So I'm not installing the software that came with the Iomega drive but am purchasing the new version of BounceBack and installing that program by CMS instead.  I've used backup software from other companies including Iomega and prefer BounceBack to any of them. One of the main reasons for this is how easy to use it is.

For just $29 you can buy BounceBack Essential so that you will be able to continue to use the software that we know and love with the hard drive from another manufacturer that you chose.  This way you will get what is in my opinion the best of both worlds, a less expensive backup drive and the best software to use on it. BounceBack Essentials keeps a backup of the current version of any files on your computer -- in effect, mirroring the files on your main computer.  All you need is a backup hard drive with enough room to store all of your files and you're ready to get started.

BounceBack Essential 9.1 is easy to install.  Once it's installed, there will be an icon on your Windows Desktop called BounceBack Setup which will start the initial backup where you select a drive to back up to. When you first run BounceBack, the software partitions the drive, makes it bootable, and copies the files on your computer to it.  After this first backup is done, you can  leave  BounceBack  running  in  the  background whenever that hard drive is plugged into your computer and you'll have continuous data protection.  You can set it to save changes anywhere from one minute to one-hour intervals.  I like to have it do these backups every 15 minutes or so.  The default is every 60 minutes.  Also, after you go to a job and have new transcripts on your notebook computer, the next time you plug your backup drive into your laptop and run BounceBack, it will back up any files that have been added or modified since your last backup.

If for any reason something happens to your computer, BounceBack will allow you to boot your computer from the drive it's been backing up to.  So if you're working on some very important transcripts and your hard drive goes out on you, there won't be any problems or delays.  Simply boot up your system using the external drive and you're back in business with almost no loss in productive time.  You could also browse the backup drive and get files off one by one if you like to do it that way.  This is a program that you can really rely on.

I should mention here that there is a deluxe version of this software available called BounceBack Ultimate, which costs $69.  The major benefit of going with the BounceBack Ultimate is that it keeps more than one version of your files so that if a file becomes corrupted and is then copied to your backup drive and overwrites the good file, you can restore a previous uncorrupted version of that file resulting in the ultimate protection for your computer.  You can download a 30-day trial version of either version of BounceBack from the website listed above and see how it works in action yourself.  

Whichever version of the software or hard drive you chose, this is a backup program that actually makes the recovery process from a computer disaster simple and painless. The nastiest part of a computer meltdown is the time it takes re-installing software, dragging and dropping files, etc.  With BounceBack software and a USB external hard drive you'll be armed with the tools to go into the new year with confidence that your important files are safe and secure.