Google Voice Mail ain’t perfect, but it’s still awesome

Addy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:00:38 +0000

Google Voice provides voicemail, sent right to your e-mail inbox

Google provides me with yet another piece of adaptive technology for my learning disabilities

Google, in their never-ending quest for world domination to create technology to make our lives easier, has come out with Google Voice Mail. Google Voice is a free VOIP service that provides you with a voice mail number. You set your phone so that all calls are forwarded to this number, at which point the voice mail is transcribed, and then send along with the voice recording to your e-mail inbox. You can also set it up to receive the transcript as a text message.

At the moment, participation is “by invitation only”. This isn’t as snotty as it sounds; what it really means is that they’re still in beta, and there’s a waiting list to try out the product. My partner is an engineer and he loves this sort of thing just on principle, but after his years of living with me, he’s also aware that it has great potential as adaptive technology. So he set me up with it, and so far I love it. Below is an example of a voice mail transcript I received earlier today.

To put the message in context, I went bra shopping a few weeks ago. One of the bras I liked was out of stock in the color and size that I needed, so Nordstrom was kind enough to ship it to me free of charge. The bra arrived last week, but true to their reptuation for customer service, Nordstrom wanted to make sure.

Hi *****, this is ***** calling from the ocean the lingerie department at Salem Tom just calling to make sure that you received your items about everything is okay with that have any questions you like to give me a call. Our number here is (415) 753-1344 in the lingerie department at Stonestown thank you and have a nice day bye bye.

As you can see, the voice recognition isn’t perfect. I first read the beginning of the message as “calling from the ocean lingerie department”, which is pretty cool in that it conjures up images of goddesses and naiads and mermaids, but sadly unlikely. And “Salem Tom”? Is that a great hobo name or what?

By the end of the message it was clear that it was Nordstrom checking up on their shipment. It took a few seconds longer to parse this than if the VR had been perfect, but it wasn’t too bad. I redacted the names, but they were rendered accurately. As for the surrealst bits, I’m guessing that “ocean” is “Nordstrom” and “Salem Tom” is “Stonestown”, the mall where this particular Nordstrom is situated.

The single most important thing for me is that Google Voice records phone numbers correctly. This is less of an issue with cell phones, since they record the number of the incoming call, but there are instances where a message is left telling me to call back at a different number.

Most people don’t need to think about it much, but returning a phone call is a complicated process with several steps. As someone with dyscalcluia, each of these steps is an opportunity to get it wrong. First, I would have to hear the phone number correctly. Then, I would have to write it down correctly. Then I would have to look at the number, and see it correctly. Then I would have to dial the number correctly. I would double and triple check each of the first three steps, and I still got it wrong; I would then have to go back and recheck the number yet again. Sometimes I would make the mistake of erasing a message too soon, and the correct phone number would be gone forever.

Google Voice removes step 2, writing it down; it also enables me to see, hear, and dial the number simultaneously, which eliminates the need to hold the number in my working memory for any length of time. Working memory is a weakness for many dyscalculics, as well as for anyone with ADD, so eliminating the need to use it is a positive thing.

If you want to learn more about Google Voice, go to this site, and click the link that says “watch the overview”.

Focus or Hyperfocus?

Addy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:50:51 +0000

That is the question, isn’t it.*

Focus is a commonly misunderstood aspect of ADD. Anyone with ADD can tell you of the many many times they’ve been told, “but you can’t have ADD! I’ve seen you play video games for hours without getting bored!” Folks with ADD know that that their inability to pay attention when they need to is often complicated by an ability to hyperfocus … often when they should be working on something else, or it’s 3 in the morning, or whatever.

For many of us, this issue arises in new and exciting ways when we find a medication that works for us. Suddenly, the ability to self-initiate, to see a task needs to be done, or to start that languishing project is within our control. For the first time in our lives we can do what others do so easily — we can just do it.

And so, we dive in. We just do it.

And, we keep doing it and doing it and doing it, because the medication has in essence enabled our hyperfocus. We don’t know when to stop doing it. We don’t know when we’re done. We don’t know how good is good enough.

Like many people with ADD, my concentration is either nonexistent, or it’s turned all the way up to eleven. This is true whether or not I’m on medication. The main difference between being on meds versus not being on meds is how easy it is for me to start doing something. A secondary difference is that I’m able to keep doing something even if it’s boring. Sometimes this is a good thing — for instance, today I got hyperfocused on cleaning the kitchen, to the point where I actually took apart the gas burners and cleaned off a few years’ worth of cooked-on gloppiness. I removed a stain from one of the burners that I had once thought permanent. All I’d meant to do was run the dishwasher, wipe down the counters, and clean the stove top.

Being able to continue a boring task isn’t always a good thing though. There have been plenty of times when I’ve started a cleaning project and gotten sucked into it, only to realize that the afternoon was gone and with it, the time I’d promised myself to spend in the art studio.

I don’t know how much of this is medication and how much of it is attention-shifting skills that non-ADD people learn along the way. It seems like other people can say to themselves, OK, I’ve wasted enough time on YouTube for one day, now it’s time to get back to work. Or, the living room is clean enough for now, it’s time to pay the bills. Or, I’ve spent all day setting up my file cabinets, so now I’m going to spend the evening chilling out in front of the TV and come back to it tomorrow. Maybe it’s not my brain, per se, maybe I just never learned the skill of stopping.

I’m trying to acquire this skill by observing myself as I begin and finish tasks. Earlier today, I was actually able to check in with myself about whether I wanted to spend my time in epic battle with my stove top. I thought a bit about what I needed to get done today. I thought a bit about what I wanted to get done today. And then I decided, hey, it’s Saturday; I can spend it however I want! Let’s get this stove top clean! Yeah!

Hmmm… maybe I need a life.

*I only steal from the best!

AddaptAbilities » Simple Steps

Google Voice Mail ain’t perfect, but it’s still awesome

Google Voice provides voicemail, sent right to your e-mail inbox Google provides me with yet another piece of adaptive technology for my learning disabilities

Focus or Hyperfocus?

Google Voice provides voicemail, sent right to your e-mail inbox

Google provides me with yet another piece of adaptive technology for my learning disabilities