A Warm Up To My Top Ten A.T. Stories of 2013

My list is done. my so called opinions are actually edited this year, but as we all well know, that doesn’t mean that they will make any sense what so ever. However, before we start reading these stories of 2013, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on matters that influenced my choices.
I write a few things on SAMNet, System Access Mobile Network, to our Community Users about what tech is and does in order for them to get an idea of what our Technical and Customer Support look at when considering a technical request or suggested bug report. The below is one such post that I made recently that sums up just how crazy tech is now then say five years ago.
“An Internet Explorer By Any Other name…
Several people have been giving us some great feeback on issues with internet Explorer and we really do thank all of you for letting us know what you are experiencing with the browser. As a bit of an idea what we look at within Support, here is just a list of possible versions that we have to consider when looking at bugs and testing. I’m posting this in hopes that everyone can be a bit more specific about posting bugs, moreover, its also to let you know that saying IE causes more confusion for some now in the good old modern age of Windows.
Internet Explorer on Windows 7 can be loaded as a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version. And you can load the 32 bit version on a computer running Windows 7 in 64 bit flavors of the operating system. The major changes here are the way that IE handles security and processes in the browser. Due to the larger popularity, and price, of Windows 32 bit based systems… this version is still the most common version encountered and it runs by default on Windows 7 64 bit versions. Mostly, but not exclusively, the 64 bit versions of Internet Explorer are used within large Enterprise based companies and are not recommended for daily use outside these environments. You will find that more breaks with 64 bit IE than works because of the 32 bit default dilemma, and that sites are generally not optimized for the 64 bit versions. You can, and probably will, see strange screen reader behaviors if you choose to use this browser more often.
Next, the version of IE 11 on Windows 8, and now 8.1, is enhanced with Windows Defender and other background processes. Complicating matters is the addition of the Windows modern, or Start Screen, version of internet Explorer. Technically, Windows 8 machines have two browsers. There is the version of IE that you can run from the standard Desktop, then there is the version you can get to if you run it from the options listed on the Windows Start Screen [i.e. by hitting the Windows key and choosing Internet from that section]. Here again we have 32 bit and 64 bit versions of IE. And they both pose interesting, but similar problems, to their Windows 7 cousins. Generally, as in most cases for many of our users, running the Desktop version of Internet Explorer 11 in 32 bit is the way to go and it should provide the path of least resistance for most internet surfing.
Then there is the SAMNet Browser, while based on Internet Explorer, the SA Browser is not exactly the same experience as running native IE. I’m not going to go too far into this, however, it does help us a great deal to hear if you are reporting something within the actual internet Explorer on your Windows machine or if you are finding something that is happening exclusively within SAMNet. They both require their own testing routines and knowing which one is acting strange lets us find an issue, or try to reproduce, it more easily.
Next, remember that not all browsers are created equally. You can’t assume that the internet is just text on a screen anymore. A website will act one way on Firefox, one way on Chrome and something altogether different on Internet Explorer. Web developers do not implement code the same way on various websites and they might even tailor-make a look and feel if they see you come to them with say firefox as the browser. The way this code is written can throw screen readers off if it is too customized. And its why you see some Assistive Technology flourish on some parts of the web more than others. You can aim at using web standards, yet if Web Developers don’t use those standards, it can be an unfun day for all. Therefore, it should never come as a surprise that Screen Reader X acts better or worse than Screen Reader y on a site. The focus for each technology could be aimed at a specific style of audience and those users, for what is perceived as the best way to interact with a website, will see good and bad results if the Web Developer has followed the various Web Standards to the letter. In other words, it’s a crapshoot. If there is a new trend in doing say a menu box, and there is no standard for this new look at everyone wants to use, then its entirely possible that this unfamiliar code will react in altogether unique kinds of ways along all screen reader lines. There isn’t always a way to avoid this or futureproof for it as these things change so often and so fast that what may be a trend today, flyover menus, becomes old hat and forgotten in the next revision of the website in question. For example, oh I don’t know, say Facebook.
There used to be a time where you could say a website, is a website, is a website. But with the way that websites utilize 3^rd party ads that can take up the whole screen until you do a mouse click on them, the way that placing focus on an element can make you almost deaf because the audio is blaring something at you because you placed your focus there for a moment or just the fact that mark at facebook thinks that if the site looks the same for more than six weeks its not hip anymore… well you get the picture. It’s a more interesting world we live in now with Access Technologies and just when you think you have a handle on it, like use the mobile version of Facebook instead, they go and stick ads there making the experience just as confusing as the main site.
Oh, and before I forget to mention, it is very, VERY! Important to let us know if you are using things like Classic Shell on Windows 8, Windows via Boot Camp for Mac or any other way of using Windows on mac hardware. While it might kind of feel or look like your standard copy of Windows, it isn’t. there are specific things that have to be tested for when using those machine configurations and they can be some of the more strange behaviors you will ever see when using Windows with any technology. At the end of the day, no matter what, Windows was designed to run on Windows hardware first and running it in other ways, even something like Classic Shell, is considered a modification and it can cause issues that would not show up if running Windows by the default look and feel on native hardware. Its not only its own animal, it can be its own Zoo entirely!”
As clear as mud no? Well I’ll be mentioning more things like that on my list and on the upcoming “This Year In A.T.” program that will air this Wednesday on SeroSpectives. you can hear that via iBlink Radio or later from the SeroTalk website…
http://serotalk.com/
And if you want to read more posts like this, and hang out with some of the best darn Community members on the internet, run and get the 14 day trial of SAMNet from the Serotek website.
http://www.serotek.com/
Be sure to say “hi” to me on the boards or voice chat rooms!

Yes Virginia, There Is Indeed A Windows 8 On The Horizon

Should this really shock anyone? Really anyone?.. Buler .. Buler? Death, taxes and Windows. 3 constants of the universe. The question will move quickly from when and more to how. As in how will access be changed in Windows 8? The answer may come as early as 2011. but let me back up a second if you are just joining this program already in progress.

The story broke this week about a leaked set of slides detailing early concepts for Windows 8. The following articles cover what was on those slides to the umth degree.

From Beyond Binary

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20009035-56.html

From Neowin

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-planning-039windows-store039-app-store-for-windows-8

From Ars Technica

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/06/leaked-windows-8-slides-an-app-store-for-windows-ie9-beta-in-august.ars

And from the man, Paul at the Windows Super Site

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win8_leak.asp

Its early days yet, however, some information is better than no information at all.

There are some things we do know for sure though..

1. Microsoft has assured many developers that Windows 8 would be 3 years away from the release of Windows 7.

2. Windows 8 is being said to have no 32 bit flavors in the works.

3. There would be some need for new hardware for some advanced features in Win 8 needed on board to make the OS come alive.

To be fair, that third bit has been sung around the campfire for years. I’m not laying awake at night worried about that one at any point between now and release. After all, how can you beta test something if you don’t have the hardware on hand to beta test said product correctly? Yep, not worried about legacy hardware just yet.

Windows 7 has already sold over 150 million licenses since the debut in October 2009. Some in the IT field suggest that the new OS has already taken 10% of the market. This would make it the fastest rate of adoption of an OS.. like ever. Microsoft will, again prepare for the lack of shock, to take it all in stride and release a new OS regardless of 7 sales because they HAVE! to re-establish the market cycle. Barring a major malfunction of horrific proportions, Windows 8 will be upon us in beta in 18 months or less. Such is the way of things.

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Dallas: Geeky High Points Of This Year’s NFB Convention Schedule

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I’ve attended both ACB and NFB Conventions in the past. I’m not suggesting one is better than the other. And, I’m not suggesting you belong to both, either or neither group. What I am saying is that Convention can be a wonderful time where you can learn from others who are into the same things you find interesting. Networking, learning and dog gone it.. having fun with others. that is why I look forward to July.

I’m going to NFB again this year because I’m speaking at the AT Trainers Division meeting. Also, Dallas is kinda closer to Austin. Therefore, I am heading to Dallas on July 3rd.

Here are some portions of the schedule I’ve marked as points of interest. The full schedule can be found at the official 2010 NFB Convention site.

http://www.nfb.org/nfb/National_Convention.asp

Saturday July 3rd

7:30 - 8:45 am—HAM RADIO GROUP EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS Milan Room, Tower mezzanine  
Discuss convention frequencies, hotel architectural features, and distributing special FM receivers for the hearing-impaired and Spanish-speaking attendees. D. Curtis Willoughby (ka0vba), Chairperson

8:30 - 11:30 am—WHAT’S NEW IN JAWS 11 AND A FIRST LOOK AT JAWS 12—FREEDOM SCIENTIFIC, INC.
Senators Lecture Hall, Tower lobby
Join Eric Damery, JAWS Product Manager, for an exciting and informative session covering the new details surrounding JAWS development during the past year.  In addition to many demonstrations of JAWS 11 with Research It, this will also be the first look at JAWS 12 scheduled for public beta in August 2010.

9:00 am - 12:00 noon—GW MICRO: SENSE NOTETAKER AND BOOKSENSE TRAINING (Registration: $10; refreshments provided)
Fleur-de-Lis A Room, Atrium mezzanine
The Braille Sense Plus and other Sense notetakers are exciting devices in Braille notetaker technology.  Learn new features, including the GW Sense Navigation GPS.  See the BookSense in action; play your books and audio files with ease.  Raul Gallegos and Jeremy Curry. To register, call 260-489-3671.

9:00 am - 5:00 pm—NFB JERNIGAN INSTITUTE’S ACCESS TECHNOLOGY SEMINARS
Governors Lecture Hall, Tower lobby  
    9:00 - 11:30 am—Apple’s Mac system, iPod series, iPhone, and iPad
    1:00 - 2:00 pm—Ebay’s accessibility improvements
    2:15 - 3:30 pm—Blackboard Learn, the online platform for education      
    3:45 - 5:00 pm—Accessing e-Books rapidly expanding market

1:00 - 3:00 pm—FREEDOM SCIENTIFIC; OPENBOOK 9 AND PEARL PORTABLE READING SOLUTION
Senators Lecture Hall, Tower lobby
Have lightning fast OCR with OpenBook in a portable solution that folds up.  Connect via a USB port and scan documents. Have them read aloud using Eloquence voices or any of Real Speak Solo Direct human-sounding voices now available on OpenBook. Magnify work, write under the camera, and reformat text.

1:00 - 5:00 pm—HUMANWARE PRODUCT SHOWCASE AND USER GROUPS
Obelisk A Room, Atrium mezzanine
Sessions: 1:00 Breeze; 2:00 Portable Devices; 3:00 Stream; 4:00 BrailleNote
Join HumanWare to learn about recent updates and share product tips. Give us your suggestions or ask questions about your favorite HumanWare product. Door Prizes for every session! 

1:30 - 2:45 pm—EXPERIENCE THE BLIO READER: MAKING THE WORLD’S BOOKS ENJOYABLE, USABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE!
Peridot Room, Atrium mezzanine
Presented by James Gashel.

2:00 - 5:00 pm—GW MICRO: WINDOW-EYES TRAINING (Registration: $10; refreshments provided)
Fleur-de-Lis A Room, Atrium mezzanine
Explore the power of Window-Eyes with advanced scripting support, Office 2010, Windows 7, and much more.  Come to see support for the Internet and scripting provided by a screen reader.  Presenters: Jeremy Curry and Raul Gallegos. To register, call 260-489-3671.

3:00 - 4:45 pm—EXPERIENCE THE BLIO READER: MAKING THE WORLD’S BOOKS ENJOYABLE, USABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE!
Peridot Room, Atrium mezzanine
Presented by James Gashel.

7:00 - 10:00 pm—INDEPENDENCE SCIENCE, LLC FOCUS GROUP ONE
Fleur-de-Lis B Room, Atrium mezzanine
(Preregistration by May 15 was required to attend.) Independence Science LLC, in collaboration with Purdue University researchers, is collecting feedback on a new portable handheld data collection device for blind students to use in high school science laboratories.  (Focus Group Two meets Monday at 7:00 pm) 

7:30 - 9:00 pm—knfbReader MOBILE USERS MEETING
Fleur-de-Lis A Room, Atrium mezzanine
Conducted by Michael Hingson

Sunday July 4th

1:30 - 2:45 pm—EXPERIENCE THE BLIO READER: MAKING THE WORLD’S BOOKS ENJOYABLE, USABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE!
Peridot Room, Atrium mezzanine
Presented by James Gashel

Not AT related, but fun to attend anyway...
2:30 - 5:30 pm—TRAVEL AND TOURISM DIVISION
Milan Room, Tower mezzanine
Don Gillmore, President

3:00 - 4:45 pm—EXPERIENCE THE BLIO READER: MAKING THE WORLD’S BOOKS ENJOYABLE, USABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE!
Peridot Room, Atrium mezzanine
Presented by James Gashel

3:00 - 5:00 pm—WHAT’S NEW WITH NFB-NEWSLINE®
Lalique Room, Atrium mezzanine
Learn about the NFB’s free audible newspaper service for the blind and visually impaired.  Topics cover Podable News, the new voices, the new on-demand article request feature, and more.  Sign up for NFB-NEWSLINE® at its exhibit hall table.

8:00 - 9:30 pm—WEBMASTERS MEETING
Fleur-de-Lis B Room, Atrium mezzanine
A meeting for all NFB affiliate and division Webmasters to discuss the importance of an informative, accessible, and visually attractive Website.
Gary Wunder, Chairperson, Webmasters Group

Monday July 5th

Don't Miss!!!
12:30 - 5:00 pm—NFB IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
Rosetta Room, Atrium mezzanine  
   12:30 pm–Registration; 1:00 pm–Meeting begins
Some of the topics include: the Macintosh as a productivity tool for the blind; Solona, a CAPTCHA-solving service; Association of Information Technology Professionals presentation; accessibility to Microsoft’s products by its director of accessibility, Rob Sinclair; elections; and much more.  Curtis Chong, President

Don't Miss!!
5:30 - 7:00 pm—KURZWEIL 1000 USERS’ CONTINGENT
Steuben Room, Atrium mezzanine 
Join the Kurzweil 1000 Users’ Contingent!  Meet with Steve Baum, Vice President of Engineering, and share some Kurzweil 1000 experiences.  Kurzweil 1000 is our state-of-the-art, text-to-speech and life navigation software for blind and visually impaired readers.

6:30 - 9:30 pm—SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DIVISION
Wyeth Room, Atrium mezzanine 
  6:30 pm–Registration; 7:00 pm–Meeting begins
John Miller, President

I'll be speaking at this one...
6:30 - 10:00 pm—ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY TRAINERS DIVISION
Manchester Room, Tower mezzanine
  6:30 pm–Registration; 7:00 pm–Meeting begins
Topics: determining the right note taker for your student; plunging without fear into Windows 7 with Cathyanne Murtha of Access Technology Institute; Jsay Pro; and teaching the Mac.  Michael Barber, President

7:00 - 10:00 pm—INDEPENDENCE SCIENCE FOCUS GROUP TWO
Fleur-de-Lis B Room, Atrium mezzanine
(Preregistration by May 15 was required to attend.) Independence Science LLC, in collaboration with Purdue University researchers, is collecting feedback on a new portable handheld data collection device for blind students to use in high school science laboratories.

Tuesday July 6th

6:00 - 8:00 pm—AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INTRODUCES AccessWorld  EVERY MONTH AND NEW ONLINE COMMUNITY RESOURCES
Peacock Terrace, West Wing
You are invited to our informational reception. Announcing AFB AccessWorld, every month—more authors, more information, more often. CareerConnect, FamilyConnect, and SeniorSite offer newly-expanded opportunities. Network with families, seniors, and successful mentors. We look forward to meeting you.

7:00 - 8:30 pm—BOOKSHARE AT NFB MEMBER PARTY
Lalique Room, Atrium mezzanine
Enjoy snacks and refreshments while meeting the Bookshare staff. This is your opportunity to talk with us and share your ideas; we’re here to listen.  Plan to have fun with contests, drawings, and interacting with your fellow members.  We look forward to seeing you. 

8:00 - 9:00 pm—BEP: U.S. CURRENCY IDENTIFICATION FOCUS GROUP Steuben Room, Atrium mezzanine
Representatives of the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) and the Office of Product Development provide an update on BEP’s progress to provide blind individuals with access to U.S. currency and discuss concepts it is currently testing. (Session Two: Wednesday at 7:00 pm.)   

Wednesday July 7th

During the General Session …

9:50 am    THE APEX AND OTHER DEVELOPMENTS AT HUMANWARE
Gilles Pepin, Chief Executive Officer, HumanWare; Drummondville, Canada

11:10 am    ASSURING INTERNET ACCESSIBILITY
Preety Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, Deque Systems, Inc.; Reston, Virginia

7:00 - 8:00 pm—BEP: U.S. CURRENCY IDENTIFICATION FOCUS GROUP Steuben Room, Atrium mezzanine
Representatives of the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) and the Office of Product Development provide an update on BEP’s progress to provide blind individuals with access to U.S. currency and discuss concepts it is currently testing.

7:00 - 8:15 pm—EXPERIENCE THE BLIO READER: MAKING THE WORLD’S BOOKS ENJOYABLE, USABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE!
Peridot Room, Atrium mezzanine
Presented by James Gashel

7:00 - 9:00 pm—WHAT’S NEW WITH NFB-NEWSLINE® 
Lalique Room, Atrium mezzanine
Learn about the NFB’s free audible newspaper service for the blind and visually impaired.  Topics cover Podable News, the new voices, the new on-demand article request feature, and more.  Sign up for NFB-NEWSLINE® at its exhibit hall table.

A possible don't miss..
7:00 - 11:00 pm—NON 24-HOUR SLEEP WAKE DISORDER SEMINAR
Obelisk A Room, Atrium mezzanine
Circadian rhythm sleep disorders in totally blind people. Total loss of light perception prevents synchronization of circadian body clock rhythms to the 24-hour day, leading to cyclic insomnia and daytime napping. The causes of this sleep disorder and possible treatment options will be presented and discussed.

7:30 - 9:00 pm—INTRODUCTION TO ORACLE SIEBEL CALL CENTER
Obelisk B Room, Atrium mezzanine
Don Mauck, Accessibility Evangelist at Oracle, will demonstrate the accessibility features built into the Oracle Siebel Call Center. Oracle CRM products are used by more than 4,000 enterprises and more than 4.6 million business users; these enterprises represent potential employment opportunities for the blind.

8:00 - 10:00 pm—COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Rosetta Room, Atrium mezzanine
For the most part, technological developments tend to exclude blind people.  Developers must change the ways future technologies are designed.  Join us—perhaps you can suggest a technology or approach that nobody else has considered.  Curtis Chong, Chairperson

8:30 - 9:45 pm—EXPERIENCE THE BLIO READER: MAKING THE WORLD’S BOOKS ENJOYABLE, USABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE!
Peridot Room, Atrium mezzanine
Presented by James Gashel

Thursday July 8th

During the General Session ..
9:05 am    BUYING AND SELLING ONLINE: EBAY BUILDS ACCESSIBILITY FOR THE BLIND INTO ITS PLATFORM
Dane Glasgow, Vice President, Buyer Experience Product Management, Ebay, Inc.; San Jose, California

10:50 am    ACCESSIBLE DESIGN, A MODEL FOR THE FUTURE
Steve Eastman, President, Target.com; Minneapolis, Minnesota

12:15 - 1:45 pm—EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NLS 
Obelisk A Room, Atrium mezzanine 
A question-and-answer session with Frank Kurt Cylke, Director, and staff of the
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

11:00 pm—SCIENCE FICTION MEETING
All persons interested in science fiction and fantasy are welcome to join in an open discussion.  Please contact Ed Meskys for room location.

Some Random Impressions On The iPad

The rise in Blind Gadget Culture was one of the trends I discussed with many in the industry last year. There are a large number of options now available to us on what now seems like a monthly, or weekly, rate for alternatives to what we once considered traditional access. I’m going to stay away, for now, on merits of those claims or the dangers in selecting a standard for any access solution. I do, however, want to throw in two pennies into the hat as to what my initial impressions were on holding this recent “flavor of the month” tech product.

I’ve broken these down into three areas. My mind thought of the device from a Low Vision standpoint, a non visual perspective and a general impression of the device as a whole. I’ll start with the general ruminations first.

General feelings..

It is heavier than I thought. 1.5 pounds doesn’t sound like much, I’m reminded of the weight of last year’s Intel Reader, but it really is when you get right down to the heart of the matter. An iPhone doesn’t weigh as much as the iPad of course, however, there really is quite a big jump when you go from that smaller display to one that is now 9.7 inches. And the 1.5 pounds doesn’t feel all that well in your hands for longer periods of time or for when you are typing long strings or doing detailed tasks or... The weight of the iPad is well distributed, and that is a plus, so you won’t feel like one portion of the device is heavier forcing you to hold it from only one side. I’m just not sure about how I’d carry and use the device when not sitting comfortably at home.

The other thing I noticed right off the bat was the glare. The thing is a fingerprint and glare magnet. Darker settings is where the backlit display really shows its stuff. And there again is one of those odd moments that makes me think about where and when I would use such a device.

The speaker is loud but not really. Using this in public would be awkward with speech for me. I’d have to go the headphones route a whole lot. Even with Netflix, I would be using headphones and that gets old after a while. I also hope the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0 will add more voices to Voiceover. The default voice can only take you so far and I’d even say that some who are hard of hearing would have possible issues with pitch and intonation in crowded areas.

Low Vision thoughts..

If you hate a laptop and the way you have to use a track pad with Screen Magnification then you may hate this.. a lot. Swiping the display at higher magnification levels is a slow process at first. I say that because you either pan slowly in the beginning or you warp across the landscape without intending to do so. This could be considered more of a user problem than an issue of UI or how Apple has implemented their version of magnification. Icons within the OS are sharp and easily read, however, the same can’t always be said about the apps. And those who up convert their apps from iPhone to iPad have issues with font scaling anyway. Therefore, a good suggestion would be to go for the ones that are made for the larger display of iPad native support. This may, note may, mean you have to repurchase your favorite apps all over again if they don’t offer a free update to the newer platform.

I find that increasing fonts is better than using the device at 2x or something that would make me have to touch the device more often just to see the other side of the display. Better still, I’d say drop the magnification entirely and rely on the Voiceover to drive you in most areas. Not only would you keep the whole screen in view, but you would have speech to tell you where you have landed in apps and in menus. I mean, you are only going to have to touch the device for input anyway. Using VO with no magnification could make you a faster user than all the finger work it would require to view the device under higher magnification levels.

I honestly believed that the iPad would be great as a Low Vision device. I’m rethinking that now after some brief use of it to try and to complete some basic tasks. It is better than holding the iPod and iPhone up to your nose. The downsides though are that the smaller devices are more portable and a whole lot lighter. And if you have trouble using a 15 inch laptop, or an even smaller 12 inch or less Netbook, the iPad won’t make life any easier for you in the regards of interacting with a computer.

Non Visual ..

I’ll approach this from two angles. Do you want a touch screen the size of a standard 8x10 piece of paper? Do you want to move your finger across a larger area than your iPod or iPhone? Would it make you feel better to have 22 icons spread out over a larger canvas? Then you will love the iPad if you answered “Yes” to any or all of the above.

Placing the iPad in your lap, like a Braille book, negates the weight concerns I spoke of earlier. In fact, not looking at the display fixes a ton of issues really. You can place this on a table and interact with it, where as a visual user would have to sit and point their head downwards to view the display. So, if you can get over the bulkiness of the larger size, and you feel right at home with the Apple touch navigation, then this may work for you. I would say that you may still be a tad faster on navigating on a smaller display. And carrying an iPhone or an iPod is probably a better device for the person on the go. The iPad, however, would be a good coffee table device for casual media surfing.

Overall..

I would say wait. This initial release is like a paid beta cycle. The unit feels rushed. The new iPhone 4.0 OS brings a whole lot more to the table. And, as Apple is prone to do, a second generation iPad will flesh out the unit’s strengths better. Once when developers, and even Apple themselves, know exactly what those strengths really are.

Despite what some have said on the web about this thing, it isn’t a new way of looking at computing. No new paradigms, no new platforms and for the love of black turtlenecks it isn’t something we haven’t seen before. It is what we call in sales a “step up” model. It takes the successes of the other Apple devices and makes them now go to 11. Or, in this case, go to 9.7.

If you are already in the Apple ecosystem, then this unit maybe a good buy for having around the house. Or for when you replace that 6th iPod that totally bites the dust. The bigger display is nice to have for some things. But, for non visual users, you aren’t in a situation where this will make your experience all that much more improved over what we had before April 3rd.

If you are considering a plunge into the Apple Kool Aid party, the iPad may not be the ideal device for your indoctrination to the land of Jobbs. Moreover, if you thought that this device would be better for those in the 4x magnification crowd.. well. I’d suggest going with a cheaper first time purchase in the realm of an iPod.

The truth is, and this is where I completely agree with those who are for and against the iPad, you can’t really say this is a giant iPod until you hold it in your hands. This is the first device I’ve used in a long time where initial experience immediately formed my opinion. And that opinion was intensely personal at first then reflexive later on after I put it down.

I think that is why the iPad doesn’t support multi user profiles at the moment. Apple is aiming this device at the individual user and as a media appliance to secure iTunes’s future. And it does this very well. I give them credit for that. It isn’t intended to replace devices you have now. That too has been communicated by Apple. its when you try to take the unit outside of the scope of what it is made for when you see the flaws over the glossy glare intensive surface that the debate gets more dicey.

Note that I’m also going to steer clear from the saga of the $500 WiFi only versus the 3g aspects of the iPod. That too comes down to personal preferences and your desire to pay $30 a month for iPad wireless access. Best of luck with that decision as it really distorts, for me at any rate, if this machine is worth the cost of admission.

Detroit 2009: The Lost Humanware Notes Are Now Found!

 

The simple truth is that I renamed the file in which I had these notes and then promptly archived it away for safe keeping.. from myself it appears. And in even a more embarrassing admission, gulp, it was in a fairly completed state of being postworthy.

I was already in a reflexive kind of mood from my talks with Blind Bargains on the stories of 2009. So I figured I’d go ahead and post this info in the spirit of nostalgia. Or what was already on the table pre Braille Note Apex. In either case, I’ve not altered the tone of the write up. Nor did I drop in pieces of knowledge from the far flung future that is 2010. With that said, as promised more than six months ago, I give you the lost Humanware notes from the NFB 2009 National Convention. 

 

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The room had the best air movement and temperature out of all the rooms I was in for the Convention. It, like so many others, was small and 60 chairs fill up quickly than convention goers realize. People came and went during the presentation as Humanware broke their time into specific product meetings.

The first hour was devoted to the Trekker Breeze. I arrived 30 minutes into this discussion and, to be honest, it was the same questions/answers I heard about the product in Dallas 2008. It breaks down to this… some people don’t know how GPS works and some people want it to do more than it currently can [or ever] can be offered professionally. I like the Breeze for point to point travel and if that isn’t enough for some people Humanware has two other solutions with even more functionality available.

So I’ll pick up with the Braille/Voice Note meetings. Keysoft 8 will be arriving soon. The update will feature the new Keychat program that will let you expand your abilities to talk with other users over the web. The update will also have support for Audible formats like it’s Victor Reader Stream cousins. Generic printer driver support has been enhanced and the company has worked with HP to have better on board driver support for their lines of printers.

The crowd cheered when it was announced that the Eloquence synth was coming to a Braille and Voice Note mPower and PK near you really soon. The sub folder improvements that came with the 3.0 edition of the Victor Reader software will also now be coming to Keysoft 8. Enhanced support for USB drives helps you keep more stuff in those folders, however, it is recommended that the USB drive not be a U3 compatible device. The units can detect non U3 USB sticks better. You can always uninstall the U3 portion of a drive if you already have a drive that you want to use with your mPower though.

Another great improvement with Keysoft 8 comes in the form of support for WPA wireless encryption.

Several questions were asked about the memory and storage limitations with on board memory in the Braille and Voice Note lines. The panel wanted to stay away from a technical chat on hardware and Windows CE specs, however, info did slip that Humanware looks at their product cycles in a 5 year plan. The company didn’t have anything to announce today but quick math shows that the mPower is coming up on its 5^th birthday very soon.

Once when the cat jumped out of the bag on the possibility of new hardware, the team announced that it was time to talk about the next version of the Victor reader Stream software.

They moved right into the Highlight reel and then topped it off with talk on the update with little preamble. Some of the features that were spotlighted were the following tender morsels :

A statement was made that all updates will be free for the stream.

E pub book support was coming It was said that this was a sub set of the DAISY format and Google is looking to use this in future E Books initiatives.

Selectable and variable sample rate MP3 recording is on its way.

The team is considering support for the Office .docx format for a later release.

Support for “Save as DAISY” is also an upcoming feature being considered for a future release.

The panel was inundated with requests for the “Date and Time” feature to be a priority for an upcoming version of the software updates. The panel did their level best to quell the rising tide, however, they said that it was not set for release just yet.

More requests now for Kindle and PDF support. Now it gets technical. Some discussions on how fast these formats change and how often it would take to keep up with it all. Minor discussions on conversion and the Humanware Companion software. But nothing earth shattering.

A great tip for training someone on the Victor Reader Stream is to use the unit without a SD card on board. I may have to use that one next time I do an overview on this product.

The last session focused on Humanware Mobile. Some time was given to the new Braille Connect 12 cell display. The crowd was unmoved, however, this can work with mobile phones and may be a neat alternative for those who go for the mobile phone option over a larger more friendlier Netbook display.

A representative for RIM is on the panel. Here come the facts and figures.

25 million Blackberry users active in over 150 countries.

13,000 employees worldwide.

Their app store, called App World, is now going and they now have an accessible API.

AT solutions will come from 3^rd party development.

14 point font is a built in feature for Low Vision users.

Alphabetic speed dialing for those who memorize their contact lists.

Voice dialing options.

The rep went on to say that previous versions of the Blackberry OS were very JAVA dependent. The memory of older versions of the popular phone could not accommodate common TTS software solutions. Therefore, only the newer phones going forward would be able to use Orator.

RIM will be openly working with their developers at their public events to design applications with a need to have accessibility “baked in” with future releases. Information from these events will be released to the public and it looks like tere is a concerted effort to have third parties on board.

Some of the designs in mind include a Training Wizard for new users and support for external keyboards for those who dislike the “stickyness” of the track ball. I asked specifically if this sticky behavior was object or element based. At the time of the event it was said that it was based on elements.

A brief demonstration of the early GUI and main menu navigation was given. The unit was in a solid beta, however, the release of Orator is dependent on several issues. The timing of hardware that supports the product is hampered by the partnerships RIM has with their carriers. Subsidies and hardware inventories can complicate the release of any new phone. And so is the case with RIM and Orator. The good news is that when the product does go live it will be ready to go on many of RIM’s later releases.

7: The Party Begins

Let me first say “Sorry” for not blogging in over a month. It truly was not my intent to avoid, ignore or forget about posting. But real life tends to get in the way  and such is the case when it comes to finding time to blog. And again we can blame Mr.. Calvo for telling me to join Twitter and Facebook for two key reasons why I haven’t blogged in almost an ice age. If you follow me on Twitter you will find I’m quite active there. Almost to the point where you might consider not following me on Twitter because I’m quite active there.

To get down to the topic of this post, I was sent one of those Windows 7 House Party Packs and I’ve been distracted by the full release of Windows 7 that came with the party favors. I have a big event coming up in February and some of these little nick knacks will find their way into the decorations of said event I’m sure. The thing is that this *Party Pack* signifies more than a release novelty for me. It is more like a celebration that beta testing for so many products will be over soon. Excuse me for a second while I wallow in happiness at the thought of that for a second. Woo Hoo!

Okay, back on track, this version of Windows has also been a party because it is almost a non event for me. That isn’t to say that this wasn’t a cake walk for the AT companies. Some are right now doing their best to put the finishing touches on their final releases. And my NFB predictions that just about everyone will be ready for launch day seems to be on the mark at the time of this writing.

No, what I mean by non event is that the release of this new OS has run so smoothly that I haven’t felt the need to blather on about it here on the blog. Each version of 7 I tested ran fine and as it should. No major issues for me outside of my sound card not being found, however, the exact same thing happened in Vista to me on my main box as well. Everything I used in XP or Vista is humming right along in 7. The only thing I did, because it was so cheap and silly for me not to do it, was upgrade from 2 GB to 4 GB. And really was more for the jump to x64 than anything else.

I’ll be posting more thoughts and tips on 7 soon. And I will begin my freak out of Office 2010 over the next few months. Office, by far and large, is the thing I worry about more these days. I’ve had access to the Technical Preview since July and let me say just this.. if you hated the Ribbon then you may want to go scout out a copy of Office 2007 now. 2010 won’t be to your liking and support for Office 2003 will be coming to an end for security patches in less than two years. So buckle up gang.

In the meantime, I’ve got to go read some Host Notes and plan a Geeky Windows 7 Party for me and a few friends who wish not to be recognized in public.

To see what came in the Party Pack, hit the link below..

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/party.asp

Weekly Tweet Roundup For May 12th

If you follow the feed you know already that I am up to my freaking neck with tons of Microsoft updates. And Microsoft info on upcoming updates. Oh and also a bit more on Technical Previews to even more updates that are coming two months sooner than I expected them to show up. Everywhere I turn I see a .exe or .msi or .zip. I’m hearing “20%.. 45%.. 70% completed” in my sleep. I don’t need to count sheep anymore because I have a computer progress bar to lull me off to dreamland. But enough whining, let us look at some cool links.

The Path To Somewhere Near 7: The Super Site for Windows has up a series of articles on what to expect and how to upgrade your systems from XP or Vista to 7RC.

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_upgrade.asp

Office 2010 Technical Preview: The sign up page to be considered for the next version of of Office is up for those interested in playing with the Technical Preview. The TP will be shown off in mid July and might be on store shelves by this time next year.

https://microsoft.crgevents.com/Office2010TheMovie/Content/Default.aspx?p=Home&

Netbooks V Notebooks: Thinking of buying a Netbook? My best advice is to hold fast for six months. The reasons are many but this article does a great job in summarizing what I already have said to others who have asked me about them.

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2009/05/09/lenovo-on-the-future-of-the-netbook/

Patch Tuesday: Here is a rundown on what patches will be rolling out from Windows Update today.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/05/microsoft-patch-tuesday-for-may-2009-one-bulletin.ars

IE9: Upgraded to Internet Explorer 8 yet? Well you better do it before IE9 rolls by. No.. I’m not kidding. Early development already exists for the next version of IE and some already have wish lists.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2372

CNET Reviews The Victor Reader Stream: Mainstream press for Humanware’s little marvel.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10226447-49.html?tag=centerColumnArea1.2

And that is just a sample of the info off my Twitter feed. To read more on the music, Sci Fi and other tech I’m playing with you can subscribe to the feed at

http://twitter.com/RangerStation

Windows 7 RC Surprises Come Early

I’ve been reading and talking with AT companies a lot on Win 7 for a while. And I have also been reading those blogs and Tweets and what have you about those of you who have bravely loaded your programs of choice and ran boldly with the Beta release. I admire all of the Blind Enthusiasts out there for running on the Razor’s Edge. But the main reason why I haven’t gone into too much detail on the Beta here was that I had inside info that said for me to wait for the Release Candidate before writing in earnest. And so I wait for May 5th, rumor still says that is the day for the download to go public, with breathless anticipation. Build 7100 has now leaked and embargos are being lifted all over the net. Sure these leaks are like someone telling you the ending of “The Empire Strikes Back” before you see the movie, however, I’ll still be in line on download day none the less.

The big one first. A full virtual Windows XP in Win 7 Pro, Enterprise and Ultimate. Check this link out for more.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/04/24/secret-no-more-revealing-virtual-windows-xp-for-windows-7.aspx

And here is another link from the Super Site about the new interactive setup for 7.

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_rc_install_01.asp

Okay just go to the Win Super Site blog for tons of more info about IE6 v IE8, Security Software in 7 and much much more.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/default.aspx

Paul also had discussed the Windows Media 12 streaming bits last year, however, Gizmodo has a new screenshot gallery of a more polished version of that feature.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5226696/windows-7-release-candidate-1s-best-surprise-new-features

I also want to give a “Shout Out” to Rick and the Blind Geek Zone. He has a Tech Talk coming up and you don’t want to miss it if you want to know more about Win 7. Here is the link to the time and place.

http://blind-geek-zone.blogspot.com/2009/04/accessible-world-presents-windows-7.html

And Sun Will Come To You With Once Open Arms

Fallout from the Sun and Oracle deal is still the top stories around the web. Below are some factual and some speculation about how things will shake out for Microsoft, SQL and even the Open Source Movement itself.

To start take a look at the Win Super Site’s look on how this puts the new company on even footing, or even higher ground, with Microsoft.

http://www.winsupersite.com/alt/oracle_sun.asp

Open Office: The Open Office project was already running into Mission Creep and Development Woes. But the new deal may end up having an even more direct consequence on matters.

http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/online/news/openoffice_future_uncertain

My SQL: and then there is this bit of news where SQL may see a fork in the development tree. That would mean that My SQL would compete technically against another version of the program on a commercial and open model level. Confused? Me too.

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/23/134208

Tweet Weekly Rollup: April 20th Edition

I’m going to take the old “random Goodness” and “Quick News” formats and roll them up into this new post. Twitter has become my default way of posting information for things I don’t want to expand on but feel like they should get some attention on the blog. I’ll go back over the week and summarize the best of the best each Monday.

Mono vs. Stereo: A neat article on how some believe that the original Beatles mono recordings are better than the remixed stereo ones.

http://digg.com/d1oy32

IT Power Up Myths: Should you power cycle your system to save energy or is it better in the long run to leave your system on for hard drive safety? This link gives more information on this and other IT Pro Myths.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/16/1819206

Attack Of The Zombie Macs!: Take that Apple marketing..

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/04/evidence-suggests-first-zombie-mac-botnet-is-active.ars

Office 14 Is Now Office 2010: Paul at the Windows Super Site has updated his Office 14 FAQ to reflect all the news that came out this week about the next version of MS Office Suites.

http://www.winsupersite.com/office/office2010_faq.asp

Office 2007 SP2: Word is that the date for the next Service Pack for Office 07 is April 28th.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/04/confirmed-office-2010-will-come-in-32-bit-and-64-bit.ars

Firefox Looks Forward: XP support may fade in the next generation version of Firefox that is in early development.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131576

Follow me on Twitter if you would like to see more information like this in real time. Or review the Tweets whenever you want at..

http://twitter.com/RangerStation

Random Goodness: Smart Contacts, 78s and Snowl

Smart Contact Lens: I’m all about the tech, however, I put the brakes on when we get to Wetware. Too much reading of Bruce Sterling and William Gibson I think. Well for glaucoma patients this contact lens may just be the thing to catch those pesky eye pressure spikes.

http://thefutureofthings.com/news/1278/smart-contact-lenses.html

Before LPs There Were 78s: We have reached an age where if you discuss Vinyl with younger people they think you are talking about clothes instead of the long playing record variety that so many of us grew up with prior to the MP3 generation. This article talks about one man’s crusade to digitize as many 78s as possible.

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/08/one-mans-quest.html

And if that doesn’t take you back you can read this about albums being reissued on Reel to Reel.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/11/28/albums-reissued-on-r.html

Snowl: I’ve been hearing about this Firefox extension that lets you read your messages within the browser. I don’t have the time to play with this now but I think I might come back to it later. Here is a Windows Super Site blog entry on Snowl.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/08/12/introducing-snowl-an-experiment-with-messaging-in-the-browser.aspx

Random Goodness: User Interface By Ability, Firefox Tabs And A Blind Watchmaker.. Sort Of..

Ability Based User Interfaces: I confess to liking me some bad Sci Fi movies. “Demolition Man” and “Judge Dread” are high on my list of lows in SF moviedom. This article from Ars Technica that I link to below reminds me of the scene in “Demolition Man” where the unfrozen Sly Stalone goes to drive a car and the car adapts its self to his height, visual acuity and other physical parameters before it will let him drive. Imagine that for a User Interface? Well someone already has and this article discusses that idea.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080717-tweaking-user-interfaces-to-match-abilities-disabilities.html

Windows Flip For Firefox 3.1?: Wow this sounds familiar. Take the Control Tab hotkey you know now and add some Vista Flip 3D like functionality and presto! A neat new idea for tab browsing in Firefox 3.1.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/07/16/new-tab-switching-added-for-firefox-3-1.aspx

Blind Watchmaker: Here’s where viewing Google by keywords can take you down a rabbit hole. Still this is kinda interesting.

http://physics.syr.edu/courses/mirror/biomorph/

Feedback: Commenting On Comments

Some great remarks have been made in the comments section and I think I will take some time out to highlight a few of them again. Except this time I won’t be going back to 2007. All of them are fairly recent responses. yes, I’m turning over a new leaf and I am really reading your comments and email. Although I don’t think I have done an all email Feedback yet. At any rate let’s begin with an all too familiar, and frequent poster, you may know as “Anonymous “. This mysterious person is commenting on the Open Trade In post from May 13th.

PAC Mate Fever: Before anyone asks, “Pac Man Fever” was a song. Buckner and Garcia. Its from the 80’s.

Anonymous said...
This is the second time that they are offering it and usually Humanware don't even respond to this. Care to speculate on why this is?

I’ve been told by some of the Regional Sales Reps that the past promotion of trading in the competition’s note taker/PDAs for money off on a PAC Mate went very well. So a second round with the promotion seems logical. Especially if you are looking for a device that runs Windows Mobile 6 natively as the base operating system. The competition’s feature list, however, is getting more fierce if you read up on the Braille Sense Plus and the Levelstar Icon. And we don’t know what Keysoft 8 will hold either. The cool thing is that you have tons of choices and FS is offering everyone a way to move into their platform at some kind of a discount. As often as people talk about the cost of AT these days, you have to admit that any promotion that offers you any type of good deal is worth a mention.

Times Out: Here’s a comment from the 5/26 post on the NY Times articles.

.Reid said...
David Pogue responded to my post on his article. Since I assume you too are using a screen reader, you didn't realize that he was implying the authors were not really blind. He used single quotes around the word blind.

As I said in my reply, I really don't think that makes the article and accusation any less harmful. In fact, how in the world would he know if someone is faking blindness via email? You can see his comments here: http://reidmymind.com/?p=99

Thanks for that update. You’re right about his questionable judgement of determining who is and isn’t Blind via email and I suspect “The Psychic Friends Network” must be involved too. or tea leaves. Those work well.

The old phrase “Consider the source” comes to mind. I’m not a huge fan of any mainstream tech writers. Well I take that back some. Dean at the San Jose Mercury News is very good, the team at the Houston Chronicle is always a fantastic read and once in a great while the L.A. Times comes off with a head scratcher. The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today and a few other non tech publications that dip their toes in tech just don’t come up on my radar as much. Some of that is partly due to the rabid Apple favoritism that eludes in their “style over Substance” and so called perceived need to write about the hype of tech. that puts eyeballs on screens. And it isn’t something I really care about when you consider just how Blind Friendly the iPhone is these days. So David, Walt and a few others can wax ecstatic about this new fangled wiz bang visual interface jazz all they want. Just remember that Vista sold 14 times as many licenses in 1 year when compared to OSX. Also, I can’t wait to see how they spin Snow Leopard. After all the biggest new feature is Security. I thought Macs didn’t have to worry about that..

As to David’s use of punctuation to infer sarcasm on *Blind* users… One could make a statement about visual cues, the Blind and Screen Reader verbosity I guess. But really the bigger point I would rather make is that you always have to be careful with humor on the internet. If you notice I try to be as self deprecating as possible because if I make fun of me I probably won’t offend you the reader nearly as much as if I made broad generalizations or sweeping comments about a segment of our population in crude terms. that doesn’t mean I don’t do that at times if I think that our shared experience can get a point across a whole lot faster than a long descriptive narrative. It just means that I am aware of who reads this blog and I do actually try to be consistant in my writing as to not honk off anyone but those who hate my gramer and run on sentences which appear to never ever end. Hmm, I think I could have stuck a hyphen  and another broekn phrase in there somewhere. Oh well..

For the record, I use both Screen Reader and Screen Magnifier products. My job requires me to sorta know most of the leading Blindness and Low Vision AT products on the market today. Note I say ‘Know’, I used single quotes around the word know Ha Ha!, because it is really really hard to use everything well on a daily basis. I end up using one product one day and I force myself to relearn another the next. So I’m sort of a “Jack of all trades, Master of none”. AT is already a niche industry and it is very common to find a person staying with one company or a group of products that they know, and use, best. With four big players in Screen Reader territory who can blame a guy or gal for having a desire to specialize? Not me.

My specialization is in the areas of Screen Magnification and Video Magnification. Again, that doesn’t mean I don’t know something about Screen Readers. I just didn’t use them both at the same time. But I do have to use Screen Readers as part of my job involves me trouble shooting various AT products on XP, Vista, Office 03 and Office 07 to name a few. And as we saw in the “Morning With JAWS” I will be entering that land of the Screen Read and Screen Mag user as this type of user is in a situation apart from everything else on the market today. Therefore, you now know why I am easily distracted and or confused.  Oh and sarcastic. Especially around the end of a beta cycle. You can probably guess that a new version of something is coming out by the snarkyness of my posts. A tired mind is a terrible thing not to waste.  [Tongue firmly planted in cheek]

Dual Identities: For the most part I try to keep my internet life away from my offline life. But when you have used a handle for, gulp, years .. Things have a way of catching up with you. I’ve been Ranger1138 since 1996. So when I lose touch with folks, Google is right there to pick up the slack.

Ethne said...
You don't call and don't write and ISN news has been down for two whole weeks. I think I may just lose what little is left of my sanity. :)

Anyway DDC has tried to contact you - but fears your old email account may have eaten it.
Hope all is well, and tell da fam I said hello. (Including the four legged members):)

ISN News is the Babylon 5/Crusade site that I have belonged to since 1998. I have been one of the Moderators for the Forum since 1999. Recently we had a server give up the ghost and we lost everything. We were so used to Private Messaging one another via the boards that when they went we forgot the old means of communication completly. Or, as in some cases, Hotmail put us in one another’s junk email filters. Go fig. Anyway, Ethne is a very long time and dear friend and she left me a comment to open my hailing frequencies. Problem was I took vacation and really shunned the computer. So I’m the reason why the server went south… in the fact that I was on vacation. I don’t have control over the server. I do apparently have terible luck and timing problems though. Just thought that needed some clarification there.

We have rebooted the message boards at ISN and I really write up a storm on SF, TV and Music there. The boards run on VB and I know that isn’t always AT compatible. The new version that we upgraded to is a little busy yet still functional. Hop over to the forums via our main page if you are interested.

www.isnnews.net

“Stop Making Sense”: A Talking Heads reference there. One of the best live and concert films in my opinion. Um, moving on, to a poster who had a comment on my June 12th Sense View Duo link.

Anonymous said...
Saw the demo and the unit looks good. However, GW appear to compromise on the magnification level in order to support the new features. The new unit enlarge only up to 12x compared to the 22x for the original model.

By the way, I hope they'll offer a trade-in for the current SenseView owners. I wouldn't mind upgrading, but I will not shell out another $1300 for the Duo

Jessica

Honestly Jessica I haven’t spent all that much quality time with the unit. Yeah I said I would when I wrote that back on June 12th but the Convention Season is in swing and I haven’t gotten back to this one or a new model from VTI either. Thank goodness those new Humanware units aren’t coming my way until late August at the earliest. Who knew the Video Magnifier side of things would explode with new product? Oh yeah, Convention Season. Silly me. I’ll be working with the Duo this month. So I may spotlight this unit later on in July or August. It is my understanding that the unit is doing quite well though and some who had the earlier model like the Duo even more. My suggestion, as it always, is to seek it out and compare it to what you have already. Make sure to take the older Sense View with you for reference. Then c’mon back here and tell us what you think.

Summer Breeze: Ah, the Trekker Breeze. What a breath of fresh air for some. This is a comment from June 20th.

Wulfila said...
An awfully vague Press Release. Does anyone know how this new System differs from the older Trekker? It sounds as though it is more affordable; is that because it is One Unit and not Three Components - the PDA, the Receiver and Speaker? Also, what is the Significance of the Operation of this new System being simpler than that of the old One, concerning knowing or not knowing Computers or Screen Readers?

I’m going to talk about this device and Humanware more in an upcoming Convention article. As a sneak peak I’ll say again that the Breeze is misunderstood. you know how there is Old Fashioned Vanilla, French Vanilla and Plain Vanilla Ice Cream? The Breeze is one of three flavors of GPS that Humanware offers. Your tastes may vary. More on this later..

Jawin’ About JAWS: Finally, here is a comment from the July 6th “Morning With JAWs” post.

jm33 said...
When you say "discussion about a version of JAWS running without the Video Interceptor. Such a version was possible and some discussion was given to what it would entail.
Good stuff on that front. Sure your Screen Reader works better with this intercept running, however, changes in the way video is displayed are coming.
And it is nice to see FS thinking about future issues." is this implying that it is soon going to be not possible to be running an interceptor with expected changes in Vista's future or is that just still at the level of speculation and concern? I hope I am incorrect here, but I would tend to think that not being able to run the interceptor would set us back a lot in our qwest for accessibility. I am aware that there are some products out there currently running without the use of an interceptor, but that it is a trade off for the portability that it allows at this point.

Hold on for this one because I go off the beaten path at least once. Trust me, there is an answer in there somewhere.

Changes in video and the like began with Windows 98 to XP. DCM came into play and it kinda did a good thing for a person who only used one type of AT on any given computer system. The move from XP to Vista introduced the move from DCM to Mirror Drivers. This too has some drawbacks if you use a combination of AT programs from the various options on the market. Mirror Drivers have been said by Microsoft to be a midway solution. As we approach Windows 7 we will see a lot more changes. There is the touch screen layer, more emphasis on High Def content via Windows Presentation Foundation [WPF] and the just announced Direct X 11. Plus when 7 rolls around we will have almost three generations of AERO Glass enabled video cards available. So it is quite possible that Glass may be the new default for Windows.

Some of that I have cobbled together from tons of articles on the net. Some comes from Rob Sin’Claire’s speeches from the 2006 Convention circut. Moreover, some comes from my talks with the various players in the AT Industry. but most of all it comes from Moore’s Law. Changes in video are inevitable. Remember that the Apple iPhone and Microsoft’s Surface technologies are pushing the On Screen Touch interfaces forward to the desktop clients. And the movie and music industries drives to close the “analog hole” continues to alter how we see, use and interact with any and all video. The Assistive Technology Industry rides on the backs of several movements in general computing. Therefore change is in the very nature of what we do. The speed of that change, and how we adapt to it as an Industry, is really the bigger issue.

Is it better to run with a Video Interceptor? Yep. Will that technology be phased out over time? Yep. Is it good that AT companies are moving forward to meet these needs? You bet. That is why a paid model will always beat the pants off of a free one for AT users. I’ll save the debate of free vs. paid for another post, however, I point out that having full time developers is far more an attractive option to part time community based initiatives if you enjoy having stable access to Windows based computers at your job. 

These brave guys and gals throughout our Industry need operating incomes so we can have the best and up to date access to things like Adobe Acrobat 5,000. To hear that a company is considering such a radical idea to their core philosophies is exciting as well as scary. I’d rather them look at it now though as opposed to patching a program six months to a year later however. Plus growth is good right?

Besides, I and others will be the crazy ones in the betas working with this thing before it comes to the public. And in my look back at Vista articles I suggested that those who were happy in XP were fine for another year at least. And how many of you out there still keep your older versions of JFW installed “Just In Case”? FS tries to ensure that this functionality is preserved in every future version if they can help matters. Eric reiterated that in Dallas earlier in the month. So “No Worries Mate”. 7 will come and hopefully we will have same day releases of AT like we did with Vista. Chances are that this is just a blip on today’s radar and this storm too shall pass. 

Okay that was too much positive and upbeat verbiage for me to type at one time. I’m going to go lay down now and let the dark clouds return. Remember you can post your thoughts to this and more at any time. Or email me. I don’t make it all that easy to do so but I do read emails. I don’t know about answering them yet. I always seem to misplace that “Reply” button. Anything you send me though is fair game unless you specify otherwise in your email. Hey, I gotta get material from somewhere..

Catching Up With Headlines

I’ve been under a mountain of news to catch up on since I was ignoring the feeds this week. Here are a few that caught my ear. 

Update To Windows Update: About once a year Windows Update gets an overhaul. This article from Ars tells you what to expect and what to do to avoid the update if you so desire.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/07/03/update-to-windows-update-will-improve-scan-times

July's Patch Tuesday Fixes: Speaking of Windows Updates, here is the list of fixes coming in this month’s Windows Update.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/07/03/microsoft-patch-tuesday-for-july-2008-four-bulletins

Office Update Changes: And not to be outdone by it’s Microsoft Windows cousin Office has made some changes of their own. Read about the move to Cumulative and Emergency Hotfix releases.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/07/01/new-update-schedule-change-revealed-for-microsoft-office

Security Changes In IE8: Oh look. IE8 also has some security changes coming as well. I am starting to detect a pattern this week.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/ie8_security.asp

10.5.3 Woes: It seems that the Jobbs Reality Distortion Field has waned a bit and the crushing weight of some miscues in this last refresh of the OS are taking hold. Check out this rant on the problems with OSX.

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/leopard/index.html#d28jun2008

And this one is very ironic when you compare it to the critical mass on Vista.

http://www.fortheloveofgeeks.com/2008/06/28/apples-snow-leopard-whats-the-point/

Google On The Enterprise: Here’s one take on Goggle’s shortcomings from a former Microsoft employee who just left Google only to return to Microsoft. 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=545

XP And The Future: The Windows Super Site Blog has a good collection of the articles surrounding the last days of Windows XP public availability.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/06/30/hasta-la-vista-windows-xp.aspx

LCD Screens Worse Than Cars?: This is an interesting article about the gases that come from the use and creation of LCD monitors versus the emissions from automobiles as it applies to the Greenhouse Effect.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/03/nitrogen_trifluoride_tv/

12,000 Laptops Lost In US Airports: Check out this survey on the staggering number of lost laptops throughout the US Airport system.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=158099&f_src=drdaily

Textbook Companies After Torrent Sharers At Colleges: This ought to make you happy to pay your Bookshare subscription. The Textbook Companies are going all out to stop file shares of their products. See the article below to know more.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080701-campus-copyright-battle-moves-to-textbook-torrents.html

Microsoft Equipt: I believe this was code named “Albany” last year. What is Equipt? Well it is a bundle of Windows Live OneCare, some Windows Live services and Office 2007 Home and Student Edition all in a single box. It also just so happens to be $70 a year. That’s right. A subscription based version of Office bundled with a Security Suite that you can run on three computers at once. Check the link to learn more.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080702-microsoft-equipt-a-software-bundle-costing-70-per-year.html

Behind The Scenes: Down And Safe

One of the best Sci Fi shows of the past 30 years for me is “Blake’s 7”. In that show the team would use the phrase “Down and Safe” when they had successfully teleported from their ship the Liberator. I always liked that phrase of confirmation and I use it occasionally today with people who suffer with me and my inner circle of insanity. And with my track record of bad flights I find the phrase comforting when I utter it to others from the safety of the hotel room. Oh and it is geeky as all hell. So strike up another reason for me saying it when I travel.

I’m back from my Dallas spacewalk and now it is time to sort through my notes and materials from this year’s 2008 NFB Convention. I have to sit down and remember everything from my worse than usual notes via bad spellings. Plus I have to remember what stuff is public knowledge and what stuff I can’t say here. Once that is all sorted you can expect some better posts out of me over the next few days. Ah, and I will update the poll and the sidebar links on the right of the page too.. promise.

But first a bit of a honest appology for not posting more on the fly during the meetings. My Toshiba of many years, and several Vista beta tests, gave up it’s fight for the right to party at one more convention. I guess it heard about the heat and just said forget it I guess. No worries as I will take my trusty dusty $20 from Fry’s Electronic Microsoft 1000 keyboard and the backup work laptop right? How does the Enter key and the Escape key go out on a keyboard at the same time? The wire isn’t split and the board is clean. Rats. I’ll just type on the Gateway as is or will as the need arises. And you saw the results of that one on Sunday. So I thought I would just wait and summarize the day in the hotel room afterwards. But then I remembered that I was cheap and I didn’t want to spend $10.95 for broadband access for the room. Then came the experiment of posting while being hunched over a small footstool and balancing a 17 inch widescreen laptop in such a manner that I could nab the free lobby wireless in the “poor” state rather than the “fair” one I was hoping for at the time. As a result of that one post I had created two new tags for posts. And badly spelled as well. I also got kisses from at least three Dog Guides because I was at “Dog Level Access” or close enough to the floor to get a uninitiated lick from the passing pooch. They probably smelled that I’m a dog person but they were working and I didn’t want to be a distraction. Especially in that hotel. And a lot of the meetings I attended weren’t in the Lecture Halls like the 2006 convention. Writing in the other rooms was just too difficult because the meetings were packed to the rafters in some cases. So I kind of gave up.

Next time I will just go commando with a wireless keyboard and Tweet the whole thing like reporters do from WWDC. Hmm, an uncensored Ranger Station. I don’t know if the world is ready for that.

Conditions aside, I have some product impressions and a funny story or two to write about. And as always I appreciate the kind comments I got from those of you who I met at the convention who do read this site on a regular basis. It really is shocking to me still when I meet someone who says “Oh, I’ve been reading for years” and then they quote something I don’t remember writing. Thank goodness I can spot my own sad attempts at humor when someone quotes what I wrote back to me. It helps me remember what I said whenever I wrote that thing that they just said they found entertaining, or even scarier, informative.

No wait. .  the reading for years bit. That scares me more. TRS is almost “thwee and a half yeawrs ol’d”. Minus six months for the cartoon refrence’s sake. For those who have been reading for years not only do I salute you but I think I owe you a drink. Bless you all for staying and thank you all for reading!

I’d usually say something like “I’ll do better” or “I will strive to provide a better experience”… Which would be a lie because I know, and you know by now, I’m a computerish kind of guy and we just love to push stuff back into development another six months if we can. Therefore pretend I said something more forward thinking and inspiring please. It will foster a better relationship for us if you do just enter Mr. Ranger’s land of Make Believe/positive comments. Ooo Here’s the trolly now. Say “Hi” to King Friday as you go past.

what I will say, and totally admit to when asked, is that I did take my foot off the accelerator with this blog for a while. Some of that was due to me being under several NDAs at one time and another aspect came from a not so safe ability for me [and a few others in the blog’o’sphere] to discuss Assistive Technology openly. I don’t want to rehash the past but to put it bluntly the Assistive Technology Industry has matured a tad and it can survive a few school playground insults, name callings or out and out critical analyses of their products by people like me and other newly minted self proclaimed informative pundits on the web.

I had the luxury to speak to some of the movers and the shakers of our industry in a series of quiet meetings at this year’s convention. And I have to say that the views of how some of these companies view the net, and blogs like this one, has changed for the better. I’m not saying that it is all wine and roses. But I think we as Blind Tech Enthusiasts may be approaching the brink of a Trade Press collective. Or I had one whopper of a dream from that Pizza Hut special that I ordered. Either way I came away with a positive feeling for writing more indepth here and I think a few others who aspire to do more may also find a similar frame of mind over the next few months.    

So I return to the title of this post. Turmoil in our industry continues, however, for now I’m “Down and Safe” and a bit recharged, along with feeling a slight more empowered, by some fantastic comments to broaden the range here a bit. Time is a slippery weasel that I can’t seem to catch. Hopefully I may not have to chase him down as much and I may post a bit more over the coming year.

Now if those Kiebler Elves would stop making those delicious cookies and get back on adding a few more hours on the day like I asked them for things would be fine and dandy. Of course they probably never hear the requests quite right because they have all those free cookies in the waiting room and my mouth was probably full when I made the request. Oh well..

A shout out to the commenter who wanted to know more about Mobile Geo. I didn’t get a chance to go into that meeting and I had a bunch of other things on the table with Handytech North America/Code Factory. But the gang at Blind Bargains picked up the ball I fumbled and ran this down for you. Check out their interview on Mobile Geo at the link below. And next time we are at the same spot JJ we gots to hook up!

http://www.blindbargains.com/audio.php?m=3252

And here is the link for getting $100 off if you pre-order it soon.

http://codefactory.es/en/press.asp?id=60&y=2008&n=42

Almost 2 Years Later.. Reviewing My 2006 Vista And Office 07 NFB Overviews Part 2

This is part two of my look back at my 2006 NFB presentation to the Computer Sciences group in Dallas at the National Convention. If you didn’t read that post or you missed part one here are the links for both.

Old Presentation.

http://therangerstation.blogspot.com/2006/07/windows-vista-and-office-2007-overview.html

Part One of my look back.

http://therangerstation.blogspot.com/2008/05/almost-2-years-later-reviewing-my-2006.html

We pick up with some reflections on Office 2007.

This is where things get a bit interesting. Some of the things I mentioned in my presentation were based solely on early builds of Office 07. And about a month after the convention some of my nit picks went away in another subsequent build. I'm not taking credit for these changes, however, I was on the panel with a key Microsoft person who did take some issues with what I said that day. Perhaps it was more than sheer coincidence? Nahh.. probably more due to the nature of the beta cycle more likely.

Quote: The good news about Microsoft Office 2007 is that all of the current 1,500 hotkeys/commands from 2003 have been ported over to the new Office Suite. The bad news is that they don't always do what they used to do in Office 2003. Being a power Office user actually works against you as the commands that have become instinctive will now take you places you have never been before. For example I was not sure how to jump my focus initially to the tab portion of the Ribbon interface. I tried several commands and modifier key combinations. It was only after I decided to do an Alt + H combination did I find myself sitting on the "Home" tab. of course I thought that Alt + H would take me to the "Help" tab instead. This is just one of the surprises in store for you when you first start using Office. It becomes even more readily apparent that we as Blind users are at a real disadvantage when you look at a more visual based program like power Point. The Gallery alone for the "Animations" tab is far too complex for me to even begin to describe non visually.

In early builds some common commands did not always work in the same way that you remembered in 2003. What came about over time was a move within Office to leave the key commands that utilized the Control key alone. So CTRL plus S, X, V and others all worked the same. Commands that used the ALT key were not always going to produce the same result in 2007.

Another new behavior came along with that ALT key. When using Office with the Ribbon you can jump to a desired location easily once you learn the path of keys that must be struck successively. For example, to drop in a Cover Sheet into a Word Document you can strike ALT plus N for the Insert tab then hit your V key once you have focus on the Insert tab. Instead of hitting two or three keys at once you could hit a series of keys to get two where you were going.

All things were not that simple though. A friend of mine liked to use Control plus Enter in Outlook. A box popped up to say that this was a 2003 key and it went on to ask if he wanted to continue to use that key command in 2007. He wasn't thinking and he said "No" along with the "Don't show this again" before he realized what he had done. I told him there was a long way of getting it back without installing over Office but it would take some time to get there. He decided to learn the 2007 keys instead that way he would not run into this issue again.

The good news is that you can remap a lot of stuff in Office 07 if it doesn't suit your fancy. The bad news is that these changes aren't global and you will need to do them for each part of the Suite. At least you have a choice now to customize all of this. The hard part is either discovering all of this on your own or sitting through training sessions to learn how to tame this beast.

In multiple paragraphs, both then and now, I stressed the need for training on the changes from XP to Vista and Office 03 to 07. I mentioned before that the AT companies have gone to long lengths to bridge this gap through verbosity language and the ability to read many of the tool tips on the fly. Even with all of this help at your command things can still be out of reach. Take this instance where I talk about how Microsoft has tweaked the Ribbon for mouse users.

Quote: As an experiment in terror I showed my sighted wife the new Office 2007. She took to it like a duck to water. In minutes she was creating a power Point presentation with advanced features in only minutes. She told me that the new interface was very intuitive and she liked how the program would give her visual indications as to what options were open to her at a glance. She could make changes to the format of a document without changing the document it's self by hovering her mouse over a picture of the format or scheme displayed in the Gallery up in the Ribbon interface. For me as a mid level user who can use either Screen Reader or Screen Magnifier products I found that it took me twice as long or longer to perform the same tasks my wife was doing in seconds. For once all the millions in marketing and user research have paid off for Microsoft as this new version of Office will dramatically change the way future releases will look and feel.

And it has done exactly that. Office 2009 is said to be "All Ribbon.. All the time!". Vista already uses a pseudo Ribbon. And MS was so happy with the reception of the User Interface that they allow third parties to use it under a free license. Sadly things are going to get even more visual from this point forward. The meta Media Universe has arrived to the party while some of us are still trying to figure out what to wear to this shindig.

Here again the Screen Magnifier user faces a greater challenge to using these controls. Due to the nature of enlargement, you can always make something bigger if you are willing to sacrifice the ability to see what is around your mouse pointer or text cursor. I mentioned that my wife could hover over a control and see the changes that control would make *live* on a given document. With a Screen Magnifier I have to make those changes in a more permanent fashion as I can either see the Control in focus or the document proper. Not both. Thank goodness for Control plus Z right?

But the Control Z key combo is a perfect example of why things are not so good for the Screen Mags and not so bad for the Screen Reads. Without going down the path of Low Vision people being in denial, the fact remains that some users will always do things the sighted way first. And try as you might you can't always teach a old dog new tricks. Which means that Low Vision users must either rely on memorization techniques in a dynamic environment or they may just give up on some features of a program entirely. Which then gives the sighted co-worker a leg up on being the Office Product Suite Guru.

Continuing on..

Quote: Like anything else more time with the products will increase my speed and abilities to navigate through Both Office and Vista. And again I am not doing myself any favors by learning both at the same time. It is very realistic, however, that this will be the case for a lot of Blind users who take my advice that I offered at the beginning on waiting to buy a new computer rather than upgrade piece meal. For them and others this will be the only option open when both Vista and Office come bundled with new computer systems. So there is a method to my madness for tackling both programs in this manner.

Hello! Just about any student getting a PC this graduation season falls under this one.

Quote: Due to what little time we have here today I haven't discussed that there are some features of both Windows Vista and office 2007 that are version specific. So in other words you might have a friend with Vista Home Premium and Office Student Edition who could not afford the ultimate Editions I am using in the Beta program. My options for creating and viewing files are far more vast than what your friend can do with his or her versions of Vista and Office. However, if your friend has enough money on hand they can upgrade their copies of both over the internet with On Line Distribution. Hopefully they won't alter their Assistive Technology in the process by going from what we now know as Home to Professional but that's another discussion for another time. The fact is that a person can rapidly change their Operating System's look and feel by purchasing an upgrade via the internet. Vista will even tell you that you will need to upgrade your software when you try to access an option in a lower priced version of the product. Better yet if you chose to ignore my advice and you upgraded your computer and it cannot use a particular function of Vista... it will let you buy the upgrade and then tell you that you will need to upgrade your hardware to take advantage of your new purchase.

Ah! Another one where I am 50/50. The hardware and software thing was on track. The current lawsuit about “Vista Capable”, “Vista Compatible” and “Vista Ready” is still pending and it addresses a lot of what I said above. However Microsoft has suspended the “Any Time Upgrade” via the net. There has been an “Any Time Upgrade Kit” which comes with a DVD and other materials but it wasn’t the exclusive way of upgrading until the begining of this year.

The problems with upgrading to Vista with AT ended up being awful. Time consuming or a pain in the rear because you had to use Narrator for almost everything. But it wasn’t awful enough to be beyond the realm of meer mortals As long as you keep in mind the Home versus Professional product lines of old. And if that is a headache then there is always the Ultimate Editions of both which has everything. Just remember that those Ultimate versions are considered as being Professional not Home when you update your AT Also give credit to Microsoft for not allowing you to overwrite Pro with Home or FAT32 over NTFS.

Tip: Uninstall your Assistive Technology of choice and use Narrator or System Access in XP to access the initial Vista upgrade screens. If Vista finds your sound card drivers, and that is about 90% or better now, you can use Narrator and Magnifier to get you through the first screens before you officially log on to Vista for the first time. When on the Vista Desktop use Narrator one more time to hear the Autoplay options of your Assistive Technology install disc as Vista doesn’t use an Autorun by default. You can close Narrator once you hit the install shield for your AT of choice.

This next part I strongly believe in as I just experienced it again recently. I just upgraded several Dell machines up from XP to Vista and each box reminded me of what I wrote two years ago.

Quote: Vista will scale it's self up or down to more readily adapt to whatever hardware you throw at the thing. So a copy of Windows Vista ultimate on a new computer will look and act very different from a computer made two years ago. Again it will run on the system but it will remind you when it cannot do something due to hardware limitations. Every system will respond and act differently if you take the upgrade path. That’s why I say that it may be worth it to you to wait for the Vista Ready machines to roll out next year before you decide to buy.

On my home boxes I run either Vista Ultimate or XP SP 3. At work we just moved to Windows Vista Enterprise. Enterprise isn’t too far off from Ultimate. But my main box at home is 16 months older than the newer ones at work. The speed and responsiveness of Vista on newer hardware is sometimes astounding. I say sometimes because I see some cycle intensive programs take on full loads the exact same way at home and at work. That is to say they both suffer and drag in the same spots no matter what the hardware specs seem to be on either system.

Overall, however, I am amazed at how performance can be so drastically affected by hardware configurations. And laptops especially tend to either flurish or flounder running Vista. Don’t scrimp on hardware for the notebook computer as Vista loves more than less. How ironic it was for me to see a recent Microsoft ad campaign proclaiming “Do More with less”. Oh well, that’s marketing for ya..

Okay, now we get to the real meat of the matter. Here is what I suggested 23 months ago as a mini buyer’s guide for future Vista boxes. Remember that I was speaking stricly on upgrade paths at the time as the specs for fully loaded Vista systems didn’t show up until five months later for business and 7 months later for consumer oriented products.

Quote: But I believe that everyone should have the freedom to do what they feel. So if you do want to upgrade or buy a new system for Vista here's a mini buyer's guide. Please remember that this information refers to the needs of some specific Assistive Technology programs like Screen magnifiers. And I am shooting low so you don't buy a system only to find yourself having to upgrade again in 18 months.

Desktop: We’ll take these one at a time. I will use a “Then:” for the old suggestion and a “Now:” for the current generation of hardware recommendations.

Processor Then: Intel Dual Core at 2.4 GHz or higher. AMD equivalent will work just as well. A Dual Core processor with Hyperthreading technology may not be worth the money to you unless you do a lot of video editing or massive data creation.

Processor Now: If you are updating an old system then the older suggestion still applies. Just about any new system from Dell, HP or others should be fine with Vista if you are buying new. I generally don’t choose the bottom barrel on the drop down list of available processors as a rule when custom creating a system though.

Memory Then: 2 GB of memory is recommended if you are going to use this computer with Assistive Technology. You can get by on 1 GB; however, Vista directly and dramatically increases its speed with more memory on board. Vista ultimate, for example, can recognize up to 128 GB of memory.

Memory Now: 2 GB minimum. 1 GB is really a struggle. In fact 3 GB is better but 4 GB isn’t used all that well by Vista in the 32 bit flavors. In 64 bit the skies the limit. In the original vista rollouts I saw a lot of 1GB configurations. Around mid 2007 that turned to a 2 GB minimum for most OEMs. So this shouldn’t be a problem as much for someone buying a new box.

Video Card Then: A dedicated Display Card of at least 128 MB is a requirement for some versions of Vista's AERO Glass interface. Screen magnifier users however should think about 256 MB based cards if they can afford them. All Assistive Technology users are better off using 128 MB cards though as this will free up system resources and it won't get in the way of your computer's memory/processor.

Video Card Now: If you are updating then 128 MB still applies. I would check the support forums for your display adaptor before you make the leap to Vista however. Some driver support is still kind of wonky, Hi NVIDIA, and it is better to download the latest and greatest drivers/patches on to a USB drive before you upgrade. If you are buying new it will be very difficult to find a card below 128 MB. Or 256 for that matter. You really want to be careful with machines designed as big time gamming rigs though. Dual video cards and some SLI configurations are not supported by some AT programs. Some Direct X 10 high end cards can employ layering effects that can also work badly with Mirror Drivers. So… like you need more research right? Yep. The best course of action is to check with your AT company on any potential issues with a particular video card before you click “add to cart” when buying a new system.

Sound Card Then: No longer can you scrimp on going with On Board Audio chips. It's in your best interest that you look at a dedicated sound card as Direct X sinks up audio and video for every program running on your computer. Having a fast video card won't help you if it has to wait for your low end audio card to do its work in order for both to sink properly. So if you want to avoid stuttering speech or lags in Screen Magnification you want to go with a real true blue sound card.

Sound Card Now: This area I screwed up on in a few ways. Part of the mistakes came about when Microsoft started changing internally the way that sound is handled under Vista. Another thing I didn’t see coming was the rise and fall and rise again of DRM with High Def video and audio. And then last but not least I was betrayed by Creative Labs with their dog awful response and subsequent lack of support for Vista. The best course of action for audiophiles is to buy, gulp, a new card that has far better support and features under Vista than your current card does. New computer buyers should again research the sound card option carefully because not all sound cards are created equal under Vista. And some are far better at music, others at gamming and others boast better audio/video experiences. My thoughts on this is the sound card game is one big craps shoot. I’ve seen and heard some great performance out of some cards with music only to then find that they stink with video files. And vise versa. Oh and don’t even get me started on sound with SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 with Vista. That is a rant best suited for when I have more time to write and you have a day and a half to read the thing.

Hard Drive Then: 80 GB or higher. Windows Vista and Office 2007 took up 17 GB on my laptop's 60 GB hard drive and that's before I loaded anything else. Remember that files are getting bigger all the time and you can't get away with a smaller drive unless you plan on backing up your data... a lot.

Hard Drive Now: Updating with 80 GB? Sure thing. Just plan on going out to purchase a gross of DVDs and an external USB hard drive later on in the day. With drive prices falling and storage being so cheap, when compaired to a few years ago,250 to 320 GB is the new low point I would suggest for HDD.

DVD ROM Then and Now: All future software releases from Microsoft will be in DVD format. The size of Vista alone is 3.4 GB.

Monitor Then: A widescreen monitor will give everyone, including Screen Reader users, a better experience with their Assistive Technology of choice. Using a more traditional square monitor means that a program will have to resize or reformat a page that is designed for wider displays or monitors running at a higher resolution. Think of it like a 40 cell braille display versus an 80 cell model. Speech products have a tendency to read better in some cases because they don’t have to pause between more lines of text. A wider display shows whole sentences which makes some products act differently. Weird I know but not all Assistive Technology products access and read text the same way so your mileage on this may vary.

Monitor Now: This one I kind of changed my mind on slightly. While a Widescreen display is still my first recommendation for both old and new, I concede that some eye conditions do not work well with a wider field of view. Those people with diminishing field restrictions or those who have nothing but their Central Fields may struggle with wider and larger monitors. The trend is going the way of the rectangle however. Therefore people who like the smaller 15 to 17 inch old fashion displays may have to turn to bargain store close outs or Ebay for a monitor replacement. As HDTV comes online in 2009 you will be hard pressed to find that square style in any stores or with Online Retailers.

Moving now to the laptop or notebook systems..

Laptop:

Processor Then: The lowest I even suggest is an Intel Dual Core Mobile at 1.66 GHz. If you can go higher than do so. The obvious difference in performance is based upon the number of application running at the same time. In other words running more than four apps in open windows is not a good idea on laptops with lower speeds.

Processor Now: My advice is don’t upgrade a Laptop to Vista period. It is more time consuming than it is worth to troubleshoot if something goes wrong and it is an arm and a leg to pay for what you need if you do need more hardware. Now if you are buying new higher can be better but it isn’t that simple. You want to look at power versus heat. A lower end processor might not replace a Super Computer, however, if all you are doing is spreadsheets and some light surfing with your AT of choice then stay in the middle range of processors with AMD or Intel. Heavy duty web apps? Go higher!

Memory Then: The same 2 GB is highly recommended. Although Windows Vista can be set to use a flash drive as virtual memory. A 4 GB USB Flash Drive could give you a 10% boost on some programs if you allow Vista to use the entire drive for its needs.

Memory Now: 3 GB if you can afford that level of memory. Readyboost is a lot better now than it was two years ago but it is still no match for on board memory.

Video Card Then: 128 MB cards are a must. Higher is better but 128 MB dedicated non memory sharing video cards will make your life a whole lot easier.

Video Cards Now: This one all depends on what you want to do with your new notebook. If you like rich dynamic content and video there within or playing movies on said new system then a high end card may suit your fancy. If you are a Screen Reader user who doesn’t have to give rich dynamic content presentations as a part of your job or playing DVD movies just isn’t your bag then the world of video cards is your oyster. Mind you if you DO like all that video Web 2.0 Blu Ray stuff I would suggest you buy an extra battery because you will be eating power like it was a $2.99 Las Vegas hotel buffet.

Sound Card Then: The rule here is to go with a card that will not share system memory. You may have a laptop with 512 MB of RAM; however, the On Board Video and Audio cards take 64 MB or more away from that 512 MB. One of the laptops I tested that had just such a configuration only shows that Vista has 384 MB out of 512 MB available. Trust me and shoot for a non integrated card.

Sound Cards Now: Um.. most of them suck. No really. I’m usually most depressed with this aspect more than anything else on laptop configurations under Vista. And I am not alone. Just look at the rise in popularity of USB external sound cards and sound chips in USB headphones. I recommend that a lot of Screen Readers, or Screen Magnifiers with assisted Speech, consider USB headphones with the sound chip option. It tends to be a far better solution then fighting with drivers and the sound mixer at times with Vista. To each his own though.

Hard Drive, DVD and the rest is the same as the desktop recommendations for both “Then” and “Now”.

We’re getting to the end but my gaffs in logic, and my underestimating hardware support, continue. Here are some aspects of vista that I, ha!, predict are worth looking out for in the next two years.

Quote: Windows Sideshow: This part of Windows allows you to view files wirelessly from a Tablet PC, picture frame or from a LCD monitor on the lid of your laptop. This secondary screen on the lid of the laptop can even let you view email or see your photos without you having to manipulate controls in Windows.

One Note/Meeting Space: Imagine being in this room a year from now and me saying that I have a file folder open on my laptop and you can download this presentation on your Vista based system. Its Peer to Peer file sharing on a whole new level and it will do wonders for the class room.

Windows Media Player 11 and Internet Explorer 7+: While both programs will be available for Windows XP both have specific features that only come with Windows Vista. For instance IE7 has a "safe mode" that lets it run in a protected memory file so you can avoid programs that hijack or redirect your browser.

Windows Sideshow Is just now starting to find some love from hardware manufactures. Around Christmas I saw a few wireless LCD picture frames that supported this feature. Last summer I saw maybe three high end laptops that supported the LCD on the lid. However as we move forward, and away from XP support, the hardware will eventually catch up to this software feature.

Microsoft can only encourage others to develop for a Windows platform. They can not easily jump into the hardware game with Desktops and Laptops without someone crying foul. But they have dipped their little toe in the water with a re-labeling of some monitor’s back at Vista’s launch. MS also does well with mice, keyboards and other accessories too. I guess never say “never”.

One Note/Meeting Space… I am starting to see this in colleges. Higher technically inclined Professors are either using wireless connections in class to pass along content via the internet or they are using Meeting Space if the University has adopted Vista for their student bodies. Sadly this technology is only as good as Vista’s adoption rate. In this respect Vista shares some traits with the Zune’s Social Sharing of music. While it sounds good on paper, finding someone with a Zune to share with is the problem. Same with Meeting Space. It works well. Now find someone to play with and you are all set.

The one I got right, and honestly it was pretty hard not to get it right, was WMP 11 and IE7 for Vista. Internet Explorer 7+, the original name for IE in Vista, was a label dropped almost three months later after I talked about it in Dallas. For the most part both have been stable and better versions of their respective products. Although Windows Media Player integration can prove to be a bear to troubleshoot. In a recent situation I learned that you can’t really uninstall or reinstall WMP 11 all that easily in Vista. There are work arounds for this kind of thing and they don’t involve reinstalling Vista thank goodness. But it did take me by surprise that one of the oldest and best tricks in my arsenal wasn’t available to me right off the bat.

Let’s skip down to the wrap up paragraph..

Quote: Before I conclude today I want to stress that all of this is very specific to today's technology. Windows Vista will use Direct X 10 for all of its video. But no one can test how well that works yet as no Direct X 10 cards are on the market as I stand here today. The information I have spoken about today is based on the Beta releases of Vista and Office with older hardware. It's a whole new ball game come this Xmas season when the new generation of hardware that is made with Vista in mind hits the streets. I urge you to do your research before you do absolutely anything. Seek out your local Assistive Technology Venders and try before you buy. Just don't base your needs off a demonstration on the Exhibit Hall floor. There is no way for you to get a real feel for all of these changes in a few minutes of a sales demonstration. My real fear is that many of you will have serious Buyer's Remorse if you don't spend some time kicking the tires of all this new fangled technology. So read, listen and talk to as many people as you can before you enter into anything.

Some AT companies did have trouble with Vista. Some did have trouble with Direct X 10. However most have either worked out the kinks or are useable enough in Vista to make it something not to fear. Vista for all it’s public misconceptions is a good operating system. It is faster on newer hardware, it is far more secure than XP and in two more years it may just be your best friend as we approach what ever the next version of Windows, now code named Windows 7, is called.

Don’t get me wrong. XP was a great operating system. But it is seven years old and MS will have to stop supporting it with updates at some point. If you decide on your next system to downgrade to XP you have two major problems to face. One is that around 2010 security updates will not be as frequent or timely because MS will be looking at Windows Vista, Windows Server and Windows 7. XP will slide downwards in importance no matter how many people are still using the OS. Don’t believe me? Just go ask a Windows 2000 user how fun life has been since the release of Vista. A big fish like Microsoft does move forward and when they do you can bet that the turbulence in their wake can be a very rough ride indeed. And that isn’t to say that their won’t be support for XP. 2014 is probably the very last year for XP support… for major corporations and volume license holders. Support for individuals gets harder and more costly around 2011.

My feelings are this..

The road from Windows 98 to XP for AT users was less than spectacular. The road from XP to Vista was three years too long and people got complacent with what they had. Hardware makers had a ton of old hardware to unload because MS took too much time shipping Vista. The supply outweighed the demand because the traditional Moore’s law hardware cycle was broken as XP just couldn’t do any better with the current or future generations of hardware. With no real reasons to upgrade due to lack of hardware support, Microsoft was forced to sell something that could only speak to future potential. Not to mention that they had to lower the bar for entry level products as hardware makers had that ton of old crap to sell. MS lived up to their side of things by lowering that bar but the hardware community then stuck it right back to Microsoft by creating the worst kind of drivers, if they did it at all, for Vista. Not to mention people tried loading their older than dirt drivers, applications and hardware on the thing only to cry crocodile tears when their printer from one generation past the dot matrix era didn’t work with Vista. You throw in the not so factual “Get a Mac” ads and you find that the public perception moved to a wierd level of trust that XP was the greatest while Vista was a buggy thing that should be avoided at all costs.

The reality is that XP was the exact same way at this point in it’s life cycle. Add to the reality that Vista has sold more than XP at the same point in it’s life, driver support for Vista pre SP1 was better than any version of Windows previously and then consider that we had AT products ready and rearrin’ to go on launch day… Plus that’s just for starters. Kick in the security features, the IP6 functionality, the level of search, the ability to uber customize the UI, built in voice recognition, better USB support and lots more that I could go on and on about.

I’ll close with some questions that I must answer almost daiily at work.

Does Vista have drawbacks? Sure. All software does. Should you fear Vista in 2008? No. Should you consider Vista on your next computer? Yes. Should you downgrade to XP on a new computer? No. Should you stay with your current system running XP? Yes, for as long as you feel you need to do so. Just be ready for Windows 7 when you do buy in the next 18 months.

Whew! We reached the end. Now it is your turn to sound off. Feel free to agree, disagree or generally run a muck in the comments section. Maybe your experiences range farther apart from mine. Maybe you see what I’m saying. Or perhaps you just have turned to Linux or something. In the end I wasn’t trying to have this be a praise of MS. I did, however, want to be one of the few lone wolves who stood by Vista because in all honesty it has been the easiest version of Windows for me to work with and troubleshoot.

I hope this look back was helpful or at least an interesting read. Thanks for going back in time with me. We will see how I do next time when I write about the betas for Office 2009 and Windows 7.