My Top Ten Of 2011: Numbers 3, 2, 1 And More

I wanted to make sure the podcast archive was online before I finished my poll results here on TRS. To hear myself, J.J., Jamie and Lisa discuss the year that was in AT, click on the link below to be taken to the SeroSpectives podcast archive.

http://serotalk.com/2012/01/06/this-year-in-assistive-technology-for-2011/

And now, as the late Paul Harvey was known for saying, “the… rest of the story’. Here is the story that was chosen for the number three position.

http://www.blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=6454

And my choice was the number 2 story selected by the panel.

Demise of Qwitter accessible Twitter client, replacements emerge
notoriety is a fickle thing. And it doesn’t always bring about fame and fortune. It can, as seen earlier this year, bring on headaches and forking of a project. Quitter demonstrated the beauty and the pitfalls of Open Source. It also, unfortunately, showed the darker side of a community enraged with some forms of snarkyness that the internet is never in short supply of on just about any subject. There are lots of fingers to be pointed in various directions for the “who and the why”, almost as many as the various offshoots of Quitter actually, and this too shall pass into obscurity like so much other “Twitter Drama’. For now though, it was one of the bigger stories of 2011.

Here is the link to what was said on Blind Bargains about the Quitter story.

http://www.blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=6451

To make things fun and confusing, here was what I chose for number 2.

Apple to launch iPhone 4S simultaneously with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint
The story here isn’t VoiceOver, iOS5 or even the passing of Steve Jobs. No, the acceptance of voice control with a TTS engine by the mainstream in the passion for Siri far and away is the highlight of what otherwise is just the same old iPhone in a relative modified shell. For years this technology has been available but it took the Apple marketing team to make it cool enough to use. The question is, where does Siri go after the novelty wears off? That we may see in 2012 because Siri, like iCloud, is still in beta.

Lastly, the panel and I were in sync with the number 1 story. Here is the link…

http://www.blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=6453

With my thoughts being…

Amazon Kindle Fire released, completely inaccessible/Amazon releases accessible Kindle for PC
this one is just so frustrating and infuriating. There is no good reason why the largest online retailer, who had months of time prior to this product’s launch, should have released the Kindle Fire without some form of access. Even using Talkback, as the Fire relies on a modded version of Android at its core, would have been something. But the fun doesn’t stop with Amazon there. the cheapest and newest of the kindles does not feature a speaker nor TTS. And the release of the Kindle for PC, with its considerable drawbacks, should have been the “Spector of Doom” for what was to come in 2011. It’s funny that many try to pit Apple versus Google on the Mobile Accessibility Wars when it really seems that Amazon is the bigger offender of anyone seeing how they have poor access on just about every platform they touch. More than anything else, Amazon’s approach .. or lack thereof.. on Access is the biggest story in Assistive Technology in 2011.

I want to thank the guys at Blind Bargains for asking me back for my third go around with this look back at the year. And it was really great fun to be able to do this in person and in podcast form. I hope you enjoyed the panel’s feedback and I invite you to continue to listen to the “This Month In AT” shows as they end up being the genesis for this conversation for the end of what will be in 2012.

Twitter FTW!

The number one question I get asked in person and online the most is “What happened?”. And I usually in a coy manner ask innocently “By what do you mean?” to those who ask it in the full knowledge that I know darn well what they mean. But I’d rather hear the question directly than jump to any conclusions of course. Well that and I’m avoiding the actual question that comes next naturally. “I mean, what happened to you blogging?”. and I swiftly respond, in the same coy tone mind you, “oh, that old thing.. yeah I really do need to get around to doing more of that at some point”. Which then has two effects. .

One, I usually don’t have to explain the crazed existence that is my offline life any further because I can easily point to a flotilla of posts where I’ve whined about that already.. a lot. And no this isn’t one of those kinds of posts. I’m actually in one of those rare good moods that finds me in the calm before the storm. The storm being Office 2010 that comes ashore on May 12^th and hangs around for like 3 more years if we are lucky.

or..

Two, it makes people more incensed to know why. Which is not what I’m shooting for at all.

There is another portion to option two however. And that leads me to ask another question of my own.. “have you read the Twitter feed?”. Which results in a reply 80% of the time in the answer found to be in the negative side of a response.

I then launch into a litany of terms, abbreviations and subjects that deal exclusively with my obsession to discuss all things in life in a space fewer than 160 typed characters. A sort of an “All things microblogging according to the mind of Ranger1138” if you will. And most, note that these are generally more of the sighted people I speak to.. again mostly, say “Oh.. you mean Facebook”. And I respond quickly with “um.. no.” and then I look for something heavy to hit them with or the quickest exit out of the conversation that holds the same appeal. For Twitter is not Facebook despite the number of web applets, add ons and odd third party applications that pontificate otherwise.

I have, quite simply, embraced Twitter with a zeal that I knew I would. I even predicted it to Mike Calvo and Jeff Bishop that I would do exactly this OCD thing I do so well if I was ever to open an account. And low and behold, I did just that. Over 6,600 tweets in a year. With most of them being some kind of relevant to the types of things I’ve blogged about in the last 5 years. Or at least to me they are at any rate.

I love the pureness of Twitter. The raw direct ability to converse, misunderstand and honk off someone through the imperfections of text speak only to smooth things over 10 minutes later all while in the presence of the world [or those following at least] of the whole thing intrigues me to no end. And I guess, being honest with myself, there is a bit of danger involved with this that is a driving force in my love of Twitter as well.

I’ve seen some amazing social disasters of epic scale made by people I know and respect, I’ve gotten up to the second news on matters in the Blindness community and the Assistive Technology Industry .. and I’ve been able to sift through the web faster than if I relied on RSS feeds alone. In short, I view Twitter now as a must have tool for both my working and social life.

That isn’t to say that I still don’t like to blog. I do like to write here. The problem is that setting aside the time to write something interesting, or at least entertaining, is a task I take very seriously. Just as I don’t like to talk about what I’ve eaten or what fricking thing some company is doing if you retweet them to win a prize that you have no idea that anyone you have ever known as won.. ever! To me, that so sullies the beauty that is Twitter. And I, by the same yard stick, don’t want to post something just to have posted something here to keep readership going for readership sake.

I don’t run analytics on this site. I don’t use Ad Sense, drop lines of java or do that wonderful blurb in the middle of the post. And I generally don’t stare at the number of friends or followers that read this blog, or the Twitter feed, in hopes that they skyrocket in some need to have numbers higher than Rick Harmon's. Which I do by the way Rick. Nudge nudge, wink wink!

I truly like to write about this stuff when I can and it can be a cathartic mental exercise for me. Plus, it gives me an option not to use mailing lists. Which I generally despise with a passion I usually only hold for remakes of classic Science Fiction films. I’m looking at you proposed new updated or remained version of “Robocop”.

So, the moral of the story today is that if you miss, or for some insane reason want, to read more of the stuff I would write about here.. follow me on Twitter. I actually do respond to people, write them back in emails and direct messages. Which is a far cry from the way I’ve dealt with that here on TRS in the past.

See you all in the timelines. .

http://twitter.com/RangerStation

Blind Bargains Awards And My concession Speech

Ahem, is this thing on?..  I would like to thank everyone for coming here today and braving the cold weather to celebrate what was a tightly contested race. But, at the end of the month, we failed to gain enough support to cross the finish line as the winner of the Best Blindness Related Blog.

I say to you gentle readers and followers of the site, no tears. For you did not let this blog down. No, I your humble and semi prolific author have let you down. And for that .. um.. well okay it couldn’t be helped.

The wealth of stuff that happened between June of 2009 and the end of that year was simply astounding. the fall of Vista and the rise of Windows 7. the moves by Apple with Snow Leopard and the iPhone. Why you can barely swing a NFB straight cane and not hit a pile of new talking MP3 players these days right?

and then there was the note takers. So many options between the Braille Sense Plus, the Icon and the new Apex. Plus the Video Magnifiers started to fall out of the trees man. Ruby, Sense View Light, Versa, the Pebble and about a dozen others all from China.

At no time in my 30 plus years of using Assistive Technology have I been this overwhelmed at the non dearth of choices coming on the market for us who are Blind and Visually Impaired.

This cornucopia of tech occupied a whole lot of my offline life, which, as you know, directly impacts the time I have to blog. So if I’m not writing, in a way,  that is a very good thing. A good thing indeed.

Getting back to the tons’o’stuff thing for a moment, another great story of 2009 was the emergence of my fellow pundits. Amateur podcasters and bloggers went mainstream in a big way in 2009. And so did the fragmentation of information. There is a huge vast newly formed Echo Chamber that has grown from the mailing lists into dozens of RSS feeds. And that too is a win win for the community.

Therefore, I don’t see this lack of a statue, do we get a statuette, er. um.. as a defeat. As the fact that I don’t have to write about everything and anything is a blessing. Oh right. Less about me then. Uh.. maybe next year? Hmm.. Thanks for coming and there is an ice cream cake in the shape of the Apple logo in the corner. And no, I wasn't the one that took a bite out of it. That is the way the logo looks normally. Honest!

End of speech.

All kidding aside, I am again thrilled to be nominated for the award. and, as I have said before, I’m a bit on the guilty side of things in that I could have done more to deserve the nomination.

I am always knocked out by how many people do read these ramblings, even after a prolonged offline forced absence. Over the last 5 years I’ve been able to say “Ranger1138” in a crowded room and for some strange reason people listen. Or throw their PAC Mates at me. It is such a strange world.

I want to acknowledge the other nominees and the winner of the category now, because I’m a fan of all of them.

The winner, as it should be really, is the team of writers at Fred’s Head. I’ve always liked how they post things on just about every part of the spectrum of living with Blindness and Low Vision. Life skills tips, tech tips, Service Animal suggestions and non related Blindness things as well. You name it, they’ve pretty much talked about it over the years. My hat is off to them and congratulations on the winning of this year’s award.

http://www.fredshead.info/

Sometimes I think I’ve said too much on TRS. Sometimes I think I may have overstepped my bounds and maybe, alright for sure, offended one of my dear friends in the AT Industry.  And then I read the Serotek Blog. It is at that moment I realize that I’m a monk who has taken a vow of silence. Mike Calvo’s impressions on matters is always compelling even if you don’t agree with his views on every post. But in every life some rain must fall, which at times means Mike can be a monsoon when he is fired up. Just go back to the Intel Reader post from November if you want to know more.

http://serotek.com/blog

I’ve saved the best for last. I salute you Ms. Roberts. You’re passionate and strong arguments on a wide range of topics have been a pleasure to read throughout 2009. I’ve been following all the ups and downs while pulling for you the entire way like a sled dog in Alaska. One day I hope to be able to play a board game with you offline and discuss the weight of the world. Good job and all the best to you in 2010.

http://www.blindgal.com/

I also know that this mutual admiration society thing may sound a little tiring at this stage, however, I want to thank JJ and the crew at Blind Bargains for their organizing of this year’s awards. JJ and BB have really outdone themselves in the last year to become a serious contender for our fingers, ears and attention in the universe of AT. And I admire the zeal, and energy too, at which they have put into their efforts in 2009.

http://www.blindbargains.com/

Two more posts on a look back at 2009 and then I’ll stop reminiscing about the past and get back to the future. Or find a way to make a DeLorean tell me with a DecTalk when I’ve hit 88.8 miles per hour. “DeLorean is reminiscing ”   

A Look Back At 2009: Part 2

Here are two more stories from the year that was 2009.

Windows 7 and same-day screen reader access

As I said in the Blind Bargains Top 11, the fantastic ability for many players in AT to have launch day versions up and running is unto its self a great story. But in a way it is also a reflection of the times we live in now.

Back when Vista was still in the 5 year gestation phase of development, getting anyone to discuss their plans for betas, let alone full product, releases was like pulling teeth with a rusty pair of plyers. I should know well because many would run and hide from me when I approached their booths at CSUN each year. I believe that was back when I coined the phrase “Look, I know this is like beating a dead horse with a straight cane but.. “. Conversations eventually went like this..

Ranger: “Hi!”

AT Rep: “No.”

Ranger: “no? No to what?”

AT Rep: “You know darn well what. Vista… the answer is no.”

Sheepish looks, and innocent appeals to their nature, with questions like  “What about the children?” usually got me beaten over the head with whatever was being given away that year in the booth. And despite what you might think, those rubber sharks can leave a mark. Glad the famous cookie jars were no where to be found. I wasn’t alone in my barrage of inquiries as a blanket generic statement was memorized by all Reps for distribution in the case where anyone uttered the dreaded “V” word.

Vista’s launch, however, turned out to be an interesting snapshot of how tastes and needs were changing. One particular AT company saw a big jump in the number of users who were either interested in Vista or who were already running the OS with their product via the public beta program. In fact,  if nothing else, Vista and 7 have cemented the need for a public beta because it truly expands the scope of the product prior to its official release. 

The rise in the technical level of Blind users in the last five years is staggering. Just look at the number of good sites, podcasts and social media mavens who have come online and made their voices heard as a result of increased access to both Apple and Windows.  Not to mention Mobile and the drive for more to speak about Blind Gadget Culture. Vista, and now 7, showed many in the business that we Blind folk just won’t sit around waiting for the doors to be open on big named devices and software. Hence the “must have” calls for 7 to be ready with your access solution of choice.

Not to say that it was easy but.. 7 development was not nearly as hard as it was for Vista. 7, despite what some have claimed, is not Vista 2.0. However that particular spherical shaped object didn’t fall all that far away from the tree who spawned it actually. So, minus a few hurdles, existing code could be modified from Vista to give us suitable launch day versions of many AT products.

There is another side to the coin and to borrow a catch phrase from the famous Paul Harvey “Page 2!”.

For around three years now I’ve heard tons of mess about Microsoft and how it should be like Apple in the Mac’s new found approach to access. I’ve sat through more debates on “Bolt On Vs. Baked In”, “Screen Scrape Vs. Screen Grab” and “Off Screen Model Vs. Flavor of the Week” than I can count. Now I believe these discussions to be fruitful but man did they ever multiply.

Moreover, I also have been somewhat of an AT Oral Historian in many offline circles. History does repeat and I find myself being more of a curmudgeon on meetings that show me a utopia where all applications are easy to read and full of wonder. This semi negative pessimism can generally be attributed to the dark humor that surrounds the computer industry as a whole, however, my hands are a bit scarred from previous attempts at sticking them into the fire from previous claims that made similar types of promises. 

I was a user on the front lines of a zillion versions of DOS. I was a user during the infamous stare down with Microsoft over Windows 95. Additionally I’ve survived numerous releases of Office. And I, like Microsoft, have been between the hammer and the anvil several times over the years in regards to access. The tools that were forged over time are ones that let me compete with others on equal footing and I appreciate that access ,for MS, has gained a better focus in the design of products to come. I give pause though if future access means a more Apple like approach.

The strength that has evolved for Windows is that the software  is a ubiquitous platform that has numerous partners who give it ample support. If the restaurant doesn’t serve Coke then sometimes Pepsi will do in a pinch. Or, as we are seeing more and more, if Dr. Pepper is on sale then it scratches the ich on one’s need to be budget conscious. I could extend this flimsy example further about ordering watter instead and the use of NVDA .. Naaahhh…

The point is that you aren’t forced to drink one flavor of soda. I don’t care how good it tastes, eventually, you will find that you need more from your soda in some arena. Having a market of choices means that competition will always force the drive to improve any product. Therefore, we have diet, energy and other drinks you may wish to try to quench your thirst with when looking around for what fits your particular pallet.

Mixing metaphors aside, some feel that this is a dead argument because Narrator isn’t as good as all the other options on the planet. Including the Thunder Screen Reader. What if I told you that Narrator was in the process of getting a serious facelift? Read on..

At CSUN in 2006 a co-worker and I sat in the big ballroom where Microsoft was going to outline their upcoming commitment to access for Vista and Office. The room was all a titter because a press release had also just dropped on Vista and Office 07’s plans to use their Wonder Twin powers in one giant move to co-market their respective launches. There is nothing like the fear and panic in a Rep’s eyes and voice when something gets announced that they had no clue about. And this was the case that day in Los Angeles.

The team was frantically on their cell phones, email and Power Points. Changes looked to be in flux and the phrase “uh, that is what we can say today” was uttered a few more times than it usually would in a similar venue. The course correction for Microsoft came later but that day they discussed the following “Ease of Access” options.    

Minor improvements to Narrator, updated On Screen Keyboard, no change to Magnifier, On Screen Alerts for the Deaf, Speech Recognition and Cognitive Enhancements.

The last one in the list never surfaced. It was demonstrated sure but I’ve never heard hide nor haire of it since 2006. From what I remember, the style of the feature acted in some ways like the methods Screen Magnifiers use to highlight buttons and other controls in modes like Focus Enhancements. Perhaps one day this part of EOA will return. I’d be interested to see it if it ever does. There were many I served in my tech support days who I think who could qualify as the target market.

Anyway, back on track, a lot of the discussion time was given to Vista’s Speech Recognition. It was said that this portion of access was the first to be given the new look and feel for Microsoft. More would come either through Service Packs or in future Windows releases.

And it did. Speech Recognition improved greatly not just in Windows but in Windows Mobile as well. Not the phones mind you, but in the offshoot of Windows Mobile that became Windows Automotive. If you have heard Leo at TWIT talk about Ford Sync then you have heard an ad for Windows Automotive. Microsoft technologies have an annoying habbit of not being integrated across their platforms. They do, surprisingly enough, steal tech from one another for big projects. Speech Recognition tech was just such a high profile project.

Windows 7 advanced Windows Magnifier. If you run in the AERO version of 7 you can enable Magnifier on the fly by pressing the Windows Key with either the number pad’s plus or minus keys. AERO allows Windows 7 to use a full screen magnifier mode instead of the narrow banner ad like strip of magnification found in previous flavors of Windows. The key is the full screen version goes away if you use a Mirror Driver that would snap you back to a non AERO version of 7. Which means you would have to use System Access, or something else, if you wanted to use Windows Magnifier with Screen Reader assistance.

Now follow me here, if Magnifier and Speech Recognition saw an an improvement, what would come next in an upgrade of on board options for MS? Before you answer consider the following items in the paragraph below.

Apple has Voiceover, Google has Talkback and even Linux has.. stuff. Microsoft, and some other big tech names, have given the NVDA project money for future releases. If the current needs for increased security to be built in to future applications remains a constant part of development, then who better than Microsoft to show how that could be done without our current forms of AT?

All signs point north and I’m anxious to see what comes in the talks on Windows 8 in the next 6 to 8 months. Remember that MS has committed to the three year life cycle again. Which means that if true, a public beta will arise from the depths in about 24 months or less. Regardless if it is good or bad, for me I’d have to say bad, a better version of Narrator is coming. and it is coming sooner than some would expect. One thing is certain, as MS improves the state of their products the rest of the Industry will have to justify themselves in new and exciting ways in order to stay competitive with the many free models of AT spawning onto the scene. 

Book Sense

The Book Sense is an amazing piece of kit that I adore. I used an ARCHOS 604 as my main player for years. It has a display that is as big as most hand held Video Magnifiers. And while not sporting speech, it wasn’t Rockbox friendly, it let me change the color and the fonts enough to make it serviceable for what I wanted it to do on my daily commute.

I have many friends with a victor Reader Stream, and I’m in no way putting that device down in the slightest, but it never caught on with me. I was in love with the Book Sense the first day I held it though. The size, weight, interface and that blessed switch for the key lock. mmmm… I pre-ordered mine right then and there. I had no idea how the clock, radio and support for docx. would save my bacon until later on when I made my goodbyes with the ARCHOS.

the $64,000 question remained on if someone could dethrone the King of all Blind friendly players. The question, and some of us in the wings, were stunned by the reception the unit got at its unveiling at Convention.

To say that there was a rush on the G.W. booth would be an understatement. I saw credit and debit cards outstretched eagerly to the gang in the booth. And when their machine went down, the throngs hit the ATMs. It was truly shocking to see how fast they were purchased honestly.

That isn’t my reason for choosing it for the list however. That inspiration springs from this intrepid soul who decided to take an improvised poll on if each person who left the booth already had a Stream in their possession. 60% of more than 20 people polled said they already had a Victor Stream. While this is in no way a scientific method for determining buying habbits, it did show that brand loyalty and the better mousetraps ideals were in a state of upheaval.

It also got me to thinking about the rise of products coming from overseas. Also, how often would someone buy the same thing with similar features rolled through my mind’s lint brush too. Better yet, at what price does it trigger someone to buy the same thing again? Or when is good vs. price vs. good enough helping or hurting the community? I’m all down with the idea of cheaper products, however, I’m not sure if I want to start a product cycle where you replace your treasured items every 20 to 36 months at the current prices seen in the market for lots of things. This thought is why I didn’t go with the iBill on the Top 11 list. It is a cool doo dad. I’m just not sure if it harkens the bountiful harvest that others are hoping for in the cry for cheaper and durible products.

This series centers around me being more opinionated than usual. In no way do I suggest that you subscribed to the points I view here, or anywhere for that matter  on the thoughts that emanate from my fevered brain. I invite you to toss your thoughts into the comments section, email me or hit me up on Twitter. I love to debate these things and I love even more to have someone show me the errors in my ways. Part 3 is in the works, and barring real life, it will be up soon.

Feedback: The “Ranger Procrastinates Yet Again” Edition

I found out that if you semi abandon your blog, for whatever good reasons like life getting in the way or something, the thing you must do is lock down your comments. What a magnet this thing became while I was off doing.. stuff.

While deleting ads, questionable links, more ads, odd random posts in languages I don’t speak and even some ads, I found that there were real comments from real nice people amongst all the chaff. I pulled these nuggets out and I really do apologize for not responding to you sooner.

Here is a comment from the Windows 7 launch day post.

California State University Northridge said...

We have a few college students online from California State University Northridge College and we love your blog postings, so well add your rss or news feed for them, Thanks and please post us and leave a comment back and well link to you. Thanks Jen , Blog California State University Northridge

Thanks for reading. Sometimes I forget just how big the world part of the world wide web can be.

Once at CSUN 2007 someone yelled out to me on the Exhibit Hall floor “Hey there Ranger!”. And three people I had never met before in my life stopped me on the way to my friend to thank me for the blog. The same thing happened at the NFB Convention in Detroit this past year. It makes me feel guilty at not being so prolific in 2009. In fact, it could drive aguy to answer his comments some eight months after they were posted. But I digress.

This comment came from the July/August Poll results on updates and upgrades.

john said...

Hello Ranger. It seems it's been a while since you've written here. And so I'd like to welcome you back to the world of blogging, confusing as it is. It's great that you're back and all, but just to be frank, or steve, or some other guy, I've got a suggestion. No, it really is great that you're back. You put, on the list of upgrades, snow leopard. It's only worth $30 if you already have leopard. So, I'm thinking: is there any other software that may be, just maybe! should be on this list?
Thanks and good times and such,
John

Oh, if Windows 7 was as cheap as 30 bucks then I’d say that without hesitation. It isn’t, but I still recommend Windows 7 to anyone who can run it without the hardware upgrade hassles or the required upgrades for their AT products. Even then you could go with System Access, NVDA or a payment plan through G.W. Micro for Screen Reading. System Access with Windows Magnifier isn’t a bad combo either, however, it can’t replace some of the features found in today’s leading Screen Magnifiers.

Snow Leopard, if you aren’t a Power PC based Mac, can be a wonderful cheap boost to Voiceover access. Except there are some issues with some program compatibility on third party programs, not related to Voiceover, and Boot Camp isn’t Windows 7 friendly yet. In some ways 10.6 has become a little bit like Vista with 10.5 taking the role of Windows XP. I know that is blasphemous to some that I even consider that analogy, however, it is kind of apt depending on if you can or cannot run Snow Leopard. Plus any minor niggles I can make about how Apple acts like Microsoft at times are always worth the seconds it takes me to type them out. 

And now a correction on my Book Sense post thanks to a fellow Blogger at this little site you may have heard of called Blind Bargains.

J.J. said...

NLS support is already there. Perhaps you mean RFB&D support?

Oops, he is right. Not to mention that the keys are now available for the Book Sense as well.

http://www.blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=4925

I made a post about music from March that garnered this comment.

Anonymous said...

Hi ranger,
I am not an audiophile, but I agree with you about current recordings. The new Metallica cd was recorded so loudly, that it's actually distorted in some places. What a shame, as it's quite good from an artistic standpoint. I think the recordings from decades past are much more pleasant to the ear, even when compressed into reasonably sized mp3 files. No lower than 160 KBPS for me.

If you look on the net, possibly in some nefarious places, you may find that there is a better recording of the last album. It seems that the masters, depending on your viewpoint of how that is defined by the band or the label, were given to a famous Videogame for their inclusion to their track lists. If you look around for Metallica and Guitar Hero… ahem. Uh, the live tracks could be a better alternative. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Remember that you can leave a comment here on the blog, direct message me on Twitter and forget about me on Facebook because I’m hardly ever there. One social media meem at a time I guess.

Random Goodness: Kindle Text To Speech, Facebook And WinMo 6.5

Kindle: I know a lot of people are on the bandwagon to make this device accessible. It is a messy situation from what I have read. Publishers don’t want to fall the way of the Recording Industry and Apple’s iTuens. And Amazon has Audible.com which means they have a good percentage of book sales in print and audio formats. And then the Publishers are just plain nuts and they want to keep the old business model. The article link below talks about how Amazon can remote kill things on the Kindle and the iPhone application, including the Text To Speech version of a book.

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/05/13/kindle-2-vs-reading-disabled-students/

Quizzes And Terms Of Service: Those who follow me on Twitter and Facebook know that I Tweet more than Book. Some of this is strictly do to the way that Facebook works and, more to the point, some of it comes down to how they use personal information. This link talks about the terms of service that falls into play when you take those quizzes or use some Facebook Apps.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/14/1243206

Windows Mobile 6.5: I abhor, dislike and detest my HTC 5800. But I’m skittish on getting a new phone because Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7 are forever looming around the corner. Plus I got this phone for free on my contract. But I’ve been watching the news on WinMo 6.5 just in case I get over my fears. Here is a bit of what is in store for 6.5.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/05/windows-mobile-65-widget-details-no-silverlight.ars

April’s Poll Results And May’s Poll Added

I bet you can guess the answer to which answer won just by reading the question.

April's Poll Question: Where Do You Get The Most News About Assistive Technology?

Social Networks: Twitter, Facebook, Friend Feed, etc    3 (42%)
  Surfing A Company's Website    2 (28%)
  Email Lists    1 (14%)
  Podcasts    1 (14%)
  Word Of Mouth: Friends, CoWorkers, etc   0 (0%)

No real surprise considering the way that all the world is going these days. Many AT companies have really embraced the new world of social media and I believe it is providing positive feeback to all involved. And it cuts down the myth that there aren’t a lot of us who are super techies or crazed Blind Enthusiast Bloggers and Podcasters doing the hip new thing. Today’s common AT User is younger, willing to adapt and not as fearful to try the latest craze at the drop of a dime. Unlike yours truly who had to be kicked in the rear by his fellow Blind Bloggers and Podcasters to get over himself and dive into the latter half of this decade. Um.. but moving on..

The summer travel season is almost here. Time to make plans to hang out in the sun, watter or where ever you like. The summer for the AT Industry is a little odd though. For many of us the summer is the end to a “Hat Trick” of events. The big three AT shin digs use to be ATIA, CSUN and ACB/NFB or Sight Village for our friends outside the US. A second ATIA in October may just put the finishing touches on the old “Closing The Gap” convention, however, for most people the cycle runs down in July with the summer convention season. So this month’s poll asks…

May’s Poll Question: Which Summer Convention Are You Going To Attend?

ACB
  NFB
  Sight Village
  The Nearest Sci Fi Or Comic Convention
  Travel? I've Got The Internet Thank You Very Much!

To know more about this year’s national conventions you can visit the following links.

ACB 2009 National Convention

http://www.acb.org/convention/

NFB 2009 National Convention

http://www.afb.org/community.asp?EventID=1665

Sight Village 2009

http://www.viewplus.com/sightvillage-registration/

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

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

Poll Results And April’s Mini Poll Added

Bet you thought I forgot about the poll eh? Quite the opposite really. More on that in a second. When you see a delay in the poll results, and I know that happens more often than not, it is chiefly due to my inability to think up a good question for the following month. Sometimes they strike like lightning and sometimes they come to me like a snail going uphill. For April the snail won by a wide margin. But there were no wide margins in our poll results on IE8. Take a look below..

March’s Poll Question: Are You Going To Update Your Internet Explorer To Version 8?

Yes   8 (38%)
  No   2 (9%)
  I'll Wait For The Service Pack   6 (28%)
  Internet Explorer.. Never!    5 (23%)

I’m shocked to see that the “haves” beat the “have nots” on this one. Frankly so many people on the web bash Internet Explorer so often that I kind of think of it as a darkhorse in the Browser Wars instead of the market leader. I like IE8. I didn’t like the pre releases at all and I was fully prepared to drop this release like a hot rock at the first signs of odd behavior. Then the safety features kicked in on a couple of BBC and Sun websites.. and I thought to myself that this was a good thing because the page elements that were blocked or detected were very very bad. And I haven’t looked back since.

I’m not downing Firefox by any means but I’m not sold on the maturity of version 3 with all the AT programs yet. So I have it, it is installed and I do use it for testing. However, I’ve had great luck with IE8 for most of my work needs. It has become my default browser at home while my office computer is the test bench for IE7.. for now [he says ominously].

I have also adopted a little more than Internet Explorer 8 recently. You might have read the post about my slow moving self taking on a more Social Networking track a few weeks ago. Or you may have seen the Twitter and Facebook elements added to the sidebar. In either case, thanks to a particular person, I’ve jumped in and I’m doing a lot of Tweeting. Around “Follower” 24 this new poll question came to me.

April’s Poll Question: Where Do You Get The Most News About Assistive Technology?

Social Networks: Twitter, Facebook, Friend Feed, etc

Surfing A Company's Website

Email Lists

Podcasts

Word Of Mouth: Friends, Coworkers, etc

I do all of the above to some extent. But I work in the Industry and I kinda have to read up on these things. But I’m interested to see what all of you think is the big avenue for you in how you get your news on the products you use. I’ll roll this one into early May. Oh, I do have a May poll question already in mind. We may actually go back to a real monthly schedule! .. probably not though knowing me.

Again I Concede .. Sad Looking Facebook Page Now Online

Darn you Mike Calvo! There I said it. I feel better. You see Mr. Calvo, in talking to me about the Socializer, made me feel like less of a Geek for not adopting this social media trend earlier. He is right of course, now he is going to save this page as a bookmark for sure, but my nature for most of my internet life has been to lurk rather than actively push the online thing. I don’t track the blog through Google Analytics, I don’t freak out about how many vote on the polls and I only do a “vanity search” every six months. Twitter, however, has ruined that illusion though. Tweeting may just be the gateway drug I needed to find the time to run to the computer and post, hopefully, interesting things. And it may have just gotten me back in the habit of writing here on the blog as well. So again, darn you Mike Calvo for dragging me into 2008.. back when it was cool. Not 2009 when it all jumped the shark!

The link to the poor little Facebook page is below

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ranger-Station/1238071884

And the Twitter page is this link

http://twitter.com/RangerStation

If I Was This Popular In High School, I would Have Had More Dates!

I have this joke that my wife can’t stand. My birthday is in June and I like to say that my birthday was strategically placed for me to receive gifts every six months. Her birthday is in February. So I can see how she might not find the joke to be very funny. In three more months I’ll still think it is hilarious though. But I do admit that the joke lost a little bit of the luster when I hit 40.

I’ve been talking a lot about age and time offline recently. I’ve had to explain to people why a new Windows is coming. I’ve had to explain the reasoning behind some office procedures that pre date my starting point by five years to people who have only been working with the team for a short time. And I often find myself being the defender of the faith to a office religion I never really adhered to begin with. Yet here now I’ve traveled the path from fighting “De’Man” and all he stood for to the point where I’m working along side “De’Man” because it is comfortable and familiar. So goes the “Circle of Life” i guess.

The problem is, as I wrote back in 2007, the Mentors that I grew up with in the Industry are moving on to other things. Back when I first wrote about the subject I was focusing on friends and Reps who existed in the national arena. Now the losses are more closer to home because some of my most cherished co-workers are retiring out of the business as well. And I don’t know how to transition from being the Grasshopper to the Master who holds out the outstretched hand with the shiny pebble in the center of the palm.

Oh it isn’t because I don’t know the wise and witty sayings that come with the mantle of responsibility. I’ve heard myself use phrases from my parents and previous teachers that I loathed come freely out of my own mouth quite easily. I also don’t have the fear of failure or anything like that either. Possibly because I have always had the brash overconfidence thing going for me, probably to my detriment, for years. And ye ol’noggin keeps the idea train on the tracks with tons of crazy new projects. So that isn’t the trouble either.

The condition that sets me apart from my older piers is time and the complexity of today’s market.

A few years ago there was a person who made us go through a series of meetings where it was thought that my team would get some support for our schedules if we explored the concept of time management. It is usually around this point in staff meetings of this ilk that I think back to the first 10 minutes of “Robocop” and how a big oddly shaped robot, The Enforcement Droid 209 or ED209 for short, walked in and shot a guy for provoking him. But I digress.. So off we went to figure out how much time it took to do everything down to the making of the coffee each morning. And I was *encouraged* to read a bunch of management philosophies on prioritizing, segmenting and grouping tasks. Which ranged from the “What the?” to the “You got to be kidding me” on the spectrum of how these concepts could apply to my job in the Assistive Technology Industry.

My fave was the “inbox Zero” fantasy. The idea goes that you should do everything in your Inbox. No matter what the task or time. You should have nothing in your Inbox at the end of the day. And! You couldn’t cheat by moving all your messages to a folder or delete all your correspondence in case you were wondering. I realize that the new thing is to text and I’m an old fogie for the reliance on email but.. C’mon!. I see almost 300 email a week. Of course this was a management book and the idea was to delegate the majority of the work on to others. Which would be great if there were lots of people around who know what I know. However, it is getting harder to find people who know version 3 of a product let alone go back to DOS or the Vic 20.

Being good in the AT Industry takes a lot of experience. And you are only as good as the first version of the product you touched. Or at least that is what I used to say. Now flexibility is the key because next year we have Windows XP, Vista and 7 to support. Then Office 2003, 2007 and whatever the name of Office 14 ends up being when shipped. Plus Firefox, IE7 and IE8. Oh and how about all the social networking options.. And! Security software, broadband connections and the As through Ns of the wireless world. Is it any wonder why so many of my friends have left?

In the three times I have stopped to write this post since November we went from not having much in the way of x64 support to it now being a common feature for just about everyone in the biz. Features like that are coming fast with development teams working year round. Not to mention the patch schedules are even faster than the product releases used to be even two years ago. I’m absolutely lucky that I have a job that allows me to keep up with it all for the most part. Still, due to the many options for today’s access, I’ve had to make out my own niche among the types of technology on the market today. Cell phones, for instance, became something I just follow other blogs and podcasts for research rather than relying upon hands on impressions. Choosing Windows Mobile may also be my undoing but using it helps me know some Blindness Note Takers better. So I chalk it up to multi tasking. Take that!, management book “Who moved my cheese?”.

The thing is that my mental hard drive is getting full and my RAM is all used up more days than not. Yet the sheer number of people who need assistance is growing due to the aging population. Which means that the requests keep coming but the resources to handle it all are decreasing not just for me but everywhere I look.

Time.. it all takes time that I used to have before I ended up playing the violin while my friends boarded the lifeboats off the Titanic as we sped towards this giant ice cube. And while I want to resent them for leaving me with the others on the boat.. I just can’t do it because I’m thinking that part of me is saying “take me with you”. Until recently that is…

One morning it hit me. I could walk home and buy any book and read it like a sighted person. I could buy anything and have it delivered to the wrong place just like a sighted person. I have access to technology that can read street signs. I have talking GPS. I have the ability to walk up to almost any computer, Mac or Windows, and make it talk. I have … options where so many of my friends did not. I then chided myself for even thinking that there was such a concept as “too much access”. Everyone is experiencing their own form of information overload and why should our Industry be any different? Then I waved at the retreating lifeboats, picked up a shot glass, and went below decks to help those left to bail out the rushing water.

Sure my phone rings constantly. My schedule is booked for the next two months. I started the Twitter feed because I was feeling guilty for not posting enough here at TRS. But what lovely problems to have these days. While others are fearing the economy, I’m wondering if I can ever take time off to have a vacation. Not bad for a guy who was President of his Science Fiction Club, two years running, back in high school. Ah, but if I was this popular back in high school I would have had so many more dates.

Sigh.. Okay Already, Here Is The Requested Twitter Feed!

I give up. I can’t seem to find the time to write the long pros I want to write. And I don’t have enough to say about the news I already know. Plus, gulp, the social scene is bustin’ out all over the Blind Community. So, as per so many requests, I bring you the age of the TRS tweet.

http://twitter.com/RangerStation

I’ve added a Twitter gadget to the right sidebar as well. It is just below the Poll section. And just above the RSS feed bits that were requested a few months ago. Man this is going to actually look like a modern blog if this keeps up. I do thank you all for the suggestions for the site.

I often like to remind people that I’m not just Visually Impaired.. I’m Style Impaired as well. One day I’ll pull out my leather Member’s Only jacket from the closet and wear it proudly when that trend comes back. Or when it is “Remember the 80’s” week at work. And yes I do have a MO jacket. No dayglow shirts though. But I did have a friend with a black Knight Rider Trans Am if that seals the deal for ya.