12:48 am

Boston was great. More later. I got home less than an hour ago because of bad weather. Also, I missed my flight on Saturday (don't fly to Boston with an expired passport, boys and girls--some people care). So I spent an insane amount of time in airports. But It was worth it, because I got to see squonk again. And I got to see sophiahagia again (she reminded me that we met at the 2005 NFB convention). And I finally got to meet etana, nihilistech, tikva, fiddle_pup (I hope I got that right), and collegecate. And Sqonk's brother. So it was fun, all except the airport parts. But, you know, even that wasn't so bad. Well, actually, waiting there for...4.5 hours this evening was not great. But on Saturday, when I was stuck there for an extra two hours, it was all right, because that was the first time I'd gotten to relax in weeks.

Maybe I'll write more later about our adventures--though others have already chronicled the goings-on more eloquently than I could. But tomorrow, I have to start a job, take the dogs to the vet (Mom and Dad brought Glaze with them, and she is sleeping on my bed right now--it is so good to have her here for a few days), and move. I should be asleep now...

07:41 am - recovering

When I was at TSE, there was this one time that I managed to fall before the other students had even gotten out of the training van. E, our trainer, told my classmates (all of whom were male): "When angie falls, she does it so gracefully! She just sort of rolls with it." One man said, "Huh! I didn't learn to do that until I went to paratrooper school. did you go to paratrooper school, Angie?"

Well, I recently managed to fall again. Poor Yan...it wasn't her fault at all. Now that I think of it, I seem to remember E saying something about how you should, you know, stop when the dog does if you don't want to fall down a flight of stairs. So, as I was making my grand entrance to the reception held in honor of our retiring Commissioner of the Department for the blind, I stepped past Yani and went down. As I realized that I was going to lose the war with gravity, I was thinking how good it was that this was actually outside the building and not many people were around. But poor, poor Yan...she was so upset. she ran over to check me out and then promptly (and messily) "had diarrhea"* on their doormat. I started to worry a lot about the doormat, but even I had to realize the absurdity of this. I think they were more afraid I'd slap them with a lawsuit, so they weren't too concerned. No, if they're going to be sued for having stairs, I won't be the one to do it.

So Yani and I are mostly OK. My right arm is still incredibly sore. J commented after the fact that I did fall very gracefully, but I can't help wishing I'd paid more attention in paratrooper school. Here's hoping this is mostly OK by the time I leave for Boston.

* According to J, who drove me to the reception.

01:25 pm - More Free Books

Just because I'm way behind the times...here's something jamitch3 posted in the comments to my last entry:


11/14/2006

Baen Books Free to Disabled Readers

Baen Books, a publisher of science fiction,
will provide its books to fans who are blind, paralysed, or dyslexic, or
are amputees, in electronic form free of charge, effective immediately.

Baen Books is making this offer in recognition of Veterans Day, and all
our disabled military veterans. Many Baen authors are veterans
themselves, using a military setting as the setting of their tales. Right
now convalescing vets might welcome an exciting, fast-action tale to pass
the time.

Jim Baen, founder of Baen Books, who passed on June 28, 2006, decided to
"provide each challenged reader with a permanent pass" to the regular
e-publication of Baen’s new books. His successor, publisher Toni
Weisskopf, is implementing his idea with this program.

Since 1999, Baen has published its new books as ebooks each month, in
several formats, with no Digital Rights Management, through WebScriptions, for a small fee. Now,
this service will be available at no cost to the disabled, who must apply
for this privilege.

Applications will be processed by ReadAssist, a volunteer group devoted to
helping disabled readers find the books they want in the form they need,
and join the community of fandom. The application form has been set up by
ReadAssist, and can be found through
either WebScriptions or ReadAssist.

If you'd like to volunteer to help ReadAssist, please contact them at
their website: query@readassist.org.

08:49 pm - Free html ebooks from Tor

So a while back, I came across something that mentioned that Tor offered free pdf books on their web site. (Tor does a lot of SF stuff, for those who are interested.) I signed up, but that was a few days before the start of finals, so I didn't bother to, you know, look at the emails I was getting and try to download any of the books because I didn't have time to OCR a bunch of pdf's. Well, one of the recent ones was a Kage Baker book (In the Garden of Iden, which I've read before, but still...), so I opened that email. And, to my immense surprise, you can download the books in html as well. And, to my immenser surprise, the html is accessible! None of those weird graphical page-viewing thingies. And each chapter is a heading! Finally, to my immensest surprise, all of those other emails I've had since the end of April still have valid links! So, go! Sign up! Download!

07:22 pm - Quotes of the day

"I've never heard of anything like this before! I'll bet you couldn't reproduce that in a million years."
-- Helpful HandyTech person (but we did fix my phone).

"No, you're not crazy. Well, maybe you are, but you're most definitely not imagining this."
-- Tech-support at work, on how MS Word omits letters when you type on that machine.

"Corporate."
-- JAWS, every time I navigate to Windows Media Player on my work machine.

08:57 pm - PSA: Blink-type sF Fans

NLS now has the June issue of Asimov's Science Fiction on their site! I was so excited by this that I actually left them an email comment. It can't compare with the old hard-copy braille version, but I'm still excited. Asimov's was what I used when I realized I needed to increase my braille reading speed back in junior high and high school. I was crushed when they changed it to an audio format, and for a few years, I didn't listen at all because I've basically stopped using cassettes. It can be ordered in OCR-able pdf from Fictionwise , and I can read that on my braille display. But I'm often too lazy to OCR it.

Aaaaanyway, Asimov's! Downloadable! Yay!

In other news, I want to work in tax law, but only if I can do it without an Ll.M. Even one more year of school seems like a lot at this point.

In other other news, my dog has figured out that when she poops, she should take me to the trash; when she doesn't, she should just go straight home. Also, I still miss Glaze terribly. Looks like she will spend the whole summer with Mom and Dad after all. But she's coming back in the fall, because my dad doesn't like that she wakes him up at 5:30 every morning. Yan lets me sleep late--I actually have to use an alarm to make sure I get up in time for work. It's great on the weekends, though.

09:06 pm - Boston!

I did it! Booked a flight and such. I will be arriving in Boston on 6/28 and leaving on 6/29. (Which, I know, that sounds kinda crazy, but hey...it wasn't that expensive, and the return flight is non-stop, which means less than two hours in the air.) So...I'll be seein' y'all that weekend!

10:03 pm - My N82; Yani's exploits

Sorry I'm not on LJ much these days.

I got my Nolia N82 with the KNFB Reader. I just did something to it and now it won't talk or turn off, and I can't get the battery out. Have to find a pair of eyes at work to help me out if I can't deal with the battery. I can't wait to get everything up and running on that phone. I hope it will work with my BrailleConnect. With the Reader, GPS, and a braille display, I can rule the universe.

Work this week was...Well, we are all still recovering from the retreat. I wish it had been over Memorial Day weekend, as it apparently has been in years past. I needed a day off. But we're havvingsome sort of happy hour thing in the middle of the day tomorrow. It's kind of sad that I can't get excited about that because I need to get stuff finished.

Oh, and my dog can take her harness off.

It all started when the handle got stuck under a seat. She wriggled out of it, and I guess that gave her an idea. A few days ago (or maybe it was only yesterday--it's been a long week), I came home to grab something and left her harness on. I knew she thought I should take it off since we were home, but I needed to leave right away. While I was getting ready to go back to work, I heard a weird scuffling sound that I absently noted was generated by Yani. "That's odd," thought some little detached part of my brain. I told it to shut up so we could get back to work. mI went to the door and called Yani, who promptly appeared sans harness, wagging her tail. I had a moment of panic when I realized I wasn't sure where she'd left the harness. Then, I remembered I live in a shoebox, so it was easy to find.

01:04 am - Money Money Money...

I thought I'd already said all I had to say about accessible currency. I was wrong.

"We hope that this ruling will not have the unintended consequence of reinforcing society's misconception that blind people are unable to function in the world as it currently is," Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, said in a statement.

06:45 pm - Glaze is ten!

Happy birthday, Miss G. I'm sorry you're not here, but I told Grampa to give you extra food tonight. (It seems you can't have special, different treats anymore.)

I do think this time is good for Yani and me. I'm glad I'm truly getting to know her. But I'll be happy when Glazie comes back.

09:22 pm - Elevated...

Mom is spending a few days with me. She went down with me to take Yani out to relieve. On the way back up, we waited and waited for an elevator to arrive. When it did, it was occupied by a man and woman who ooohed and aahed over Yan. They asked which floor we wanted, and we told them. And I thought it was odd that they were not getting out, since we were at the lowest possible level of the building, and we had waited a long time for the elevator to come down to where we were. When we got back to the apartment, Mom said, "Wow! They were sure kissing in there!" Then, she said she saw them enter the building while I was relieving Yan. And I pointed out that since they were in the elevator when it finally got to us, they had apparently just been riding up and down, kissing the whole time. I am amused, on many levels. I am kind of glad Mom was there, because now I have a funny storry. But if she hadn't been there, they would have been able to say that they were totally safe kissing in the elevator because the only person who walked in on them was a blind woman with a Seeing Eye dog.

06:34 pm - I'm a 3L

2L is over. Over. A thing of the past. I somehow finished all my exams. One of my profs seriously does not know how to write a reasonable test.

Yan has an ear infection, not major--vet says I caught it very early, so prognosis good.

Mom and Dad are on the way up to help me move. They got delayed. Won't be here for two hours or so.

I could sleep for days. I have to start work on Monday.

I'm going to miss Glazie when she goes back to NC with my parents.

I'll probably be in Richmond next time I post.

02:38 am - Math nerd meets law nerd

I have been studying for my copyright final. I am very tired. I might decide to delete this post tomorrow, but I'll leave it up here for a few hours anyway.

First, a definition:

Goedelize: To render a verbal expression numerically as powers of primes. The first letter of the expression is rendered as 2^n, where n is the numerical position of that letter. For example, if the first letter is "c,", then the first part of the Goedelized expression is 2^3. The space and punctuation marks are given numerical assignments, but I don't remember what those are.

A simple example: "Cab" Goedelized is 2^3 * 3^1 * 5^2, or 600.

Theoretically, you can express *any* written work (a dictionary, the Bible, War and Piece...) as a single number. As you can imagine, it would be a very, very large number.

And now, the question: If the work I Goedelize is copyrighted, have I infringed if I transmit this number to people who want to access the work? It is, after all, a number, and you can't copyright a single number.

11:10 am - Blind lawyer ruled competent to stand trial in fraud case

The National Law Journal

Leigh Jones, Staff reporter

April 29, 2008

Blind lawyer ruled competent to stand trial in fraud case

A federal judge in Louisiana has ruled that Barry Scheur, a managed care
executive who is an attorney and is blind, is competent to stand trial
in the government's case that alleges fraud and conspiracy in the
management of a now-defunct health insurer.

Scheur, a Yale Law School graduate and former partner at LeBoeuf, Lamb,
Leiby & MacRae, along with two other former executives are charged with
unlawfully paying themselves $6.1 million and misleading the Louisiana
Department of Insurance into believing that the insurer, The Oath for
Louisiana, was operating in the black.

Scheur's attorney, James A. Brown, a partner with Liskow & Lewis in New
Orleans, had argued that Scheur was unable to read and comprehend the
financial statements that are the heart of the government's case.

"He has been totally blind since birth," Brown said. "He is not in a
position to assimilate these financial statements." U.S. District Judge
Eldon Fallon, in the Eastern District of Louisiana was not persuaded.
"Scheur began his career by working for several law firms before
accepting an in-house counsel position with a healthcare organization,"
the judge wrote. "Indeed, Scheur has touted himself as a "managed care
iconoclast.'" The judge determined that Scheur can use his hand-held
Braille computer at trial and can use Braille documents during the
course of his testimony.

The trial is scheduled to begin April 30.

09:31 pm - More on the guide-dog school in Wisconsin

Sorry if this has already been posted. I haven't looked at the fpage in a while and don't know when I'm going to get to it...sigh. Anyway, Quinn Haberl, for whom this guide-dog school for teens was going to be named, has withdrawn his support for the school. He says now that he believes he was too young when he was matched with his first guide at age 13. (The article also says he was the first person in this country to receive a dog before he turned 16, but that isn't true. I know that GDB matched a guide with a girl who was 14 or 15 in the very recent past. Also, GDF had a board member, if memory serves, who received her first dog at age 14 a number of years ago.)

The article is behind a cut, or you can go here to read it.

( Read more... )

05:26 pm - Wisconsin could get a guide-dog school for teens

greenbaypressgazette.com

April 25, 2008

Guide-dog center for teens planned at NWTC

By MIKE HOEFT
mhoeft@greenbaypressgazette.com

Organizers announced plans Friday to open a guide-dog
training center at Northeastern Wisconsin Technical
College in what they say would be the first such
facility serving blind teens.

( Read more... )


OK, the wording of that last "American Federation for the Blind" statistic about employed guide-dog users confused me at first. But I suppose that's a side issue. What do you all think of this? And what about OccuPaws? I don't know much about that other Wisconsin school either.

I'm skeptical of training younger kids with guide dogs, though I know this is more common with other types of service dogs. The current training models for guide-dog training wouldn't be appropriate for younger children. And I'm pretty sure that most teens would not have been able to handle Yani, who at first had an alarming propensity to poop in harness. And something about the idea of dogs in junior high bothers me. Having a guide dog really does modify your social interactions. This is often portrayed as a positive thing, but I'm not so sure it's best for younger kids. I'm more than willing to hear from those who disagree. Thoughts?

11:51 pm - Zane

Sorry for all the posts today. This is the last one, I promise.

This is a slightly edited version of my response to a comment on the Paterson article I posted earlier today.

( I talk about my braille transcriber, Zane: In those days, we had to braille on a Perkins, up-hill all the way! ) Truly, no other person has had such am impact on my life.

11:30 pm - Still INTJ

Hmm...My intuition score is usually much higher on these things...

Your Score: Crackpot - INTJ

13% Extraversion, 66% Intuition, 73% Thinking, 60% Judging

People hate you.

Paris Hilton hates Nicole Richie. Lex Luther hates Superman. Garfield hates Mondays.
But none these even rates against the insurmountable hate, people
have for you.

I mean, you're pretty damn clever and you know it. You love to flaunt your potential. Heard the word "arrogant" lately? How about "jerk?" Or perhaps
they only say that behind your back.

That's right. I know I can say this cause you're not going to cry. You're not exactly the most emotional person. You'd rather spend time with your theoretical
questions and abstract theories than with other people.

Ever been kissed? Ever even been on a date? Trust me, your inflated ego is a complete turnoff with the opposite sex and I am telling you, you're not
that great with relationships as it is. You're never going to be a dude or chick magnet, purely because you're more concerned with yourself than others.
Meh. They all hate you already anyway.

How about this- "stubborn?" Hrm? Heard that lately? All those facts which don't fit your theories must just be wrong, right? I mean, really, the vast
amounts of time you spend with your head in the clouds...you're just plain strange.

*****************

If you want to learn more about your personality type in a slightly less negative way, check out
this.
( more on other personality types, etc. )

11:00 am - How Blind Governor Manages

NY Times
April 21, 2008

A Blind Governor Adjusts, and So Does Albany By JEREMY W. PETERS ALBANY
- It is a phone number that just a handful of the governor's senior
aides know.
At the end of each day they call in and record briefings, laying out
what he needs to know about the following day.
They recite his schedule, read talking points and explain the
intricacies of issues likely to come up. They read memos from staff
members and relate biographical details about the people he is likely to
meet.
Lots of governors rely on thick briefing books and helpful e-mail notes
from their staffs. New York's governor, David A. Paterson, who is
legally blind, has his ears and what his aides call his Batphone.
( Read more... )

08:28 pm - Procrastination at its finest

Audio Monopoly is, I must confess, a little addictive. Especially when you can give the computer player a name, and when each of you can have different SAPI voices based on what you have on your system. And also when you can create custom gameboards (it would be really sad if I admitted to creating a Springfield gameboard, so I won't...), use custom tokens (but, of course, only a geek would use a gavel), and use custom objects for houses and hotels (if I'm playing the Springfield board, it totally makes sense to use pacifiers for houses and donuts for hotels). I...probably should not post this entry.

07:43 am - Yani's new hobby

So after playing the computerized version, I decided to get out my old Bop It Extreme this morning. Yani was absolutely fascinated by it. She kept sniffing it, and she watched me intently while I played with the thing. I didn't play long, though--just long enough for my coffee to finish. When it did, I put the game inside the cardboard box where it had been. The top of the box was open.

While I was pouring coffee, the game started up again. Yani was trying to activate it from inside the box. So I got it out of the box to show her. She kept pushing the buttons and playing with it. She actually got a score of 2! I think this is pretty good for a dog.

Glaze totally ignores things like this. But Yani seems to find it really interesting. The Kong is still the best toy ever, though.

Current Mood: amused

05:41 pm - Bop It Voice Post

Especially for squonk, because I know how she lurves Bop It!

Here I am, playing Bop It Ultimate, which cn be downloaded here. It keeps me awake while studying for exams.

VoicePost 299K 1:31

(no transcription available)

06:19 am - Thoughts on the BrailleConnect 12

My BrailleConnect is now working with my Moto Q. It's not perfect: Mobile Speak disables braille if I don't touch the phone or display for a minute or so; writing in grade 2 causes all kinds of unfortunate things to happen; and entering Mobile Speak's Braille Settings dialog totally crashes the phone. (Code Factory is aware of most of these issues, and I'm optimistic that they will be solved soon.) But the devices are talking to each other. And if I set it to computer braille and use my ThinkOutside keyboard for input, I have a nifty little note-taking system.

( click for my ramblings on the design of the BC12. )

I'm glad to see a number of wireless braille displays on the market. Now that I have my Focus, I know that I'd have a really hard time going back to just speech on the computer. Editing things is so much quicker because I can press a cursor routing button to instantly get to a mistake, as opposed to using the arrow keys to navigate by word or character. Also, certain things are more comprehensible to me when I'm reading braille. It makes studying in noisy coffee shops a lot easier, and I really like to use braille when I'm working with clients (more on that in another post, maybe). I want to get a bigger wireless display at some point, but that purchase is definitely going to have to wait. For now, though, I have a quiet, compact note-taking solution with my Q, the ThinkOutside keyboard, and the BrailleConnect 12. I think I'm going to love the ability to wear braille on a belt.

01:03 pm - More cell phone talk

OK, so my extraordinarily nonscientific poll seems to suggest a correlation between experience with braille and not using thumbs for typing. But as all good statisticians know, correlation does not imply causation. It makes sense to me that most people who are looking at the screen would choose to use their thumbs, since they can, in fact, see the screen that way. And it seems that most (but not all--see the poll and the comments on the entry) people who don't use the screen use their index fingers, because our fingers play a larger role in how we perceive the world.

Aaaanyway, a new company, BeaconSys, Inc, is developing products for blind-types to use on cell phones. They're currently working on a currency identifier, a barcode reader, and a commute planner. Cool stuff!

Lastly, cell phones can apparently disturb your sleep. I'm thinking the advice about not leaving the phone on the bedside table at night is good.

10:23 am - Braille displays on the Moto Q9H

Sorry to leave you all hanging like that! (grin) I'm going to post the instructions for pairing the Q9H with a braille display. I assume this will work for other models of the Q, but you know what they say about assuming... ( Read more... ) They say they are going to add this to the manual soon.

07:12 am - Posted using TxtLJ

The display is working!!! I made Code factory aware of?a whole new issue.

08:25 pm - Braille and thumb-typing

In this article on Blackberry access, Don Barrett, a federal employee, says, "I have found it best to use my index fingers, rather than my thumbs [when typing on the Nokia E62], as my sighted colleagues do." That's how I do text messaging. I can't seem to make my thumbs type when my fingers are *right there.* I've heard other blind people say the same thing. I'm wondering if those of us who read braille are more likely to use our fingers, since for us, our fingers are a primary way of accessing information. So with that in mind, I've created this extremely unscientific poll. If you text, please vote, and share your comments. Poll #1166952 Braille and thumb typing
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

How old were you when you learned to read braille?

How often do you use braille?

How do you type when you send text messages?

Other?

04:47 am - Goodbye Moto

I now know what the problem is. The Q does not have the serial port profile (SPP) enabled. I don't know if this is Moto's fault or AT&T's fault. Someone at AT&T did tell me she didn't think they supported braille for "Mobile Speaks." Oh well. I'm not giving up! I'm going to see what I can do to get SPP enabled on my phone! (And if they can't help me do it, I might start looking for registry hacks.) All I can say is that AT&T should take teh following memish thing as a warning:

07:27 pm - Posted using TxtLJ

Seems I cannot connect the BrailleConnect and the Q. Seems the Q will not work with any braille displays. Can anyone confirm? Oh, this is bad...

10:49 am - SQUEEEEE!!!!

Looks like my BrailleConnect is already here. I was told it could take four weeks. Wow, this could be a first for HumanWare, getting something to me sooner than expected. OMG I can't wait to get my hands on this display. I have been using the Q as a notetaker with my Stowaway keyboard, and I love it. I like not having to lug all that stuff around, not having to wait for the computer to boot up. Also, right now, my battery is so far gone that I can't just undock it and take it with me, and I can't start the booting up until I've plugged it in. (I'm getting a new battery soon...) Anyway, I'm excited!

09:12 pm - Wow

I just figured out how to order food via text message. All I have to do now is send the message "beefsub" to 36368 and I get one delivered right to my door. This is...frighteninly convenient.

06:10 pm

Meant to write about this a while ago, but...

Did anybody else see that segment on the Daily Show about David Paterson? The correspondent was African-American, and he was saying things like, "He may be 90% blind, but he's 100% black! You can't have this one, blind people! He's ours!" I thought it was funny.

Also, I wish somebody would create an email group just for people who wanted to forward messages about stolen kidneys, illegal wig-making in Sam's Club, and the like. Please to stopping posting these to guide-dog lists.