[Boatanchors] Neat place/information

Wed Sep 5 15:23:38 EDT 2007

For the awareness of all:

Once upon a time the Bay of E had a "text only" version. Those who were 
totally blind, legally blind, Print handicapped etc. could use it instead of 
the graphics oriented version. I worked with one of their programmers, Mason 
Nuggent, to help make this electronic auction useable to all peoples, 
regardless of their visual acuity.

Then one day, my direct phone number to him stopped working. My e-mail 
address to him stopped working. The "text only" version vanished.

Why? Who knows! But this much I do know. The Bay of E is in violation of the 
federal mandate known as the ADA, or Americans with Disabilities Act. The 
National Federation of the Blind Inc., NFB, filed litigation against AOL for 
failing to following the ADA guidelines, and AOL lost! Somebody needs to do 
likewise with the Bay of E, or whomever, fails to make their services 
useable by all Americans, be they disabled or not.

Now you know why I do not use the Bay of E! I think both of my accounts may 
still be on there, but I can't check anything anymore.

Simply put: the DOS operating system had an ASCII numeric value assigned to 
every character. This number was translated into binary and then converted 
by the screen reading software into a speakable form.  The blind had almost 
no limitations when using a DOS screen reading program. However, when 
Windows came along it all changed. Now we had the GUI, Graphic User 
Interface. Every character on the CRT was made up of tiny graphic 
characters. Unlike the ASCII numeric code, the graphic symbols could not be 
converted to any form that was useable as a spoken language. Hence, the 
blind were able to use less and less of the various Windows OS functions and 
software applications. The more Windows was improved, or changed, the worse 
it got.

When MS dumped Windows 98 Second Edition, which was actually Windows 99 and 
not an upgrade of Windows 98, (MS was honking its horn for 18 months prior 
to the release of Windows 2K/2000 etc. and did not want anything to detract 
from the hype!), everything went totally down the bit dump tank! None of the 
speech conversion software, screen reading programs and speech synthesizers 
worked with any OS after Windows 98 SE!

Since the only DOS available was a Windows based version, and NOT the old MS 
DOS version 6.22, the DOS functions went from so so down to almost nothing 
with Windows 2000 and beyond. The speech synthesizer cards, were too long 
and would not fit the new machines. Some did not have a serial port, such as 
COM#1, for a hardware synthesizer to connect to. So a poorly designed USB 
version of the DEC (Digital Equipment Corp.) who made the fabulous DECTALK 
PC and DEC EXPRESS, was introduced. Then the software synthesizers were 
introduced, rather forced upon users, such as the IBM "Eloquence" etc. The 
problem there was memory conflict. The software synthesizer was using 
portions of the HMA that such things as the Windows "sounds" used, .wav 
files used and more. None of this happened when the synthesizer was a 
hardware card in the machine or a peripherial device connected to a COM 
port!

While Braille may be considered as the "greatest" tool ever invented for the 
blind, the personal computer with screen reading capability and speech 
output was destined to become the greatest and most fantastic tool ever! 
However, Windows with its use of the GUI stopped this fantastic tool that 
could have made the lives of millions of blind or sight handicapped 
individuals better beyond belief from happening. The cost alone is enough to 
choke on - The screen reading software I use costs $895. The speech 
synthesizer I use cost me $815 "wholesale", retail was $1195! The DOS screen 
reading programs I use cost me $450 and $495. (Why two? Because they each 
had some functions I needed that were mutually exclusive) The DOS programs 
are now free, I believe. The software I used to scan regular mail cost me 
$995 and the HP 3P black and white flat bed scanner cost me $395. The "map" 
I use to find a street or town, the same as sighted people do with city or 
state or national road atlas maps, cost me $600. (Right after I bought 
"Atlas Speaks" somebody released this thing called "GPS"! Which made my 
talking map instantly a relic! But then again, who could afford GPS when it 
was first released anyhow? At that time the military still had the 
"differencial receiver" classified, so the GPS only got one about 100 feet 
or so from where they really were. The version now has both receivers and 
gets one what?, about three feet?

So somebody invented the Laser Cane and modified it was a special twin 
receiver GPS backpack etc. Now a blind person could walk down the street 
wearing this heavy backpack with twin GPS units, an antenna sticking up into 
the air, carrying a heavy battery pack and a few other things. Looking like 
an Alien who just arrived from the rings of Saturn and was looking for 
somewhere to refuel his solar cells! But still had to use a White Cane or 
Guide Dog for safety! This equipment cost a small fortune, and all it did 
was tell you about what corner you might be on! Then you had to use your lap 
top computer with the Atlas Speaks program to figure out where the heck you 
were, then use the White Cane or Guide Dog to cross the street and hope 
somebody did not throw a net over you and try to sell you to the traveling 
circus for a sideshow attraction!

Just give me my trusty old Compaq Prosario 233 MHZ P1 machine, 128 Meg of 
RAM, a 6 Gig HD, a 1.44 floppy, Iomega 100 Meg zip drive, CD ROM drive, 
Windows 95B, a DECTALK internal card, JFW version 3.3 and Vocal-Eyes for DOS 
3.1 I will crawl back into my low tech, but happy, cave!

Duane Fischer, W8DBF/WPE8CXO
dfischer at usol.com
HHI: Halligan's Hallicrafters International
http://www.w9wze.net
HHRP: Historic Halligan Radio Project
hhrp.w9wze.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "WE0H" <we0h at yahoo.com>
To: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 2:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Neat place/information

> http://stores.ebay.com/OEM-Parts-Inc
>
> Mike
> WE0H
>
> revcom wrote:
>> This is not a commercial,  but more  of an informational item.
>>
>> Was in Colorado Springs for holiday weekend, as usual looking
>> around at "junk" shops and found that the age old surplus store
>> in Colorado City had reopened.  To my dismay they had NO electronics
>> but the owner told us of another place I had never heard of.
>>
>> It may have been on here before, hadn't seen it and maybe there
>> are those in the Springs area on the lists, dunno that either.
>> The place has been there a long time I guess.
>>
>> However, we got directions and got there, Holy Cow!, only got about
>> 30mins of time to look around as near closing time, but they had
>> rows and rows of stuff, tubes, meters, transformers, coax connectors,
>> molex connectors, transistors and IC's (blah), and zillions of other
>> stuff that made a BA junky drool.  Military and industrial surplus stuff.
>> Test equipment and cable assy's galore.
>>
>> I got a couple of tubes and  a capacitor for a rebuild project, and was
>> cheep!  Next time, I know where it is now, I plan to take along a
>> list and spend some time there.  Saw MANY items that have been
>> requested here on the lists.
>>
>> It is ---OEM Parts, Inc.
>>            2727 E Palmer Park Blvd
>>            Colorado Spings, CO 80907
>>            719-635-0771
>>
>> If you get there, plan to spend some time, it is HUGE!
>>
>> Rod
>> K0EQH
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> ** List Administrator - Duane Fischer, W8DBF/W9WZE **   ** For Assistance: 
> dfischer at usol.com **         $$ For vintage radio info, see the HCI web 
> site $$      http://www.w9wze.org
>
>
> -- 
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