I'm back again for another week. This week hasn't been too eventful at work, but there are still a few things to talk about.
This week has also been rather slow for customers, but I've gotten other work done instead, which is good. On Monday a new customer came in to learn about Kurzweil, and really liked the software. I think he'll be coming in fairly often to scan and read books and other printed materials.
On Tuesday I showed another staff member some of the technology we had on the computer, and we had an interesting discussion on some of the issues with assistive technology, like how inaccessible it can be due to pricing. I think I've touched on this in other entries, but this is my biggest annoyance right now. Immediately when I think of assistive technology, especially computer based, and maybe rather high tech stuff, I immediately think cool and very expensive. So then I think there's little to no chance I'll be able to ever use the technology unless I win the lottery, get lucky enough to get help paying for it, or pay on a loan for the next 15+ years.
This has been an issue forever, but it's really starting to be talked about more lately. Instead of propritary note takers, people can now buy software that runs on off-the-shelf PDA's and phones. I also have to say I really like what Serotek is doing with the Freedom Box. Not only does it offer different functionality for beginner computer users through the Freedom Box Network, it also has a pretty impressive screen reader component via the System Access program. I just found out too that it even includes remote computing at no extra charge, which I have to try out. And it's significantly less expensive than many other AT products out there now.
Anyway, on Wednesday I finally got Dragon trained to start recognizing my voice. One of the regular library customers I've helped in the past came in to help me as a volunteerer. He basically read me the paragraphs of text, and repeated whatever it got stuck on. The process was actually pretty painless, but still a little strange. Surpringly enough though, it picked up on how I spoke pretty well. This morning I did some more training on my own. I created a Word document, edited text, did some formatting, and navigated around Windows a bit. I was impressed at how well the program did. However what I need to still do more research on is using it with the Internet. speaking web addresses and navigating links seems rather clunky and inefficient now, but I'll definitely work more on that next week. I'm just happy I can start using the program now, and better help and teach others to use it.
As for other stuff going on, there's a really cool new computer/PDA device from GW Micro now that runs Windows XP and WindowEyes. It's basically a laptop in the skin of a PDA. It's got a 1 Ghz processor, 512 MB RAM, 30 GB hard drive, and can run Windows XP Home or Pro. It was just announced at CSUN this week. CSUN is an anual assistive technology conference in California, which I really wish I could have attended this year. You can find more info and cool pics of the device at www.gwmicro.com . I can't remember the name right now, but it's something Ultra. I'll defintely be keeping my eyes open for more info on this thing.
Things are finally starting to progress with my grad school project too. I've got a long way to go, but got a good start on my instruction. Hopefully I'll have the basics of most, if not all, of the instruction done by this weekend. It's a lot of work though, and I really have to respect instructors who put the time and effort into a great course. It's just as much work prepping everything for the class as it is doing the homework, sometimes more so.
Finally I'll hpoefully do a little gaming this weekend. I got my couple games I'd been waiting for for a long time. Tetris DS and The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion came yesterday. I quick tried each last night, and I love both. Tetris DS has several cool modes in addition to the standard Tetris everyone's probably played by now. I also like the cool retro Nintendo vibe they put into the game. The different game modes have cool remixes of classic Nintendo music from games like Super Mario Bros., Metroid, and Zelda. It also lets 4 people play online at a time, and up to 10 people locally with one cart. I Must find a way to try 10 players. That sounds like pure chaos and a lot of fun. There are a couple things I don't like though. Like how you can rotate pieces quickly so they don't fall, and how you can see 6 of the next pieces in line. Come on, I want at least the option for the classic 1 piece view. It takes a lot of the fun out of the game if you see so far ahead. I find myself not even looking over there most of the time. Still the games a blast.
Oblivion is quite great too. I could write an entire entry on this game because there's so much to talk about, and I might if people want to hear more. Basically it's an action RPG with this huge world to explore. Every character is voiced, and has their on lives in the world. The AI seems pretty cool, and the characters can do a lot of surprising things. I only got through the initial training dungeon and explored a little of the countryside, but wow! This game is beautiful, and best of all the load times are very quick to non-existant when walking around the world. My character is a huge Orc that's great with swords and axes. I only wish I'd put more into lockpicking. That will soon change though.
Until next time.
This week has also been rather slow for customers, but I've gotten other work done instead, which is good. On Monday a new customer came in to learn about Kurzweil, and really liked the software. I think he'll be coming in fairly often to scan and read books and other printed materials.
On Tuesday I showed another staff member some of the technology we had on the computer, and we had an interesting discussion on some of the issues with assistive technology, like how inaccessible it can be due to pricing. I think I've touched on this in other entries, but this is my biggest annoyance right now. Immediately when I think of assistive technology, especially computer based, and maybe rather high tech stuff, I immediately think cool and very expensive. So then I think there's little to no chance I'll be able to ever use the technology unless I win the lottery, get lucky enough to get help paying for it, or pay on a loan for the next 15+ years.
This has been an issue forever, but it's really starting to be talked about more lately. Instead of propritary note takers, people can now buy software that runs on off-the-shelf PDA's and phones. I also have to say I really like what Serotek is doing with the Freedom Box. Not only does it offer different functionality for beginner computer users through the Freedom Box Network, it also has a pretty impressive screen reader component via the System Access program. I just found out too that it even includes remote computing at no extra charge, which I have to try out. And it's significantly less expensive than many other AT products out there now.
Anyway, on Wednesday I finally got Dragon trained to start recognizing my voice. One of the regular library customers I've helped in the past came in to help me as a volunteerer. He basically read me the paragraphs of text, and repeated whatever it got stuck on. The process was actually pretty painless, but still a little strange. Surpringly enough though, it picked up on how I spoke pretty well. This morning I did some more training on my own. I created a Word document, edited text, did some formatting, and navigated around Windows a bit. I was impressed at how well the program did. However what I need to still do more research on is using it with the Internet. speaking web addresses and navigating links seems rather clunky and inefficient now, but I'll definitely work more on that next week. I'm just happy I can start using the program now, and better help and teach others to use it.
As for other stuff going on, there's a really cool new computer/PDA device from GW Micro now that runs Windows XP and WindowEyes. It's basically a laptop in the skin of a PDA. It's got a 1 Ghz processor, 512 MB RAM, 30 GB hard drive, and can run Windows XP Home or Pro. It was just announced at CSUN this week. CSUN is an anual assistive technology conference in California, which I really wish I could have attended this year. You can find more info and cool pics of the device at www.gwmicro.com . I can't remember the name right now, but it's something Ultra. I'll defintely be keeping my eyes open for more info on this thing.
Things are finally starting to progress with my grad school project too. I've got a long way to go, but got a good start on my instruction. Hopefully I'll have the basics of most, if not all, of the instruction done by this weekend. It's a lot of work though, and I really have to respect instructors who put the time and effort into a great course. It's just as much work prepping everything for the class as it is doing the homework, sometimes more so.
Finally I'll hpoefully do a little gaming this weekend. I got my couple games I'd been waiting for for a long time. Tetris DS and The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion came yesterday. I quick tried each last night, and I love both. Tetris DS has several cool modes in addition to the standard Tetris everyone's probably played by now. I also like the cool retro Nintendo vibe they put into the game. The different game modes have cool remixes of classic Nintendo music from games like Super Mario Bros., Metroid, and Zelda. It also lets 4 people play online at a time, and up to 10 people locally with one cart. I Must find a way to try 10 players. That sounds like pure chaos and a lot of fun. There are a couple things I don't like though. Like how you can rotate pieces quickly so they don't fall, and how you can see 6 of the next pieces in line. Come on, I want at least the option for the classic 1 piece view. It takes a lot of the fun out of the game if you see so far ahead. I find myself not even looking over there most of the time. Still the games a blast.
Oblivion is quite great too. I could write an entire entry on this game because there's so much to talk about, and I might if people want to hear more. Basically it's an action RPG with this huge world to explore. Every character is voiced, and has their on lives in the world. The AI seems pretty cool, and the characters can do a lot of surprising things. I only got through the initial training dungeon and explored a little of the countryside, but wow! This game is beautiful, and best of all the load times are very quick to non-existant when walking around the world. My character is a huge Orc that's great with swords and axes. I only wish I'd put more into lockpicking. That will soon change though.
Until next time.
posted by Jesse Anderson at 12:29 PM
1 Comments:
Wow. That was quite an entry! Sounds like you are learning a ton more about the AT you work with, and that you have a lot of interested people to share it with. As far as the rad new technologies, they sound expensive. And the DS... Well. Kevin said that one of the teens in Set It Up got one, and a couple of the Vistas in my program have them. Counting all those people, that's seven- but you're the only one I know of with Tetris.
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