> Whoever "draws" first in a Western matters a great deal.
I think you give Lucas too much credit for trying to honor this tradition; Greedo drew first: he has his gun trained on Solo for the whole conversation! I agree with you and others that the change is unfortunate for stunting the character development. If only I could stand to watch it with my kids, but the edit is just so poorly done it makes me too angry to sit still.
The problem with the government accessibility guidelines is that it sets developers back 10 years in what we can do, and still the webpage will operate very poorly to blind users.
That is just wrong. Screen reading software sees the web much the same way Google does. Webpages that operate very poorly for the blind have much in common with the subtle things holding the web back from reaching its true potential. Ever here of the Semantic Web?
Using Lynx, and command line OS's usually give them the best interface.
Actually, the average blind user appreciates the consistant user interface elements from application to application, and functionality that is easily discoverable by exploring menus. Huh, just like the average sighted user!
I had to write an intranet program for a government agency there is one blind person in the agency.
Make no mistake about it, 508 is Civil Rights legislation. More than accomodation, the point is to prevent lazy developers from creating new barriers that would work against hiring employees with disabilities in the future. And who is to say that an administrative assistant, who happens to be blind, should not be able to make those car reservations? Here is an Introduction to Web Accessibility.
My kids are a bit young for Big Brain Academy or Brain Age, but your lead turned up a couple "edutainment" titles, so that is good enough to get me started. The Colors program will be popular too!
Off topic: Is it really up to Nintendo if people call the DS a GameBoy or not? I know several people who deliberately insist on calling contemporary Apple laptops PowerBooks.
Can anyone recommend educational software for the PSP? (Or the GameBoy DS, I am not vested yet.) My young children have done quite well with the LeapPad (can't beat the "screen" resolution) but now that they are writing, they are ready for something else. Their electronic product doesn't impress me: the available titles are fairly redundant to what I have in paper, and the product is weak compared to PSP/DS.
It was JohnW who damned you, I would never initiate such as thing. You need to correspond with him if you want a proper explanation or repudiation. I just thought you deserved more of a clue than what he left you with on his drive by.
No actual programmer would write "developing various codes" but someone pretending to be a programmer might well use just such phrasing. You might not be astroturfing, but I do not believe that you are a programmer.
There is a long history (as in decades) of game publishers using Macs during development but not releasing products for Mac customers. I always thought anyone involved with in that, especially the Mac users at those companies, should be publicly outed and shamed. Like what we do to closeted gay politicians who campaign against gay rights. It may not be a crime, but it is a sever moral failing.
Adobe had a much better product than Front Page. They didn't like the heat from MS, so they just abandoned it. I wish it were possible to sue companies to post source code when they walk away from a product.
Most people who buy a Mac are even less inclined to tinker than a typical Windows user
Wrong. AppleScript, xCode, and pList files invite tinkering. And one is much less likely to seriously break things. But if a typical Mac user is twice as likely to tinker, there are still ten times fewer of them in aggregate, so I understand why you might get the wrong impression.
and therefore much less likely to switch to Linux
Wrong. Mac users are much less likely to switch to Linux because: (1) they bought good quality hardware stays useable years longer than the typical windows boxen (no need to string out product life by switching); and (2) OS X is much nicer than Windows. Plus there is the same numerical illiteracy aspect of the first half your bullet. (If OS X users were twice as likely to switch to Linux as compared to Windows users, there would still only be a tenth of them in aggregate.)
Just because you have not heard of it, does not mean it does not exist. Pointing is of course problematic for someone who cannot see, but the touch screen is not unworkable per se. Talking Fingertip is one solution.
They've also not made it useable by people without arms, or by people without brains. So? Your point is what, exactly? That we are an evil society because we (the sighted) dare to actually use our eyes?
The point is that the laws on the book should be enforced and ITC manufactures should take these requirement seriously. It is about Civil Rights. Cell phones are so suppose to include tele-coils (invisible, cost little, make the phones compatible with hearing aids used by the hard of hearing). Cell phones are suppose to incorporated TTY compatibility (invisible and cost nothing). All ITC is suppose to provide at least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user vision
No, what you are proposing is a considerable change in the entire design. A highly visual touchscreen device isn't exactly going to be blind-friendly with one or two minor modifications.
Wrong again. No one advocates that the alternative must be the default, just that it must be available. You may be interested to learn that Gnome includes leadingedge alternative interfaces.
I'll support any change that does not impact me or the other 99% of the people in any major negative way. If it costs another $5 to make a blind-friendly iPhone, fine with me. Well, as long as that doesn't mean $5 for the blind, $5 for the arm-less, $5 for the deaf, etc etc etc.
I am glad to know that you are no completely uncharitable. This is the situation closed caption decoders (used to be hundreds of dollars, which only the Deaf had to pay for) on televisions (nowadays everyone pays about 15 cents per unit).
However, I do think there is some wisdom in going forward without looking out for the slowest one at every step. If only because otherwise you wouldn't get forward at all. I'm sure most of the nice technology that makes life easier for disabled people would have never been developed if it had been a requirement from day one
Wrong yet again. These electronic curb cuts cost almost nothing if they are consider at the beginning and incorporated through the life cycle of the product. It is the built environment we are talking about. There is no reason to build stairs without including ramps. This mindset allows us to forward faster in the long run. (Or do you not plan on getting old?) Much of the technology that makes life easier for disabled has only been developed because of requirements like Section 508.
Not in the least. Being enlightened would be finding ways to maximize everyones enjoyment of life.
I agree with you. It is well within the capability of Apple to make the iPhone usable by people who are blind. They have chose not too. There is some element of callousness to that.
Inconveniencing 99% of the population for the advantage of 1% is not what I'd call reasonable.
I am not advocating removing of features of the iPhone, I propose adding more.
It used to be that the Deaf needed to buy $300 closed caption decoder. Then the FCC forced everyone to include the technology. The cost went down to about 15 per unit! A more than fair trade I would argue! How about you? Even though it directly effected less than 1% of the population? Was it reasonable? Only the most diehard libertarian (of which/. has many) could miss the societal value to this result.
Actually, I believe that's the correct way to judge a society
Fair enough. But hopefully a society builds a government that reflects these values. You are also correct that government cannot bring enlightenment by force. But the free market and even democracy can be a viscous place. (Does 51% get to enslave the other 49%?) One of the most noble use of laws exist to protect the inalienable rights of minorities.
Technology should be about removing barriers, not creating artificial ones! There exists plenty of technology that allows people who are blind to use computers and phones. Apple has a decent screen reader. IMHO they have no excuse. One reasonable way to judge governments, and people, is to see how they take care of those with disadvantages. Anyone, including you, can join the disable minority group at anytime, and it is pretty much guaranteed with age. It is not about being politically correct, it is about being enlightened.
I thought ADC was brilliant. Was it a mistake because they latter abandoned it (I guess because of cost?) or is there a bigger reason why it was/is a bad idea?
FWIW, a few years back I bought an eMac instead of a Mini only because the latter did not have ADC. Apple actually got more of my money, and I kept the Cube working, so I guess that worked out for Apple in the short term. But I would have turned that first generation Mini into a media PC and bought a new one by now. The eMac is still good enough that I am waiting for Tiger before I upgrade!
I believe you that Cocoa is not an option for OOo, but I am not happy about it. Carbon seems to be the path of least resistance for cross platform stuff.
Finder is Carbon.
Which is at the root of why it still sucks.
Safari is Carbon.
Not the GUI (which is why, for example, it works with VoiceOver, but Camino does not). I was surprised to learn that it does have some Carbon in it still. It certainly does not feel nor act like a carbonized app. http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=633 89
How're you doing the port? Using Cocoa or Carbon? regards, Lars
Currently the plan is to use Carbon. [PhillippL]
MS Office is Carbonized, so right there you know you that route is lame! VoiceOverusers are desperate for something they can use besides TextEdit. Accessibility comes for free with Cocoa! It is a PITA for Carbon (so much so, that Apple only made iTunes accessible with the last 7.1.1 release).
Or is Carbon especially appropriate for legendary code cruft? (MS Office and iTunes are also a krufty mess.)
I agree that the Shuffle is less discriminatory, but I do not find the specific product named in TFA and the school objectives quote a more ambitious agenda that shuttling documents and recorded lectures. (And if the latter is really all there is to this, why not just USB thumb drives at half the cost? iTunes remains a stumbling block in that third party products are still necessary for accessibility. The Shuffle has the battery/charging indicator which is visual only, but I agree that is less an obstacle that the one-line display in other MP3 players at that price point. Can you provide a citation as to why you believe this is what the schools were buying, or that just hearsay? At the Bionic Ear Blog you can find an example of a Deaf individual making good use of an iPod. You have probably Steve is hard of hearing himself.
By design, but not for technical reasons, the iPod is not accessible to the blind nor the Deaf. Both RockBox and VoiceOver demonstrate, independently, paths to solving the first challenge. Captioning for video is an even easier fix that effects even more people. Apple only last month made iTunes accessible.
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Doesn't Greedo have a gun trained on Solo from the start?
Cringely backs you up wrt the service and most of what you speculate about. But he doesn't think the actual phone hardware is a necessary piece.
My kids are a bit young for Big Brain Academy or Brain Age, but your lead turned up a couple "edutainment" titles, so that is good enough to get me started. The Colors program will be popular too!
Off topic: Is it really up to Nintendo if people call the DS a GameBoy or not? I know several people who deliberately insist on calling contemporary Apple laptops PowerBooks.
Can anyone recommend educational software for the PSP? (Or the GameBoy DS, I am not vested yet.) My young children have done quite well with the LeapPad (can't beat the "screen" resolution) but now that they are writing, they are ready for something else. Their electronic product doesn't impress me: the available titles are fairly redundant to what I have in paper, and the product is weak compared to PSP/DS.
It was JohnW who damned you, I would never initiate such as thing. You need to correspond with him if you want a proper explanation or repudiation. I just thought you deserved more of a clue than what he left you with on his drive by.
No actual programmer would write "developing various codes" but someone pretending to be a programmer might well use just such phrasing. You might not be astroturfing, but I do not believe that you are a programmer.
There is a long history (as in decades) of game publishers using Macs during development but not releasing products for Mac customers. I always thought anyone involved with in that, especially the Mac users at those companies, should be publicly outed and shamed. Like what we do to closeted gay politicians who campaign against gay rights. It may not be a crime, but it is a sever moral failing.
Adobe had a much better product than Front Page. They didn't like the heat from MS, so they just abandoned it. I wish it were possible to sue companies to post source code when they walk away from a product.
Cell phone vendors trade in a precious commodity (the airwaves) held in the public trust. There is already law that prohibits building telecommunication barriers. The iPhone pretty much ignores these requirements (PDF warning).
Technology should be about removing barriers, not creating artificial ones! There exists plenty of technology that allows people who are blind to use computers and phones. Apple has a decent screen reader. IMHO they have no excuse. One reasonable way to judge governments, and people, is to see how they take care of those with disadvantages. Anyone, including you, can join the disable minority group at anytime, and it is pretty much guaranteed with age. It is not about being politically correct, it is about being enlightened.
Stupid comparisons. It is a phone. Why shouldn't someone who is blind be able to use it? Why should a phone offer more of an obsticle than a computer?
FWIW, a few years back I bought an eMac instead of a Mini only because the latter did not have ADC. Apple actually got more of my money, and I kept the Cube working, so I guess that worked out for Apple in the short term. But I would have turned that first generation Mini into a media PC and bought a new one by now. The eMac is still good enough that I am waiting for Tiger before I upgrade!
MS Office is Carbonized, so right there you know you that route is lame! VoiceOver users are desperate for something they can use besides TextEdit. Accessibility comes for free with Cocoa! It is a PITA for Carbon (so much so, that Apple only made iTunes accessible with the last 7.1.1 release).
Or is Carbon especially appropriate for legendary code cruft? (MS Office and iTunes are also a krufty mess.)
I never get more than one significant digit out of mine.
I agree that the Shuffle is less discriminatory, but I do not find the specific product named in TFA and the school objectives quote a more ambitious agenda that shuttling documents and recorded lectures. (And if the latter is really all there is to this, why not just USB thumb drives at half the cost? iTunes remains a stumbling block in that third party products are still necessary for accessibility. The Shuffle has the battery/charging indicator which is visual only, but I agree that is less an obstacle that the one-line display in other MP3 players at that price point. Can you provide a citation as to why you believe this is what the schools were buying, or that just hearsay? At the Bionic Ear Blog you can find an example of a Deaf individual making good use of an iPod. You have probably Steve is hard of hearing himself.
By design, but not for technical reasons, the iPod is not accessible to the blind nor the Deaf. Both RockBox and VoiceOver demonstrate, independently, paths to solving the first challenge. Captioning for video is an even easier fix that effects even more people. Apple only last month made iTunes accessible.
For me, the killer app with 10.4 was/is VoiceOver. I am hoping to be surprised by Jobs and crew on 10.5, but so far spaces and time machine have not piqued my interests and even the new voice and promised Braille support seem minor.