Shawn's Thoughts

Mom Passed away Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:43:00 +0000

On Saturday Novenber 15th, 2008 my mother Rachel Ann Christensen passed away due to a heart attack.

You can visit the Obituary at the Grand Island Independent website.

The memorial will be held at the Kronborg, NE Lutheran church at 10:30am on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

Emotionally I don't know how I feel. Yes, I feel grief, but in a way it feels like a relief that we are not having to worry about what will happen to her next.

This is probably the wrong sentiment but it is what I feel now. To tell the truth, I did not really know mom over the last five years. After the divorce she really did not talk to my sister or I.

Commenting on Digg Artical / National News: Tampa condo plans clothing-optional pool

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:10:00 +0000

Hillsborough County, FL housing complex is planning to have a clothing-optional pool in an effort to sell units in a slumping market. A spokeswoman for the project's developer said one pool is being set aside for nude swimmers, sunbathers and hot-tub users at the Arbors at Branch Creek.

read more | digg story

My Comment Posted on Digg:

Would you live in a place where the pool was "Clothing Optional"? This lifestyle is a choice and we are a country with the right to "Freedom of Choice". Some people's belief that a naked body should not be shown, have made us a society of body shy people.

The rest of the thought:

I understand that some religions have rules / commandment related to body display. This is not a poke at religion. Just as they have the right to choose a religion. People should have a right to choose how much or little of their body they show in public. If you don't like what you see, you have the choice to look away or not look at all.

The human body is a work of art, it should be displayed to all, both the male and female body.In current society the only shown body's are the "pretty people, generally women". Now who defines the pretty people.

This lies somewhere between the clothing industry and media. They choose who to show and what the right size is. If you go shopping today you will find that most ladies clothing is aimed at the "size 6" and tall with cleavage showing bodices. As you go up in sizes your selections get smaller or you are limited to specialty stores where the prices can be fixed higher. Similar things happen in gentleman's clothing, but are less obvious since men's fashion takes a back seat, due to "normal" shopping patterns. to see this look at your major superstore. Shopping is a topic for another article.

Back to the topic at hand, If you want to where or not where something should be your choice. You should be able to make the same choice for your family. Yes, I said family. Current laws in most of the world state that images of or video of, a naked child (2-18) is sexual exploitation and a felony grade offense. Most people have been taught that nudity is shameful. What does this create? Parents that are afraid to let their kids run around with out clothing. Children that grow up with serious mental health related issues.

Anorexia and Bulimia are mental heath conditions, that lead to physical health problems. There are others that I can't think of now. Theses conditions exist because of the perfect body ideal currently being pushed.

The Long Version!

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:31:00 +0000

For those of you who are not following my twitter posts (look me up via my g-mail address sdjernes@gmail.com Also for those of you who want a longer version of whats been going on.

Structure and display of this will not be right.

Weekend of the 1st.

Got all the stuff over here and in some assembled of order. Gave Jeff the keys back on Saturday as in Plan D (A, B, C, were just screwed). Was low on money after everything so skipped getting medications. That week went down hill, and is not appropriate for this blog.

Things Accomplished week of June 1st

Cable hooked up to basement, modem online and router found and added. (DD-WRT v24 on WRT54Gv4) QOS sucks and it seems not to properly limit the torrent clients speed.
Started setting up desk. Laptop still on WiFi because of no cable to room from basement router.
Started to evaluate wiring situation. Not Good
Kitchen is starting to get in order.
Got pist at vertical duct that is suppose to go straight down to basement, It don't go straight. Some kind of odd bend or something. Have to find plan C on all the wire.
Had Cox come back out and put a cable into the 2nd floor sun room, where the only real TV is. Have to get the PVR up so I can watch via PC.

Week of June 8th

Got into see doctor, medication is straighten up. We think!
Used some geek ingenuity to get CATV and Ethernet into my bedroom. Removed a non functioning heating duct cover and the associated pipe. Got some smooth edges on the space and down the hole the cables went. Through some holes in walls, over the ceiling and at the router we ended up.
Setup second AP / switch (DD-WRT v24 on WRT54Gv2). Now Andy and Karri have a good signal upstairs and mine does not fluctuate as much. Want to actually mount this in the attic.
Got a bunch of the old wire tore down from the basement on the circuit that ran my Bedroom/Office North wall. Still wondering how the fridge and toaster oven are on the same circuit as the bedroom. Have not found that wire yet.

Week of June 15th

Office is no longer on the circuit called "North Basement" it has it's own 20amp feed. Now I can install the APC SmartUPS 1400 up here as my battery backup. This little BackUPS 650 from 8 years ago just doesn't cut it for in here. Works great for the stereo as a line filter.
Basement door lock changed. Old one mostly rust and corrosion.

More to come just have to go do some work before we leave to go run arrons.

Moving and other stuff for today.

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:32:00 +0000

Well, we got another load over to the new house. The Living room is almost completely cleared out here and the bedroom is getting close.

We have BIG things to move now. The Rack, Dresser, Treadmill, oh and we can't forget my desk (which still has stuff on it, because I need to get other work done).

The kitchen, now that is a problem. I have no clue how to pack that stuff. It has always been done for me. I have to wash most of it anyway yet.

For other interesting things today,

Dad found a leek in the roof the hard way. Standing under the stairs, there was a tornado warning. He got dripped on. This is in the basement.

I created a group on Mugshot and can't figure out how to tell another group that it now exists.

More stuff later!

The moving has begun!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:26:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

Well finally the moving has begun. I moved several totes and boxes over last Thursday. Sunday, I sorted through my wardrobe and found things I didn't know that I had and a lot of stuff that is too small. Yesterday and today my sister has been helping me pack and organize stuff so it is ready to go. We will be packing some more stuff today and hopefully be moving the couch and the dresser tonight. My sister's husband drove his pickup up here, when he had to come to a meeting. A pickup will be a lot easier to move the big stuff in then a van. My desk in the office comes apart in a way that will easily fit in a van.

Cox will be there Saturday night to install the Cable TV and Internet. Well actually pull a cable through the wall.

I and Dan will be moving a bunch more stuff on Wednesday. Hope to be out of here 90% Friday night.

Later

N770 Project died durring setup

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:57:00 +0000

Some of you were waiting on my follow up post to my story about the Nokia N770 Internet tablet.

Short Answer: Wireless radio in the unit is non-functional, to the point that the kernel can not load firmware to the card during the module load.

The N770 is a great device in both hardware and user interface design. How ever, it takes too much work to get a root shell and then to figure out what is wrong with it. I don't think it would have been as hard to solve a problem other then the network being dead.

This is not my last try with a Nokia Internet Tablet! However, I think I will try the N800 next time. It has one feature that is a major difference from the N770, an SecureDigital (SD) slot instead of the MMC style slot for memory expansion.

Nokia N770 battle

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:23:00 +0000

I got the Nokia N770 two days ago and I love it, so does Karri, the person I actually bought it for. Well I loved it up until I tried to get it attached to the wireless network.

This cute little device runs a slightly modified spin-off of the Debian Linux distribution. All is good in the world. I love Debian and I have a very Open Source toy that runs Linux.

The user interface is great, just click on the little globe near the top right corner of the screen and choose "Select Network". I thought this should not be that hard. So I did that. A dialog shows up and a small box says searching. I wait patiently, because there are a lot of networks in the building, most of them on the same channels. I keep waiting for about a minute longer and the searching box goes away. What, I am left with an empty dialog box. No networks at all.

Now I think, maybe it has a "flight mode", like many PDAs / Cell Phones have. I start looking around it for a physical switch. Find none. I then look through all the software and control panel on the device. Didn't find a thing there either. At this point, I am getting to the I'm missing something important that is staring me in the face stage.

Onto the Web I go, I visit everybody's friend Google. I searched for almost every word combination related to N770 and WLAN / Wireless. No luck, just a bunch of stuff about low signal strength. I know that shouldn't be the problem, since I was 5 foot from the Access point.

Again scratching my head for a new idea. I decided this may be a "firmware thing", so I went off to find new firmware. No luck, I already have the latest "Official" firmware. What to do next? Get shell and root access to the device. Now that is not as easy as it seems.

Yes this device is build on Linux. It is running GNOME. Well someone seems to have thought that no one would want to use xterm on it. Yes, thats right. The application that is normally installed right along with X was not there.

Off to the Web and Google again to find out how to install xterm. If I could have got the N770 on the net then it would have been very easy. The Application Manager included on the device works similarly to Synaptics on Debian / GNOME desktop. Aim it at a repository and select the package you want. Hmm, now we have problem two. We need to do apt-get, but no network. Snoop around the N770 software some more and I find in Application Manager a Install package from file. Still how to get the file over to the device.

The N770 does not use Secure Digital or Compact Flash memory cards. It uses MMC cards. Luckily my Nokia 6680 phone uses those and I have one in it for the camera and voice recorder. It's small 64MB, but Debian packages on a general are small and since this is a integrated low memory device, the packages should be that big. Those problems solved, where do I find the package.

Meamo http://meamo.org has a package repository. These are the folks who wrote the software these little devices run. A bit of hunting later, I have the package and it's dependencies. Just like I would have done on a Debian box with a package that was not in the apt-cache. Use your favorite browser to follow the link to the repository and jump into the "pool".

Ok, got that installed. Now lets use that terminal we got. It got installed into the main menu under a group called Extras. Start it up and wow we got an "sh$" prompt. Nokia being smart, did not make the front end user root. They didn't make it easy to get root easy either.

During my search for xterm, I saw a reference for a command "sudo gainroot". I executed the command and promptly got the response "if you want to break your device enable R&D mode". Again in my previous searches I saw this. This one of the functions of the Nokia propritory flasher utility, that is only available for Linux and Mac OS X. It is a small command line program that must be run as root or a user who is a member of a group with direct access to /dev/usb*

Got that done and rebooted the device. Into xterm we go again. "sudo gainroot" works this time. I did some snooping around to find out what was installed and then I went and ran "dmesg".

Wow, we got errors and more errors. Here is a copy of the output.

        / # dmesg

        M MMU, v=0xe0fff000, p=0x13c00000, sz=0x1000

[  137.866271] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.866546] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.866912] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.867065] omapdsp: frame buffer export

[  137.867126] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.867309] omapfb_notifier_cb(): event = READY

[  137.867370] omapfb_register_client(): success

[  137.867645] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.867858] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.867950] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.868103] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.868194] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.868286] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.868377] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.868469] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  137.868560] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe00

[  138.282531] omapdsp: IPBUF configuration

[  138.282562]            512 words * 16 lines at .

[  138.282806] omapdsp: found 4 task(s)

[  138.283081] omapdsp: task 0: name pcm0

[  138.283691] omapdsp: taskdev pcm0 enabled.

[  138.292327] omapdsp: task 1: name pcm1

[  138.292846] omapdsp: taskdev pcm1 enabled.

[  138.301910] omapdsp: task 2: name avsync

[  138.302398] omapdsp: taskdev avsync enabled.

[  138.311340] omapdsp: task 3: name audiopp

[  138.311889] omapdsp: taskdev audiopp enabled.

[  138.722137] hci_cmd_task: hci0 command tx timeot

[  138.722259] brf6150: Frame for non-running devie

[  139.411499] aic23 powering up

[  139.416137] aic23_init_power() done

[  139.737457] hci_cmd_task: hci0 command tx timeot

[  139.737548] brf6150: Frame for non-running devie

[  139.816741] omapdsp: mmap info: vmadr = 40016000

[  142.196197] aic23 powering down

[  152.388031] aic23 powering up

[  152.392486] aic23_init_power() done

[  158.977447] aic23 powering down

[  160.678497] aic23 powering up

[  160.682952] aic23_init_power() done

[  164.664978] aic23 powering down

[  165.187286] aic23 powering up

[  165.192108] aic23_init_power() done

[  165.196563] omapdsp: mmap info: vmadr = 40016000

[  167.595306] aic23 powering down

[  167.651885] aic23 powering up

[  167.656890] aic23_init_power() done

[  170.077423] aic23 powering down

[  172.935028] aic23 powering up

[  172.939605] aic23_init_power() done

[  175.305541] aic23 powering down

[  175.822814] aic23 powering up

[  175.827178] aic23_init_power() done

[  179.836761] aic23 powering down

[  183.522369] aic23 powering up

[  183.527008] aic23_init_power() done

[  186.618041] aic23 powering down

[  189.119628] aic23 powering up

[  189.123931] aic23_init_power() done

[  196.578948] aic23 powering down

[  196.995208] aic23 powering up

[  196.999542] aic23_init_power() done

[  211.774414] aic23 powering down

[  216.386260] aic23 powering up

[  216.390472] aic23_init_power() done

[  218.751007] aic23 powering down

[  232.676208] aic23 powering up

[  232.680450] aic23_init_power() done

[  235.040039] aic23 powering down

[  235.320861] aic23 powering up

[  235.325073] aic23_init_power() done

[  248.899444] aic23 powering down

[  249.854064] aic23 powering up

[  249.858276] aic23_init_power() done

[  252.219787] aic23 powering down

[  252.413543] aic23 powering up

[  252.417755] aic23_init_power() done

[  254.782226] aic23 powering down

[  259.350524] aic23 powering up

[  259.354736] aic23_init_power() done

[  268.970825] aic23 powering down

[  269.367004] aic23 powering up

[  269.371215] aic23_init_power() done

[  274.571228] aic23 powering down

[  274.734375] aic23 powering up

[  274.738647] aic23_init_power() done

[  277.102722] aic23 powering down

[  279.219818] aic23 powering up

[  279.224121] aic23_init_power() done

[  281.591094] aic23 powering down

[  288.797546] aic23 powering up

[  288.801818] aic23_init_power() done

[  292.846801] aic23 powering up

[  292.851013] aic23_init_power() done

[  296.641601] aic23 powering down

[  298.109283] aic23 powering up

[  298.113586] aic23_init_power() done

[  304.727691] aic23 powering down

[  306.255523] aic23 powering up

[  306.259735] aic23_init_power() done

[  308.625946] aic23 powering down

[  323.036560] aic23 powering up

[  323.040832] aic23_init_power() done

[  325.407623] Loading 3825.arm firmware

[  326.805480] aic23 powering down

[  352.432647] aic23 powering up

[  352.436859] aic23_init_power() done

[  354.797790] aic23 powering down

[  355.354705] aic23 powering up

[  355.358947] aic23_init_power() done

[  357.719757] aic23 powering down

[  358.657409] fw_upload: Not allowed to DMA write

[  358.657470] **** WLAN registers ****

[  358.657562] ARM_INT      -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.657623] ARM_INT_ENA  -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.657714] HOST_INT     -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.657775] HOST_INT_ENA -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.657867] HOST_INT_ACK -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.657928] GP1_COMM     -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.658020] GP2_COMM     -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.658081] DEV_CTRL_STA -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.658142] DMA_DATA     -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  358.658203] DMA_WR_CTRL  -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  358.658294] DMA_WR_LEN   -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  358.658355] DMA_WR_BASE  -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.658416] DMA_RD_CTRL  -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  358.658477] DMA_RD_LEN   -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  358.658569] DMA_RD_BASE  -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  358.658630] 3825.arm failed

[  358.777374] aic23 powering up

[  358.781585] aic23_init_power() done

[  359.001403] Loading 3825.arm firmware

[  361.141418] aic23 powering down

[  362.417510] aic23 powering up

[  362.421722] aic23_init_power() done

[  364.782165] aic23 powering down

[  364.919616] aic23 powering up

[  364.923950] aic23_init_power() done

[  367.289886] aic23 powering down

[  367.951538] aic23 powering up

[  367.955871] aic23_init_power() done

[  370.321105] aic23 powering down

[  372.856567] aic23 powering up

[  372.861267] aic23_init_power() done

[  381.492980] aic23 powering down

[  382.957275] aic23 powering up

[  382.961486] aic23_init_power() done

[  385.321136] aic23 powering down

[  385.512573] aic23 powering up

[  385.517486] aic23_init_power() done

[  387.883728] aic23 powering down

[  391.985534] fw_upload: Not allowed to DMA write

[  391.985595] **** WLAN registers ****

[  391.985687] ARM_INT      -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.985748] ARM_INT_ENA  -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.985839] HOST_INT     -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.985900] HOST_INT_ENA -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.985992] HOST_INT_ACK -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.986053] GP1_COMM     -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.986145] GP2_COMM     -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.986206] DEV_CTRL_STA -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.986267] DMA_DATA     -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  391.986358] DMA_WR_CTRL  -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  391.986419] DMA_WR_LEN   -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  391.986480] DMA_WR_BASE  -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.986541] DMA_RD_CTRL  -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  391.986633] DMA_RD_LEN   -> 0x0000 (16 bits)

[  391.986694] DMA_RD_BASE  -> 0x00000000 (32 bits)

[  391.986755] 3825.arm failed

[  393.257934] aic23 powering up

[  393.262207] aic23_init_power() done

[  395.629730] aic23 powering down

[  405.082183] aic23 powering up

[  405.086395] aic23_init_power() done

I would say somethings wrong with the firmware loader.

Found a unofficial OS2007 flash for the N770.  I will let you know how well it works in the next post.

Now using Mugshot.org

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:47:00 +0000

Tonight at the OLUG meeting a new social networking site was discussed which has a great deal of potential.

This messages is a test to see if Mugshot.org takes this article from my blog and integrated it.

Useability of QVC.com

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:24:00 +0000

Well I know it has been a while since I have written anything.

Today I and a friend were trying to shop for a few items on QVC's website http://qvc.com While doing this we got a great surprise.

THE SITE IS 99% NON-ACCESSIBLE TO THE BLIND!

QVC's TV network on cable TV across the nation, is one of America's most convenient ways to shop. Someone can kick back in their pajamas or during a major snow storm and get all of their gift or personal shopping done, without leaving their homes.

The blind of America also find this to be a friendly and convenient way to shop. However sometimes the information given on TV is not enough to make a purchasing decision. So, like the rest of America with Internet access, we jump on the web to find the details. Well thats what we hoped to do.

Recently QVC made an ?UPGRADE? to their website. This in fact was a step backwards in accessibility. Features that once were easy to use like:

Product details pages are setup so that it takes extra time and navigation to find product information. You must navigate beyond many images and the sale form before you will see the description. No useful headings to make jumping through content easier.
Site search engin does not respond well to correctly spelled, but details requests "diamonique ring 14k gold" does not work consistantly.

In the interest of finding out how bad the accessibility of the site actually was I went onto Google and found a web accessibility checker that could check a website, by just entering the URL of a page..

The site I found is ATRC (Assistive Technology Resource Centre) at the University of Toronto. http://checker.atrc.utoronto.ca

Below is a link containing the results of the test. The site failed WCAG 1.0 (Level A), WCAG 2.0 Level 2, and Section 508.

http://checker.atrc.utoronto.ca/servlet/Checkacc?submit1=Check+It&file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.qvc.com%2Fqic%2Fqvcapp.aspx%2Fview.2%2Fapp.detail

Now is the time for everyone who shops with QVC to let them know about the problems that exist with their website. So, next time you call in to place an order, or talk to customer service let them know the problems with the site. If you wish to send them an e-mail, you will have to use a not so nice form to do it. Here is a link to it.

Blogging with Dragon NaturallySpeaking

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:23:00 +0000

This is my first attempt using blogger with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Using drag and I can speak to the computer and issue commands and dictate with my voice.

Using Dragon NaturallyOrganized is a lot of fun. I am able to sit back and talk to the computer and let it right for me.

I know this blog entry makes docents. I am just seeing what I can do with Dragon on blogger. In my next actual post you will see me using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to write that blog entry.

The evil eFax

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:45:00 +0000

Not to get on a rant here!

I have been using the company J2 EFax for almost 3 years now. Today I called them to find out why they had not completed my phone number port to Vitelity. Vitelity is a company that I by many services from and they have just started fax service. They are also much cheaper at $2.99 compared to eFax's rate of $12.99 a month.

Click post time and date The first thing that bugged me, is that my phone call was answered by someone in India. This company used to be a small US company based in California. When I called and tried to explain the issue, the gentleman kept repeating a script and would not let me get a word in edgewise. When I explained to him that I had not received the new terms of service after the beginning of number portability, he kept repeating "it is an our terms of service, that phone numbers cannot be ported". When I asked to speak to a supervisor, he put me on hold, and then after a minute hung up the call.

So what this data in hand, I now have this decision, do I wish to fight the issue to keep my number or just give up and get a new fax number.

What do you think I should do?

Apple Product Accessibility Letter

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:56:00 +0000

Included here is the content of a e-mail I just sent to Apple's accessibility address, found at the bottom of the Accessibility Page.

Hello,

I am both a Mac OS 10.4 and Windows XP user. On the Mac I use VoiceOver. On Windows, I use JAWS.

iTunes:

1. When will VoiceOver be able to read the Window / Song List and iPod screen Correctly.

2. Is their an API on iTunes for Windows that I can use to help JAWS read the Windows and controls correctly. Or, are you planning to address the accessibility of the program the next release. If not how soon will this be fixed.

iWorks:

1. Does it work with VoiceOver?

2. What features are accessible? What are not? I need an office suite to do spreadsheets and presentations on the Mac. If this suite is not accessible with VoiceOver, which one is?

iPhone:

1. Can a totally blind person use this device. If not, when will it be accessible? I love the one device idea. I use an iPod by guessing and luck. If this device is more accessible then I will buy one.

iPod:

1. When is this device going to be accessible by the blind. I have fought my way through iTunes, learned by counting clicks and by using resets to find my way through the iPod. I have many blind clients and friends who would love to use this very nice device. With the growing adoption of digital audio content by schools, libraries, and publishers a common looking device like the iPod would be less conspicuous then the "players for the blind" which are bulky and have very small storage capacity, or are only capable of playing CD based content. Of course there is Audible, a great resource for books.

Thank you for answering this list of questions. I look forward to your responses.

Domain Names, What fragile things

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:24:00 +0000

Hi all,

Well today was a bit enlightening. I was working with someone and found that while they were off the net their domain had been hijacked by a company in the Netherlands. They even hijacked the content on her. So her site is sitting on the net with her info. WRONG OF COURSE since it has been two years since she has done anything with it.

So, you ask what I am going to do. I am working on tracking down a contact number for the Registration Reseller and to get them to release it for transfer to my GoDaddy account and then host the site (minus the adds) over on our rednote.net server at ThePlanet which is owned by Capital Accessibility who are the United States resellers for the Owasys 22c Screenless Talking Cell Phone and distributors of TTsynth an IBM TTS engine for Linux.

I know most of that last paragraph was shameless plugging for our hosting. Lets just say that the paragraph was a commercial break.

Time for a Late Night Snack

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 09:26:00 +0000

Well had to stop playing with the computer to get something to eat. Since my stomach was giving me acid reactions to the Pepsi.

So off to the kitchen I went in search of something to eat. Darn, no snacks, no junk food, no sweats. You might think I would be on the phone looking for a pizza. Wrong, it fridge hunting and combat cooking time. Here is what I found:

1 pkg chicken tenders strips (fresh / no breading / not cooked).

Got those out of the frezzer on Wednesday night intending to eat them Thursday but they were still forzen. Now you may ask, "Why didn't I just defost them in the Microwave" That is a rant for another day.

Biscuts in the can (yes, exploding bescutes)
Some Eggs (unknown vintage)

So, In to the Cast Iron Skillet the chicken goes after being given some seasoning with a Garlic / paprika rub and fresh ground pepper. What was the lubricant of choice for this frying you ask. Peanut Oil, not good for high temps as I thought it would be, but for normal cooking it's great.

Once those were mostly done. I tossed in 2 scrambled eggs with some Italian Seasoning mixed in. Some tossing and turning and we have those cooked up. Now we get those biscuits out of the oven and eat.

Well I ate it all that night . I forgat this was a pending post so thought I would finish it and post it.

Moved It over to Djernes.org

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 07:57:00 +0000

Yep, no more stupid URL's You can get here by just visiting http://djernes.org.

Now my site actually has more content on it then just provisioning files for the phones. I also added some much more relavent links. The ones that were in the links section actually sucked and went nowhere interesting.

Blind Corps: A non-profit organization taking the techniques of Blindness Skills Training to devoping nations.

The Owasys 22C: The first Screenless Phone designed especially for blind users.

Thought Provoker: A series of Articles and Stories written by Robert Leslie Newman, designed to generate discussion and enlightenment reguarding blindness issues.

TT Synth: A software speech synthesizer product for Linux sounding simular to Eloquence for Windows.

Trains & More: The website for Lucas Leon Djernes's Model Railroad Business. This site is still under construction.

Now we are ready for me to post content.

Had this thing for 6 Months and Never Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 06:43:00 +0000

OK, well I have had access to the Google Blog thing for about six months and had not done anything with it.

This one looks much more accessible then the one I have had on other sites. I am trying to figure out how to have this thing show up on my Djernes.org site so everyone who goes their could read it.

More stuff to come soon.

Accessible Worlds, Linux for the Blind #1

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:34:00 +0000

Accessible World: Linux and the Blind

Presented By

Shawn L. Djernes

Monday, November 20, 2006 at 00 UTC

Program Outline.

Glenn's Intro
1. Shawn will cover
  1. A Brief History of Linux
  2. Why you may want to use Linux in your Home/Office
  3. Ways of accessing a Linux system.
  4. What kind of and status of screen access technology their currently is for Linux, and coming in the future
  5. Provide Links on his blog to the sites where you can find more information and download things to try.
2. Shawn's Biography
  1. June 3, 1976 Born is Aurora, NE
  2. 1980 Started working with computer on the Apple II at age 4
  3. 1989 Moved to the Macintosh LC at age 13
  4. 1990 Got his first taste of Unix and the Internet with shell account from Nebraska Department of Education at age 14
  5. 1993 During High School was introduced to the PC world
  6. Summer of 1994 attended WAGES and worked for Bryan Memorial Hospital in the Information Services department
  7. Same summer attended the first session of Nasa's Space Camp for Blind Youth.
  8. 1995, May Graduated Grand Island Senior High School
  9. Summer of 1995 attended a internship program at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, while there worked with OS/2 and Screen Reader/2 testing applications for accessibility.
  10. Fall 1995 got a PC and my first copies of Jaws for Windows and Jaws for DOS and a Type 'n Speak
  11. Summer 1996 through early spring 1997 Attended the Orientation Center
  12. 1997 did contract work for NSVI and other private companies / people.
  13. Summer 1997 met Brian Blazie and discussed a technical support job. Started working for Blazie in August/September.
  14. Winter 1997 bought my first copy of Red Hat linux and started running it on an old 386 machine as a mail server and router.
  15. Summer 1998 Met Brenda Loughrey during a training on Telesensory Products that Blazie had purchased rights to. Discussed her need of a technician for her new Access Technology Company. Interviewed Halloween Weekend 1998 after being in a car accident on my way up for Maryland to Pittsburgh PA. Started working for Athena Computer Technologies December 1st 1998
  16. Spring 1999 Went to my first WPLUG (Western Pennsylvania Linux User Group) meeting and shortly there after met Frank Carmickle and started exploring the Blindness side of Linux
  17. 2001 got introduced to the Asterisk PBX project and started working with it as a phone system on Linux
  18. 2003 got introduced to the MythTV DVR project and started using Linux to record TV
  19. 2003 Athena Computer Technology Closes
  20. 2004 Start back to College in Application Development
  21. August 2004, My Sister's Wedding, NCBVI's first Technology Expo, and A Job opening for the Omaha Program Specialist of NCBVI all happen at the same time. In one week I watch my sister get married I help with a Workshop and Get interviewed for a Job and fly back to Pittsburgh to start classes again the next Monday.
  22. September 2004 start working for NCBVI as a staff trainee.
  23. Maintained a Consulting Business doing web design and hosting and customer accessible network configuration / application design.
  24. Spring 2005 give my first Asterisk Talk at the OLUG (Omaha Linux Users Group).
Shawn Starts.
1. A Brief History of Linux
  1. Unix
    1. 1971 Bell Unix
    2. 1985 Richard Stallman's Manifesto starts the Free Software Foundation and the GNU OS / the GPL
    3. 1987 Linus Torvalds is Introduced to GNU Minux as a Computer Science Student.
  2. Linux
    1. 1991 August Linus Torvalds announces his hobby OS on a GNU list. Later asking for help on making it more workable. Releases 0.1 under the GNU License in December which Organizations like Debian, RedHat and others start distributing.
    2. 1999 RedHat and several other Linux Based Businesses go public. Large Companies such as IBM and Dell start supporting Linux on their hardware.
    3. 2001-2003 Linux Embedded starts to show up in various mass marketed products, such as Cable DSL Router, Home Entertainment Devices, MP3 Players and many other categories.
2. Why you may want to use Linux in your Home/Office
  1. You need a place on your network to backup or share files with Coworkers or Family
  2. You want a firewall / Web parental control system that you have full control of.
  3. You are interested in Home Automation and wish to have an accessible control interface for both you and your family.
  4. You or someone you know needs a system to do basic to advanced computing but can not afford or does not want to pay expensive cost for restrictively licensed software.
  5. All or note of the above. You think of it Linux probably has a way to do it.
3. Ways of accessing a Linux system
  1. Directly with a Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor (last 2 optional), on the console of the machine
  2. Through a Terminal / Remote connection program running on another computer.
    1. A direct cable from one computer's serial port to the Linux system
    2. Using telnet protocol over a network connection, *Very Insecure, Not recommended*
    3. Using SSH (Secure Shell) over a network connection. Some Recommended Programs:
      1. Windows: CygWin OpenSSH client
      2. DOS: Don't know one
      3. Mac OS X: ssh command in terminal
    4. File Transfer / Sharing: FTP, Windows File Sharing w/ Samba, NFS
    5. Web Browser, some of the best applications for Linux are web based
4. What kind of and status of screen access technology their currently is for Linux, and coming in the future
  1. Currently Available
    1. SpeakUp -- For the Text Console
      1. Kernel Based, speech from load to power off
      2. Very Stable at Release 2.0
      3. Now supports both Software speech (ttsynth and others) and older hardware synthesizers.
      4. Available in many distributions.
    2. BRLtty -- For the Text Console
      1. Daemon that talks directly to the Console Driver
      2. Supports Most Braille Displays on the market.
      3. Beginning to have speech support.
      4. Available in many distributions.
    3. ORCA -- X Windows GUI / GNOME
      1. Works with GNOME 2.14 and 2.16
      2. Python based and scriptable.
      3. Works with Java applications
      4. Uses gnome-speech or emacspeak driver to access synthesizers
      5. Currently has Speech, Braille, and Magnification interfaces.
      6. Many Accessible Applications available and more coming
      7. Packages available for Ubuntu Dapper Drake and Fedora Core 6
  2. Coming Soon
    1. KDE Accessibility
      1. Currently Planed for KDE 4
      2. Modular using DCOP
5. Useful Links
  1. Distributions
  2. SpeakUpmodified.org
Questions
Wrap-up

iTunes and iPod not but could be

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn L. Djernes) — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 08:54:00 +0000

This is the contents of a message I posted to the apple forums about the lack of effort on Apple's http://www.apple.com part to make their products accessible to the blind and other people with disabilities.

VoiceOver was a joke. OK write a screen reader but don't make your own Word Processor "Pages" and AppleWorks usable with it. Their best answer to what a blind person is to use for a Word Processor was TextEdit equiv to WordPad on the PC/Windows environment.

In any of the updates to Itunes or Ipod has the ability to use the product by the Blind been considered? Being a Low-Vision/Blind user I think accessibility has gotten worse instead of better. This is not just an Itunes on Windows Issue. Itunes on the Mac barely works with VoiceOver

In 7.0.X here are a few things that broke.

1. The Album flipping view mode cause Screen Magnifiers to have problems with Overlay and the Album art is not magnified.
2. No way to navigate the Itunes store if you are totally blind. Why not just let us browse it in Internet Explorer or Firefox and then download afterwards into Itunes.
3. Standard methods for navigating Menus, Tree Views (source list / play list side) do not work always and some times have very unexpected results.

There are very easy ways to fix this. As you are updating the application make sure that each control or widget gets its own MSAA information. On the Mac side make your developers actually follow your own standards for accessibility even if it means rewriting the program. Well they are at it they can fix most of iLife and Pages.

Now onto the Ipod 3g 4g 5g and the Nano 1g and 2g, These devices with some practice can be used by a blind person if they are setup correctly by someone sighted. Thats all well and good except if you just went out and bought a shinny new 80gb Ipod and now don't know how to navigate it. Well the solution to this is actually very easy. During startup it could play a quick set of clicks to let a blind user know it is doing something. Then once it is up and running the menu system could playback via the headphones recorded speech files stored in directory already on the shinny new Ipod. Something like "Main Menu" "Music", the user slides their finger around the wheel one spot to the right and "AudioBooks" and so on. Now your question comes to artists and genre's and Album titles. This could be a feature of the new ITunes 7.1.x where when you are syncing your Ipod it goes to the iTunes store and gets the appropriate audio files needed. or using the Very Nice Apple TTS makes the files on the fly and stores them. You say this would use up space on the Ipod, well yes it would and you could make so a sighted user could turn it off until the iPod resets or they if they are really cramped for space could remove the directory with the sounds in it, but restoring the iPod would put these features back in place. These features have more use then just for the blind, who are highest population for buying audio content be it Unabridged audio books, CD's, or from online sources. Once these features are out in the general public and touted as be available you will have the busy business traveler to the jogger using them, especially when it is not appropriate to take your eyes from something else, like driving. A driver could just reach down and touch the iPod and press the menu key and here "Music Menu", "play lists". Now we click the center button and our drivers heres "Gym Workout" clicks the wheel around to the right and heres "Peaceful Drive". He/She press the play button and heres "Playing, Peaceful Drive, 15 items in list" now this next part would need to be toggled on and off, while the iPod is cuing up the song it could say the song name and artist but this could be distracting.

Now if you really got brave with this project you could just add the TTS (Text to Speech) program into the Ipod. It would probably only take as much space as the new games you are selling for the 4g 5g and nano's. I know the Ipod has enough processor power. If it can play compressed video it could be executing a speech synthesizer in the background. With the dropping cost of the iPod I can see you may have to make this an add-on. That would be fine but include like a ten-day trial period with each new firmware update and have it on by default. This way allowing the user base to have time to see what it can do for them. If this is the choice then it should be a very inexpensive add on. Like in the $40 range. With the very extensive user base of Ipod's out there the Return on Investment should be very quick. if just 10% of the 300,000 blind people in the USA bought it, that equals 30,000 times $40 equals $120,000. This is not including the Learning Disabled, general population, and people in foreign countries who would love to have the stuff read it them. Now back to the blind, currently the devices made for the blind that are "accessible" cost from $400 and up that can play digital content not burned to a CD. So, if this was made for the Nano 2g a blind person could spend $200 on the device and $40 on the speech after the ten-days are up or they are coming close. The are still ahead by $160. Now if the person is a eclectic listener like my self then I would buy the 80gb unit at $350 and add the speech for $40 and have all the space I needed for my music, books, and my recordings I do with the Belkin recorder.

Another feature that should be looked into is the ability to play Daisy Content from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic http://www.rfbd.org This is the new style of releasing text books to those you can not read regular print. They are stored on a CD in mp3 format with a encrypted index. Now this type of thing is not a problem since you already have support for your own and Audible's digital rights management in iTunes and adding another method would not be that hard. An iPod Nano 4gb could hold 6 to 8 books for a Grade School, Middle School, High School, or College student. That would be great, one small device to play content and no worrying about what Cd the chapter is on or where you put the CD's, and not having to carry around a CD player just for the books. Also an iPod has become common place enough to not be notices.

Shawn,
This will be cross posted to my blog and to the Ipod Forum here.
My Blog was located at http://wizardwlf.spaces.live.com
The new location is http://djernes.org

These are some of the responses I have received and my responses in return.

I have left feedback with Apple, now it is time for all of you to leave some feedback with your concerns about the useability of this product.

In the Itunes Mac Forum Colin Robinson wrote:

Hi WizardWlf,

Interesting post but you do know that this is a User-to-User Forum don't you?

Here is the main Feedback page:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Best Regards,
Colin R.

To Which I responded

My goal is not to directly influience Apple. I am trying to influiece you the customer to write feedback to Apple, if not on your own behalf, for your family member who is blind/low vision, a blind co-worker at your office, a friend of a friend even. Apple will see my one comment in feedback and say he is just an extremist and being it is just one comment just ignore it becuase their are much cuter things some marketing person wants them to do. They may just respond with use the Shuffle it doesn't have a screen. Why should the blind be limited to 1GB of space?

So here is your chance. Talk to your friends who use the Ipod/Itunes, talk to the manager at your local Apple store, tell them all to think about what they could do with a talking iPod, let alone the accessibility this would give the blind.

The Mimico Kid wrote this in the iTunes Windows Forum
Shawn,

I did a quick search of the Apple web site and found a fair bit of information on accessibility issues for the Mac OS X operating system in general (you might want to have a look here if you're interested) but couldn't find anything relating to iTunes for Windows in particular.

Since Apple has set up these forums for users to help one other with their problems, there isn't much we can do as far as acting on your suggestions. You might want to submit your comments directly to Apple by filling out the forum on this page: http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html .

All the best!

I wrote back:
Yes that is a pretty advertisement page for the Tiger Accessibility and for the accessibilty of the hardware.

But what is missing is the same page for iTunes and iPod. Those two products which right now are Apple's Hot market. They do not even train the sales staff in the Apple Stores to use and demonstrate these features to a parent / spouse/ child of someone with a disability.

VoiceOver is great in the finder and terminal and mostly works in Safarie and Mail. It mostly works in system dialog boxes but forget AppleWorks, GarageBand, Microsoft Office. The ProTools folks are actually working on making that program work with VoiceOver even better.

My best recommendation to anyone on this forum who is a Mac User. Use SearchLight to find VoiceOver. Now read some of the documentation to get the gist of how it works. Once you have done this, Start VoiceOver and turn off your screen. Try using the keybard commands you just learned or even the ones you think you know in iTunes. You will find it extremely hard to navigate.

Shawn