WebFriendlyHelp.com Blog

Siri: Your Personal Virtual Assistant (VPA)

January 28th, 2010

This is very interesting technology currently being developed. I am certain that sooner or later, we will all be using some form of virtual assistant. The below info is taken from the Siri.com Web Site.

About Siri

Siri – Your Personal Assistant

Siri is a Virtual Personal Assistant – a new way to interact with the Internet on your mobile phone. Like a real assistant, Siri helps you get things done. You interact with Siri by just saying, in your own words, what you want to do. You can ask Siri to find a romantic place for dinner, and get reservations for Saturday night. You can discover things to do over the weekend, get tickets to the movies, or call a cab when you’re out on the town. You don’t have to search through a bunch of web pages, following links and hunting down facts. Siri does all the work giving you the information you need at your fingertips.

We believe that in five years most people who use the Internet will have a Virtual Personal Assistant (VPA) to take care of the details of using online services. We will look back at the birth of VPAs in 2009 and wonder how we ever got by without our trusted assistant. The days of wading through links and pages from your mobile interface will seem quaint, because the natural way to interact with the rich world of information and services is to have a conversation. As John Batelle, the author of The Search, says "The future of search is a conversation with someone we trust."

Siri is just getting started, and has a lot to learn. Stay tuned – the era of the personal assistant has begun!

Technology Heritage – CALO

Years in the making, Siri is born out of SRI’s CALO Project, the largest Artificial Intelligence project in U.S. history. (CALO stands for Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes). Made possible by a $150 million DARPA investment, the CALO Project included 25 research organizations and institutions and spanned 5 years. Siri is bringing the benefits of this technology to the public, in the first mainstream consumer application of a virtual personal assistant.

To learn about how Siri works, continue on to Siri Technology.

Sign Me Up

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Tags: future, Seri, Virtual Assistant
Posted in Computing, Software, Technology | No Comments »

Survey for computer users with low vision, or color blindness

October 31st, 2009

This was taken from the Microsoft Accessibility Blog.

Hi. I am working on a research project to understand how people optimize their computer to make it easier to see. We just kicked off an online survey and are recruiting people who have vision impairments. So, if you have low vision or color blindness, we’d really appreciate your feedback. And if there’s someone you know who does, please pass this information to them.

Microsoft product teams will use the survey findings to guide them as they strive to improve our display features. Your responses are completely anonymous. The survey will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. To participate, please fill out our Microsoft survey for making the computer easier to see.

Thanks!

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Tags: Access Technology, Color Blindness, Low Vision, Survey
Posted in Access Technology, Computing, General, Technology, Web Sites | No Comments »

Andy saved My Life Nearly a Week Ago!

October 26th, 2009

I have meant to blog about this much earlier, but life intervened, and I haven’t had the chance. The short version is that Andy… Saved my life nearly a week ago! We were crossing a busy street. I had a nearly quiet street, so Andy and I crossed. Out of nowhere, a car whizzed passed. Of course, by the time I realized this, the car was a hundred feet down the road! Before I even knew what was happening, Andy stopped very suddenly, and put his head directly in front of my body! By the time we got a crossed the street, I gave him a lot of kibble!

Lately Andy and I have been working on finding the elevator at work. I’m using the clicker, and this is working very nicely. Andy now will usually take me directly to the elevator, without any prompts from me! Next, I plan to show him how to find my wife Judy. I’ll be using the clicker for that to. I also plan to show Andy how to find chairs, benches, and the like, via the clicker of course.

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Tags: Andy
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Andy and Casey At Home Doing Well

October 17th, 2009

I’ve been home with Andy for about two weeks now. It’s been a bit hectic trying to fit Andy into the new way of doing things, and having to go to work etc. Despite all of the challenges, I think Andy and I are doing fine. I don’t think Andy likes the humid side to Florida, because his pace seems to have slowed down as soon as we walked out of the airport. We’re working it out though, and I think that part of the problem is me, and part of the problem is Andy.

I think I’m still getting used to walking with a dog. I love walking with a dog, but when I had my cane, I could vary the speed as I felt like it. You really can’t do that with a dog. Also in class, I was really focused on learning what I had to do with the new dog, and dealing with a dog switch. I really wasn’t too concerned with pace because he was so much faster than Carl. I also think that because I’m a lot more familiar with my routs here, that I just want to get to them faster, so I think that Andy’s moving slow, when he’s really not.

Then I have Judy and Sachet, AKA, the rocket dog. They move like lightning! Then I really feel like I’m moving in the slow lane. I’ve been talking with Grad Services, and Kim at GDB, and both have been great at giving me ideas to try.

Despite the pace issue, Andy continues to do wonderful work. While I’m at work, he doesn’t get distracted. Once he’s in his bed, he doesn’t get out of it unless I tell him, “Andy, let’s go”! Sometimes he’ll sit up, but when I give him the down command, he does it right away. I still have to work on Andy’s window shopping habits. I think that sometimes this could be a reason for his slowness to. Too bad, he’s such a window shopper because I hate shopping.

Andy is very good at getting me in and out of places. Many times when I go to a public bathroom, I’ll just tell Andy, “inside”, and he’ll find me the biggest stall that he can find which is usually the handicapped stall. Because they usually have a sink, towels, and trashcans, it’s one stop bathroom business for me. Too bad I can’t get Andy to do his business in the bathrooms. Someone on the news taught his cat to use the toilet. Hey, if a cat can do it, surely a dog can right?

Yesterday my wife and I went to a mall. Andy was just about perfect. At one point, we were in a restaurant and Andy took me outside from all the way in the back. At one point, I thought we were going into the kitchen, but I followed my dog and we were at the door! Hey, we even beet the rocket dog to. It doesn’t happen very often!

When Andy plays he doesn’t play too much, which kinda surprised me, because he’s such a young dog. He now plays tug now, yay, one of my favorites. He also fetches good in the house, but if we’re outside, forget it, leaves are more interesting. Andy and I also love to wrestle. I think Andy should have been a boxer!

Well I have written a lot more than I planned. I’ll never go back to the cane. One way or another, I’ll have a dog. It is a lot more work, but the ease of getting in and out of places, and getting from point A, to point B, cannot be overstated! I just want to thank all the staff at GDB for being so committed to guide dog teem excellence, my puppy raisers, who have raised a very fine dog, my instructor in class who was also Andy’s trainer, Thanks to Gary, I have a top notch dog! I also want to thank my wife Judy. She’s really put up with a lot the last few weeks. At times, it’s been frustrating for me, and she’s really stood by me, and has had to let some things run their own course. She’s been there for me from day one, and she’s the best period! I also need to thank Sachet for not bothering Andy too much while on tie down. Last but not least, I know you thought I’d never get to the end. I want to thank Andy. Mostly for putting up with my mistakes, occasional griping, and just me getting tired sometimes. Andy you’re a real trooper, even if Sachet says you’re lazy, I don’t believe it! Well maybe just a little…

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More on Andy’s Adventures

October 1st, 2009

It has been a whirlwind of activity the last few days. I will briefly cover some of the highlights though. The big thing was traffic checks. Basically, these checks are designed to measure the dogs and owners responses to traffic conditions in which a car pulls in front of you, or pulls up behind you. During these checks, a hybrid car was used. In one particular incident, I told Andy to hop up because I thought a walker was distracting Andy. When I told Andy to hop up, he would not move. I repeated the command, and still he wouldn’t move. Finally, the instructor that I was working with told me that he had not moved because of the hybrid car coming toward me. All I could say was, “wow”! There were also several times when a car would pull out directly in front of us, and Andy stopped for each one! What a good boy!

And now for the bathroom experience/experiences. First of all, Andy is now consistently taking me to bathroom stalls. This is fantastic! No more stumbling around until I find something. One command and we’re there! Almost as good as microwave popcorn. The other cool thing is that the other day, we went to Starbucks. When we first went into the place, I had someone show me to the bathroom. After the coffee and the rout, I had to go again. I pointed Andy and I in the direction I thought the bathroom was, and told him to move, and within 45 seconds, I was at the door to the bathroom.

Andy is very cool, and sometimes I think he loves to work, more than he loves to play. We were able to show him to find a chair within 10 minutes through the use of a clicker! I can’t wait to start using clicker at home. Well, that’s about it for now. We graduate on Saturday, so I’ll be posting more later, if I’m not too tired.

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Andy Odds and Ends

September 28th, 2009

Well Andy and I continue to work great together. Saturday morning we worked on escalators, and that went just fine, once I got the timing right as far as when to say the various commands, when to give more leash for Andy to get off the escalator etc.

I am now very happy to say that Andy is now consistently taking me to my dorm room just by me saying “Andy, home”. It’s great! I’m proud of him every time he does it, especially because then I don’t have to fish round for my room door. Go Andy! He’s the up and coming best guide dog on the entire east coast!

Anyway, this week, we’ll go back to San Francisco, where I hope to partake of more coffee, and if I can’t get coffee, maybe pizza? Probably asking too much, but it’s never stopped me, or Andy before. Later, I’ll do traffic checks with Andy, as well as more clicker, and work on more custom dog stuff. We will also do a few night routs. I think that toward the end of the week, they will drop us off at an unknown location, and ask us to walk back with our dogs. Thank god, I have a GPS on my iPhone! Did I mention how much I love my iPhone, oh yeah, and Andy to. Well, that’s it for now, more when I get around to it.

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Goodbye Carl, Hello Andy

September 24th, 2009

Today was a very bitter and sweet day for me. Before I explain why, I need to go into a bit of background. A week ago when I got Carl, I noticed that his pace was not as fast as I would have liked. When I asked my instructor about it, I was told that pace is one of the last things to be fully realized within a guide dog team. As the week progressed however, I realized that the pace was not getting any faster, but was in fact becoming slower. During the course of the week, my instructor and I talked about it. Today, after doing one last walk with Carl, my instructor and I along with the training supervisor had a meeting about this situation. The short version is that we all decided that it would be best to switch guide dogs.

I knew that this was the best decision, but it was very difficult to give up Carl. He is a great dog, and his guide work was very nice. I am sure that I could have been happy with Carl, except for the pace issue. Which leads me to Andy.

Andy is the new guide dog assigned to me. From the moment that I met Andy, I was immediately impressed with his dynamic personality. Carl was very laid back, perhaps too much so, whereas Andy is very energetic, and full of vigor. His pace is perfect as far as I can tell. However, we have not yet worked a full block, so tomorrow I’ll find out for sure. Andy is also very quick at responding to commands. He also learns things very quickly. For example, he is already taking me back to my room consistently. He has done this three times so far, and I have only had him for a few hours today! This truly is an exceptional dog. This morning was difficult to get through, but Guide Dogs for the Blind, and my instructor, and the training supervisor have helped me to make lemonade from a sour situation. Sorry Carl that last was no reflection on you. Have fun with your next person… Qapla Carl. Guide long, and prosper.

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Reworking Errors

September 21st, 2009

This morning we began to rework guide dog errors in earnest. Each mistake that our dogs made was reworked and corrected before traveling was allowed to resume. If the error occurred at an up curb of a street crossing, the error was made clear to the dog, and then traveling was resumed.

Carl is becoming much better at stopping at curbs, but will sometimes graze me past plants, or other minor obstacles. During these routs, obedience exercises are conducted, and Carl is doing very well with these as well.

Tomorrow we will begin working within buildings. I am particularly looking forward to this because it will signify the ability to work our dogs within the GDB dorm. More later.

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PetVet, A Must Have App for the IPhone!

September 19th, 2009

PetVet is a must have app for the iPhone. This app is designed for dogs and cats, and lists problems that each can have. It even covers things like what happens if your dog eats chocolate. You can also tap a button to locate the nearest vet hospital. At $1.99, you can’t go wrong. It is accessible with voiceover, but some of the buttons are labeled strangely, such as btnHelp.

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Walking and Working the Dogs Begins

September 17th, 2009

This morning we all did some practice walks with our dogs. Carl has a bit of a problem with walking slightly passed street curbs. The instructors and I are working on this issue, and it is slowly improving.

The other issue is partly me, and partly the dog. When I heal Carl, sometimes he will not return to the proper healing position. This is partly my footwork, and partly the dog. I have some techniques for dealing with this, and I will practice these tonight, and the rest of the week.

I also tend to turn toward Carl during obedience exercises. This causes Carl to move more than he should. At one point, I asked Carl to get into a down position, and he actually laid down behind my feet!

Other than these minor issues, our walks are very good, and pleasant. I need to start increasing my walking speed a bit, and communicate this to Carl, but it really is a pleasure walking with Carl. I hope he feels the same way. More tomorrow… If I’m not too tired!

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Dog Day!

September 16th, 2009

Well today was the big dog day! We all started doing obedience practice on faithful Juno. We also practiced putting on the harness on Juno. This was followed by a lecture on how to meet your new guide dog, and then finally the dogs were announced. The way this works is that every student gathers in a room and the student’s names are called out followed by the name of the dog’s name that they have been given. So in my case it went like this, “Casey your dog’s name is Carl. He is a male yellow lab, 24 and a half inches, and 67 pounds”.

After these announcements, we all were introduced to our dogs for the first time in a private room away from other people, or dogs. When I was introduced to Carl, he seemed very friendly, but very laidback as well. After we all had some time to get to know our dogs a bit, we healed our dogs up and down the halls. Then it was time for lunch, one of my favorite times of the day. The taco salad was wonderful!

After we had lunch, we relieved our dogs, and then it was off to walk with our dogs in the harness for the first time.

When I first began walking with Carl, it seemed a little herky-jerky at first. Carl seemed a little unsure of himself, which I couldn’t’ blame him for. Most people are unsure around me, so why should it be different for a dog? Anyway, he also shot passed a few curbs, but this was quickly corrected. Now when we encounter a curb, it is a sudden stop on a dime kind of stop. No warning, no slow down first, just a jarring stop. I’m sure I’ll get used it to eventually… Overall, the walk was very relaxing. I love the pace the Carl walks at. It’s a nice medium, not too fast, and not too slow. It felt really great to be able to curve around the sidewalk, and avoid obstacles with no difficulty.

When Carl and I aren’t working, he’s very quiet, kind of keeps to himself, but is also eager to move when the situation calls for it. He also seems eager to play, but is very content to simply lay by my side. Stay tuned for more adventures from Casey and Carl!

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Preliminary Guide dog Work

September 15th, 2009

Today was a fairly full day of activity. We spent the morning going over basic guide dog technique, and basic commands. We worked with the imaginary dog, good old Juno, on healing, and then we worked with some real dogs.

The dog I worked with was a medium black lab, and was very friendly. He also wasn’t fully trained, and had a lot of puppy still in him. In the afternoon, it was more Juno work but this time down town in San Rafael. We walked for about two blocks, and talked about what I thought would be the right dog for me. We worked on correct guide dog techniques, as well as correcting mistakes, both human ones, and guide dog mistakes alike. It was a bit warm for my taste, 82 degrees, with 36% humidity. Still compared to the Deep South, it was comfortable!

Well there you have it. Today’s guide dog events in a nutshell. The big day of course it tomorrow morning. That’s when everyone gets their guide dog! Some of my fellow students will not be able to sleep tonight. I can tell because when they heard that tomorrow was the big day, they just about jumped through the roof for joy! I won’t have that problem because I’m still recovering from the long trip yesterday, and the jetlag.

Well I’m off. There’s a victor reader Stream class. Stay tuned for dog day!

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Arrived at Guide dogs For The blind

September 15th, 2009

Hello again everyone. As I said back in June I believe, this mostly tech blog will become a mostly dog blog for the next month or so while I am trained in the use of a guide dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind. So here we go. wow, that enough dog and guide words, hmmm.

Yesterday I woke up at a little after 3 AM eastern time. I didn’t get to bed until a little after 8 Pacific time. Of course that was 11 PM my time. I arrived at GDB at around 2:30 PM. There’s about nine people in my class. I will have a roommate, but not until next week. He’s a retrain, which means that he’s getting a successor dog. For some reason I keep calling them retreads.

We had an intro to the dorm, followed by a few lectures about basic housekeeping stuff, communication, how the training will work etc. Of course, during the last lecture after dinner of course I was so tired I wasn’t sure I would make it through it, but I did, and then crashed right on to the bed. Not really much else to mention so far, weather’s very nice, food’s very good, and the people are extremely nice and helpful. What else is there in life? I’m writing this on a Tuesday, and we get our dogs tomorrow morning. More later.

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Laptop, Notebook, and Electronic Deals

September 6th, 2009

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Tags: Computing, Deals, Electronics, Technology
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Good Deals from Buy.com

September 3rd, 2009

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I got a hunch! Get Help Making Decisions

September 1st, 2009

Have you ever wished that you could ask a panel of experts about a decision you were grappling with? Have you ever thought something like, if only I could tell someone what I’m looking for they could give me the best answer for me specifically?

Check out hunch.com. Here you can choose from categories of topics, then choose a question like, what is the best computer speaker system, what iPhone app should I download, where should I take my next vacation, and on and on!

The web site will ask questions about you to tailor it’s responses to your likes and dislikes. Information is provided by data gathering, and user submissions. Then via machine learning comparisons are made, and patterns are spotted than can help you toward making that oh so important decision. Hmmm, should I post this blog entry?

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Tags: decision, Help, hunch, Search, web
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Fresh New Savings From Buy.com

August 13th, 2009

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HP Pavilion DV7-2180US Entertainment Laptop

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Buy.com Special Deals!

August 9th, 2009

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*Expires 8/16/09

Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

Here’s another great laptop discount.

Sony VAIO NS Series Laptop

Intel Core 2 Duo T6670 2.2GHz

15.4",

4GBram

250GB hard drive

DVD+-R DL

Windows Vista Business
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Buy.com price: $699.95
*Expires 8/16/09

Sony VAIO NS Series Laptop

Below is one of the best deals we’ve seen on noise canceling headphones in a while!

Able Planet True Fidelity Noise Cancelling Headphones
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*Expires 8/16/09

Able Planet True Fidelity Noise Cancelling Headphones

We truly hope you’ve found what you were looking for here!

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Tags: Computing, Deals, Drives, Hardware, Specials
Posted in Computing, Deals, General, Specials, Technology | 2 Comments »

iPhone Hub

August 7th, 2009

I’ve just posted a page that I hope will help you find the resources that you need to make the most out of the iPhone and Voiceover! I hope to update the page often, so please let me know of more sites as you find them. Check out the iPhone Hub.

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Tags: iPhone, Resources, Technology, Tips, Voiceover
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Used Voicenote QT $1025!

July 28th, 2009

We are offering a used VoiceNote QT for $1025. This price includes shipping to the United States.

Information about this voiceNote QT:

• There are one or two scratches on the bottom right side of the keyboard. These scratches do not hinder keyboard input.
• The unit may require a new battery soon.
• The SMA, (software Maintenance Agreement) is updated, and will allow for Keysoft 8.0!
• The unit will ship with a power adapter, carrying case with shoulder strap, and of course the voice Note itself.
• The voice note will not ship with the Sendero GPS solution, but you can add it for $600. Details will be provided upon payment.
• Keysoft is running with version 7.5.

Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this offer!

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Preorder Windows 7!

July 24th, 2009

Now that computer manufactures have been given Windows 7, I thought I’d remind everyone that it is possible to preorder Windows 7! Preordering will allow you to have the DVD in your hands on October 22 of this year. No lines, no scrambling to get the DVD.

Just make sure you know which version of Windows 7 you’re getting. For most home users, Windows 7 Home Premium will be fine. If you think you may need a little extra features in networking, or encryption, Windows 7 Professional may be the best choice. And if you are a geek like we are, you may just have to have Windows 7 Ultimate!

Just be sure that you get the full version. This way you can install windows without having to prove that you have previously owned a prior version of windows like Windows Vista. If you have a Windows Vista CD, or you don’t mind playing tricks with Windows, save yourself some money and buy the upgrade version of Windows 7. Just keep in mind that clean installs will be more involved, complex, and timely, but hey, a dollar saved is a dollar earned… or was that a penny.

Amazon has a nice selection of computers to choose from, and as the months pass by, we’ll see computers touting the advances inherent in Windows 7. Amazon’s reviews of products can many times give you a good idea about the products performance out of the box, at home or the office.

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Tags: Amazon, computers, DVD, Preorder, Technology, Windows 7
Posted in Computing, Software, Technology | 1 Comment »

Freelance Jobs Search | DoNanza

July 12th, 2009

Online projects search engine

DoNanza is a new kind of search engine; a search engine for freelance online projects -the kind of money making and exposure getting tasks that you can do from home.

Did you know there are hundreds of thousands of online projects across the Web?

They require all types of skills and fields of interest (from programming to music, from graphic design to copywriting)
They offer rewards to those who perform them successfully (from cash to serious professional exposure)
And they are all waiting for you!

Here on DoNanza we collect all those online projects, and our mission (yes, we choose to accept it) is to expose them all and help YOU find the most relevant online projects.

Each day, we scan the web hunting for new online projects and display them in one single format so you can easily search through hundreds of thousands of projects from countless sites. Within each project, you can see: The compensation offered, the time remaining for completion, whether it´s in bid, contest or other formats and whether in addition to enjoy performing the project it will also buy you your next Bahamas vacation…

All you need to do is to state your skill or field of interest (you could be general and write "design" or be more specific to your skill set and write "Website design"), press the "Search" button, and we will show you all the World Wide Web has to offer.

Who is DoNanza for?

We believe that each and every person can find online projects relevant to his skills and interests.

Whether you came here to make an honest living or just to challenge yourself in your free hours doing the things you love, you came to the right place.

And for all you freelancers already using a site or two offering online projects – DoNanza is a powerful tool that will bring you every available online project on the Web.

Our vision

Our vision at DoNanza is to organize all of the world´s online projects into one simple easy to access source.

We believe that the world of employment is radically changing and shifting to what Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article called, CrowdSourcing. We think that Crowdsourcing is relatively straightforward: It´s the online distribution of certain tasks to crowds of experts and enthusiasts.

And from the words of Shane Robison, HP´s chief strategy and technology officer: "Crowd-sourcing is going mainstream and will change the rules of the game forever. Fortune 50 companies will access top talent on a global basis via the Internet, saving millions of dollars in professional services, from occupations as diverse as accountants, advertising experts, attorneys, and engineers…"

From the employers point of view the incentive is obvious – he can tap a wider range of talents than might be present in its own organization. From the providers perspective (as the ones doing the project), they now have a chance to compete for projects that aren´t necessarily geographically close but were published across the world.. And for all of the enthusiasts out there, with a passion for a specific field, never had a chance and platform to prove their talent in, DoNanza is the place for you.

About DoNanza

At DoNanza we put our money where our mouth is. We believe in all of you, and so many aspects of the development of DoNanza were published as online projects and were executed by the community. Aspects like developing the site´s UI, developing great deal of the engine itself, finding the different platforms publishing jobs, indexing the data, evaluating the search engine algorithm, QA and many more were published as online projects and were completed by the community. We want to thank all of you.

This process is not over now that DoNanza is live; we will continue to post projects online as the site grows and we continue to add features.

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Tags: Freelance, Jobs, web, Work From Home
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Easy Protection with Microsoft Security Essentials

June 23rd, 2009

I just wanted to make a quick note about the new beta of Microsoft Security Essentials. I’ve only had it running for a short period of time. However, the program is very accessible to screen reading technology. The nice thing about it is that updating, scanning for problems, and settings can all be accessed by tabbing around the home screen. As you go through the settings, descriptions of each setting can be found by reviewing the screen. One thing that i like about this, is that it’s integrated into Windows update. this means that updates to the program will be automatic. One other good thing about the program is that it protects against root kits. you can think of root kits like viruses, or other malware that try to infect the pc more deeply than traditional badware. As a free security program you may want to give this one a try. The price is right, and it’s one of the most accessible security programs I’ve come a crossed in a while.

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Tags: Access Technology, Beta, blind, Microsoft, Security, Software
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Find Hidden Company Jobs Via LinkUp

June 18th, 2009

Thanks to MakeUseOf.com, we have another way to locate new job listings. The text of the article is posted below. Enjoy.

LinkUp is a job aggregator that lets you find hidden jobs listed on company websites. These jobs listings are generally unadvertised to outside world and can be difficult to find if you don’t know where to look.

The site currently lists data from over 21,000 company websites. You can search it by keyword, job title or location. Advanced and more refined search options are also supported.

find hidden jobs

If you register on the site it lets you to bookmark favorite job listings, save your search history and set job alerts. You can also sign in using your existing Google, Facebook, MySpace, AOL, Yahoo! or OpenID credentials.

job listing aggregator

Additionally, if you are an employer you can advertise jobs directly on LinkUp (not free).

Features:

Job listing aggregator that lets you find hidden jobs.
Gathers data only from company websites.
Search jobs by location and keyword.
Bookmark your favorite listings, save your search history and get job alerts (registered users).
Employers can advertise jobs on LinkUp.

Check out LinkUp @ www.linkup.com

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Tags: Company, Hidden, Jobs, Leads
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Fix Problems with One Click

June 7th, 2009

Have you ever had a problem on your computer? Of course what a rhetorical question. Microsoft is trying to automate fixing common problems in Windows. When you visit the Microsoft Automated Troubleshooting Services web site. You will see a list of problems that Microsoft will try and fix automatically for you. Once you hit the run button, a diagnostic will be performed that will troubleshoot the problem, and fix it for you if it can. Currently this service only works with Windows Vista. Windows 7 has troubleshooters built into the OS itself, so you won’t even have to go to the web site.

Here is a short list of problems that Microsoft will try to fix for you. This list is taken from the Microsoft web site linked to above. More troubleshooting tools will be added so you can check back for more tools whenever Microsoft gets around to publishing them.

Windows Vista Aero Glass visual effects are not working Automatically diagnose and repair problems when the visual Aero Glass effects, themes, and transparencies are not working on your computer. /li>
Printing problems and printing errors
Automatically diagnose and repair when you cannot print, or for problems installing a printer, connecting to a network printer and related errors. /li>
Your CD or DVD drive cannot read or write media
Automatically diagnose and repair problems with your CD or DVD drive when trying to read or burn media in Windows Vista.
Hardware devices not detected or not working
Automatically diagnose and repair problems when the device manager does not detect your hardware, audio, USB and other devices, or when your devices are disabled or not working.
Problems with sound and audio or no sound
Automatically diagnose and repair problems with sound and audio on your computer or when your computer does not play sound.

As I’ve said this is a short list. It would be cool if they had an RSS feed of new troubleshooters, but maybe they will as they add more.

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Tags: automatic, fix, Help, Microsoft, Problems, troubleshooters
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Testing with Windows Live Writer…

May 28th, 2009

OK I’m trying Windows Live Writer and Wordpress. I have made some modifications that hopefully will make it somewhat easier to post. Here goes…

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Tags: post, Test, writer
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WolfRam alpha Ready for Everyone!

May 19th, 2009

sorry I’m a bit late on this one. But, WolfRamAlpha.com is ready to go! The first search box allows you to type in questions like why is the sky blue? you can also type in your first or last name and get statistical data on how often that name is used. Sometimes you have to play around with the wording to get the results you need. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one for sure.

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Tags: alpha, Answers, Questions, Technology, Wolfram
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WolfRam Alpha Not Yet for Public Consumption

May 16th, 2009

Much to my regret, at 8:00 PM Eastern time last night WolfRam Alpha was shown. It was only shown. The company says that they will release it to everyone soon. I guess I’ll go back to hoping for a Monday release that everyone can participate in. Oh well, was really hoping to give it a spin last night. More info as I get it. And sorry for the false alarm…

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WolfRam Alpha to be Released tonight!

May 15th, 2009

This revolutionary new query technology will be released tonight at about 7:00 Eastern. This is three days ahead of schedule! In the mean time, have fun checking out the demo here!

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Tags: Information, new, query, smart computing, Technology, web
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WolfRam: Intelligent searching for everyone!

May 3rd, 2009

Thanks to The Independant, we have a glimps into the future of information gathering via the web. This is great stuff, and I can’t wait to use it!

The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet’s Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.

Although the system is still new, it has already produced massive interest and excitement among technology pundits and internet watchers.

Computer experts believe the new search engine will be an evolutionary leap in the development of the internet. Nova Spivack, an internet and computer expert, said that Wolfram Alpha could prove just as important as Google. “It is really impressive and significant,” he wrote. “In fact it may be as important for the web (and the world) as Google, but for a different purpose.

Tom Simpson, of the blog Convergenceofeverything.com, said: “What are the wider implications exactly? A new paradigm for using computers and the web? Probably. Emerging artificial intelligence and a step towards a self-organising internet? Possibly… I think this could be big.”

Wolfram Alpha will not only give a straight answer to questions such as “how high is Mount Everest?”, but it will also produce a neat page of related information – all properly sourced – such as geographical location and nearby towns, and other mountains, complete with graphs and charts.

The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out “on the fly”, according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in “10 flips for four heads” and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out.

Dr Wolfram, an award-winning physicist who is based in America, added that the information is “curated”, meaning it is assessed first by experts. This means that the weaknesses of sites such as Wikipedia, where doubts are cast on the information because anyone can contribute, are taken out. It is based on his best-selling Mathematica software, a standard tool for scientists, engineers and academics for crunching complex maths.

“I’ve wanted to make the knowledge we’ve accumulated in our civilisation computable,” he said last week. “I was not sure it was possible. I’m a little surprised it worked out so well.”

Dr Wolfram, 49, who was educated at Eton and had completed his PhD in particle physics by the time he was 20, added that the launch of Wolfram Alpha later this month would be just the beginning of the project.

“It will understand what you are talking about,” he said. “We are just at the beginning. I think we’ve got a reasonable start on 90 per cent of the shelves in a typical reference library.”

The engine, which will be free to use, works by drawing on the knowledge on the internet, as well as private databases. Dr Wolfram said he expected that about 1,000 people would be needed to keep its databases updated with the latest discoveries and information.

He also added that he would not go down the road of storing information on ordinary people, although he was aware that others might use the technology to do so.

Wolfram Alpha has been designed with professionals and academics in mind, so its grasp of popular culture is, at the moment, comparatively poor. The term “50 Cent” caused “absolute horror” in tests, for example, because it confused a discussion on currency with the American rap artist. For this reason alone it is unlikely to provide an immediate threat to Google, which is working on a similar type of search engine, a version of which it launched last week.

“We have a certain amount of popular culture information,” Dr Wolfram said. “In some senses popular culture information is much more shallowly computable, so we can find out who’s related to who and how tall people are. I fully expect we will have lots of popular culture information. There are linguistic horrors because if you put in books and music a lot of the names clash with other concepts.”

He added that to help with that Wolfram Alpha would be using Wikipedia’s popularity index to decide what users were likely to be interested in.

With Google now one of the world’s top brands, worth $100bn, Wolfram Alpha has the potential to become one of the biggest names on the planet.

Dr Wolfram, however, did not rule out working with Google in the future, as well as Wikipedia. “We’re working to partner with all possible organisations that make sense,” he said. “Search, narrative, news are complementary to what we have. Hopefully there will be some great synergies.”

What the experts say

“For those of us tired of hundreds of pages of results that do not really have a lot to do with what we are trying to find out, Wolfram Alpha may be what we have been waiting for.”

Michael W Jones, Tech.blorge.com

“If it is not gobbled up by one of the industry superpowers, his company may well grow to become one of them in a small number of years, with most of us setting our default browser to be Wolfram Alpha.”

Doug Lenat, Semanticuniverse.com

“It’s like plugging into an electric brain.”

Matt Marshall, Venturebeat.com

“This is like a Holy Grail… the ability to look inside data sources that can’t easily be crawled and provide answers from them.”

Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of searchengineland.com

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Tags: alpha, Beta, future, Technology, web
Posted in Computing, Technology, Web Sites | 1 Comment »

Windows 7 Troubleshooters

May 2nd, 2009

Windows 7 now has a new section within the control panel. This section is called “Troubleshooting”. The great thing about this is that it really does what it sounds like. Helps you troubleshoot common problems on the computer, without needing to call a friend, pay someone, or call for I.T.

By opening the troubleshooting section, and hitting the link that says, “All”, you get the following choices.

• Arrow display: This option helps you troubleshoot problems with the very beautiful graphics that people love so much. This one won’t help much for those of you using Access technology that uses the mirror display drivers. In fact when I ran it, that’s pretty much what it told me. You need to turn off any technology that uses mirror drivers. OK. Moving on.
• Connection to a workplace using direct access: This allows you to connect to your workplace via VPN technology. Direct Access is new technology built-in to Windows 7 that helps end users connect to VPN’s it sets up a persistent always on connection. The troubleshooter will check to see if you’re connected to a domain, and troubleshoot accordingly. Great stuff!
• Hardware and Devices: This will scan your system for hardware changes, and troubleshoot any hardware that it finds not to be working correctly.
• HomeGroup: HomeGroups are groups of computers that trust each other for the purpose of sharing data. They are meant for home use. For example, data among family members will be shared automatically, but if a friend visits, they can still get onto a wireless connection, without being able to get to the data within the HomeGroup. This troubleshooter will help configure this and check for problems.
• Incoming Connections: This troubleshooter will try to help configure your firewall. As the name implies, it helps troubleshoot incoming connections from other computers.
• Internet Connections: This will help you repair/reset your internet connection. This seems to be the same thing that you get with IE when you hit the diagnose connection link. This works great, and I actually disabled my network adapter, and windows fixed the problem automatically!
• Internet Explorer Performance: This helps resolve performance specific to add ons. What this seems to do is examine your add ons. To see which ones are causing problems, then disables problematic add ons.
• Internet Explorer Safety: This examines the security settings of IE. This looks at internet zones, pop ups etc to find out if security needs to be changed.
• Network Adapter: This is a bit like the internet connections troubleshooter, but this will specifically look at network adapters. This not only works with Ethernet, but wireless adapters as well.
• Performance: As its name implies, this tool examines any settings that pertain to system performance. This troubleshooter does seem to have a tendency to look at the visual settings, but if you’re experiencing performance issues of your own, give this troubleshooter a try before calling the tech.
• Playing Audio: This is a very good troubleshooter that examines all audio devices on the system. It tells you if a jack is unplugged, and examines each audio system, analog, SPDIF etc, to try to get audio running again. This one is very nicely done!
• Power: This is a great feature for laptop/netbook users. It examines the power settings, and suggests settings for improved battery life.
• Printer: This helps get a printer running. Running this troubleshooter told me that the printer service wasn’t started. Then it started the appropriate service. Next, it asked me if the printer was a local printer attached to my computer, or a printer on the network. I chose network, and just like that, it found the printer. When I hit next, the drivers were installed, and I was printing!
• Program compatibility: This checks programs and makes changes to allow them to run on Windows 7. Generally, this happens automatically when the program is run, but this can come in handy if you have a lot of older software.
• Recording Audio: Just like the audio playback troubleshooter, this is another very nice tool for fixing recording problems. This looks through all recording inputs, tells you were the jack is, and then begins troubleshooting. Very handy troubleshooter!
• Search and indexing: This asks you a series of questions as shown here. What problems do you notice? Select all that apply. Files don’t appear in search results. E-mail doesn’t appear in search results. Search or indexing is slowing down the computer. My problem isn’t listed above. (Please provide a description on the next page.)
• Shared Folders: This helps you troubleshoot problems accessing shared resources on other networked computers. This should make home networking quite a bit easier for many.
• System Maintenance: This helps clean up unused files and other temporary files that aren’t needed. It even checks system time, to make sure that’s not the cause of older files cluttering up the system.
• Windows Media Player DVD: This troubleshoots DVD playback in Windows Media Player. It searches to make sure that you have a DVD playback device installed, and goes on from there.
• Windows Media Library: If you are having trouble getting the library of songs to show up in Windows Media Player, this could help troubleshoot this. It can help rebuild the library if needed. Not a bad troubleshooter if you are a fan of Media Player.
• Windows Media Player Settings: This isn’t much of a troubleshooter, but if problems are found with your settings here, you can use this troubleshooter to automatically revert your Media Player settings to the defaults.
• Windows Update: Just as it sounds, this helps resolve problems getting Windows Updates. Usually this works well, but windows update can sometimes have problems, so I’m glad they included this diagnostic tool.

Windows troubleshooters are a wonderful edition to Windows 7! Remember that currently there are only 22 troubleshooters, and this is pre-release software. So by the time Windows 7 ships to consumers and pc manufactures there could be a lot more. Also, keep in mind that computer vendors can add their own troubleshooters in this section as well. This should make things much easier for folks. I’d be curious to hear your experiences with Windows 7 troubleshooters.

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Tags: automatic, Beta, fix, troubleshooters, Windows7
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Windows 7 and volume Control

April 29th, 2009

In Windows XP, the volume control mute buttons were simple check boxes. Checked indicated that a sound source was muted.

Windows Vista’s mute buttons had a graphical component that made it difficult to check to see if something was muted. It was more by trial and error because the button simple said mute. There was no check box. Furthermore, you could mute applications as well. So you could mute Jaws if you wanted to, or you could turn down the volume within Jaws, while keeping Media Player’s volume high.

Windows 7 has mute buttons as well. However now the button caption reflects the state. So you will hear either “mute button”, or “unmute button”. This reduces the trial and error needed in Windows Vista to determine if something was muted or not. This is an improvement over vista, and I have missed the ability to so easily check to see if something was muted.

On a slight detour, I’ve noticed that digital audio via the SPDIF connections works much better in Windows 7. The audio is cleaner, and I can do neat effects like volume leveling from within the Windows interface itself. This was also not possible in Windows vista.

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Tags: access, buttons, control, Jaws, System Access, volume, Windows7
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Windows 7: Thoughts from a blind Access Technology Early Adopter

April 25th, 2009

Hello everyone. I just wanted to let everyone know that I plan to do a few posts on Windows 7. Before I do, I’d like to know what you would like to know about? Gaming, application accessibility, ease of use, accessibility, or something else…

Whatever you want to know about Windows 7, write a comment, contact me directly, or even shoot me an email: help@webfriendlyhelp.com.
I look forward to your questions and comments.

Thanks

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Tags: Beta, blind Access Technology, Jaws, RC, System Access, Windows 7
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Blogging with Word 2007?

March 31st, 2009

Does anyone out there in blog land have any idea why I can’t post to my blog correctly? Things like paragraphs are not coming out correctly. Tags seem to be visible, rather than converted to regular text.
Thanks for any comments…

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Tags: blog, html, posts, tags, Word 2007
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I’m going to the dogs… Again!

March 31st, 2009

Well I just got the email notification informing me that I have been accepted into the Guide Dogs for the Blind September class! I’m sure everyone in the Sunshine Guide Dog Teams of Florida (GDBFL.org) chapter will be celebrating right along with me. Once I start classes, I plan to blog about my experience. So for a while, my tech blog will be transformed into a dog blog.

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Tags: blind, experience, Guide dogs, life
Posted in General | 1 Comment »

Get Windows 7 Beta Sounds Early!

March 6th, 2009

For those of you eagerly awaiting the release of Windows 7, or for anyone who likes to liven up their existing Windows experience, you will be happy to hear of Windows 7 sounds! These sounds appear to be taken from Windows 7 build 7048. As I do not have build 7048, I cannot confirm this.

What’s interesting to me is that some of the basic sound events are missing, such as close and open program. On the other hand, there are 13, count ‘em, 13 sound schemes!
Get the Windows 7 build 7048 Sound Scheme!

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Tags: Beta, Scheme, Sounds, Windows 7
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Find Out About Concerts In Your Area Fast!

December 12th, 2008

LiveKick is a live concert search engine and recommendation web site that lets you know where and when all your favorite artists are playing. Automatically.

Just tell LiveKick where you live and who your favorite artists are and LiveKick will recommend upcoming local concerts by your favorite artists and by
other artists who are similar to your favorite artists. You can also search for upcoming concerts by your favorite artists anywhere they may be happening.
It’s easy to use, and free. Visit the site below.

LiveKick.com

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Tags: Concerts, Information, Search, web
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Visit the Microsoft Store

November 14th, 2008

I just wanted to let everyone know that Microsoft has just launched their
own
store. It’s called the Microsoft Store!
I never would have
guessed. Anyway, the really nice thing about the store is that you can buy Office, then download it, and install it. I presume that you’ll also get an email that has your product key as well.
So hopefully gone are the days of going to a retail store, and then having someone read you the product key!

Microsoft,Store,Buy,Download,Software

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Preliminary List of Windows 7 Features!

November 12th, 2008

Thanks to Paul Thurrott’s web site and blog, there is a list of the features of Windows 7 that we know of so far. I especially like the new troubleshooting feature, and the home group’s features. Check out the entire list below…

Accessibility improvements. Microsoft has revamped the accessibility features in Windows 7 with improved speech recognition and a new Magnifier utility
with full-screen and lens-mode views.

Action Center. While previous versions of Windows included a feature called Windows Security Center that monitored the various security features of the
system, Windows 7 takes this functionality to the next level with Action Center. In addition to monitoring security, Action Center also monitors the OS’s
maintenance features and consolidates alerts from numerous Windows features into a single interface.

Aero Peek. This replacement for Show Desktop in Windows 7 lets you “peek” behind all of the open windows on your desktop and easily view and Windows Gadgets
or files on your desktop. You can also peek into the contents of specific open windows.

Aero Snaps. By dragging open windows in certain ways, you can “snap” them to the edges of the screen, maximize, or minimize. This obviates the need to click
tiny onscreen elements, making these features more accessible to users.

Backup and Restore. Windows Vista’s stellar backup and restore features have been streamlined and simplified in Windows 7. Like its predecessor, Windows
7 supports both data backup and image-based system backup, but now the UIs are more segregated.

Bitlocker To Go. The full-drive encryption feature that first debuted in Windows Vista has been updated in Windows 7 to support removable USB storage devices
like flash memory drives and portable hard drives.

Blu-Ray support. Windows 7 natively supports Blu-Ray optical discs and enables you to write to Blu-Ray recordable media.

Calculator. The Windows Calculator utility inexplicably receives a major upgrade in Windows 7 with calculation history, unit conversion, calculation templates,
data calculations, and other new features.

Device Stage. This Longhorn-style user experience will be made available for multi-function devices such as smart phones, multifunction printers, portable
media players, and the like. Through this UI, you’ll be able to access the features that are unique to each device. Each Device Stage page can be extensively
customized by the device maker.

Devices and Printers. This activity center provides a central location for interacting with any hardware devices–digital cameras, mice, displays, keyboards,
and the like–that may be attached to your PC.

DirectAccess. This feature is aimed at business users who need to securely access corporate network resources while away from the office. Essentially a
simple replacement for VPN connections, DirectAccess requires Windows Server 2008 R2 on the server-side.

DirectX 11. Windows 7 includes the latest version of the DirectX multimedia libraries.

Display improvements. Windows 7 includes numerous improvements related to computer displays, including integrated display color calibration, improved high
DPI support, ClearType, and improved support for external displays. A new Windows Key + P keyboard shortcut helps you easily switch between connected displays.

Getting Started. This replacement for Windows Vista’s Welcome Center no longer appears the first time you boot into the Windows desktop, but it still provides
a central location for discovering new features, personalizing the system, transferring data from your previous Windows PC, and discovering and launching
other common tasks.

HomeGroup. Microsoft has consolidated the most common network-based sharing tasks into a single simple interface called HomeGroup. Computers in a HomeGroup
can easily share documents, digital media files, and printers over a home network.

Internet Explorer. Windows 7 ships with the latest version of Microsoft’s Web browser, Internet Explorer 8.

Libraries. In Windows 7, Microsoft has realized a long-term goal to replace the static special shell folders from previous Windows versions and replace
them with virtualized shell locations that aggregate content from a variety of physical locations. Libraries are implemented as virtual folders and the
views they present are the results of search queries. Libraries are also the basis for HomeGroup file and digital media content sharing.

Location-Aware Printing. Windows 7 utilizes different default printers for each of the network locations you’ve configured on the system so you won’t mistakenly
print a child’s school project to the work printer. When you’re at work, you’ll print to the work printer, and when you’re at home, you’ll print to the
home printer.

MinWin. The componentized core of Windows 7, which includes both the traditional operating system kernel as well as the minimum necessary surrounding support
technologies to create a bootable (and, for Microsoft, testable) system. Note that, in Windows 7, MinWin isn’t a feature per se but is rather the foundation
upon which the rest of the OS is built.

Paint. The Paint utility that’s been in Windows from the very first version receives its first significant upgrade in decades, and now sports the new Scenic
Ribbon toolbar.

Parental Controls. The parental control functionality that debuted in Windows Vista is updated in Windows 7 to support multiple games rating systems and
parental control providers.

Power Config. Windows 7 includes a new Power Config utility that provides reports identifying problems, settings, applications, and other things that may
be reducing the power efficiency of your PC.

Problem Steps Recorder. Windows 7 includes a new utility called the Problem Steps Recorder that captures screen shots of the steps a user is taking so that
help desk personnel can provide a fix without physically having to visit the desktop.

ReadyBoost. ReadyBoost first appeared in Windows Vista, providing users with a way to cheaply and easily improve the performance of their PCs by utilizing
a USB memory key as a memory cache. In Windows 7, ReadyBoost is improved in numerous way: It supports multiple memory devices, can work with USB memory
keys, Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, and other internal flash devices, and supports over 4 GB of storage.

Scenic Ribbon. Microsoft has evolved the Ribbon toolbar from Office 2007 and made it part of the operating system in Windows 7. This new version of the
Ribbon, called the scenic Ribbon, is used by two Windows 7 applications, Paint and WordPad, and can be used by third party applications going forward as
well.

Sensor support. Windows 7 includes support for hardware-based sensors, including GPS-based location sensors.

Start Menu (Enhanced). The Windows 7 Start Menu is an enhanced version of the Start Menu that debuted in Windows Vista.

Startup Repair. While this useful tool did debut with Windows Vista, it wasn’t installed on PCs by default. In Windows 7, it is installed into the OS partition
automatically and appears automatically when the system can’t boot properly, fixing any problems and returning the system to its normal booting state.

Sticky Notes. The Sticky Notes utility loses the bizarre Windows XP-style interface from previous Windows versions and supports ink and text input.

Styles. In Windows 7, Microsoft combines various system preferences–including the desktop background, the Aero glass window color, the system sounds, and
the screen saver–into styles you can customize, save, and share with others.

System Restore. The Windows 7 version of System Restore works as before, providing a way to non-destructively return a PC to a previous point in time, but
is more reliable, predictable, and effective than its predecessors.

User Account Control. While much reviled by certain users, the User Account Control (UAC) feature that debuted in Windows Vista played a huge role in making
that system the most secure Windows version yet. In Windows 7, UAC is extensively updated to be less annoying, and the overall system has been fine-tuned
to minimize the number of UAC prompts that interrupt users.

View Available Networks. Windows 7 includes a new Jump List-based utility for finding and connecting to Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up, and VPN connections.
Unlike the similar UI in Windows Vista, this utility, called View Available Networks, does not require you to navigate through a series of dialogs and
windows.

VPN Reconnect. Windows 7 users who still need to make traditional VPN connections will benefit from a new VPN Reconnect feature that automatically reestablishes
a VPN connection when you temporarily lose Internet connectivity.

Windows Anytime Upgrade. This utility debuted in Windows Vista but was found to be too confusing for most users, so the electronic upgrade capability was
removed. In Windows 7, Windows Anytime Upgrade returns to electronic upgrading and Microsoft promises you’ll be able to upgrade from one version of Windows
7 to another in about 10 minutes now.

Windows Defender. The malware and spyware protection utility from Windows Vista continues in Windows 7 with a few changes: It’s been integrated into the
new Action Center and its centralized notification system. But Defender also drops the useful Software Explorer feature, so users will have to look elsewhere
for a way to prevent unwanted applications from running a startup.

Windows Easy Transfer. The Windows Easy Transfer utility that debuted in Windows Vista has been substantially updated with a new user interface and new
capabilities. As before, Easy Transfer helps you transfer files, folders, and program and system settings from your previous Windows install to your new
one. This time around, however, the process is simpler and more streamlined.

Windows Explorer. Microsoft has significantly updated Windows Explorer yet again in Windows 7, this time with a new toolbar, a resizable search box, and
a new navigational pane.

Windows Gadgets. The Windows Sidebar disappears in Windows 7, but the Gadgets continue on and are integrated with the desktop.

Windows Live. Windows 7 integrates with a growing collection of Windows Live services, including Windows Live Photos, Windows Live Profile, Windows Live
People, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live Home, Windows Live SkyDrive, Windows Live Groups, Windows Live Calendar, Windows Live Events, Windows Live Hotmail,
and more.

Windows Live Essentials. Available as an optional download, Windows Live Essentials is an application suite that includes a number of new versions of classic
Windows applications, including Windows Live Mail (email and calendar), Windows Live Photo Gallery (photos), Windows Live Messenger (instant messaging),
Windows Live Movie Maker (video editing), Windows Live Family Safety (enhanced parental controls), and more.

Windows Media Center. Microsoft’s ten-foot UI for digital media content is improved with a slightly enhanced user interface, multi-touch support, HomeGroup
integration, and various global broadcast TV standards.

Windows Media Player. Microsoft’s media player received a major makeover in Windows 7 with several new features, including enhanced DVD playback, a new
lightweight playback mode, dramatically improved format compatibility (including AAC and H.264), Windows Taskbar Jump List customization, PC-to-PC and
media streaming, and a new Play To feature.

Windows PowerShell. Windows 7 ships with the Windows PowerShell 2.0 scripting environment and the Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE).

Windows Search. Windows 7 comes with the latest version of Windows Search, and unlike the version that first shipped with Windows Vista, you can now obtain
instant search results from network-based file shares as well as local hard drives. Microsoft has also improved the performance of local searches, sorting,
and grouping.

Windows Taskbar (Enhanced). The Windows Taskbar has been dramatically enhanced in Windows 7 to minimize clutter. New Taskbar features like Jump Lists, fly-over
and full-screen icon previews, and more.

Windows Touch. Windows 7 builds on the Tablet PC and touch capabilities from previous Windows versions and adds pervasive support for multi-touch. All of
the major UI components, including the Start Menu, Windows Taskbar, and Explorer, are touch-friendly in Windows 7.

Windows Troubleshooting. This new Windows 7 feature diagnoses and resolves common operating system and hardware issues. It works automatically, or you can
visit the Troubleshooting control panel to find problems to troubleshoot. Windows Troubleshooting integrates with Action Center so you’ll be notified when
relevant new troubleshooters from Microsoft and third parties are made available.

Windows Update. Microsoft’s utility for downloading and installing system updates has been enhanced in Windows 7 to take advantage of changes in the security
model and to better expose optional and featured updates.

Wireless Device Network. Finally, Windows gains a way to use your wireless-equipped laptop as a wireless access point for other PCs when you’re connected
to a wired network.

WordPad. The simple word processor continues into Windows 7 with the new Scenic Ribbon UI and several editing improvements.

XPS Viewer. While Windows Vista users are forced to use Internet Explorer to view XML Paper Specification (XPS) documents–essentially Microsoft’s PDF knock-off–Windows
7 gains a dedicated XPS Viewer application.

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Feature List For System Access 3.0!

November 5th, 2008

I’ve been given the go ahead to post the what’s new info for System Access 3.0! This was taken from one of the forums within the SA Mobile network. Enjoy!

System Access 3.0 Feature List
I. Support For 64 Bit versions of Windows! Serotek is proud to announce the first release of a full-featured screen access product with support for Windows
XP and Vista that includes 64 Bit versions. What does this mean to the user? Beginning as early as June 2008, many of the computer stores and office supply
vendors have begun to stock their shelves with only computers running OEM versions of 64 Bit Windows. Many an unsuspecting customer has gotten home with
a brand new computer only to discover that they cannot install and use their access technology on it. With the release of System Access 3.0, this is no
longer an issue. Go out and buy a new computer, bring it home, install System Access 3.0 and you will be ready to go with your talking computer.

II. Support for refreshable Braille! With the release of System Access 3.0, you can now have speech and refreshable Braille output. With the use of the
Alva BC-640 Braille device, Serotek continues in its commitment to plug and play accessibility anywhere. Take your System Access and your Braille device
with you to any computer and have speech and Braille output with no installation needed. This also means that nothing is left behind, not even Braille
drivers when you are done working or playing at that computer.

III. Support for new simplified menus. Our users have become use to quick access to E-mail, community forums, diverse entertainment options and so much
more with very few key strokes within the System Access Mobile Network. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. The new simplified menu
structure puts all of your favorite choices into lists where first-letter navigation is now possible. While we call it the “simplified menu interface,”
many of our advanced users have told us that navigation is much quicker now. For those who want the classic numbered menu option, it is also still available.

IV. Support for more responsive Neospeech! Kate and Paul, our internally supported human sounding voices just got faster. Whether moving through menus
or typing quickly, users will notice more immediate reaction as the high-quality voices provide speech feedback to any computer task whether at work or
play.

V. Support for iTunes 8 and later! With the advent of iTunes 8, Apple has made it possible for adaptive technology organizations to support this application.
Serotek again raises the bar by not only supporting the application interface, but also the iTunes store with quick and easy navigation for account setup
and browsing the store itself. Whether you are looking for really cool podcasting, or getting serious about increasing and cataloging your music library,
System Access 3.0 will make it easy for you to find your way around.

VI. Support for System Access To Go loading at lightning speed! Due to its 75% smaller footprint, SATOGO (System Access To Go) becomes virtually instant
access to go whenever and wherever you need it even with a slow Internet Connection. Did you leave home without your U3 Key or Passkey CD? Don’t worry,
SATOGO has you covered on any computer with an Internet connection!

VII. Support for easier install and repair! Whether you are a brand new user or a Seasoned Serotek Subscriber, you won’t be hunting for that elusive install
file somewhere on the web site to set up or repair your software. If for any reason your System Access or Mobile Network won’t start for you, simply run

, log in with your credentials, go to the my account link and either repair your installation or download and set up a brand new copy of the System Access
software. System Access is even smart enough to know if you have an installation or not. If it sees the software on your computer, you will hear the repair
option. If it does not see an installation, it will show you an install link instead.

VIII. Support for a new higher quality voice chat client! With the System Access Mobile Network 3.0 release, users will notice a much improved experience
in the voice chat rooms. With its band-width conserving, yet crisp audio, full-duplex operation in specific rooms, the user can really enjoy the sounds
of their growing community.

IX. Support For Voice Communication Over A Remote Session! Whether you are fixing someone’s computer, showing someone a cool application you just installed
or providing instruction and training, the advent of full-duplex voice communication is just the thing to use instead of a telephone or even Skype. You
can now have your communication all in one place.

X. Support for All-In-Play Games! Screen Access on computers isn’t just for work anymore. It is also for fun. Serotek continues its spirit of cooperation
with other companies by collaborating with All In Play, an interactive gaming community to make it possible for System Access 3.0 users to play their games:
Tag, Crazy Eights, Draw Poker an Texas Hold’em. To check it out, browse on over to:

XI. Support for offline document scanning! With the System Access 3.0, it is now possible to scan and read documents using our optional “Document Scan”
application. The implementation of this feature is just another in a long line of user requests that Serotek has quickly responded to, in order to make
our products what you, the user wants in your Access software.

Oh an by the way, Firefox support will be coming just as soon as Mozilla releases an update that fixes accessibility issues introduced in 3.02. We are
told that 3.04 will be released on November 12.

So how much extra will Serotek customers pay for this upgrade? As always, all Serotek subscribers receive this and all other maintenance updates for the
cost of their yearly or monthly subscriptions. Remember, with Serotek, there are no costly software maintenance agreements to buy. We continue in our commitment
to making the most stable and reliable products affordable to those even on the tightest of budgets.

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Tags: Features, Serotek, System Access, What's New, X64 Access Technology
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Live Mesh: What is it?

October 29th, 2008

I wanted to write briefly about a technology that Microsoft is currently beta testing called Live Mesh, or just Mesh for short. What is it you ask? Well, picture the ultimate synchronization tool that once implemented, you can forget about it. It is a rather simple set and forget type of program. I’ve pasted some info from the mesh.com web site. I do believe that this is one of the coolest technologies to come out of Microsoft in a while. Some of the aspects of this beta do not work great with Access Technology, but it is a beta after all. More below.

Imagine the possibilities

Imagine all your devices—PCs, and soon Macs and mobile phones—working together to give you anywhere access to the information you care about.

With Live Mesh, you can spend less time managing devices and data and more time connecting with family and friends or collaborating with colleagues.

All your devices working together

No more e-mailing attachments to yourself. Instead, synchronize the information you need across all your devices. The most up-to-date versions will be at hand when you need them—at home, at the office, and on the go.

Just install the Live Mesh software on each device. Then add folders to your mesh. Folders are automatically synchronized, always available.

Access from anywhere

Anything you add to Live Mesh is available from anywhere, including the web from your Live Desktop. Your Live Desktop comes with 5 GB of free storage, and can be used from most web browsers.

Need a program that’s only on your home PC? With Live Mesh, access to all your devices—and any programs on those devices—is at your fingertips, no matter where you are.

Note that the above feature doesn’t work with Access Technology currently. When/If this changes please let me know if you find out about it before I do.

Simple to share

Easily share files and photos with friends, family, and colleagues—invite them to a folder. Everyone is kept up to date because files can be synchronized automatically with all your devices and all their devices.

Update documents, post comments, or send instant messages, all right from the folder. The Live Mesh bar helps you connect instantly with other folder members.

Stay informed

Keep track of all the activities in your mesh. See the online status of friends and colleagues, find out who has updated which files or folders, post and read comments, and check the status of your devices.

News about your mesh is easy to access. You can view news items in the notifier, from the mesh bar, and on the Live Mesh website—available whenever, wherever you are.

Protection you know

Your mesh is password-protected with your Windows Live ID, so only you have access to it. When you share a folder with family and friends, they sign in with their own Windows Live ID to access it.

All file transfers are protected using Secure Socket Layers (SSL), the same technology your online bank uses.

And there you have it! I believe it’s pretty impressive, though I’ve been told that I’m a geek, so who knows! Drop me a note if you try this and let me know what you think of it.

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Tags: files, folders, Live, Mesh, Microsoft, Sync, web
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The Net bible Revisited!

September 29th, 2008

It is to my great satisfaction that I report my findings about the Net Bible. I can only conclude that my version was corrupted some way. At any rate, my issue with Colossians 3 has been resolved. It seems that the net Bible splits itself up slightly differently than traditional bibles. The translation notes are all there as well, so if you really want to delve into the scriptures, this is the easiest way to do it! This Bible is also free! It is accessible to Jaws, System Access, and Window-Eyes. Everything within the bible software is arranged like a web page. Basically just hit the link you want and you are off and running, or reading as the case may be. Have fun with this one, and let me know what you think?

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Tags: Jaws, Net bible, Software, System Access
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Freedom Scientific introduces Remote Support Options for Jaws

September 23rd, 2008

Freedom Scientific just spilled the beans on the big secret they alluded to in the August FSCast. It is called Jaws Tandem. The big news is that Jaws users can now help friends or co-workers with computer problems by connecting to the computer in question. When remote control is established, Braille, video and of course speech feedback is available to both parties. Text can be copied between the controller’s pc, and the remote pc, making it easy for logs, or other configuration information to be recorded, or analyzed.

In order to give someone control of your pc, press JawsKey+Alt+T. You then have to type a unique password that is generated by the Tandem service. The controller will give you the password. Then the controller can fix problems; conduct a quick training session, etc. You can quit the connection at any time by pressing JawsKey+Alt+T again. Both parties will be notified that the Tandem session has ended.

Conclusion

I believe that this is a revolutionary release and update to the Jaws product. And before anyone wonders, I am not paid by FS. I think that this technology will go quite a long way for Jaws customers in terms of helping them get support from knowledgeable people. Price is reasonable at $39 per quarter, or $139 annually. Organizations are not left out either. A one-time charge of $495 will get you Jaws Tandem, and remote desktop as well as Citrix support if it doesn’t exist.

Jaws beta 2 will introduce the Tandem service, which should be out any day now! While it is in beta, anyone can try it free of charge!

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Tags: Beta, Freedom Scientific, Jaws, Remote Control, Support, tandem
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Discussion of What’s New in Jaws 10.0!

August 23rd, 2008

Discussion of what’s new in Jaws 10.0!

I wanted to provide a discussion of what I thought of the new features introduced into Jaws 10.0. If you want to get this all right from the horse’s mouth, just go to the beta page for Jaws 10.0! Just remember that Jaws 10 will not be released for download until next week sometime. I have to say that over-all; I would sum up the improvements in Jaws 10 as evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. However, the modifications will catch some by surprise if not taken note of first. Now on to the new features!

Surf’s up page updated

“Surf’s Up!, the Freedom Scientific Web page that explains how to surf the Web with JAWS, has been updated to help instructors and students take advantage of the new JAWS 10 features that are mentioned on this page. Pay particular attention to the Forms page. It gives great details for using the new Auto Forms Mode function.”

You certainly may want to spend some time playing with auto-forms mode, as it is quite different from the manual way of activating forms mode. It will take a bit of time to get used to getting into forms mode without pressing a key first. Obviously quick navigation keys such as B, for button, H for heading etc will not work once in forms mode. Since this will be occurring automatically, you will need to get used to it. Fortunately, for those who like to stick with the old familiar way of doing things, you can turn auto-forms mode off.

Auto Forms Mode

“Auto Forms Mode will automatically turn on Forms Mode when you move into combo box controls using TAB, or edit fields using either TAB or ARROW Keys. This makes if far more intuitive and easy to interact with form fields found on web pages without having to do these extra key strokes. When you press ARROW Keys or TAB to move to an edit field, you will hear a sound indicating you can type at that moment without having to first press ENTER. When you exit the control using an ARROW Key, Forms Mode turns off and will let you easily continue to navigate in virtual mode again. This functionality can be very useful for new and sighted JAWS users in training environments but even long time JAWS users will quickly adapt to this new method with a little practice. By default, Auto Forms Mode is on. There are two ways to turn it off. First, you can press INSERT+V and then change the Auto Forms Mode option to off. Second, you can use the new Forms Mode Options dialog located in Configuration Manager.”

As I mentioned above, the person who has been using Jaws for years will take a little getting used to this new option, but new Jaws users should have a fairly easy time of things, as forms mode is handled automatically for you. Hey, one less key to remember!

RealSpeak Solo Direct Synthesizers

Here’s where things get a bit more responsive for those of you that like to use the SAPI five synthesizers. Again taken directly from FS!

“JAWS 10 supports RealSpeak™ Solo Direct synthesizers from Nuance® Communications. These new synthesizers work exclusively with Freedom Scientific products, provide better speed and performance over the Nuance synthesizers supplied with earlier JAWS versions, and will not interfere with any synthesizers currently installed on your system. To listen to samples or download these synthesizers, go to the RealSpeak Solo Direct Voices for Freedom Scientific Products Web page.

Another way to open this page is to use the new RealSpeak Solo Direct link available in the JAWS application window. The link is in Web Resources under the Help menu. “

Dictionary Manager Tree View

This next feature may appeal to those studying languages, or anyone wanting to hear words spoken correctly, in the correct pronunciation.

“The Dictionary Manager lets you change the way JAWS speaks words, phrases, abbreviations, or symbols to avoid any mispronunciation. In JAWS 10, the Dictionary manager has been expanded so that you can create rules applying to specific languages, synthesizers, or voices. Once the rule is created, it is added to the top of the Dictionary Entries list. It is identified by language, for example, English, and can be expanded into a tree view to show other restrictions that apply to the rule. To open the Dictionary Manager in any application, press INSERT+D. “

Navigation Quick Key Manager

This new option allows you to switch the quick navigation quick keys to something of your choosing. So for example, if you wanted to switch the quick navigation key of P to move to the next paragraph, to say the letter Y, then you could do that with this new option. So if one letter makes more sense than another go ahead and make the switch. The changes are instantly active.

Voice Profiles

This new option allows you to set a kind of preset for your voice settings. One area where this could have some use is in other languages, particularly Spanish. When you switch Jaws to speak in Spanish, Jaws speaks quite a bit faster than it should. Apparently, it makes Spanish people pause because I’ve heard this from more than one person. At any rate, you could now make a Spanish voice profile, or preset so that when the Spanish language is active the rate of Jaws speech is slowed somewhat. This feature has been available in Magic for a while, so now Jaws 10 has it to.

Language Menu Changes

I don’t really have any comments to the next two new features, so I’ll quote FS directly.

“The Synthesizer Language and Change Synthesizer commands have been removed from the Language menu in the JAWS application window and been replaced by the Voice Profiles command. This new command lets you select and instantly switch to another synthesizer and voice combination that you set up as a voice profile. For more about voice profiles, open the JAWS Help file, and refer to the Global Voices or Individual Voices topics. These topics are found in Voice Settings in the Using JAWS book.”

Unified English Braille or Contracted English Braille Setup

“JAWS can now provide contracted braille using either Contracted English Braille, formerly known as grade 2 braille, as defined in translation rules from the Braille Authority of North America (BANA), or Unified English Braille (UEB) as provided by the International Council on English Braille (IECB). Using Braille Options in the Configuration Manager, you can configure JAWS for either method using two new radio buttons: Contracted English Braille (default) and Unified English Braille. The braille translation method can be set up with or without a braille display attached to your system so that it is ready for use when you select the Enable Translator check box.“

Reply Directly to Sender

This feature has been available for quite some time in Jaws. I guess that it just works better now. This feature is nice because if you are on an email list, you can reply privately to the sender of a particular email. This is done with Insert+Shift+R. Try it, it works better now! But you may not notice anything new here.

No comments

The next few features I’ll just let FS say it, as I have no real comments here.

“Downloading Freedom Scientific DAISY Books with FSReader Demo

Starting with JAWS 10, you can use FSReader Demo to download DAISY books directly from the Freedom Scientific Web site. The advantage of this feature over earlier JAWS releases is that you no longer need the product CD to install any of the DAISY books.

You can also use the Check for Updates command to quickly select and download DAISY books. From the Help menu in the JAWS application window, choose Check for Updates, select any DAISY book from the list, and then choose the Install button.

Startup Wizard Change for Say All

The Use SAPI 5 During Say All check box has been removed from the JAWS Startup Wizard. The wizard opens at the end of the installation process, or can be opened from the Help menu of the JAWS application window.

To select a SAPI 5 or RealSpeak Direct Solo synthesizer and voice for Say All, use the Say All controls in the Global Voices or Individual Voices dialog box.“

Aria Live Region Support

Here’s where things get a bit interesting. Aria is another technology that pushes content to browsers. Jaws 10 will now work with this technology to provide updated sport scores, or weather stats etc. Unless you have Fire Fox 3, or Internet Explorer 8.0, you will not be able to take advantage of such technologies. IE8 should be out any day now, so I’ll be waiting to see what this does for me personally. It is for me one of the most exciting new features of Jaws 10. Hey, I never said I was normal, OK.

Windows Media Player 11!

Well it’s a bout time! We finally have better support for WMP 11! Let’s tick off the improvements:

Hear the name of the track by pressing Insert+Control+T.
When you are moving through a play list, Jaws will announce the track currently playing.
The auto-playlist feature now works. This is a feature that can make playlists based on ratings of songs, recently played songs etc.
Buttons and sliders should be more accessible and meaningful when used.

Good stuff and it’s about time!

Office

Jaws now fully supports Access 2007. I hope you that use this find it of benefit, and as useable as earlier versions of Access. The Outlook calendars in Office 2003, and 2007 has been made to run faster and more reliably in Jaws 10. This is good news for me, because I use this feature daily.

Run Jaws without Speech

No comment here, so FS takes it from this point.

“The Run JAWS Without Speech check box has been removed from the Advanced Options command located under the Set Options menu in Configuration Manager. This check box is now available in the Advanced Options dialog box by choosing Options (ALT+O) from the JAWS application window, selecting Basic (B), and then selecting the Advanced button (D) in the Basic Settings dialog box.

Script Manager Changes

The Selecta Synthesizer script (INSERT+CTRL+S) has been changed to the SelectAVoiceProfile script. Its purpose is to allow you to switch from one voice profile to another. Previously, the keystroke would let you dynamically change the speech synthesizer. It now allows you to dynamically change voice profiles.

The Selecta Language script (WINDOWS Key+CTRL+L) has been removed.

New Keystroke for Reading Clipboard Contents

You can now read the contents of the clipboard at anytime by pressing WINDOWS Key+INSERT+X. This feature was adopted from Magic where it was first introduced.

New HTML Table Keystrokes

When in a table on a Web page, you can move between and read columns by pressing WINDOWS Key+LEFT ARROW, which reads the previous column, and by pressing WINDOWS Key+RIGHT ARROW, which reads the contents of the next column. Select JAWS Commands for HTML for additional table keystrokes.”

That is it for now. I do hope that more features are listed soon on the FS web site. Let me know how your Jaws 10 experience is going for you when it comes out.

Access Technology,Jaws,Beta,Freedom Scientific,Software

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Rip DVDs to Audio

August 16th, 2008

Have you ever wondered about ripping DVDs streight to audio as you can with regular CDs? In my latest tutorial, I walk you through the entire ripping process, from downloading, installing, setting it up, and finally ripping right to audio! Start ripping to audio, and have fun!

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Tags: Audio, DVD, Extraction, Review, Ripping, Tutorial
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Software Patents

July 29th, 2008

Just for your additional information on the FS Verses GwMicro case, the blind confidential blog has a good write-up on how FS could have a legal, if possibly unethical case for the lawsuit against GwMicro. You can read the post here.

http://blindconfidential.blogspot.com/2008/07/patent-law.html

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How to create a place marker?

July 27th, 2008

+If you would like a nice technical comparison of Jaws place marker capabilities, and Window-Eyes place marker capabilities check this link out.

http://www.wilanddenise.com/wil/

Enjoy!

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Update to the FS Verses GWMicro Lawsuit

July 25th, 2008

If you want a good heads-up overview of what exactly Freedom Scientific is suing GwMicro for check out the Blind Access Journal Blog. I do believe that this could have far-reaching consequences for the blind community if successful! Why Freedom Scientific would want to promote such a damaging course that has great potential for harm is beyond my understanding.

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What do you do when your competition just may have a superior product?

July 24th, 2008

Some companies try to actually compete for business and market share! May the best product for the customer win! What an innovative idea? Unfortunately, for all of us, some companies have a history of suing the competition. I guess the motto is if you can’t make better products, sue ‘em!

I am referring to Freedom Scientific! FS is suing GwMicro! First, many of you will remember that Freedom Scientific sued Serotek because of the name FreedomBox. Now Freedom Scientific is Suing GWMicro because of the new Window-Eyes 7.0 scripting, and place marker capabilities. These features are superior to Jaws’ scripting, and place marker offerings. See the GwMicro Blog Blog to read it yourself. So why can’t Freedom Scientific make a better place marker? Why can’t Freedom Scientific make a better venue for creation of scripts? Obviously, that last would be a serious undertaking, but few would argue the fact that Freedom Scientific is one of the largest Access Technology companies out there. We can probably safely say that lack of funds is not one of Freedom Scientifics’ largest problems.

So what exactly is Freedom Scientifics’ problem these days? More importantly, why try to crush the competition? I’d love to hear your comments on this one!

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Tags: Access Technology, blind, Freedomscientific, GwMicro, Jaws, Lawsuit, place markers, scripting, Serotek, System Access, window-eyes
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Update On Net Bible First Edition

July 16th, 2008

Yesterday I blogged about the Net Bible’s missing scriptures. Today I tried to contact bible.org to ask about the missing verses. Regrettably, the form required the dreaded capcha to be filled out before it would submit it. As I said before, the Net Bible is only in its first edition. I hope that the second edition will include every verse found in other Bibles.

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Net Bible First Edition

July 15th, 2008

Well, in my never-ending quest to find the nearly perfect Bible reference program, I stumbled upon Net Bible First Edition. It is published by bible.org, and is extremely accessible! Everything is laid out like a web page. So, you can select any book in the bible via links. You then can select the chapter that you want to read from chapter links that appear, 1, 2, 3, and so on.

By far at least for me, the neatest thing about this Bible software is its ability to allow you to lookup concordance type information instantly with no fuss! As you are reading a chapter, you will see links next to key words or phrases. Activating these links will allow you to view Greek/Hebrew concordance type info! It is the easiest Biblical software that I have used in a long time.

There’s just one problem! Bible verses are missing! If you look at a regular Bible at say Colossians chapter 3, you will not see verses 19 through 25! These verses do appear in other Bibles, and pertain to Husbands ironically enough… At any rate, I will email the creators of this Bible software in an attempt to find out in short, what gives?

I will let you know what I find out… if anything.

Comments anyone?

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Welcome to the WebFriendlyHelp.com blog!

July 11th, 2008

Well this is exciting for me. I have never had a blog, you should expect to get tech thoughts, tips, tricks and so on for sure, but you may get a few non-tech related musings here and there.

The blog will also showcase updates to the WebFriendlyHelp.com> web site. If you only care about article updates to the web site, then that’s the feed that you want to subscribe to. If you want updates and general thoughts and ideas I have about tech, then this is the feed for you. You could also subscribe to both so you don’t miss anything, in the event that I forget to update one feed or the other.

I have posted my first article. It is all about how to access pdf files, and how to extract text out of them. I hope you enjoy it. Here’s the link.
Reading and extracting Text out of Adobe Files>

Hope to see you in the comments. If you want to reach me, Please send email to Help, or via the Contact Form.

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Tags: adobe, blog, Casey Mathews, new post, pdf, welcome
Posted in Computing, Software | 1 Comment »

About Siri

Pavilion G60-235DX Notebook

Acer AS6935-6194 Notebook

Apple iPod Retractable 2-in-1 USB 2.0 Data and Charging Cable

Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 2TB

LaCie 250GB Rugged All-Terrain Portable Hard Drive

Plantronics Discovery 655 luetooth Headset

Fantom GreenDrive Pro

Kingston 16GB DataTraveler

Compaq EVO D51 Desktop PC

HP Pavilion Elite M9500F Desktop

HP TouchSmart IQ524 Desktop

Olympus WS-321M 1GB Digital Voice Recorder

Kingston 2GB Secure Digital SD Card

Kingston 4GB DataTraveler 120 USB Flash Drive

SanDisk 2GB Cruzer Micro U3 Smart USB 2.0 Flash Drive With Ready Boost

Philips Active Noise Canceling Headphones

Iomega Prestige Desktop 1.5TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

HP Pavilion DV7-2180US Entertainment Laptop

Information about this voiceNote QT:

Online projects search engine

Who is DoNanza for?

Our vision

About DoNanza

Imagine the possibilities

All your devices working together

Access from anywhere

Simple to share

Stay informed

Protection you know

Conclusion

Surf’s up page updated

Auto Forms Mode

RealSpeak Solo Direct Synthesizers

Dictionary Manager Tree View

Navigation Quick Key Manager

Voice Profiles

Language Menu Changes

Unified English Braille or Contracted English Braille Setup

Reply Directly to Sender

No comments

“Downloading Freedom Scientific DAISY Books with FSReader Demo

Startup Wizard Change for Say All

Aria Live Region Support

Windows Media Player 11!

Office

Run Jaws without Speech

Script Manager Changes

New Keystroke for Reading Clipboard Contents

New HTML Table Keystrokes

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Fun

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