Consumer Guide to Eyes, Eye Care and Vision Correction – LASIK, Contact Lenses and Eyeglasses: “”

For anyone interested in the history of the Internet, or various sites on it, the below article is definitely worth a read.

Steve

The Internet Archive: An Untapped Resource for the Blind

BARCELONA, Spain – Stumped by foreign languages when you’re travelling? Google is working on software that translates text captured by a phone camera.
At a demonstration during the Mobile World Congress, a cell phone trade show in Barcelona, an engineer shot a picture of a German dinner menu with a phone running Google’s Android software. An application on the phone sent the shot to Google’s servers, which sent a translation back to the phone. It translated “Fruhlingssalat mit Wildkrautern” as “Spring salad with wild herbs.” There was no word on when the software would be available.

Software that translates text from pictures is already available for some phones, but generally does the processing on the phone. By sending the image to its servers for processing, Google can apply a lot more computing power, for faster, more accurate results. The phone still won’t order for you, though – you’ll have to point at the menu.
***
Please see below link for entire article.

href=’http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10626716′>Google working on language translating phone – Technology – NZ Herald News.

Steve

***Begin content***

Dragon Search is the Fast, Accurate and Smart way to search online content on your iPhone™ using your voice. Simply speak your search queries and get simultaneous results from a variety of top websites and content sources including: Google™ (or Yahoo!™, Bing™, depending on your default settings) YouTube™ Twitter™ Search iTunes™ Wikipedia® The innovative Dragon Search Carousel allows you to quickly access results from multiple sources, and is a one-stop shop for all of your search needs, even when you are “Hands-Busy” REVIEWS Press Reviews: Mel Martin – TUAW: “The iTunes integration is quite nice. Say ‘Harold Budd’, for example, and click the iTunes icon and you’ll see what the iTunes store has to sell. Or you can search Wikipedia or Google and learn all about him.” Greg Kumparack – MobileCrunch: “The design of the application is rather clever…you can flip between them [results] on a whim via the carousel at the top…” Jennifer Van Grove – Mashable: “We were left practically speechless by the quality of Dragon Dictation, an iPhone app that does instant speech-to-text transcription. The same company has just unveiled their latest iPhone offering — Dragon Search — and it’s just as impressive as the first.” “The app is stupidly simple to use and lightening fast…” iTunes Reviews: Np2244 – “I just downloaded dragon search and it is incredible. I couldn’t ask for something so fast, accurate and versatile. I mean, search all facets of the web in one fell swoop. I love it. You let me search facebook too and it’s better than sliced bread.” Bootareen – “It has a very simple interface and convenient scroll bar on top to switch the source of your search. The sources switch instantly, I don’t know how they do it but its super efficient and convenient.” Vsqa – “Hands-down the best damn voice search app on the app store. Amazingly fast and accurate. Bug free product great work.” FEATURES • Fast and accurate, fully automated speech recognition • Horizontal tool bar enables fast access to alternative search sites • Easily modify or correct search queries by using a list of alternative suggestions Dragon Search is powered by Nuance’s world-renowned Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® software, and it is specifically designed to make searching the internet on your iPhone easier than ever. PRIVACY POLICY Dragon Search does not upload or store any personal information. Spoken search queries are processed by fully automated speech recognition technology in secure data centers with stringent privacy and security standards. These search queries are not associated with any personal data from your phone. Dragon Search will utilize spoken speech queries collected over time to continuously improve and provide high speech recognition accuracy. Details are described in the end user license agreement, provided here for your convenience: http://www.dragonmobileapps.com/EULA-search.html

If you’d like to go directly to this app in the iTunes store, simply click here. At the moment, the app is available for free.

***begin content***

How many times have you tried to pour something into a container and made a big mess? It happens all the time for me. I get so tired of cleaning up the counter after I’ve tried to pour something into a container for storage or to put in the trash.
The g-Spout is a removable spout/strainer that easily attaches to a skillet, double boiler, bowl or can. Made of high temperature food grade silicone, the g-Spout is microwave and dishwasher safe.
The g-Spout was originally developed to encourage the environmentally responsible disposal of cooking grease and oil, and to help eliminate clogged drains and sewers. Fats, Oils and Greases stick to the inside of sewers becoming a blockage and sewage “backs up” into homes, businesses or the street.
The g-Spout has become so much more! Customers are suggesting new uses almost every day! It’s great for making cupcakes, muffins, and pancakes without drips or baked on batter; drizzling chocolate, and caramel from a double boiler; pouring paint back into bottles; straining fruit salad, vegetables or rice; pouring sugar, salt or coffee; and of course, straining hot bacon or hamburger grease into disposable containers.
Remember – removing the fat, oil, and grease is also good for your family’s health. It’s not limited to the kitchen either – it can be used in the garage, shop, RV, and even the craft room. The g-Spout is easy to attach and lets you pour with one hand – No more clumsy funnels or dripping ladles to worry about.

Click this link to visit http://g-spout.com.

***Begin content***

Industry Standard SMAs No Longer Standard

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn – January 28, 2009 – Serotek Corporation, the leading provider of internet and digital information accessibility software and services, today announced that it will no longer require a fee to upgrade or maintain any software in its product line.
Software companies traditional have charged fees under a contract, commonly known as a Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA), to upgrade to newer versions of their software packages. Serotek will continue to provide regular upgrades and software improvements but will offer them free of charge to all Serotek customers.
The announcement was formally made today at the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) annual conference in Orlando, Florida, with the company’s “RIP SMA” campaign. The first such offering of its kind, the news was met with great user enthusiasm.
“True to our belief that accessibility is right, not a privilege, we are excited to lead the industry in pronouncing SMAs are dead.” said Mike Calvo, CEO, Serotek Corporation, “Users of our System Access product line can now enjoy one price, one time, forever. And we encourage the industry to follow suit.”
Reactions to this news can be found on the company’s podcast, Serotalk, which is being broadcast live from the conference’s Internet Café, which is being sponsored by the Serotek Corporation. Those unable to attend the conference can listen to the Serotalk podcast by going to www.serotalk.com.

Steve

–

The hottest item at all three national conventions this summer was The
Braille Caravan by Creative Adaptations for Learning, and now available
from National Braille Press.

This educational toy, made in the USA, consists of 30 goldenrod
non-toxic plastic blocks. Each block represents the braille cell,
designed with six black pegs that can be manually pushed up or down to
form dots 1-6. Using a finger, stylus, or pencil, a young child can
easily make letters, works, even whole sentences by manipulating the six
dots on each block, and joining them in a “caravan.”

This is the perfect tool, built like a toy, to get young blind children
acquainted with braille at the earliest age; to introduce braille to a
sighted parent in a friendly or non-threatening way; or to help person
who need to learn braille later in life, even those who may have reduced
tactile sensitivity.

And, we discovered that sighted kids also love playing with the blocks
and handing them to their braille-reading parents (or grandparents) to
check out what they wrote! They did this simply by studying the alphabet
chart that comes with each caravan.

In each set, you get 30 “refreshable” braille blocks, a canvas carrying
bag, a print Activity Guide, and an English Braille Symbols Chart. In an
effort to get these into the hands of children at the earliest age, we
are selling the Braille Caravan for only $30. We believe this is the
least expensive braille learning device on the market today. (If you
wish to have the Activity Guide in braille, pease call us at the number
below).

To order or read more about this book online, visit

http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/CARAVAN.html

******
To order any books, send payment to:
NBP, 88 St. Stephen Street, Boston, MA 02115-4302
Or call and charge it: toll-free (800) 548-7323 or (617) 266-6160 ext
20.
Or order any of our books online at
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/publications/index.html .

Steve

***

Personal Power is a guide to help blind people explore the many leisure
activities and personal pursuits which their accessible computers make
available to them. It is a richtext file which should be saved to your hard
drive and can be opened with nearly any word processor or kind of computer.
The guide and mp3 lectures may be shared and copied freely as long as the
content is not changed other than to make it available in alternative
formats. It isn’t a manual so much as it is a kind of traveller’s gazette
based on my own personal experience stretching back over two decades. I had
a whole lot of fun growing up with accessible computers and even more since
the Internet gained so much presence in everyday life. I invite you to
freely share in my good fortune. Accessible computers and the Internet have
had a profound effect on my life. They can for you too. Your computer is so
much more than a work tool. Enrich your personal life and have the kind of
fun your sighted piers have enjoyed for decades.
Michael Feir
Creator and former editor of Audyssey Magazine
1996-2004


Dan Zingaro has been a developer of accessible games for a number of years. In addition to Super Geekout, Dan Z has developed Search Party, a word search game, ChainLink, a word association game and a number of additional free games. Unfortunately, due to other time commitments, Dan Z games will be closing sometime in June. Dan has, however, very graciously made his games available to the public as freeware.

Whether you’re a expert gamer, one who likes to play games as time allows, or someone who didn’t know accessible games exist, Dan Z games are worth a look. As the “sometime in June” reference is a bit vague, however, I’d recommend downloading the games as soon as possible.

So, where to go? What to do? Dan Z games can be found, read about and of course downloaded from www.danzgames.com. For the paid games, you first need to download and install the demonstration versions and then an additional small program which turns the demo into the fully registered version. On the Dan Z games page, Dan provides step by step instructions on how to get these files and get them installed.

On a personal note, I have gotten a great deal of enjoyment out of Dan Z’s games and am sorry to see him leave the accessible gaming arena. Certainly, I wish Dan Z the very best in whatever direction life is taking him and want to say thank you, for making technology a great deal more fun.

Steve