Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday, December 28, 2006
Web site technical difficulties and the death of a hard drive prevented the delivery of last week's newsletter, so this, finally, is the 100th issue. It is the first to be published in December.
1) Jamal Mazrui has enhanced his collections of text-based programming tutorials. You can download 58 Visual Basic .net tutorials
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/vbnetdoc.zip
12 Visual Basic 6 tutorials
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/vb6_doc.zip
10 HTML tutorials (including CSS, CGI, DOM, and JavaScript)
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/html_doc.zip
12 general programming tutorials (including design, debugging, and object orientation)
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/prog_doc.zip
2) Jamal has also released FileDir, an enhanced speech-friendly windows file manager designed to surpass the features of Windows Explorer. So far the program is advancing through the beta testing process.
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/dirsetup.exe
3) the Hadley School Newsletter reminds us of a great way to search a dictionary by e-mail. to get a definition, send a message to the address at the end of this tidbit and in the subject field, write define, put a space, then type the word whose definition you want. Similarly, you can search a thesaurus by putting the two words synonym and your target word in the subject field of an otherwise blank message. the e-mail address to use is
wsmith@wordsmith.org
and more information and services are available at
www.wordsmith.org.
4) window-Eyes Version 6, with extensive support for Microsoft Office PowerPoint and for the Outlook Calendar as well as other improvements is now available.
http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes
5) Two articles have been added to the Gw Micro Knowledge Base: How to Create Drawings with Window-Eyes and PowerPoint
http://gwmicro.com/Support/Knowledge_Base/?kbnumber=GWKB1053
andWindow-Eyes Speaks "Go To" Continuously in Microsoft Word
http://gwmicro.com/Support/Knowledge_Base/?kbnumber=GWKB1055
6) For a few months, users of Skype have been able to call phone numbers in the US and Canada free. Now those who live in the US and Canada can have this privilege throughout 2007 if they pay $14.95 before the end of the year, twice that much if they wait to pay until next year. Skype version 3.0 is now out, and they will be announcing other rate structures in mid-January.
7) CodeFactory will be conducting a public beta of version of Mobile Speak 3 for users of Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition phones. If you own such a phone, you can take part by sending information to
info@codefactory.es
8) This edition of the Web Site Wednesday blog contains excellent guidance for computer purchasers, among other information concerning windows Vista:
http://www.wgnradio.com/weblog/archives/steveandjohnnie/2006/12/must-read_websi.html
9) FS Braille Coach is a free program for use with Pac Mate 4.1. It is designed for students of braille and for their teachers, and provides prepared lessons and the ability to create custom ones.
http://www.freedomscientific.com/PACMATE-HQ/PACMate-hq.asp
10) And Freedom Scientific now has a podcast, FsCast, produced by Jonathan Mosen each month. the December issue is available, featuring an interview with the head of FS tech support and information about the pacmategear web site. You can download mp3 files or subscribe as a podcast on its page
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fscast
11) the National Council on disability has prepared a document entitled Over the Horizon: Potential Impact of Emerging Trends in Information and Communication Technology on Disability Policy and Practice.
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2006/emerging_trends.htm
12) The Ranger Station reminds us of the Open Culture web site, containing links to a variety of public-domain audio books and various educational and informative podcasts on numerous topics.
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/10/audio_book_podc.html
13) From BlindCoolTech, we discover the existence of Chacha, a search site where you can search with the assistance of hand-picked expert guides on a growing number of subjects.
http://www.chacha.com/
14) Speaking of BlindCoolTech, after a lull in activity, a good number of technology-related recordings have been made over the past several weeks, including three game reviews, tutorials on the AVG free anti-virus program, the Mac and VoiceOver screen reader and Pac Mate, and a review of an accessible dvd of Dr. Who Series 2.
http://www.blindcooltech.com
15) the Official Google Blog informs us that there is a way to generate a set of textual directions from a Google map search. To use it, put the first address, including city and state, the word To, and the second address and hit search.
http://maps.google.com/?output=html
16) You can download choir music from the Methodist Christian Choirs and mp3 Hymns site:
http://www.good-music.org/good-music/moores-chapel/choir/choir.html
17) the National Federation of the blind Jernigan Institute has worked to make available the Math Counts School Handbook, a resource used to stimulate math competence among middle-school students, in free braille-ready downloadable form.
http://www.mathcounts.org/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=945&z=71
There's a little more catching up to do from December, but it will give us some material for next week.
Visit the Tidbits page at www.topdotenterprises.com/tidbits.htm where you can subscribe to the rss feed and grab back issues. All that welcome information for future issues can come to me at dean@topdotenterprises.com.