top Tech tidbits for Thursday, February 15, 2007
1) A lot of work is going to programming and archiving at ACBRadio these days. One of their new programs is tech this, a two-hour call-in show discussing high and low tech, airing weekly at 02:00 GMT on Saturdays.
2) If you can't listen to the weekly two-hour Main Menu program, organizers assure us that each week's program will be on the web archive
http://www.acbradio.org/pweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=19&MMN_position=30:29
within two hours after its 24-hour run on the station. Also, there are two new and improved podcast feeds for Main Menu. If you want to grab the recorded interview/demo segment, add this link to your pddcatcher:
http://www.acbradio.org/podcasts/mainmenu
and for the Main Menu live segment:
http://www.acbradio.org/podcasts/mainmenulive
They have a page where all the growing number of ACBRadio podcast feeds can be easily accessed
http://www.acbradio.org/podcasts
3) the Main Menu team has also started a mailing list for continuing discussion on past topics and for questions for upcoming guests. You can join by sending a blank message to
MainMenu-subscribe@googlegroups.com
4) the Main Menu program for 21 February will feature discussion of the new accessible Olympus digital recorders. Neil Ewers will be among the guests, and you can find his typically thorough and professional evaluation of the product near the top of the Blind Cool Tech page
http://www.blindcooltech.com/
5) Here's a link, provided by the Website Wednesday blog, to a Wikipedia article about backing up data:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup
6) In the U.S., laws have changed, so what we call "daylight savings time" starts on 11 March, and will also end a week later than it used to. Of course, computers manufactured before the law was passed know nothing of this, so clocks will be an hour off for about a month throughout different times of the year. there will be a windows update to handle it for newer operating systems, but if you don't want to get those updates, or use an older operating system,you can get a keyboard-friendly set of instructions for eradicating the problem here:
http://www.bluegrasspals.com/dst.html
7) the subject of this week's Accessible World free training will be Pocket Hal, a screen reader for pocket pc devices. The event will take place on GMT tuesday at 01:00 (stateside Monday evening.)
http://www.accessibleworld.org>
8) this Fred's Head Companion article lists state-by-state the places where US residents can look to find out if they have any unclaimed money coming to them from the government.
http://fredsheadcompanion.blogspot.com/2007/02/do-you-have-unclaimed-money-or.html
9) Alan Cantor continues to work to familiarize people with the power of macros. He has updated his Frequently Asked Questions document about learning and using macros for users and technology trainers.
http://www.cantoraccess.com/macro-docs/macrosfaq.htm
10) Here's a Fred's Head Companion piece giving some resources for those wishing to play the popular game Sudoku.
http://fredsheadcompanion.blogspot.com/2007/02/sudoku-for-blind.html
11) this article lists many useful add-ons to the Skype internet telephony service. they may or may not work with screen readers, but some probably do.
http://www.voip-news.com/feature/hacking-skype-020607/
12) A new mailing list to discuss all aspects of notetakers for the blind has been formed. To join, send a blank message to
notetakers-subscribe@babel-fish.us
13) New games are frequently added to the menus of the Audio Network.
http://games.pressakey.net>
14) EASI plans to record several sessions of the CSUN Technology conference in March and make them available as podcasts.
http://easi.cc/podcasts
another free program from EASI will be a "webinar" on making online conferencing systems accessible to persons with disabilities. This will take place on Tuesday, 13 March.
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
Finally, EASI offers a four-week fee-based course on Barrier-free E-learning in March.
http://easi.cc/workshops/bfel.htm
15) The Adaptech Research Network of Dawson College, Montreal, has compiled a listing of free and low-cost (under $200) adaptive technology software.
http://www.adaptech.org
16) this month's Gw Micro radio program features the first of a two-part series on window-Eyes and windows vista.
http://www.gwmicro.com/onthemove
17) Gw Micro is sponsoring a free five-Card Draw poker tournament with prizes through the accessible All inPlay service. The event starts at 22:00 gmt on Friday, 23 February. In addition, anybody who has had an account with All inPlay can play draw poker throughout the week leading up to the tournament.
http://allinplay.com/free_trial.html
18) We learn from Pirillo's Picks that Mark Donaldson, aka LUEM42, has assembled a vast array of useful links and also puts out a newsletter.
http://luem42.com/
19) From the same source, we discover Send To Toys and other free utilities from Gabriele Ponti. Send to toys lets you enhance the functionality of the windows Sendto menu option.
http://www.gabrieleponti.com/software/index.html#sendtotoys
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