Hi Erick: You have so hit the proverbial nail on the head here. I've been trying very hard to make vuescan work, to make anything work in terms of scanning. I have had absolutely no luck, even with a version that works for some, even with an Apple trainer very generously spending time with me on things. I finally took 100 pieces of mail and booted up my old Dell pc with it's even older version of openbook. I found a lot of missing stuff, and found out which bills I didn't pay while I was trying like heck to scan with my mac, and now have a credit ding. Strictly my fault. But, I was being obsessive/determined to get the mbp to scan for me. so, you've just laid it out in far nicer terms than I've been feeling just now. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is feeling like the MBP is a lot of things, but not a very good scanning solution for the average user. Thanks for spelling this out so succinctly. I was beginning to really beat myself up for not being able to make this work.
Take care Carolyn Haas On Dec 12, 2010, at 6:01 AM, erik burggraaf wrote: > Well now, Hold your horses, smiles. > > 2 grand is too much for this baby. No doubt about it. There are serious > drawbacks that need to be addressed. The manual is horrendous The mac > software isn't integrated with the mac and tries to be windowsish apparently. > The actual windows software has been crashing like crazy here, but that's in > my virtual machine, where a lot of things don't exactly play ball. It's a > testing ground for anything and everything and I'd take my crashing issues to > a couple of actual windows pc's before I really worried about them. The > unfortunate thing about the crashes from my standpoint is that I can't show > the unit to a client if that's what it's going to do . > > Now having said all that, we've got a couple of off the shelf solutions for > the mac for around a hundred bucks. You know what? They suck. I know a few > really ambitious people on this list have gotten it to fly for them, and > that's great, but a fare few of us here are high end computer users. You've > got to realize, The vast majority of blind people are over the age of 60. > They have interests and poppies and things they like to do and a computer is > a great help to them, but they can't be having to worry about hardware > compatibility, and they don't want 5 or 6 steps and 3 programs to do a simple > scan and read. I'm not gonna take them through image capture, then fine > reader, then text edit, only to find out that what they scanned didn't OCR > properly. The first time that happens I'll lose my audience. You've got to > face the fact that there is nothing for OCR on the mac that is simple as > openbook or kurzweil, and you've especially got to face up to the fact that > there's no one program on the mac that has as many features in one place as > either of those two packages. > > For two grand, EyePal doesn't support enough languages. It's not integrated > with all the services like RFB&D and bookshare. It doesn't have a spell > check, dictionary or thesaurus. it doesn't read currency. It doesn't have > automatic calibration features that will optimize the camera settings for the > particular text you are reading, lighting conditions and so on. > > What it does do, is handle large books really and I mean really well. It > will allow my elderly mac-wealding clients to walk up, put down a document, > hit a button and find out what's on the paper just like my windows clients > can. Is that worth 2 grand? I'm not convinced, but I'm not ready to writhe > it off until I get to see current software working on a real platform of my > choosing. Meanwhile, I suggest you pour yourself another cup of coffee and > mellow out. I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way when the > original knfb reader came out. Now that product is a stone-age brick and I > could probably have one for $500 if I asked around. I'll tell you what > though. I got those so and so's right where it hurt. You know what I did > with there $3600 piece of astonishingly portable, nice-looking and effective > technology? Oh ho ho you'll never believe this... I left it in the store. > *rubs hands together with glee* That showed 'em. Now I've been working in > AT for almost 3 years, all be it on the very bottom most rung of the ladder, > and It's not like it was 10 years ago. They're still charging stupid amounts > of money for high end screen readers and braille displays, mostly because > it's tradition. They can charge it and people are paying, so you can't very > well blame them. Newer technologies though are subject to the same laws of > depreciation as every other damn thing. EyePal pricing just dropped in > December. I'm hoping that applies to canadian sales as well. Next year it > will go down again. The year after that, abisee will introduce something > else and you'll be able to have one of these for a fraction of the cost. The > market is going a certain way that will eventually freeze out gouging prices > for access technology, but change is slow and you just have to pace yourself > and not let it rip you up so much. > > Take 'er easy. > > Erik Burggraaf > User support consultant, > Now posting occasionally on twitter at eburggraaf, > 1-888-255-5194 > http://www.erik-burggraaf.com > > On 2010-12-11, at 7:19 PM, Yuma Decaux wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> Just wanted to jump in on this, but 2000 dollars for a demo? I mean, >> crashing and all, missing manuals or software and a total lack of anything >> integrated? How come it's that ridiculously priced? It's actually the price >> of two macbook airs, and i thought apple was going premium with their stuff. >> I understand the cost of manufacture/quantity of sale/specialization of the >> device but 2k for something like that is basically laughing at the blind >> man's difficulties and adding more fuel to the fire. >> >> Sorry for my language but i cannot comprehend the level of anger mustering >> out of me in regards to these so called accessiblity solutions when all it >> does is one function, and not even that great as i read on this thred. >> >> Shaking my head in complete disgust >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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