big deal!!! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dana Niswonger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "bpmessage" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "pcmessage" <pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 9:51 PM Subject: Assistive Technology, or, Applied Sociology
> There are none so blind as those who will not see! > Who ever said this was talking about us, though they did not know it at > the time. > Recently, some have heard fit to write me regarding a message I posted. > Rather than write back on an individual basis, I am answering all, via the > lists. > List managers, please allow this to post, though it may be consider to be > to long by some. > 1974 saw me in a new reality. I was 18, had my first live in girl friend, > job and two new technological developments, Touch tone telephones and the > Westinghouse > liquid level indicator. A remarkable device this and only $595.00. We > all know what it does so I need not explain further. > Until the rest of the world wants what we have and use in our vertical > market every day, only then will we get the very best the world has to > offer! > While I work with some of us, I will never work for any of us! This is to > say that no person who is blind will ever sign my pay check! > I became interested in computers in 1979, attending a junior college, > obtaining my degree in Electronic Data Processing. As this was before the > onset of > talking computers I used an Opticon lens to read the CRT. screen. > Completing my academic requirements, along with a very bad case of right > arm tennis > elbow, I took my first job as a Cobol programmer. My training at Maryland > Computer Services brought me in touch with one man who is blind, with > vision! > 1985 found me working for the state of California, again the only blind > programmer in the shop. The XT. had made its debut the previous year and > I wanted > very much to become involved in the efforts to make it talk. Leaving CPM. > behind, I took an extension course in MSDOS. and again met the man who is > blind, > with vision. Purchasing an Arctic's Symphonics board and my first version > of Jaws, version 1.0, serial number 27, I got involved! It was quite > clear > to me and others that the main stream world is where the highest paying, > most sought after jobs are to be found. It was toward this goal that I > steered > my course. Our world was about to be overwhelmed with a glut of > technological miracles and thus the war began, it is not over yet. > 1994 found me as the president of my own software company, Future Vision > Software, INC. I had learned Turbo Pascal by this time and developed five > Christian > based applications on the open market. Less than 14 months later I found > my programs raped by Christian hackers and placed on a BBS. known as the > Christian > connection. I was using Jaws version 2.3 for DOS. serial number 0039314 at > this time and quickly became interested in the push toward JFW. The man > who > is blind, with vision never stopped working. The JFW. development > happened so fast that two years later I was using Windows 98 and JFW. 3.5, > serial number > JFW-35959. Our talking computer world had turned once again. > Recently, I was privileged to browse a store that boasted of having every > technological device for the blind. They may well be right in doing so, > though > I cannot imagine why. I heard everything from bill and color identifiers > to 60 series talking cell phones, talking bar code readers, a new device > known > as a Braille Sense and these are just a few of the high priced highlights. > By the end of year 2007, we will all be able to hold in our hand a device > not > unlike the communicators used by Captain Kirk and his crew in another show > with vision. Our device has not yet been named and will contain no moving > parts > and will work by two way voice communication. > Just to sum up, in case you haven't gotten my points. The Shark puts > Peepers to sleep In A Box! I have but one disk and can work on any > computer system > in the world within five minutes of my arrival. Every time I have tried > to sit on the cutting edge of technology, it hurt my butt! For those who > fear > the onset of Vista, soon we will hold the entire wealth of information the > world has to offer in our hand! The technology growth curve is imploding > in > on itself and making faster science fact for all! Explode on this!!! > Dana Niswonger > _______________________________________________ > PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... > http://www.pc-audio.org > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > This list is a service of MosenExplosion.com. To see what other lists we > offer, visit us on the web at http://www.MosenExplosion.com _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This list is a service of MosenExplosion.com. To see what other lists we offer, visit us on the web at http://www.MosenExplosion.com
