



         Computer Training & Sales/Disability Consulting

464 Sylvania Avenue                          phone (215) 572-5882
Glenside, PA  19038-3629                       fax (215) 572-6045

                        January 25, 1995



                           TECH NOTES

     As many of you know I have been sending out updates of my company's
activities for the past two years.  I also get requests for general information
from time to time which I feel I should use to inform others who may have
similar needs.  Then, there is the constantly changing and interesting field of
technology for the disabled, filled with new equipment and improvements on
the old reliable.  Also, there is my ongoing interest in technology and the
information and jobs it makes available for the blind and disabled.  With all
of that in mind, I have decided to put out a brief newsletter.  Nothing fancy
and only released when there is something to report.  I probably don't even
have the time to spend on proper editing, but, we'll try it and see how it goes.

     This looks like its going to be the year of windows programs.  Artic is
advertising an upgrade to Winvision 2, cost $99.95 and $10 shipping.  GW
Micro and Henter-Joyce have both announced release dates for their windows
versions, and both companies will conduct training programs for dealers on
the new releases by the end of March.  I am looking forward to attending both
training sessions.  Also, as I announced in my last update letter, Berkeley
Systems has released Outspoken for Windows.  There will be several training
sessions throughout the year and I will be attending one of them.

     Speaking of graphical user interfaces--a term used to refer to programs
that write to the computer screen in a graphical format--OS 2 just released
version 3.0 with warp in the second half of last year.  Although not easy to
install--it requires a huge amount of disk space and you should have sighted
assistance available for those times when the screen cannot be read--it does
handle DOS, Windows, and OS-2.  You get three in one as a package.  I will
talk more about it in a subsequent issue, but, for now, I should say that it is
impressive.

                    MESSENGERS WITH NOTEBOOKS

     No, we're not talking about Western Union here, we're talking about the
Messenger IICX from Aicom Corporation.  This neat little pocket sized
PCMCIA card fits into a PCMCIA II type slot on a note book computer and
gives you the best possible current portability.  Although not as loud or clear
as external synthesizers that plug into the parallel or serial ports of notebook
computers, there are less external wires and no need to worry about
recharging the synthesizer.  As far as quality of the speech is concerned,
Wallace at Aicom advises that there will be quarterly upgrades.  I have had
the opportunity to see the first release and the first upgrade and there is a
great improvement.  This is a good system.

     Configuring the Messenger is not as easy as plugging in an external
speech synthesizer and running a driver, and you will need more knowledge
of memory addresses than you may have ever wanted to possess.  However, the
Messenger manual has some model config.sys files which are very helpful.

     Now for a word on notebook computers.  This is an interesting and
changing area.  My experience with notebook computers to date is not as
broad as I wish it were, but, I do have some comments for persons considering
buying one.  The first is that you may very well need to make decisions and
trade offs on the keyboard.  One of the best key boards I have seen is on the
IBM Thinkpad.  It has the cursor keys arranged in an upside down print T
formation commonly seen on the 101 keyboards of desk top computers.  The
other six cursor movement keys, page up pagedown home end, insert and
delete, are in the order found on the 101 key board.  

     Because notebook computers do not have all of the keys that one finds
on a full keyboard one extra key, the FN key, is added to allow you to use the
calculator key pad.  On some notebooks you turn on the numlock key and the
J K L becomes 123, the U I O becomes 456,, etc.  Then, if you turn off the
numlock key and hold down the FN key you get the usual cursor movements
of the calculator keypad.  With this arrangement you can use the reading
cursor of most screen reader programs to read the screen without going into
review.  However, I have seen a later style IBM Thinkpad with a keyboard that
I really like that requires you to hit shift-numlock to turn on the calculator
keypad.  As the numlock key must remain on this prevents you from using the
reading cursor of most screen reading programs and requires that you use the
review mode which most of them have available.  In talking about this with
various people some say that they almost always use the review mode anyway,
but you should be aware of the need to check out the keyboard before you buy
a notebook in order to assure that it really meets your preferences and is
compatible with the screen reading program you are using.

     For those using an external synthesizer with a notebook computer, here
is a tip I picked up somewhere out there in Bulletin Board land.  Put Velcro
on the top of the notebook and on the synthesizer and the synthesizer will
hang there requiring less desk space and giving more portability.  I haven't
tried it myself but it sounds good.

                          THE INTERNET

     After years of using bulletin boards, even serving as a sysop for a while,
I Your writer is just now starting to explore the internet.  What a strange and
interesting world.  

     For those of you who have not ventured into this realm you should know
that there are many good reasons to do so.  Without charges above those of
the monthly fee you can:  send e-mail to people almost any place in the world
providing they have the ability to receive it; gain access to much free
government information including the database of the Library of Congress
braille and recorded materials; gain access to the database of Recording for
the Blind; communicate directly with companies that provide technical support
for equipment they produce; join many different discussion groups; etc. etc.
etc.

     Although the benefits may be many, one needs to learn a new series of
commands and should expect to encounter some frustration while dealing with
a unix shell that is not as friendly or responsive as DOS.  In subsequent
issues I will be attempting to provide more specific information on this
subject.

     I can be reached in e-mail through my internet address of
tyoung@omni.voicenet.com and will reply to inquiries I receive there.

     At the outset I said this would be a brief publication.  In closing let me
remind you that Young Opportunities carries a multitude of products for the
blind and visually impaired, other disabled persons, and, yes, a full range of
computers, printers, peripherals and software for the general public.  We
accept Visa orders and I believe that we have the lowest prices you will find
anywhere.  

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