]




              Computer Training & Sales/Disability Consulting

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

                               June 10, 1996



                            OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

     Once again it is time for that informal document I call a newsletter. 
Much has been happening in the world of technology since my last issue in
January, 1996.  In addition to bringing you up to date, I will try to pass
along interesting tips for your use.  

     CHANGES AND UPGRADES

     As you might suspect much of the news in this area has to do with
windows.  Companies are busily improving the screen readers for Windows 3.1
and Windows for Work Groups, and, some companies have already released screen
readers that can handle Windows 95.  Here is the scoop:

     Arkenstone has notified its dealers that Hewlett Packard has
discontinued the 3p scanners, the most popular scanner for the Openbook and
Openbook Unbound.  As of this writing there are still some reconditioned 3p
scanners available with a one year guarantee, but these are going fast.  The
recommended replacement is the HP 4p scanner, a bigger scanner with an 11 by
14 inch bed.  An upgrade to the Openbook Unbound software, Version 2.2,
includes drivers for many more scanners than had previously been supported.

     Atlas Speaks, a talking map program.  is shipping.  One can buy maps for
the entire United States, or, for any of the four regions of the country. 
The detail of these maps is fantastic.  

     The Arkenclone product line, a line of computers produced by Arkenstone,
has been increased.  One can now buy a 100MHZ pentium with bigger hard drive
options.  Prices on these computers have been reduced.

     Strider, a travel companion that will let you know your location with
remarkable accuracy is still not in Beta test.  It is hoped that this product
will be available by the end of the year.  

     Naturally, the company continues to work on upgrades to the Openbook
program and, given the history of past upgrades, one can expect to see
interesting and impressive features.


     Artic has released Solo, a windows reading program that does both
Windows 95 and Windows 3.1.  It does not require you to run Business Vision,
and supports the DECTalk internal and the accent external speech
synthesizers.  Yes, that's right, it runs independent of BusinessVision. 
Also, the Windows 95 version of Winvision is shipping.  

     Demonstration versions of these programs are available from the Artic
Bulletin Board at (810) 588-1424.
 
     Artic has put much work into hardware.  The mini transport is truly
mini.  I estimate it at about 4 inches square and less than an inch thick. 
It has a pop out battery pack which is easy to change, a serial port for
connecting to the computer and five keys along one edge.  There are two
models, the mini transport which is mainly a speech synthesizer, and the Mini
Transport Deluxe in which you can store and access to-do lists, phone books,
etc.  The keys help you navigate through the information.    

     Then there is the Sqwert a scaled down transtype, the size of a standard
transtype with a braille keyboard.  There are six function keys above the
Braille keyboard to access extra functions.  
     
     The Advest program discussed in our last issue is still not on the
market.  Predictions are that it will be with us soon.

     Artic has a new pcmcia card, the P27 with advest.  It is a type II
pcmcia card for notebook computers and is reported to have clear speech with
fast response.  The company reports the orders for this product have exceeded
expectations.

     ASAW is here.  In my last newsletter I told you that Larry of Microtalk
was aiming for a February release date for ASAW, the windows version of ASAP. 
It is here and, as promised, includes the ability to handle windows 95. 
Although your author has not had time to work much with it, reports from
those who have indicate that it functions well and moves seamlessly between
ASAW and ASAP.  In my next issue I will have much more to report from my own
experiences.

     Microtalk has established a listserve which you can join by sending e-
mail to:  maiser@scs.tamu.edu.  In the body of the message write "subscribe
Microtalk."

     GW Micro has just released version 1.04 of Window-Eyes.  Version 1.03 of
the product was released after our last issue and did much to improve
responsiveness and speed.  Version 1.04 promises even more speed although I
am quite pleased with the speed of 1.03 on this old P90 computer.  The
company states that most of the bugs in 1.03 are gone, there are improvements
in the dictionaries, mouse hot keys will now let you know if the button is
down or up, a summary hot key now reads the entire edit box, there is
improved recognition of more nonstandard buttons, improved set up and reading
of windows, and more.
.   
     Demo versions of the program are available from the GW Micro BBS at
(219) 489-5281.  
     To subscribe to the GW Micro listserve send e-mail to
listserv@gwmicro.com and in the body of the text write "subscribe gw-info."


     Henter-Joyce has continued to upgrade its product at a rapid rate with
many improvements.  The latest version as of this writing is 1.21 with 
improved icon recognition, improved compatibility with major programs and
netscape, the inclusion of the "say all" or read to end of file key stroke,
and more.  The company will be represented at both the NFB and ACB
conventions with break out training sessions.

     With the coming release of version 2.0 there will be a new upgrade
policy.  As you know, the company does not now charge for the many upgrades
it has done.  You can download them free from the internet and many bulletin
boards.  The company will charge a $10.00 shipping and handling fee if you
order the disk copy of the upgrade from them.  

     As of the release of version 2.0 which WILL INCLUDE THE ABILITY TO READ
WINDOWS 95, there will be a charge of $95.00 to current customers for the
upgrade.  A new software maintenance agreement will allow users to have free
upgrades for one year which will be mailed automatically to you.  If
purchased separately this service will cost $100.00 a year.  If you order the
maintenance agreement with your upgrade to version 2.0 the total cost is
$150.00 for a savings of $45.00.  

     Henter-Joyce has both a home page on the world wide web and an ftp site
from which one can obtain information.  the homepage is at: 
http://www.hj.com, and the ftp site is ftp://ftp.hj.com/pub/hj.

     Since my last newsletter Kansys Inc. has decided to release four of its
products as freeware.  They are: NAMES35.ZIP (the NAMES DataBase),
        ABRL15.ZIP (AutoBraille 1.5), PRVX60.ZIP (Provox 6.0), and
        BARB11.ZIP (Barb The Browser 1.1 and related utilities).
As chuck Hallenbeck says in his release about this move, "You may obtain a
diskette containing all four freeware
        packages and both demos by sending $5.00 for shipping and
        handling to KanSys, Inc., 4301 Wimbledon Terr. #2B, Lawrence, KS
        66047. If you have a Compuserve account you may request
        individual packages free of charge by sending your E-Mail request
        to 70431,3476. You may also reach us at our Internet address:
                                 chuckh@idir.net

     You can also get current demonstration versions of Turbo Braille and
LowRez from the internet through:  anonymous FTP over the Internet.
        Use FTP on your local system to connect to FTP.IDIR.NET. Log on
        as ANONYMOUS and give your return electronic mail address as the
        password. Change directories to KANSYS (cd kansys) and get the
        files TBRL###.ZIP and LOWREZ##.ZIP, where the ##s represent the
        current versions and may change as updates are completed.

     Phil Scovell continues to add more information to his monthly phone
book.  I mentioned what was included in my last newsletter.  Now Phil advises
that you will find two new files.  In Phil's words, "news.txt is a news
item file with things of interest to the blind.  The file is
purged every month and renewed at the first of each month.  That
is, I will delete the news.txt file after you have received this
notification and start a new one which will come out April 15 and
then again next month.  Don't send me old news to put in that file
because people won't read it.  forsale.txt is a buy, sell and
trade file for which I take absolutely no responsibility except I
serve as your humble editor.  If you'd like to include items in
either of these two new files, email me for details."

     New TUTORIALS AVAILABLE

     Phil has released two new tutorials on MCAFEE VIRUS PROTECTION and Q&A.

     The McAffee tutorial covers scan and clean and the use of the memory
resident shield program to protect against viruses on an ongoing basis.

     concerning Q&A let me quote Phil who says:  :The TMT tutorial on Q&A
walks the blind computer user through
the cd rom installation of the program step by step.  Fortunately,
the diskette installation is nearly the same as the cd rom.  The
advantage, however, of the cd rom version of q and a is it's cost. 
Many Q&A distributor sell the cd rom version for fifty dollars. 
The diskette version is five times that amount."

"Following installation, the TMT tutorial  begins by showing
the user how to access the built in online help system.  Cd rom
users also have the advantage of accessing the complete Q&A manual
available only on the cd rom.  An explanation of how to use and
access this manual is part of the TMT tutorial.  Other Q&A lessons
include program customization and configuration, menu structures,
database introduction, creating and designing a database, adding
information to the database, editing features, cursor movement and
key commands, retrieving information, alphabetizing data, how to
sort and retrieve on multiple sort levels, and how to remove
unwanted records in your database.  The two tape set tutorial
concludes by teaching how simple it is to back up data files and
how to recover a corrupted database if there is a power failure or
computer lockup."

"Additional Q&A tutorials soon to be released will take the
user into advanced Q&A applications.  Items such as redesigning a
current database, creating complex databases, designing multiple
databases, complex search and retrieve implementation, printer
installation, advanced function key commands, macro creation and
application, and external program installation and application
will be covered.  The additional tapes will also extensively cover
the Q and A built in word processor including using the spell
checker and thesaurus, writing and printing documents, editing
features, key commands, macros, function key application, file
merge, and printing labels.  The Q and A built in word processor
is comparable to Word Perfect and many blind users find the Q and
A word processor preferable since they are using it as a database
in the first place.  In short, Q&A offers everything in a single
package and TMT makes Q&A database application user friendly for
the blind computer user."

     DON'T FORGET! Young Opportunities carries all of the above products at
below market prices and provides excellent technical support.  Visa, Master
Card and American Express orders are accepted.

                              PROGRAM REVIEW

     Okay, I confess, I like to collect recipes and, when I can convince the
family to break the monotony of their every day meals, I like to cook on
Sundays.  For years I collected my recipes in Braille, a large collection I
still have.  However, more recently I have discovered MealMaster, a recipe
program, and some neat listserves and WWW sites for getting tons of recipes.

     This month, I want to tell you about Mealmaster, a dos based recipe
program that enables you to collect and maintain thousands of recipes,
categorize recipes, look for recipes containing specific ingredients or words
in the title, easily print out one or more recipes of your choice, draw a
shopping list of ingredients,  and adjust the recipes to serve larger or
smaller groups of people.

     How it works.  When you enter the program you are in a main menu that
allows you to choose between: adding recipes by typing them in, search for a
recipe, do certain maintenance tasks on your recipes, or run certain
utilities.

     Adding a recipe by hand is easy.  You simply choose add, and follow the
prompts.  You are asked for the title, the categories and the number of
servings.  You are then put in the ingredients area where you add the
quantity, the measure, and the ingredient.  You move from field to field with
the enter or the tab keys, and if you are in doubt about how to abbreviate
the measure, i.e., "c" for cup, you hit the F1 key for a list.  When you
finish the ingredients you hit escape and type in the instructions.

     Among other things the utilities area allows you to select another
database, modify the title or category indexes, draw a shopping list, import
or export recipes.  Importing or exporting recipes is quick and easy.  If you
have a recipe in mealmaster or qbooks format--there are thousands of them
available--you can easily import it into your recipe collection.  If you want
to share a recipe with someone else you can export it as a disk file or print
it out.  You can even mark a number of files and export them so that you
could give someone a number of different recipes for any dish.  The program
will even look for duplicate titles when it is importing a new recipe.

In the maintenance area you can change recipe files, control the format of
files you print out, control the way quantities are displayed, and re-index
your file if you delete some recipes.

     Although the program allows you to keep thousands of recipes in one
database, I have decided to divide mine into; breakfast, main dish, desserts,
cakes, cookies, and beverage.  This is not necessary as you can use the
categories of each recipe to specify these areas, but it appeals to my sense
of organization.  The only drawback of MealMaster is that in order to do this
you need to set up different databases and establish a subdirectory for each
one.  This makes very little difference once you know that it is required,
however, the documentation is weak and it took me quite a while to figure it
out.

     There is a listServe for sharing recipes, a ListServe for asking
questions about the program, and a number of sites for getting recipes.  

     To subscribe to the listserve for asking questions about mealmaster send
e-mail to listserv@salata.com, and in the body of the message write
"subscribe "mm-d."  To get on the mealmaster recipes listserve send e-mail
to:  majordomo@idiscover.net, and in the body of the message write "subscribe
mm-recipes."  I believe that the largest site is
http://www.synapse.com/@gemini/food/mealmaster.  There are literally
thousands of recipes at that site and, together with those that you get from
the listserves it is almost impossible to keep up with importing them into
the program.

     What is PwWebspeak

     As Mark Senior Vice President of The Productivity Works Inc. stated in
a newsgroup message; webspeak  (real name pwWebSpeak) works with PPP and SLIP
accounts, and works fine with Compuserve's internet dialer.

pwWebSpeak is being designed and developed by The Productivity Works, in
conjunction with John De Witt & Associates and Thomas Edison State College
(Trenton, NJ).  We are currently in controlled beta testing and are planning
for a production release at the end of April."

Although this projected deadline was not met, the program is now available. 
PwWebspeak is an interesting concept.  It is a specialized program to allow
one to browse the World Wide Web.  It does not require a speech synthesizer
using a generic sound card such as the sound blaster.  As it is designed with
ease of Web navigation in mind it is far less complicated than generic web
browsers on the market.  I was impressed with the demo I saw.

     More information and the program are available at
http://www.prodworks.com.

 COMING SOON

     Young Opportunities will soon have a home page on the internet.  It is
being designed as I write this newsletter.  Through my home  page you will be
able to download my catalog and issues of this newsletter, and link to other
interesting sites.  By the time you get this newsletter you should be able to
visit our home page at 
http://www.voicenet.com/~youngopp.

     Finally, you should note the change in my e-mail address which has
changed to:
youngopp@voicenet.com.  Feel free to contact me through my home page or e-
mail.



          


Theodore (Ted) Young