Category: Safe Haven
Hi all, How did you get started in the computer? or computers? It started 7 years ago for me when mom was watching the qvc cable shopping channel. They were selling a packard bell computer, and according to them, anyone could use it. Well I told my mom I'm not sure we should go that way, because we really didn't know what using a computer involved. I ordered 2 books from thelibrary, one was adaptive technology for learning and workenvironment. I think the other one was called computers for people with disabilities. One of the books even had a list of technology vendors and software vendors. It took a bit of calling, but I found this man who gets them and sets them up. He was just on the north carolina tennessee border. He came down with it about ten days before christmas. He gave me a quick 45 minute lesson and that was it. When I had been making phone calls, I was asked if I ever used a computer before, and I said no, and the person said, well you will need someone to tutor you. Well, it was a scarey ride, but all I had were the training tapes that came with jaws.
to be continued.
wonderwoman
yeah, well.....I'm really not sure wonderwoman, he all I remember is i got started and loved it!
Before we even considered a computer, I went to see a friends computer, and I just listened as she worked it. I didn't touch it, I was scared to. I was afraid I'd break something. Well on christmas morning, I was trying to figure out how to get around, and I kept accidently shutting jaws down. Once, I think it was the first time, I called my friend, and I said, I have just one thing to say. she said, what's that? and I almost screamed, help! I told her I did something to make jaws stop talking, and she said verycalmly, you can get him back. I did of course, but the next few weeks of computer life were very scarey for me. Anyday, I expected to do something horrible that would crash the computer. I was so relieved when I took to it and in 3 months, I could do most things without referring to the jaws tapes for everything. The biggest achievement computerwise for me, with moms help, was installing windows 98. A cousin of mine was suppose to do it, but he kept backing out, so with trembling hands and racing heart, I put the windows 98 cd in, and mom and I went for it.
wonderwoman
Well Alison, you're lucky, because you're as young as you are, and probably more adventurous than I am. That tip you gave me with highlighting large amounts of text really does work. I don't jaws won't read all the text. How old were you when you got started?
wonderwoman
When I was in kindergarten, my vission teacher started teaching me how to type, and I did homework on this ancient computer in elementary school. Hey, anyone remember the Bex program? But I really got started a few years ago. I had no interest in computers but my dad kept bugging me to learn how to use them since they would be really usefull later in life, so I took a course in Microsoft Word at the Computer Center for the Visually Impaired at Baruch College in New York City. They have amazing courses over there. I highly reccomend them. Anyway, I learned Word and Internet over there and now I'm on my comp all the time.
Hi Krissme,
Well when computers first came out in the dos days, I wasn't really interested in them either, since I couldn't think of anything I'd use one for or need one for. I did read a book, the abc's of computers, by Michael Crichton He explained them and how they worked, but it sounded difficult, but he had this program that he would have conversations with like, I don't think you really care about my problems. and the program would say something like, what makes you think that? and he'd say, after all, you're just a machine, and it said, I think you know better than that kiddo. He said all it was doing was choosing words at random from it's memory bank. When someone spoke to it, the program scanned its word list for the appropriate response. If it weren't for the net, I wouldn't really have anything to do on one.
wonderwoman
For me, my first exposure to the PC was in 1985 on the Apple 2 E, with the echo speech. I started slow and worked my way up and then took a dab at basic programming like
10 print "Hello"
20 goto 10
and so on. I was exposed to BEX. All this was in grade 10.
I remember how exciting it was. I also used the DP-10 large screen with the joice stick to navigate the screen moving around. From there it was my own playing until 1993 when I got a 386 computer with DOS and the Artick Transport speech synthesizer, and Open Book Unbound, version 1.0, I think. IT had Windows 3.1 which I didn't actually learn, but was there for the Open Book software. That is also where I got my first taste of ZoomText. For the Open Book software, thee was the DeckTalk PC version 4.1 speech. I had just gotten training in Word Perfect 5.1 and a little bit of Dbase 4. In 1994, I got my first modem, 1 2400 baud modem, and by the middle of that year, I started getting into the bulletin boards.
In the mean time, I started on my own, exploring Windows, without a mouse, just looking at the screen. I have partial sight so this was possible. Anyway, I got a mouse for Christmas in 1995 and then it was up hill from there in Windows. By the end of 1996 I was on the internet after reading books from the local library via Open book about the internet. IN 1997 I got a computer with Windows 95 on it which meant a new environment. Then in the first half of 1998 I took a course in Windows software for Business learning MS Word, Excel and Dbase and Simply Accounting. My next computer in 2000 had Windows 98 which was like Windows 95 so there wasn't any new learning as far as that goes, and finally in 2002, Windows XP came out and I got that and without much trouble, figured that out. Basically my computer abilities are all self-taught.
Well, when I was in first grade I learned how to type and use Word Perfect, MegaDots, etc., with DOS. I really liked it because I could emboss, save, transfer work easily from home to school via disks, play around with speech, write stories, do my classwork more easily, etc. Then, the whole "DOS is so over" thing came along, and I was forced to use Windows, which i didn't like. Back then I was using Window-Eyes 2.0 lol!!! But eventually I got to learn Windows. It wasn't until SIXTH grade that I got the Internet! We were having a ton of issues hooking me up. Then it took me awhile to get on Instant Messenger, and slightly longer to find the blind communities online. I'm sooo happy I have. All those years i was kept away are now paid off, as I spend almsot all my free time on the net. Surfing, E-Mailing, IMing, researching, experimenting, playing, wasting time, etc etc! So that's my story!
Caitlin
Just a couple more points that I meant to put in my last post. In the BBS hay day, I ran my own BBS called The Last Stop from January through October of 1996. By then the net was starting to take off and the BBS scene was starting to slow down. Boards went down gradually.
IN the last few years, I started scanning pictures into my computer, as well as acquire my own digital camera to take pictures. Now, I'm even taking the plunge into video editing on the computer as I just got a capture card last week.
I've got my own web site and have had pretty since my first days on the web, and added things to it over the years. The URL can be found in my profile. My HTML knowledge was all self-taught as well, just by looking at different code for the elements of web pages.
I don't know how I ever survived without a computer and wouldn't know what I'd do without it.
i'm like all of you, self taught everything. I started out in kindergarden on an old computer, dunno what kind of computer, but then i moved up from that one to a computer that had a few little things on it, and then to windows 95, and a demo of jfw version 3.2, because it took us a long time to get it authorized, and from there on, I tot myself everything, no training tapes, no books, nothing like that. Then, in 2000 after the computer with win 95 had crashed and had been thrown away, we got a computer with windows me on it. let's just say that we had quite a hard time with jfw version 3.2 on that one, and I called freedom scientific and asked why it wouldn't work, and they said that you needed jfw 3.7 or later, so we upgraded to jfw version 5.1, and then, in 2003, or 2004 I got my very own computer with windows xp on it, and jaws 5.0! Again, I tot myself everything about it. Oh yeah, one more thing, I also have been using the kurzweil 1000 since about 1998, and have grown to love it! I self tot myself a little to use it, but mostly, I reffered to the manual. Finall, I got into surfing the web, p2p file sharing programs, and lots of other things including msn messanger and aim. so, that's pretty much all of my computer stories since 1994-1995 to 2004-2005. I also got aquainted with a lot of other assistive technology at this time as well, but that's for another post where such things fit in.
Forgot to mention that teachers taught me to type and do basic stuff. Then basically, Derek taught me everything. For those of you who dont' know, he's Doodgeman on here. Lol. Caitlin
wow, sounds like some of you had a difficulttime, especially adjusting to windows after dos went dead. I'm glad I got started off in windows, so there was no adjusting, or I should say readjusting, justing to the computer environment. It was always exciting to get something to work. My first download was real player g2, and I was so happy the download went off without a hitch.
wonderwoman
Hi,
Back before DOS was born, I used to play with the braille mainframe terminals Perkins School had. We'd dial into a machine on a university campus. The keyboards were regular, electro-mechanical teletypes; the braille came out of this huge, noisy embosser, onto tracter-feed paper. I think the high school kids of that era learned to program some BASIC and/or ForTran on that thing. A friend and I used to login as another friend and play card games on the machine.
In HS, I took a ForTran programming class, which began on an old IBM Mini, then moved to a DEC PDP-10, I think. I went on to university and majored in CS, using TOPS-10, VMS, and BSD UNIX. My first micro was an Amiga 1000, with which I programmed, called BBS's, chatted, gamed, etc...
So, now y'all know:).
Regards,
-Dave Hunt
wow, that sounds like quite a computing experience. I think before the first dos machines came out, computers use to be very huge, big enough to fill a room, and had to be in a temperature controlled room. I'm sure glad I didn't try learning in the bad old days in computing.
wonderwoman
Did computers really sued to be huge? What a concept, as now there's sleek laptops and BrailleNote pocket sized doohickeys. Wowzer.
Yes I think they were, at least that's what I heard. someday I hope there will be real small handheld computers that will be able to do everything my desktop does. But they may be as small as they can be.
wonderwoman
Omgosh that woudl be awesome, to have a little tiny pC that did everything a big one did! like IMing! i'd love to walk aroudn while on the zone or talking to my friends! That would so totally rock my socks! AHahaha!!! But we're spoiled enough what with the amazing technology we have. Maybe this is too good to be true! Ha ha...
Caitlin
Yes I'm sure technology has it's limits. A friend of mine once said she read whereyou'd be able to communicate with computers, and they'd be able to communicate with you like a person, oh no, there are enough grouchy people in the world, we don't need our pc's yelling and snapping at us. If my pc ever got mean with me, I'd sling it out the door as fast as I could. Eudora is already sort of mean as it is. When it can't connect to the mail server, it says, Eudora is tired of waiting for the server to respond. Then you have the choice to wait or cancel. The first 2 times, I was a little put off, so I chose cancel, then I thought, heck no, I'm not letting any computer program push me and boss me around! so I chose wait, then tried again.
wonderwoman
Lol that's so funny! I've heard of programs having random error messages. That's quite hilarious! It'd be so weird if your comptuer could communicate with you!
I don't think I'd want my computer talking to me like a person. it would be telling me, no, not that keystroke stupid. and it would probably be asking, why did you have to turn me on now. I want a break. I hope they don't get that advanced.
wonderwoman
I dont' see how they could. The technology would have to be like super deeeee duper for that to work. And i do agree. Mine would be saying the same things to me. But maybe they'd have nice ones that gave you tips on how to work with your ocmputer. That would rock! I often wish my computer could help me work with itself ahhaha.
the computers back then didn't have as much memory as the ones today. And I use to know someone that made an anoying program that basically took over and the only way to shut it down was by typing I love you, then it would say, I love you to and shut down
Ahahahah no way KT? That's qutie funny that one.
Yes it was quite amusing. and I can't tell you what it said cause this is in safe haven so just use your imagination.
Lol! And may I asked who created this? A zoner pehaps?
No, not a zoner, but I wish I could do that! I think it'll be so cool to anoy people like that!
Getting back to the topic, I started computers by using word perfect 5.1 back in the early 90's. Before that they taught me touch typing using a regular typewriter, so that when my school finally purchassed the computers I'd know how to use a qwerty.
I, too, had old-fassioned typing classes. Here's what I remember most:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
-Dave
I think the computer would be a good way to learn how to type, if you couldn't type, especially since we have keyboard help and jaws reading every keystroke. I think most people could teach themselves to type that way.
wonderwoman
Yes that's right, but back then we didn't have that kind of technology. I use to use ASAP if anyone still remembers that screen reader?
I never had the pleasure of using ASAP, but remember DOS screenreaders. My favorite was Tinytalk. I still have it. I used ASAW for a bit; boy, was it chatty. Is it true that Speakup's review mode keymap is modeled on ASAP?
-Dave
Not really sure about that one. I think it might be.I've never used speakup, let alone linux so I wouldn't know.
Kool_turk, I'm curious, why would you want to annoy people?
wonderwoman
I learned how to type when i was in elementary school, and then, like Krisme, i took classes at C CCVIP.Really excelent over there. I give them credit for my interest in computers. Yes, good old dos!! I used until i was in fourth grade or something... still remember all the commands, too. lol
wow, that's incredible, Megan. Even if I had used dos, I don't think I would remember any of the commands after a few years. I could type long before I started using the computer, else the learning curve would've been much more steep than it already was. It took me 4 months before I could do anything on my own without the training tapes.
wonderwoman
One can derive a bit of fun annoying people with the computer. Putting "logout" in the ".profile" script for the shell account of a targetted user, for instance, is a harmless (yet annoying) prank.
BWAHAHAHA:),
-Dave
I loooved Word Perfect! I still remember half the commands though for some reason I can't remember Mega Dots at all, though I sued it just as much as word perfect. Actually I think I remember all the Word Perfect commands. I was tryign to remember them all the other day ... twas fun! I started typing in first frade as well ... I remember ... asdf asdf asdf fad dad sad sas asdf asdf asdf fdsa fdsa hahahaha.
I was really bord one day, so I was exploring the menus in microsoft word. Apparently you can still use the old word perfect commands in word!
Can you? I'd looove to do that!!!! that's so funny!
Nothing wrong with anoying someone, as long as you don't go too far.
RIght then, my story is a bit long. Ever since I was a wee lad I enjoyed things with motors... electronics, air conditioners, pencil sharpeners... you name it. SO when I went to Kindergarten I had a class called Math Lab where they had computers and all the kids played a cookie counting game or something I wanted to play too. Unfortunately a) the teachers were afraid of the things themselves and b) I couldn't see the screen. They let me click the mouse a few times and then shoved me off. Even the ones in the computer room that had outspoken (all they had were macs) were forbidden to be used because "it's broken." It wsn't until first or second grade when I got to play with a computer really... my braille teacher had a laptop (power book or something) and let me move the mouse with her to play Snoopy and Peanuts games. Eventually she found out how to get outspoken working, but it didn't do much since all it seemed to do was say "window, window, window" every half a second. In second grade Mom got a computer from some charity thing and even though I couldn't do anything on it since it didn't talk I was very happy. (Mom was afraid of it too) Well later I got some games from pcs games (pcsgames.net these days) from Grandpa and played them on it, it was so much fun. IN third grade some guy from telesencory or whatever they are called installed jaws for dos and windows and gave me a smartalk (a small synth based on the accent chipset). I was so happy I could use the computer indipendently now. I learned to move around the windoes in program manger and open up apps, and I could finally play the games in dos without sighted assistance (I could read the stuff on my own). In fifth grade we got a more modern computer with Win95 and Jaws 3.2 (I thought the smartalk was speaking better since I had win95 but it was really eloquence) anyway, I quickly learned about the basic windows things like the start menu/control panel and was confused because there was no program manager. So I kept learning and learnrning and well, here I am.
James
Yep a good prank is fun and refreshing every once and awhile!
Wow, sounds like all of you have had different experiences with different computers, all I know is this trusty desktop here, but when I first started using it christmas morning, I was terrified of it. I told my mom I would need the tape recorder right by the computer, and she said, why? and I said, well I have to work with the training tapes a while before I can do anything. She thought I'd just be able to do anything I wanted on it right away. I was looking forward to getting on the internet right away, but my dealer said, it will take about 4 months of training yourself with the tapes to learn jaws, so I suggest you learn how to use jaws before you even think about getting on the internet. It took me 2 days to figure out how to get in a program. I didn't get on the internet for 6 months after I got the computer. There was no way I could've navigated around the web the minute I got started in computer.
wonderwoman
Well when I was younger I got to play on computers off and on for tiny amounts of time, my third grade O&M person even was teaching me how to program back in Dos!! That was cool. But we got our first computer in ninth grade. We got it right before Xmas and I was like wow early present!! It was so torturous at first because we were on dialup and using a very inaccessible ISP but once I got it working I knew this was where I needed to be.
Yeah! Once I got my computer I ws scared of it too and didn't want to try things. I used to ask Derek "is it okay to go to this site?" and "Is it okay to download this program? What if it's a virus?". Lol! Now I'm like totally the opposite. I dont' ask anyone anything and I like just download random things. Except I'm careful lol. And I still ask Derek random things sometimes, like if my computer is being freakish. Lol! As for the Net, I was on dialup for awhile but never really had problems with it, I could even voice chat with Ivocalize on Our Place. And stuff. Lol. But I couldn't havigate really well at first. I remember the day I really figured out how to navigate. i realized that, when you click a link, the page isn't going to just right away have the stuff you clicked on at the top. you have to scroll past the hoem stuff and things. Once I figured that out, i was all over the place, and it was the best. Now I'm adicted to the Net.
Well, dial up isn't really bad for me, I just get disconnected from my isp at least once a night now, and sometimes with ivocalize, I'll be talking, or waiting for a response, and I'll all of a sudden not hear any audio, no one can hear me, and it's irritating, but I just goout of the roomI'm in, reenter, and things are normal, but that usually happens at least once with ivocalize, and someone said it's because I'm on dial up.
I don't download at random, I mostly don't find anything of interest, except a new chat program once in a while, and if I've never heard of a program before, I won't download it. Before my first download, I was afraid something terrible would happen if things went wrong. Real player was the first player I downloaded. I download more on the basis, if I want to do it, I have to download the software to do it, but I've never been one to just go looking for something to download. If it weren't for the fact that I have 3 versions of jaws on my computer, 3 versions of internet explorer, my free disc space would probably still be fairly high.
wonderwoman
Hi WW. Yeah I'm knid of the same as far as downloading goes. I used to go on these huge binges and download a load of audio games, but I'm kind of out of that phase now and I only ahve like three games now, and they're my favorites. Well one of htem is my favorite game anyway. But I don't play games much anymroe except for the ones on The Zone because theyr'e word games and I liek those. But I don't go downloading things at random either. Only if I need or want them. And, like you, I had no real extreme problems with dial up. just took me awhiel to get on sometimes ... and then sometimes thigns wouldnt' start up, like Messenger and stuff, when I did get on, and i had to do it manually. But that's it. I remember sitting in my room in Speak Easy on Dial-Up for hours on end when it was popular. It was awesome. That was one of hte first thigns i did on the Net, apart from IMing and E-Mailing.
Caitlin
well, When I first got on, there wasn't a whole lot to do. I started out with jaws 3.0, and web pages were all in multiple columns then, and were very hard to read. I managed to uninstall jaws3.31,after calling freedom scientific, and asking which was the best way to go about it, but 3.0 isn't listed in control pannel, and since it's an olderversion, there's no uninstall option from the main jaws 3.0 submenu, so I can't uninstall it, so I still have 3 versions of jaws on my computer. I had a very bad time getting it authorized, 6.0 I mean, because it didn't find my authorization cd, or the number one, but it finally came up with 4 options to try and find the authorization key, and one was use the internet, and that was the one it recommended. It said if I had the full version cd, the 20 digit number should be in the edit field below, and if it wasn't listed, to type it in, so I found out what all those letters and numbers were. It took several tries, but when I finally got it, it said to stand by while it authorized my license, or something like that, then it said finished, so I hit the spacebar, and here I am with jaws 6.0, but I can't get that fs reader to work, so so far, I don't see anything different, except when a web page is loading, it says 1 percent, then when the page comes up, it says 100 percent. The fs reader is the only way I can read the new features, and I haven't the faintest idea how to use it.
wonderwoman
Wow how confusing about all that authoriation ,what a pain hehehe! I've never had trouble with that. But then there's no authorization stuff like that for Window-Eyes which is what I do. I think you just enter a serial number or something if your'e donwloading form the Internet, and with the CD it like alerady knows? Dunno. It's been ages since I've installed Window-Eyes ... well ... a yearo r so anyway. Caitlin
well I thought everything was ok, but when I turned on the computer, it said there was an error with the authorization code, and the license had expired. I was really upset, still am, but when it wouldn't detect my authorization cd again, I kept trying several times, and it still didn't detect it, so it finally came up with those options, so I connected to the net, and had to put in my authorization code again, and when i pressed the finished button, it said it hadbeen successfully completed, and thanked me. Well, guess I'll know if it comes up with the same thing when I restart tomorrow, or it threatens to stop after 40 minutes. I never had this problem with the old authorization floppies.
wonderwoman
Heheheh well glad it worked! Sounds very pesky ot me!
well I only know it works for tonight. If the same dialogue pops up tomorrow, I will know it only worked temporarily, and it wasn't a permanent solution.
wonderwoman
Sounds like this new authorisation is a pain. They should of stuck with the old one.
Hi Kool_turk,
well sure enough, I had the same problem, and I called fs, and when he asked me to go into control panel to see if the date or something was messed up, I told him when I turn my computer on, it's always off date, because when my clocks battery died, mom put a new one in it, but no one has been able to go in and set the bios right, so I have to manually go in control pannel and set the date. it's been that way almost 2 years, and I sort of got use to it, but the ilm authorization is date sensitive, thats what the tech told me anyway. He says it records when you activate jaws, and remembers the date, but since it rolls back to january 1, 1997 when I shut down and start later, it's a date 7 years before jaws 6 was even invented, and if he knows what he's talking about, jaws 6 won't be usable for me unless we can get someone who knows what they're doing, and won't charge an arm and a leg, to come out and set the bios for the right date, so the computerwill remember the date. So, here I am again with jaws 5, which apparently still works. I hate this new authorization scheme, and it wouldn't even detect my authorization cd. So I can't use jaws 6 right now, I have 2 activations left, and when they're gone, thats it, unless they reset it. I wish I had known this before I got version 6, but I already had the sma anyway.
wonderwoman
Hi WW, Well they shgould renew your SMA, it wasn't your fault, and I'm sure they will when you explain. How not fun for you, I'm sorry this had to happen. All the best! Caitlin
Hi Caitlin,
well, I do still have one upgrade remaining, and right now, I wish I hadn't purchased the sma. I don't think they will do that, I think they should give me one or 2 more activations, but they won't do that. They'd just say it's not their fault that my computers' date is all out of whack, and there's not really anything I can do about it. He told me all that cd really did was put a key in the registry, so I'm not sure whether or not I would've had to connect to the internet and use the ilm if it had accepted the cd. I've had nicer techs, I wish I could've gotten Dennis, he's a real sweet heart, but unfortunately, we don't get to choose who we get. it was hard to get a word in. Some just barely let you tell them anything. Well I'm sure glad I kept 5.0, but even though I uninstalled 33.1, I'm down to 416 mb of free disc space. oops!
wonderwoman
I'm still using 5.0, they haven't sent me my upgrade CD yet. But when my SMA runs out, I'm seriously considering switching to linux. Only problem whith that is you don't get tech support and it's harder to get things working, still not sure if I'll go ahead with it. Might have to do a bit of research first.
well, I wish you luck with linux, but if you get jaws 6, I seriously suggest you hang on to 5.0, because if you only have jaws 6, and your clocks battery dies, as far as jaws 6 goes, if your computer rolls back to a date far in the past, you're dead as far as jaws 6 is concerned, especially if you run out of activations, that is, if the computers date is what's causing it. I will always have to hang on to version 5, so that even if we can get someone to reset the bios, the battery will go dead again in a few years, and I'll have this activation problem all over again.
wonderwoman
That's really dumb! just cuz your date gets messed up, you have to deal with Jaws like dying on you? that's horrible! And they should definitely givey ou those SMA's back. Argue the case WW heh!
I't's the same with all aplications, not just jaws. why does your battery keep dying? it sounds like you need to upgrade.
My birthmom's friend had a computer with one of those DOS word processors... you know, the blue screen and white letters... and I'd write letters to people... I don't remember who. My dad also had a computer, it was an old Tandy that you could hook up a joystick to and I played Winnie the Pooh and Donald Duck games on it. When i was eight, Dad got a computer with Windows on it and that was before the taskbar or start menu or anything helpful! That's when I discovered about the ability to change fonts and sizes and revelled in the 32 point font goodness! We had moved and didn't unpack the computer for some years and when we did, it was fun to look back at my old stories and school papers and things, but I was surprised because my focus had gotten better then and I could manage 12 pt. font. I was so relieved when we moved again and I got a computer with Windows XP for a graduation gift, finally I wasn't mooching off better school computers!
So a clock in the computer has a battery? Why? Lol...why doesn't it go elecrically?
Hi Caitlin,
Yes, the clock does have a battery, I don't know why it isn't electric, you'd think it would run off the computers' electricity. Kool_ turk, as far as I know, this battery hasn't gone dead yet, I had another battery in the computer before I had this one, and it lasted 4 years and 9 months, just 3 months from 5 years, which according to what people have told me, is the average life span of a battery. Sounds like you had a lot of fun your first couple of years on the computer Melodica. I think one of the first things I did when I started feeling my way around was put my time poem on here. I was doing that a week after I had it. Well, Caitlin, I think at the very least freedom scientific owes me another authorization disk, since I'm fairly sure the one i got with the program cd is a bad one. As for arguing the case, I don't know who I'd argue with, fs would still say they aren't responsible for computer clocks dying, they'd just say that's life, that's batteries, nothing to do with them. I don't have anyone to argue the case with, lol.
wonderwoman
I've been using the computer scince i was 6. I had vision out of both eyes when I was little and in 8th grade my retina in my left eye detached. This happened three times and I had three attempts to fix it, but not a success. I used to be a large print reader, small print reader with reading glasses. Now I'm a braille user, cane user, and a JAWS user. I have vision out of my right eye and none out of my left. I also use a cctv to read small print if I have to
Hi heavy metal-girl, Sounds like you're on your way to being a computer genius. I was 2 months from my 38th birthday when my mom got this computer for me as a christmas present. I have been blind all my life. When the jaws dealer we boutht it from came and set the computer up, he gave me a rush 45 minute lesson, after that, I was on my own.
wonderwoman
Hi.
First, sorry for bumping this back to the top.
I first used computers at school well, i was in a v-i school,, and they wouldn't let me use them in year 1/2 but i always wanted to.
I can remember asking "can i go on the program that makes sounds when you moov the mouse) (doodle).
Then in year 3/4, i learn't how to type (diffrent teachers now, so they let on one) and always wanted to go on the "voice computer" the one out of 3 computers in are class that had supernova on it.
That had 95 on it, so mooving from 95 at school to 98 (in 1998) at home was fine, but i didn't have any speach on it, so i just used the keyboard and asked someone to read me the screen.
Nothing much happened at school from then on, but we got are first computer in 1998, p2 366, 128 mb ram, and a 10 gb harddrive for £1000!!
Then, my uncle gave me a 486 which was mine, so i could brake it as much as i wanted to, which had 95 on it, so i found dos! I love dos, and still use it at least once or twice every month.
You might laugh, but i still make batch files today, and i am in the middle of making a sorta email program, more like department to department messaging program, which works fine in xp, even though its in dos.
About small computers, you can get a thoiba libretto (ebay) which is like 6 inches so its tiny!
I've got 2 zx spectrums, when i got them of ebay, i expected to find these big things that took up the room, but there smaller than the keyboard that i'm using now, this is because you used your tv as a screen.
On the subject of annoying people and batch files, if you are on a network, give this program a try:
@echo off
cls
if "%1"==" goto help
:ok
cls
:1
:2
net send %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
goto 1
:help
cls
@echo type: prog_name username text
@echo ware: prog_name is the name of the program and its @echo path
@echo ware: username is the name of the person you want to
@echo annoy
@echo ware: text is a message
pause
goto end
:end
Copy all that into notepad, and save it as whateveryouwant.bat, make sure that you save it as "all files" the user must be logged on, and it sends them pritty fast.
Anyway, i'm going to say
@echo good by
pause
cls
:end
Ben
Thanks n3bn, Wow, you'v had a lot of computer experience. I got my start in 1997 when my mombought me this computr for a christmas present. There were times I didn't think I'd ever learn how to navigate, and I was just about sure I had bitten off more than I could chew. I kept accidently unloading jaws from memory and panicking every time. I've read a little bit about batch files in smart computing and pc world, but don't understand any of it. I can navigate around sites that are accessible, and I still get excited when I download a chat client and it works, get upset and frustrated when it doesn't. Having a computer with no speech in my view would be a nightmare.
wonderwoman
Well, I sort of started to learn how to use the computer through my gran's typewriter. That had a qwerty keyboard, but it's now up in my grandparents, loft with a broken carriage lol. We had this lady in the reception classes at Dorton House, who'd take us individually in to the computer room we shared with another class and we'd play games using the PC keyboard and sometimes, one of those perkins, Braillers you could connect to a computer via a serial port, like the one that connects a disk drive to something. When I moved to New College Worcester, my secondary school, I didn't even know you had to log in to a computer because at Dorton, they used to set it all up for you and everything, so this was the biggy, and I couldn't get to grips with the Qwerty keyboard and I'd press one key every ten seconds as I was just scrabbling around the bloody thing trying to work out which was which. It used to take me around 15 minutes or even half an hour to write a very short bit of text as I'd hardly had any lessons on where the home keys were, what was under which letters and what was above them, but it didn't take me long to get faster and faster. I mean, look at me today. It's taken me about five minutes to write this message. lol.
I got started back in grade school when we had one of those old apple computers where the monitor and the keybord were all in one, remember those? I needed something to do my assignments on and hand them into the teacher so that was the only way.
Troy
We'll have to go all the way back to 1983 for when I started in computers. I got my start on the old apple2e with the echo plus speach synthesizer running the text talker program. Those were the days before the harddrive even existed. You would boot with these five and a quarter inch jobbies, and there were two versions of dos back then, dos3.3, and prodos. Dos3.3 was more for the gamers, but it did have a few word processing programs, remember bex? You were only able to copy the program three times, and that was it. When you wanted to get a list of files on a disk, you wouldn't do a dir command like on a pc, you would catalog a disk. You also needed two speach files to drive the echo, they were textalker.ram, and textalker.ram.obj. Also you had no autoexec.bat back then, you had the hello program for the old apple, and that was needed to even boot up.
Sorry Renegade_rocker, I think I can beat you for the longest love affair with a computer. Wait and see.
Okay, let me see how to start. This is going to be rather lengthy as my
relationship with computers goes way back. So, either grab your favorite drink
and relax, or, just skip this message.
When I entered college in the mid sixties, computers were still somewhere on the horizon. Nobody knew what they were, and nobody cared. so I
studied psychology, and took a lot of courses that had nothing to do with
psychology. One of the courses I took was symbolic logic. I wanted to see if I
could find a proof for the existence of God. I never found that proof, but I
found symbolic logic and mathematics, instead.
When I finally graduated from college, I worked in psychology as a counselor for
a while, but I wasn't very good at it (oh, I knew the theory), but I didn't know
people. But companies were starting to hire people in a brand new profession
called computer programming, and programs ran on bits of information just like
the truth tables I worked with in logic. At that time companies were begging
for programmers, and, if a person thought they could do it, then the companies
would train them. So I landed a job with a local insurance company as a
programmer. The programmers would code their programs on coding pads, and have
them keypunched into punch cards. Our reports came out either on a tape or on a
printer. Well, I could punch my own cards (the keyboard was similar to a typewriters), and I could feel the punches on the cards, and I could program the
computer to print the material in computerized braille; so it seemed like a
perfect fit.
I tooled along for a while thinking I was living in a perfect world. However,
there were omonous tidings on the horizon. There was something called a CRT
(cathode ray tube) that was a screen keyboard combination. It was said that
programmers would communicate by way of this CRT directly with the computer.
But, I didn't believe it--I thought we would always need punch cards.
About the same time that our company put screens on everyone's desk, a company
in Palo Alto California put out a device called an optacon. It was used for
reading; you would run a small hand held camera across a printed page, and the
image that the camera picked up was transfered to a set of vibrating reeds
beneath your index finger. It just so happened that the camera could just as
easily be drawn across a computer screen, and communicate what was on the screen
to my index finger. It was an excellent idea, but it sure was slow. Besides, I
didn't even know the print letters. However, I learned them pretty quick, and
became a pretty good optacon user.
Things moved along pretty well for a while: I changed jobs several times to make
a little more money, and companies were still desperate for programmers. But, I
was struggling. As good as the optacon was, it was still way too slow.
However, I had heard about a "personal computer" that a few companies were
making. I also heard that some people were making these computers "talk". The
first talking computer I ever saw was called an ITS for "information through
speech". When the state bought me one, the person who came down to install it
and train me, was Dean Blazie, and the programmer we called to report bugs in
the system was Ted Hentor. These are two of the biggest names in assistive
technology for the blind.
The rest is history. We no longer use the ITS, but we reap the efforts of those
beginning pioneers, Ted Hentor and Dean Blazie.
Well Bob, I rememer the Optacon. I learned to rad a little music with it. The cool thing about the optacon for me is that you were only limmitted by characters you were able to recognize. I learned a little about how to read electrical schematics with it. Back to the topic, I learned to type when I was in sixth grade in the late 60's. (I still have two typewriters for emergency use.) I changed jobs to a center-based rehabilitation teaching poition in 1989, and got a computer with artic speech, DOS, and Word Perfect 5.0. Used the computer lots at work. I changed jobs to a case management position in our Agencies technology department. We didn't have a PC at home, and I didn't want one, because I lived with them all day in that job. Then I got a job teaching them and really enjoyed it. My wife who is sighted pushed us to get the computer, and now, I spend more time on it than she does.
Hey, Motivated, that's great.
I don't know why they quit making the Optacon, there are folks still using them, though they pray that their device will never encounter a problem because there's no way to fix them.
I haven't typed on a typewriter in years--and there is nothing like the feel of a typewriter keyboard, especially the manual typewriters, it's nothing like a keyboard.
Really interesting story Motivated.
Bob
Wow! Wow! Wow! The Bex program?! Man, that was certainly something! Bex boot and Bex Data is what I was using with WordTalk on the old Apple GS computers. That is wehre I learned to type in my late Elementary School years! then we all got into IBM and in High school I learned about the Windows Operating System and how to use Jaws instead of the simpler and more involved Bex disks. Man, but, WordTalk was something, though? I remember we would start it on one computer in the classroom because we had only disk and then we would pass it to the other person who needed it. It was in high school when I started accessing the Internet and it has been awesome ever since.
I think the size of it is, something like the end of a single human hair.
Hi all, I started on the computer in the late 70s and learned Wordperfect 5.1 with Artic speech. Then I didn't have much contact with computers for a while. That is until I decided that I better get up to date since my son knew more than I did. I got a computer and JFW 3.2 and taught myself as much as I could and then got some real trainning. I eventually got a jobb as a Computer Brailist which worked out real well until my health took a turn for the worse. I still do some translation ocasionally. It's been a wild ride I must say. I'm still learning. As a matter of fact, I count on motifated for my computer help to this day. I hope to continue to learn as things continuely change with this thing we call a computer. I'm still learning about the internet and how to get around with the little short-cuts that I'm sure you already know. Donna (djmom)
Well getting started on the computer was a little slow for me. Mainly everytime I seemed to get on a computer it breaks, at least that's what I thought, and I never really had a computer of my own. At that time I was scared of it and thought that they didn't like me and I couldn't remember all the commands. Then Last summer I went to a transision camp to learn independent living skills and I got one and have been on it ever sense. Oh, and it did freeze a lot...well...not really because I didn't know what to do and it didn't freeze or break like I thought all along. My friend was the same as me but now I swonder if she knows more than me.
I first got acquainted with this intriguing piece of machinery they call a computer in 1997 at the age of 12. It was an old desktop with a program called Telly-Talk and would write all kinds of things on that. Then when I went to high school here in Queensland 2 years later, I was introduced to laptops, and JAWS.
I remember being taught yhow to type in second grade by my vision teacher of that time. I didn't really become familiar with JAWS until a couple of years ago because there was so much going on in middle school and there wasn't time for the teacher to show me how to use it. Other than that, I can't remember too much. I just love being on the internet.
Hello everyone,
I first got my start on the computer when I was either in third or fourth grade, I think. At the time, I had JAWS 3.0. Then I upgraded from 3 to 5.1, then to 6, then to 7, then to 7.1, and now I'm at 8. Also when I was younger, I was extremely addicted to the Internet, as I still am. We had dial-up back then. It was a pain because we only had one phone line and we couldn't use the phone while someone was on the internet. Now we have our own wireless network--thank Gosh!!!!
My first computer was a CDC mainframe that used a Teletype machine and paper tape!
It was a college course in assembler coding.
The interesting part was when you'd get the paper tape upside down so the holes were wrong and the code would come out funny.
Also, taping together bits of torn paper tape could produce strange results.
Things really have improved somewhat.
Oh wow. Well I think there were a couple different steps for me. The first one I ever used was an apple 2gs in first grade. After that I had contact with computers at school and stuff, and our family got one, but I wasn't allowed to do much with it. I didn't really get into computers until several years later (sometime in late elementary school or early middle school) when I was given an old 486 running dos 6.0. At that point I really got interested, and started reading books about DOS and computers in general. After that I slowly got better and better computers to ply wit... er I mean use for school work until I actually bought my own a few years back.
What computer did you buy a couple years back?
It was a custom built box that some guy made and then wanted to sell on ebay. Had a 2 gig processor, 512 meg ram, 80 gig hard drive (I later added a second 250 gig drive), came with a cd rw drive which I later added a dvd rw drive as well. It has since died, though when I build my next box I'm going to salvage several parts from it for that one I think.
Oh wow. I didn't think that back then they made 80 gig harddrives!
Ah, it was years ago.
I don't remember all of the details but boy was I glad to have started.
yeah, there were times when I thought, I can't learn this, what have i gotten myself into? i was really excited when i could do things without having to refer to the training tapes for every little thing anymore, and the first time i downloaded a program, real player g2, and got it to work, my excitement knew no bounds, i was bouncing off the ceiling almost.
wonderwoman
It was about two years or so ago, or rather one and a half. My friend introduced me to the world of fanfiction.net and proboards.com. There was a major problem though. I had no clue how to operate a computer or type. Is that great, or what?
Well, so, I thought to myself, why not get started. A computer was sitting right in my room after all, so I got on it, and messed around. The first couple months was so hard, because I did things ever so slowly. Then, I got more and more use to it, and now I can't live with out it.
I can't live without the computer either! If someone bans me from the computer, or if computers died out or became extinct, I'd kill myself! Just kidding, I'd be really mad.
Yeh. I don't truly realize how much I use them til it breaks or something. Actually right now my friends borrowing my main comp for a little bit because hers broke. My old backup machine that I'm using at the moment always has been a piece of shit. IT's interesting though how we even get used to higher speeds of comps, then when we have to use an older one, it seems sooooo slow, when it used to seem decent to fast.
it does seem slow, heh.
BTW, I am at JAWS 9.