Posts by jsmith1202

They're BAAACK: Windows 10 nagware team loads trebuchet with annoying reminders to GTFO Windows 7

Re: Is it stable yet?

You haven't been blind for very long, have you? Haven't you realized yet that we're not really human? You should be pleased that you can use a computer, that's cute and isn't it nice that the physically challenged can use machines at all? I mean sure, every time the machine boots, with Win 10 at least, only God knows if it's going to talk, but again, we should just be pleased that, most of the time, we're able to sort of use the computer. BTW, you shouldn't worry about the machine's sound failing, it gives you a chance for social interaction what with getting some poor person to help because, just as we're not human in the strict sense, we're surrounded by people who have nothing better to do with their time than to fix Microsoft's messes, and those same people are unimportant, I, for one, jump with joy when it comes time to take them away from what they're doing so they can help me out.

Windows 10 Pro goes Home as Microsoft fires up downgrade server

You know, things were getting better

On Windows 98, I used to unexpectedly reboot my machine more or less every day. I used to be nervous every time it booted because I didn't have access to the screen (blind and use software to read the screen in Windows). I set my autosave and auto-backup very low so that I wouldn't lose much work when the machine crashed. I fought with hardware to get it installed. Then Windows XP and Windows 7 came and I didn't have to worry about these things anymore, the machine would stay up, it hardly ever failed to boot, I didn't have to fight with hardware anymore. All these things got better and stayed better on phones, on Mac... It was a general improvement. Why is MS moving backward? Why is it possible for the machine to force a reboot to install updates (yes, I can delay it, but why should it not be in my control to avoid it)? Why is it possible for a machine to boot and fail to talk for a few minutes while installing updates? Keep in mind, if it doesn't talk, I don't know why though I can guess. Why, to avoid this, do I have to stick with 7 and now start fighting with hardware again to make it work on that system?

iPhone XR, for when £1,000 is just too much for a smartmobe

Re: In Android land

The "parts picked up off the factory floor" comment has been dealt with below, but otherwise, I agree. As usual, though, anyone who is blind or deafblind is stuck with it. Google and the Android OEMs have made it glaringly obvious that they don't care if people who can't see, can't hear, or can't do either can use their phones smoothly. Apple has made it obvious that they're not a priority, but that if they can help such people without annoying anyone else or losing too much money, they will. This is the best we can expect. I have an iPhone SE, I have no clue what I'm going to get when it dies. I can choose between a headphone jack and decent pricing or accessibility. Oh how wonderful a thing is consumer choice.

Mac users burned after Nuance drops Dragon speech to text software

Re: As you seemed to be reviewing windows 10, whilst using 7

Speaking as one who likes Win10's accessibility and detests the operating system otherwise, that's not a fair test. Try navigating quickly and smoothly through the PDF, try an image-based PDF, try using it without a screen at all for several hours, and you'll wonder why people haven't gone crazy yet, particularly with narrator.

Re: At Charles 9, re: PDF.

Your experiment, of sitting in front of a box with no monitor, is one I have done repeatedly, I like the iPhone, I would really like to love the Mac, spending $250 or so annually for a screen reader makes me reach for the nearest sick-bag, but the Mac simpley doesn't do what the Windows box does. Again, the return policy had better be good. A demo at an apple store isn't even remotely enough, buy one and try it for a week and a half straight. I've done so, I wish I could have continued, but the more I did it, the more I was told "you can't do that" or "it will take forever to do that" or "you're trying to do it the Windows way". I don't care which way I do it, I want it done. The Mac accessibility is one of the saddest chapters of the sad story of accessibility, it could have been so good, it's so crap.

Re: Hc Sunt Dracones (AND Windows)

"Good FLOSS solutions for accessibility lag behind commercial offerings by quite a bit, which is a shame."

In my experience, this isn't true. Good FLOSS solutions for accessibility do not exist outside of Windows, at least for blind users. I suspect, from having done research for a friend, that they do not exist for anyone who can't type, either. I would be absolutely overjoyed to be wrong in both cases.