My particular area of geekdom involves finding alternatives and accessible solutions for technology issues for disabled students and college staff members. Throughout the country, geeks like me working in colleges/universities and corporations struggle in making basic and advanced technologies available to disabled students and staff. Up to five percent of the population of the United States’ workforce is disabled, and up to thirty percent of students are classified as such. Statistics indicate that as more wounded soldiers return from overseas and our country’s population grows, our disabled population will only increase, and that naturally means more disabled persons in the workplace. And of the workplaces in America, more than 60% do their day-to-day business using technology, i.e., computers.
What does that mean to people like us, who are the backbones of our company’s IT organization? It means we may be called on to provide adaptive technology or solutions that are outside of what we know. If you aren’t disabled yourself, you may not understand the needs of a disabled person just trying to do their job. But all organizations, regardless of funding or makeup, are required by law to provide accessible options for all workers.
Some of us may never encounter a disabled person in the workplace that needs our help. But most of us will, and we should be prepared for that time when it comes. And we do that by making an effort to understand disabilities, and learn about accessible solutions, whatever they might be. Over the next few weeks I will be posting several articles with disability services in mind. Hopefully these articles are helpful and timely.
In the meantime, you might want to check out the government’s ADA website, to get a handle for what is required and expected of employers. My future posts will concentrate on specific adaptive technology that you may encounter in your workplace. I will also discuss adaptive changes you can make to existing software and hardware as quick ways to add adaptability for user needs. There is no such thing as “Universal Design” when it comes to adaptive technology, but there are some standards that can be followed, and I will cover those, as well.
Please feel free to leave a comment asking for me to cover a specific item or topic, and I will be happy to accommodate that.
I’ve just been talking to a colleague in the US and it’s clear that one of the few “technological” differences between the US and Europe is in the cell phone market, so for the benefit of US readers, here’s a top ten guide to the basics of European mobile telecoms.
i) They’re called mobile phones.
ii) Wireless carriers are network operators, though most people would just ask, “What network are you on?”
iii) The caller always pays for the call. Regardless of whether I call from my mobile phone or someone calls me while I’m on my mobile phone, the caller always pays. I don’t pay to receive calls except when I’m roaming –see below.
iv) All phones use the GSM standard, so as long as I have an unlocked phone and a SIM for the particular mobile network, I can use the phone with that network. All SIM cards are made to the same standard, so they’re interchangeable in the phones (unless there’s a SIM-lock).
v) Mobile phone numbers are not geographically attached, i.e. looking at my phone number will not tell anyone whereabouts I live.
vi) When I’m in my home country, e.g. UK, I can only use the network for which I have a SIM, even if I’m out of coverage of my network but another is available.
vii) When I’m abroad in a different country, that’s roaming. I can use any network available, though usually my home network will have preferential rates with a local network. In this instance, if a caller calls me, he will still get charged for a calling a mobile phone at home but I get charged extra for the privilege of taking the call while abroad.
viii) There are two business models – contract and pay-as-you-go (PAYG). I don’t think that there’s much difference here between the US and Europe, only that PAYG is much more popular in Europe, whereas contracts are the norm in the US. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. PAYG SIMs are nearly free on most networks, so if you have a GSM phone and you are visiting from the US, it’s a great way to make local calls on your phone, without incurring huge transatlantic charges.
ix) Most networks don’t bother with customisation of phones beyond putting their logo on the body or setting the home page on the browser.
x) There are only four operators with their own network in the UK (O2, Orange, T-Mobile & Vodafone). However, there are a couple of mobile virtual network operators – MVNOs – such as Virgin Mobile, which piggyback on someone else’s network.
Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion between the two markets and provides useful info for visitors.
New Studio lights are installed and it makes a big difference to the video quality. Baby Steps but this was like learning to walk. Story on the show.. Big huge thank you to Pat over at LitePanels.com and his expertise in the placement of the LED LitePanels. Lots of tech to chat about tonight as always and for those of you Comcast subscribers you will want to tune in for sure.
Verizon announced yesterday that they are doubling their early terminations fees, to reach as much as $350 for some users. I have never understood the use of early termination fees as an alternative to providing service people want in the way that they want it. I also do not buy into the claim that all those long-term contracts are supporting expensive hardware that users are getting at a reduced rate.
There are a dozen reasons why someone might need to cancel a phone contract. A job transfer could take them to a location that doesn’t have good service on their existing plan. The loss of a job can mean that the cell thing is the first thing to go. Poor customer service, or not getting full value out of the service you thought you purchased could be another reason to drop a plan and go with another. Cost can also be a factor; comparing your current plan against other carriers can often show you where you can save a little money. None of these things are unusual, unexpected, nor should they be punishable. If I change brands of cat food, I don’t get penalized. If I stop eating at one restaurant in favor of another, I am not penalized. We like to change our minds, and we like to have the freedom and choice to do so.
Adding hefty early termination fees to already ridiculously inflated service plans isn’t the best way to get me as a customer. You can market me until you’re blue in the face, but if I feel like I’m going to be taken advantage of, I am going to walk away. I don’t mind paying a fair and reasonable price for decent service, and I don’t mind that wireless carriers are making a little profit. What I do mind is that wireless carriers are making billions of dollars in profit, yet fuss that they do not have the capital to invest in expanding their infrastructure and wireless architecture to give us better service. It is like the brother-in-law who borrows $300 to pay his electric bill, doesn’t pay you back, but shows up at your house the next month with a new car. I don’t have much sympathy for that kind of economic game-playing in people, I certainly don’t want to see it in my wireless carrier.
When wireless carriers can show me that a cell phone, even a smart one, costs several thousand dollars to produce, then I might change my mind. But until then, I am going to ride my carriers hard and expect a lot out of them. That is what I’m paying for, and I expect to get it. Doubling up on early termination fees just took one carrier out of the running, in my mind.
The Science Museum, London, is celebrating a century of science and as part of the festivities, it asked visitors to vote for the scientific discovery or invention that most “changed the future”. The ten objects it put forward were:
1. Apollo 10 Capsule
2. DNA Double Helix
3. Electric Telegraph
4. Model T Ford
5. Penicillin
6. Pilot ACE Computer
7. Steam Engine
8. Stephenson’s Rocket
9. V2 Rocket Engine
10. X-ray Machine
And the winner was……the X-ray Machine, beating penicillin and the DNA double helix into 2nd and 3rd place respectively. The discovery of X-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Roentgen started a new era of medical diagnosis allowing medics to see inside living people without relying on surgery. Today, the descendants of these first X-ray machines can almost measure what we think.
Amazingly, the particular X-ray machine shown was developed at home in under a year by Russell Reynolds while he was still at school. He was assisted by his father, a general practitioner, and another inventor William Crookes.
Although some doctors were quick to pick up on the new invention it wasn’t until the 1920s that X-ray machines were widely used in medicine.
Making The Modern World is a complementary web site containing over a hundred scientific discoveries which helped shape civilisation. Worth a browse.
What inventions today will have such an impact when we look back from 2109?
SourceForge, Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has changed its name to Geeknet, Inc. to more accurately reflect the company’s business and the growing market it serves. The name change also supports the company’s intention to expand the reach of its online advertising services into new categories.
Sourceforge has always been a place to find open source applications and tools.
“Renaming the company Geeknet is the latest step in our rapid transformation,” said Scott L. Kauffman, President & CEO of Geeknet. “Our new name is a more accurate articulation of our business. With Geeknet as our calling card on Madison Avenue, we are now able to clearly define the audience we serve and more effectively capture the business opportunity that we are addressing.”
The Geeknet network, also includes Slashdot, ThinkGeek and Ohloh, among others, and serves more than 40 million geeks each month.
Geeknet has laucned it’s new website over at www.geek.net. Read the full announcement on geek.net
The London-based think tank Demos has concluded that illegal downloaders spend more money on music. The headline figure, based on the survey of over 1000 people between 16 and 65, is that the average spend per annum on CDs or vinyl was £75 (GBP) for file-sharers compared with only £51 for all surveyed.
The notion that illegal downloaders actually spend more money on music has always had its supporters but it’s good to see that this can now be backed up with some hard data, at least for the UK. However, there’s some much more juicy information, but remember that this is representative sample of the online population, not the whole population and not just music aficionados or games players.
69% of those questioned had used official or legal sources for music such as iTunes or YouTube. Physical media still dominates purchasing with 65% having bought CDs or vinyl against 33% who purchased downloadable music.
A third had used peer-to-peer technology or search engines to find free music but only 9% actually confessed to illegal downloading. Almost everyone knew that sharing purchased music was not “fair use” but 81% of people who had purchased their music thought that “fair use” should include the ability to move the music between different players easily.
47% would be interested in a monthly subscription service with the optimum price point being £5 per month but it would have to be simple and convenient to use.
There is only a slight male bias of 57%:43% in illegal music downloading (which is far less than I would have expected) and 46% gave “because I can” as a reason for doing it. (I think in the old days, this would’ve been known as “troughing”). Unsurprisingly, two thirds of this group also engaged in the illegal downloading of movies, games and other software.
My particular area of geekdom involves finding alternatives and accessible solutions for technology issues for disabled students and college staff members. Throughout the country, geeks like me working in colleges/universities and corporations struggle in making basic and advanced technologies available to disabled students and staff. Up to five percent of the population of the United States’ workforce is disabled, and up to thirty percent of students are classified as such. Statistics indicate that as more wounded soldiers return from overseas and our country’s population grows, our disabled population will only increase, and that naturally means more disabled persons in the workplace. And of the workplaces in America, more than 60% do their day-to-day business using technology, i.e., computers. 
SourceForge, Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has changed its name to Geeknet, Inc. to more accurately reflect the company’s business and the growing market it serves. The name change also supports the company’s intention to expand the reach of its online advertising services into new categories.
