Hi John,
I have to disagree with you here. The Pacmate is twice the size of my
Netbook and twice as heavy. My netbook has a perfectly usable keyboard,
much better processor, and full-blown windows XP with 160GB of hard disk
space. The Pacmate is definitely stonemasonry in my view too.
All the best
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org
[mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John
G. Heim
Sent: Friday 13 November 2009 17:23
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] [BlindLikeMe] KapsysSigns
anAgreementwithIndependent Living Aids
Think about what you're saying, Scott. You're suggesting someone buy a
particular adaptive device to impress people? It's absurd. Yeah, I suppose
that may figure into the equasion a little but, holy cow, that would be way,
way down my list in terms of importance.
I am not denying that the Pac Mate uses older or obsolete technology. I said
that myself in my previous message. I am disputing your criticism of the
basic design of the Pac Mate. It does do what it was designed to do.
Your repeated assertion that the Pac Mate was designed by stone masons is
meaningless. I made some specific logical points which you failed to
address. The Pac Mate top surface is already as small as it could be and
still have a normal keyboard and a braille display. Isn't that true? Some
people like a normal sized keyboard. Or do you think everyone who owns a
laptop is crazy?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Granados"
To: "Blind sysadmins list"
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 10:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins][BlindLikeMe] KapsysSigns
anAgreementwithIndependent Living Aids
Dude your smoking crack and not even good Oakland crack but that San
Francisco Tenderloin shwag.
The Pakmate is absolute garbage. It doesn't even do what it's marketed for
well. It's made with ten year old technology if not more, it has the design
style of a stone mason and wins the award for the clunkiest interface ever.
If you like carrying building materials around with you then great, by all
means. I however live n the real world where we like to have cool ice
breakers, where we interact with the general population and where we have
real desires / needs spanning the intire range from professional to social
and everything inbetween. Clearly you haven't worked in a modern
engineering work place. One's gadgets are an important (although certainly
not the only part) of relationship building. I recently started a new job
and a real part of my first day there was meeting new people and finding
other gadget nuts to exchange war stories with. Just like my sited
coworkers have the windows or b-berry / IPhone discussions I can participate
as an equal member. Your pakmate can't do this. So enjoy your outdated non
interoperable "note taker" I'm glad it works for you. I'll however stack
my netbook up against your 10 year old device any day of the week.
;)
----- Original Message -----
From: "John G. Heim"
To: "Blind sysadmins list"
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 6:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] [BlindLikeMe] KapsysSigns
anAgreementwithIndependent Living Aids
I think you are way, way off here. What the heck do I care about making
girls drop their panties? These are tools for petes sake? Who gives a flying
fig how stylish they are?
And a touch screen? Holy cow! For blind people, there is no way a touch
screen can come close to a keyboard for ease of input. In fact, there are
people making money selling keypads for blind people to put over touch
screens.
There is nothing wrong with the basic design of a Pac Mate. The technology
is old so it's thicker and heavier than it has to be. But other than that,
it's perfectly fine. There is no way a unit could have a smaller top surface
and still be as useful as a Pac Mate. I need a keyboard and an integrated
braille display. That's exactly what the Pac Mate is. There's no wasted
space on the top surface of a Pac Mate.
I think you're confusing the Pac Mate with a cell phone. It's not a cell
phone. You don't take your Pac Mate with you on a date. You take it too
meetings and to class. What you really need to do is compare a KNFB Reader
to your ideal machine, not a Pac Mate. The Pac Mate was never intended to do
what you want a device to do.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Granados"
To: "Blind sysadmins list"
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 1:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] [BlindLikeMe] KapsysSigns an
AgreementwithIndependent Living Aids
Oh let me clerify my blind specific comments. I wasn't really speaking
about the software. I realize that software requires lots of developments
with testing cycles and all number of issues from soup to nuts but the
hardware is just unacceptable. I think the folks who design these products
like the pakmate or braille devices went to stone masonry school. I'm going
to beat the next so called designer of a blind hardware product with the
brick he calls his device the next time I see one hit the market.
Now to expand, I know that some folks have differing abilities and
specific physical requirements but I don't need buttons the size of my
naughty bits as an interface on a square block brick styleless blob of
(explative deleted). I have a very fine sense of touch and good finger
skillz (lol) that I expect most braille readers have. Why not make very
fine controls with lots of functionality. Give me some style to the
platform and for God sakes make the hardware something from this century. I
don't want some note taker built by a highschool kid with a 6502 kit and a
science project to complete! I seriously built equipment with more style
and flaire in electronics lab! Give me some super thin flexable interface
or a nice 30 inch Mac touch screen display! Give me something that's going
to make the girls drop their panties for goodness sake! What am I supposed
to do when chatting up a breezy pull out my trusty brick and ask if her
phone has an RS232 port for me to plug in to so I can send her an ASCII file
with my contact information included after I whipe it through an old
translator written under Windows mobile 2003, or bust my big bad IPhone on
her forehead? (no IPhone doesn't mean something else) hahahaha Who else
thinks it would be hot if she actually did have a serial to USB adapter.:)
Ok you see my point. There's a total lack of style. I don't mean it
has to look like the sited lets be clear it just has to either be so
functional you don't care or something jazzy. I do support though fully the
accessible consumer devices out there. I am all about the off the shelf
cell phone and about to jump off that in to the netbook. Give me a nice
super thin braille display with modern GSM / CDMA or better still LTE, a
great phone app, great interoperable text messenger, full function web
browser, modern I/O including firewire for outboard disks, solid state disk
drive, super high res camera (20+ MP) and based on some OS that works with
the world and I'll give you ten grand! I will not give you ten grand for
windows mobile in a brick!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Hodgson"
To: "Blind sysadmins list"
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 7:29 AM
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