Hi folks, I tried to do something like this about 3 years back. I had registered www.bitprofessionals.com BIT being Blind I T. I also thought it was a nice little play on words for the Geeks. One thing I was trying to rally some folks around was, the idea of having a Wiki as our main resource. I looked at a couple of Wiki configs and quickly realised I needed help. Unfortunately nothing materielised out of this. I'm happy to help out and were appropriate as a Trustee for www.bcab.org.uk can see what we could do with our contacts and joint resources. I would also need to add that, anything formal would have to be brought before our Board at BCAB on our monthly conferences. Which i would be happy to do, if we have a solid proposal. Regards, Barry.

-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind- sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John G. Heim Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 2:19 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Darragh,

I think I have a solution to your domain name problem. After reading what you say below, I am in complete agreement with what you want to do. Along with a handful of other people, I helped to created an organization to do exactly what you speak of. We call it the International Association of Visually Impaired Tech nologists. We have a web site at www.iavit.org and we are incorporated as a non-profit.

My idea for the www.iavit.org web site is almost identical to yours. Do you think maybe we could join forces?

----- Original Message ----- From: "Darragh OHeiligh" To: Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 6:01 AM Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

...

Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else.

Hello,

I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment.

Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator.

What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can.

The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles.

Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter.

I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators. Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed!

With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company.

Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com

This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force.

Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us.

I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long.

I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you.

If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend. IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help.

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 5907 (20110225) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com

Out of interest, what kind of issues were you hoping to address that required that kind of status? Thanks Regards Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie From: "John G. Heim" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Date: 25/02/2011 15:57 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Wow, great minds think alike I guess. That makes 3 of us now. I probably wasn't on this list when you set up your site. But back when we created IAVIT, it occured to us that in order to address some of the issues Darragh has brought up, we would need to form a non-profit organization. We talked a long time about the name of the group before settling on the International Association of Visually Impaired Technologists. We had 4 criteria: 1. The name should convey that the group is for the blind and visually impaired. 2. Its for both programmers and systems administrators. 3. Its not limited to Americans. 4. The acronym for the name should not already be taken. So IAVIT is what we came up with. A blind lawyer donated his time to write the articles of incorporation and to fill out the forms to get us incorporated as a non-profit in Wisconsin. We picked Wisconsin because that's where the lawyer is licensed to practice. And I personally paid the fees. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Toner" To: "'Blind sysadmins list'" Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 8:43 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Hi folks,

I tried to do something like this about 3 years back. I had registered www.bitprofessionals.com BIT being Blind I T. I also thought it was a nice little play on words for the Geeks.

One thing I was trying to rally some folks around was, the idea of having a Wiki as our main resource. I looked at a couple of Wiki configs and quickly realised I needed help.

Unfortunately nothing materielised out of this.

I'm happy to help out and were appropriate as a Trustee for www.bcab.org.uk can see what we could do with our contacts and joint resources. I would also need to add that, anything formal would have to be brought before our Board at BCAB on our monthly conferences. Which i would be happy to do, if we have a solid proposal.

Regards, Barry.

...

-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind- sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John G. Heim Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 2:19 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Darragh,

I think I have a solution to your domain name problem. After reading what you say below, I am in complete agreement with what you want to do. Along with a handful of other people, I helped to created an organization to do exactly what you speak of. We call it the International Association of Visually Impaired Tech nologists. We have a web site at www.iavit.org and we are incorporated as a non-profit.

My idea for the www.iavit.org web site is almost identical to yours. Do you think maybe we could join forces?

----- Original Message ----- From: "Darragh OHeiligh" To: Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 6:01 AM Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

...

Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else.

Hello,

I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment.

Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator.

What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can.

The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles.

Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter.

I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators. Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed!

With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company.

Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com

This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force.

Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us.

I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long.

I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you.

If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend. IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help.

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 5907 (20110225) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Toner" To: "'Blind sysadmins list'" Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 8:43 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Hi folks,

I tried to do something like this about 3 years back. I had registered www.bitprofessionals.com BIT being Blind I T. I also thought it was a nice little play on words for the Geeks.

One thing I was trying to rally some folks around was, the idea of having a Wiki as our main resource. I looked at a couple of Wiki configs and quickly realised I needed help.

Unfortunately nothing materielised out of this.

I'm happy to help out and were appropriate as a Trustee for www.bcab.org.uk can see what we could do with our contacts and joint resources. I would also need to add that, anything formal would have to be brought before our Board at BCAB on our monthly conferences. Which i would be happy to do, if we have a solid proposal.

Regards, Barry.

...

-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind- sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John G. Heim Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 2:19 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Darragh,

I think I have a solution to your domain name problem. After reading what you say below, I am in complete agreement with what you want to do. Along with a handful of other people, I helped to created an organization to do exactly what you speak of. We call it the International Association of Visually Impaired Tech nologists. We have a web site at www.iavit.org and we are incorporated as a non-profit.

My idea for the www.iavit.org web site is almost identical to yours. Do you think maybe we could join forces?

----- Original Message ----- From: "Darragh OHeiligh" To: Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 6:01 AM Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

...

Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else.

Hello,

I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment.

Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator.

What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can.

The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles.

Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter.

I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators. Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed!

With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company.

Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com

This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force.

Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us.

I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long.

I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you.

If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend. IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help.

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 5907 (20110225) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Well, I have to say that the main reason to incorporate as a non-profit is to make it clear that its everyone's group. Its not my group. Its our group. For example, I like your idea about profiling successful systems admins. I wish I'd thought of it. I'm thinking we should have a "Blind Nerd of the Month" award. Heck, if you can pull together the profiles of a handful of systems admins, we can make some of the awards retroactive and get them all on the web site today. Otherwise, we can just do them one a month from now on. But to give you some other reasons for incorporating: 1. We hope to approach companies about changing their corporate culture regarding accessibility. A message like that should come from a non-profit. 2. Everything takes money. A non-profit can take donations. 3. We hope someday to provide hardware or monetary assistance to blind systems administrators. That is most easily done via a non-profit. 4. We hope to have prizes for especially good wiki contributions. Again, best done via a non-profit. But anyway, the key point is not that we're already incorporated as a non-profit. Its that we should work together because your goals are IAVIT's goals. Its up to you, of course. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darragh OHeiligh" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Cc: Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 9:59 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Out of interest, what kind of issues were you hoping to address that required that kind of status?

Thanks

Regards

Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu

Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie

From: "John G. Heim" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Date: 25/02/2011 15:57 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Wow, great minds think alike I guess. That makes 3 of us now. I probably wasn't on this list when you set up your site.

But back when we created IAVIT, it occured to us that in order to address some of the issues Darragh has brought up, we would need to form a non-profit organization. We talked a long time about the name of the group

before settling on the International Association of Visually Impaired Technologists. We had 4 criteria: 1. The name should convey that the group is for the blind and visually impaired. 2. Its for both programmers and systems administrators. 3. Its not limited to Americans. 4. The acronym for the name should not already be taken.

So IAVIT is what we came up with. A blind lawyer donated his time to write

the articles of incorporation and to fill out the forms to get us incorporated as a non-profit in Wisconsin. We picked Wisconsin because that's where the lawyer is licensed to practice. And I personally paid the

fees.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Toner" To: "'Blind sysadmins list'" Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 8:43 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

...

Hi folks,

I tried to do something like this about 3 years back. I had registered www.bitprofessionals.com BIT being Blind I T. I also thought it was a nice little play on words for the Geeks.

One thing I was trying to rally some folks around was, the idea of having a Wiki as our main resource. I looked at a couple of Wiki configs and quickly realised I needed help.

Unfortunately nothing materielised out of this.

I'm happy to help out and were appropriate as a Trustee for www.bcab.org.uk can see what we could do with our contacts and joint resources. I would also need to add that, anything formal would have to be brought before our Board at BCAB on our monthly conferences. Which i would be happy to do, if we have a solid proposal.

Regards, Barry.

...

-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind- sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John G. Heim Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 2:19 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Darragh,

I think I have a solution to your domain name problem. After reading what you say below, I am in complete agreement with what you want to do. Along with a handful of other people, I helped to created an organization to do exactly what you speak of. We call it the International Association of Visually Impaired Tech nologists. We have a web site at www.iavit.org and we are incorporated as a non-profit.

My idea for the www.iavit.org web site is almost identical to yours. Do you think maybe we could join forces?

----- Original Message ----- From: "Darragh OHeiligh" To: Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 6:01 AM Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

...

Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else.

Hello,

I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment.

Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator.

What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can.

The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles.

Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter.

I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators. Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed!

With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company.

Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com

This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force.

Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us.

I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long.

I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you.

If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend. IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help.

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 5907 (20110225) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Toner" To: "'Blind sysadmins list'" Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 8:43 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

...

Hi folks,

I tried to do something like this about 3 years back. I had registered www.bitprofessionals.com BIT being Blind I T. I also thought it was a nice little play on words for the Geeks.

One thing I was trying to rally some folks around was, the idea of having a Wiki as our main resource. I looked at a couple of Wiki configs and quickly realised I needed help.

Unfortunately nothing materielised out of this.

I'm happy to help out and were appropriate as a Trustee for www.bcab.org.uk can see what we could do with our contacts and joint resources. I would also need to add that, anything formal would have to be brought before our Board at BCAB on our monthly conferences. Which i would be happy to do, if we have a solid proposal.

Regards, Barry.

...

-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind- sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John G. Heim Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 2:19 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Darragh,

I think I have a solution to your domain name problem. After reading what you say below, I am in complete agreement with what you want to do. Along with a handful of other people, I helped to created an organization to do exactly what you speak of. We call it the International Association of Visually Impaired Tech nologists. We have a web site at www.iavit.org and we are incorporated as a non-profit.

My idea for the www.iavit.org web site is almost identical to yours. Do you think maybe we could join forces?

----- Original Message ----- From: "Darragh OHeiligh" To: Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 6:01 AM Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

...

Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else.

Hello,

I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment.

Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator.

What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can.

The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles.

Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter.

I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators. Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed!

With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company.

Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com

This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force.

Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us.

I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long.

I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you.

If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend. IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help.

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 5907 (20110225) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hay Andrew, I'm delighted you like the idea. The site will need to be designed both for visual attractiveness and accessibility however I've worked on a lot of projects with the same goals such as www.mushroomfm.com, www.thelegend.com www.vicsireland.org www.lalrecordings.com www.digitaldarragh.com www.nickykealy.com and a few others so this shouldn't be much of a problem. I'm basing the site on Drupal 7 and already have a working model running at this address. www.blindsysadmins.com There is certainly a lot to do and I'd like to involve as many people as possible in decision making and even getting work done if people are willing. With the level of support I've got back after just a few messages introducing the idea I'm very hopeful that the momentum will continue. Regards Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie From: Andrew Hodgson To: Blind sysadmins list Date: 27/02/2011 10:33 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Hi, This looks a very good idea. I think the part I like the most is the ability to share information with other people. Wouldn't it be great if someone Googled a particular topic, and the blind sysadmins website was one of the hits with a possible solution? So where will we go from here? Will we need to design an interface for the website? If people want it, the list can also be moved to that domain as well, or you could point the records of a subdomain to this server to continue hosting it here under the relevant domain. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [ mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh OHeiligh Sent: 25 February 2011 12:01 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else. Hello, I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment. Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator. What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can. The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles. Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter. I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators. Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed! With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company. Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force. Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us. I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long. I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you. If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend. IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help. Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hey, first I've heard of this. I'll look it up. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John G. Heim Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 8:04 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators I just don't understand... What is wrong with the International Association of Visually Impaired Technologists? Please explain waht I am doing wrong. Have I said something to aggrevate people on this list? If so, I apologize. I just cannot imagine why you folks want to duplicate the effort I've already put into starting IAVIT. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darragh OHeiligh" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 3:02 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Hay Andrew,

I'm delighted you like the idea.

The site will need to be designed both for visual attractiveness and accessibility however I've worked on a lot of projects with the same goals such as www.mushroomfm.com, www.thelegend.com www.vicsireland.org www.lalrecordings.com www.digitaldarragh.com www.nickykealy.com and a few others so this shouldn't be much of a problem.

I'm basing the site on Drupal 7 and already have a working model running at this address. www.blindsysadmins.com

There is certainly a lot to do and I'd like to involve as many people as possible in decision making and even getting work done if people are willing. With the level of support I've got back after just a few messages introducing the idea I'm very hopeful that the momentum will continue.

Regards

Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu

Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie

From: Andrew Hodgson To: Blind sysadmins list Date: 27/02/2011 10:33 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Hi,

This looks a very good idea. I think the part I like the most is the ability to share information with other people. Wouldn't it be great if someone Googled a particular topic, and the blind sysadmins website was one of the hits with a possible solution?

So where will we go from here? Will we need to design an interface for the website?

If people want it, the list can also be moved to that domain as well, or you could point the records of a subdomain to this server to continue hosting it here under the relevant domain.

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [ mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh OHeiligh Sent: 25 February 2011 12:01 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else.

Hello,

I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I'm mulling over at the moment.

Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator.

What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can.

The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles.

Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter.

I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn't just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators.

Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we've got it nailed!

With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company.

Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com

This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force.

Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don't worry, I'm not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us.

I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I'm be delighted. All I'm looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and

beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn't a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I'd love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We've all been there. We've all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there's a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I'm not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long.

I'd like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I'd really really appreciate hearing from you.

If you're interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend.

IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help.

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hay Andrew,

I'm delighted you like the idea.

The site will need to be designed both for visual attractiveness and accessibility however I've worked on a lot of projects with the same goals such as www.mushroomfm.com, www.thelegend.com www.vicsireland.org www.lalrecordings.com www.digitaldarragh.com www.nickykealy.com and a few others so this shouldn't be much of a problem.

I'm basing the site on Drupal 7 and already have a working model running at this address. www.blindsysadmins.com

There is certainly a lot to do and I'd like to involve as many people as possible in decision making and even getting work done if people are willing. With the level of support I've got back after just a few messages introducing the idea I'm very hopeful that the momentum will continue.

Regards

Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu

Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie

From: Andrew Hodgson To: Blind sysadmins list Date: 27/02/2011 10:33 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Hi,

This looks a very good idea. I think the part I like the most is the ability to share information with other people. Wouldn't it be great if someone Googled a particular topic, and the blind sysadmins website was one of the hits with a possible solution?

So where will we go from here? Will we need to design an interface for

website?

If people want it, the list can also be moved to that domain as well, or you could point the records of a subdomain to this server to continue hosting it here under the relevant domain.

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [ mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh OHeiligh Sent: 25 February 2011 12:01 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else.

Hello,

I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment.

Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator.

What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can.

The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles.

Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter.

I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators.

Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed!

With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company.

Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com

This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force.

Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us.

I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and

beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can

questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of

For anyone who wants to contribute, it is now possible to create an account on www.blindsysadmins.com When creating your account you are asked for some information. This is where you should sell your self. Broadcast to the world how fantastic you are as a system administrator. This is where employers are going to be inspired to consider people who are blind for system admin roles so it's the part of this entire idea that I really need your assistance with. If you would like to suggest a change please use the forum so I can keep track. www.blindsysadmins.com/forum The very last topic relates to site feedback and changes. I'll create an account for my self later as an example if needed. Thanks Regards Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie From: "John G. Heim" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Date: 28/02/2011 14:04 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org I just don't understand... What is wrong with the International Association of Visually Impaired Technologists? Please explain waht I am doing wrong. Have I said something to aggrevate people on this list? If so, I apologize. I just cannot imagine why you folks want to duplicate the effort I've already put into starting IAVIT. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darragh OHeiligh" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 3:02 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators the pose people

available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long.

I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you.

If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend.

IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help.

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Well, first of all, I would like to say that IAVIT can be whatever we make it. Its not my group. Its your group as much as it is mine. Somebody has to be in charge and that just happens to be me at the moment. I can't guarantee that I'll just do whatever you tell me but my job is to serve the community of blind and visually impaired systems administrators. But Darragh's idea isn't at all contrary with that of IAVIT. As I said, I wish I'd have thought of it. I think having the systems admin web site he set up might be a good thing. We can probably work together on that. In fact, I am thinking maybe we can still have the Visually Impaired Technologist of the Month Award and his web site would make it easier to find candidates. Finally, not to criticize the BCAB at all but its focus is entirely different from that of IAVIT. The BCAB if for anyone who uses a computer. IAVIT is intended for us systems administrators and programmers. Its a subtle but significant difference. Their home page features tutorials on using jaws and Windows 7. Some of their members may be into VMWare and Cisco routers but that is not the focus of BCAB. And, of course, its The British Computer Association of the Blind which limits the scope. That would not have bothered me. I'd have joined BCAB if not for the fact that their focus is not the same as that of IAVIT. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 3:21 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Hi, For me, the reasons are twofold: 1. I live in the UK, and am heavily involved with BCAB, who are a similar organisation, all be it with possibly a wider scope than IAVIT, but it is more local to me. 2. This solution looks to solve the issue from another persspective, that is to show prospective employers what blind system administrators are capable of, plus with a solution base could be a valuable resource to everyone as well. If there are more blind system administrators out there, then that surely should give more leverage to the software companies to design accessible software? Andrew. From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of John G. Heim [jheim@math.wisc.edu] Sent: 28 February 2011 14:04 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators I just don't understand... What is wrong with the International Association of Visually Impaired Technologists? Please explain waht I am doing wrong. Have I said something to aggrevate people on this list? If so, I apologize. I just cannot imagine why you folks want to duplicate the effort I've already put into starting IAVIT. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darragh OHeiligh" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 3:02 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Hay Andrew,

I'm delighted you like the idea.

The site will need to be designed both for visual attractiveness and accessibility however I've worked on a lot of projects with the same goals such as www.mushroomfm.com, www.thelegend.com www.vicsireland.org www.lalrecordings.com www.digitaldarragh.com www.nickykealy.com and a few others so this shouldn't be much of a problem.

I'm basing the site on Drupal 7 and already have a working model running at this address. www.blindsysadmins.com

There is certainly a lot to do and I'd like to involve as many people as possible in decision making and even getting work done if people are willing. With the level of support I've got back after just a few messages introducing the idea I'm very hopeful that the momentum will continue.

Regards

Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu

Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie

From: Andrew Hodgson To: Blind sysadmins list Date: 27/02/2011 10:33 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Hi,

This looks a very good idea. I think the part I like the most is the ability to share information with other people. Wouldn't it be great if someone Googled a particular topic, and the blind sysadmins website was one of the hits with a possible solution?

So where will we go from here? Will we need to design an interface for the website?

If people want it, the list can also be moved to that domain as well, or you could point the records of a subdomain to this server to continue hosting it here under the relevant domain.

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [ mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh OHeiligh Sent: 25 February 2011 12:01 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators

Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else.

Hello,

I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment.

Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator.

What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can.

The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles.

Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter.

I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators.

Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed!

With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company.

Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com

This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force.

Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us.

I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and

beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long.

I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you.

If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend.

IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help.

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Have you looked at Microsoft Forfront? This isn't the built-in solution but its an add-on. Outside of that, I'd look into either an antispam appliance or just something like Spam Assassin sitting in front of Exchange. Ryan On Mar 3, 2011, at 7:14 AM, Darragh OHeiligh wrote:

Good afternoon,

I am looking for an anti-spam product to protect against spam for Exchange 2007. I know Exchange has it's own validation however this is frankly rubbish.

I don't mind if I have to build another server for this.

It should be able to check against something like trusted source and should allow users to independently unblock spam.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

I have forefront but it's more for anti-virus than anti-spam. Regards Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie From: Ryan Shugart To: Blind sysadmins list Date: 03/03/2011 15:11 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anti spam for exahange. Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Have you looked at Microsoft Forfront? This isn't the built-in solution but its an add-on. Outside of that, I'd look into either an antispam appliance or just something like Spam Assassin sitting in front of Exchange. Ryan On Mar 3, 2011, at 7:14 AM, Darragh OHeiligh wrote:

Good afternoon,

I am looking for an anti-spam product to protect against spam for Exchange 2007. I know Exchange has it's own validation however this is frankly rubbish.

I don't mind if I have to build another server for this.

It should be able to check against something like trusted source and should allow users to independently unblock spam.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi Darragh, I'm not sure about 2007's handling, but if it's anything like Exchange 2010, it might be worth doing some reading and review of how spam is handled by Exchange. Depending on your users, you may want to take a closer look at SPF handling which basically checks for forged headers. That said, it's a minefield, as I have been discovering after setting up an Exchange 2010 server in Zimbabwe, of all places!! George. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh OHeiligh Sent: 03 March 2011 14:15 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Anti spam for exahange. Good afternoon, I am looking for an anti-spam product to protect against spam for Exchange 2007. I know Exchange has it's own validation however this is frankly rubbish. I don't mind if I have to build another server for this. It should be able to check against something like trusted source and should allow users to independently unblock spam. Any ideas? Thanks Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi, I have been looking for a solution for this for quite a few years. You have either very expensive antispam appliances such as the Ironport or Barracuda, or you can build your own. The issues with your own is that it can take ages to get a quarantine manager up and running. Here are some suggestions of products I have tried: SpamTitan http://www.spamtitan.com - self-contained Vmware appliance built by an Irish company. This is the most user friendly interface but slightly more expensive than Security Gateway etc. Security Gateway from Alt-n http://www.altn.com - cheaper, runs on Windows, has a slightly less user friendly interface, and does some weird things with NDRs. Has a very good spam catch rate when used with the ComTouch engine, and has a lot of new features like DKIM and SRS which are missing from SpamTitan. I am using this currently as you can see from the headers. I would also take a look at Astaro mail security - I have heard good things on it in the past few months. Have you looked at an external antispam solution? Again ranging from very expensive solutions such as MessageLabs, but Google do one now (they purchased Postini), and there are a lot of other companies doing the same thing, some make it their core business and some do it as part of other services. I have heard good things about Webroot/EmailSystems, but there is no prices on the site which always makes me think they are going to be expensive. When I migrated the company to Exchange 2007 a couple of years ago, I chose Mimecast for this task because it clouded the email archiving solution. They don't have the most user friendly web interface, but their antispam/AV features are really solid. Thanks. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh OHeiligh Sent: 03 March 2011 14:15 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Anti spam for exahange. Good afternoon, I am looking for an anti-spam product to protect against spam for Exchange 2007. I know Exchange has it's own validation however this is frankly rubbish. I don't mind if I have to build another server for this. It should be able to check against something like trusted source and should allow users to independently unblock spam. Any ideas? Thanks Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hay Andrew, I'm delighted you like the idea. The site will need to be designed both for visual attractiveness and accessibility however I've worked on a lot of projects with the same goals such as www.mushroomfm.com, www.thelegend.com www.vicsireland.org www.lalrecordings.com www.digitaldarragh.com www.nickykealy.com and a few others so this shouldn't be much of a problem. I'm basing the site on Drupal 7 and already have a working model running at this address. www.blindsysadmins.com There is certainly a lot to do and I'd like to involve as many people as possible in decision making and even getting work done if people are willing. With the level of support I've got back after just a few messages introducing the idea I'm very hopeful that the momentum will continue. Regards Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie From: Andrew Hodgson To: Blind sysadmins list Date: 27/02/2011 10:33 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Hi, This looks a very good idea. I think the part I like the most is the ability to share information with other people. Wouldn't it be great if someone Googled a particular topic, and the blind sysadmins website was one of the hits with a possible solution? So where will we go from here? Will we need to design an interface for the website? If people want it, the list can also be moved to that domain as well, or you could point the records of a subdomain to this server to continue hosting it here under the relevant domain. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [ mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh OHeiligh Sent: 25 February 2011 12:01 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else. Hello, I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment. Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator. What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can. The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles. Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter. I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators. Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed! With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company. Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force. Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us. I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long. I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you. If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend. IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help. Darragh _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins