Dear Andy, First off, please forgive me for offending your "finer feelings." As I was the one who posted the note from the FS list, it was certainly not my intention to offend you personally.
If, however, you were offended on behalf of HumanWare, then I'm glad it touched a nurve. This may get me some sensure, but I'll write it. For many people, the purchase of a piece of technology such as the BrailleNote is a long term investment in their future and maybe one which must last them for the better part of a deccade. It is a huge gamble! They are betting that this piece of technology will help them interact and keep up with their sighted counterparts for its functional lifetime. If it takes a bit of offensive behavior to get developers and company executives to sit up and take notice, to remind them that the competition is innovating and creating, then so be it! Sometimes a polite suggestion is good. Sometimes a wake up call is in order. As has been said earlier, broader capability with the IR port has been asked for for many years. I've said this before; I LOVE my BrailleNote. As I understand it, it's hardware seems to be more robust than that of others. That doesn't keep me from wishing that it was more versitile and able to keep up with current standards. Unfortunately, right now, it seems that the competition has cornered the market on timely innovation and encorporation of the capabilities of the OS and available hardware. I applaud Humanware for it's encorporation of new connectivity and storage technology, but in terms of the IR port, I've never used it, even though I've paid for it, so it would be nice to see some broad capability built in for this. Data exchange, programmability, these kinds of things which sighted people are able to do with their handhelds would be great on the BN. I know, I know, many deafblind folks have purchased a speaker and an FM radio, and can't use it! Broader capability with the IR and even the BT hardware would help us all. This should be studied. Surely some one kept the specs around for the hardware built in to the machines. If these things are absolutely not possible, then HW should come right out and say it. I'll say it again; if this was an afront to anyone's loyalty to HW then good! We shouldn't be purchasing and keeping technology based on loyalty. Our ability to fit in to a sighted world and to keep up with our sighted peers is paramount, and it is the reason for which accessible technology companies exist. We should be loudly demanding innovations which will allow us to fill our changing needs. If these demands are not met, ANY accessibility company should be in constant fear of the competition and constantly strive to keep ahead. Often when the PackMate is mentioned favorably here, the poster runs the risk of being flamed. But we are involved in a competition to create a product which helps blind folks be as successful as possible at navigating a sighted world, so if it takes a note saying, "look what those guys are up to," to get people to take notice, then I've succeeded. I'll shut up now. :-) Rusty ____________________ Skype: rustyperez Yahoo and AIM: reliroo Check out my blog at http://rusty-perez.blogspot.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of andy riden Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 6:41 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Wouldn't this be neat!!! Hi guys, I would prefer it if I didn't have to read any posts that sound like adverts for Freedom Scientific, if that's ok. Feature suggestions are good, but please have some consideration for my finer feelings! thanks. Technically, it may or may not be possible to use the BrailleNote to record and playback the information that Infra-Red remote controls send - it basically depends whether we can put the chip that controls the IR interface into a mode that lets us do exactly what we want, rather than just transmitting and receiving using the IrDA protocols. regards, Andy. ---- Andrew Riden Software Development Engineer HumanWare Ltd. 11 Mary Muller Drive, Christchurch, New Zealand. DDI +64 3 940 2264 Fax +64 3 384 4933 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet: www.humanware.com ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
