Hi folks,
Thought I should chime in with some details and comments on
recent emails:
* Email database: Debbie is right: when the database size
approaches limit, it would produce odd symptoms as described by a
number of people. In this case, the best route would be to free
trash space frequently (I usually do it once a day). The size
limit of any database that the OS can work with (at least from
what we've seen) is 16 MB - beyond that, no more.
* Recording issue: I'd like to cordially differ on that analysis.
If increasing the volume increased humming from the audio, then
the obvious solution is changing recording source - you would
think that KeySoft is using internal mic to record sound when in
fact it tells you otherwise (perhaps using external mic or FM
radio).
Also a note for Apex users: when an external mic is connected,
the recording source automatically changes, whereas under mPower
you had to change it yourself. And the reason for not being able
to record FM radio could be that the chip used on Apex does not
support digital recording.
* Opening HTML emails:
1. At the "file name" prompt under save command, you don't have
to switch exclusively to computer braille, as all email messages
are stored as text. The details of how this thing works is
beyond the scope of this email (perhaps next time). Also, be
sure to choose ASCII text as file type, and at the end of the
file name, write.htm to really make sure that you are saving it
as an HTML file.
2. You can choose any folder to store HTML files. However, for
simplicity, I personally recommend saving this file on either the
root of Flash or external device such as SD card, or under My
Favorites folder on Flash Disk.
3. There are a number of ways of opening an HTML file: you can
use Internet Options/Open HTML file, or from address prompt,
press SPACE, then press SPACE with X to show HTML files within a
given folder.
4. Clicking links within HTML messages: As Alex described, put
the cursor anywhere within the URL text, then press ENTER with
DOTS 2-6 (CTRL with H on QT). If the web address starts with
eitherhttp or https, KeyWeb will automatically prompt for an
address, otherwise a subsequent prompt will appear asking you to
choose between KeyMail and KeyWeb (KeyMail option will work
properly if you read the web address from say, KeyWeb or
KeyWord). If you have say, KeySoft 9.0 or earlier, you can try
copying the URL text to clipboard (be mindful for line breaks)
and pasting it to address prompt on KeyWeb.
* Double spacing and other formatting commands: The new layout
functionality (where you change a layout of a document partway
through a file) will ONLY WORK IF YOU USE KeyWord native document
formats. This fails to work on other file types such as
Microsoft Word file (even saving a KeyWord text file with bunch
of new layouts applied as a doc file fails to apply the new
layouts in the destination file). Here, an obvious "fix" is: why
not just change the layout settings so that the new layouts would
apply to new documents? That could work, except for a fatal flaw:
when you change even one setting under Layout List, it'll work on
a document that's a native KeyWord braille or text document and
will not apply to other docs or new documents; in order for
application of this newer layout to occur, you need to go into
Layout list and set it so that the newer settings would be
applied on new documents you CREATE from then on. So, in
summary: there's no way (at this point) to make layout changes
(even bunch of changes such as parts of a file being double
spaced) document specific (and I'd like to suggest that perhaps
this could be a useful addition for some of us who work
extensively with layout changes and also to apply layout changes
to non-KeyWord files).
* Computer braille: In order to explain how computer braille
works under electronic devices, a crucial concept of Unicode must
be explored:
As you may know, Unicode allows a bunch of specialized characters
to be represented to a computer for processing. This could
include writing in foreign languages using character script for a
specific language, writing scientific symbols or even
representing things such as card suits, smily faces and so forth.
The management of this array of characters is done by assigning
special hexadecimal (base 16) codes to known characters so that,
when a computer encounters the hex value, the correct character
can be typed or displayed. And, surprisingly (and perhaps not),
braille "symbols" or dot patterns are also represented under
Unicode table as well. For example, the dot pattern used to
represent the letter O is character code 2815 under Unicode
table. The beauty of it is that Unicode table makes it clear
that eight dot braille patterns are supported for a total of 256
different character combinations (including a full space
character included), which are assigned from code 2800 to28FF in
Unicode. And when a person presses a key from a keyboard, the
guy who runs the keyboard tells the computer, "hey, I got some
characters for you to evaluate." The computer gets the character,
looks it up from so-called "key bindings" list to see the
character (within ASCII series or under Unicode) that is
associated with that given keystroke and does things accordingly
(based on the program in use).
And now what does this have to do with computer braille? Computer
braille is, as far as the computer (Apex or other models) is
concerned, just a list of key bindings that link one Unicode
character (rather, code) to another. Its not a language per say
- if it was, it would make matters more complicated (both from
user's proint of view and from the perspective of program
writers). The chief reason being that, in computer braille, a
character (the braille symbols that the user types or reads) is
tied to one specific character. For instance, let's go back to
the example of the letter o. You may recall that braille dots
1-3-5 is Unicode character 2815. If we type this letter, the guy
who runs the keyboard says, "hey, I got this sort of an odd
character here. Can you tell me what that character pattern is?"
Then the computer says, "oh, according to a table I have, this
character pattern corresponds to ASCII value 79 - the lowercase
o. I'll take care of that." And thus, KeyWord gets the letter o
and you continue to type some more text and close the document
you were composing. Can this analogy work backwards (going from
an ASCII value to a braille pattern? Yes - when the display
manager tells the computer, "oi, I see you've got the lowercase o
on the file you were using. Can you send me the braille pattern
for that character so I can display it to the user?" The computer
says, "here we go - display Unicode character 2815 to the braille
display please" - and you have dots 1-3-5 appear on the braille
display. If we expand our discussion to translating between
contracted and uncontracted braille, it would make matters
"worse" - not only the above scenario must be played for each
braille symbol, an additional worker called translator must be
involved to see the braille pattern (rather, a series of braille
symbols) and convert it to text (according to set rules) or read
bunch of text characters and display correcsponding braille
symbols (again using rules set by humans). Add foreign language
to that (braille codes for different languages) and you can hear
BrailleNote screaming for breath - well, not exactly scream, but
could get lost on which language character to look up. But, as
some people say, "machines do exactly what humans told them to
do."
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Joseph
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