Roselle, I don't read every message here, but my opinion is that you just want to help. You've helped me more than you will ever know. I'm using my machine for what I want to do with it now and will probably read and ask questions in the future. I think when one wants to buy a system, he needs to know what he wants to do with it first. Then someone might be arround to advise him about which system is the best. Now before I came here, I was a Braille and Speak user, but the day I wanted to buy a new system, Freedom Scientific people were upstairs giving a demo to the crowd. They weren't interested in a hands-on-display They were complaining about how much it costs to give customer support. Well, I wasn't going to buy a product with no support. I observed the Pulsedata representative helping someone with his GPS. Then I got his attention. I wanted to see and ask questions. When I finally said, I think I like this, he said, not to rush but to think a couple of days. I bought it the very next week. In addition, if I want to go to a store and buy one of those cards, he told me I could call him with questions.
Oh, by the way. I got creative. I somehow corrupted my email folders and such. It was a real dilly. When ever I tried to open my email files, I got a "process completed" message. I wasn't home but took my braille note and tried to figure out what was going on in those few free minutes. I almost figured it out. I found the hidden file but was afraid to delete it. In any case, I called the service Rep. He didn't quite know what to do, but he gave me a direct number to a tech. guy. Within minutes, the problem was gone. My system was working again. There was only one problem. I had over a thousand emails on my server. My system would load. I thought if I hung up, it would just get the new messages when I came in. Not so. It started all over again. Who knows which thing was at fault? I finally called my ISP and asked the tech. person to empty my email, so I could start over. That's what happened. I wish Braille Note would know what it has taken and not. Could ! it mark the last email on your isp and then just download from that marker? Brenda Mueller > ----- Original Message ----- >From: "Roselle Ambubuyog" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "\"BrailleNote List\"" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 22:54:49 +0800 >Subject: [Braillenote] Apology >Hi All, >In connection with the recent discussion about the future of the BrailleNote >that involved a comparison between this product and the PACMate, which >unfortunately somehow went out of hand, I feel the need to make >clarifications, provide some explanation where it is necessary, and offer >due apology. Sabahattin was definitely correct when he wrote in his reply >to Jonathan Mosen's last post that Freedom Scientific will not stoop low in >"sabotaging" a competitor's mailing list for its consumers. I say this is >correct because: >1. Freedom Scientific as a company or anyone who works there absolutely did >NOT instruct me to do such a thing and I was even specifically instructed to >resign from this list last March 8 because FS wanted to make certain that >there would be no conflicts of interest; and, >2. "Sabotaging" this list was absolutely NOT MY INTENTION. >This is where the explanations become necessary, so please read on. >As many of you would know, I suddenly had to stop posting on this list after >helping people answer their BrailleNote-related questions for the past 14 >months. As only a few of you have known, I am now working as a part-time >contractor for Freedom Scientific, working for their development team, not >for sales or marketing in case some of you may be led to think so. Before >leaving, I wrote in my supposedly final post that I will continue to read >this list and if ever I feel that some questions are not satisfactorily >answered, then I will help the person by sending my reply off-list. For a >time, I have done this as some of you, who have received help from me >privately, can attest. >But then I began to realize that even if I help off-list, people may still >come on list and say something like, "Oh never mind my question this >morning, Roselle just answered it privately", or do it accidentally like in >the case of Jim Taylor inadvertently sending his private message for Kellie >Hartmann to this list where he mentioned that I had responded to his >question about the "Missing R" in the address he was replying to using >KeyMail. Thus, I decided to stop helping users off-list as well. >But issues and solutions that were not explained properly, like Lisa >Ehlers's problem with writing her quizzes so they would not come out >gibberish to her sighted professors, which a number of you tried to sort out >for her yet her problems persisted, made me want to post again the answers >that I knew I had to share to these people in some way. This is why I >adopted a pseudonym, "Kirstyn", and used a different e-mail address. I want >to stress that this is the ONLY reason why I used a different name. As even >the list archives will show, I had posted using this other name to answer a >few BrailleNote-related concerns, starting with Lisa's, even before the >discussion we had this past weekend. >If I had a malicious intent in taking on a different name or if I was being >used by FS against PDI, then you would not have seen this Kirstyn helping >users on this list with BrailleNote problems, something that I had also done >at the same time that we were having the discussion on the BrailleNote's >future. This is because I was posting as a BrailleNote user and a PDI >customer like all of you, not as an FS part-time contractor . If it had >seemed to anyone that this was a harmful means of deception because of their >interpretations of what I posted last weekend, then I sincerely apologize >for letting such an impression form in their minds and not realizing sooner >that this would happen. I see the problem with this now from reading >Jonathan Mosen's post and very well understand why he felt as he had. I >also realize that if I had posted my messages last weekend using my real >name, then this negative impression may have been avoided, but as I already >mentioned, I unfortunately did not see it that way back then, and I can only >apologize for that now. >Regarding my posts last weekend, I will repeat here as I have done so in >those messages, that I have no intentions of slugging down the BrailleNote >so as to glorify the PACMate. I wrote as a concerned BrailleNote user >voicing out her frustrations that others here apparently share, and in >getting my point across, it so happened that the BrailleNote had to be >compared with the competition. For those who have followed that thread from >the start, you would know that the comparison between the competing products >did not start from me. I began to post about it when I felt that some >people were misinformed about the PACMate, and was using the claim that the >competition could not do this or that, while the BrailleNote can, so those >who are saying that the BrailleNote is falling behind should not be alarmed >and stop asking for more things that these people considered too much to >expect from a PDA for the blind, missing the fact that it can indeed be and >has been achieved. It was also in relation to the argument by some of us >that having graphical user interface in a product for the blind is not a bad >thing because other blind people using a competing PDA for the blind do not >run into problems with this. >But that was all there really was to it. If I had wanted to inflict damage >to PDI in some way, then in my reply to James Aldrich's post telling us to >stop ranting, sell our BrailleNotes and buy PACMates, I would not have >written that I "fervently hope" that this attitude is not shared by PDI and >other BrailleNote users because this is counterproductive to what we want to >achieve in continuing to request for more functionality and hope for a >prompt and good response. This also supports my explanation above that I >was not posting as an FS part-time contractor but as a BrailleNote user >with concerns and frustrations similar to those of others on this list. Two >of you have even written to me privately and asked my opinion about you >getting a PACMate, and I did not tell you to get rid of your BrailleNote and >go for the competition, but pointed out that if your needs are met by the >BrailleNote right now and you do not see your needs to change drastically in >just a month, then there is no need for you to buy this other PDA. Bob also >asked me off-list what I think the BrailleNote has that the PACMate does not >and I answered his questions based on what I know for certain, just as I had >replied to his questions about what he thought the PACMate did not have. >My mistake was that I did not foresee the possibility that my posts would be >prone to different interpretations, some already far from my original >intention. I realize now and admit that being subscribed to this list for >more than a year, I should have known that such posts will spark different >reactions, and lead to an outcome that is totally different from what I have >aimed. For this, I sincerely apologize again. Although I am not retracting >anything that I have said because I only wrote what I know about the two >products mainly discussed, and I maintain that my intention was not merely >to compare them so that one will be promoted while the other degraded, I owe >up to the fact that I have contributed to letting the discussion get out of >hand despite already seeing how my point was misunderstood, and I apologize >for not biting my tongue sooner. >After replying to Beth Thatch's message, only then did it dawn on me that if >I continued posting, even just to clarify my point, the more will the >discussion veer towards the wrong direction, obscuring my original purpose. >Therefore, as again the list archives will show, I stopped posting last >Sunday morning (my time) or Saturday night for some of you. I know now that >if I had done this earlier, then it's possible that things would not have >gone wrong as it appears to have had. From Sunday until today, I no longer >post to correct misinterpretations or to thank those who have taken my point >well because I was just hoping that the discussion will run its natural >course and only the well-intentioned points will be remembered. I honestly >did not expect things to turn out this way. >These are the reasons and circumstances that have led to this message: >1. It is but fair and right that I make sure everyone, especially PDI, >understands that Freedom Scientific did not tell me to post to this list, on >whichever topic and particularly not the one where the BrailleNote and the >PACMate had been compared, that posting was my personal choice, and that I >posted as a BrailleNote user in the same way I answered the users' >questions, not as the company's part-time contractor . >2. I needed to reiterate once more that I had no malicious intentions of >telling BrailleNote users to jump ship and buy a PACMate, and that >comparisons I have made between the two products was not something I started >but only contributed to for the sake of correcting misinformation, voicing >out the concerns of BrailleNote users like me who happen to have the same >needs as those using other PDAs for the blind, and urging PDI to respond to >these concerns. >3. I want to apologize for creating a negative impression with my use of a >pseudonym that I have explained to have started with my desire to continue >helping people on this list make better use of their BrailleNotes and not to >damage the list in any manner. >4. I also want to apologize for not considering first the possible outcome >or negative effects of my posts last weekend, which if I had carefully >thought about before writing those messages, would have spared the list of a >discussion that no longer reflects my original intention of speaking out as >still a BrailleNote user in spite of my connection with FS which, I assure >everyone especially PDI, has nothing to do with this issue. >Thank you for reading this far, and again my apologies. >Yours truly, >Roselle Ambubuyog
