hi Jonathan and all,
This is very sad to me! I could ask you to please paste the
statements in the text where I have misquoted you, and we could
debate them, but that isn't even the issue here with me. First
of all let me say that I can understand ones need to publically
redeem their words if they feel they have been publically
misrepresented. However with respect to this list it concerns me
to carry this portion of the discussion very far. But, I am
entitled to the same right, and then will leave it alone.
Jonathan, let me say before you, and this entire list, I have
absolutely no desire to misrepresent you, or anyone else.
Jonathan, nothing disturbs me more than when someone is upset
with me and anyone who knows me would tell you so. Why did I
give you a hug at the end of our conversation, making certain the
air was clear in order to be assured there was no difficulty
between us? Since that is the case, why would I deliberately
falsely misrepresent you? The comments I made here on the list
(comments that concerned you, because I did speak of encounters
with other FS people in the past) were not spoken in any tone of
malice or denigration of you as a person, or Freedom for that
matter. That aside, you feel a trust was broken, or a confidence
not kept and for that I sincerely and publically apologize.
Jonathan, you were not on the list prior, so my concern also is
that someone reported things I had said to you off-list in a way
that was misrepresenting of myself. Jonathan, why did you not
come to me somewhere along the way and ask me what in the world I
was talking about if you have been so wronged?
I feel as though I could ask 100 questions to you, but the list
is not the place for that. I'm not certain why the going
on-and-on about how long you've known me has much to do with
anything; how it makes me feel is personally attacked, that you
are trying to discredit what I said based on those comments. You
make it sound as though the entire post was directed at you.
This is certainly not the case! I really don't know. I do know
this: Jonathan, I consider you a respected friend and would, by
no means, publically try to cause injury to you in any form.
That is the bottom-line. I have offended you publically, and
publically I apologize.
Sincerely,
Cheryl
There's more to sight than meets the eye!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Mosen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To:
<[email protected]
Date sent: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 02:52:43 +1200
Subject: Clarification of Reported Comments
Hi everyone, I was recently alerted to some discussion on this
list
regarding things I supposedly said at a private lunch that I
attended in a
personal capacity. I'd like to offer some comments, and
specifically,
correct some misreporting of things I am alleged to have said and
put them
in context.
Regarding the reported conversation at the ACB Convention, I have
met Cheryl
Edwards twice, in both cases because I am a good friend of her
husband. We
exchanged e-mail when I worked for HumanWare, and have Skyped on
a couple of
occasions. Although Convention times are busy, Paul, Brian
Charlson and I
always try to make time to get together, really because we're
three blind
guys who like each other's company. It was in this context, and
not in my
professional capacity, that we managed to find time for lunch
just before I
had to catch a plane out of Minneapolis. Paul, Brian and I have
been friends
for nearly a decade, and understand that we can be free and frank
with each
other on the understanding that what is said is said between
friends. In the
process of chatting about a range of topics, and mindful that the
ACB
resolution was in the works, I did express some personal concerns
about
Apple, in particular in the context of the touch screen on the
iPhone which
I was concerned would be emulated by other manufacturers, and
regarding
frustration I had experienced as a Windows access technology user
attempting
to use iTunes for certain tasks. Brian hartgen's updated scripts
for JAWS
will address some of these concerns. nevertheless, the
application is not
accessible out of the box in the same way that many other media
players are.
As someone who loves audio, this was of concern to me personally,
and we
were discussing this among friends. We also had a lively
discussion about
off screen models, document object models and user interfaces,
again a topic
that interests me as a blind guy talking to others who share my
interest. I
do think that everyone is entitled to have a meal with friends
and express a
personal view, and in fact I went to some lengths to emphasise
this to
Cheryl. I regret very much that this basic courtesy hasn't been
respected,
and that my comments have been quoted very much out of context.
When I worked for HumanWare, it is indeed correct to say that I
advised
Cheryl that synchronisation between the BrailleNote and the Mac
would be
unlikely to receive attention. This is because the BrailleNote
does not use
the synchronisation routines built into ActiveSync, but rather
uses its own
sync routines running under the Dot Net Framework. The challenge
of a
proprietary platform is that you're forced to pick those issues
that has the
impact on the most people, and during my entire time at
HumanWare, Cheryl
was the only person that ever made an inquiry of me about
synchronisation
with the Mac.
Regarding PAC Mate, which Cheryl did raise, the situation is much
more
positive because of its architecture. I commented that so far,
both in my
current job and my previous one, that I had personally received
an inquiry
about Mac compatibility once a year, in each case from Cheryl
herself. I
further went on to comment though that PAC mate was a true Pocket
PC. I said
that I thought it highly likely that the Mac would have an
ActiveSync-compatible client, and if it did, you could indeed
synchronise
your Calendar, Contacts, Notes and Tasks. Because I've never
received an
inquiry about this during my time at Freedom Scientific, it
actually didn't
occur to me to check, hence my comment about the apparently small
number of
Mac users. I like to try and have answers to these kinds of
questions, no
matter how many people ask them, and on that basis undertook to
become
familiar with the issue. Since then, I did some Googling and
found out about
Missing Sync, which would appear to me to fit the bill nicely.
This will
mean that I can give a more precise answer next time. I am
pleased that PAC
mate can be used with a Mac for those who choose to use it.
As Greg has stated, Freedom Scientific is only too happy to work
with
whoever to test these things, as we did with him at the NFB
Convention. Why
would we not. We'd like you to buy our hardware.
Regarding James's comments, my reason for asking him why he used
a Mac was
that I was genuinely interested, as I've not had the opportunity
to use one
myself. At home, I'm a very happy Windows user, with no strong
motivation to
change as an individual, so was keen to learn from someone who
new both
operating systems what he perceived to be the strengths and
weaknesses. I
really appreciated the clarity of James's answers.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify these issues. We endeavour
to make the
PAC mate and other blindness hardware useful to as wide a variety
of
customers and potential customers as we can.
I've been looking through the archive and have enjoyed it.
All the best.
Jonathan
