Thanks, Jane.
I will keep in mind what you said about the appple campus; you are
probably correct there.
I'm curious, where would you suggest hoasting some kind of camp?
I'm sure that there are plenty of people like myself who aren't active
in NFB or ACB, and, who, therefore, don't go to their conventions.
So, how would we get some kind of apple accessibility camp going that
would include those of us who don't really subscribe to the blindness
organizations?
I am curious, and would be interested in any ideas you have to suggest.
Olivia
On Jul 25, 2008, at 2:04 PM, Jane Lee wrote:
Heyas! Got a few things to point out:First..the Apple campus is
nothing
particularly noteworthy. Sorry to crush anyone's hopes/dreams, but it
honestly is just a whole bunch of buildings and offices. The only
thing
possibly worth visiting would be the company store, if you wanted to
get
like tshirts or something.
Secondly, even if you take caltrain, there's still a long distance
you have
to cover some other way to get to one infinite loop. I looked into
it when I
was staying in SF for WWDC and wanted to take some friends out to go
see
sights. It was infeasible for me...I think it was basically the san
francisco caltrain station (walk/bus/whatever there) to the sunnyvale
station, then about 4-5 miles to infinite loop. It's about 2 hours
by public
transit one way.
Lastly, given what I first pointed out, wouldn't it be easier to be
hosting
an event not necessarily at apple but one where current blind mac
users and
anyone interested can come and learn, and the more knowledgeable
among you
teach classes? There's these things called BarCamp (and sometimes
modified
to fit a theme, like iPhoneDevCamp and StartupCamp) where people come
together and share/learn/teach each other. You could call it like
MacAccessibilityCamp or something. See http://barcamp.org for more
info.
Sure, having it at apple is nice, but it may be inconvenient and
limited.
I know there's a recurring event hosted by apple in cupertino called
cocoaheads, but you'd have to consider that that's related to mac
programming and a lot of attendees are apple employees. Maybe you
will have
better luck asking apple accessibility if they'd be willing to look
into
hosting an event. Probably no need to curry Steve Jobs' favor.
cheers,
jane
On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 8:22 PM, Janet and Felix * <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Our friend himself does not work for Apple. He could. He's got the
knowlege. Instead he works for a company that encodes films.
Before that
he used to write anti-virus software. Anyway, he has friends he
met in high
school and/or college that now work for Apple that he stays in
touch with.
Friends in prominent positions at Apple.
I asked if I could share what we talked about and he said 'no not
yet'.
I'm sorry! It was just some ideas we batted back and forth. But
they
could amount to something.
Hey, everything starts with an idea, right?
I suggested maybe some media attention as a carrot to get Apple to
consider
a meeting and/or tour. It would surely be newsworthy if Apple had
a small
gathering of blind folks touring their facilty and/or participating
in a
forum.
But Felix brought up a very good point. About media attention. I
thought
it might be some good free publicity, but Felix says NO! Can't
make this
public! It could invite radical NFB demonstrators to come and make
a fiasco
out of what could be a good thing.
Yikes. So we've got the idea now to suggest making this exclusive
only for
current blind Mac owners/users, and then maybe suggest a reception
outside
where non Mac users could come to get more information. Then if
anyone made
any sort of weird demonstration, at least it'd be outside.
What do you think? Not that we have any say at all in what Apple
does
here! Laugh-laugh! Oh well, I can dream.
Just throwing an idea out there.
Developing concise points for a discussion with Apple, definately a
good
ongoing forum here. Someone needs to be a record keeper of sorts.
Save and
sort pertinent postings and compile a list.
*smile*
Janet
PS. OFF TOPIC. Felix plays in several blues bands, including one
every
Sunday over in the east bay town of Lafayette, 5-8 pm, at a nice
dinner
lounge type restaurant called Petar's. It's about 2 blocks from the
Lafayette Bart Station. Free. fun place. Every week they feature a
different singer fronting the band, and also different bass
players. Felix
and the drummer are always there every week though. That's one
suggestion
anyway! but yea, I'm totally flexible and into hangin' with you
and anyone
else too from the list if you're in the SF bay area sometime!
That'd be
fun! Here is Felix's My Space, work in progress, but there's a
couple videos
anyway.
http://myspace.com/felixbannon
There's a partial gig listing there too. I still have more future
gigs to
put up. I do that for him. I like doing it more than he does. I
don't
mind.
----------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Discussion about a tour of the Apple facility in
Cupertino
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:33:18 -0700
Ah, yes, now it's my turn to be blonde! lol!
Anyway, I used to take the Millbray route all the time, back and
forth between the east bay and Santa Clara. If you've never been
there, the Millbray station is a very cool structure. It's tres
artsie!
Anyway, to keep this sort of on-topic, what department is your
programmer friend in? Have we got any general sorts of ideas as to
possible discussion topics and how we might approach such?…
As I and others have alluded to, I think diplomacy is really an
important concern here, as there are already people in contact with
Apple on a regular basis, and this sort of thing should enhance a
relationship rather than help it go south! lol! -Know what I
mean?…
I think if people really do want to do this, then it might be a
really good idea to outline in writing some very concise points to
touch on.
Anyway, cool beans! and thanks for your notes!… Regardless of
this
happening or not, I'd love to catch up witcha both up there and do
coffee / dinner etc!…
Smiles,
Cara :)
On Jul 23, 2008, at 7:06 PM, Janet and Felix * wrote:
Cal Train does go all the way to San Francisco. We've got on it at
the King & 4th Street station, the terminal for Cal Train. The
south end terminal is in Gilroy, south of San Jose. Never been
that
far down though. We only rode it as far as Redwood City and back
to
San Francisco. Fun train. upstairs and downstairs seating.
Yes, oh yes, I definitely agree, that is faster. Don't bother with
the Embarcadero station and Muni. Just go to the Millbrae Station
just south of the SF airport. And catch Cal Train there. I've
never done that one before. Gotta add that one to my experiences
sometime soon.
Okay!
Janet
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