Ester,
This is a very comprehensive and useful post.
I'm filing this and will begin going through it at home as I am in the
Universitys library at the mometn.
I've had a quick look at the I Can Work this thing link you provided. This
looks extremely useful and I can't thank you and all the rest of you guys
enough.
I've quite an extensive stack of resources now to get on with. I must admit
so far with basic navigation I seem to be doing quite well.
Two quick questions.
1. How do I install an application?
2. How can I red the current time?
Thanks very much Ester, Alex, Erik, Dave, Mitch for ll your help.
I have been showing my Mac to some of my classmates and also my P A today.
One actually said, "It's very futuristic----- Original Message -----
looking", another actually said, "It looks a thing of beauty".
Several have commented on how thing it is and lite-weight considering the
hardware I have in my MB Pro.
Oh yes and a third question. How can i check battery status?
Thanks again foks. I cant' wait to get out of my Systems
Engineering/Requirements class and dull Advanced Database Systems this
afternoon to go home and play!
Barry
From: "Esther" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 9:42 PM
Subject: Re: Finally here
Hi,
I'll try to fill in where I can make some additions to what's already
been mentioned.
On Nov 7, 2008, at 11:16 AM, Dj Paddy wrote:
a self confessed geek! I've used all the Windows OS's bar Vista. I am
looking forward to installing Vmware Fusion and getting Linux up and
running on here.
If you have some Unix/Linux background, you might be interested in
reading: "Top Ten Mac OS X Hints for Unix Geeks":
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/10/22/macforunix.html
This old (but updated) web page gives information on items like running
terminal commands, shells, and system directory structure.
5. Podcasting.
What application is people using for this? I've noticed Podcast Catcher
in Utilitys but again it's asking me for a password along side my
username?
The easiest application to use for subscribing to and downloading
podcasts is iTunes (assuming you mean listening to podcasts rather than
producing them). The podcasts section of the iTunes Store is probably
the most comprehensive single location for finding podcasts, and iTunes
lets you set options for subscribing, downloading, and managing podcasts
in automated fashion or manually. You don't need an account at the iTunes
Store to subscribe to podcasts. You can do a simple search for podcasts
within iTunes by selecting the iTunes Store in the Sources Table and
entering the name of the podcast followed by a carriage return in the
Search Text Field, then you can move to the search results in the iTunes
Store and optionally sample or play podcast episodes, read episode
descriptions. download specific episodes, or subscribe to a podcast.
You can also subscribe to podcasts by supplying a URL for the podcast
feed, as with other podcatcher programs. This is a way to use iTunes for
podcasts that don't have entries at the iTunes Store -- like ACB radio's
Main Menu. Use the "Subscribe to Podcast" option in the Advanced Menu on
the iTunes menu bar (VO-M and press "A" to navigate to the Advanced menu
and arrow down to "Subscribe to Podcast" and return) and type in the URL
of the feed, then press return. If you have been using another
podcatcher, you can import the OPML file into iTunes using the File menu.
Downloaded episodes will appear in the Podcasts section of your iTunes
Library, organized in folders by podcast name. To access these, select
"Podcasts" in the Sources Table, then navigate to the Songs Table to find
your episodes. You'll need to expand a folder (VO- backslash, where
backslash is the rightmost key below the delete key and above the return
key on US keyboards, acts as a toggle to expand or collapse folders here
or in Finder) to view the podcasts. The number of new (unplayed) podcasts
is reported after you hear "Podcasts" in the Sources Table, so you are
alerted to new downloads. New episodes are also flagged in the first
(status) column in the Songs Table for podcasts and their folders.
You can automate management of your podcasts by using the two buttons
reached by VO-right past the Songs Table for podcasts: the first will let
you change your subscription status (Subscribe or Unsubscribe) to your
selection in the Songs Table, the second will let you specify your
settings for having iTunes check for new podcasts episodes -- how
frequently (hourly, daily, weekly, manually), what to do when new
episodes are available (download all episodes on feed [can be enormous on
some feeds] or latest episode), which episodes to keep (all, all
unplayed, most recent 2, 3, 5, 10, etc., manually manage). You can also
customize your preferences by podcast subscription and use even more
options from the contextual menu in the Songs Table to exempt specific
episodes from the automatic management rules (e.g. "Do not auto
delete" -- which is automatically set for any episode you manually
download). There's also a refresh button (VO-right past the one for
"Settings") that will let you manually update your check of all the
podcast feeds at any time.
Podcasts that you subscribe to through iTunes will automatically
"bookmark" so that their last played positions are remembered if you stop
in the middle. If you use an iPod and sync contents your latest played
position will transfer between devices, for continuous listening of
podcasts and audiobooks.
Although simple searches will let you sample the latest episode and
subscribe to podcasts without interacting with the HTML area of the
iTunes Store, navigating into HTML area lets you access a page for each
podcast that gives a complete list of all currently available episodes
(that you can individually sample or download without necessarily
subscribing to the series), navigate links to the corresponding web page
for the podcast, and view what other podcasts subscribers to this podcast
listen to.
There is also a Power Search link at the iTunes Store that you can use to
search for podcasts by title, author, description, category, and
language. So, for example, if you do a simple search by selecting
"iTunes Store" in your Source Table, then navigating to the Search Text
field and typing "Screenless Switchers" without quotation marks, then
pressing return, you can VO-right to the Songs Table and interact, and
find the single entry (for the latest episode) and sample it by pressing
return. You can also VO-right to the column where you hear "Free" and
route your mouse cursor to your VoiceOver cursor (if you don't have your
Mouse Cursor set to track your VoiceOver cursor), and press (VO-space) to
subscribe. However, if you had interacted with the iTunes Store HTML
area just before your VO- right to the Songs Table, you could have
subscribed by pressing (VO- space) the "subscribe" button (without cursor
routing) or you could have chosen the link to either the Screenless
Switchers podcast or its artwork and pressed it (VO-space) to go to its
podcast page. The podcast page includes a full description of the
podcast series and a subscribe button, along with links to the website,
and a list of "Listeners also subscribed to" links to other podcasts.
Moreover, if you stop interacting and VO-right to corresponding Songs
Table, you'll get a list of all available episodes with release date and
episode description. If you VO-right to where you hear "free" you can
download individual episodes. If you stop interacting and VO-left back
to the iTunes Store HTML area and interact there, you can navigate back
(Command-left bracket) just as you do for web pages. You can also select
the "Power Search" link on that page and press "VO- space" it. This will
allow you to set popup buttons for store categories (e.g."Music" or
"Podcasts" and enter search terms under title, author, description,
etc.). Another item of note is the "iTunes U" category. These are
podcasts released by Universities, Libraries, radio stations with special
educations programs, etc.
9 Further learning.
Any recommended resources other than the Voice Over Daisy manual for
teaching myself?
Erik and others have already mentioned some resources. There's also Tim
Kilburn's VoiceOver web pages:
http://homepage.mac.com/kilburns/voiceover/
and Greg Kearney's VoiceOver Compatibility pages for checking
accessibility of software:
http://w3.wmcnet.org/vo/
Greg also has links to some useful workflows and utilities at that page,
and he's put over some of his Daisy books and documentation at the Curtin
University pages:
http://www.cucat.org/books.php
There are various items at the projects page, such as links to eSpeak for
the Mac, and the Olearia Daisy player at:
http://www.cucat.org/projects.php
Also, try the guides at I can work this thing:
http://www.icanworkthisthing.com/docs/mac_with_voiceover/
Personally, I use the search facitilies at the Mail Archives for this
list a lot:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
Some of the search features are summarized in the archived post listed
below, which I got to by using the above link, pressing tab to go to the
search field, and typing:
from:"Esther" erik searching tips
to give you an idea of how it's done.
See:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg36943.html
With regard to Mobile Me, Erik's remarked:
Hi man, I thought .mac/mobile me was a subscription service? The
reason I didn't sign up was because I thought the screen said it was
going to be over $100 per year.
You can get a 1 year subscription through Amazon for $79, I think. But
in any case it's possible to get a free 60-day trial although the signup
web site may still not be accessible so that you have to call Apple
support. One reason people do this is to use iChat, which requires
either a .Mac/Mobile Me account or and AOL account. After the trial
period the login name should still work for iChat, unless things have
changed.
Thanks heeps for any and all answers, I knwo this is a lot but I'm
pressed for time as I was meant to have had this system 7 weeks ago,
(granted it means I got the new Mac Pro now), but I need to get up to
speed here as quickly as possible for final year projects.
Dj Paddy
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
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