Hello Antonio, I have never worked for GWMicro but I have used its products almost immediately after the firm was launched. It was a spin off of a pioneering company called Computer Aids.
GWMicro had one thing in its favor and continues to have this. GW has always responded quickly to users' concerns. It continues to provide great tech support. This is very important and keeps me loyal to it. This is not to say that everything it does is perfect, but it does strive for perfection. I'm concerned that GW has gone to a third party for it Braille Sense line. What this means is that GW does not have complete control over programming. I know that GW passes along suggestions from us, but it remains to be seen as how many of these suggestions can be or will be implemented. Like you, I wonder if HIMS must stay with Win CE or if a complete revision to an operating system such as Linux could be possible. I'm don't enough about hardware restrictions which could prevent such a complete revision. Meanwhile, the sense products have more on board Ram than most other devices. The Braille Plus has something which no other product lines have, and that's internal hard drives. This makes for a large data storage capacity. I don't have enough data in my Schedule Manager to know how slow it becomes. I hope this covers your comments. This is a huge subject, and I don't have too many answers. Joe G. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Antonio M. Guimaraes" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, Aug 15, 2009 0:17:09 Subject: Re: [GWN] Braille Sense and its limits > > > > > > Dear Joseph, > > Reading your post almost makes me wonder if you are a GW Micro, or Hims > employee. Are you? You seam to write with a bit of authority about what the > braille sense is and is not, and what we can or can not expect from it. > > I would love for GW Micro to get more out of Hims, not less, how about > yourself? > > I find that many times, where there is a will, there is a way. If we can't do > this, and we can't do that with the braille sense, there may be other > machines that can this and that, and more. > > I do not plan to ditch my BS, but I almost did due to the unusability of my > very large and slow schedule manager file. Just place some recurring > appointments in, and you'll see what I mean. > > Remember that the braille sense plus is now more flexible with hardware > configurations. At least I think so, since the cacing can be easilly > accessed, and components reconfigured, the insides redesigned and such. > > If windows c is so restrictive, why continue to use it? The answer may just > be to keep all the prior development that went into the Sense products. All > the programs that Hims will keep the same because of there not being a large > enough demand and so on. > > I understand a company must maximize their efforts, but I don't work for that > company. I work with a product made by that company. It is in my best > interest that the company stay healthy, but it is even more in my best > interest that the product I use do what I need it to do. > > Heck, I am not asking for the Braille Sense to cook for me, just that it be > good at keeping my written recipes. > > Antonio Guimaraes > > If an infinite number of rednecks riding in an infinite number of pickup > trucks fire an infinite number of shotgun rounds at an infinite number of > highway signs, they will eventually produce all the world's great literary > works in Braille. > > Shop online and support the NFB of RI at no additional cost to you. > http://www.givebackamerica.com/charity.php?b=169 > Givebackamerica.org, America's Online Charity Shopping Mall > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Joseph Lee > To: [email protected] > Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 1:07 AM > Subject: [GWN] Braille Sense and its limits > > > > Hi folks, > Nice to see a steady flow of suggestions about Braille sense. Some of them > included foreign language support, word count and so forth. Although they > were good ones, one needs to consider if it is worth it to put it on a device > that has technical limits. Not that I am saying that BS family has outward > limits, but in terms of specs and OS, it does have limits. > First, as mike said, Braille Sense is a PDA. In other words, Braille Sense > is meant to be PC companion, not a PC replacement (although I've seen some > people mistaken it for such). In other words, not all things that can be done > on a computer cannot be done under Braille Sense. For instance, not all > websites that a Windows XP machine can handle cannot be navigated using > Braille Sense. > On the hardware side, the line between PC and PDA is becoming less > differentiated at least when BS is concerned. Braille Sense has one of the > good processors for mobile devices, as well as sufficient memory to run > applications and store useful data. But in terms of software side, it is not. > Braille Sense runs under Windows CE not regular Wihndows, folks. Windows CE > is a completely different OS architecture than Windows NT family. Thus, it > has limits, such as 32 MB of virtual memory and 32 process limit (this is the > reason why BS would only allow seven programs maximum). As for virtual > memory, I need solid evidence of things such as browser crashing or other > slow downs before explaining what exactly it is and its limits (if demands > requires me to, but right now I am going through summer school in college). > Also, as I have stressed on another list, writing code for embedded devices > such as Braille Sense carries different requirements. One needs to be careful > about memory usage, processor architecture and so forth. Just because we > imagine things in our heads and pray that it will appear out of nowhere does > not mean that it will happen soon one needs to plan, compose, debug, > recompile and release the software (if stable enough) numerous times before a > suggestion or feature request will work properly. > Also, it seems that the manual is wrong about type of USB port. Braille Sense > does NOT have USB OTG (On-the-go) technology at all. All it has are one USB > host and one USB client, that's all. If it had OTG port, theoretically > Braille Sense can work with two USB client devices at once one on BS's own > uSB host port, another one on the USB client port with a dedicated adapter. > As to what USB OTG standard is, I'll compose the article in question when > there is enough demand. For those who have seen me on other lists, you would > know what OTG is and my article style& > Cheers, > Joseph P.S. Alex, do you agree with me on this one?
