I remember in the late 90’s buying a Palm Pilot for my wife because it was the latest thing out there for organizing one’s life! Organizing is a very general term and definitely means that the Palm Pilot could claim to be a general device. the razor blade concept was just as true for Palm at that time as for the razor manufactures. I thing we spent more on replacement pens for that Palm in the first year than the entire cost of the Palm and accessories. WIth the IPhone we now have a device that is one thousand times more powerful than the original Palm. And to think that it is totally accessible to the BLind
is absolutely awesome!!!
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Tuesday, January 12th, 2010Connecting and Organizing
Monday, August 17th, 2009For as long as I can remember I have marveled at the variety of methods that we employ to stay in touch with our world.
I remember the first time I saw a bible. I was amazed at how many pages were in the compact book that I held in my hands as a child.
I received my first new testament in third grade from my grand parents. The new testament in Braille consists of four volumes. Each volume is at least three times thicker and four times longer and wider than that first printed bible I was shown. I asked someone to show me how much thickness was taken up by the new testament in the printed bible and was shocked at how few pages were used. That same year when I was in third grade I visited a library which had a Braille Encyclopedia that required five book shelves to hold it and was over a hundred Braille volumes.
When I was growing up vinyl records were the king of storage of music and reel to reel tapes were the most advanced way to store audio books. Fast forward to today and I have a 16GB IPhone in my pocket that holds the entire bible, several audio books, and the equivalent of 25 vinyl records and yet I have only used 20% of the available storage. I used to dream of having a huge library to hold all the Braille books that I would like to read. Today I can have all the Braille books that I could possibly read in a lifetime stored on an IPhone.
This same IPhone connects to the internet and permits me to pull in and read any of billions of web pages. To think of how quickly we become used to change and new possibilities, before May of this year a blind person could not use the IPhone at all.
What are the ways that change has impacted and amazed you? ?
A Warm Welcome From Kevin Fjelsted
Sunday, June 14th, 2009Thanks for stopping by. I’m Kevin Fjelsted, and I’m glad to meet you. I’m excited about connecting with you and hope you’ll say hello either here on my blog or on your favorite social community site. Community matters to me, and you’re part of it.
I’m a guy who likes people, all kinds of technology, and the possibilities created when the two combine. I’m a business entrepreneur which lets me use my passion and interests to help people everyday. I’m a problem-solver, and I’ve been known to tame computers of all kinds, including the old reliable punch card IBM and Control data antiques of the 1960’s and 70’s, modern Macintosh and Microsoft technologies, esoteric cell phones, and strange but still usable palm pilots. I love to work on voice over IP phone systems and make them sing.
I’m a blind person who absolutely believes in viewing being blind as an opportunity to bring a smile to the world and help all of us remember that although we may be created differently, we are totally of the same humanity! For me, blindness is an opportunity to experience the minor nuisance of problem solving with the added benefit of learning creativity every day.
My local church community is very important to me, and my family and I spend time with people there each week. My wife and I have adopted four children and watched them grow and experience life. I’ve been part of the same community for 35 years and am grateful for the love, laughter, and friendship there.
I’m a Ham Radio operator with the call sign WA0UWW. I worked on one of the first computer terminals for the blind in the 1970s. I’m also an avid bike rider, SCUBA diver, swimmer, and reader of books. I enjoy drinking wine, though I prefer to leave it to the experts and my best friends to tell me which wines are best to taste.
I see each day as a blessing and each friend as a gift. Now that you know who I am, please tell me about you. What do you enjoy, and what makes your heart glad? Please comment here or say hi on Twitter, Facebook, or other social site.
Using Vienna as an Accessible Twitter Client
Monday, January 18th, 2010In my quest to move all my activities to the Mac one of the first items that needed to be handled was an accessible Twitter client. Although I am not a power user the number of people that I follow on Twitter has crossed the three thousand mark. THis means that there is a need for a precise filtering mechanism that permits one to take a Twitter stream of over Twenty Thousand tweets a day and quickly glean the high priority Tweets.
I chose Vienna version 2.3.4.
THis solution is totally accessible with VoiceOver and permits one to specify the RSS entries for each person that I wish to filter. Once the RSS entry has been added to the list to follow one can group various RSS entries into smart search folders which facilitates grouping of tweets by category.
THe coolest thing about this solution is that one can actually see the web based twitter post and respond to it directly within Vienna
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Tags: Accessibility, Apple, applications, Blind, Mac, productivity, technology, Twitter, VoiceOver