Economics

I was happily on my way to bed when I decided to look at the Club for Growth's blog and found this great article on the defense of free trade for cheese. I additionally found this which has a link to a fasenating podcast on truth in economics.

When Putin has a better concept of what good government spending is then our President, one begins to think that we indeed do have an attatude problem.

Life Optimism

I am an optimist on the matter of life. I believe that a person has inherent value due to his humanity, and thus even a life not lived to its full potential still has value. This also makes me pro-life. I do not believe if a woman is pregnant and she doesn't want the baby, this desire on her part gives her the right to end that life. Indeed, she may if she wishs give it up for adoption, but to say that life does not matter because she didn't wish it right now is absurd at best, as well as being immoral.

I was dismayed therefore when President Obama was elected, as his vocal support for the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) placed him solidly on the side of death. I too some heart when I read this article for being optimistic. I am also well aware of the fact that the laws can say whatever they want, but it is the people on the ground who will make the difference. I was pleased to find out about the 40 days for life campgain, and will be involved with it as much as possible during this bleak time for those who believe in life over death. This gives a brief review of Rowe V. Wayde 36 years down the road.

Finally, I found this article by Mark Steyn to give me a smile.

On dogs

My wife (the most beautiful woman on God's green earth) wants a dog. Not only does she want a dog, she wants a dog that reminds me of Dante's Inferno when he describes Cerberus, minus the two extra heads of course. I have no problem with getting my wife a dog, though I took some comfort in this article from the great Dave Barry. Enjoy.

Not celebrating the death of the SMA?

I recently read this article from the Blind Access Journal that mentions some concerns about the death of the SMA. The primary concern is that with SMA profits AT companies will not be willing/able to keep up with mainstream technology. I find this arguement puzzeling, as currently System Access is far more stable then JAWS, equal to it in all ways except for one or two used by computer nuts like myself (and even then it is a close second), and Serotek's business model seems to opporate just fine without a SMA based model. I think this may indeed force the AT companies to get off the path of government handouts and get onto the path of innovation.

All hail the death of the SMA, and thanks be to God and Serotek for killing it.

RIP SMA

I am thrilled at this announcement from Serotek that they will be eliminating all their SMAs (Software Maintanence Agreements). This is the sort of innovation I have come to expect from Serotek, but even so I am always stunned anew when they once again blow my expatations out of the water.

For my birthday I got a netbook from my wife (the most beautiful woman on the earth) and the System Access Atom Edition from my friend Jenn to go with it. I cannot express how pleased I am at the responsiveness of SA and how pleased I am to know that when it comes time to switch all my boxes over to SA the transision will be an easy one. With Ellequence no longer being supported I see JAWS losing a HUGE part of its market share, as it is only Ellequence that has me currently useing JAWS 10 on my primary machine. Without that advantage I see absolutely no reason to give JAWS any marks above SA, nor Window-Eyes for that matter. I see the innovation for which Serotek is so properly known carrying it, and System Access, far beyond its current market share, even with the government slops being thrown at Freedom Scientific. When customers begin to see that quality and affordability are both available with System Access and that going with JAWS or Window-Eyes offers no real advantage and less customer service and affordability, it will be time for the folks at FS to prepare for a downhill ride. This has been long in coming, as on the whole the majority of AT companies can hardly be called innovative- hence why Serotek is so refreshing.

Word Press Mirror

So I've got this blog feeding into a Word Press blog to try and determine how well I like Word Press. If I like it well enough I will switch over there, but if not I will keep blogging here. The Word Press format seems rather busy for my taste however, so I'll probably just keep things going here. God knows it will make the Twitter feed simpler to manage.

Some Thoughts on Braille

As I begin to delve more deeply into the AT field, going beyond a hobby to a profession I have found the tendency to disregard Braille displays as a important and necessary part of most blind individuals AT package rather depressing. In the field where Braille is perhaps most exciting and full of possibilities to dramaticly level the playing field between those of us who are blind and those who are not with displays and access to electronic Braille (limiting or all together eliminating Braille's historic space issues) there is a noted coolness towards the code. This is unfortunate to say the least, for one of the best ways to have a full accessible digital lifestyle is to have tactile as well as audible output.

This coolness towards Braille is in part due to the stereotypes stil so easily found about blindness. People wish to be viewed as "normal" and thus they squint and strain at a ten word per minute rate of speed, rather then learn Braille. Even at twenty five or seventy five words per minutes the issue still remains that most can read at one hundred words per minute or more with no strain in Braille. I find a system and indviduals that promote this foolishness of print worship to be misguided at best, and believe they are woefully misinformed on what "normality" consists of (indeed all who have known me for any length of time can atest to my lack there of). I find the fact that in today's environment of openness and change we still have our minorities and stereotypes.

I believe however that if I, who was a anti Braille nutter from high school on, can be converted to the way of Braille there is hope for the most stubbron senior or recalcitrent student out there. I trust that once individuals have a taste of the freedom reading gives one, as opposed to listening all the time to material, they will want more. I hope so at least.

I am planning on wrapping up the display petition in mid to late April. I think this will give it enough time to be signed without transforming from a labor of love to one of pain. I hope it will have some impact on things, though more and more I find myself in the plite of so many geeks, who fall passionately in love with some obscure bit of programming or some sub sub geek culture issue, which when he holds forth to the rest of the world he is stunned to find that the rest of the world doesn't care about his pet project. This has its amusing side to be sure, though I pray it will be many a year before I need the services of a Tech Addicts Anonimus group. Just give me a gallon barrel of straight espresso and some good SAM Net content and I will survive... Hopefully.