[bookport] Re: Book port, boadt anchor.

  • From: "albert griffith" <albertgriffith@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 02:01:25 -0500

Just because we've spent allot of money to purchase and maintain our various
devices and programs, doesn't mean individual companies will or should
update their software if it's not good business for them.  Example:  I
wanted to run Vista on a Dell computer I'd purchased three years ago.  I'd
even upgraded the ram and purchased the Vista upgrade disk when I learned my
machine needed some small change in its mother board and Dell had no plans
to develop it.  Was I angry?  in a word, yes.  However, since I could do
nothing about it, I bit the bullet and purchased a new machine.  Think of
those who purchased IPhones to learn people who waited a couple of months
could get one for $200 less.  This is just life in the fast lane.


  _____  

From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Monica Willyard
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 4:24 PM
To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookport] Re: Book port, boadt anchor.


Hi, Phil. The problem isn't that APH won't update our Book Ports. They would
if they were able. The problem is that NLS doesn't see it as a viable option
and is committed to using a different type of memory card. If NLS were
passionately interested in finding a good solution to our existing
technology issue, there might be a good compromise that could be found. The
reality is that they are not looking for a way to make Book Port  work
because they are offering free players beginning next year, and they want
strict controls over the types of media used and the types of players used.
They see this strategy as the best way to prevent piracy, and that is their
foremost concern. It's a matter of focus and where an organizations
priorities lie. We want our existing technology to work because we have
invested in it, it's very portable, and we like being able to use one device
for everything. None of those issues is of particular interest to NLS. They
see their new player as being perfect for blind readers, and some of the NLS
employees I have spoken with don't yet understand why we use devices such as
the Book Port and still haven't totally grasped what Web Braille is about. 

So where does this leave us? In exactly the place we were in last week. Our
BP will still read Web Braille, daisy books, magazines, text files, Word
documents, and will play Audible and mp3 books. We haven't lost anything
because we didn't have it to begin with. So I can't see calling a BP a boat
anchor. It still does everything we've used it for for the past few years
and does those things reliably. We have to use a separate machine for
talking books right now, and that won't change. We'll just get the new
digital players at some point, and they will be free. Those of us who want
our talking books on the BP will continue to record them to mp3 as they have
always done, and no one will think a thing of it. Those who believe it's
immoral won't do what they're already not doing. In a couple of years,
either the BP 2 will be released, or we'll have saved up enough to by a
Stream. Either way, we'll continue to get good results from our technology
as we are now. And that stability is our anchor, not the Book Port.

Monica Willyard

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