RE: Off topic Longhorn preview!
- From: Bill <bill.cam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 18:46:10 -0500
jim first you confuse operating system with applications.
secondly you confuse stability with access to blind users.
by the way as stable as x p is its know where near as stable as dos was.
i assume from your comments you do not think backing up is importan.
most of the backup programs blind folks can use require some form of dos to
do a complete reinstall.
a complete reinstall is required when windows gets trashed.
ghost 2003 for instance installs a virtual dos partition.
regular ghost uses a dos floppy.
because x p backup software requires one to first have to reinstall windows
first prior to reinstalling the backup.,
where no speech exist.
so the windows software still does not allow a rsingle step reinstallation,
even though old dos could easily do this task.
other x p quirks also exist, like the fact it removed the registry backup
tool for some unknown reason.
in addition system restore in x p is no where near as good as system
restore in windows me was.
to make it faster, system restore, in x p they also maid it back up less files.
so seen it screw up several times doing reinstalls where previous version
would not.
it also will not back up farther than 90 days where system restore in me
would back up as far back as you had hard drive space for.
this point of complaining about system restore is more of an issue when one
considers they no longer have an automatic backup of the registry.
one thing i do agree with you on is that most blind folks do not know dos,
and its also true most blind folks think they probably have good access
even though their are not able to do 2 of the most importan things in the o
s, one trouble shooting in safe mode and the second backing up and
reinstalling the o s.
most of the same folks are probably not aware how easy it would be for
micro soft to design a version of safe mode that also loaded the sound card
driver.
so blind folks could also enjoy speech in safe mode with a software synth.
it would also be easy to load a com port driver in safe mode for hard ware
speech.
or load u s b support in safe mode for a u s b synth.
their already exist 2 versions of safe mode, one that also loads the
network driver so making the suggestions above would be fairly simple.
by the way its also true some programs that used to be accessable, like
money 98, newer versions are no longer accessable.
so the support for m s a a, is some what questionable, because its a m s
thing that micro soft hardly supports them selves.
obviously if micro soft did support m s a a in office and money then other
screen readers would be able to read them just fine.
j f w uses the dom to intercept the information in office to give it
superior access over other screen readers.
dom being the way that office applications communicate with each other.
not m s a a.
in fact g w had to add m s a a components to word to make it more
accessable in their latest release.
one might think that was micro softs job.
the one place where m s a a has been added is in the browser, but browsers
that have m s a a do run on earlier operating systems.
one last point i really was surprised you pointed out, was the fact that
you talked about its security and how you could drive a truck through it.
not that i don't agree, but have no idea where you been when m s was
patching x p the last couple of years.
think one could drive a convoy through it.
grc.com clearly talks about how easy it is to take zombie remote control of
x p over and how security center is not very secure.
look at how some anti virus over ride security center virus checking feature.
so security center reports their update when their not, well if anti virus
can do it then its pretty certain that a worm can also duplicate this act.
making you think your up dated when your not.
another reason i just turn it off.
another thing you say that some what confuses me, is that we work
differantly, very true indeed.
so when i maid points about lack of speech access in dos, you acted as
though thats not importan.
even though its the only method of reinstalling backups for the blind.
i did not pick this method, i was given this single option so hence i use
it, though differant than my sighted collegues use.
oh by the way this is also microsofts fault, it would be very easy with cd
rom disk to make a boot cd rom that contained jfw and a version of windows
that would allow reinstallation of the backup via windows.
why does it not exist, because m s will not premit it or charges to hi a
fee to make a windows boot cd rom that one can add drivers to it.
at least that is what stomp backup told me.
in win me stomp did have a windows boot disk, but not in xp.
granted that boot disk did us little good because it lacked a sound card
driver.
though it was a start in the right direction.
why m s it self does not provide a windows boot cd rom capability with the
ability to back up drivers to make reinstallation much easier is beyond me.
like they used to do with floppies.
actually the reason is some what clear, pure and simple, greed.
that and lack of competition.
so i also believe in giving micro soft their due, or lack of credit when i
see how easy it would be for them to add certain features.
bill
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