RE: Help With Sounds
- From: "Ken Perry" <whistler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2010 19:02:40 -0400
This is fully incorrect I used to think this till I got my job at APH so I
can say for sure this is not how APH does things. I have been in on
contract sessions purchasing design etc etc. Of course that is why we have
some of the cheapest note takers.
Ken
-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Hofstader
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 7:53 AM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Help With Sounds
Sina, a slight correction between the myth and the reality:
Blind ghetto companies want to maximize profits in terms of dollars, yen,
euros, rupees, etc. and are not thinking about profit margins (a percentage
of total revenue). As the integral dollar component is important, they
charge profoundly more dollars per unit than one would be able to do in a
market much larger than our little sandbox. As long as the board of
directors and investors are happy with return on their investment, they do
not give a rat's ass about what percentage of the total revenue is EBIDTA
but only the number of dollars that get distributed as dividends.
Of course, the blind ghetto companies lie and tell us that its the small
market and blah, blah, blah about costs per unit. Unit costs for JAWS (for
instance) are negligible (something like $500,000 per year) and result in
really big dollar sales numbers ($20,000,000 when you include SMA, upgrades
and the like). If you could get away with a 20x margin, I think you would
probably do the same and, as FS and most of their competitors are profit
making companies, lying comes natural to them.
I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for the number of times I
have repeated this lie when I worked at FS and for a little while afterward.
When users on mailing lists or elsewhere asked about the pricing model, they
would have me write up some kind of memo on the matter telling people how
poor, poor FS was working hard on their behalf and could hardly make our
payroll. This was pure and unadulterated bullshit, bullshit bullshit!
I know I also repeated this lie to some of you on this list over the phone.
I will not mention specific names as I did it so often that I would
definitely leave people out.
So, if you ran a company that could build a PAC Mate with 40 cell display
for around $500 wouldn't you charge $6000 to get those $5500 for your
investors? It was our fiduciary duty as officers of the company to maximize
return for the investors, wasn't it?
BTW: If anyone at FS challenges the numbers I cite above, challenge them to
open their books. If anyone there says I was a bad employee for six years,
challenge them to open my personnel file.
cdh
On Sep 8, 2010, at 5:40 PM, Sina Bahram wrote:
> Sure, and if you enjoy living in the ghetto blindness space, then that's
fine. I love it, frankly, 10 to 20X margins, only a few
> tech conferences a year, the most you have is a few releases per financial
year and you can usually charge the user for some of
> those, etc, etc ... It's great. I love that market. Exploiting blind
people is the way to go if you want some cash, my friend. It's
> as easy as apple pie, but that doesn't make it better.
>
> You have short-term advantages for ghetto blind products written
specifically for the blind. Very little learning curve, easier
> navigation for a little while, etc, etc, and then you realize that this
product is written by an industry who doesn't have any
> capitalistic pressure on it. People, have, to buy from them, so they can
continue releasing complete garbage, charging an arm and a
> leg, and oh, I love this part, we should be grateful because it's a
company incurring such costs to develop in the blindness space.
>
> And I swear, if you show me a company that has that level of cost, I'll
show you the most incompetent set of idiots ever in charge
> of a product. I don't care if they are nice, or good people. That makes me
want to have a beer with them, but the fact that they are
> such incompetent tech managers makes me want to throw said beer in their
face.
>
> So here's an idea, take a tenth of those dollars, and make some real
applications used by real people in the real world accessible.
>
> You mentioned Outlook. Show me a blindness application that works half as
well for the things Outlook can do.
>
> You mentioned editors. For IDE's, I use eclipse, when I need something
more than wordpad, not a proprietary editor, and I actually
> prefer it to anything I've used, including Boxer.
>
> There's word processors ... Show me anything that works better than MS
Word for the kinds of things it supports, for the blind.
>
> Same for presentation software: there's PowerPoint.
>
> And so on
>
> Take care,
> Sina
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ken Perry
> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 5:28 PM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: Help With Sounds
>
> I like to argue this. If you actually get good software written for the
blind it's much better than software adapted for the
> blind. Unfortunately that means its more expensive but then look at gold
wave, dreamweaver, Adobie, and the list could go on I will
> not even list Microsoft because we all know they are um well interesting
when it comes to pricing their software have you tried
> buying Outlook? Don't give me that use thunderbird crap I have to
actually get my appointments sometime this week. Some times its
> better just to buck up and pay for software that is easy to use so
>
> you don't have to spend time and money fighting with it to make it work
the way it should have when you got it. Hell I am even
> working on an extension for Safari to try to make that piece of shit work
better.
>
> Ken
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sina Bahram
> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 4:11 PM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: Help With Sounds
>
> Let me be less kind, haha. Anything written in the blindness market.
>
> Other industries do actually know how to write software.
>
> Take care,
> Sina
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris
Hofstader
> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 3:59 PM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Help With Sounds
>
> When did Sina become a lousy communist?
> On Sep 8, 2010, at 2:58 PM, Sina Bahram wrote:
>
>> There is also Reaper, and some other programs as well.
>>
>> $200 for anything other than an entire operating system is not only
> ludicrous, but down right despicable.
>>
>> I'd laugh, but I'm too busy being sick to my stomach at such an insane
> price for anything.
>>
>> Take care,
>> Sina
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ken Perry
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 12:27 PM
>> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: RE: Help With Sounds
>>
>>
>>
>> Sound recorder (SR) by APH is my tool of choice. It is $200 but it is
>> the most accessible and coolest sound tool made for blind folks. If
>> you
> don't have a volunteer yet let me know and I can see what I can wack out.
>>
>>
>>
>> Ken
>>
>>
>>
>> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of QuentinC
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 11:04 AM
>> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: Re: Help With Sounds
>>
>>
>>
>> You could use programs such as audacity to make that. It's not very
> difficult but take some time.
>>
>>
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