RE: Scanner/Stuff...
- From: "Chris Hofstader" <chris.hofstader@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 10:53:45 -0400
Mathew,
The only truly succinct question I can come up with right now is: are you
always an asshole or is it something you turn on and off?
To be succinct about the vagaries of international copyright law and a
method for distributing scanned books to our friends outside of the US is
impossible as there is a lot of ambiguity in the laws, treaties, UN
Convention on Human Rights and people with Disabilities, ASEAN and many more
trade agreements ranging from GATT, NAFTA, African League, WTO etc.
governing this sort of thing. I want to hear suggestions rather than
precise answers to a query without a definite answer as there is no pure
answer to the highly inexact notions I posed.
Ho ho,
cdh
-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Matthew2007
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 9:52 AM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Scanner/Stuff...
It would definitely be to your advantage if you were more succinct and asked
a more direct question. What exactly do you need help with?
Matthew
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Hofstader" <chris.hofstader@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 4:36 AM
Subject: Scanner/Stuff...
> Hi Guys,
>
> My parents are in town so I'm fairly distracted from vocational and other
> programming related tasks. I did, however, manage to find a scanner with
> a
> document feeder (they used to call these sheet feeders, were consumers
> stupid enough to think they had something to do with bedding or is using
> the
> more sophisticated term a way to hit me up for an additional $25 or so by
> making me think it's a device far more interesting than something that
> simply scans sheets of paper - which, in fact, is what I want it to do).
>
> I bought a new Canon from the low end of their "professional" line which
> wasn't terribly expensive and only slightly slower than the one that died
> on
> us last week. It is expected to arrive by UPS mule by Thursday so Sue can
> start the Drupal scanning project on Friday while I'm having a tattoo put
> onto my left forearm. Assuming we don't get bogged down in a lot of paper
> jams and other scanning hell, we should have the book done by sometime on
> Saturday.
>
> This brings me to a minor conundrum - currently Bookshare.org is my most
> profitable client (the amount I earn from my different projects varies on
> a
> monthly basis depending upon how much attention I can devote to a gig and
> the project's level of urgency). I want, therefore, to promote BSO
> subscriptions to help defray the cost of the work they pay me to perform
> and
> to help keep the non-profit running smoothly as possible.
>
> At the same time, I don't want to exclude our friends outside the US from
> having access to this and other books on programming and technology that
> we
> process. Also, any web site that posts the book without the protections
> afforded by BSO, NLS and the others runs into a possible copyright problem
> with the publisher as, although we claim it is intended for blind people
> only, we have no way of protecting the content to ensure that proof of a
> print disability has been proffered before we share the book.
>
> I'm open to all sorts of ideas, please make suggestions.
>
> Yesterday, I spent an additional $250 on a birthday gift for my twin niece
> and nephew. I got them the Lego robotics starter kit which includes a ton
> of really neat features (you can read about it at lego.com), there are at
> least a half dozen books on Amazon describing projects one can make with
> the
> set, loads of add on parts, the ability to write code on a PC and download
> it to your bot and so many other very cool features that I could write for
> hours.
>
> The kids were first introduced to these Legos as part of their charter
> school program that brought them to MIT for two hours per week, one hour
> on
> robotics using the kit I got for them and the other on crypt-analysis and
> code breaking. Where were such programs when I was eleven years old?
>
> On a more topic based question, though, if I recall from my own childhood,
> Lego bricks and other pieces were highly tactile - does anyone know of
> blind
> kids using this kit to make their own robots? Does anyone know of any
> trials with children with vision impairment and such a kit? I'm curious
> to
> learn if it could be fit into a middle school course for budding blind
> hackers.
>
> Enjoy,
> cdh
>
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