Well, I should have said up front that I appreciate all of the
information that comes my way on this and a couple of other lists. We
do share lots of ideas and information and techniques with clients,
even though most of them are of little value to me personally. When
we began working as rehab teachers for the older blind and low vision,
hardly anyone over 80 used electronic equipment. The four track NLS
tape player was baffling enough. But now we find many folks in their
80's and 90's playing with all sorts of gadgets. And they assume that
Cathy and I have used them all. We show up at their door and the
first thing they do is to trot out some alien looking thing and ask us
if we can fix it. "I can't fix it until I know what it is", I usually
say.
So Roger, you're planning to read most of those million plus books?
Cathy and I read at least two or three books per week, mostly as we're
driving from one remote village to another, to see clients. So I
figure that we'll never run out of pleasure reading from Bard. Then
most of my other reading time is taken up with email posts and
broadcasts like Alternative Radio and Democracy Now. Also, I listen
to talks by folks like Chris Hedges on You Tube.
But as I said, the flow of information is both valuable and
appreciated, even though I'd need to live to be 150 if I were planning
to experience it all myself.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/23/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
True, if you can decipher what Samantha is saying when she reads all those
text to speech files and if you are truly so intellectually curious that
you
are interested in all those books on Open Library. I can't even get to read
all of the books I've downloaded from BARD and Bookshare, let alone what's
on my BARD Wish List, or the books I've noted from the NYT Book Review and
other sources.
Miriam
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2016 2:26 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Stream vs. Talking Book Player
I use both the DTBM and the first generation Stream. For NLS books without
earphones or an external speaker the DTBM is definitely the preferred
choice. But here is one big advantage to the Stream. Right now there are
1,856,383 accessible books at Open library. When I refine that to just
English language books the number is
1,266,616. The DTBM will not read any of those books, but the Stream has no
problem with them.
On 5/23/2016 12:19 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Well Marsha, that's what they mean when they say, "That's what makes
a
horse race".
It seems to me that the Victor Stream has different functions than
the
NLS Digital Player, although both play talking books. The Victor
that
Cathy and I were exposed to, by an elderly lady whose daughter had
given it to her and headed for Europe for six months, that Victor
had
very little volume, and the woman had hearing aids that caused
problems in listening comfortably. Maybe it was a problem with how
her daughter down loaded several books. But since she was in
Europe,
we couldn't ask her. But the NLS player, while I use it constantly,
has some very real limitations, too. Like, you can only read books
from Bard.
but I'm actually more interested to learn about the sort of folks
now
attending NFB meetings. Diapers on dog guides? Okay, first of all,
does this NFB chapter serve hard liquor?
Years ago I ran across a Movement that promoted dressing our pets.
But I've not heard of them in years. Maybe they went out to dress
Pit
Bulls?
Diapers! But then I never liked clipping dogs ears or tails, or
making Poodles into little Prissies.
I do confess putting a jingle bell on my one cat, since he was a
super
hunter, and we liked live birds in the trees as opposed to dead
birds
on the front step. I did hear that some folks who use the miniature
horses for guide animals put diapers on them. I've never seen one,
diapered or not...miniature horses, not blind people. Although,
along
those lines, I am beginning to see a day in my future when adult
diapers could become a very valuable assist.
And by the way, many of our clients are at an age where they need
protection in public, if they wish to avoid embarrassment. But
diapers on my dog? Talk about embarrassing! No self respecting dog
is going to willingly allow you to wrap it up in a didy.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/22/16, Martian.Lady <martian.lady@xxxxxxxxx>
<mailto:martian.lady@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi
Perhaps I am missing something. I went to an NFB meeting
on Saturday.
What a mess. One person suggested that people should put
diapers on dog
guides.
That's not what this message is about but I just had to
say that. I must
be missing something. They were saying how much better the
Talking Book
player was so much better than the Victor Stream. They were
talking about
how they hated the Stream.
I really love my Stream. It is the second best thing
beyond my computer.
I can do so many things with it.
Marsha
