Thanks, Martin.
Sending out the articles, while it may seem time-consuming, is actually the
easiest thing for me. There are a lot which I run into and I often have to give
some of them some thought before sending them. Obviously, if it's about a new
or updated assistive technology product or service then it's a given that I'll
likely repost it. If it's about mainstream computing then I sometimes need to
ask myself if it would be of general interest to most people. As an example, an
article about how the Amazon Echo is coming to hotels or an article regarding
new features coming to Microsoft Word will likely be of interest to many but an
article about a new ereader or one about various distributions of Linux would
likely not. I try to resist sending articles about employment issues unless
they tie into technology. I can always find a piece about how some blind person
blew everyone's mind by doing this or that task but I really try not to,
unless, again, there's a tie-in to technology. I also have no issues in sending
articles about prototypes of assistive tech that's not currently on the market
yet as I think there's value in knowing about that. But that's me. <smile>
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist
WWW.David-Goldfield.Com<http://WWW.David-Goldfield.Com>
On 7/4/2018 12:26 PM, martinelson1@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:martinelson1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hi, David: your articles are very interesting. Keep them coming!
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2018 12:21 PM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Quick Updates
1. I wanted to wish all of you a happy and blessed Independence Day.
2. I have not forgotten about our phone meetings. Our next meeting is scheduled
for Friday, July 27 at 8:00 PM and is open to any questions or comments
relating to technology.
3. As always, please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have comments or
questions regarding our group. If you have ideas for guest presenters or if you
feel you might want to present a particular product or service please let me
know about it. I would respectfully ask that any questions of a technical
nature about technology be directed publicly to the list at
blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and not to me privately. If your question goes
to the list other people can respond, especially since I often don't have the
time that I'd like to personally respond to emails. Also, the fact is that I
simply don't know everything and there are many on this list with expertise on
products or apps that I just don't have.
4. I'd be curious to know if this mailing list is meeting your needs and, if
not, what could be done to have it do so? As an example, are the articles that
I send out of value or would you prefer the list to just be dedicated to
discussion without the articles? If you do like reading articles, are there
topics you'd like to see more of or less of?
5. Depending on which email program you use you may have to perform a "reply
all" if you want your replies to a message to be sent to the list. A few months
back Thunderbird made an annoying change which meant that pressing ctrl+R to
reply to a list message would send your reply to just the original sender and
not to the list. One workaround for this is to press ctrl+shift+R (for Reply
All) which should guarantee that you reply will go to the list. There is a
slightly more technical workaround which can force Thunderbird to revert to the
older and, in my opinion, more preferred way where just pressing ctrl+R sends a
reply from a mailing list to the entire list, which is, I think, what most
people expect. Off the top of my head I don't remember the exact set of steps I
used to adjust this setting but, if you run into this issue, let me know and
I'll try and post them. I think users of Outlook should be OK but I can't speak
for other email programs.
6. As always, if you know someone who could benefit from this list don't
hesitate to provide them with the information on how to join the list. To
subscribe, the email address is
blind-philly-comp-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the subject type
subscribe
and then send the message.
There are just so many mailing lists out there dealing with various types of
assistive technology and, to be frank, I'm wondering if this list is still
relevant. Initially, I started this as a group for people in or near the Philly
area because it was my assumption that a city as big as Philly needed a support
group for visually impaired computer users. That still may be the case but I'm
just trying to ascertain this. You can be as honest as you want to about this
as I don't have an ego when it comes to this group. If it's meeting people's
needs then it will continue. If it isn't I have no problem in seeing it go away
because, as I said, there are many discussion groups dealing with technology
both in general and lists dedicated to a specific product.
Take care.
--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist
WWW.David-Goldfield.Com<https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7C56ff7191cf0a4f6783e508d5e1caf922%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636663184226705308&sdata=ChJZgl%2Bxl4HZQSs83oDOLisypuZdGg%2FF9CzsnW9rFHM%3D&reserved=0>