[bookshare-discuss] Re: Ot New computer advice and monitor for low vision

  • From: Chris Hill <hillco@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:10:15 -0500

Great, except for one thing: external hard drives aren't cooled well and when they die it can be either trivial or extremely expensive to get the data off of them. Use an external drive for backup if you wish, but they are probably less reliable than an internal drive due to lack of cooling and the fact that they can be knocked around more easily. If you need backup for a reasonable amount of stuff and you don't want to mess around with an external drive, consider services like the free dropbox or paied carbonite.




On 8/18/2012 14:49, Duane Iverson wrote:
One quiet suggestion. Buy an external hard drive and put all your
important files on that drive: Then a crash is aa heck of an
annoyance but not a catastrophy. Also as far as sighted use of the
screen goes Have you looked at either Magic the screen inlarger from
f reedom Scientific? Or the system access program from serotek which
has a built in screen enlarger?


----- Original Message ----- From: "Estelnalissi"
<airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc:
<bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 2:57
PM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Ot New computer advice and monitor
for low vision


Dear Booksharian Friends,

Proofreading is what I do most of the time when I'm at my computer.
 Mine is about 7 years old. To proof books in word I have to divide
 them in parts or my computer fan shrieks and there are large time
lags when I make changes. Last night I got a blue screen and two
weeks ago I got a blue screen one day, a black screen the next day
and a blue screen the following day. My fan is so loud when I go to
a site like Amazon or Paperback Swap that I can't hear anything
else in the house. I think Scotty would say, "She can't stand the
strain, Captain.!"

I'm terrified that the next crash will leave me with no ability to
 save the files of all the books I've proofed, my the poetry I've
collected, the quotes I glean from the books I proof, the Gaelic
dictionary I've compiled while reading books about Scotland and
Ireland, The personal e-mail that means so much to me and my
favorites that help me find the sites on the internet I love.

I have to get a new computer! I use jaws to do 99 percent of my
computer work. I have no light perception in one eye and under
20/400 in the eye that works. It has no travel vision. I can't see
things at the end of my arm, on the floor or across the table from
me when I'm eating with others. The miracle is that I can still see
print if my nose is literally touching the screen or no more than 2
inches away, one inch if the print is on paper and is large
enough.

My current monitor which turns dark aqua blue sometimes is the
heavy old type of TV. I can see enlarged pictures or print on it
with no distortion. I only have to frequently clean off my nose
prints. The new computers have flat screens. When I get close
enough to them to see them a kind of shadow appears, darkening what
I'm trying to see so that I can't see it at all. No matter how
large the screen is, my particular vision problem requires me to be
right up there. Often it means standing up so I can lean over the
keyboard. For this reason, I can't see the screen on a laptop. I'll
be buying a desk top with a big monitor.

Can any of you advise me of a kind of monitor which doesn't get all
 distorted when you get right up close to it? Can anyone advise me
of a computer you think will be strong enough for me to continue
proofreading? I don't play computer games because they move too
fast for me to track and I can only see a little part of the screen
at one time. I want a computer which will be able to handle long
books in Word and will have a big memory for the books I like to
keep after they are approved. I'd also like to save music, which I
haven't been able to do for ages because my computer has been
extremely noisy for at least two years. I just couldn't afford to
replace it the minute it became troublesome. I think now I can't
delay getting a new computer any longer.

I'm also wondering if anyone will be able to help me work with the
new Word I'll get. I'm not intuitive when it comes to anything
electronic. I'd use word 2003 forever if I could. Evan proofs in
k1000, so word isn't his go to proofing platform.

Any advice will be deeply appreciated. I'm so sad that my Dell is
begging to retire.

Maybe with a new computer it'll be easier to organize and keep up
with e-mail, particular e-mail from individuals. I don't do face
book and twitter, but e-mail from individuals is precious.

The Geek squad from Best buy will come to my house to install JAWS,
 k1000 and transfer my current memories to my new computer. I am so
 scared they'll say they can't do it. Computers are wonderful, but
hard copies of books and music don't vaporize in an instant. When
my new computer crashed after only a year, they said they couldn't
retrieve the email.

Wish me luck. Evan thinks I should be excited to be updating but I
 think its terrifying! And, I don't want to be stopped from
proofreading for a single day.

Always with love,

Lissi To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank Email to
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