Your bickering about his off topic is just as off topic unless you send it privately.
Just sayin'. I see your point, but I want to read your rebukes less than I want to read his stuff about legos and scanners and oh my. It's a small enough list that I think common sense can prove more effective than hard and fast discussion guidelines anyway. Let's just be adults.
Matthew2007 wrote:
This is a programming list and not a "let's gripe about copyright laws list." You would probably be best served if you took this kind of thread as well as your original post to the bookshare list.Matthew----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Hofstader" <chris.hofstader@xxxxxxxxxxx>To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 8:14 AM Subject: RE: Scanner/Stuff...The publisher can send the content of a book to whomever they choose, insideour outside the US. People like us, not in the publishing biz, are restricted by all sorts of copyright laws in the US and around the world which complicates the issue terribly. -----Original Message----- From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Octavian RasnitaSent: Monday, May 12, 2008 10:38 AM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Scanner/Stuff...I have never read a book from bookshare.org because I think that it costsmoney, while very many good books can be found for free.But, before bookshare started to give O'Reilly books, O'Reilly had a freeservice for the blind, and I received books from them.They created an FTP account where I could download the books I wanted, and before creating me that FPT account, I needed to send them a scanned paperthat proves that I am a blind. They accepted my paper, even if I live in Romania, Europe, not USA.They told me that it is not a problem that I live in Romania, because theyalso had some romanian employees, and I think they use to accept those papers no matter the country. Octavian----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Hofstader" <chris.hofstader@xxxxxxxxxxx>To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 2:36 PM 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 witha document feeder (they used to call these sheet feeders, were consumersstupid enough to think they had something to do with bedding or is usingthemore sophisticated term a way to hit me up for an additional $25 or so bymaking me think it's a device far more interesting than something thatsimply 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 diedonus 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 onSaturday.This brings me to a minor conundrum - currently Bookshare.org is my most profitable client (the amount I earn from my different projects varies onamonthly basis depending upon how much attention I can devote to a gig andthe project's level of urgency). I want, therefore, to promote BSOsubscriptions to help defray the cost of the work they pay me to performand 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 thatweprocess. 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 aprint 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 withtheset, 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 forhours. The kids were first introduced to these Legos as part of their charterschool program that brought them to MIT for two hours per week, one houronrobotics using the kit I got for them and the other on crypt-analysis andcode 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 anytrials with children with vision impairment and such a kit? I'm curiousto learn if it could be fit into a middle school course for budding blind hackers. Enjoy, cdh __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind__________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind __________ NOD32 3093 (20080512) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind __________ NOD32 3093 (20080512) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com__________View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
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