Re: Scanner/Stuff...
- From: james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 08:08:01 -0400
Hi,
You do your best. You join the volunteer email list and ask the sighted
people on the list for help if you really get stuck. Common scanner errors
can be corrected by a blind person. You run your spell checker. For serious
programming books, though, I think it's hard to do a perfect job. For
example, Python depends on indentation, which gets messed up when the
Bookshare translator gets ahold of it. That said, though, many books have
their source code on the Internet, so if you can get that, you are a lot
better off. You are unlikely to do a perfect job, but if everyone let the
fear of not doing a good job hold them back, we wouldn't have such a large
collection. I encourage you to go for it if you are interested.
Jim
James D Homme, , Usability Engineering, Highmark Inc.,
james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx, 412-544-1810
"it is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis." --
Margaret Bonnano
Highmark internal only: Consider Usability Engineering On Your Next Project
or release. http://highwire.highmark.com/sites/iwov/hwt093/
"Brent Harding"
<bharding@doorpi.
net> To
Sent by: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
programmingblind- cc
bounce@freelists.
org Subject
Re: Scanner/Stuff...
05/21/2008 06:30
PM
Please respond to
programmingblind@
freelists.org
How would totally blind people validate books if we can't read the original
print to validate against? I never really understood this, but was thinking
of volunteering for something like this if there was a way I could.
----- Original Message -----
From: <james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 11:58 AM
Subject: RE: Scanner/Stuff...
> Hi Chris,
> If you aren't a member, you can sign up to be one. You have to verify
your
> disability by getting a doctor or blindness organization to do that for
> you. Anyone, sighted or blind, member or not, can be a volunteer. If you
> are a member and a volunteer, you get credit toward your membership fee
if
> you either scan or validate. You just have to fill out an online form
> saying that you want to volunteer so that the system knows about you. The
> rules are that you can't scan and upload, then download and validate the
> same book. Someone must scan and another person must validate.
>
> Looking forward to seeing the book.
>
> Jim
>
> James D Homme, , Usability Engineering, Highmark Inc.,
> james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx, 412-544-1810
>
> "it is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis."
--
> Margaret Bonnano
>
> Highmark internal only: Consider Usability Engineering On Your Next
> Project
> or release. http://highwire.highmark.com/sites/iwov/hwt093/
>
>
>
> "Chris Hofstader"
> <chris.hofstader@
> knology.net> To
> Sent by: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> programmingblind- cc
> bounce@freelists.
> org Subject
> RE: Scanner/Stuff...
>
> 05/21/2008 10:07
> AM
>
>
> Please respond to
> programmingblind@
> freelists.org
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm happy to say that our new scanner arrived yesterday and that we're
> setting it up as I type. We'll do a few little experiments and when
> things
> look happy, we'll scan the Drupal book. I'm sorry it's taken so long to
> get
> to this but we'll be faster in the future.
>
> We cannot pledge to do more than scan one book per week and Susan will do
> her best to verify it in the same time period. With that said, this is a
> fast, scanner with a relatively large duplex sheet feeder so the scanning
> itself should go very quickly. The scanner came with OmniPage Pro which
> we'll try to use to avoid the cost of Fine Reader. If the quality is too
> poor to continue, we'll switch OCR engines. My experience with OpenBook,
> though, suggests that OmniPage is nearly as good as Fine Reader but that
> opinion results from four year old tests run without a framework that
> would
> eliminate subjectivity.
>
> Once we're done scanning this one, I'll send it off to Jamal and Jackie
(I
> remember someone else had volunteered to do some verification work but
> I've
> forgotten who).
>
> Although I contract with BSO, I don't know their procedures for
submitting
> books. If one of their volunteers will speak up, I would like to learn
> the
> procedure. What happens if two parties unknown to each other submit the
> same book at approximately the same time? I'd assume this would happen
> with
> Harry Potter and other smash hits and not Drupal tutorials but in the
> world
> of geekdom, one never knows nor can one ever imagine knowing.
>
> So, let's start a book club. People can nominate books, we'll have a
vote
> on which comes next and someone will volunteer to pay for it and have it
> sent to our house. I will pay for some, certainly those I nominate but
my
> choices jump to the head of the line because I'm a selfish bastard and
are
> not likely to have more than a passing interest to most people here as I
> tend to read a lot about cognitive linguistics and other stuff that
simply
> bores other people to suicidal ideation.
>
> Happy Hacking,
> cdh
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of inthaneelf
> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 12:33 PM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Scanner/Stuff...
>
> still, his method seems to be fairly well accepted, a downloadable
> simple...
>
> form, that must be signed by a verifiable person at a qualified and
> verifiable location, usually accepted are doctors, rehab councilors, and
> staff of a school for the blind and visually impaired such as the Braille
> institute in southern California and the like
>
> the page should include name of course, title, of what agency, and
address
> phone and such.
>
> that should do the trick for you,
>
> a question, what does it take to become "authorized" for such
> distributing?
>
> I know I can look it up, but since you brought it up, I am hoping you can
> give me the "skinny" on it?
>
> have a good one,
> inthane
> . For Blind Programming assistance, Information, Useful Programs, and
> Links
>
> to Jamal Mazrui's Text tutorial packages and Applications, visit me at:
> http://grabbag.alacorncomputer.com
> . to be able to view a simple programming project in several programming
> languages, visit the Fruit basket demo site at:
> http://fruitbasketdemo.alacorncomputer.com
>
> ----- 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,
>> inside
>> our 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
>> Rasnita
>> Sent: 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
costs
>> money, while very many good books can be found for free.
>> But, before bookshare started to give O'Reilly books, O'Reilly had a
free
>> service 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
> paper
>> that 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
> they
>> also 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
> 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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