Re: Some stories
- From: "Andreas Stefik" <stefika@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2008 21:02:57 -0800
Lol, thanks all. Now I just have to convince my committee to let my
dissertation have an R rating ...
Andreas
On Feb 9, 2008 8:23 PM, tribble <lauraeaves@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Well, this is for Dale's post -- probably everyone has run across this
> little gem as it has been circulating for years on the net and even as
> fliers, but for those not initiated:
>
> ------- forwarded message -------
> SPECIAL HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING S.H.I.T.
>
> Special High Intensity Training (S.H.I.T.)
> In order to assure the highest levels of quality work and productivity
> from employees, it will be our policy to keep all employees well trained
> through our program of SPECIAL HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING (S.H.I.T.). We are
> trying to give our employees more S.H.I.T. than anyone else.
>
> If you feel that you do not receive your share of S.H.I.T. on the
> course, please see your instructor. You will be immediately placed at the
> top of the S.H.I.T. list, and our instructors are especially skilled at
> seeing that you get all the S.H.I.T. you can handle.
>
> Employees who don't take their S.H.I.T. will be placed in DEPARTMENTAL
> EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION PROGRAMS (D.E.E.P. S.H.I.T.). Those who fail to
> take D.E.E.P. S.H.I.T. seriously will have to go to EDUCATIONAL ATTITUDE
> TRAINING (E.A.T. S.H.I.T.). Since our instructors took S.H.I.T. before
> they graduated, they don't have to do S.H.I.T. anymore, and are all full of
> S.H.I.T. already.
>
> If you are full of S.H.I.T., you may be interested in a job
> instructing others. We can add your name to our BASIC UNDERSTANDING
> LECTURE LIST (B.U.L.L. S.H.I.T.).
>
> For employees who are intending to pursue a career in management and
> consultancy, we will refer you to the department of MANAGERIAL OPERATIONAL
> RESEARCH EDUCATION (M.O.R.E. S.H.I.T.). This course emphasizes on how to
> manage M.O.R.E. S.H.I.T.
>
> If you have further questions, please direct them to our HEAD OF
> TRAINING, SPECIAL HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING (H.O.T. S.H.I.T.).
>
> Thank you,
> BOSS IN GENERAL SPECIAL HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING (B.I.G. S.H.I.T.)
>
> ------- end forwarded message -------
>
> Cheers!
> --le
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jackie McBride" <abletec@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 10:59 PM
> Subject: Re: Some stories
>
>
> Andreas:
>
> I have a DoubleTalk synthesizer. I can't remember if I was using dos
> or win95 at the time, but happened to stumble across the word faq.
> The doubletalk pronounced it as 2 syllables, fa (the a of which was
> pronounced as a short u) & q. I guess u know what *that* sounded
> like! My puter was givin me the verbal version of the bird! I've
> gotta say it quite shocked me when it first occurred! It took a bit
> to figure out what the offending word actually was. I guess I could
> (& probably should) have changed it in the pronunciation dictionary,
> but it was so damn funny I just left it. I had to get a new
> Doubletalk recently cuz the cable on the old 1 bit it & I don't know
> if RC Systems has changed the way the doubletalk handles that acronym
> or not--they may have as I wouldn't put it past kids to write that in
> their papers & have the dt read it aloud in class just for the shock
> value of it.
>
> Best of luck w/your discertation.
>
> On 2/9/08, Dale Leavens <dleavens@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > I still use soft vert on a DOS machine and some applications but using the
> > Votrax PSS RS-232 synthasizer. The synth is a little slow however the
> > point
> > I want to make here is that when the letters s h i t in a single word or
> > in
> > certain other combinations occur the synth says sugar. I don't know if
> > this
> > is a feature of the PSS or Soft Vert however having discovered this I had
> > to
> > test every so called sware word I could think of all in the interest of
> > good
> > scientific investigation of course.
> >
> > Apparently only the one word was considered sufficiently offensive to the
> > blind to require preserving our indignity.
> >
> > I still have a Maryland Computer HP/125 up stairs which worked last time I
> > tried it.
> >
> > Once, in a state of frustration I typed in a message refering to sex and
> > travel. The computer responded "Would you like to be on top?". I told
> > David
> > Kostician about this, he had sold me the computer, I understand from im
> > that
> > he tested this on every subsequent installation he came into contact with
> > but apparently never had a similar response. Some little humour someone
> > added to the operating system i suppose.
> >
> > I will say that I am sometimes offended by the presumptions that
> > synthasizer
> > producers tend to make. Many character combinations which happen to
> > corespond with the short forms of American states will speak the long form
> > of that state name. This is true of scanning in K1000 and used to be so in
> > Open Book, may be still. CA (C A) may refer to any number of things but in
> > the world of the blind it generally is spoken California.It doesn't seem
> > to
> > happen so much in things like Web addresses. The trouble here is that by
> > making such assumptions it can complicate understanding context, maybe a
> > programming variable maybe a literaal use in a word processing document.
> > Somehow it feels patronising to me to have someone make decisions about
> > how
> > I should read a two letter sequence. In my business for example, the
> > contraction Dr. is more commonly used for Doctor but most of my adaptive
> > equipment assumed\s I prefer Drive.
> >
> > Wel, that is about all the anicdotes I can think of just now.
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "tribble" <lauraeaves@xxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 10:03 PM
> > Subject: Re: Some stories
> >
> >
> > > Hi Andreas -- I don't have a specific story, but back around 1991 I was
> > > using a DOS screen reader Called Vert -- actually the top of the line
> > > was
> > > called Vert Plus, which I used at work, and at home I used PersonalVert,
> > > dubbed "the little PerVert" by those who used it.
> > > Anyway, VertPlus used a hardware synth called the Prose card. It was
> > > developed by a Swedish computer scientist who used his own voice to
> > > define
> > > the various sounds of speech which were concatenated to form words. The
> > > firmware had many heuristics to make sentences sound natural, but it was
> > > not
> > > advanced right then (remember 1991 was still pretty primitive in this
> > > area).
> > > But the result of the implementation had some surprises: First, the
> > > synth
> > > sounded like it had a Swedish accent, and for that reason I nicknamed
> > > the
> > > system "Swen". What was also funny was that the sound of "j" which
> > > doesn't occur in Swedish, sounded like "sh" or "h" or even "k" -- so
> > > that
> > > some words, such as ginger, were quite baffling on VertPlus but clear on
> > > PerVert.
> > > Second, on the Prose card, certain phrases were pronounced so that parts
> > > of
> > > the syllables were compressed or altered depending on the heuristics.
> > > This
> > > led to some bizarre situations in which the synth would read a perfectly
> > > reasonable phrase as if it had profanity embedded in it. This made me
> > > think
> > > that the "pervert" title applied more to VertPlus than Vert. *smile*
> > > (Note, there was no profanity actually inserted, but syllables were
> > > compressed so that it could be interpreted that way by someone not used
> > > to
> > > the synth.) For that reason I always used headphones! (One phrase I
> > > remember -- an email with the phrase "fudge in cafeteria". I'll let you
> > > figure out the result.)
> > >
> > > As for programming, I used this screen reader only to read emails and
> > > text
> > > documents and not so much for programming. This because it was not
> > > designed
> > > for programming and even for text, the command set in those early screen
> > > readers was quite awkward. I only bought them because I had a
> > > catastrophic
> > > problem with my vision, and so lost the ability to read print for some
> > > months. But when my vision returned, I went back to screen
> > > magnification.
> > > Now I again have no print vision yet again but wow, have screen readers
> > > ever
> > > improved!
> > > Good luck on your dissertation.
> > > Cheers and happy hacking!
> > > --le
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Andreas Stefik" <stefika@xxxxxxxxx>
> > > To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 7:54 PM
> > > Subject: Some stories
> > >
> > >
> > > Hello all,
> > >
> > > I have recently completed the first draft of my dissertation, which is
> > > on blind computer programmers and using audio to program. In it, I've
> > > created a special C programming environment, ran a ton of experiments,
> > > and written more than any human would probably want to read.
> > >
> > > At the very end of my dissertation, I thought it might be nice to
> > > include a section, a few paragraphs, on some "classically bad audio
> > > interfaces." Does anyone have any stories of interacting with a
> > > program, using Jaws or any other interfaces that use audio, that are
> > > so comically bad that they have you scratching your head?
> > >
> > > I would love to hear some stories, if folks wouldn't mind sharing.
> > > (The funnier the better)
> > >
> > > Just curious,
> > >
> > > Andreas
> > > __________
> > > 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
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > > Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.21/1267 - Release Date:
> > > 2/8/2008
> > > 8:12 PM
> > >
> > >
> >
> > __________
> > View the list's information and change your settings at
> > //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Jackie McBride
> Please join my fight against breast cancer
> <http://teamacs.acsevents.org/site/TR?px=1790196&pg=personal&fr_id=3489>
> & Check out my homepage at:
> www.abletec.serverheaven.net
> __________
> 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
>
>
__________
View the list's information and change your settings at
//www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
Other related posts:
