Blind News Digest # 1196
Bill McGarry
Issue # 1196
Wednesday, January 10, 1996
Today's Topics:
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Re: HEWLETTPACKARD_NETSCAPE_MICROS.html
cserve to end shell access
Conference for Transcribers/Educators of the VI registration needed
screen magnifiers
Re: CServe ends ASCII access
Screen Reader-Demos
Virus Attack
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thoughts in the next issue, please send electronic mail to
Bill McGarry at any of the following addresses:
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Bill McGarry (Moderator)
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Subject: Re: HEWLETTPACKARD_NETSCAPE_MICROS.html
From: RonMa...@aol.com
In a message dated 96-01-08 18:31:22 EST, you write:
>
>From: mm...@ix.netcom.com (Mary Fowler )
>???????????????????????
>Ron: Would JAVA be in violation of the ADA? I certainly support highly
>accessible software, hardware, & everything else in our world. Mary
No, the problem is that Java is being promoted as an alternative to the
standard HTML. Many people are working to assure continued access
with the HTML standard. Java though is being promoted as a possible
replacement to web authors that want greater control over their output
or the appearance of their documents.
Today if a person is low vision they can redefince the size of text for
their own browser and get large print. Audio, braille, and other users
can define an environment that works best for them.
Web authors that are unaware of the problems might use Java to create
columns, newspaper like appearances, etc. The standard page layout
would only be a beginning.
Many are aware of the promlems.
Although Adobe and others have written white papers on this subject there
hasn't been much work done to actually enhance it's use to access devices.
Take care.
Ron
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Subject: cserve to end shell access
From: ahof...@linux.announce.com (Allen Hoffman)
Hi:
In previous messages about ASCII access, and ADA violations,
consider this. Windows and Netscape and *some* voice programs work with
Compuserve, you can use Compuserve Information Manager with OS/2 and
Screen Reader/2, etc. It can't very well be much of an ADA violation
when you *can* use Windows and other non shell access type accounts. Its
painful at first, but we will have to go with the rest of the world too.
Being blind is not an excuse, and ADA shouldn't be named as a security
blanket. I find too many haning onto shell access because they don't
feel like learning all that goes along with converting over to Windows
access--note I didn't say Microsoft Windows either.
Maybe what is needed is a FAQ on using PPP, SLIP, Newsreaders, and
Internet in the Windowed world for the visually impaired.
---
Al Hoffman -- 301-731-5786
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Subject: Conference for Transcribers/Educators of the VI registration needed
From: ckn...@cln.etc.bc.ca (Cheryl Knipe)
To Anyone who might know how to get in touch with the coordinator
of the California Conference for Transcribers and Educators of the
Visually Impaired. I am aware of the date, but I need a
registeration package. Thanks.
Cheryl Knipe
Vision Resource Teacher
Cranbrook School District
426-3352 or (f)426-0620
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Subject: screen magnifiers
From: p...@oce.nl (Peter Verhoeven)
Organization: OCE NEDERLAND B.V.
I'm interested in sites on internet, where i can find information and
demo versions of screen magnifiers for the visual impared.
I know that on the simtel site there is a directory handicap with demo's.
Many of this programs have not de most recent version.
I now use ZOOMTEXT for DOS and ZTWIN for windows and i know there is a
new version of ZOOMTEXT 5.1 wich runs under windows 95.
If you have more information for me about screen magnifiers please let me
know.
Peter Verhoeven
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Subject: Re: CServe ends ASCII access
From: mm...@ix.netcom.com (Mary Fowler )
Organization: Netcom
In <38...@handicap.news> ph...@ix.netcom.com (Philip Kirschner ) writes:
PK>
PK>In <38...@handicap.news> sen...@ptbma.usbm.gov (Mark J. Senk WB3CAI)
PK>writes:
PK>|
PK>|CompuServe has announced that they are changing the software used to
PK>|access their forums.
PK>
PK>There may be a possibility of filing a class action lawsuit under the
PK>ADA regarding this matter.
........................
I certainly support the class action suit. Mary
--
On the Internet we do not speak for the commissions.
Mary Marshall Fowler Mayor's Commission on Disabled Persons
James Gonsalves Mayor's Commission on Human Relations
Terry Morgan JG's Assistant
330 19th Street, Suite 50, Oakland, CA 94612-3406
mm...@ix.netcom.com
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Subject: Screen Reader-Demos
From: kin...@ezinfo.vmsmail.ethz.ch (Christoph Kindle)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Zurich
At my university I am writing a work about commercial screen readers
for blind people which I want to compare. The problem is to get the
demo versions of the screen readers for the Macintosh or the IBM PC.
On the PC the demos should work with a Windows compatible soundcard.
It would be very nice if someone could send me some FTP-addresses
where I could get the demos.
Sincerely
Christoph Kindle
e-mail: kin...@ezinfo.vmsmail.ethz.ch
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Subject: Virus Attack
From: phil...@netcom.com (Phil Scovell)
Hello Everybody,
This is an update to my last message going out to everyone on
the phone book mailing list. There's good news and bad news.
First the good news. My BBS hard drive has been restored and the
BBS is back online. About the only thing I lost was the phone
book I was going to release on January the first. Fortunately,
that wasn't a big loss but if you are getting this message and
discover you are still not listed in the phone book, please let me
know. I will be cross checking my email list with the phone book
records over the next few weeks to see if I have everybody listed.
Now for the bad news.
I had a virus on my BBS hard drive. This particular virus
seems to operate similar to the STONE virus in that it hides in
your boot sector and attempts to corrupt any partitions it sees on
your system. It had gotten on to my second computer I use for
daily work, too, along with a bunch of floppies. The virus was so
new, Mcafee's virus scan program did not have a new fix written
for it yet. However, the McAfee virus scan program defaults to a
generic fix and it cleaned everything up. It took some time,
however, getting rid of the virus on both computers and the
floppies.
This virus is identified by Mcafee as the "anticmos a" virus.
As I mentioned, it hides in the boot sector of a hard drive or a
floppy. It goes one step further, however, by additionally writing
to your cmos setup, hence its name: the ANTICMOS A virus. In this
way it can keep writing from floppy to floppy without you ever
knowing anything about it. The advantage of additionally hiding in
your cmos setup is its ability to infect your hard drive set ups.
The interesting thing about this virus is what it does and
does not do. It generally works to kill, or otherwise break, hard
disk partitions. On my BBS 1 gigabyte hard drive, I run drives c,
d, e, and f but on my personal work station machine, I have all 520
megs under just drive C and no other partitions. The anticmos a
virus hides in your boot sector and then writes to cmos, as I said,
and then attempts to break at least one of your partitions. On the
other hand, it doesn't seem to be very interested in a single
partition. At least not so far. However, according to Mcafee, it
is bran new and By the way, I have checked all the files I have in
my two ftp sights for people to download and they were clean. None
of my downloadable files on my BBS were infected Either.
For those interested, I am doing a tutorial on the McAfee
virus scan programs which should be out within a week or so along
with a diskette of the shareware if needed. In the mean time, if
you want the most current release of the McAfee virus scan program,
I will be happy to email it to you as an attached file. You can
also ftp to mcafee.com and log in as anonymous. Then enter your
complete email address as your password. From there, change
directories by typing /pub/antivirus and you will discover all the
McAfee virus scan programs. If you have any other questions, let
me know.
Phil.
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End of Issue # 1196 of the Blind News Digest
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