Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 190
The Week's News in Access Technology

Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
http://www.flying-blind.com/

For questions and comments regarding Tidbits, please e-mail Dean Martineau at dean@topdotenterprises.com. Dean Martineau provides adaptive technology training by phone, online, and in person, with flexible arrangements, and at affordable prices.

1) Learn about a new accessible digital recorder and DAISY player, the Plextalk Pocket , on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, January 14 at 01:00.
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rsc9613dc89eb2

2) Web 2.0 Accessibility Forum is a new LinkedIn discussion group for: users with disabilities, professionals in the accessibility space, and others who share common interests in making Web 2.0 applications like Facebook built using technologies such as AJAX, and next-generation web technologies accessible by people with disabilities.
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1605077

3) Jamal Mazrui has upgraded the powerful text editor EdSharp to version 2.9, adding a lot of new screen reader support especially for JAWS and greatly improved Unicode support among other enhancements:
http://EmpowermentZone.com/edsetup.exe
and has upgraded the powerful file manager FileDir to version 3.5 with some enhancements:
http://EmpowermentZone.com/dirsetup.exe

4) Our nearly weekly raid of information from Fred's Head Companion yields a site where each day, software developers offer a free full version of their program, downloadable only during that day.
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

5) The Alliance for Technology Access is comprised of networks of community-based Resource Centers, Affiliates, Associates, Developers and Vendors. It could lead you to local or regional resources for technology information or funding.
http://www.ataccess.org/

6) Here is an article detailing the difference between a flash drive and a thumb drive.
http://www.fredshead.info/2009/01/difference-between-flash-drive-and.html

7) For amusement, learn about fads in vogue from the 20's through the 90's.
http://www.crazyfads.com/

8) If you want to check whether an e-mail message you receive is legitimate, you might get some information from a tool called Verify-Email:
http://www.verify-email.org/

9) Vloud.com is a free service to which you can upload audio files. .mp3 or .wav, and have their volume increased for you.
http://www.vloud.com/

10) Computers and the Internet can excel at helping us remember things. Here is a post detailing two flexible services letting us receive alerts in our favorite format and on our favorite device:
http://www.fredshead.info/2008/12/automatic-alerts-in-format-of-your.html

11) Another daily deal site: Woot.com offers a really low price on one name-brand electronics item per day at a very low price.
http://www.woot.com/

12) Here is an article describing two tools for defragging your hard drive, and why you should do so:
http://www.fredshead.info/2006/11/better-computer-performance-with.html

13) This article concerns exercise, with some online resources:
http://www.fredshead.info/2006/10/exercise-library.html

14) And our final Fred's Head Companion borrowing concerns Martial arts for the blind, again, with some online resources:
http://www.fredshead.info/2006/08/martial-arts-for-blind.html

15) The latest SeroTalk podcast discusses online radio and music listening. The blog post contains a considerable number of links, all mentioned in the show, as well as a link to download the podcast:
http://serotalk.com/2008/12/24/fourth-serotalk-podcast-on-music-and-radio-websites/

16) A 64-bit version of JAWS for Windows 10 has been posted as a public beta.
http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/JAWS/JAWS-public-beta.asp

17) In the "People are Working on it" department, this post from the Access Ability blog summarizes T. V. Raman's efforts to make touch screen phones accessible.
http://accessability.blogspot.com/2009/01/google-engineer-raman-addressing-on.html

18) Gw Micro has also announced that at some point in the presumably near future, version 7.1 of window-Eyes will include 64-bit support.
http://www.gwmicro.com

19) WebAIM, a long-standing web accessibilityinitiative of Utah State University, is conducting a screen reader user survey so they can provide accurate information regarding the preferences of this population. the more responses, the more accurate will be the information they convey.
http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey/

20) 7-128 Software has made its numerous self-voicing games available on the Mac.
http://7128.com/games_mac/purchasegetgames_mac.html

21) EASI holds two free public webinars in January, both at 19:00 GMT. On 13 January: Creating Accessible Forms for the Web. On 20 January: Cascading Style Sheets: What they are and How they Affect Accessibility.
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

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