Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 174
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) The first public beta version of JAWS version 10 is available. Anyone who is licensed to use version 9 of the program can run it without limitations, and everybody else can use it in 40-minute mode. This version appears to feature an innovative way of dealing with "forms mode" on the web, some proprietary software synthesizers that are much more responsive than those previously available, support for Microsoft Office Access 2007, and other improvements. You can read about it and a download it here:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/jaws/JAWS-public-beta.asp

2) Send me RSS is a site that lets you have RSS feeds sent to your e-mail so that you can receive notifications of new content in a familiar way. Feeds can also be sent to your phone.
http://www.sendmerss.com

3) The Friends of Bookshare will offer a seminar on transferring Bookshare books to the Victor Reader Stream, on GMT Saturday, 6 September, at 00:00.
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e

4 The Lighthouse International Technology Expo will take place in New York all day on Friday, 19 September.
http://lighthouse.org/aboutus/lighthouse-events/lite-2008

5) EASI has scheduled a number of free webinars over the next several months. You can see the list here:
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

6) Beta versions of the forthcoming releases of the Braille Sense and Voice Sense products are available, featuring access to Audible and enhancements to the GPS option.
http://www.gwmicro.com/sensebeta/public

7) Fred's Head Companion features some interesting compendia of information this week. This post contains several sources for vintage recordings:
http://www.fredshead.info/2008/08/theres-tinfoil-in-thomas-edisons-attic.html

8) This one offers many places where you can download free old-time radio programs and newsreels:
http://www.fredshead.info/2006/10/old-time-radio-shows-and-newsreels.html

9) This one offers possible sources for software for blind preschoolers:
http://www.fredshead.info/2005/11/accessible-software-for-preschoolers.html

10) This one offers brief listings of the shorthand used in Internet chat and instant messaging, as well as ways to get more complete listings:
http://www.fredshead.info/2006/03/do-you-know-your-chat-lingo.html

11) And this one is an updated and enhanced amalgamation of several earlier posts, and is entitled Finding, Researching and Downloading Books, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias on the Net
http://www.fredshead.info/2006/12/finding-researching-and-downloading.html

12) Kathy Ann Murtha has reduced the prices of her textbooks considerably for those who download them. Now her adaptive technology textbooks can be had for between US $30 and $50.
http://www.accesstechnologyinstitute.com/catalog/courses/textbooks.html

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