Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 179
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) Here is a very thorough article from the New York Times concerning conducting health research online; I hope it's available worldwide:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/health/30online.html?ref=healthspecial

2) One of the new evils to threaten the unwary computer user is sites pretending to offer antivirus programs which are really themselves viruses. This article from Windows Secrets newsletter discusses the phenomenon and how you can protect yourself:
http://windowssecrets.com/links/$P20d/2f9e94h/?url=WindowsSecrets.com%2F2008%2F09%2F04%2Fts%2F%3Fn%3Dstory1

3) Fred's Head Companion lets us in on a good free Internet radio station, Sky.fm.
http://www.sky.fm/

4) American Printing House for the Blind makes available free Guide to Designing Tactile Illustrations for Children's Books, in html, pdf and brf formats:
http://www.aph.org/edresearch/illustration.htm

5) Gw Micro has added three new Knowledge Base articles, all related to the Braille Sense and Voice Sense: "Backing Up and Restoring Settings and Files in the Voice Sense or Braille Sense"
http://gwmicro.com/kb1090
Updating the Braille Sense or Voice Sense Firmware Using the Offline Method
http://gwmicro.com/kb1028
Tips and Tricks For Using the Braille Sense Plus, Voice Sense, and Braille Sense Original
http://gwmicro.com/kb1092

6) Speaking of that line of products, anybody having a free membership in the VIP Conduit online community can listen to a presentation about them on Sunday, 12 October at 18:00 GMT.
http://www.vipconduit.com

7) Jamal Mazrui has written a set of freeware command-line programs designed to encrypt and decrypt files. The package, called Stash, yields very securely encrypted files as long as the bad guy does not have the package to decrypt them.
http://EmpowermentZone.com/stash.zip

8) J-Tunes 4.0, the interface package enhancing access to iTunes for users of JAWS versions 8-10, is now available. Users can try it during figteen computer sessions to see if they want to buy it.
http://www.tandt-consultancy.com/j-tunes.html

9) Tek Talk is adding to the collective knowledge about iTunes and iPods , and about portable media players in general, with its Tuesday, 14 October 00:00 GMT session: "Get iTuned In: A Discussion by Brian Hartgen and Anna Dresner of Portable
Media Players and Accompanying Software."
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rsc9613dc89eb2

10) A mailing list has been created for blind users striving to program in Java. To join, send a message to program-java-request@freelists.org, with the subject of subscribe.

11) J.J. continues to work to make his BCScan script for Window-Eyes more useful. this script lets users use a bar code scanner, available from $130 to $490, to organize and gather information about food, videos, cd's, medicine and more. You can now join a mailing list to discuss the system.
http://www.BCScan.com

12) Recent additions to the Code Factory blog include a podcast discussing the Mobile Geo GPS product and two posts of tips for those using Symbian-based phones.
http://codefactoryblog.wordpress.com/

13) Accessibility.net is apparently a vendor of adaptive technology. They offer monthly specials and a slate of used equipment for sale. e-mail
pfischer@accessibility.net

14) The Klango Network is an innovative effort, featuring a free self-voicing audio player, self-voicing Wikipedia browser and web shopping interface, community forums, and self-voicing programs including games and instructional materials.
http://klango.net

15) MarvelSoft has created Digital Jukebox, a $49.95 self-voicing program to manage music, load your mp3 player, download podcasts, play Internet radio, play audio books remembering where you left off, and, in short, handle music listening and reading through an accessible interface.
http://www.braillebookstore.com/view.php?T=Digital+Jukebox

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