The Technology blog and podcast

CSUN of interest from the weekend of listening

Over the weekend, I caught up on some CSUN content thanks to Blind Bargains. Here is what I thought was of interest.

• DO-IT Gets Teens and Young Adults Excited about Tech This was quite interesting. It looks like this isn’t necessarily gender specific, and I was interested because I was in tech at a young age.
• AI Squared Talks ZoomText for Mac Speech Features, Sitecues for Web Publishers I was interested in this because of the new idea for web publishers. I’m still not real clear on what this new idea is, and may contact them for more. I don’t know if this is part of their product for making things bigger, or what.
• If you want a great laugh, Blind Bargains has Check out the Moves on that Robot As J.J. indicates, they interview HIMS about this new product. They have it on the feed, but I’ve not listened to it yet. This should bring a great laugh.
• I think the biggest news out of what I heard over the weekend was ScripTalk Prescription Labels Now Available through CVS with plans to add more. It would be nice for my local pharmacy to add this, and I wonder if it could be put on OTC stuff as well such as the adville or other drugs we may provide. The toll-free services they mention where you can get more info is a cool idea, but why not a regular number? You’ll save a lot of money by not paying for a toll-free line, and with the expense of long distance now a days with cell phones, it would benefit you cost wise. I suppose lots of people still don’t have long distance, so the toll-free line is more beneficial.
• Honest Vision’s $15,000 Computer-based OCR System was interesting, but the 15k price tag is not within most budgets to buy it as of now. Sorry guys, but you need a serious payment plan before we could afford that one. There re other magnification podcasts, but this one was interesting even though it was expensive.
• A Low-vision Graphing Calculator with Speech and more from Sight Enhancement Systems caught my attention. I heard the demo of the other product they mention, I’d be interested to hear one of this product.
• Finally Candid Thoughts on the GW Micro and Microsoft Partnership from Jeremy Curry mainly because I’m a GW customer, but still, I thought this was great.

I still have a ton to listen to, but if you want to see the full list of podcasts Go to the podcast index page where you will find more.

Comments (0)

a lot of posts

Hi jared.
Wow, there are a lot of posts to comment here.
First zip codes, I know my own, but they can be a real bitch to search for on some sites especially your own.
The 3d museum.
Hmmm interesting on a diagram side but though I did a 3d model servey 3d printing of stuff so I can feel it though interesting really is a bit of a waste, why not re print my eye instead.
The museum you can feel sounds nice but really we should be focusing on how to make disabled people normal rather than making things more accessable.
We have the tech, so we should use it for usefull stuff.
The only reason I care about things being accessable is because I am blind.
If I wasn’t then I wouldn’t care so much.
The new braille display sounds interesting though never using one and not having the cash its a bit mute.
THe eye beacons sound major usefull, going to strange places would take a while to navigate and especially when in strange places for a limited time.
This nicely brings me to my reason for writing a post instead of commenting.
From next friday the 4th april to sunday the 13th I will be out of the office.
I will be in australia in strange places going up strange rivers in strange boats and staying in strange friends strange houses.
Yes eye beacons will be usefull.
laters

Comments (1)

ZIP Codes Show Extent of Sally Beauty Breach

I read this article entitled ZIP Codes Show Extent of Sally Beauty Breach which sheds more light on the Sally Beauty breach. This definitely can’t be good, but from what I’m reading, the Target breach was still the biggest. I’m hoping that comnpanies will learn from these big breaches, and they try their best to make sure our information is as safe as it can be.

Comments (0)

A 3d-Printed Audio and Tactile Museum Experience from Tooteko

From anAFB convention, blind bargains posted an audio interview of interest I actually enjoyed. A 3d-Printed Audio and Tactile Museum Experience from Tooteko caught my attention because we could never really get an idea what was in a museum until now. While it is still indevelopment, this is a cool idea. What do you think?

Comments (0)

A Live Demo of the Hims Blaze EZ

Now this is interesting. Blind Bargains interviewed someone at HIMS, and this is definitely interesting. A Live Demo of the Hims Blaze EZ

Comments (0)

Indoor Navigation using iBeacons

From Blind Bargains, this podcast was worth the listen. Indoor Navigation using iBeacons caught my attention because we always have a hard time navigating different places. Always interested in things like this, even if I can’t use it of yet. Interesting concept.

Comments (0)

Introducing the International Association of Accessibility Professionals

From Blind Bargains, this audio podcast talks about a new company that may be of interest. #CSUN14 Audio: Introducing the International Association of Accessibility Professionals

Comments (0)

Bullying and students with disabilities: strategies and techniques to create a safe learning environment for all

I found another book from todays list on BARD dealing with bullying.

---

Bullying and students with disabilities: strategies and techniques to create a safe learning environment for all DB 77771

McNamara, Barry E. Reading time: 5 hours, 27 minutes.
Read by Erin Jones.

Disability; Education

Professor of special education draws on research and case studies to provide an overview to understand and address bullying of students with disabilities. Discusses specific school-wide programs, offers intervention techniques for parents and staff, and lists resources for students. 2013.

Comments (0)

Domain Registrars ID Cyber-Criminals With Secure Domain Foundation API

This article entitled Domain Registrars ID Cyber-Criminals With Secure Domain Foundation API is an interesting one. I personally, in my opinion, think this could be a step in the right direction. Fahmida Y. Rashid wrote this article for Security Week, and its a good one to read. What do my readers think of this?

Comments (2)

Sources: Credit Card Breach at California DMV

This article Sources: Credit Card Breach at California DMV is just the latest on the security breach department. While this only effects online transactions, I’m sure we’ll know more soon. In earlier news, Sally Beauty Confirms Card Data Breach confirmed an earlier story about an issue with that online retailer. We really need to be causcious of our information now more than ever, and while California DMV is a small subset, Sally Beauty (while not known to me) is a merchant which seems to have more than just one state buying from them. I wonder if The Long Tail of ColdFusion Fail has anything to do with these recent breaches. This particularly has an interest with me as MENVI’s forms were written in this language when hlsted on another site. Now, it isn’t, but it makes me wonder. I don’t know much about cold fussion. Only time will tell I suppose.

Comments (0)

Target’s Data Breach: The Commercialization of APT | SecurityWeek.Com

Target’s Data Breach: The Commercialization of APT | SecurityWeek.Com.

This is an interesting article, coming out a few days ago. Don’t know if I covered this before, but it is an interesting article. Take a look.

Comments (0)

Teletender is closing

Well,
It is with sad news that Teletender is closing its doors. Today is the last day to use the service. They have a good thing going, but sometimes, things happen for a reason. On the last podcast, it was made known that a patent infringement was taking place. One program over the phone indicated that the company involved in making these claims was bullying Teletender with this rediculous lawsuit and they should leave well enough alone. Patents are an interesting subject, one I follow regularly on This Week in Law which you can find more info on the Twit network’s twil page. Companies are suing each other for who knows what all the time. Everything from the way the phone is made, to the way it is operating. This is how business seems to be done today.

The certain program I mention happens to mention that people are not using the phone to read the web. If that was the case, than why was Teletender developed? People are using touchtone systems, maybe not as much as once was, but the technology will always be around as long as there are telephones. Philmore Productions was hoping either for a settlement, or for them to change the way telephone dialing is made so each can exist peacefully. Money can always change hands, but with a non-profit which Teletender is, thats hard to do.

There is no way to know whether a company is infringeing on patents until they are made aware of it. Sadly, a good service suffers because of this. I’m wondering how companies in the future could verify what they are doing is not violating any patent? I’m interested in your thoughts on this one.

Comments (2)

Dead Ends

Hi folks,
OI was just looking at the book listings for the past couple of days since I didn’t do that. I saw this book, and it reminded me about the last podcast where we talk about bullying. I want to pass this along.

---

Dead ends DB 77937

Lange, Erin Jade. Reading time: 7 hours, 7 minutes.
Read by Mark Delgado.

Friendship Fiction; Human Relations; Disability; Adventure; Young Adult

Dane, a bully, gets caught fighting at school again and is assigned to work with Billy D., who has Down syndrome. A friendship forms, and Billy D. enlists Dane’s help to find Billy’s missing father. Violence and strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2013.

Comments (0)

Three out of every four European banks fails in the accessibility of their websites

Three out of every four European banks fails in the accessibility of their websites.

Comments (0)

Security Now, IOS security

Hi folks, Security now has put out their program this week. It talks about IOS Security as well as the news. For a limited time get it from Sendspace unless you get it from twit already. Take care.

Comments (0)

cards and things

Hi.
continuing on with things.
I am not sure about cards and the blind this is a sighted world.
And I guess there could be blind crims to that would try to get other cards highly implausible but still.
I think whatever system is chosen it will only hold the hackers back so long.
In which case we really don’t want the titanic of systems because we will know that it will eventually be hit by that iceburg and sink.
What we need is another patch that will keep it simple for the users because to be honest there is no way to win against the hackers to be honest.
There are even more issues with the wave cards and other things.
As for the blind, paypal is probably is as safe as any site then all you need is one username.
That site can be lifted just like any bank can be robbed so security is no different to be honest.
What concerns me is that we are either 1 putting to much into this or.
2. Will be disappointed when it does fail.
In an interesting development my mum who works at a doctors office yesterday was manning the cash register and saw a card with a photo on it.
you can apparently customise your eftpos and other cards with any photo from your family to an abstract beach somewhere.
Though this could potentially be a security risk it does add another identification feature to the card.
it could still be forged but even so that’s just another passive system in place.
Maybe we should focus on more passive security rather than active because it hasn’t helped us now.
To be honest nothing is safe look at the Japanese bitcoin exchange.
It got hacked, a lot of cash went, it died.
This shows you that everything including supposed secured electronic currencies can have points where they are fallable.
Ofcause your exchange and processing points are your obvious places for weakness.
So your bank terminals, in the case of the places hacked, credit card processing terminals.
In fact any terminal where stuff is handled is probably a weak point.
The networks can to a lesser degree be a weak point to, though to hack the wires you need another terminal either subverted or simply a new system gets in.
A mitigating factor ofcause would be to allow only sertain terminals access, and then have a separate net on the outside with less important terminals.
same security ofcause.
The hackers could get in and well it wouldn’t matter, ofcause any complex password needs storing and if people do it on their systems in unincripted form you are done anyway.
Its a practice that should be followed strictly but even I don’t follow it really.
Its more to learn etc.
People are warey about introducing more complex processes in the systems they use.
I have only just put in a passive program that stops extra malware loading by unchecking any well most addon boxes in program installers.
But even I hesitate to put any real active stuff in because the active stuff seems to get in the way of the user or causes a few issues with things.

Comments (1)

another posting

Hi jared.
First to your posts about the ms update notification.
I agree in general that people that would like to know that are able to do things about it would be happy to get notified all the time that ms was out of support with xp.
However, sooner or later they may want to turn that off.
There is no easy way to really do that bar killing its tasks or killing the update from a criptic folder which no one really knows how to access.
I have people here that won’t in any shape or form make the xp shutdown.
Me included.
I have a system with windows 7 on it for on road stuff but for home use well we will see.
My dad is in transition.
We are aware but right now can’t support moving yet due to busyness and other issues at the time.
Then there are people like my old grandpa who’s security really doesn’t matter because of his limited to seldom connections via dialup to the net most stuff I can do remotely.
Now he would probably panic if he kept seeing a message on screen.
I have also been told there are people that are just not able to afford a new system at the current time.
They don’t want to be reminded that their system is finished.
And then there are techs like you and me.
Its an insult b because ms has put the info all over the place.
we are able to find it.
now we have it in our faces.
I am currently on my win7 box and am using my xp box as a media player.
I don’t want a message every few minutes telling me I need to upgrade my os.

Comments (1)

MasterCard and Visa Lead Industry Group to Bolster Payment Security

I’ve just read this article entitled MasterCard and Visa Lead Industry Group to Bolster Payment Security and I think this is a good idea.

The reason I think this is a good idea is well mentioned in the article, but I want to hit on one point. My readership seems to be the blind community. I like the idea of replacing a credit card number with a digital equivalent. That would be kind of cool to have a change. I’m only wondering how accessible this would be? We need to have someone we trust to read our credit card numbers and security codes when we get new cards. Problem is, people could take advantage by copying the info and using the card for their own use. The credit card info is not in braille. How could we be assured that those with disabilities would be aware of what these new cards contain? We are more vulnerable than ever now, and the breaches will only get bigger.

The credit card company wanted to talk to me for some time now, and I told them about the latest. It didn’t sound good, but they did confirm that Experian is one of several data brokers of credit card information for consumers. If thats the case, and 200 million pieces of information was taken, than we can’t trust a single person here sighted or blind. I’m interested in thoughts on this article, and if you want to submit audio, please use the sendspace drop box facility from jaredrimer.net or dropbox and send me a link to download. Lets have a dialogue of this.

Comments (0)

this weeks posts

Hi jared.
This is definately screwed.
Firstly if the credit card moniter agencies can get hacked a problem is an understatement.
If the organisations that are monitering security themselves are unsecure it means the crims run the place.
Credit cards and in fact our electronic system may be less safe than a faulty car.
Check books are being phased out now but this is bazar.
On the subject of magazines in most cases here in nz you get the mag in a sealed plastic wrap which you ripp off and chuck.
With my talking magazines I recieve you get it in an envelope.
You ripp that and chuck it.
there is a post back right on the case.
With books you need to turn labels over.
But this is more trouble than its worth.
Surely by wripping the labels off you could risk damaging the mag.
It may be more secure comparitively speaking to subscribe electronically and download it to your smart phone.
Granted the way everyone watches everyone else its not secure but at least its more secure than that.
havn’t these previders learned anything?
It begs the question to be honest.
Its probably safer to go to the dairy to get your magazines each week at least you get the excercise.

Comments (0)

Why You Need To Rip The Mailing Label Off Magazines As Soon As They Arrive – Forbes

Why You Need To Rip The Mailing Label Off Magazines As Soon As They Arrive – Forbes.

I’m glad our magazines come on cartridge with a label we have to reverse to send back. This is just absolutely crazy. Thoughts are welcome.

Comments (0)

Older Posts »

go to sections menu

---