FW: USA: Online book-sharing service for the blind borrows a page from Napster

[Chris Peterson]

Oh my God!  You people amaze me over and over again.

They don't need pressure on them to make the system accessible to Linux
users.  They just need a programmer with the experience to write the
software for them.  This may surprise you, but there are many more Windows
users than Linux users and programming for Windows and Linux are different
enough so that it isn't necessarily an easy proposition to write a Linux
unpack utility with their current programmers.

Not to mention that this is a nonproffit organization that is simply trying
to organize us to do a good thing and, rather than being happy about it and
trying to provide constructive suggestions, you want to gang up on them all
at once.  Wow!  They should shut down even before they start because they
can't please everyone on the first day.  I don't believe it!

So what would be the best way to handle this?  Why not get intouch with
anyone you know who has experience programming in Linux and ask them to
volunteer to help out with a linux version of the unpack utility.

Also, rather than saying, "the web site is not accessible", before you even
tried to use it, why not go through the web site and make a list of things
you'd change to make it easier to use with Lynx.  Then send that to them and
they'll have something to work with.

Finally, if you don't have anything constructive to say, keep your mouth
shut and let them work the bugs out.  They're not Microsoft, and they don't
need us ganging up on them.  They could be spending their time on
money-making ventures, but they're trying to put together a system that'll
help us out.  I, for one, aplaud their efforts and want to see them succeed.
I imagine I'll also contribute a book from time to time.

Now, could you all take this off the list as it has nothing to do with
speakup?  Thanks!

Chris Peterson
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Patricia Logan" <plogan at dorsai.org>
To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 7:27 AM
Subject: Re: FW: USA: Online book-sharing service for the blind borrows a
page from Napster


>      Right on, Ann!  My feelings about this almost completely
> duplicate yours.  The blindness esbablishment as well as the
> sighted world in computers, when they can't blackmail us into
> suffering with Windows for employment purposes, try the carrot
> as well as the stick.  They offer us things we would very much
> love to have, such as a wider variety of reading material, if
> and only if ...
>
>      Janina, perhaps it might we worthwhile to compile a list
> of names of people who would use the book sharing service if
> the site and files were made linux and lynx accessible.   There
> may well be enough of us to put pressure on them big time.  If
> you make that list please add my name, resident of New York,
> NY, under Ann's.
>
>      Pat Logan
> On Tue, 12 Mar 2002, Ann Parsons wrote:
>
> > Hi Janina,
> >
> > Well, I found that it was virtually impossible to get at the site
> > during the beta.  I found that the application was only a long, long,
> > long, long, long agreement with several check boxes, but there was no
> > place to add an address, a name of anything else!  I haven't been back
> > there because it says on the top of the page that "this site is for
> > users of MSIE5.5 or above."  I just didn't bother.  I figured that
> > there was nothing I could do.  My Windows computer has been down for
> > two months, and I want so much to download books and to join, but what
> > can I do?  I have some books here I've scanned that I might
> > conceivably want to upload there, but nobody deigned to say anything
> > to me.  I'm on the beta list.  Nobody bothered to talk to me at all,
> > find out *why* I was unhappy with the site, or what I was
> > experiencing.  In fact, they just about ignored me cuz I use Linux.
> > It was made very, very, very, very, very, very clear that I was just
> > chopped liver and so I haven't bothered to even try to access the site
> > in Lynx.  I figured that it would be virtually impossible, so I've
> > been waiting for my Windows machine to get fixed, and now I discover I
> > have to wait more time!
> >
> > Janina, I hate Windows, but I want to join Bookshare`!  I want to
> > download books!  It won't do me any good to go there anyway in Lynx
> > cuz the unpack tool is for Windows, or didn't you realize that?  Sure
> > they're looking for somebody to write their program for Linux because
> > they've finally awakened to the fact that maybe somebody ought to pay
> > attention to another OS.  But what's the good of writing an unpack
> > tool for Linux when the site is "only for MSIE5.5 or above"?  I mean
> > if you're going to be *that* exclusive, what's the good, Janina?  What
> > about people who only have MSIE4 or Netscape or PW-Webspeak or IBM web
> > reader?  What about those peopoe, huh?  Do they know how snooty and
> > exclusive that phrase sounds?  Do they realize how it looks?  Haven't
> > we had enough of being shut out?
> >
> > If my Windows machine isn't up yet, and if I only have Linux, then
> > downloading an unpack tool for Windows isn't going to do me a hoot in
> > Hell.  Maybe that's why everybody has been ignoring me, eh?  I'm
> > sorry, Janina, but you asked me, and I'm telling you.  I feel shut
> > out, ignored, and thrown away.  The site is for "MSIE5.5 or later", it
> > says so right on the page, damn it!!!  It's supposed to be for the
> > blind.  It's supposed to be so that we can access books!  It's
> > supposed to be a tool to help us, and it's just another fanthom,
> > supposedly accessible but only if you have the right equipment.
> > <sigh>  What about people who use W3, what about them?  What about
> > people who have shell accounts, there are some, you know.  They're
> > limited to Lynx.  I'm sorry, Janina, but I'm disgusted and feeling
> > angry and really quite upset.  I didn't realize how upset I was till
> > you asked me how I was doing.
> >
> > Ann P.
> >
> >
>
>
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