OT: a speakup success story (Re: couple linux(deb) questions)

[John Heim]

~----- Original Message ----- >
> Hmm, just wondering, why install apache on a laptop? Are you using it
> as a server? That seems like a limit on a laptop's potential to me,

I took it to job interviews and used it to show off my web apps. I didn't 
need a network connection because apache was running on the laptop. So 
during the interview, I'd boot my laptop and show both my web app and how 
I'd work with the screen reader.

I started doing that after some people seemed kind of shocked to see a blind 
guy show up for a job interview.  Hard to believe but some people aren't 
aware that blind people can use computers. I thought that showing them that 
I was actually quite functional, maybe even fluent, on a computer would give 
me a better chance.

I even brought a cross-over cable and had dhcp running so they could connect 
their PC to my laptop, get an IP, and run the web apps on their PC. All this 
on a 150 Mhz laptop with 56 Mb of ram and a 6 Gb hard drive. And it wasn't 
bad in terms of speed. The web pages took a little while to load, 2 or 3 
seconds,  but that was easily explained.

I thought it was a very impressive show but even so, I was  looking for  a 
job for about a year. I was already working at the University of Wisconsin 
at the time but I was warned I might be a layoff victim. So I had time to 
look for another job. I think though, that the laptop was a big part of why 
I ended up here at the University of Wisconsin, Math Department.  They 
seemed very interested in what I had done with it.

I guess I can remove all that stuff now. I've been here for 2 years as of 
yesterday.