Steve Sawczyn

  • Gabby's Gifts and How You Can Help

    As Christmas approaches many are thinking of the gifts they will give their loved ones and time they will spend with their family.

    Last year when many kids were thinking of all the toys and gifts they were going to ask for, my little girl had only one item on her list. That item wasn’t a toy or clothes or even money. Her only wish was to help make a better Christmas for the kids that have to spend it in the hospital. I was so proud and knew I was blessed with a special little one. She raised over 300 dollars last year and we were able to purchase many gifts that were on the children’s wish list.

    This year we are once again raising money to help supply gifts for the children at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital. If you are interested in helping Gabby in her quest please consider making a donation using the button below. Thanks for considering helping Gabby’s Gifts. And Happy holidays to you all.

  • The new Twitter app and VoiceOver, It's a Bit Confusing..

    I don’t use the official Twitter app as I find it extremely confusing and unintuitive, however, I generally try to give it a quick look after every update as I know it may be the first Twitter app people are likely to encounter. The latest version comes with a number of changes, not all good in terms of accessibility. To be fair, I’m still exploring the new app, but I thought I’d jot down my observations thus far in the hopes they help others get started.

    The new welcome screen.

    When you launch the new Twitter app, you are now presented with this very strange welcome overlay. I say that it's strange because if you use VoiceOver, you'll still be able to read one or two tweets behind this overlay (this likely matches what's visually happening on the screen). What you won't be able to do is activate any of the application tabs along the bottom of the app, nor will you be able to scroll through the tweets. All is not lost, however, as it's possible to dismiss this overlay; here's how I managed to get it working:
    1. Touch until you find the what's new text.
    2. Double tap then swipe either right or left.
    3. Find the new block of "what's new" text.
    4. Again double tap and swipe.
    5. Eventually, after doing this about five times, a button will appear. The button says "start Twitter,." Double tap this button.
    6. Get a drink, eat some cake, or celebrate in whatever manner you choose; you made it!
    Note: I am told that a three finger swipe left while focused on the "what's new" text will advance to the next block, however, this didn't work for me. Might be worth a try though as that'd certainly be easier than the process just described.

    Life after the welcome screen.

    Twitter is just as unintuitive as it's been for a while, however, here's what I've discovered with the new design. First, there is now a row of tabs across the bottom of the application: "Timelines," "Notifications," "Messages," and "Me." At the top of the application is a button that says "people" then a title which changes depending on which tab you're in (the title text does not match the name of the tab of course) "search" and "new tweet." Just a quick note: I still don't really understand what the "people" button does, but fortunately, if you're as confused by it as me, there's a back button that will actually, well, take you back. Below this top row is your timeline/messages/"me" info, again depending on which tab you're in.

    Notifications

    The "notifications" tab seems to show Twitter Mentions and I suspect it probably shows something else as otherwise, why not just call it the "mentions" tab? I should note that this tab also has a "people" button as described above and just as described above, I still don't really understand it.

    Messages

    The "messages" tab shows you any direct messages you've received. Double tapping on any message will show expand the thread showing any on-going discussion you might be having with that particular Twitter user. on the definitely very cool side, there's an edit box within the conversation view making it super easy to reply.

    Me

    The "Me" tab shows your own profile and activity. One thing worth noting is that if you want to change any of the application's settings, the settings option is found within this tab.

    Hey! Stop pushing me!

    I don't know if this is a product of the upgrade or if I've just not used Twitter for a while, however, the client decided that I should start receiving push notifications for every mention and direct message received. It took me forever to figure out how to shut this off, but approximately 45 obnoxious push notifications later, I eventually did. If you find yourself in this situation, here's how to fix it:
    1. Go to the "me" tab.
    2. Double tap settings.
    3. Double tap your @username, yes, this is actionable even though VoiceOver doesn't identify it as such.
    4. Double tap notifications.
    5. Uncheck the boxes for whatever notifications you don't want pushed, i.e. mentions, direct messages, etc... Note, some options appear to have two check boxes. IF you're unable to uncheck one of them, try the other.

    It ain't all bad.

    I realize I'm being pretty hard on the new Twitter here, however, there are some neat aspects I want to call out. First, if you double tap and hold on a tweet in timelines, you get a context menu, "Mail Tweet, Copy Link to Tweet, Report Tweet, and Cancel." If you triple tap a tweet in timelines, you get a similar context menu containing, "Reply, Retweet, Favorite, and Cancel." The VoiceOver hint advises that you can "triple tap for quick tweet actions," which is a very nice touch. I really do like this triple tap menu as it provides fast access to the features I use most.

    Final thoughts.

    There's still a lot about the new Twitter Client I have yet to figure out. On the plus side, there does seem to be some additional accessibility support in the form of the triple tap context menus and VoiceOver help tags. If you decide to try it, however, just be prepared to deal with the initial welcome process and an interface that to me, seems less than intuitive. Are you using the upgraded client and if so, what are your thoughts? Please comment below.

  • You know what would be a fantastic service if it were to exist?

    There are so many things I’d love to learn more about, things I want to try. Unfortunately, I often find that I simply don’t know anyone involved in whatever it might be, at least not personally. Sure there are forums on the net for just about everything one can imagine, but sometimes even finding that can be a challenge.

    The idea

    Wouldn’t it be great if there were a centralized place to find a mentor, regardless of subject? Essentially a place for people who are enthusiastic about – insert subject here – to make themselves available to others starting out? I’ve seen various sites offering this sort of thing, but most are aligned with a specific industry or group and frankly, if you’ve found such a site, you’ve probably already found other relevant resources.

    Background

    I got this idea from a recent Email i received from a blind gentleman interested in coin collecting. his question to me was whether I knew of any other blind coin collectors as he had questions regarding logistics and such. Not only do I not know of other blind coin collectors, but, well, I don’t know any at all. Knowing nothing about coin collecting, I don’t even know where to suggest he start other than searching Google and hoping for the best. This sort of thing occurred quite frequently in my former life as an assistive technology instructor; a client would often show an interest in something or other and ask if I could connect them with someone with that same interest. I “social network” quite a bit and so know many people doing many things, but certainly I don’t have all subjects covered and honestly I’m glad I don’t. :) Still, knowing there are people out there who are passionate about whatever their interest happens to be, it strikes me that this would be a really neat resource. All that being said, does anyone know if such a resource already exists? If it does, I want to share it with the world as I feel it could benefit many. If not, how do we create it?

  • And today's new experience, drinking coconut milk directly from the coconut.

    I’ve had coconut milk before, but it’s always been rather sweet and, has always been served in a glass. As coconuts actually grow here, it’s possible to drink the milk directly from one. This was something I definitely had to try. Literally, they just take the coconut, make a small hole in the top of it, insert a straw, and serve. So how did it taste? I really liked it, although I’m not used to it unsweetened. I also realize that I’ve never actually tried coconut. That is to say, I’ve had the milk, and I’ve had things with coconut in it, but not the actual coconut itself. That is a very interesting experience because of the texture. To back up a little, after you finish your coconut milk, they then scoop out the meet of the coconut. It’s very difficult to describe the texture of this But suffice it to say, it is very healthy and it’s very tasty, assuming you still have room for it after drinking about a liter of the milk.

    I have some pictures of me drinking the coconut milk, but will have to put them up in another post as I can’t figure out how to insert them using the iPhone.

  • Pictures from my tour of Bangalore today

    This is my first attempt at creating a photo gallery in Wordpress, so I’m not sure how it’ll come out. Assuming it does, the collection below consists of pictures taken earlier today as I toured the city of Bangalore. Sorry that there’s no captions or alt text for any of these, however, they were taken so quickly that I don’t even know what all of them are adds create alt text for photo gallery to never ending to-do list. I also have audio of various parts of this tour, but unfortunately, can’t copy it off my recorder (a topic for another blog post). Hope you enjoy, more posts to come shortly.

  • Lunch with Gerard, a wonderful cultural experience.

    Every day here has been full of new and amazing experiences and today was no different. After taking a tour of Bangalore with my driver, Gerard, I was invited to have lunch with his family at his home.

    Gerard lives in a small home not too far from the office where I’m working. His house consists of three rooms in total: a main room, kitchen and bedroom. In these, he lives with his wife, two children and mother. The house is situated under trees that provide it with shade. As such, it’s nice and cool even though the temperature outside is on the warm side. I’m impressed by three things as I enter Gerard’s home.

    1. As just mentioned, it’s nice and cool without depending on air conditioning and pricy electric bills. As I think about my own home and my ever-increasing electric bill just to keep the temperature bearable, I am reminded how thoughtful design can really make a huge difference. :)
    2. Space is something Americans take for granted. I can’t imagine living in such close quarters and not going absolutely crazy and my mother doesn’t even live with us (no offense Mom. :)
    3. The smell coming from Gerard’s kitchen is absolutely amazing and no matter what will be served, I’m already convinced I’m gonna love it.

    Lunch today consists of a shrimp curry, rice, chapati (bread) and fried shark. There’s large amounts of everything and it all tastes amazing. Even though I’m getting incredibly full, I have a hard time stopping the food from constantly appearing on my plate which, as an aside, is a shallow metal bowl. Although I’m given a fork for the rice, I eat my curry with pieces of the bread. My fingers get a bit messy, but I definitely don’t mind. In truth, I see many advantages of eating this way, the least of which is that it’s easier for me to be sure I’m not missing anything on my plate. Nobody really talks during the meal which is probably good as it would have been hard to do anyway.  After we’re finished eating, a bowl of water is brought to the table, so that hands can be easily washed.

    After lunch, we talk about a number of topics including US politics, Syria, the Indian school system, etc… I learn a great deal such as the fact that although Hindi is the official language of India, school lessons are taught in English. In addition to the official language, each state or region has its own language. These languages are not similar meaning that fluency in one won’t help with any of the others. In total, there are 25 languages spoken in India and most people are fluent in at least three: English, Hindi and whatever language is spoken in their home area. If you move to another part of the country, you may need to learn a fourth if only to more easily communicate with your new neighbors. I contrast all this with my own children, aged 13 and 10 who haven’t even begun learning a second language.

    As we get ready to leave, we find that the road is entirely blocked by a construction truck. The driver is on break somewhere, so we simply wait for him to return. When he does, he drives off in his truck accidentally taking down a power line on his way. A neighbor moves the downed power line out of the road and we leave Gerard’s peaceful neighborhood and return to the chaos that is traffic in India.

    World culture has always been a major interest of mine and so I’m very grateful to have had today’s experience. I can get wonderful food at my hotel, but much of the experience is westernized due to the numbers of American and European guests that stay there. I’m not sure if he’ll ever read this blog, but in the event he does, Gerard, a very big thanks to you and your family for a wonderful afternoon.

  • Nothing like a little accordion music and evening.

    listen to ‘Nothing like a little accordion music and evening.’ on Audioboo
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  • A very clever way to save energy

    We waste so much energy in the US that it always intrigues me to see how people are saving it elsewhere. My hotel has this interesting energy-saving feature that I found extremely clever, so I thought I’d write it down.

    Behind my door is a little holder thing for my keycard. If the keycard is removed from this holder, the lights and power switch off. In this way, you can’t leave the room and forget to turn off lights; they turn off automatically when you remove the card. Unfortunately, the power connected to my iPhone charger also turned off, so I guess it’s not possible to let something charge while away unless I’m missing a switch somewhere. Anyway, I thought this to be a very clever idea and wonder how much american hotels could save if they implemented something similar?

  • My very first impressions of India

    Now that I’m here and have gotten caught up on sleep, I thought I’d take a moment and write down my very first impressions of India. The very first thing I noticed upon entering the airport is that unlike American airports, the one in Bangalore is not refrigerated to the point where you might wish you had worn a winter jacket even in the middle of August. Indeed, the temperature inside the airport was warmer than the outside temperature.

    People are super friendly even though I’m blind. I say it this way because I am always concerned with how people will deal with the blindness thing and I’ve seen reactions ranging from absolute terror to, well, what i"m finding here which is more along the lines of what help do you need and how can I provide it.

    The other thing I noticed, especially when leaving the airport is the smell of diesel. Excepting trucks, I don’t think we have many vehicles that run on diesel anymore and in contrast, this seems to be what many, if not most of their cars run on. Long as we’re on the subject of cars, I learned that most are manual shift, automatics are hard to come by.

    I was very lucky to have been met by some of the people with whom I’ll be working. I felt this was incredibly nice given that I arrived after midnight. I’d love to say we’d do the same for people visiting us for work, but I think there’s a cut-off time and it falls way before midnight. Can we say dedication much?

    The first resturant I passed was a subway. I just can’t imagine flying half way around the world, surviving immigration and saying, “oh thank god, there’s a subway.” I wasn’t very hungry having been fead almost to death on the plane, but … and maybe it’s just me but I’d want Indian food, not subway.

    I have a driver who is assigned to, well, drive me around during my stay here. When I met him, he suggested that I ride in the passenger seat. I started walking around the car and heard this sudden exclamation, “no no! I’ll drive! I’ll drive!” I then realized that India, they drive on the opposite side of the road and as such, the passenger seat is in the front left of the car, not the front right. Should he ever read this, my sincere apologies for giving you a panic attack right off the bat. :)

    People at my hotel have been absolutely beyond friendly even going so far as to just occasionally drop by to see if there’s anything I need, or anywhere I want to go.

    I slept very well last night and don’t feel tired today which is really a good thing since I slept for longer than expected on my second flight. I’m hopeful that I won’t have any trouble adjusting to the time difference especially as my internal clock is screwed up as it is.

    I’ll write/record more later, but certainly, if there’s anything anyone is curious about, please comment here, or drop me an Email: steve@sawczyn.com or tweet me: SteveofMaine. Although I’m less than a day into it, I can already tell this is going to be an awesome experience.

  • First flight went well

    The first flight went well, now on the second one. Got lots to eat and even got some sleep, almost unheard of for me on flights. Will post more soon.

  • Oh boy, another protest.

    listen to ‘Oh boy, another protest.’ on Audioboo
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  • Skype for OSX keyboard shortcuts

    Now that Windows Live Messenger has essentially been swallowed up by Skype, I find myself suddenly a lot more interested in how I might more efficiently and effectively use the official Skype client. I was very surprised when the official Skype account on Twitter replied with this very handy list of Skype for OSX keyboard shortcuts. Looking through the list, there's definitely a few I didn't know about.

  • talking bus stop signs, how incredibly cool

    listen to ‘talking bus stop signs, how incredibly cool’ on Audioboo
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  • Where oh where have our movers gone?

    As we wait for more information about what will happen to our truck, it would seem our movers have decided to just leave. Although we certainly hope they will return, we did not know that they were going to leave and hence are not sure that they will. The day just keeps getting better and better.

  • moving, rain, and a broken truck

    listen to ‘moving, rain, and a broken truck’ on Audioboo
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  • Accepting physical credit card payments, the accessible PayPal solution

    For many small businesses, the inaccessibility of payment solutions have often posed barriers to accepting physical credit card payments. More recently, services such as Squared and PayPal have entered the arena with solutions that provide small businesses and individuals the ability to accept physical credit cards using a small device connected to an OS or Android device. Although ultra portable and ultra convenient, these solutions traditionally pose accessibility challenges as well, because the card reader devices connect via the headphone jack and this disables speech output which may be needed for accessibility.

    Although I wasn’t able to make a great deal of headway with the Squared solution, I did have success with PayPal’s. In the following audio demonstration, I’ll show how PayPal’s solution works with VoiceOver and will describe how to overcome it’s accessibility challenges.

  • How to use DropBox without a mouse or trackpad

    listen to ‘How to use DropBox without a mouse or trackpad’ on Audioboo
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  • hello from Twins vs Redsox

    listen to ‘hello from Twins vs Redsox’ on Audioboo
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  • A Mother's Day poem recited by the kids

    listen to ‘A Mother's Day poem recited by the kids’ on Audioboo
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  • a bit of trumpet on my way home

    listen to ‘a bit of trumpet on my way home’ on Audioboo
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  • In memory of Titanic, some interesting resources that bring events to life.

    So today is the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and as such, I thought I’d share a few rather interesting resources. One often overlooked aspect of the Titanic are the actions portrayed by her radio operators. Using Morse code, these brave folks not only did their absolute best to message the world that help was needed, but were daily engaged in handling lots of traffic to and from passengers. The BBC did a really neat documentary, “The Titanic, in Her own Words” on the radio operators. Using speech synthesizers to read out many of the Morse code messages recorded on this fateful night, you can’t help, but get an idea of just how chaotic things must have been. You can listen to this fascinating documentary here.

    There is also a Twitter stream, @TitanicRealtime, which is tweeting what events might have been like from a first person point of view. I’m watching these tweets as I write this post and have to say, it really helps bring this horrific event to life in a way that only social media can.

    I hope you enjoy these resources and find them as interesting as I do.

  • "Ship My Pants," only the best commercial ever!

    This Kmart commercial has got to be the best commercial ever.

    Direct link to Youtube video

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I03UmJbK0lA

  • Testing WordPress integration

    listen to ‘Testing WordPress integration’ on Audioboo
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  • The ultimate in geekiness, the Ghostbuster's theme played on eight floppy drives

    I don’t know if it’s more sad that I remember when Ghostbusters was cool, or that I remember the sounds of some of the drives used in this rendition of the theme song, but here you have it.

    Direct link to Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx_vWkv50uk

    [delay +12 hours]

  • Just held my first Nano SIM and wow is it tiny

    I just received an iPhone 5 and of course before powering it up, I had to take it apart, at least a little. One thing that has made me curious about the iPad Minis and the new iPhone 5 is Apple’s use of a new, Nano SIM chip. For those unfamiliar, the SIM chip is what contains all your personal cell carrier data, IE which carriers your phone should work on, your phone number and other settings. One major advantage to using SIM chips is that you, the user, could easily remove the chip from one device and use it in another, especially handy if you often switch devices, or have multiple devices. You might also have more than one SIM chip in theory allowing you to use one device with multiple carriers, great for international travelers. Anyway, the Nano SIM represents the fourth generation of the SIM chip, the original first generation roughly being the size of a credit card. Each generation has gotten progressively smaller than the last while retaining the same core form factor. So, this being the fourth generation, you can naturally understand why I was curious about it’s size .. what’s that? You can’t? huh.

    I’m not super good at judging sizes, but I’d guess that the Nano SIM is roughly 12.3 mm by 8.8 mm by 0.67 mm. In the interest of fairness, I should mention that these measurements are available from multiple sources, so I’m probably better at using Google than I am at guessing sizes. Anyway, if you’ve ever held the SIM chip contained in the GSM version of the iPhone 4, imagine something even smaller and thinner. If you were to drop both this and a needle in a haystack, I suspect the needle would be the easier of the two to find.

    As one of those who actually does remember the first generation credit card sized SIM, it’s kind of amazing to me to see just how much smaller this generation has become. Another neat thing – I think it’s neat anyway – is that by using a cutter, or a razor blade, you can actually cut a previous generation SIM down to Nano SIM size and assuming you don’t cut the gold contacts or your finger off, it’ll actually work. This could come in incredibly handy if your particular carrier doesn’t offer nano SIM chips or, if you just like playing with razor blades.

    What’s that? You want to learn more about SIM chips? as mentioned above, there are lots of great, dare I say interesting resources on the net such as this one. Isn’t technology great?

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