Still Here

I'm still here. I've just been very tired lately. Monday was a bad day,
but the rest of the week has actually gone by quite nicely, no
complaints, just tired. I'm taking tomorrow off for my birthday, and I'm
taking Monday off as well, for an extra-long weekend. I hope I'm still
pulling my fair share of the weight in the apartment and elsewhere. I
just need lots and lots of rest.

Panicking the Masses

The so-called blindness community, if not worse when it comes to
panicking, is certainly an exceptionally good example of the phenomenon.

An article was posted today to one of the lists, talking about how
Microsoft, in its next incarnation of Windows, wants to support touch
screens. Two things happened. One group of people turned on
sky-is-falling-down mode, implying that all computers, to comply with
the next version of Windows, will be operated exclusively by touch
screens and keyboards and mice will be a thing of the past. Since this
is clearly, to borrow from Colonel Potter, horse hockey, I just shake my
head. Then there's the GW Micro crowd, a bunch of people who believe
that, if a nuclear war were to break out which destroyed the Earth ten
times over, GW Micro would have a solution to save all Window-Eyes
users. It's laughable.

And where does this incredible loyalty to GW Micro come from? Humanware
is two weeks late in coming out with a patch for the Victor Reader
Stream. They never promised the patch, they said the plan was to have it
out by a certain time, and it took a little longer than expected. So
they're two weeks behind, and the public outcry is astounding.
Name-calling, abusive references, the works. GW Micro says they'd like
to have a public beta of Window-Eyes 7 out for the CSUN conference in
March. Here it is, almost June, no public beta. No one's complaining.
They're all praising GW for "taking the time to get it right".

GW also says that they've, in effect, stolen all of JAWS's top
scripters, and they're all singing the praises of GW's scripting ability
for Window-Eyes. I've learned to take very little of what GW Micro says
serously. They're phenomenally good at making customers feel that
they're being listened to, when the reality is that if an idea is put
forward that GW staff don't want, it'll get shelved, and the person who
put the idea forward will kiss GW Micro's feet in eternal grattitude for
... Something or other. I don't know how this company does it, but GW
could double the price of Window-Eyes and users would thank them for it.