Settled in and Ready for the new semester

Sorry it's been a long time again people. I have had the maddest month ever. I have passed all my exam resits with the exception of Quantitative Methods which I am doing this year. My girlfriend of two months has been down. She is called Laura and she has been really supportive of me over the last two months and has helped to turn my life around. I told Rob Miles about her and his reaction was "Wow, a computer scientist with a girlfriend". He was joking about it.

I have been helping out at International Week as a volunteer. I have been helping to move people into University Accommodation and while doing so have met a few friendly faces. I also have new housemates. I am living with two American girls who are really friendly and a lad from London who is equally as friendly. I love the atmosphere that my new housemates have helped me to create. We all pin our doors back and just hang around in each others' rooms.

I should be getting broadband shortly although it is taking its time. The thing that gets to me the most is the library now has "new" opening hours. They are only open till seven on Monday and Tuesday, till five on Wednesday and Thursday and till four on Friday. The library is no longer open on a weekend so I now NEED a broadband connection because I can't use the 24 hour center because they use 14" CRT screens which are very old and flicker and they have set the resolution to 1,024x768 and I need it at 800x600 on a 14" screen. They don't have ZoomText although that should be coming shortly. If I don't get my broadband, I fear that I cannot continue my studies at this university and will have to drop out and re-apply to a different university next year.

In other news, Vodafone have agreed to install Talks for free on my Nokia N73 which would help me although I am STILL waiting for my Nokia 6280 unlocking code, which has annoyed me as I have paid £15 for it, which I can ill afford.

I do however want to make it a good year, for it to be better than last year.

ZoomText Scripting

If you have read my blog, you will noticed that my entry about finally getting ZoomText 9.1 has had a comment made about it. This comment was from somebody who works at AI Squared about a blog called ZoomText Scripting which gives us, the users a chance to comment on the making of ZoomText and submit ideas and code. I like the fact that I have been read by AI Squared as one day I hope to write programs like ZoomText that magnify and read the screen.

Back at Chez Student

Fellow blog readers, I am back at Chez Student. I am in the big room with the bay window and it is absolutely fantastic I am on dial-up internet for the moment but I will be getting broadband in shortly. I moved in on Friday August 31^st and the day went something like this

9am – Wake up

10am do some studying

11am continue studying for a bit

12 noon take big wheelie bag, OPTi Verso camera and smaller Head Sports bag up to the accommodation office to collect the key to the room, then take the bags to my room

12:30 set off to Computer Systems exam

13:30 Do exam

14:50 finish exam, collect empty bags and head back down to my friend's house, stopping along the way to get shopping

15:00 re-pack big bag, and bring computer, VCR and cases of CDs down

17:00 take things back to Chez Student in taxi

18:30 walk back down to friend's place

19:33 Take big black back and head sports bag back to Chez Student on the number 115 bus

19:50 unpack everything in my room

20:10 walk to bus stop with empty bags

20:15 head out to my friend's house on the number 15 bus

20:40 pack remaining things that will fit in black bag and bring large boxes and Printer/Scanner downstairs.

21:00 head back to Ferens Avenue and unpack.

I finally got finished unpacking at about 1am this morning, briefly stopping to chat to my girlfriend. The funny thing is, I've still got to collect my musical keyboard and a few other items from my friend's house. Yesterday was very tiring.

ZoomText 9.1

I have got a full copy of ZoomText 9.1. I got it on Friday when I went to see my worker at the University's Disability Office. They had decided that it was necessary for me to have a copy of ZoomText 9.1 after all because I am using Office 2007, and that is what the University will be using from September. I am actually quite happy with it. I did not initially like the way it turned off the Aero user interface, but I have just reset the colour scheme to Windows Classic and ZoomText 9.1 works fantastically.

I’m Back in Hull

I am back in Hull now. I arrived on Thursday and my parents brought my things over on Friday. I am staying with a couple of friends who do computer science to revise with them for my exam resits. At the moment it is fantastic. My friends are renting a Club Easy house this year and I'm staying with them until I get temporary accommodation or until Chez Student becomes available. At my friends' place, they have decided to live communally. I want that to happen in Chez Student although I don't think that it will happen that way. It feels nice though to get up, walk out of my bedroom and have somebody say "Good Morning" to you. The doors aren't on springs like ours at Chez Student which means you can leave them open while you are in the room without breaking Fire Safety regulations. The house has a living room with a free TV license whereas at Chez Student, you have to pay for your TV license and it MUST have the right room number on or else you are treat as someone who doesn't have a TV license. I found out the hard way. Last year, I lived in Room 2 but my license said Room 1 on it, and I was sent a letter stating that if I didn't pay my TV License fee, I would be threatened with Court. I had to ring the TV Licensing authorities to sort it out.

I am hoping this year is better than last year as I really do want to do well at University because my degree is very important to me.

Long Time No Squeak

Sorry dear reader(s) that I haven't blogged in a while. It's been very busy here. I have been studying for resits in exams and preparing to go back to Hull to do the resifts. I should be back on Thursday, 23^rd. I am staying at a friend's to study, then when I do the resits, I will get temporary accommodation, and should be then able to move back to Chez Student for the start of the semester.

Last weekend I was in Malvern with my parents at the motorhome show. This was a Country & Western weekend which featured performances by country singers every night in the Malvern Showground's two stables. There was also line dancing classes that ran every night from 6 to 7, and they were very enjoyable. It was good to dance again. During the day there were cowboy shoot-outs, and plenty of motorhomes for sale. Caravanning was something that always interested me, and I always enjoyed looking round caravans. I know it's weird but hey. Some of the vehicles I saw really caught my eye and these included the Gulfstream Crescendo RV, the Auto Trail Frontier Scout and the Hymer range of motorhomes.

After the weekend in Malvern, I would like to go back to line dancing when I get back to University. I will have to find a dance class.

In the lakes again

Yesterday I went to the Lake District with The Outlook Trust. Today we have been up at Tower Wood Outdoor education center where the trust keeps the Gig and canoes. We split up into two groups to kayak and sail. It was nice to sail in the Gig again. It seems so strange but six years ago I hated every moment I spent sailing because the boat leaned. I always feared it would throw me in. After overcoming my fear of sailing, I now find that sailing in the Gig, which is actually quite a small boat, is second nature.

Appreciated by Microsoft

Last week, I received an e-mail from Ed Gibson at Microsoft Corporation. Turns out he likes my blog, my ability not just to say what's good about something but also the ability to be critical of something. It's good to know that I have been noticed by Microsoft and I hope I can continue to put up materiall that pleases everyone (that is if I do so).

This time Offcom went too far

Telecommunications regulator Offcom has made a decision that is affecting blind cellphone users around the UK. At one time, if a blind and partially sighted person was registered with the Free Directory Enquiries service and they needed a number, all they had to do was to pick up their trusty handset, dial 195, give the person at the other end a unique ID code and then request the number. The person on the end would then dutifully look up the number and give it to the caller. The best part was that this was free to blind and partially sighted users – not any more. If you dial 195 from, let's say my Vodafone Pay Monthly handset, it will go through to 118 888, and I will receive the number without having to tell the operative my PIN code. However, it will appear on my bill as a chargeable call. The reason for this is that Offcom want the mobile networks in the UK to use 118 888 and not 195, because apparently 192 and 197 directory enquiries is no longer. I knew that but come on – blind users can't suddenly use a telephone directory easily, so why has free directories been discontinued so suddenly? This sure beats me.

............ and that concludes our rant for today. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

I-Doser Application

Today I was reading the latest edition of The Official Windows Vista magazine when I came across an article for a program called I-Doser. Basically what it does is to play sounds to the user through headphones which it is claimed the sound waves will alter the waves in the brain thereby altering the mood of the person who is listening to the sounds through headphones. I was curious so I decided to download the program and give it a go. Two free doses are provided. The first one is Content, which wipes negative thoughts from your head and leaves you feeling happy and contented. The second dose, alcohol gives you that feeling when you've just had a couple of jars. I tried the Content dose (I didn't fancy feeling drunk in the middle of the afternoon at Chez Wakefield). The sound played for twenty minutes, and it did seem a little annoying at first having an annoying ringing sound playing for twenty minutes, but when it finished it did fade out rather than just stop dead, which meant your ears have time to recover. It seemed okay I guess but that could just be a placebo effect.

I'm a little sceptical of these things. I don't know how much research has been done into this, but I have a feeling that prolonged tampering with brain waves could have negative side effects, so just exercise caution.

Outlook Trust

I have now become the administrator for the web-site of The Outlook Trust. The site has already been made up but if you want to know more about the trust, or to see the changes that I will be making to the site (once I can get the log-in credentials to work) then please click here. I have also asked about becoming a helper and one of the trustees is going to look into it for us.

My trip to Scotland

Last week I went to Scotland with the Outlook Trust, the organisation that takes young visually impaired people on residential where they do outdoor activities. This week we did activities such as kayaking, sailing, gorge walking and white water rafting. We set off on Sunday 1^st of July from the co-op car park to travel for about eight hours on the magic bus to Strontian, which is a village on Loch Sunart, which is a sea loch on the west of Scotland near Fort William. We stayed in a self-catering bunkhouse which was actually quite modern, however most of us didn't get any signal on our mobiles. The only phones which got a signal were one of the leaders' phones which was on Orange, and ironically enough, my Samsung D600 picked up enough signal in a certain spot of the room for me to have a decent phone conversation.

Anyhoo, we went kayaking on the Monday morning. We kayaked to a channel in the loch where porpoises are found. It was quite scary in a way that I had a feeling that a porpoise may come up around the boat. We then paddled back for Lunch. Afterwards, some of us were given the opportunity to have a go at driving the Rib (Rubber Inflatable Boat), dubbed "Orange One" while some of us went sailing on one of the leaders' Yacht, which was called Moya. We then swapped over and some more people sailed while the others had a go at driving the Rib. Tuesday was a bit more strenuous, with gorge walking on the agenda for the morning. This gorge (I forget the name) was a tricky one, with certain parts where you had to swim in it. I have been in this gorge before; We did part of it in 2003 the last time we were in Strontian. This time it was slightly tricky with my having to wear sandals. The right sandal kept coming loose and on the way back, I had to just take them off and walk barefoot back to the bus, which was bad news for the leader who loaned me the dry suit in an attempt to keep my toe dry. After gorge walking, we went for lunch, and afterwards it was time to learn how to capsize in a double kayak, which was fun and also very wet. Some of us got to have a go at wind surfing but because the rest of us were sitting in the rib cold and wet, we had to retire for the day. On the next day, we white-water rafting with two professional instructors from Vertical Descents, an organisation that takes people white-water rafting, canyonning and Fun Yaking which is like white-weater rafting but in two man inflatable boats which are as stable and safe as rafts but as manoeuvrable as kayaks. We did some white-water rafting on the river Gary which is a class 3-4 river. Rivers are classed in how tricky they are and the classing system goes from 1 to 6, so our river was quite fast, in fact we were stuck in the first rapid, and I will have to admit to being absolutely petrified now because if I don't somebody else will. Once we had finished the rapids we headed back to the bunkhouse for a quick rest and then we had a barbecue on the Wednesday evening. On the Thursday, we headed out on a kayaking expedition. The weather was quite cool, and it rained occasionally but we paddled for about four hours from Loch Sunart through Loch Teacus to some ground by small estate. We set up tents and had tea which was cooked on stoves that use mentholated spirits. We had tomato pasta and freshly caught mackerel which tasted fantastic. After tea we all turned in for the night. The next day we packed up and set off back. The original idea was to sail through Loch Teacus into Loch Drambuie, into the open sea, then back to Loch Sunart, but because we were all tired, we canoed in Loch Drambuie just for a little while and then back through Loch Sunart. The journey was quite long and in places very tricky because of the wind, so we all rafted up and made a makeshift sail from paddles and tarpaulin, which worked very well as we made some speed. We used the rudders on the back of the double kayaks to steer, and we made quite a distance before we headed for Lunch. After lunch, we only had an hour to go, but we put our backs into it and we got back okay. After helping to shift the kayaks back to the bus we headed off back to the bunkhouse for a quick hower before we went to a restaurant for tea. The lasagne we had was really tasty as was the lemon meringue we had for dessert. After tea, it was time to pack up for the long journey back home.

We all enjoyed the trip to Scotland and thanks to the Outlook Trust for putting it on for us.

Happi Birthday Eli

I would like to wish a Happy Birthday to my niece Eli who turned four today.

This weekend

I came back to Bradford this weekend. Last night I went to Yeadon Tarn with my Parents. This is a walk we all enjoy doing. Last night we went there because all the rain we have had has made everywhere else all boggy and because I am wearing sandals because of my toenail., I can't really go there. Anyhoo, I took my newest digital camera out (a 6.0 megapixel Traveller unit with a 3X optical zoom from Aldi) and got some snaps.

When I get round to it, I will post all the digital photos up on the blog. In the mean time, you can look at them by clicking on my Flickr photostream

It’s good to touch the green green grass of Home

Yes, I am a Country & Western fanatic. Today I came home. It was difficult though as I seemed to have acquired a lot of stuff. We dropped a load off at Withernsea on Wednesday, then we came back to Chez Student for the rest off the stuff that was coming back to Chez Wakefield with me. Mum and Dad took an Estate car's worth of things home and I took a bag with wheels and a sports bag (both full) on the train and came back home. Useful things Young Person's Railcards; I was able to travel from Hull to Leeds for £9.50. Anyhoo I'm home now. It's strange using my new PC on a fast Internet connection. Mum's 8MB broadband is up and running and working like a drea.

Microsoft T-Shirt

Something I forgot to mention Yesterday, because I had blogged previously about Slide 7, I was given a free Microsoft T-shirt. I am in the middle of packing because I am going home. I have packed most of my things but have still got quite a bit to do. The next challenge then is fitting it all into the back of a Volvo V70 estate.

Microsoft Slide 7 Conference

Today I was down in Reading for Slide 7, which I have been looking forward to since I booked my place on it in May. We went down on Rob's magic bus last night, and stayed the night at Travelodge Reading M4 Eastbound. I had booked this for £15 for the night as they had a special offer. The room I got was fantastic. It was very large with a double bed and a bathroom. I made a mistake this morning however as I went down to the Moto service station which adjoined the Travelodge and spend £7.49 on a full English and about £3.12 on a cup of tea! I don't know how service stations can charge so much for breakfast. I realise prices are higher because of the long hours people have to work in Services, plus travelling for employees is more difficult than for most, plus the fact that it is a mere convenience, so I suppose I realise why they can charge so much.

Anyhoo, I went back to Travelodge's main reception to meet the others, and it was back on the Magic Bus for the conference. We arrived and had complementary tea, coffee and biscuits before starting the conference. The first talk was by Mark Quirk. This was an introduction to the day. His keynote contained information about Web 2.0, its applications, and a bit on the future of Web, such as going beyond the browser and Web 3.0. He showed us some samples of Web 2.0 in action. These included Windows Live! Maps and HMV's media player. After this talk, we took a comfort break, where there were more refreshments. I then went to the Introduction to ASP .NET by Ed Dunhill. This talk was good with demonstrations using Microsoft Expressions Blend. It was then time for Lunch, after which I went to Rob's talk. As usual Rob delivered the talk while cracking a joke on average every two minutes. He demonstrated how to create a web service using Visual Studio 2005 and created two small programs, one which would send a message and the other which would receive the message and display it on-screen. When this program worked, we all applauded wildly, apparently for no real reason other than so the noise would spill into the next theatre. Rob was demonstrating how web services could be used in mobile development (or not). When his talk had finished,Martin Parry came and talked about Windows Live! Services including Virtual Maps, Hotmail and Live Spaces, Microsoft's blogging and social networking service, similar to MySpace. After another comfort break, we all came together for the last talk which was on Microsoft Silverlight by Mark Johnston. This talk was one of the most interesting as we were given the chance to win a graphics tablet, plus Silverlight seems to me to be a cause for excitement in itself because it looks to be directly competing with Adobe Macromedia Flash. One of the things that Silverlight can do is to stream High-Definition Full-screen videos, something that Flash seems to be lacking in at the moment. One of the people there asked whether buttons in Silverlight applications would be able to get the focus using the tab key. This is something I am interested in as I want Silverlight to be accessible to the blind and partially sighted because from past experience, Flash is almost totally inaccessible to those people. At the moment, however Silverlight, cannot create applications whose buttons can get focus, although it should be implemented by the time Silverlight 1.0 comes out. If not, it will be available in Silverlight 1.1 which should follow shortly afterwards. While you can only write Silverlight 1.0 applications in JavaScript, Silverlight 1.1 will utilize the .NET Framework for development, so you can write Silverlight solutions in any .NET programming language, including Visual Basic, C# or C++, and more.

After the final talk, it was time for a barbecue tea, and after a quick competition to win some last minute goodies, completing the evaluation forms, and receiving a goodie bag in return, and the winning of the Microsoft T-shirts, it was time to board the Magic Bus and head back home.

A good day was had by all who attended, and I was able to talk to one of the Microsoft staff about going into access to computers for the Visually Impaired. It seems that I need to contact Redmond as Microsoft UK do not deal with that. I will make contact with Redmond over the summer.

I must say that the staff at Slide 7 were most helpful. When I pointed out that I was Visually Impaired and could I have a seat on the front rowm they were more than happy to oblige. I was also helped to the food and was given help to find a lunch bag. Just to say thank you to everyone at Microsoft UK Campus for the help I recieved today. If the conference is held next year I am definitely going down.

Windows 98 is potentially more advanced than Vista

Well I wouldn't go as far as that, however some aspects of handling of CD and DVD-ROMs seem to be better in 98, Me, 2000 and XP than they do in Vista, for example, if you are browsing the contents of a disc in Explorer in Win 98/Me/XP/2000 and you decide to eject the CD without first closing the Explorer window, Windows does that for you. In Vista, however the window stays open when the CD is ejected, making things potentially messy when you try to recommence browsing. I know it's silly to try and browse a CD which isn't there but wasn't it so much easier that when you ejected a CD, Windows took care of the rest? Apart from that, Windows Vista is a fantastic operating system.

An update on The Old Waiting Game

Today, I finally had my toenail delt with, about three months after my ringing up for an appointment. I was in a BitTorrent of pain this morning after the anaesthetic wore off but I took a couple of painkillers and they did the trick (well that could have been the couple of Belgian Chocolates that my housemate left me, eaten well after the painkillers).

I am really looking forward to hobbling to Slide 7 on Monday at Microsoft UK HQ in Reading. It should be a good day. I never did consider getting into Web development but it could help me with disabled access to computers, talking of which, Disability Services at Hull have realised that they need ZoomText 9.1 as the university is planning on deploying Office 2007 on it's student network, and ZoomText 9.0 does not follow the cursor in Word, meaning you have to manually move the mouse pointer to where the cursor is. This said, and the fact that I am using the copy of Office 2007 Ultimate that I acquired for Microsoft when they gave a talk at Hull University, the Disability services have ordered me a copy of ZoomText 9.1 from Sight and Sound. Hopefully Jacobs Well will give us the funding for it.

Day on Windermere

Today, I was woken up by staff member Jeff singing "Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day" at some unearthly hour. After a bit of mumbling and generally waking up, I went down for Breakfast. I have never had panneau chocolat, bacvon and eggs on something which is akin to a large saucer before, but hey - at least the food was good. We then went to Tower Wood, where our boats are, and I spent the mo0ning kayaking. I need to regain a bit of confidence that may have been lost in the last year. After a morniong of kayaking from one side of the lake to the other, we breaked and had lunch, after which I went in a raft of three canadian canoes, which had been tied together by string and to a wooden pole. Once we had reached Tower Wood, we all decided to jump in the lake for a swim. It was very cold at first but we warmed up. Once we had showered at Tower Wood, we headed back to the hostel. I think tonight we are going to the pub. What a good end to the day.