Brian Hartgen

For those interested about L, and thanks to those who are.
I got to the hospital for 10 and we were back home just after 11, so that was pretty good.
She has had a good afternoon, just getting used to being back home. She has some new equipment which I've got for her to make her life a little easier; still one or two things to get because this is going to be a long recovery.
When Drew arrived to prepare our meal, she was able to get up and eat that which is a great improvement. So far, so good.

I am in the BrailleNote Evolve webinar; it is just coming to an end.
Apart from what the product can do, two things I picked up.
First, there is going to be a product called JAWS for BrailleNote, essentially the same JAWS product but at a lower price. It can only be licensed and installed on the Evolve; you cannot transfer it to your own computer.
Second, Remote Incident Manager is installed by default which is very helpful. I sent this below message by chat to the panelists.
Message begins:

The Evolve, JAWS and RIM. It is wonderful that you are including RIM on the device by default. Note however that if we are connecting to an Evolve running JAWS, we cannot see the Braille output. We can only hear the speech. Given your recent partnership and close relationship with Vispero, this would be an ideal opportunity for you to perhaps apply some influence if possible, to convince Vispero to work with Pneuma Solutions to create a gateway for the Braille output.
This they have been reluctant to do thus far. Pneuma Solutions have been advocating for this functionality for a number of years now. The fact that the Evolve is now capable of running JAWS just may tip the balance in our favour.

If anyone is interested, probably not, these are my most used apps I use under Windows discovered within the past few months. I use these now every day without fail.
1. 1Password. That is right up there. I have so much now stored in 1Password and not just passwords. I probably have my life in there! I can access everything in just a few seconds.
2. Fast-SM. For Mastodon, it's the best. It really is.
3. Fast-Play. It's playing audio right now and it's doing so for hours and hours every day.
4. An app I've written for my Leasey product which noone has yet. I'll talk about it as we head towards the summer.
5. My own app I've had for a good while now which allows me to prepare audio cue sheets, either manually or converting from the Playout1 broadcasting format. That gets used almost every day.
6. An app Codex wrote for me this week. It allows me to manage various problematic documents.
If it's a PDF, it reads it in a logical order with no garbled lines or lines which are run together.
If it's a Word document containing drawing objects with no visible text, it can use Word automation to extract it. So if Codex can do it why can't JAWS do that?
If either of those two methods fail, we can resort to AI instead and ask for it to be restructured or ask for clarification. So I have the best of everything there.

7. WhatsApp. I have exactly the same functionality now as I did with the old app, probably better in some cases.

So my hope is that I will be able to shove all of those apps on the BrailleNote Evolve and use it when away from the computer.

So recently I have been using Codex which is part of ChatGPT. There are similar tools available but I like this one.
Although I've been using it for a short time, it is already making life easier.
Codex is an app which a lot of people on X are talking about and really like. It is able to do a wide range of tasks. It can evaluate computer code, work with your Email if you give it permission to do so, and carry out other tasks for you. I am just learning about it but there are hundreds of plugins available. Let me give you a few examples of how I have used it. I am using the Windows app.
1. Yesterday evening I was creating a PHP script to retrieve information from the Discogs API. If I can say so, I'm very good with PHP and I know what I am doing. But I was being too restricting in my logic. So I said to Codex, look, here is my script. I pointed it at the PHP file. This is the problem. How can I improve it? It examined it, gave some suggestions, and offered to make those changes for me. Now obviously I didn't have to accept that last part but it made the changes and did a good job. Note that it did point out where I was going wrong. I like to understand that because if I develop code, I like to write it myself.
2. I received an invoice yesterday from an organisation we've just started to use to do some work for us. This is the most inaccessible invoice I have ever seen. It is in the old Microsoft Word .doc format and consists of 11 objects in the drawing layer. JAWS has no chance of pulling the text out of those so effectively it appears blank. So I asked Codex to extract the text and to create a new file containing a fully accessible version.
Now, this agency have not completed everything on the invoice. It's only half complete, so Codex pointed out the errors. Consequently I'm not paying them until it is completed properly!
3. I have a PDF I receive every week. It consists of a list of songs which are in four audio files.
The author doesn't know how to lay out the document correctly, so I cannot tell which songs listed are in each audio file. Again, Codex can give me a more accessible version in the format I want.

I have been testing Be My Eyes Workplace particularly for extracting the content of PDF's. Be My Eyes Workplace cannot do very much to be honest, but I don't need to worry because I have Codex which does that and a whole lot more.
Doubtless I'll learn a lot more about Codex as I go along.

Morning everyone, coffee and the breakfast show as usual. It's been a good work week on the whole.
A few bits of news.

Evolve. I've just heard that the Keysoft element of Evolve will work with JAWS right away, so that's encouraging and I look forward to trying it. If it does work, I may well use it. I'll be attending Humanware's Webinar on 20 April. If for some reason events overtake me, I can always record it.

Tweesecake. L still uses Tweesecake and there has been an update. The update does work, but because of restructuring no posts are displayed, so you have to go in and remove your previous session.DB files. That does work. I tried it about 3 this morning. I will have to attend to her computer later.

L. The Physio came out again yesterday and she says L is still making great progress and the arm itself looks better. The lady only comes here for short physio sessions, but as I explained to her, although I am paying I don't mind that at all. Because I cannot see, I need someone like her to assess the situation visually and tell me how L is progressing or not as the case may be. So yes, L gets the physio but I also get some reassurance that things are heading in the right direction.

That's about all for now.

RE: @Bri@fwoof.space

I had to chuckle.

Lost Doctor Who and the Daleks episodes discovered in 'ramshackle' collection. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g7kwq1k11o

RE: @Bri@fwoof.space

Exactly, I couldn't give a shit personally.

Afternoon everyone. I hope you are having a good day.
L had one of her better days yesterday which was excellent. The arm is healing nicely and lets hope for more good things to come.

So yesterday I built a little app for our radio station. When the radio show has finished broadcasting, it is automatically uploaded to Mixcloud with the show name, description and track list, without me doing anything at all. Then it publishes itself.
We're about to see whether this has worked or whether I've made a complete hash of it.

Apart from that, I've been re-reading the Inspector Frost books by R J Wingfield. I've always liked them.

Junk mail just received: the Tractor Supply are allocating you a combine harvester today. Where are the Wurzels when you need them?

A cool story I heard on Team-FM's news and transcribed by Leasey.
And a visually impaired artist is believed to be taking on a world first by running a marathon using AI; Clark Reynolds, known as Braille Creative, Mr. Dot is set to run the Brighton Marathon with the help of Meta 8 eyeglasses. They are connected to an app which enlists volunteers across the world to support visually impaired people. The 45 year old from Portsmouth is running for the Fight for Sight Charity.
Clark Reynolds:
All those volunteers from around the world from Be My Eyes for like five minutes, up to half an hour sometimes. I'm just looking for conversations, you know, raising awareness of sight loss through a powerful and uplifting story.

A new book celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Alan Parsons Project is soon to be released. It is only in hardback, so I've asked the publishers if they can provide me with a copy in electronic text, if I buy the book of course. Let's hope so. Otherwise I will buy the book and get it transcribed.

RE: @DavidGoldfield@allovertheplace.ca

I've recommended this app to a number of people, particularly those who are unfamiliar with computing. They're very happy with it.

@BlazieTech@tweesecake.social Thank you for your response. Perhaps I should have made my position a little clearer. As someone who recommends products as part of an assessment process, I would like to know please when the unit can be supported and locally sourced in the UK? I appreciate that you are able to ship directly from the United States. However, from a UK assessor’s perspective, the issue is not simply whether the device can be shipped here.

As a hardware product intended for blind users, there are several practical and regulatory considerations that affect whether it can be recommended professionally within the UK:

Regulatory compliance and certification (e.g. electrical and safety standards) Warranty, servicing and repair arrangements within the UK Returns and replacement logistics Local technical support provision Availability for demonstration at UK conferences and exhibitions Evaluation opportunities for assessors and organisations prior to recommendation

When recommending hardware solutions, particularly in professional assessment contexts, we must be confident not only in the product itself but also in its compliance, service infrastructure, and long-term support arrangements within the UK. Software distribution is comparatively straightforward; hardware provision carries additional responsibilities.

Without a recognised UK distribution channel or support structure, it would be difficult for me (and, I suspect, other UK professionals) to confidently recommend the BTSpeak Pro to clients or funding bodies.

May I ask:

1. Does the BTSpeak Pro meet current UK electrical and safety requirements?
2. What are the warranty and repair arrangements for UK customers?
3. Are there plans to establish a UK distributor or support partner? Maybe you already have these in place already and it is not widely known?
4. Are there opportunities for UK assessors to trial or evaluate the unit?

I am genuinely interested in innovative hardware solutions for blind users, and I would welcome clarification on how you intend to support the UK market.