Thursday, November 08, 2007

'puters

This is quite cool. For the first time ever I am writing this blog using a wireless laptop. Can you tell the difference? Just loungin' around, thought I'd connect with cyberspace, moved my computer towards me a little, and whaddya know I'm posting without even having to wander to another part of my house where the computer resides. Well actually it blew up but that's another story. I'm a little late to this wireless thing, seems everyone else has been into it for quite some time.

Took delivery of a brand new laptop at the weekend - note, not this one. It has Vista on it - Microsoft's new operating system.

I'm using JAWS 8 with it currently but from the get go I have been having problems using it. For starters, the JAWS installation CD is designed so that you can install the screenreading software independently. Yeah. Well. That may have been the case on Windows XP but not so on Vista it seems.

Vista's big seling point, and big innovation, is its added security. So far it seems that the inbuilt Vista security methods are getting in the way of me installing jaws in the first darn place. In short: it doesn't all speak.

I got someone else to help me install it and now have JAWS on board. However, there is a certain amount of learning that I need to do it seems. For starters, where has the shutdown button gone? How do you turn your PC off in Vista? It used to be in the start menu. Not any more.

But oh ... JAWS doesn't work too well in the Vista environment yet. Certain things just aren't being voiced. I have to say I am extremeley disappointed so far.

JAWS 9 is due for release any day now though so maybe this'll fix the bugs. It had better. JAWS specifically claims it supports Windows Vista.

IF anyone has any tips for me, please leave a comment on this blog. My home email address is not working currently so I am not picking up any personal messages.

2 comments:

Josh de Lioncourt said...

Hey Damon. Installing screen readers in Vista is a bitch. The shutdown button is tricky to get to in the Start menu. If memory serves you open the start menu, arrow down, then arrow right several times to get to a group of buttons for shutting down, then arrow down to find the various options. It's counter intuitive for blindees, IMO. My advice to you? I'm a developer of Windows software...I'm blind...know what I use? A Mac. *grin*

Katie Fraser said...

Always wondered how JAWS software works, Damon. We may need to buy software like that for any students on the project I work with who may have visual impaurments and something like JAWS would be a great help to them if they need it!