The Idea Place Posts

Aimee and I were in San Francisco last weekend for a short break visiting a good friend. On Sunday the three of us opted to head out to the city with no real agenda beyond visiting Mission Dolores and then to see where Bay area transit and our feet would take us.   As we left the mission we started hearing some sort of announcements coming from loud speakers down the street. I’m drawn to…

Sometimes what the news has to say is no secret. I caught a news article in several arenas lately talking about how expensive it is to fly to Madison, Wisconsin. Surprise me not!   When returning to Wisconsin, Madison is our first choice if at all possible because the city was once home and is closer to relatives. But according to this article, flying to Madison is the third most expensive city one can fly…

The folks over at All inPlay have another fun game for you to try. TAG, short for The Anagram Game, is currently a free public beta version where you can challenge your word making abilities against folks from around the net. Links to download and play the game along with instructions and mailing list subscription info are available at http://www.allinplay.com/games/beta.php.   Game play is straight forward after you download and install the 1.7 meg software.…

Well, I’m not sure if 50 degrees and winds of something between 10 and 20 MPH qualify as summer, but we took in a summer evening of music on a bit of a road trip to see Crosby Stills and Nash. We were unable to get tickets to the local version of the show, so opted to drive about three hours away to see the group’s summer tour at the Maryhill Winery.   Crosby Stills…

I work in the software industry. I also have a large circle of people who rely on me for computer support. I’m occasionally reminded of the things I take for granted as common knowledge that really do not fit that category.   One of these is the method people use to navigate the web. For me, ctrl+o or alt+d and the web address of choice are second nature when web surfing. Yet I encounter numerous…

Pandora, available at http://www.pandora.com, is one of the more innovative music services I’ve found on the web. The basic premise behind the service is that there’s a genealogy to music. A FAQ for the service says in part:   Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you enjoy music you already know, and to help you discover new music you’ll love.   It’s powered by the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken,…

Previously I blogged about the inaccessibility of the legally mandated annual credit reports that consumers are entitled to from the various credit reporting services. I’m pleased to report that progress has been made in this area and we should be able to obtain accessible credit reports by the end of October of this year.   Washington, D.C. (April 23, 2008) – The nation’s three major consumer credit reporting companies today unveiled a comprehensive program to…

This article in Computer World is pretty accurate with respect to where accessibility stands today for individuals who are blind.  While I think the writer’s emphasis on the shortcomings of Narrator creates somewhat of a false impression of how full screen readers work, the main themes of the article are pretty accurate.  People who are blind still have to work way too hard to use computing technology and far too often one upgrade or web…

As some may know, a committee of folks from throughout the accessibility arena has been working on a report that recommends changes to the section 508 U.S. federal standards around accessibility. The report was recently made available. A news release talking about the report is available at http://www.access-board.gov/news/teitac-report.htm.   The report itself is at http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/refresh/report/. Details on the update process are available at http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/update-index.htm. I’d encourage anyone with an interest in accessibility to get familiar…