The Idea Place Posts

At times it seems as though I’m one of the last to actually own a cell phone. In fact of my immediate circle of friends and family I know I am absolutely the last one to have a cell phone.   I’ve dabbled in owning a cell phone a time or two in the past. My first attempt was back around 2000 when cell phones were really just portable telephones. More recently about 30 months…

The blog’s been pretty quiet for the last couple months for some personal reasons. Hopefully I’ll get back into writing a bit more going forward.   Aimee and I used the extended Memorial Day weekend to get out of town for a few days. We started off by driving to Portland on Friday evening where we stayed at the Silver Cloud Inn. This is quickly turning into a favorite hotel when visiting Portland. The hotel…

Here’s an interesting column from the Seattle Times on how to get self-published as a book author. The column details the author’s experience with a company called BookSurge, and the experience sounds reasonably reputable.   From time to time I wonder if I have a book in me. The opportunities have been less than I expected when finishing college with a degree in journalism, but there’s still a big part of me that enjoys the…

Here’s an interesting article that seems like it could be a boon for accessibility. The basic premise is that cell phones will be used to get more details on pretty much any object we encounter. Seems like a great match because if this catches on, then you’d be able to easily identify many more objects from the environment.   There are already accessibility solutions that use bar code readers to identify products. But those I’m…

On Wednesday morning I signed into my computer to print a document and heard the Windows sound that indicates a device was removed from my computer. Strange I thought since I hadn’t disconnected any devices. The thought was quickly chased from my mind because the PC stopped working in any way that I could detect.   Trial and error, multiple reboots and the other standard troubleshooting I can do when things don’t work as expected…

The New York Times ran an excerpt of a new book to be published later this week looking at the life of Thomas Edison. “The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World,” sounds like an interesting read.

I made previous reference to Bookshare, a service that allows individuals with print disabilities to scan and share printed books under an exception made in the U.S. copyright law. According to the home page for Bookshare, the CBS Evening News will feature the organization on Thursday 2/22.   The CBS Evening News will profile Bookshare.org as part of its “American Spirit” series. The Bookshare.org segment is part of a collection of stories about effective and…

March isn’t here quite yet, but with the Wisconsin Badgers doing so well in basketball this not so young man’s fancy is already turning to March madness. My annual quest for a quality accessible NCAA bracket experience is already starting.   Each year I hunt around on various web sites trying version after version of the NCAA bracket. Some are complex web forms that get confusing with a screen reader. Others, and what seems to…