From: Rich Cavallaro <richcav_at_verizon.net>
Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 21:25:58 -0400

I will certainly donate.
I as well thank the rock box team for all there hard work and dedication.
I know that all the coding takes time and effort.
Rock box has truly open the doors in making these players more accessible to
us blind users.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rocker" <rocker_at_shaw.ca>
To: "Rockbox" <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 8:56 PM
Subject: Re: Quick comment:


> Hi -Raqi
> I could not have put it better myself! !
>
> I really appreciate your comments! They come at a good time as the dev's
> are busy on 3.0 and are likely feeling the heat what with all the recent
> ports AS WELL AS a bunch of grumpy voice UI faithful.
>
> I commend you for THE timeliness OF YOUR COMMENTS and also add my thanks
> to
> the crew.
>
> If you voice UI users, and the rest of rockboxers FOR THAT MATTER, want to
> help and your like me and cannot code, then I urge you to HIT the rocbox
> site and Pay Pal a few $$$ towards the project We all know this hardware
> is
> not cheap but, more importantly the hours and the grey matter is
> invaluable!
>
> Cheers...rocker
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Raquel Gomez" <rgomez_at_gigo.com>
> To: "'Rockbox'" <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
> Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 7:09 AM
> Subject: Quick comment:
>
>
> Greetings everybody,
>
> I just wanted to take a quick second to say "THANK YOU!!!!!" to all the
> developers and individuals who have worked on the rockbox firmware to
> date.
> I can't profess my gratitude enough; I am a totally blind user who
> originally started using Rockbox almost three years ago on the Archos
> Jukebox, and while there have been bugs at times, I have been more than
> willing to be patient with the developers who have worked so hard on
> making
> these fabulous products speak, simply because they want to. My patience
> has
> paid off; I now use an iPod 5G, 60 gig, (I guess it is the video, but
> since
> I don't give a damn about video I'm not sure what my particular unit would
> do with those types of files and I really don't care too much.) I've been
> running with the new daily builds and updating regularly, and I use the
> Eloquence Reed voice for my menus and have the directories/filenames
> voiced
> using Neospeech Paul. I can't speak for anyone else, but I love this
> device
> more and more with each day that passes, I find the interface very easy to
> use now that I have gotten used to it, and I've also been able to convert
> more than a half-dozen other blind people and convinced them to go out and
> purchase iPods on the spot; one gentleman whom I met at a conference
> recently saw me demonstrate this product and was back with a brand new
> unit
> within an hour. "Make it talk like yours does!", he said to me, and so I
> pulled out my laptop and did just that. It took him a few hours to get
> used
> to the wheel, and he agreed with me that it is not the easiest interface
> to
> get used to, however by 11:30 PM, he had it mastered, and throughout the
> subsequent three days it was all any of us could do to get him to take his
> headphones off. He grew to love the iPod design very quickly, and like
> me,
> has scrapped the Archos completely now. I use mine daily, for everything
> from work-related stuff to listening to podcasts, to blasting myself out
> at
> 4:30 in the morning while I'm drinking my first cup of coffee. I know it
> isn't perfect, there are still bugs and I've gotten pretty adept at having
> to go in and reset my settings at startup when Rockbox loses them
> periodically, etc., but as was the case with the Archos, I'll be patient;
> I
> know with conviction that it will pay off. You guys have already come so
> far in just the last couple of months...
>
> I'm not going to say usability was easy - I had a little bit of a learning
> curve - and the product was not stable for a long time, however it has
> become so much more solid and speaking only for myself, I am very
> satisfied
> with all of the fantastic work you guys have done/are doing, and I love
> knowing that there is an entire community of people out here smarter than
> I
> am, so that when I do get stuck all I need do is hit the website and I
> will
> undoubtedly find the answer I need.
>
> I've never had any sight, nor do I expect to, so for me this is a
> tremendous
> step in the right direction, I love this player! I'm a little bit more
> techie than a lot of people so I had a good idea what to expect from the
> development process, but to date I've never been disappointed for long.
> Let
> me rephrase that - I have never been as disappointed as I was when the
> iPod
> was first released, and I discovered that without speech, it was
> completely
> inaccessible to me. Rockbox has made a tremendous difference, and I just
> wanted to let you guys all know what a fantastic product this has turned
> out
> to be for me thus far. I'm sure it will only get better.
>
> Thanks again, so much, to all of you developers out there for doing such a
> great job; what would we have done without you? If not for Rockbox, we'd
> all have these nice, completely inaccessible players/recorders. Keep up
> the
> wonderful work!!!!!
>
>
> -Raqi
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rockbox-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se [mailto:rockbox-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se]
> On
> Behalf Of Mark
> Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 2:22 AM
> To: Rockbox
> Subject: Re: Alternative UI for blind users?
>
> I think that one of the reasons that the scroll wheel can be tricky to use
> for a blind user is that it is quite sensitive. In other words, you only
> need to move your finger from, say, 3 o'clock to 3.30 o'clock on a clock
> face to get one "move". It's quite easy to move two "moves",and easy to
> do
> no moves.
> My preferred solution would be to lengthen the rotation required for one
> move. Thinking about how a finger moves on the wheel, I'd say that one
> "move" should be somewhere between 45 degrees and 135 degrees.So if I move
> my finger from 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock, that'd be one move
>
> Although the idea of having a blind alternative user interface is a good
> idea, the problem that I see is that it creates another whole segment of
> code development which needs to be supported.
> changing the "speed" of the wheel has the advantage of being one single
> change that once implemented would enable us to use the same current
> interface. This isn't based on some "we should have access to the same
> interface as the sighted" line, just that by keeping it as simple as
> possible means that we keep Rockbox as a single one-size-fits-most
> package.
> Creating a second interface means that there will be two interfaces to
> support, which means that there's at least twice as much work involved.
> I'm
> only suggesting this approach because IMHO I don't think there's really
> that
> much wrong with the current interface that a single change could fix. If
> there's enough enthusiasm behind the alternative interface then great.This
> is just my tuppence worth.
>
> Mark
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Aman Singer" <aman_at_asinger.net>
> To: "'Glenn at home'" <GlennErvin_at_cableone.net>; "'Rockbox'"
> <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 1:16 AM
> Subject: RE: Alternative UI for blind users?
>
>
>> Hi, Glenn.
>> The wheel on my video Ipod doesn't click at all. I do believe that
>> there are some Ipods which have a wheel that does, but I don't know how
>> that
>> works as I've never used one of those. It might be an idea to make the
>> wheel
>> more sluggish, as it were, though but wouldn't just disabling the wheel
>> be
>> easier for the developers? Anyone care to comment?
>> Aman
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: rockbox-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se [mailto:rockbox-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se]
>> On
>> Behalf Of Glenn at home
>> Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 11:02 PM
>> To: Rockbox
>> Subject: Re: Alternative UI for blind users?
>>
>> Or maybe another possibility, might be to have a setting in the menus,
>> such
>> that the user could set the wheel so that it has to be turned 2 or 3
>> clicks
>> for each change to occur, so the wheel would move the cursor more slowly.
>> I have never tried an iPod, but it seems like something like this would
>> be
>
>> a
>>
>> desirable feature.
>> Glenn
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Aman Singer" <aman_at_asinger.net>
>> To: "'Rockbox'" <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
>> Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 7:50 PM
>> Subject: Alternative UI for blind users?
>>
>>
>> Hi, all.
>> I don't know how difficult this would be to implement. I don't
>> imagine it would be that hard, as it wouldn't require new drivers/codecs,
>> but it might be difficult all the same. What I've been having some
>> trouble
>> with is using the Ipod's wheel as a blind person. I sometimes find myself
>> overshooting my target and being forced to retreat. I know others have
>> suggested a click every time the selection is moved, and this sounds like
>> a
>> good idea. However, I was thinking we could, if possible, have a mode
>> invoked by pressing a few buttons simultaneously. In this mode, the wheel
>> would be disabled, and the buttons on the wheel would act as they did on
>> the
>> Archos recorders. The down button would move down through directories and
>> menus. The up button would do the opposite. The right button would act as
>> a
>> select/play button and the left button would act as a back button. The
>> round
>> button in the middle of the wheel could be left as it is. The menu could
>> be
>> accessed by holding one button for a time or by the use of two buttons
>> together, as could other generally used functions. To avoid people asking
>> "why doesn't my wheel work?", a message could come up every time the
>> wheel
>> was used "you are in wheel-disabled mode. To return to normal mode press
>> [whatever the buttons you need to press may be]".
>> This would have several distinct advantages for blind users, users
>> who's motor coordination isn't the best, users with MS or some other
>> disease
>> that hampers feeling in the fingers, users who are using the Ipod through
>> a
>> thin case or, generally, users who want forceful feedback to selection
>> requests. The wheel would be eliminated from the equation, which would
>> make
>> all such uses easier, at least for new users. In the same way, brushing
>> the
>> wheel, which I've done once or twice, won't be a problem and won't change
>> the selection. Do any of the developers think this would be doable and
>> desirable?
>> Aman
>>
>>
>>
>
>
Received on 2006-05-12