attempting to ram religion down blind peoples throats isn't how you sell a product.

so as a long time tech geek, I have this bad habbit of keeping up with firmware upgrades for the various blind products,
pacmate
braillenote family of products
and the
braille sense family of products
once distributed by
GWMicro
now sold and distributed by their manufacturer
hims INC.
It’s come to my attention that the braille sense plus has a knew firmware upgrade coming out or that’s already out, ok, that’s special, great, spantacular. Except for one major off pissing issue.
This firmware, will have burnt into the rom, five, yes five, different versions of the bible.
I see a few issues with this
List time, you know how this rolls.

  • not everyone’s freakin’ religious, stop trying to ram it down our throats.
  • noting the item above, if I wanna freakin’ remove it, give me the ability to for christ sakes.
  • Actually, here’s a better idea, during the upgrade, give us the option, we want it, grate, let us pick a version, or all five if the person wants it. Don’t want it? Don’t install it for peet sakes!

People have religion, believe in god, are cathlic, whatever. I’m not knocking that, what I’m freakin’ knocking is this freakin companies ramming religion by burning 5 different bibles into your note takers rom, without your consent, and their being no way to remove it or know way to tell the updater, thanks, but no thanks, I *don’t* want this.
Ok, if you *must* install it, stick it in flash, as files, so they can be deleted!
So me getting a braille sense plus?
Not after I read that.
Comment away.
Let’s see what this sparks. This should be interesting.

11 thoughts on “attempting to ram religion down blind peoples throats isn't how you sell a product.”

  1. I said it in my tweetstream, I’ll say it again. Fortunately, I’m jumping the fuck off the Hims bandwagon at the next stop. In other words, I’m getting a BrailleNote Apex, ASAFP. I had toyed with the idea of a Braille Sense Plus originally, but now, it’s an absolute hell no. that’s at least 5MB of space that could be put to better use. Is Hims getting that desperate that they need to put 5 Bibles in their firmware upgrade just to make it look like they did something? And as was mentioned in the original post, you can’t even get rid of the damn things! They’re burnt into the rom! So if you’re anything like me, who worships God Dammit on a daily basis, you have no use for the things. 🙂 They’re just eating 5MB or so of space that…well… could be used for something a little more productive? Useful? Less religious? Nothing like shoving religion down the throats of the blind. We’re not all good little church children. the other problem I see is that the subscribers to this mailing list are reportedly in favor of this. A majority of them are in favor, but the minority that’s speaking out really isn’t getting anywhere. I saw the tweet in passing this afternoon, asked about it, and wound up in an in depth conversation with the person hwo tweeted it about this. The Braille Sense has decent, solid hardware. Hell, I’m surprised the secondhand one I have has lasted this long. The command structure, however, needs work, and well… what the hell do you need 5 bibles for? I will never update my firmware again. The nanosecond I acquire an Apex, Hims can kiss my ass. And as a random and mostly unrelated sidenote, screen reader fanboys/fangirls, I got two ass cheeks, pick one and get in line.

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  2. I have a feeling I’m going to end up with a … similar device, since they’re also the only game in town with a Windows CE SDK (and I sorta work in Windows CE). My first task? Seeing if I can turn the Sense Bible into an optional feature.

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  3. Don’t they think people can download their own Bibles if they want? If they wanted to have sample texts for use as demos if that’s their intention, there are all kinds of public-domain books out there that are perfectly fine and push no religious message at all. Going to have to go to Hims, or is that Hymns, website and look for a press release. Now watch, they’re going to throw a Bible at new owners of the Book Sense next. Sheesh!

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  4. I’m not in the market for a notetaker right now, but if I were, they just unsold me one of these. Listen guys, if I want bibles I know where to find ’em. Pretty sure most libraries have a fiction section. And why does an upgrade need forced books in it anyway? I’d rather that space be used on fixes. Let me choose what I download unless I absolutely need it. And bibles…sorry, don’t need those, especially not 5 of the things.

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  5. I’m seeing this trend growing all too rapidly. Has anyone noticed the abundance of “Christian Apps” on GW Micro’s App Central? As was said earlier, just because we’re blind doesn’t mean we’re church-goers. I appreciate Shane writing against this.
    I’m sick of them at university telling me I’m going to hell, I’m sick of seeing the Christian Apps on GW Micro’s site, and now this thing with the Braille Sense Plus. Are they doing what Christian Rock Bands do, try to appeal to the interests of a group of people, or are they Missionaries in disguise who have infested yet another public service resource? I’m glad GW is no longer a dealer for them. Stop inviting me to your church. Stop telling me I’m going to hell because you’re too ignorant to realize that the same Prophet you respect, I do too. And please stop showing me Christian Apps and bibles on a product that I’m using to get my job done.

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  6. I’m seeing this trend growing all too rapidly. Has anyone noticed the abundance of “Christian Apps” on GW Micro’s App Central? As was said earlier, just because we’re blind doesn’t mean we’re church-goers. I appreciate Shane writing against this.

    The scary thing re: AppCentral? The really scary thing? Those are mostly third party contributions—which, sadly, would indicate that the assumption that the blind demographic and the “must have a Bible on everything” demographic intersect along a frightening number of points.
    Still … I could think of far better uses for those dev resources *cough*Pandora*cough*.

    Reply

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