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the blog of a bear

this is where a bear will post stuff.

technology

a response to my dropbox support ticket about accessibility.

March 14, 2013 by stickbear Leave a Comment

The following is the response posted to my
support ticket e-mail to dropbox
yesterday.

From: David M. – Dropbox Support
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2013 12:28 AM
To: Shane Davidson
Subject: Dropbox Support – Re: interface changes do not always mean accessibility.
## IMPORTANT ## Text below this line won’t be added to the ticket
You can add a response by replying to this email.
Please be sure to reply with the same email address that you used to originally contact us.
David M. – Dropbox Support, Mar 13 09:27 pm (PDT):
Hi Shane,
Thanks for contacting Dropbox.
Our engineers have been notified of this issue and are actively working towards fixing it. Unfortunately, I can’t give you an exact timeline that a fix will be available but I’ll be sure to notify you when it’s released!
If you have any additional questions or concerns please let me know.
Best,
David

I’m really hoping these aren’t just words and that this does mean dropbox devs are actually working towards a fix to bring back accessibility to dropbox 2.0.
We’ll see what happens in the coming days.

Filed Under: accessibility, computers, internet, iphone, open communication, technology

an open letter to dropbox, interface changes don't always mean it's accessible.

March 13, 2013 by stickbear Leave a Comment

update: a response was received on March 14, 2013.
as a longstanding user of dropbox, I’ve grown to love it, from it’s ease of use, to it’s support on so many platforms, windows, mac, android, and iphone. So when 2.0.0 was early released and put up as the perminant stable download I thought nothing of it, until I noticed the right click menu was no longer accessible.
I did some research and noticed I wasn’t the only user experiencing this issue, and not the only OS effected, as the mac was effected as well.
I tested with JAWS, window-eyes and NVDA and got the exact same results.
So like so many others, I decided to compose an e-mail to dropbox support, asking them to please fix these issues. I post it below for your reading. The comment boards await you.

From: Shane Davidson
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 3:42 AM
To: ‘[email protected]’
Subject: interface changes do not always mean accessibility.
Hello;
As a longtime user of dropbox, starting in 2009, and it’s paid service, becoming a paid user back in 2010, I’ve gotten used to storing important business and personal documents in the cloud, sharing folders with friends, and I referred people to your service since I highly recommended it.
It’s simplicity, ease of use, and ability to install it on everything, your computers, your iphone, your android, it was perfict.
Your recent doubling of paid users and adding more paid plans with more space screamed keep me, and I kept referring users, participating in contests, etc. earning more space.
Recently, you early released version 2.0.0 as a “stable” release to a select number of users, some of those users being totally blind that rely on screen access technologies, the three main ones being JAWS for windows from Freedom scientific, www.freedomscientific.com Window-eyes from GWMicro www.gwmicro.com and the free and open source NVDA www.nvda-project.org.
Reading your blog post at
https://blog.dropbox.com/2013/03/discover-the-new-dropbox-menu-on-your-computer/
and the forum post at
https://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=97895
I saw you had changed your dropbox menu. Ok, no big deal, right? Still able to right click. Actually no. The old style menu we were used to was gone. Utterly gone. I thought there was an issue with my access technology, in this case JAWS, but after discussion with other users via twitter, facebook, and seing this topic on the forums
https://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=97907&replies=1#post-533140
it seems that this is not the case and the latest version under both windows and mac, the menu is not accessible.
We still have the ability to move files around in explorer/finder depending on your OS, but this menu gave us access to the preferences, our space usage, recently changed files, and the ability if necessary to shut down the client if the need arose.
Myself, and others are begging, and imploring you to please, please fix this major accessibility issue before releasing to the public as a whole.
Your prompt attention to this matter would be greatly appreciated and a lot of users would thank you.
Your attention to this issue would show that a mainstream company is willing to listen to a group of people, and willing to keep accessibility in mind when making changes to a UI.
As a note, this e-mail, and any communications minus personally identifying information that may be included, will be posted as an open communication for all to read on my blog at
www.shaned.net
weather the feedback is positive or negative, it will be posted to the above linked blog to be read by all.
Thank you for your time and attention.

I and others await your comments. We’ll see what dropbox says in the coming days.

Filed Under: accessibility, computers, internet, iphone, open communication, technology

people seriously had the balls to whine about this app going free?

February 16, 2013 by stickbear 1 Comment

while trolling the tech blogs I frequent, I came across
this story
and for your sanity, I post it below. Comments, etc. to follow.

State of Touch Typing – Fleksy goes free
by fleksy on 15/2/2013
Fleksy was first released on iOS in July 2012. As we turn Fleksy into a free app 8 months later, we feel we are starting an exciting new chapter in our story, and we take some time to explain our decision.
Fleksy started from our own frustration when typing on today’s touch-screen devices – a frustration shared by two thirds of smartphone users today. Right from the start, we felt that typing was one of the functions that made smartphones feel not so smart.
We set the bar really high – a typing system that is so intuitive, you don’t have to always look at the screen to type. Just as you do on your laptop. And thus Fleksy was born.
We looked for a market to launch our technology to – a group that we felt would most benefit from our inventions, and arguably a group of users that would challenge us to keep innovating until we deliver on our promise. So we launched an app for blind users.
In a space of a just a few months, our users have propelled us from an accessibility app to being recognized as a mainstream technology and one of the biggest innovations to come to mobile devices in a while.
Firstly, we want to say a big and honest thank you.
We have always seen our keyboard as a universal technology, and as something that can help millions of users be more productive in their daily lives. We are today very happy to see that we are well on track on this mission, and we are working hard to integrate our technology in the next generation of hardware and software to come.
We realize that a good virtual keyboard is something users expect to be integrated on their device and be available in every application. This is by far the biggest request from our iOS users, and one that we can unfortunately not provide until each platform we target supports such functionality.
In our effort to bring Happy Typing to even more users, what we can do is make Fleksy on iOS free for everyone. We feel that making Fleksy part of the daily lives of many more people will help us continue to showcase how smartphones can be made both more accessible and useful for everyone.
Your App Store reviews, tweets, feedback messages, support, and advocacy can help us achieve this. Please, keep it up – there’s even a button in the app to do that!
We will continue to innovate and research, as well as support and update the Fleksy iOS app in the way you’ve come to expect from us. We stay fully committed to the iOS platform.
And as a final thought, we wanted to thank all those users who have downloaded and purchased Fleksy to date. We would have not been able to create or support the technology without your help, let alone expand our efforts to bring it to the hands of many more users.
If you haven’t experienced eyes-free typing, try Fleksy. We think you will never look back.
Thank you, again, from all of us here in San Francisco.
Happy Typing!
The Fleksy Team

OK, so let’s move on to the responses.
I’m apart of the
VIPhone
mailing list hosted on
google groups
and when the blog post I posted above is mailed out, this andy person replies with the following, and I quote the message for you.

—–Original Message—–
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Andy Baracco
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2013 1:46 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Fleksy is now free
This is the kind of thing that really pisses me off.
Andy

I replied to this fool, basically telling him the following, in list form.

  • companies have the right to make there apps free
  • what right do you have to complain about an app that’s gone free that you had to pay for?
  • if people like yourself hadn’t supported this app, weather at it’s original price of $15, it’s sale price of $9.95, it’s then reduced perminant price of $4.95 and the odd sale for $1.99, would the app have then gone free? a big fat no!

in summary, nock off the complaining, it’s unwarranted, and unnecessary.
I bought this app at a reduced price, as I caught a sale, would I have paid $15? Now that I’ve used it so much? Yes. Did I initially think it wasn’t worth the price? I’ll honestly say I did, but after I finally decided to bite the bullet and purchase it, I wouldn’t live without it. Will I complain that my support made this app free? Absolutely not. It’s the nature of the beast, and people need to remember this.
Thanks for reading.
Have a great night all.

Filed Under: accessibility, cell phones, iphone, technology

beginning computer skills? writing HTML five and CSS, and more! it's all found in the 2013 semester from cavi, enroll today!

January 20, 2013 by stickbear Leave a Comment

Do you know how to use your Windows or Mac PC and your screenreader? Are you curious about the hardware inside of your computer? Do you want to sharpen
your troubleshooting and computer maintenance skills? How about designing a website or running a Linux server? Perhaps you would like to build a computer
or home network of your own.
The Cisco Academy for the Vision Impaired enables blind students to enter the world of computer and Information technology whether for career advancement
or to pursue a hobby. We provide courses tailored for blind and visually impaired students around the world. We do this using live online lectures by blind
and vision impaired instructors, written lessons, and a community of students and instructors to network with even after students have graduated our courses.
The academy is currently taking applications for the first semester of 2013. We will be offering Computer 101 for Mac or Windows, IT Essentials, Intro
to HTML 5 and CSS, Audio Editing Fundamentals, Discovery 1 with Exploration 1, and Linux server administration courses starting the second week of February.
Computer 101 is taught as separate courses for Mac and Windows users. It teaches basic computer and screenreader skills including adjusting screenreader
options, working with files, chatting online, using email, and using web pages.
Intro to HTML 5 and CSS teaches blind people how to design attractive business and personal websites including graphics, audio, and video. It assumes no
prior knowledge of HTML.
Audio Editing Fundamentals teaches principles of audio including how to choose and place a microphone, single and multi-track editing using tools like
Goldwave and Reaper, and adding various effects to audio tracks.
IT Essentials is an introduction to PC repair including Hardware, installing and maintaining an operating system, Troubleshooting, portable devices, and
customer service.
Discovery 1 is focused on home and small business networking. It is being combined with our Exploration course to provide a thorough background in networking.
Exploration is a more in depth look at networking, both theoretical and practical for those students who wish to really get into building and designing
networks. After completing Exploration 1, students will have the skills necessary to take the CCENT exam.
The Linux Administration course introduces server-based Linux systems administration for vision impaired users. Students will learn how to install and
configure a Ubuntu server system and install and configure a number of server based programs such as a web server, Email and a wiki. The course aims to
take a student from asking, “what is Linux?”, to installing and using a Linux-based server system via SSH.
Each class runs for a total of six months, with online lectures. The classes are self-paced so you can finish them in a month, or take the entire semester
if desired. The cost for each course is 500 US dollars however; scholarships are available to students who are paying for their courses out of pocket that
lower the price to $150. Your eligibility for a scholarship will be assessed as part of the application process and payment plans are available. Students
are required to have good internet access skills and be familiar with their screen reader of choice, or be willing to teach themselves the necessary skills
as we go along. Students in the more advanced courses should be familiar with reading Adobe PDF documents, as they may be encountered while doing research
projects. Course content is online, so a broadband internet connection is highly recommended. Students should also have a working headset/microphone and
be willing to install Skype and Ventrilo, in order to attend lectures and communicate with instructors. Applications will be accepted until February 6,
2013.
For more information on any of our courses or to request an application, please email
[email protected]
or visit our website at:
www.ciscovision.org
Enrollment forms are on our Intake page at
http://www.ciscovision.org/2011/intake.php
If you are enrolling in the Computer 101 courses and need help enrolling, you can call 914-620-2284.
finally, we have a podcast about the CAVI program from our student’s point of view at:
http://cucat.org/podcast/CAVI%20Potential%20new%20students2011.mp3
We’re looking forward to hearing from you. Start learning new skills today.
Regards,
The CAVI Team

http://media.blubrry.com/stickbearsjamboree/p/cucat.org/podcast/CAVI%20Potential%20new%20students2011.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: accessibility, computers, e-mail, school, technology

everything explodes, and doesn't take customers with it. and other unrelated things.

August 15, 2012 by stickbear Leave a Comment

I no how to blog? apparently, I do.
If your smart, you’ll have noticed that thing that your reading and some of it’s associated services, hey
zoe?
you actually no how to update? miracles! Wait, I can’t actually talk because I’ve been lazy about updating this thing, more on the how and why in list form later in this entry.
As you might have read
over here
that over there in that corner of the server moved, to.
our domains are still barried on the same server, just not on the
same servers that our paying people hang out on
and it saves $$$ in the long run, and allows for a little more *smash* to happen without taking the customer base with it.
This also means if the customer server goes *smash* the customers can still yell at us and tell us it’s broken. Hey, ladies and gents, we already knew, we knew long before you, now shut up so we can fix it, k? lol.
A couple of services like
this one
shit the bed nicely during an unrelated change, more on that later, and I kinda didn’t find it until this morning. Yeah, shut up, I know I’m on a roll.
Let’s see, what else.

  • move into temporary residence is complete, and I finally got around to running the keys back to the old rental office, damn you life, stop fucking me up.
  • apparently my computer dealer is a moron and doesn’t believe I know what I’m talking about when I know the damn system board’s on it’s way out. any of my female readers wanna use a pair of high heals and step on his nuts, please?
  • we welcome
    May
    to her own little corner of the web and to
    wordpress
    thank you for not using
    blogger
    our sanity thanks you
  • my next convert
    does live on blogger
    but I’m working to fix that, but need to wait until she’s back from
    the san rafael campus of guidedogs for the blind
    to complete that transition.
  • it’s nifty to see 8MS pingtimes to the iweb box, and a solid 15 to the server where this blog lives. go bell fibe, go!
  • school starts soon, so that just might break my blogging sprea. oops.
  • I’m playing games like
    imperium novanow
  • certain people need to understand a specific 4 letter word has more meaning than you think and to stop acting like a whore, no I’m not providing context, to bad.
  • an unlocked iphone is in my future.

I think that covers the high points and random spueage of my brain.
Talk soon.

Filed Under: brain-vomit, computers, crappily designed software, interesting blogs, internet, life, personal, personal life, technology

Squeeze" based Debian Edu version released

March 11, 2012 by stickbear Leave a Comment

This scrolled across my desk thanks to a list.
This may be of interest to some.

Subject: “Squeeze” based Debian Edu version released
Resent-Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:50:22 +0000 (UTC)
Resent-From: [email protected]
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 17:49:01 +0100
From: Francesca Ciceri
To: [email protected]
————————————————————————
The Debian Project http://www.debian.org/
First “Squeeze” based Debian Edu version released [email protected]
March 11th, 2012 http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311
————————————————————————
March 11th, 2012
The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu “Squeeze” 6.0.4+r0! Debian Edu (aka “Skolelinux”) is a Debian Pure Blend specifically targeted at schools and educational institutions, and provides a completely configured school network environment out of the box. It covers PXE installation, PXE booting for diskless machines, and setup for a school server, for stationary workstations, and for workstations that can be taken away from the school network. Several educational applications like Celestia, Dr. Geo, GCompris, GeoGebra, Kalzium, KGeography and Solfege are included in the default desktop setup.
Besides including everything provided by the fourth update of Debian “Squeeze” (6.0.4), this new release of Debian Edu introduces some interesting improvements, including: replacement of LWAT with GOsa² as the LDAP administration interface; updated artwork and new Debian Edu / Skolelinux logo; a new LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE
(default) and GNOME (LXDE and GNOME are available only with the CD installation method); faster LTSP client boot; improved handing of removable media on thin clients; a new roaming workstation profile for laptops; full Samba NT4 domain support for Windows XP/Vista/7; etc.
The Debian Edu Team has also worked intensively on the documentation, improving and extending the manual which is now fully translated to German, French and Italian, while partial translations exist for Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Spanish. The installation process has also been improved, integrating the new version of debian-installer, allowing copying of ISO images to USB sticks and changing partitioning for Standalone installs to have a separate /home and no /usr.
When asked about the [1] advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu, Nigel Barker
replied: “For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the workstation, or the LTSP. It’s all of them, and it’s all configured ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is designed to be set up and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who doesn’t necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with Japan.”
1:
http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html
For those who want to give Debian Edu “Squeeze” a try, [2] complete download and installation instructions are available, including detailed instructions in the [3] “Getting Started” chapter of the manual explaining the first steps, such as setting up a network or adding users.
2:
http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/en/debian-edu-squeeze-manual.html#Installation
3:
http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/en/debian-edu-squeeze-manual.html#GettingStarted
Those who are already using rc1-3 can upgrade to this version by using for example “apt-get upgrade” – users upgrading from beta3 must make sure they keep the existing gosa.conf file when dpkg asks how to handle the changed file during upgrade.
The sha1sums of the released ISO images:
f4184237f0eb2a509c6729b3f8039b71f5f4394a debian-edu-6.0.4+edu+r0-CD.iso 64681588fffa7a20f5d9e67c726f010580e35b9f debian-edu-6.0.4+edu+r0-DVD.iso
087d0c69da17b4a98a2966ff752fcfea8e30ec23
debian-edu-6.0.4+edu+r0-source-DVD.iso
Would you like to give your school’s computer a longer life? Are you
tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer
reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all
the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week?
Check out Debian Edu Squeeze!
Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world,
mostly in Germany (in 2009 the region of Rhineland-Palatinate decided
to use it in all its schools) and Norway.
About Debian Edu
—————-
The [4] Skolelinux project was founded in Norway in 2001 with the aim of
creating a GNU/Linux distribution for schools and other educational
institutions. After merging with the French Debian Edu project in 2003,
Skolelinux became a [5] Debian Pure Blend. Today the system is in use in
several countries around the world, with most installations in Norway,
Spain, Germany and France.
4: http://www.skolelinux.org/
5: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianPureBlends
About Debian
————
The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
volunteers from all over the world work together to create and maintain
Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a huge range
of computer types, Debian calls itself the “universal operating system”.
Contact Information
——————-
For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at
http://www.debian.org/ or send mail to .

Filed Under: computers, internet, news, news articles, technology

you didn't want the public to know that you can't manage your own networks?

February 26, 2012 by stickbear Leave a Comment

As someone that’s been watching the
rogers
vs
crtc
go round and round since october, 2010, it came as no surprise when the following
story
rolled across my desk.

CRTC Slaps Rogers for Throttling Non-P2P Traffic
Posted by Jason Koblovsky on Saturday, January 21, 2012 – 01:38
January 20, 2012 – The Canadian Gamers Organization got word today that the CRTC’s enforcement division has found Rogers to not be non-compliant with CRTC net neutrality policy, and that it’s throttling software and hardware are actively misclassifying a wide range of applications and communication ports. The CRTC has cited evidence obtained and published by Cisco Systems (the hardware and software vendor Rogers uses for throttling), and has threatened a show/cause hearing on this subject if Rogers’ response is insufficient or fails to respond. If it goes to a hearing, the CRTC could file an order with the courts to force Rogers to reimburse affected customers.
In its letter the CRTC stated:
As you know, prior Commission approval is required pursuant to section 36 of the Act, as described at paragraphs 126 and 127 of TRP CRTC 2009-657, for implementing a technical ITMP that results in:
• noticeable degradation to time-sensitive traffic, or
• the slowing of non-time-sensitive traffic to the extent that it amounts to blocking the content and therefore controlling the content and influencing the meaning and purpose of the telecommunication.
Within two weeks, I look forward to you either presenting us with a rebuttal of our evidence or providing us with a plan to come into compliance with the Act. Failure to provide a meaningful rebuttal or an effective plan will result in my recommendation to Commissioners to hold a show-cause hearing. I look forward to your response by 12:00 pm, February 3, 2012.
“This is a historic day in Canadian tech and telecom history. This is a big win for not just Canadian Internet users but also for game developers, who have also been extremely frustrated with the use of throttling. We hope that the evidence uncovered today by the CRTC’s investigations will also help game developers improve online environments. Their product is being hindered by Cisco’s throttling equipment causing problems with connectivity and lag in a lot of gaming environments.” Co-Founder Jason Koblovsky stated.
Co-Founder Teresa Murphy added, “I think we’re all just glad that the CRTC looked further into the issue and essentially agreed with our October 14th response to the Commission where we stated other games and programs were being affected by faulty throttling equipment and software. Jason, myself, and I’m sure many other gamers on Rogers Cable Internet, are all looking forward to the day that this entire fiasco is resolved, as its been a long time coming now. I hope in the future, Rogers will run more extensive testing of their throttling rules before pushing them to all their systems. I also hope that in the future, if a Rogers employee promises to their customers that they’ll have the update reverted because it caused problems with multiple programs (as what happened in October 2010 on the Rogers forum on DSLReports.com – a forum which Rogers employees release official statements on), Rogers will actually follow through on the promise instead of leaving customers blowing in the wind.”

In other words, they got owned, hard.
Because I was curious, I pulled the PDF copy of the letter from
here

Letter Ottawa, 20 January 2012
Our Reference: 545613
BY EMAIL
Mr. Ken Thompson
Director and Counsel Copyright and Broadband Law
Rogers Communications Inc.
333 Bloor Street, East
Toronto, ON M4W 1G9
[email protected]
Dear Mr. Thompson:
Re: File 545613,
Internet Traffic Management Practice (“ITMP”),
Section 36 of the Telecommunications Act, S.C. 1993, c. 38, as amended (“Act”), and Paragraphs 126 and 127 of Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2009-657 (“TRP CRTC 2009-657”)
I am writing with respect to the above noted file that was transferred to the Compliance and Enforcement Sector by the Telecommunications Sector on October 27, 2011.
Compliance and Enforcement Sector staff has been reviewing this file since its referral to our sector. Based on the preliminary results of our ongoing investigation, Commission staff is of the belief that Rogers Communications Inc. (“Rogers”) applies a technical ITMP to unidentified traffic using default peer-to-peer (“P2P”) ports. On the basis of our evidence to date, any traffic from an unidentified time-sensitive application making use of P2P ports will be throttled resulting in noticeable degradation of such traffic. Enclosed please find a summary of our evidence. Full details, if necessary can be obtained by request through my office.
As you know, prior Commission approval is required pursuant to section 36 of the Act, as described at paragraphs 126 and 127 of TRP CRTC 2009-657, for implementing a technical ITMP that results in:
noticeable degradation to time-sensitive traffic, or
the slowing of non-time-sensitive traffic to the extent that it amounts to blocking the content and therefore controlling the content and influencing the meaning and purpose of the telecommunication.
Within two weeks, I look forward to you either presenting us with a rebuttal of our evidence or providing us with a plan to come into compliance with the Act. Failure to provide a meaningful rebuttal or an effective plan will result in my recommendation to Commissioners to hold a show-cause hearing. I look forward to your response by 12:00 pm, February 3, 2012.
Sincerely,
Andrea Rosen
Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer
Summary of Evidence
File 545613
This attachment summarizes evidence pursuant to the above noted file, which is an ongoing investigation of Rogers Communications Inc.’s (“Rogers”) Internet Traffic Management Practice (“ITMP”) by the Compliance and Enforcement Sector.
The Compliance and Enforcement Sector’s ongoing investigation includes examining a number of key performance indicators (“KPIs”), such as:
TCP resets, TCP syn/acks, connection status
Latency in milliseconds
TCP Window size
Packet loss
Packets per second
Average packet sizes
Retransmission of packets
Dropped connections
Active connections/sessions
Upstream available bandwidth limits
Packet sequence numbers
Other TCP and UDP traffic statistics and analysis.
As Cisco is Rogers’ vendor,1 the Compliance and Enforcement Sector had and continues to have tests conducted against information from the website of Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”). Preliminary testing results indicate that unidentified traffic using default P2P ports, as identified in the Cisco SCA BB Protocol Reference Guide,2 is throttled. Such results further indicate that:
default P2P ports for TCP traffic are subject to throttling, except port 6969, and
until December 20, 2011, all default P2P ports for UDP traffic were subject to throttling.
Compliance and Enforcement Sector staff also notes Rogers’ disclosure of its network management policy, which indicates that an application may not attain full speed if encrypted and not using a standard port for the application/protocol in question.3 Moreover, while Rogers has stated that misclassification occurs in only a few cases,4 staff notes that Cisco identifies various applications that may have been misclassified.5
——————————————————————————–
1 Rogers letter dated September 27, 2011, at 3.
2 Cisco SCA BB Protocol Reference Guide: [Cisco SCA BB Protocol Reference Guide].
3 Rogers Network Management Policy: [Rogers Network Management Policy].
4 Rogers letter, supra note 1 at 3.
5 Cisco Service Control Application for Broadband Protocol Pack Notes, available online: [Cisco PP Notes].

So I monitored this story to it’s conclusion this February, and we have a
promise
from rogers indicating they’d stop throttling by the end of 2012.

Rogers promises to end internet throttling
Phased-in approach will begin next month, with all customers included by end of year
Prithi Yelaja CBC News Posted: Feb 3, 2012 3:33 PM ET Last Updated: Feb 3, 2012 6:55 PM ET
Rogers has decided to end internet throttling by the end of this year in response to a CRTC probe.
net throttling?Rogers has promised to stop “throttling” internet traffic on its network by the end of this year, in response to an investigation by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
In a letter to the CRTC Friday, Rogers stated it would stop all traffic shaping including bandwidth throttling — limiting a user’s upload or download speeds — through a phased-in approach that is to begin next month.
“New technologies and ongoing investments in network capacity will allow Rogers to begin phasing out that policy starting in March 2012,” wrote Kenneth Engelhart, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs.
“These changes will be introduced to half of Rogers existing internet customers by June 2012 and to its remaining customers by December 2012.”
The move follows a similar decision by Bell to cease throttling on its network starting March 1.
Internet traffic management
Internet traffic management refers to techniques used by network managers to slow down some types of traffic in favour of others. In particular, some internet service providers say they slow down applications that use large amounts of bandwidth, but don’t dramatically affect the user’s ability to use the application when they are slowed down, such as peer-to-peer file sharing.
They say that allows them to guarantee higher speeds and better quality of service for time-sensitive applications such as video streaming that don’t work properly when they are slowed down. However, problems can arise if the technology used to distinguish different types of applications mistakenly classifies time-sensitive traffic as peer-to-peer.
“This is a huge step for internet openness in Canada, and [comes] after a long uphill battle with big telecom,” said Steve Anderson of OpenMedia.ca, a grassroots advocacy group that has protested usage-based billing and is credited with preventing bills allowing electronic surveillance from being tied into the government’s omnibus crime bill.
“Within months of one another Bell and Rogers have announced that they will stop throttling the internet and limiting online choice. This has been a long time coming — more and more Canadians are up in arms about threats to internet openness, and it’s about time that big telecom bends to the public interest.”
OpenMedia.ca pushed for and won Internet openness rules in 2009, but has since been pushing for enforcement of those rules, said Anderson.
“The consumer complaints process is the sole mechanism in place and Rogers’ response to the CRTC represents a potential first step in changing this broken system,” he said.
However, Jason Koblovsky, founder of the Canadian Gamers Organization had some concerns about Rogers’ intention to end throttling.
“Rogers failed to provide the CRTC with technical data as to which games and applications they have tested themselves. Without the technical data from their tests on online games, [we] worry that Rogers’ response may be an attempt to mislead the CRTC and the public. We continue to call on Rogers to make these numbers public,” Koblovsky said.
Last month, the CRTC notified Rogers it was violating federal net neutrality rules by deliberately slowing or throttling time-sensitive internet traffic, specifically online games.
The CRTC based its findings on the results of an investigation in collaboration with Cisco Systems, the hardware and software vendor that Rogers uses.
The probe was launched last year after a complaint by the Canadian Gamers Organization that accused Rogers of hindering online games, such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty: Black Ops, in violation of the federal regulator’s guidelines.
The Telecommunications Act and CRTC regulations allow throttling of peer-to-peer file sharing programs like BitTorrent, but not of time-sensitive internet traffic like video chatting or gaming.
Rogers had until Friday to either rebut the evidence gathered by the probe or provide the CRTC with a plan to comply with the act — or face a hearing on the matter.
As part of its rebuttal, Rogers said it would cease all traffic shaping by the end of 2012.
The company successfully dealt with the issue of throttling last March, and the CRTC’s “tests were of an issue that had nothing to do with gaming,” Engelhart told CBC News in a phone interview Friday.
“We’re pretty confident we solved those problems last year,” he said.
However, “out of an abundance of caution we have toggled the equipment so it does not slow down unclassified traffic on peer-to-peer file sharing ports.”

What’s this tell me about the major cable provider?
They can’t manage their network to save their lives, they’re looking for ways out and not providing all the data, because they want to Hhide.
As this year progresses, we’ll soon see what changes are committed to the network over the year.
Happy commenting.

Filed Under: articles, internet, news, news articles, opinion, response, technology, thought, Uncategorized

nice going, HTC.

October 4, 2011 by stickbear 1 Comment

Yep I haven’t been around in awhile. But today’s blogging starts out with this little ppiece of information about a security leak in HTC android phones. Here’s the article in it’s entirety. and all I gotta say is smooth move, HTC.

HTC Phones Suffer Major Security Exploit
Latest Update Provides Easy Access to Personal Data
by Karl Bode
The folks over at Android Police note that several HTC model smartphones suffer from a rather major security exploit that can give a hacker access to personal information, e-mail addresses, and your location. The vulnerability is part of HTC’s Sense UI and affects several popular HTC phones, including the EVO 4G, EVO 3D, Thunderbolt, EVO Shift 4G, MyTouch 4G Slide, and several more. The problem began with a recent HTC update that introduced a suite of logging tools that creates a HTCLoggers.apk file accessible by any app with Internet permissions. That provides easy outside access to:
•The list of user accounts, including email addresses and sync status for each last known network and GPS locations and a limited previous history of locations phone numbers from the phone log.
•SMS data, including phone numbers and encoded text (not sure yet if it’s possible to decode it, but very likely).
•System logs (both kernel/dmesg and app/logcat), which includes everything your running apps do and is likely to include email addresses, and phone numbers.
HTC was contacted on September 24th but has yet to comment on the vulnerability. “In my experience, lighting fire under someone’s ass in public makes things move a whole lot faster, which is why responsible disclosure is a norm in the security industry,” notes the website. Only stock phone firmware is impacted — users who have modified their Android HTC devices to run CyanogenMod are not impacted.
Update HTC is telling news outlets they’re “investigating” the security flaw.

according to further research, this issue only effects factory firmware for the android.
We’ll see what HTC does about this in the coming days.

Filed Under: articles, cell phones, security, technology

the demise of qwitter: put into perspective by a well spoken blind individual.

September 20, 2011 by stickbear 4 Comments

Hello all;
All of you may have heard about the demise of the
qwitter
project developed and maintained by
christopher
If not. I’ll simply quote the
qwitter_hg
twitter accounts last post.

Qwitter Mercurial: Q: Closing up shop, it’s been fun.: 13 hours ago 9/19/2011 11:08:07 AM Qwitter Client

after reading that, I got curious and poked around Q’s timeline and the thoughts that ran through my head were mixed.
I was composing in my head a response I was going to put up here, outlining my thoughts and views, but
JonathanMosen
did a much better job of it then I could ever do. So I’ll simply quote his ressitation who’s original can be found
over here.

Billy Joel once said, “I once believed in causes too, and had my pointless point of view, but life when on no matter who was wrong or right”. I was mindful of this as I saw the considerable volume of tweets exchanged over the apparent halt to development of the Qwitter client, the Twitter client for Windows designed specifically for blind people. I say apparent, because this is in my recollection the third time such a threat has been made, so I suppose only time will tell if this one is real or not. Initially, I felt compelled to comment, then I decided there was no point, and now finally, I’ve felt moved to write an extended post about this subject because I think the conduct of a number of people in the latest Twitter drama represents a pattern that is all too typical in the on-line blind community.
Although I have been using Twitter since 2007, I actually was a late adopter of the Qwitter client, beginning to use it in around November of 2009. My reason for this was because I felt uncomfortable with the aggressive online behaviour of its lead developer. A friend of mine convinced me that it was appropriate to separate the behaviour of the developer from the quality of the application, and there’s absolutely no doubt that the software is first class. It is a feature-rich, efficient means of interacting with Twitter. Without Qwitter, I am sure much fewer blind people would be using Twitter so regularly. The award given to Chris by ACB this year recognises all of this, and that recognition is richly deserved.
I have, however, remained very disappointed by the extraordinary rudeness, even contempt, that Chris has shown to many users who have made suggestions or come to him for advice. I am mindful that I am making these comments with around 20 more years on the planet than him, and in this case I think that does make a difference. I hope that if Chris is unfortunate enough to be able to review some of his tweets in 20 years time, he will do so with genuine regret. What makes our world so diverse and interesting, is that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. Some people can write code, others conceptualise great user interfaces, others struggle with very basic computer concepts that just come naturally to some. Abrupt, rude, confrontational replies, many of which give the impression that the program’s author is somehow superior to or better than his fellow blind people are hardly going to remain unremarked upon.
Developing software is of course a very different skill from supporting it. Chris is obviously superb at the former. With a bit more good will towards people, I’m very confident the Qwitter Support account could have had a large number of volunteers, and Chris could have politely directed users to that account. We can wish that users would RTFM all we want, some simply will not, it is the reality of software development, and nothing is going to change that. Nor does the fact that the software is free make it any more acceptable to treat end users with rudeness.
Chris is, of course, absolutely right that there is a high proportion of blind Twitter users who are unemployed, may have difficulty getting out and about due to financial or transportation issues, and who therefore have plenty of time to generate Twitter drama. We do have a very high unemployment rate. Just as with sighted people, there are those who have never tried to find a job, those who in the current climate have become demoralised and have given up, those who spend hours every day looking for that big break. We seldom know each other’s stories, and it is sad when we choose to make very personal, sweeping assumptions. We do tend to sew what we reap. If we dish out confrontation on Twitter, chances are very high that confrontation will come right back at us. And it has been rather like watching a school bully crying when one little kid finally plucks up the courage to hit back, to see the lead Qwitter developer complaining when some of the hurt he has caused others comes back to him.
Does that make the behaviour of those who’ve responded in that way right or justified? Of course not. The best response to confrontation is often no response at all. Various Twitter characters in the blind community who’ve come and gone, have thrived on the fact that they know which buttons to push to get a reaction. Stop responding to them, and they’d have become bored and gone away long ago.
Then there is of course what we in New Zealand call the tall poppy syndrome. There is no doubt that Chris has considerable talent. In the blind community, we are good at building people up, to tear them down. Confrontational behaviour notwithstanding, there are some people who have sought to make his life a misery, almost as if they resent what he has been able to achieve. More than that, they are jealous of it.
Developing an app such as Qwitter obviously involves a very significant commitment of time. It has not completely been a labour of love, however. I haven’t taken the time to go back and do the sums, but I know I’ve personally donated at least US$100 to Qwitter, and that many others have donated what they can. I don’t regret doing so for a moment, nor do I expect that donations have created any kind of contract, expressed or implied, that Qwitter’s development would continue indefinitely. I raise this to simply point out that while a few users may have been vexatious, some provoked, some not, the project hasn’t been totally without its financial compensation.
Whether a piece of software is commercial or not, there is no guarantee that its development will continue forever. There are many examples of software used by a large number of people where development has simply stopped. Microsoft Money is a case in point. The issue I have is the point in the development cycle at which Qwitter development is apparently ceasing. It is in beta right now. Because it is beta software, there are problems, as one would expect. Does Chris have a legal obligation of any kind to tidy up the critical bugs? Of course not. He can walk away whenever he likes, and apparently has. The question is one of moral obligation, and of his personal brand. Would I be as willing to support any future project, commercial or otherwise, by a developer who leaves a user base in the lurch like this? No, I’d think twice, because I don’t believe that this is an ethical way to treat people. Anything we do online impacts on our personal brand. If we’re abusive, people make a mental note of that. If we walk away because a few people, again some provoked, some not, have been abusive, even though the majority of us have been supportive with our praise and with our wallets, then that leaves a sour taste and a reputation that is hard to recover.
Whether you volunteer or not should not make a difference to one’s conduct. I’ve volunteered over many years for a range of positions, including leading New Zealand’s blindness consumer organisation which would be the equivalent of NFB and ACB, serving on various committees, and of course managing Internet radio projects like Mushroom FM. In all of those cases, the work involved has been considerable. It’s involved a huge investment of time and effort. And there are times when circumstances require you to walk away. But if you have to do that, you should do so by tidying up as many of the loose ends as you possibly can.
I don’t begrudge for one second the fact that Chris may have concluded that he has better things to do with his life, that it’s just not rewarding anymore. If you are copping a lot of abuse, especially when you’re younger, it’s hard to shrug that off, and easy to say, why on earth am I bothering. My only issue is that I hope he will recognise how his own conduct as contributed in part to some of the grief that has come his way, and that to protect his reputation, he at least get Qwitter 5 to a production release and make it clear that that’s the end of the project. If he does not, then I fear the bad taste the half finished Qwitter project has left in so many mouths will continue to haunt him. That would be a pity when he is clearly such a gifted young man.
As for the rest of us, maybe there’s a good number of us who might like to think twice before joining in the flame war. Most of us in the blind community are online in such a way that our interactions are filtered to us through a mechanical sounding speech synthesiser. It is easy for us to forget that the tweet we send in a quick burst of anger or sarcasm may be the one that tips a real human being with feelings over the edge. We don’t know what else is going on in their lives, how they may be feeling. If we showed a little more on-line empathy, just empathy in general really, imagine how much of a peaceful place the online world would be.
I urge Chris to reconsider wrapping up the project in this stage in the cycle, but regardless, thank him sincerely for a very significant contribution to bringing blind people around the world closer together, and assisting us to interact with equal efficiency with our sighted peers.

A few final thoughts.
Is qwitter the only accessible client on windows?
No, it’s not.
Their are others like
TWInbox
that can do the basics.
Yes, not as feature rich, but qwitter’s development cycle ending isn’t the end all of twitter for the blind community.
Would I, like Jonathan, think twice about supporting another project, weather free or paid put out by this individual if he doesn’t at least take qwitter 5.0 to a stable release before shutting down?
Yes, I honestly would reconsider ever supporting future projects developed by him because of the way he handled qwitter and it’s closure.
I understand open source, but leaving those in the blind community with extremely buggy code because your being a nazi and don’t want to at least head for a final release before giving up is insane, and rediculous.
What are others thoughts and views.
I’d love to here what you have to say on this, spoken in a constructive, adult manner.
No childish bashing.
Constructive critisisms and pieceful debate are the name of the game.
See you on the comment boards.

Filed Under: accessibility, computers, feelings, internet, open source software, response, technology, thought

Alcohol, now. give.

September 16, 2011 by stickbear Leave a Comment

1. Clearly, now, I have a choice between purchasing $995.00 software with my looks, or paying someone to scan and convert proprietary file formats for me because I can’t be diplomatic and the next best thing to diplomacy is keeping your damn mouth shut. Also, clearly, the latter, i.e., paying someone to scan, is gonna cost um… that thing called money. which I don’t have.
2. Also, eye doctors, when I ask you to fix something the answer is not take it apart, and then confuse me for half an hour. Also on a random sidenote, you better have someone with good fashion sense helping me pick frames for my new pair of eyes next Thursday or I’ll scream.
3. Stalking me is not how this rolls, has rolled, or will continue to roll. I asked it to stop. It didn’t. The appropriate authorities are being notified shortly after this posts, and it *will*, be dealt with. I’m not calling anyone out specifically, but when I’ve almost gone to the hospital 3 times, because of you people over there, and you know who you are, there’s a problem.
4. That long and actually civil conversation I had with my mother about alternative roads, let me just say that putting a plan together for January is looking better and better. I get that there are a few people out there who wanna put me in the hospital, but this’s gotta stop.
I don’t wanna walk around certain areas and not know if I’m being followed or watched. I don’t wanna have to feel like somebody’s shadowing me constantly, even if they aren’t doing it physically, well, how the hell would I know? I feel like I’m being stalked. I feel unsafe. I want it ended.

Filed Under: accessibility, brain-vomit, people needing a clue, stupid people, technology, thought

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