Kestrell

I saw this link posted to an accessible tech list yesterday and spent a few hours trying to get it to run, but no luck for me--I get an infinite loop re Microsoft Journal Viewer not being fully installed. I mentioned this glitch on the list and one of the people had the same issue on one of his machines, although it installed and ran fine on another machine of his. Other issues are coming to light, but you can't break it till you've tried it, so try the free download at http://www.amazon.com/kindle/accessibility

http://topics.ocregister.com/article/09y4bdz8lu3Jy
Kes: Kurzweil is developing a platform which should be accessible to both sighted and blind reader, although I think this may lose him sighted readers who feel if it's good enough for blind readers, it couldn't possibly be good enough for them (note to self: in future, try to not read comments on the Wired site). It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

The company was witty, gracious, and, at the table at which I sat, spent about half the time it took to consume the amazing feast talking about books. My friends know how to keep Christmas if anybody ever did.

I mentioned that I had been listening to the best Internet radio station ever, and it had been playing the best holiday music ever, and a couple of people asked for me to mention the URL so here it is: http://wwoz.com WWOZ out of New Orleans. It's a jazz and blues station, community supported there is only a quick mention of sponsors. And the N.O. definition of blues and jazz includes all flavors of both genres, plus, amongst other things, funk, Cajun, regga, Brazilian, and on occasion, burlesque, with gospel on Sunday mornings--a true gumbo. This is the place to be in a couple of months for Mardi Gras.

I received many warm black sweaters/polar fleece, and many many books.

The big present was the BookSense that LJ user alexx_kay gave me. This is the cutting-edge accessible ebook reader for blind users. I actually got the BookSense XT, which is the more deluxe model and has 4GB of built-in storage space (to allow data, music, and other files to be saved without using an external memory card), built-in FM radio, and the option of using wireless Bluetooth headphones.

The BookSense can read these Formats: digital audiobooks, text files, brl and brf (digital braille), doc, docx, html, rtf, xml, and Daisy (an accessible format with XML tags for increased functionality), .
There is also a digital recorder and a media player which plays MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, OGG, MP4, and M4A, podcasts, and files recorded from the FM radio.
Note: It does not play PDF or any proprietary ebook formats, and to play the audiobooks from the libraries for the blind such as RFBD, one must install the proper patch/DRM, although I have no intention of installing any DRM on my BookSense.
Size: 4.25 in (L) x 1.85 in (W) x 0.75 in (H)
Weight: 0.25 lbs.
It has a 12-hour continuous use of battery charge
2) 2 -hour charging time using AC adapter, 5-hour charging time using USB

I've decided to name the BookSense Alexandria, Lexi for short (Alexx would just be too confusing, plus lexi has the Greek for book or "of words" or "to speak").

BooksI received for Christmas:
Grimoires by Owen Davies (Oxford University Press, 2009) - a cultural history of grimoires
The Edgar Allan Poe Collection: 20 of Poe's chilling stories and poems
Caedmon unabridged 5 CDs 6 hours performed by Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone
Anne Rice Angel Time read by Paul Michael unabridged 7 discs 9 hours
Shakespeare Stories edited by Giles Gordon (1982) - stories based on Shakespeare works incl stories by Salman Rushdie, Angela Carter, and Kingsley Amis
The Friar and the Cipher : Roger Bacon and the unsolved mystery of the most unusual manuscript in the world by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (2005)
The Paper Thunderbolt by Michael Innes
But Darling, I'm Your Auntie Mame! The Amazing History of the World's Favorite Madcap Aunt by Richard Tyler Jordan