[Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?

Sun Jul 31 04:33:31 UTC 2011

Mike, while I am thinking the same thing, it have adopted the attitude that 
it doesn't matter about the battery life since I think that the iPhone 
battery life sucks! With or without the NLS app. It is indeed one thing that 
I do not like about the iPhone!
Netta
"Just because you are blind, does not mean you lack vision"-Stevie Wonder
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "'Discussion of Digital Talking Books'" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 11:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?


> One observation about an NLS iPhone app: while I'd love such an app, it
> would eat the iPhone battery alive so one would need one of those USB
> charging packs or something similar to get anywhere near the life you get
> with a VR Stream, BookSense, Book Port Plus or especially the NLS player.
>
> Mike
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Greg Kearney
> Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 5:24 PM
> To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books
> Cc: Discussion of Digital Talking Books
> Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?
>
> We wrote an iPhone app DaisyWorm which can read the DAISY/NISO 2002 format
> which the NLS uses. We contacted the NLS and offered to make that software
> work with their books they never replied to us.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> Greg Kearney
> Association for the Blind of Western Australia
>
> On 31/07/2011, at 7:58 AM, Jim Barbour <jbar at barcore.com> wrote:
>
>> No, no iphone player for NLS books.
>>
>> Various rumors say that NLS might be working on something, but nobody
>> knows if it's true nor when such a thing might be released.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 07:47:36PM -0400, Dornetta wrote:
>>> Hello all:
>>> I have been monitoring this convo for a while and would like to
> ask...does
>>> NLS has a app for the iPhone?
>>> I find that while enjoying books via the DTBM is a +, it becomes a
> nuisence
>>> when travel is thrown into the mix. :-( I am saying that this is an 
>>> "bad"
>>> concept or thing but useing the VR Stream/DTBM vs. the iPhone allows for
>>> more portibility. What a great concept if this was possible :-)
>>> Netta
>>> "Just because you are blind, does not mean you lack vision"-Stevie 
>>> Wonder
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lynn Evans" <evans-lynn at comcast.net>
>>> To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 2:28 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?
>>>
>>>
>>>> I would think NLS has a few more patrons then you do Down Under.
>>>>
>>>> Also you have a central location and NLS has regional libraries spread
>>>> throughout the 50 states.
>>>>
>>>> Not only are the cartridges right protected, according to my library
> here
>>>> in Florida each cartridge with a book has the firmware on it for the 
>>>> NLS
>>>> player.
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Kearney" <gkearney at gmail.com>
>>>> To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>>>> Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 12:05 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Well as I said we went a different rout here. We assigned the 
>>>>> cartridge
>>>>> to the user and not the book. We then developed software that reads 
>>>>> the
>>>>> unique serial number tied to each cartridge and then erases and lads
>>>>> that users next set of books.
>>>>>
>>>>> This achieves several things:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. No book is ever "put of stock" as we do not store copies on a self
>>>>> but rather on a server.
>>>>> 2. We need only about 2 cartridges per user this reducing the number 
>>>>> of
>>>>> cartridge required.
>>>>> 3. We reduce the number of packages that go out in the mails by 
>>>>> putting
>>>>> several books on a drive.
>>>>> 4. We no longer need a big room filled up with shelves for books.
>>>>>
>>>>> As a result our drives are not write protected and as of yet that has
>>>>> never been an issue for us.
>>>>>
>>>>> Gregory Kearney | Manager Accessible Media
>>>>> Association for the Blind of WA - Guide Dogs WA
>>>>> PO Box 101, Victoria Park WA 6979 | 61 Kitchener Ave, Victoria Park WA
>>>>> 6100
>>>>> Tel: 08 9311 8246 | Fax: 08 9361 8696 | www.guidedogswa.com.au
>>>>> Tel: 307-224-4022 (North America)
>>>>> Email: greg.kearney at guidedogswa.com.au
>>>>> Email: gkearney at gmail.com
>>>>>
>>>>> On 30/07/2011, at 11:50 AM, Lynn Evans wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Please allow me to chime or clang in on this subject.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The cartridges are indeed flash drives in a different form that is in
>>>>>> a cartridge with a big finger hole on one end and the USB connector 
>>>>>> on
>>>>>> the other end.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The cable used to connect a blank cartridge to the computer is a
>>>>>> standard USB extension cable. The cable will be able to connect one
>>>>>> end to the other end like a necklace. I have been told these cables
>>>>>> can be found in the Dollar Store for you guessed it a dollar.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> NLS did not choose to use flash drives or even smaller flash cards
>>>>>> because of the dexterity issues that some patrons would have with
>>>>>> working with small objects.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The use of a flash card reader along with a flash card is problematic
>>>>>> at best. NLS has recommended during the BARD pilot phrase that flash
>>>>>> cards not be used with the NLS digital players. Some may have 
>>>>>> reported
>>>>>> some success in their use. Others have reported slow access of data
>>>>>> transfer from card to player causing the player to loose its place in
>>>>>> the book.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It is a waist of human resources and librarian's time for them to sit
>>>>>> at a computer all day erasing cartridges and then replacing the files
>>>>>> with newly requested books from NLS patrons.   NLS has contracted 
>>>>>> with
>>>>>> a company to load books, mass produce books and ship them out to our
>>>>>> regional libraries. Like the audio cassettes the cartridges are kept
>>>>>> in their blue shipping boxes ready to be pulled off the library
>>>>>> shelves, affixed with the patron's address card and mailed out. 
>>>>>> What
>>>>>> would be the point of fixing the cartridges so they can not be erased
>>>>>> only to have the librarians replace the books with other books on the
>>>>>> same cartridge?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Kearney" 
>>>>>> <gkearney at gmail.com>
>>>>>> To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>>>>>> Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 3:18 PM
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It would be possible to build an SD card reader into the housing of
>>>>>>> a NSL Drive. We have considered building such a thing but right now
>>>>>>> the drives are less expensive and you have to have a really BIG
>>>>>>> order to justify all the plastic production work.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Gregory Kearney | Manager Accessible Media
>>>>>>> Association for the Blind of WA - Guide Dogs WA
>>>>>>> PO Box 101, Victoria Park WA 6979 | 61 Kitchener Ave, Victoria Park
>>>>>>> WA 6100
>>>>>>> Tel: 08 9311 8246 | Fax: 08 9361 8696 | www.guidedogswa.com.au
>>>>>>> Tel: 307-224-4022 (North America)
>>>>>>> Email: greg.kearney at guidedogswa.com.au
>>>>>>> Email: gkearney at gmail.com
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 30/07/2011, at 1:31 AM, Eric SS wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Paul, good question. It would be interesting.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I was just wondering why the blank cartridges we can buy are
>>>>>>>> limited to 1 or
>>>>>>>> 2GB. Also, why couldn't there be an empty cartridge so that we
>>>>>>>> could insert
>>>>>>>> an SD card of whatever capacity.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Curious minds keep us from getting work done...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Eric SS
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
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