[gui-talk] Federal Circuit Court affirmed the US PatentOffice Decision invalidating Freedom Scientific's patent and eliminating their claims against GW Micro

Sat Nov 3 22:22:31 UTC 2012

There is the Mac Academy disk from Earle Harrison and Triumph 
Technologies.  It is pay, $75 I think, but a coherent textbook for 
the Mac and VoiceOver.

Dave

At 09:48 AM 10/31/2012, you wrote:
>Been there, done that.
>I am not knocking them, but am looking for updated materials, and 
>possibly a bit more continuity.
>Maybe my brain is just getting old.
>
>Thanks for the reference, I'll look again now that I'm actively 
>attempting the learning curve again.
>Applevis.com is pretty good also.
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: gui-talk [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ray Foret Jr
>Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 10:41 AM
>To: Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Federal Circuit Court affirmed the US 
>PatentOffice Decision invalidating Freedom Scientific's patent and 
>eliminating their claims against GW Micro
>
>www.blindcooltech.com
>and search for "Mac demo"
>
>Those recordings are a little out of date now; but, they do provide 
>an excelent overview of the basics.  Heck, that's how I learned.  IN 
>fact, those recordings are how I decided to go for the Mac over windows 7.
>
>
>Sincerely,
>The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!!
>
>Now a very proud and happy Mac user!!!
>
>Skype name:
>barefootedray
>
>On Oct 31, 2012, at 9:22 AM, "Hoffman, Allen" 
><Allen.Hoffman at HQ.DHS.GOV> wrote:
>
> > I believe head to head NVDA and JAWS are nearing one another.
> > I keep thinking NVDA will pull ahead, but I don't believe it has just yet.
> > My personal opinion of voiceOver on Mac is that it is darned 
> difficult to learn, but may provide pretty good accessibility.  I 
> found IPhone hard to learn when learning only on Ipad, but when I 
> used IPhone it seemed easier.  I can do most things now on IPhone, 
> but can't translate this knowledge well to the Mac environment.  If 
> someone has a tutorial that isn't excruciatingly slow that teaches 
> voiceOver and Mac at the same time and is not feature by feature 
> based, e.g. there are a lot of walk throughs which teach invidiaul 
> features, but I think I need a ground up tutorial better than that 
> built in to the VoiceOver itself, please post an URL.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: gui-talk [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike
> > Arrigo
> > Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 7:28 PM
> > To: Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Fwd: Federal Circuit Court affirmed the US
> > PatentOffice Decision invalidating Freedom Scientific's patent and
> > eliminating their claims against GW Micro
> >
> > As far as whether the expensive screen readers have better 
> application support, it depends on what apps you are using. For 
> scanning, that's easy, docuscan plus has a version for the mac.
> > On Oct 30, 2012, at 3:24 PM, Gerald Levy wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Again, I would challenge your assertion that a Mac can do things 
> better than a Windows computer.  For instance, there is no Mac text 
> to speech app that is remotely comparable to Open Book or Kurzweil 
> 1000.  And if Macs are so superior to Windows machines, why haven't 
> they been embraced by business users and government agencies?  You 
> still get what you pay for.  While the Mac with Voice Over and the 
> free and low cost commercial screen readers can do many things 
> well, they nevertheless lack the panaply of features and 
> compatibility with third-party programs that the more expensive 
> commercial screen readers offer.
> >>
> >> Gerald
> >>
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Arrigo" <n0oxy at charter.net>
> >> To: <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> >> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 2:40 PM
> >> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Fwd: Federal Circuit Court affirmed the US
> >> PatentOffice Decision invalidating Freedom Scientific's patent and
> >> eliminating their claims against GW Micro
> >>
> >>
> >>> Yes, the mac is my primary computing platform for home use. 
> Some may disagree with me here, and that's fine, but, I think the 
> days of the expensive screen reader are numbered anyway. We now 
> have system access for windows at a much cheaper price, and NVDA is 
> free and continues to get better and better. We also have voiceover 
> on the mac which does things as good as the windows screen readers 
> and in some cases better. Microsoft has also included a much better 
> version of narrator in Windows 8. The reasons for purchasing the 
> expensive screen readers are simply disappearing.
> >>> I think as time goes by, more and more computing will take 
> place on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. Many of 
> these provide accessibility out of the box. I'm not saying the 
> desktop or laptop computer will be gone next year, but I do think 
> over the next few years we will start to see that trend take place.
> >>> Original message:
> >>>> I could not agree more Mike!  Spot on.  IN fact, it was things 
> such as this along with your Mac recordings that caused me to 
> switch to my Mac back in November of 2009.  Justice has truly been served.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> Sincerely,
> >>>> The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!!
> >>>
> >>>> Now a very proud and happy Mac user!!!
> >>>
> >>>> Skype name:
> >>>> barefootedray
> >>>
> >>>> On Oct 30, 2012, at 12:46 PM, Mike Arrigo <n0oxy at charter.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>> That was definitely a long time coming. Freedom science 
> fiction got what was coming to them, that law suit never should 
> have been filed in the first place. First they sued Serotek and 
> then GW-micro. This is one reason among others why I will never 
> purchase or recommend Freedom Scientific products, especially when 
> their are much better products available. A part of me thinks that 
> GW-Micro should counter sue to recover the costs associated with 
> this, but I guess in a way that would make them no better. At least 
> Justice was served. The bible has something very good to say about 
> things like this. I'm paraphrasing here, but, basically it says 
> that those who try to ensnare and trap others by digging a hole 
> will fall in to it themselves. I'd say that's what happened here.
> >>>>> Original message:
> >>>>>> The following message appeared on several of GW Micro's public
> >>>>>> lists yesterday.  Reference is made to a large MP3 file that can
> >>>>>> be downloaded to hear the arguments.  Some had trouble 
> finding the file from the URL provided, so later this URL was 
> provided to get more closely to the MP3 file:
> >>>
> >>>>>> http://oralarguments.cafc.uscourts.gov/default.aspx?fl=2012-1145.
> >>>>>> m
> >>>>>> p3
> >>>
> >>>>>> ==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE==================
> >>>
> >>>>>> From: gw-news at gwmicro.com [mailto:gw-news at gwmicro.com]
> >>>>>> Sent: Monday, October 29, 2012 9:46 AM
> >>>>>> To: gw-news at gwmicro.com
> >>>>>> Subject: Federal Circuit Court affirmed the US Patent Office
> >>>>>> Decision invalidating Freedom Scientific's patent and eliminating
> >>>>>> their claims against GW Micro
> >>>
> >>>>>> In July of 2008 on my first day back in the office after the
> >>>>>> Sight Village conference, someone entered our office and handed
> >>>>>> me a summons and notification of a lawsuit brought on by 
> Freedom Scientific against GW Micro.  They received a patent for 
> certain screen reader features and our response was that 
> Window-Eyes had those same basic features several years prior to their patent.
> >>>>>> This was the beginning of a long waste of time and money, which
> >>>>>> finally came to a close last week.  GW Micro is vindicated - 
> it's over - the court decided in our favor!
> >>>
> >>>>>> I won't provide all the details but in general, the Patent Office
> >>>>>> reexamined their patent at our request and found it to be invalid
> >>>>>> in view of prior art.  Both the patent examiner and the Board of
> >>>>>> Appeals in the Patent Office came to the same conclusion
> >>>>>> - the patent is invalid.  Despite those results, they asked for a
> >>>>>> federal court to review the decision and again they came to the
> >>>>>> same conclusion as everyone else.  You may listen to this final
> >>>>>> argument by going to http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/oral-argument-
> >>>>>> recordings/search/audio.html search for Appeal 2012-1145, listen
> >>>>>> to the MP3 file and you will easily come to the same conclusion
> >>>>>> as everyone else.  Their original patent should not have been
> >>>>>> granted in the first place and without the patent, there are 
> no grounds for their lawsuit against GW Micro.  If you decide to 
> listen to that file, you should be aware that it is a large file, 
> which will take some time to download.
> >>>
> >>>>>> We want to thank you all for the many words of 
> encouragement, support and prayers that we've received over these past 4 years.
> >>>>>> Not one person ever suggested that we should do anything other
> >>>>>> than fight and defend ourselves.  However, the sad fact is that
> >>>>>> actions like this hurt all of us.  This caused a waste of 
> dollars and time for both our companies, which could have been 
> spent improving existing products and developing new ones.
> >>>
> >>>>>> GW Micro chooses to take the path of creating new products,
> >>>>>> features and innovations and our recent release of our
> >>>>>> Window-Eyes
> >>>>>> 8 public beta illustrates that perfectly.  If you haven't done so
> >>>>>> already, I hope you will give it a try.  Simply doing that 
> will show your support of GW Micro.  We promise to continue to work 
> hard and conduct business in an honest and proper fashion.  The 
> reputation of GW Micro will never be litigation instead of innovation.