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

Mon Nov 5 13:00:56 UTC 2012

Thanks.

-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2012 6:23 PM
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

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Those recordings are a little out of date now; but, they do provide an 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.

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