[MD-Sligo] FW: [tech-vi Announce List] An Open Letter of Thanks to Dean Martineau

Fri Aug 27 14:13:00 UTC 2021

From: tech-vi at groups.io <tech-vi at groups.io> On Behalf Of David Goldfield
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2021 1:19 AM
To: tech-vi at groups.io
Subject: [tech-vi Announce List] An Open Letter of Thanks to Dean Martineau

On August 26 Dean Martineau announced
<https://www.toptechtidbits.com/37.html>  that he would be stepping down as
senior editor of the Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday newsletter after 16.5
years of service. Prior to his work with TTTT Dean also ran the Sound
Computing newsletter. This was, if memory serves, a bimonthly newsletter
issued on cassette tapes which presented news and information about the
latest blindness assistive technology.  Before that he hosted Battery High,
a newsletter for users of Blazie Engineering products which was available in
the 1990s. What follows is an open letter to him expressing my sincere
gratitude for his many contributions to our community.

Hi, Dean.

First, as I'm sure you are always deluged with email, particularly as a
result of your most recent announcement, there is no need for you to respond
to this email.

After reading your latest announcement I wanted to thank you for the years
of service you have provided to the blindness community and I'm not just
referring to the 16.5 years of work you put into TTTT. I remember you from
the days of the Battery High newsletter from around 1991 and I believe I had
subscribed starting with issue 1. It was important to have an alternative or
at least an addition to Blazie Engineering's official newsletters and I
always enjoyed those issues. I think I was also subscribed to Sound
Computing from perhaps the first issue. In those pre-Internet days it was
even more important for the community to receive news as well as
demonstrations of the latest adaptive products and you were one of the few
who produced such a magazine on tape. I'm not sure if I subscribed to Top
Tech Tidbits with issue 1 but it's likely I was reading the newsletter from
very early on. I always looked forward to each issue and I don't think I
ever skipped reading any of the issues you produced. Lately I find myself up
at pretty early hours and I often read TTTT at around 4:30 in the morning,
often before I even get out of bed and put one foot on the floor. I'd like
to thank you for producing these issues so consistently and faithfully. You
were kind enough to provide links to many of my blog posts, for which I'd
also like to thank you. I could always tell when a link to a new blog post
was listed even before I read that week's newsletter as Wordpress would
alert me that my viewing stats had increased, something that only happened
as a result of you deciding to link to a blog post on my Web site. You
always mentioned the newest mailing list I decided to launch which always
increased my subscriber count. The Tech-VI list once shot up to around 100
new subscribers when you mentioned it shortly after I had formed it. Listing
it on Facebook and Linkedin never even gave me anywhere near that number of
new subscribers compared to the amount of subscribers that I gained as a
result of your newsletter which, again, I would like to thank you for. 

I could relate to your reason for starting TTTT. I missed Amy Ruell's
Filters and Forwards email list after it had closed. I really enjoy mailing
lists which contain product announcements but there were none that
specialized in sending out announcements as they were received. Had someone
else started one I would have subscribed. Nobody did and so I decided to
start a list that I would have wanted to read but your newsletter is perhaps
part of the reason for the list's growth. 

So, even though I'm repeating myself much more than even an average writer
should do, I sincerely wish to thank you for your many contributions to the
blindness community. Thank you for letting all of us know about the newest
screen reader upgrade, the latest Braille notetakers, the most interesting
webinars and the most helpful articles. I am glad you will still be a guest
contributor to the newsletter. I am hopeful that your desire for racial
equity will continue to offer the worldwide community even more
contributions as a result of your passion and desire for justice. I wish you
the best during this new transition.

David Goldfield,

Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist

JAWS Certified, 2019

Subscribe to the Tech-VI announcement list to receive emails regarding news
and events in the blindness assistive technology field.

Email: tech-vi+subscribe at groups.io <mailto:tech-vi+subscribe at groups.io> 

www.DavidGoldfield.org <http://www.DavidGoldfield.org> 

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