[nabs-l] bard web site

Wed Oct 2 14:55:20 UTC 2013

OK peter, it's all on you now. Get that thinking cap on and lets figure 
this out. When I was younger, my mother worked a full time job and also 
went to school full time while supporting two of us. We lived in Phoenix 
and had no air conditioner in our vehicle because we simply could not 
afford it. I suppose she should've foregone some of the beer and smokes 
though.
now that your thinking cap is on and well, these services are only $50 
and it's all our fault Bard is down, lets start planning, shall we?
How do you plan to:
1) Liberate NLS and bard from the government
2) Fund the narrators and readers and all the employees that work at 
these libraries to give us books. Let me give you some figures.
Lets say 10000 people a year subscribe to bard at the low low price of 
$50 a year (they've chosen to forego their smokes and beer). That gives 
us $500000 a year to work with. Now lets say we have I don't know, 20 
employees that make minimum wage and work 40 hours a week. 8*20 = $160 
an hour for these employees, but lets figure this out for the whole 
year. We'll even give them 35 days off, shall we?
8*20 = 160 --we pay $160 an hour to all of our 20 employees.
160 * 40 = 6400 --we pay $6400 a week to all of our 20 employees
6400 * 48 (we gave them 35 days off) = 224000
Now obviously 20 employees is a really low number. If you double that 
you're almost at your really really optimistic 10000 subscribers with 
only 40 employees.
Now that we have our thinking cap on, how do you propose to solve this 
problem? On another note, do you believe that we would have fre shipping 
through USPS if we were to liberate these organizations from our 
government? How would you plan to pay for mailing if not? (Some people 
stil do get books on cartredges). How about paying for the servers that 
hold all of these books, and the upkeep? I can guarantee you the people 
that secure and manage the servers make well above $8 an hour.

On 10/2/2013 10:40 AM, Peter Donahue wrote:
> Good morning everyone,
>
>      What you mean is that there would not be a Braille and talking book Web
> site still available despite the government shutdown. The folks that really
> shut BARD down is none other than us. Society didn't tell us to be overly
> dependent on the government to provide this and other services. Folks we're
> doing that to ourselves and need to stop being overly dependent on others to
> fund and operate these programs for us. Thank God for the likes of Jim
> Fructerman, Ray Kurzweil, and others. This should be an opportunity  for us
> to rediscover what Bookshare.org and Blio have to offer. It should also
> cause us to put our thinking caps on and find ways to protect BARD and other
> services we've come to depend on from government shutdowns. A yearly
> subscription to Bookshare.org is only $50.00. Forgo some of the booz and the
> smokes and subscribe so the books can keep coming to you. These
> subscriptions are far superior to BARD. We have found lots of books on
> Bookshare.org not available through BARD. It's $50.00 well-spent if you
> asked us. Since we're both Bookshare.org members the yearly charge is
> $100.00 and we find the money to keep our subscriptions active. Furthermore
> I believe Bookshare.org still has the free student membership. Check it out.
>
>      If we keep going down the path of stinking thinking the next time
> there's another federal shutdown we'll have no one but ourselves to blame
> because we failed to protect BARD and other services we rely on from such
> mayhem.
>
> Peter Donahue
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "I. C. Bray" <i.c.bray at win.net>
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 9:09 PM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site
>
>
> You would not have a braille / audio book collection if not for the federal
> government.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peter Donahue" <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com>
> To: <jsoro620 at gmail.com>; "National Association of Blind Students mailing
> list" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 9:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site
>
>
> : Good evening,
> :
> :    Paying a subscription to protect our accessible book collections from
> : governmental boondoggling is okay in my book. Bring it on!
> :
> : Peter Donahue
> :
> : ----- Original Message -----
> : From: "Joe" <jsoro620 at gmail.com>
> : To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
> : <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> : Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 7:16 PM
> : Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site
> :
> :
> : I'm all for making government much smaller, but privatizing the NLS arm of
> : the LOC is probably not the best case scenario. People would have to pay,
> : not an issue for gainfully employed people but certainly a problem for the
> : 70% unemployed folks already on a low income. Me, I'm really not sure why
> : the BARD site is down. Skeleton crews consist of at least a few IT staff,
> : and it seems odd there is not a single person who can keep an eye on the
> : servers. Then again, the government is dumb enough to try to rope off
> : national monuments here in DC that can easily be accessed outside. Red,
> : blue, they're all a little cray cray.
> :
> : Joe
> :
> : -----Original Message-----
> : From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Peter Donahue
> : Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 7:29 PM
> : To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> : Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site
> :
> : Good evening everyone,
> :
> :    Perhaps it's time to privatize the NLS making it immune to government
> : shutdowns in the future. Bookshare.org and BLIO are our shining stars
> during
> : this time so we need not be without books to read.
> :
> : Peter Donahue
> :
> :
> : ----- Original Message -----
> : From: "Kirt" <kirt.crazydude at gmail.com>
> : To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> : <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> : Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 5:48 PM
> : Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site
> :
> :
> : That entirely depends on when Congress decides to get it's act together.
> Ask
> :
> : your representative. :-)
> :
> : Sent from my iPhone
> :
> : > On Oct 1, 2013, at 4:45 PM, "justin williams"
> <justin.williams2 at gmail.com>
> :
> : > wrote:
> : >
> : > Do we know when the bard site will be up again?
> : >
> : > _______________________________________________
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> : om
> :
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-- 
Take care,
Ty
http://tds-solutions.net
He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave.