The Cost of Ink or Why History Trumps Common Sense Open up Microsoft Word or most web sites and the type is laid out in black against a white background like most books or newspapers. Like most books or newspapers? Why? Dark ink on white pages made more sense than white ink on dyed pages...
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On today’s Op-Ed page in the New York Times, Roy Blount, Jr, head of the Author’s Guild, has penned a piece, The Kindle Swindle?, defending his organizations attack on the new text to speech (TTS) feature in the new Amazon Kindle 2. Over at O”Reill Media, there is An Open Letter to Roy Blount,...
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Inertia is not just a physical phenomenon. Inertia, through habit and tradition, also slows humanity. Many inefficiencies, big and small, clutter our lives unnecessarily. Many began as quirks of history, gaining traction only as the inertia of habit and tradition set in. One famous example is the so-called QWERTY keyboard layout that we are...
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Yesterday, I posted about the new design for a tactile interface for the iPhone. While getting my thoughts together to write the post, I read and responded to the comments on Yanko Design article where I first read about this iPhone case. Some of the comments were, in my opinion, insensitive on the issue...
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Following up on my earlier post about the lack of accessible Vista themes and my current feelings on standard internet color schemes, I posted the following to the accessible Google Group: Alternative Google Color Schemes – accessible | Google Groups< For the visually impaired, Google’s (as well as MS and most websites) color scheme is downright...
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Yet another gripe I have are the wall menus at fast food joints. From food court Burger King to local McAlister’s Deli to the airport Starbuck’s, all of these places have their menus on the wall, but no handy large print paper menu on hand. Asking the over-worked and under-trained cashier for help picking...
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This is what a bad website looks like after I have set the font sizes so that I can read them. This is from Audible.com. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup of coffee.
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Pogue’s post this past week, As We Get Older, Type Gets Smaller, addresses a major issue that I think about too much. I reset the screen resolution, override default fonts and sometimes use Zoomtext. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup of coffee.
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I am a big believer in fixing problems that I find. I recently discovered some locations incorrectly mapped on Google. I submitted a correction to Google, but I also let the affected businesses know. Here is a copy of my exchange with one of them. Their response: wecare@m400.alexlee.com to me Good afternoon, Thank you for contacting the...
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I had a response form Verizon (who obviously did not read my initial message carefully) which just blew me off. Here is the response and my response: As I said in the original message, I had difficulty testing each phone in the store. First, the store’s inventory did not match the online store’s inventory. Second,...
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I am looking at getting a new cell phone. I don’t need a fully voice-controlled, phone, but I would like one where the text is large and easy to read. I am having a hard time finding one. Companies do not advertise high contrast text settings, even if they have them. My wife and I...
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PC Magazine has a tip on dealing with Font Size in Balloons. This should help you resize the font in those little comment balloons in Word. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup of coffee.
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A couple of months ago, the Times’ David Pogue wrote an article, Spending Time to Save Time, about why we do not take enough advantage of available computer technology that could make our lives easier, more productive or both. The lessons Pogue discusses apply directly to adoption of any level of ‘assistive technology’ whether...
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The technology guy for the NY Times posted some thought about an issue that had not crossed my mind, “But What About the Color Blind?“. I think that browsers should come with some default accessibility option. I do not mean the complicated range of options available now, but a simple on/off switch. This switch would...
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