More Trouble for Vision-Impaired Web Readers
Posted by Kassblog
The New York times has remained an extremely difficult site to use if you can't see it. They neglect to include keyboard shortcuts that would enable one to jump past the dozens of menu items to the lead articles. Worst of all, if you visit their mobile site in a computer web browser, it automatically redirects you to the regular web page! We want to view the mobile site, which includes a minimum of graphics and links, and allows George to jump directly to a list of top headlines. It doesn't seem possible on the New York Times site.
Have you found an accessible news site for the vision-impaired? What strategies do you use to provide access to such users?
tags: accessibility, visionimpaired Tags: PIC, reader
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Book Publishing Industry Going Green
Posted by admin
The latest report about the publishing industry doesn’t compile sales figures, track the market for fiction or lament the future of reading. It does tell a great deal about books — not what they say, but what they’re made of.”Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts” is an 86-page summary, printed on 50 percent post-consumer recycled paper and full of charts about fiber, endangered forests and carbon footprints. The news: The book world, which uses up more than 1.5 million metric tons of paper each year, is steadily, if not entirely, finding ways to make production greener.
There is great support in theory for going greener, but results are uneven. Just over half of publishers, for instance, have set specific goals for increasing use of recycled paper. About 60 percent have a formal environmental policy or are in the process of completing one.
Virtually all of the major publishers have taken some steps, from Hyperion switching to soy-based ink, to Penguin Group (USA) using wind power, to Scholastic, Inc. printing the deluxe edition of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” on 100 percent post-consumer waste fiber. Simon & Schuster and the Hachette Book Group USA are among those using e-book readers instead of paper manuscripts. The Random House Publishing Group is experimenting with sending books online to media outlets.
Copies.com
Tags: LED, readerRelated posts
Magnetic Stripe Card Reader
Posted by News
Author: Kevin George
The powerful AT90S2313 microcontroller-based Magnetic Stripe Card Reader reads a portion of the data stored in the magnetic stripe of a card, including alphanumeric data (i.e., the cardholder’s account number), the cardholder’s name, expiration date, LRC, and other discretionary data such as verification values and validation codes. [source]
Magnetic Stripe Card Reader - [Download Project] [View Abstract]
Tags: AVR, magnetic, micontroller, PIC, reader, stripeRelated posts
Almost There - Near Space Project
Posted by Alan Parekh
A Hacked Gadgets reader took his Almost There project up to over 42,000 feet a few years ago and documented the process. Looks like Near Space is gaining some popularity recently.
Here is a list of projects that are worth a look:
Near Space Project 1
Near Space Project 2
Near Space Project 3
Near Space Project 4
"So, here’s what I decided to do. Use a Pressure Sensor and a Temperature Sensor fed in to a PicAxe CPU that approximately once a minute will trigger the transmitter and bang out the raw data using simple Morse Code.
On the receiving end, I’ll use a matching FRS radio to receive the data, feed it in to the Sound Card of a Laptop, and a Cassette Recorder with sound level activation to record the data for time immemorial. Run software on the Laptop that decodes the Morse Code and displays it on the screen, and saves it to a Data file. Then (finally) I’ll have a conversion chart that I can look up the raw data values from the screen and manually convert them to Altitude and Temperature readings."
