This is a pretty good roundup if you’re into this sort of thing. I always feel a bit like I’m snooping when I read the overtly personal blogs, so usually avoid them like the plague. Something which someone may share with me in a private conversation is not something I want to read announced on the Internet. but then life would be dull if we were all the same.
Some interesting offerings here. But who has time to read all this anyway? I hardly get through my RSS News feeds never mind blogs. I only really right mine to help me remember stuff I’d probably otherwise forget. Oh and try to get in side the head of bloggers. But I’ve never felt the need to tell you which colour boxer shorts I have on.
Dear ACB Radio Listeners and Friends,
On behalf of the ACB President, ACB Directors, the Board of Publications,
ACB staff and ACB Radio volunteers, I would like to take this opportunity to
express our utmost gratitude for your continuing support of one of the most
enduring and influential projects of it’s type in the online Blind
Community. Whether you listen for ten minutes per month, or for ten hours
per day, you are the reason ACB Radio has been online for six years.
Without your support there would be no point. Thank you.
Since I became interim director of ACB Radio in July 2003 ACB Radio has
continued to evolve thanks to the tireless efforts of our magnificent team
of volunteers and the continuing support and interaction with our listener
community. Over the past two and a half years ACB Radio has facilitated
internet coverage of: an increasing number of ACB State conventions
including Washington, Florida and Pennsylvania amongst others, the two most
recent ACB national conventions in Alabama and Nevada, and in December 2004
ACB Radio was honoured and privileged to be invited to broadcast the Sixth
General Assembly of the World Blind Union live from South Africa. This
event included the highlight of my career to date, working with Geoff Shang
to make possible live and exclusive coverage of an address to the World
Blind Union by the elected president of South Africa Thabu Mbeki. It’s not
every day our community can tune into an address concerning blindness from a
world leader, and ACB Radio was there! We would not have been there without
you the ACB Radio listeners.
The numbers of ACB Radio volunteers, listener hours and email group members
have continued to increase with people checking in from places as far apart
as France and Fiji! In the last couple of years ACB Radio has established
web, production, technical and administration teams as well as researched
and implemented an interactive web content management system, as well as
designed a broadcaster database system in-house to manage contact and
scheduling information for ACB Radio Interactive. We now have title
streaming and monthly programming on the ACB Radio Café, and new flagship
shows like Marlaina and Tuesday Topics on Mainstream continue to engage
listeners and connect our community. ACB Radio now offers a selection of
podcasts and highly relevant blindness RSS news feeds including Assistive
Technology News, Guide Dog News, Blind Sports News and Blind Arts News.
Finally, for the last two years ACB Radio has been consistently ranked in
the top two or three search results for the words “blind and radio” on the
world’s leading search engine Google.
For personal reasons I recently chose to take a temporary break from ACB
Radio. This was not a decision I took likely, but one which I believed was
in the best interests of myself and ACB Radio. My break was taken with the
full knowledge and support of the ACB President, and provided me with a
valuable opportunity to gain some well needed rest and perspective. During
my break it became obvious to me that the time had come for some kind of
change both for myself and for ACB Radio. This was purely a personal
decision, taken after careful thought and private consultation.
Three weeks ago I was offer a technical support position with Dolphin
Computer Access in Worcester here in the UK. This is a fulltime position
with a leading developer of screen access software both for desktop PCs and
handheld PDAs, presenting a range of new and stimulating challenges. On
Wednesday 1 March I spoke to the ACB Radio President and indicated that and
in order that ACB Radio be enabled with some fresh direction, and in order
that I can pursue this opportunity with Dolphin, after nearly 3 years of
service I wished to stand down as ACB Radio Director. My resignation was
accepted immediately and is effective at the end of the month.
When I informed the ACB President of my intention to stand down, I also made
it perfectly clear that I wanted to use my remaining time to help the
president to find a workable interim solution until a permanent replacement
could be found. Eventually ACB will want to advertise for and appoint a new
ACB Radio Director. However, plans for an Interim solution are
well-underway and I am confident an announcement will be made in due course.
You can be sure that I am definitely not turning my back on ACB Radio. I
was an ACB Radio volunteer for a long time before I was ACB Radio Director.
ACB Radio has been an important part of my life for six years. I will
continue to be a loyal ACB Radio supporter for as long as possible.
Eventually, once I’m settled in my new post with Dolphin, I hope to be back
as a ACB Radio volunteer.
It has been a pleasure to serve the ACB Radio community for these last two
and a half years, and I have made many great friends around the world
through my work with ACB Radio. I have found ACB people to be warm and
welcoming, and I sincerely hope I will remain part of ACB’s extended family.
I would certainly love to be around in 2011 when ACB celebrates it’s
fiftieth birthday.
ACB Radio works best when we work together. I am confident that when my
successor or successors are announced, you will do as you have done with me,
in lending your valuable and constructive support.
All the best and many thanks.
—
Dave Williams
Director, ACB Radio
Tremendous. But don’t most UK mobile phone networks charge for calling freephone numbers. Although if these guys come up with the goods then over-all you would probably still make a saving.
I’ve been with PlusNet for 6 or 7 years and been on usenet for 12 years. The Internet and Internet access has changed hugely during that time. This is probably a smart move on the part of my ISP, although I can’t help wondering if this announcement has more to do with concerns over illicit file sharing rather than service performance. Imho anyone serious about Usenet is probably already signed up for something like EasyNews anyway.
“It has become apparent from customer feedback and from our own testing that our existing
Usenet (newsgroups) infrastructure is no longer meeting the needs of those customers
using this platform for binary downloads.
This is also coupled with the fact that there has been a huge upsurge in binary Usenet
postings recently. For example Giganews have reported a 15% growth in binary Usenet
postings within the last 30 days alone and are predicting that this will continue.
Our news platform was never designed to cope with these sorts of volume, and it is
clear that we would need to make significant ongoing investments in order to offer
a reasonable quality binary feed.
We have investigated a number of options for better Binary provision, including re-design
of our server configuration, equipment upgrades and outsourcing to a third party
provider. At this stage however, we have been unable to source a sustainable and
financially viable alternative. The binary Usenet service will be withdrawn from
April 3rd 2006.
Therefore the decision has been made that it would be better to focus our existing
investment in hardware on the provision of a text-only newsgroup service. As a result
of the lower load on the same resource, and the extra redundant storage, this text
service will deliver exceptional performance and will prove a reliable offering for
all of our customers in the long term.
We understand that a number of customers who use Binary newsgroups will be disappointed
by this step but we hope people will understand the reasons for this change and that
many will benefit from a higher quality text feed, rather than a limited and incomplete
binary feed.
Customers may also be interested in the following Usenet services, which offer binary
Usenet services without making a charge:
http://www.yottanews.com
offer 1GB per month for free
http://www.readfreenews.com/
offer a free binary feed with 3 day retention
Many additional commercial Usenet providers exist within the market. Please see
http://docs.newzbin.com/Usenet:Premium_Providers
for an independent comparison of some popular offerings.
_________________
Regards,
Stewart Norriss”
The $64000 question is, which of the mobile phone screen readers will be the first to support N91, and which will offer the most comprehensive support? This blogger really can’t wait too much longer.
In other news – I’m flat hunting tomorrow. More on that in the coming days.
Anyone who knows me knows I have been raving about this little beauty for months. Nokia announced it nearly a year ago and I feel like a kid waiting for xmas. So here are a couple of links which have kept me going through the winter.
N91 on Wikipedia includes specs and links to press releases and the nasty official Flash Site.
All About N91 Blog regularly updated with lots of useful info and links.
In-depth review translated from Russian.
Having been fortunate enough to spend some of last summer briefly sampling: Las Vegas, Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Singapore, London, Cardiff and Edinburgh, and in many cases enjoying the generosity of near-strangers, it occurred to me that were a visitor coming to my damp little corner of the UK, where would they wish to go? What would they wish to do? Moreover, where would I want to take them? What would I want to show them? And given just a week what could I hold up as being shining examples of this great nation, of which many of its citizens are almost ashamed to be proud?
Lately I was faced with the problem of answering these questions for real when I was persuaded to entertain Rachel Keyte who intended visiting the UK from Australia. I have minimal experience at hosting anyone, and even less desire to become a bed and breakfast proprietor never mind self-appointed tourist information bureaux etc, let alone ambassador for my country? However, through various prolonged sessions of burying one’s head in the sand, I suddenly found myself confronted with such an unenviable predicament with just days to spare!
Owing to my recent acute apathy about my own life brought on by a combination of factors, not least of which include: a close relative being involved in a serious road traffic accident, a seriously sick elderly family member, the death of a good friend, and various other tales of personal financial and emotional woe which I will try to avoid inflicting on you dear reader. Suffice to say these things and others had seemingly brought my life to a pathetic standstill, the consequences of which I was even scarcely beginning to grasp, much less deal. I had reached a near impasse in sorting out my immediate priorities. I was in no physical emotional or financial condition to take on this project. The mere idea was frankly ludicrous.
But there it was, looming large as yet another bolder across my path, another brick in the wall, call it what you will. Deep down, I knew that deal with it I must. The day came closer, and plans went unmade, and my since of foreboding deepened. How would I go about amusing a tourist in my corner of England? The prospect of failure, thus ruining somebody else’s trip of a lifetime filled me with apprehension. Last year, regardless of their own issues and circumstances, people who hardly knew me had been blatantly gracious and hospitable toward me, thus allowing me to travel around the world. What gave me the right to deny another the same hospitality? Had I not learnt anything from my travels? Who was I to crawl back under my bed and say no?
When or even if some kind of epiphany came I cannot say. However, thanks to some considerable moral and practical support from a few very dear friends, and the discovery of some previously untapped resolve, I vowed to myself to meet the challenge head on and if at all possible to attempt to exceed any limited expectations I had in my ability to pull this off.
The North of England has plenty to offer, even during the depths of a British winter. Just an hour by train from Manchester International Airport, Preston (where I have lived for the last eight years) is home to a wide selection of eateries and pubs offering foods and drinks from a plethora of nations. Chinese, Indian, Italian, French, Mexican, Thai and Mediterranean foods are all here. One can eat in or eat out, or drink dozens of varieties of real ales from across the UK in scores of Preston pubs, the choice is yours. Oh and the usual soulless fast-food suspects are here, Dominoes, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s and I believe the first ever KFC in the UK. Oh and did I forget the obligatory kebab houses, the traditional English chippy, as well as a couple of more upmarket English restaurants, etc. Add in a bumper over-spend at the supermarket on groceries, there would be no shortage of things for Rachel to eat.
Entertainment in Preston itself in February is a little thin on the ground. This gives a visitor an excellent excuse to venture to some of Northern England’s finest cities including: Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and York.
Liverpool, known around the world as being the place where the fab four grew up, is a must on anyone’s Northern England itinerary. The recently enhanced Beatles Story is a museum which does exactly what it says on the tin. Using the excellent audio guide, exhibits and printed information as well as reconstructions of key locations from the Beatles era, Visitors can learn about the individual backgrounds of: John, Paul, George and Ringo, as well as the band’s journey from humble beginnings in Liverpool, through the heady days of Beatle mania, to the group’s eventual disintegration and subsequent solo careers.
If the Beatles are not your thing, Liverpool is home to my beloved Liverpool Football Club, the most successful English soccer team and 5-times winner of the European cup. Match tickets tend to be a tad costly and thin on the ground, but the club has a visitor’s centre and offers a behind the scenes stadium tour. Sport was not high on Rachel’s list of priorities so LFC did not make it on to our Liverpool itinerary, however, an impromptu tour of the city did.
Following an enjoyable couple of hours at the Beatles Story and lunch at a friendly little café at the Albert Dock, Donna Rachel and I were scheduled to take the Magical Mystery bus tour of Liverpool. In the event the bus left early and we must have missed it by only a couple of minutes! We were left feeling frustrated but all was not lost. On recounting this tale to a taxi driver as we headed back into the city centre, he genuinely and without a moments hesitation offered us the use of his services for two hours in order that Rachel might visit the likes of Strawberry fields and Penny Lane and stopping off at each location to have her photograph taken. For an instant I confess to having treated this offer with a healthy amount of scepticism. I was wrong, and Phil from Mersey Cabs was as good as his word. Not only did Rachel get her photographs plus a personalised tour of Liverpool encompassing the more notable landmarks in Beatles history, but we were regaled with the sort of entertaining anecdotes and humorous banter only to be found in this awesome city. Phrases like “salt of the earth” do not come close to describing sound fellas like Phil. If you are out there Phil, cheers mate!
Manchester is not somewhere with which I am overly familiar, and not a place with which I have had much of an affinity. Consulting the various guides and web sites it would appear the options are numerous. Eventually I elected to take Rachel for a day at the Lowry at the recently regenerated Salford Quays. Manchester has undergone a massive renaissance over the last decade following the IRA bombing in the city in the mid90s. The 2002 Common Wealth Games held in Manchester attracted further investment and helped to sustain the rejuvenation process.
The Lowry was made possible using National Lottery Funding to the tune of £120 million! So I figured it was at least worth a look. The building is certainly unusual being triangular in shape with a metallic and glass exterior and a carefully composed interior incorporating various geometric themes. The Lowry houses two theatres, an art gallery, a conference centre and a restaurant. We were treated to an informative guided tour before lunch, followed by a matinee performance of Gas Light in the larger of the two theatres.
York is one of England’s most historic cities and has plenty to offer the casual visitor. Rachel visited the Viking museum with a couple of friends and I am told she had a fabulous time sampling the smells and sounds of the Viking period courtesy of the Viking museum’s virtual time machine.
Leeds lies in west Yorkshire and for an account of our visit see my esteemed friend Martin Roberts blog at mproberts.co.uk.
Additionally we visited the excellent Octagon Theatre in Bolton for a performance of Arthur Miller’s view from the Bridge, had afternoon tea at Booths, visited a salon for a range of treatments, and the list goes on.
I think it’s true to say that despite my reservations, maybe because of them, Rachel’s time in the North of England was varied and stimulating. And regardless of whatever is being written about yours truly over on Live Journal, I have no regrets. This project was just what I needed to drag myself out of the whole into which I had been descending and renew my enthusiasm for life.
Once again thanks to my friends for their resources and support in making Rachel’s visit to this part of the world something which she will hopefully eventually remember fondly for many years to come.
Hmm, mildly thought provoking stuff re the state of Englishness by Peter York.