2018-01-01 11:46:17

A new year, a new month, a new monthly chat topic.
Though given  how depressing the news managed to be yesterday that is probably enough news I think big_smile, indeed since last night we went to see the Last Jedi the supposedly "new" starwars film, new things are definitely! depressing right now, well accept for hero's call and other new games big_smile

So a  happy new year to everyone.

last night was nicee, despite the horribleness of the recent starwars film,  my lady and I went for a meal with my brother and his now fiance as a celibration of their engagement.
We went to wagama, an awesome  place, I had a very nice teryaki chicken with ginger and  pulled pork Gyoza which was awesome.

I can't be too long this morning as we're doing a repeat of christmas for my brother and his intended, since they weren't there at actual christmas, but either way hope everyone is having a good 2018 thus far, despire depressing things.

Btw, to answer the last couple of questions from Simba and Family marrio.

@Simba, the psp isn't accessible from a low vision perspective owing to the screen being waaaaay too small and hooking it up to a tv being a right pain in the arse.
I did try the wii with menus, but trying to click with the controler on various icons to activate downloded games didn't work out, so even if I got someone to help me with setup, actually running old games would  be too doable from what I saw.

@Family mario I don't think I'd buy mega man on steam, since even now it's far easier just to stick one or other collection into my gamecube and have all the mega man and mega man x games available, ditto with my snes and god knows how many games available.

The retro pie sounds very cool, although when i tried emulation i always found it a little too much of a hassle and slightly too hit and miss to get working what with having to find roms, configure god knows how many keys etc, particularly since some emulators didn't have the most accessible niterfaces.

I really wish someone would do a propper job at producing a retro console, the snes mini seemed like a good idea, though the selection of games on it was very small when I checked, and getting hold of one would be a nightmare.

I did hear there was a new atari 20600 that could both play old games and originals, but what happened to that I don't know.

The best thing for me gaming wise was still the gamecube and gba player which let me access a lot of gb titles more efficiently than the Snes super gameboy, as well as Gba games like the zero series on a full sized screen.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-01-01 18:35:58

Well, happy new year for everyone.

I am myself and noone is ever gonna change me, I am the trolling master!

2018-01-01 18:37:14 (edited by Dan Gero 2018-01-01 18:39:16)

I like the new years. Cold weather, no annoying insects to deal with, and we start off fresh every time. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but for me it's really boring to have the same year number for 365 days, and it's really satisfying to see the change.
You know, every year for Christmas, I have a tradition that I like to go through with. I listen to old Dectalk stuff, and I like to share old memories from 2012-2013. I'd like to take a minute to talk about 1 such memory I made while me and my family were camping out in the woods. My sister fell in the creak when looking for flowers, and shortly after she got out my brother came over and started helping me throw rocks in the water to hear the splash it made. At 1 point I got splashed, and the water was freezing. I sounded like a 6 year old but I was 13 at the time. As you can probably imagine, I hate listening to these recordings, but I'll let other people hear them. If you want to listen, click here. Side note, I did not say ah hell, I said all hail.

Discord: dangero#0750
Steam: dangero2000
TWITCH
YOUTUBE and YOUTUBE DISCORD SERVER

2018-01-01 18:39:18

Happy new year. By the way Dark, unless it's personal, what's the depressing news? What have I missed? Again, if it's too personal then I'm sorry and you don't have to answer the question.
As for me, A Hero's Call got released. Turns out, a sghted friend of mine has also purchased the game as well which I didn't expect at all, although he's quite far away so we won't be able to play in person.

2018-01-01 19:08:12

First of all, a glorious happy new year to everyone!

And now, something I just have to get off my chest.

Man! Some people really do make you wonder.

I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that my brother is a convicted felon with multiple felony convictions, so he is struggling with trying to find work, and money is a huge problem. To help him out I gave him a bunch of stuff I had that I could no longer use because of the loss of my vision. I figured that if he could sell them the money he might get for them would help him. Several months later, he has yet to list them for sale, I wonder what he's waiting for.

Then a couple of months ago he came to me telling me that a friend of his wanted to give him an old car he had, but he'd have to come up with the money for the title transfer, tag, and insurance. Since I occasionally paid him to help me when I needed sighted help, he proposed trading helping me for the money he needed to get the car. He talked about how having a car would make it easier for him to find work and for him to come to my place to help me out when I needed it. I told him that I didn't need sighted help often enough to justify simply giving him the money but suggested that I could give him a no interest loan with no set time table for repayment, just when he could afford to. He agreed, so I helped him get the car.

After he has the car, instead of being thankful or grateful for my helping him get it, he starts telling me how he has this free car that he could sell for a couple of hundred in six months when the insurance runs out. Wait a minute! I just spent almost $700 helping him get the thing, it is definetly not free! Plus he's making it sound like he has no intention of finding work so he could keep the car! Had I known all of this, I'd have never helped him get the thing!

Since then he has made a number of insensitive and ungrateful remarks to me about a variety of things related to the various ways I've tried to help him. It got to the point that I no longer wanted to be around him because I didn't want to hear those upsetting remarks any more.

Realizing that I still occasionally needed sighted help from time to time, and not wanting to deal with my brother any more to avoid his often upsetting remarks, I've decided to sign up for the Aira service. I have the Be My Eyes app, and it works great, but those people that are providing assistance are untrained vollenteers. While I think it's great that they are willing to help as they are, there are times where my personal information or safety is involved and I'm not comfortable using them for that. Once the wearable technology the Aira service uses arrives, I'll be able to start learning the service, it should be an interesting adventure!

2018-01-01 23:22:16

@Orko: I'm sorry to hear about your brother, that's sad news and unfair on you.
I gotta admit, Aira sounds quite interesting, I think it may be getting tested in the UK but I'm not sure if that's happening yet.

2018-01-02 00:21:23

@aaron

Yeah, I'd been watching them for a while and was keen on signing up with them, but only after they developed their own glasses instead of using the really expensive video glasses like Google Glass which has those fideo screens in front of your eyes which are totally pointless on a visually impaired person.

Now they have their own developed glasses that just acts as a place to mount the camera, so it was time.

I'm starting off with the basic 100 minutes a month plan which should be more than enough for my needs and is quite reasonable at $89 per month.

As for my brother, at this point I consider that the loan will never be paid back, while unpleasant, financially it doesn't hurt me all that much. And as the saying goes, "You make the bed you sleep in." I wouldn't want to sleep in the bed he's made and is making for himself.

2018-01-03 11:33:53

@Aaron, by depressing news I didn't mean anything specific, however listening to the news today My lady and I both noted that it was pretty much universally grim, fires, floods, political unrest, more people killed etc, of course we also have had one or two miner mishaps which when put together are a pain to deal with, which, combined with the news doesn't exactly make for a hopeful way to start a new year.

@Orco, sorry to hear about your brother, that is a right pain. I haven't run across this Aira service. At the moment my lady and I do use a service from guide dogs over here with the silly name of "my guide" which  signing up for volunteers to come and help with specific things, eg, helping with my lady's  shopping and helping me take Reever for an off leed free run since I'm a little paranoid about her getting lost. other than that we're mostly okay for general stuff, though I might have to employ my friend as a research  assistant again to help out  the epilogue I've been deputed to right for my doctorate (when will the blasted thing be finished!), so I definitely get the issue of finding someone for assistance who will be actually helpful, also for my lady and I there is an element of trying not to rely on my parents too much as well since while they're quite willing to do stuff, it is a little difficult to  34 years old and still! have your parents dictate your time table.

On the one hand, yesterday was really nice. My brother and his now fiance enjoyed what we got them ( included a trip to the executive lounge next time they go off flying, and two engraved tumbler style glasses with a dragon and unicorn), also we got a few nice things for extra christmas, including a rather cool Dr. who doormat showing the Tardis which says "it's bigger on the inside", and even a fidgit spinner each (which Is on my desk right now and which I can't help fiddling with).

on the other hand, my victor xtreem broke again! this being the third time in a year and needs to go back (I'm just hoping they don't find a way of weezeling out of the guarantee), a blip in our savings meant after paying for the Iphone 8  I was seriously out of cash, and we also need some new speakers too, and if we're going  get new quad speakers, again I'll be raiding the savings to get a half way decent set.

So many things to sort out, much of which is financial. This is why i've not bought a hero's call yet, though when i told my mum I hadn't she proceeded to give me some money and tell me to get on with it which was nice, so hopefully I'll get to play it soon.

Sadly today I also have to finish trying to sort out my Iphone 8's home button trouble (I might do this by playing  a dark room), and begin fixing up my lady's laptop which has just been upgraded to windows 10, but for which i'll need to sort a copy of office, shortcuts etc.

Oh, and also the stupid uni library are giving me burocratic merry hell about trying to borrow research materials, which I again! need to try and sort out.

God I wish people would stop systemetising to the point of insanity!

So nothing that terrible, but lots of small, mildly annoying things, hopefully though they'll be fixed sooner or later, and it will be nice to get back on track with my Iphone (I'm actually quite looking forward to continuing the Samurai Hyuga games).

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-01-03 13:44:39

And that, is why I almost never check the news anymore. Depressing shit like that.

2018-01-05 00:22:03

Dark, I'm not too surprised you haven't heard of the Aira service. At present I believe that it's only available in the US.

Even at age 60 I don't mind adjusting my schedule to fit my folks needs to get their help, but they also live 40 miles north, so it's a one hour trip by car plus about $10 in tolls just to get here.

As if I needed the confirmation, at our Christmas day festivities, just opening gifts over cups of coffee and a prime rib dinner the day before, I heard my brother thank everyone else for the gifts they'd given him but said not a word to me about the gifts I gave him. Fine, I have no problem with that, but I'll have nothing to do with him until he sees the error of his ways and apologizes. Next year there won't be any gifts to thank me for.

So many games, so little time. Recently I bought A Hero's Call, Code 7, A Dark Room, and The Ensign, but haven't had time yet to start playing them. I also have several free games installed that are also waiting to be played. Oh well, if I haven't by then, I have an eight hour flight coming up that's just begging for things to occupy my time with.

By the way, Thank you, Dark, for that reminder about fidget spinners. I've been hearing about them and how they are this year's hot toy for the past month or so and kept telling myself to find out what the buzz was all about. Thanks to your remark about you and Mrs. Dark getting one for Christmas, I finally looked into them and ended up ordering a couple for myself. Man but there are a lot of companies making them, seems like everybody and their brother are getting into the act.

Whoohoo! I just got a notice today from Aira that they just shipped my smart glasses. If they are using priority mail, and I believe they are, I should get them early next week! That is a lot faster than the three to four weeks they predicted it would take. I can't wait! This should be an interesting adventure that will hopefully fill my needs for sighted assistance when I need it.

2018-01-05 13:22:02

The news is depressing, it's like they intentionally suck the life out of you or something knowing it's what gets rating, yet, a lot of people keep going back.  I figured if they can at least balance out the positives with the negatives, it'd be much more  gratifying. 

The new year is starting off with a bit of an interesting note here.  My father got remarried in December and him and his new wife are moving away from here, which I'm honestly okay with to a degree of knowing that  he will be closer to his friends that he probably misses a great deal, plus he had to put up with me for so long, haha, he needs a break and a chance to live for himself.

I submitted my third album to be released with Bass Mekanik Records hopefully some time this season, but not too sure, it generally takes a couple of months to get everything out.    We will just have to see.  I'll keep you guys posted.

As for my thoughts on the overall new years thing, Yeah, it is kinda refreshing to see a new set of numbers at the end of the date, and what's kinda weird is, a fresh start and it kinda gives this vibe like "Everything's starting over, including the life of the wildlife to be reborn for another year" ya know?

My Solo album, "A Life Seen Through Broken Eyes", available now:
iTunes Spotify YouTube
My YouTube Channel

2018-01-06 14:52:11

I was having a great start to 2018 until Wednesday evening.

First, I learned that my freelance writing job is going away.
Then yesterday, I learned that a friend from junior high was killed in a murder suicide. He was such a sweet guy, I'm just in shock as of now.

So . . . not the start for the year I had hoped for.

I hope everyone else is having a good 2018 though.
LOL, I think I quit watching the news in 2008 or somewhere around then.

2018-01-06 15:36:45 (edited by Orko 2018-01-06 15:39:12)

Sheesh! You can't trust anybody these days. A couple of weeks ago a motion activated surveillance camera caught a UPS driver returning to a home where he left a package to steal it. And then a couple of days ago an Amazon driver was caught stealing a package he was supposed to deliver. Considering that the value of each package stolen was $1,000 or more, both of those drivers have just ruined their lives for something they didn't get to keep. They'll no doubt do time for their crime, and be convicted felons when they get out which will make it very hard for them to get meaningful work, so they'll end up losing anything they own and are still making payments on such as their home and car, etc. What idiots!

2018-01-07 17:03:32

@Mirage, really sorry to hear about your friend and the trouble with your job. As someone who hopes to work in writing at some point myself (aside from what I do on this site), I do appreciate the problem.

@G-rad, the bbc over here do try to put something light in occasionally, especially on the local news, however often there just isn't much to go around, as appears to be the case at the moment. I won't comment on anything specific, but suffice it to  the world seems even more in a mess than usual.
Good you got your album out though, that is cool!

@Orko, with my parents it's more the problem that they are very nice and very helpful but insist! on everything being done when they decide. To an extent there is a legitimate reason for this in that my sister is functionally three so anything needs to be planned in advance with baby sitters etc, still it is a little difficult when I get phoned up and told "we'll be there in half an hour to do so and so" or "I've arranged for such and such on Monday"

Currently my parents are trying to "help" with finishing the research for my phd by finding the articles, but persuading them that university burocracy is not something I am in control of  you can't just walk into one uni and attempt to borrow books without some authorisation from the uni your actually attending.

Hopefully it'll be fixed next week.
On the plus side, my lady's windows 10 machine is up and running, all accept office installation which I'll have a look at this afternoon, though I still need  get my Iphone 8 out, brave the annoying home button, configure the wireless network and try some games for the db as we're woefully behind on Ios stuff.

I also do want to sort a hero's call, though I am not sure whether to wait on that until the next update comes out and see if it can help with my problems with navigating in the game, though since that's probably a matter better discussed in the appropriate topic |I'll leave it until then.

Yesterday however I did take a little time off to play through original super Street fighter 2 on my Snes which was a lovely bit of nostalgia and a spur of the moment idea. To say I haven't played it in probably over 12 years I didn't do too badly, though losing to Blanka was embarrassing, and losing three credits to Vega was really! embarrassing, though I always remember him being a bit of an arse. Bison cheated as per usual with a super fast reaction speed that no human could match, but he wasn't quite as irritating as Vega, and surprisingly to say that Sagat is supposed to be Ryu's greatest rival he went down like a Bald, tall, tanned  tonne of bricks from taiwan :d.

My lady and I are also continuing with way of kings by Brandon sanderson which might not be the best thing to read for after christmas blues given it's a profoundly dysmal novel, plus of  we both have pretty grotty colds which I'm fairly sure  got as an extra crimble present from my brother and his fiance, though I suppose if one is going to get a cold, Iceland would be the place to get one from big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-01-08 07:38:02

Well I got a hell of a christmas gift, my remaining balance on my last student loan of $1,730 or so, my dad and his wife decided to pay it off. That's a $90 a month bill I no longer have, which is nice.

I've been lucky to avoid family issues mostly. My only concern is for my brother if he really marries this girl he's engaged to. He has a child with her, and she has a child of her own from a previous thing. I just don't think the two of them are right for each other. She's so damn vacant and weird. When a date is set, I'm gonna say to him as the time approaches, look dude, are you really sure you want to do this, you two do not have to be together to make the kid thing work. Her kid is 5 and has some form of Autism, and their kid is 2 and I believe she's going to be the same way. I pegged her kid for it and told them, but they never did anything about it, and now, that could have been two years he could have had therapy. They're really not ready for kids. I mean, they show up with no shoes on sometimes, or no wipes in the diaper bag. He's so disorganized, you could give him a check for a million dollars and he'd lose it in two seconds. I think they've been doing better, they used to fight really bad, I actually was living there and left because I got tired of it. She was sucking him dry for a while, not financially, butlike, spiritually, she was sucking his soul dry of anything happy. I hated seeing him depressed like that. And he actually seemed worse after a time after I left there, but I guess he's OK now. The whole thing is so uncertain, and I don't like it. My mom, and my aunt don't like her either. My dad and his wife I guess do, but I think they try to remain neutral as much as possible.

Now, back in the fall of 2014, my grandpa died of a complication due to his quadruple bypass surgery a week later he got out of the hospital. Two years later, in the mountains where that side of the family are from, my grandma up there signs Spicewood, which is the land that should have been divided into thirds, my dad getting a third, my uncle George getting a third, and my uncle Chuck getting a third. But, out of those three, Chuckie is her son, my dad and George are not. She's my grandpa's hell, 2nd, 3rd, I don't know, but not his first wife. She's always been a little... funny about that, sometimes acting like the other two, I'm not gonna say don't exist, its just weird. Basically, she favored her son over those two every single time. So, that land got signed over to Chuck. Now, imagine that you hear from the age of 5 that one day, you'll get that land, all through your childhood and so forth, and with one stroke of the pen, bam, its gone. I mean, my dad and his brother Chuck still talk, so its not like its completely out of the family, but still.

I was up there this summer. There is a cemetary not far away from our camp. You go up our drive, which merges onto this road, part of it goes up and around to meet up with another road that's a steep downhill road before forking left and right, and the other half goes down and around, so it forms  a large loop. It's this lower half where the cemetary is located, off to the left if you leave the camp, and to your right if you come towards the camp on that half of the loop. I've always wanted to be buried there, but I didn't think it was possible. That land, I don't know, there is a very powerful connection I have to the mountains, and its always been that way for me. So, I recently found out that there are plots open, so I will be getting one, which is awesome, because that's where I want to end up when I die.

This summer, my other grandpa on my mom's side of the family was in the hospital for nearly 3 months. He went in there with such a bad list of stuff I didn't think he was gonna make it. He was kept out of it for a while, completely sedated to the point of being almost in a coma. I had to work myself up to go in there and see him, A, because I hate hospitals, and B, I don't know, its something having to do with someone you perceive as strong, being completely weakened, it fucks with your head. So its a bunch of us there now, me, my mom, my brother, my aunt, and his... I don't even know, for lack of a better term, wife. (That's a whole other story). So yeah, he's not doing good at all that day, his heart keeps going into arythmias and they can't get it under control. They had a call into Cardiology, who basically were gonna come down there and zap him, which they said was a risk being that he's 79. We go outside for 5 minutes and come back in, and he's doing better, they had one last medication to try I guess before they had to resort to the defibrulator, and it worked. After that, he was still asleep for a while, but then he had to be kept in after being woke up due to problems swallowing. He had to have a tube in his trachea and one in his stomach for feeding, and that presented problems, and more things, but finally, he made it out. He's not really back to normal though. his uh, aw hell wife, they have a kid together, but anyway, she said even before he was in there that he was having memory issues, but its definitely worse now that he's out. he also can't go up the stairs without resting halfway up. I don't know what the deal is with him and driving, but I suspect they don't want him driving because of all of this, so that sucks. I think he's probably really depressed, though he doesn't really show it. He couldn't hunt this year, and he lives to hunt.

Also, my grandma, his ex, even though he's over at her house like every day, or well, before that he was, now maybe twice a week, but she has memory issues too, has for the past 5 years or so. She's so damn stubborn though she refuses to admit it. She's living in denial, and her disease makes her think she's done things she hasn't done and things of that nature. That's where I'm living at now, and its a good thing too, because she can't be left to her own devices. So basically,its me, my mother, and my grandmother living in the same house, lol.

To give examples, I will come on and the oven is on, and I'll say what are you making, and she'll say a baked potato. I'll heat something up quick in the microwave, and sit down and eat, and she's got the start of another meal going, and I'll be like, isn't your potato gonna be enough, and she'll be confused, and say, what potato, and I'll say the one in the oven. She'll say there's nothing in the oven, I'll say yes there is, its on. She'll go over, realize that its on because there's lights on the panel, open it up, and yep, there's the potato. I've found stuff like coffee in the microwave, long since cold, so she's put coffee in to heat back up, and its done since got cold again, I've found soup in there, or a TV dinner that is still frozen, while she's over on the stove making soup or a hot dog or something else. She does deflect a lot of stuff, so if you didn't know her, you'd probably not notice.

Here's another example. We had a bit of a scare today because a friend of the family, who had come over to take her car to get air in the tires, was gone for nearly an hour. To run up to the gas station to fill up the tires takes what, 5 minutes, if even that? So, he's not back and we're all trying to get a hold of him, texting, and calling. The problem is, he came over in his truck and left the dog in it. So the dog's out there, but the truck's locked, so we can't get her out. So we're down there talking about what might be going on, and one thing I said was, he might have just left his phone in the truck, or if he left it overnight, it probably went dead, because its cold as hell outside, like 10 degrees F. So it just goes around in this circle, my grandma says well if he'd have been held up, he'd have called, but one of us would say, well his phone might be dead, and she'd forget that and keep going over that same line.

I've also come down a few times and smelled smoke from a candle, like, she's have left it burn all night, and it had burnt down and went out.

SO yeah, things are somewhat eventful lol.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-01-08 14:29:48

Family issues, you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family.

I have an older step brother who sexually abused me when we were kids, a younger sister with emotional problems who's basically disowned the family and will hnot have anything to do with us, and a younger brother whom I've already told you about who's a convicted felon, another younger step brother who's wife thinks nothing of betraying confidences other brothers and sisters have trusted her with. We are about as dysfunctional a family as it gets.

I'm thankful most of the family is content to simply leave me alone.

2018-01-08 18:57:09

@Orko I've sent you a pm.

Well everyone seems to be having quite a time of it today, hope people's family situations improve (my lady is currently having her own shenanigans, and that from the other side of the atlantic).

Quite aside from the unpleasantness mentioned in general game discussion which I needed to deal with, I'm now feeling rotten today due to a bloody awful cold, so am relaxing by playing the extremely cheerful A dark room (yeah it makes perfect sense I know), though on the plus side this does mean I have an Iphone again which is nice.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-01-08 22:43:23

Dark, check your private messages.

2018-01-10 22:45:44

I got my Aira glasses today and spent some time with an Aira representative learning how to use them and the service.

During the first month they recommend you use the service in a variety of situations even if you don't need it to familiarize yourself with the equipment and the service. So that when you are in an unfamiliar situation, such as navigating a building for the first time, you will already be comfortable with the service.

I'm so excited that I feel like I can't sit still. With this service I'll have trained sighted assistance whenever I need it. Something I've never had before. No more waiting for a family member to help get some things that need a sighted person done. The feeling of independence is awesome!

Beside the glasses which provide a home for the camera, the box also contained a dedicated cellular WiFi hotspot to provide the glasses with a connection to the Aira service. It's a device about the same size and shape as my iPhone SE. Also included were a couple of USB charging adapters and cables, I have so many of those now they are coming out of my ears. Also included was a cloth carry bag to protect the glasses when not in use.

Stay tuned if you're interested, There will be more to come.

2018-01-12 20:24:21

Hmmm, I wonder what happens if you  actually wear glasses due to eye condition?  do they have a head    piece or  something?

Well   the rotten  cold continues to be rotten,  though we did  go for an amazing meal with my parents and my brother and hiis now fiance at a local catering  colidge who happen to train their students for jobs in the high level catering industry by serving  silver service meals  at ridiculously cheap prices.

the food is always amazing, I particularly liked a fantastic dark   
chocolate tart with strawberry sorbet which I  had for pudding, though the  slow brased beef in the red wine sauce with red cabbage and crushed potoatoes I had as a main course was lovely too.

Still good food aside, I'm even now croaking  like emperor palpatine, which is rather irritating,  especially when your having to negotiate local university  burocracy in the town where   we're now living first to persuade them that yes, i am actually a student at another university despite their inaccessible online setup requirements, and then finding said university doesn't actually have any of the articles I need unless! I  go through even more inaccessible online requirements to get an inaccessible pdf copy which I can't then have access too (philosophy is a little too strict on word order for me to trust  ocr at this stage), oh and of course I can't print them out myself and get them read since even though  now authorised to borrow books from  the  local uni library (yes the same local uni library that had none of the books i needed), I can't actually ask my dad to print anything out on  the machines, at the library nor can I get an online  to print out myself later!

So it looks like I'll need to actually contact someone at  durham at my old uni to have the stuff printed out then  pay to have it read, or have it posted to me so  can pay a family member for reading it.

And this by the way is the material I've been required! to read on my thesis on disability and accessibility big_smile.

Irony anyone?

Also we tried to get a survivor case for my Iphone 8 today, only to find that they don't make one yet, which in fairness I should've realized, still I'll be happier if it can get sorted.
We also needed to return my lady's laptop to the nice local computer firm who did the upgrade, since outlook was being such an arse that it couldn't tell the difference between a gmail and Imap account, and I couldn't alter the settings without opening the  program, but the program wouldn't open without creating an account which it coudln't do because it insisted a gmail account was an Imap one! 

in the end apparently the guys had to use some backend shotcuts  restore Outlook to factory settings, then! install the gmail account.

this lThis is  yet another  reason why I can't stand microsoft outlook, actually it spurs me on to stop making do with windows 10 mail as I have for the past year or so and actually get off my bubm and try either  thunderbird, freeware outlook express (since I still! miss outlook express), or something else.

On the plus side my  victor  stream is back and I'm celibrating with some dr. who stories, that when not reading way of kings with my lady, which we're finally coming to the end of.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-01-13 00:36:02

Hmm, Dark, you have a good point there about the glasses. All I can say is that apparently Aira is targeted at people who's vision is so poor that glasses wouldn't do them any good. In my case, before I lost my vision, I did wear a pair of very strong and thick bifocals, but once I started using the long white cane, I realized that the glasses weren't doing anything useful any more, so I quit wearing them.

As for the Aira glasses themselves, they are a commercial product called Glasses Cam, which Aira loads their software onto. They resemble a pair of Aviator sun glasses, Aviator being a brand, not a type. Attached to the right temple is the camera in a long thin case with a couple of buttons on it. The back of the right temple, behind the ear, is where the batteries for the camera are stored.

The glasses connect to the world and the Aira service via WiFi, so you also have to carry around a WiFi hotspot that connects to the internet using a cellular data connection. Part of your monthly subscription pays for that connection. The hotspot is about the size of an iPhone 5, but about twice as thick and an inch shorter. It has two buttons on it though you only need one of them. You also get a cloth bag to store the glasses in when they are not in use, a USB charging adaptor, and a micro USB charging cable which is used for both the glasses and the hotspot. To all of this I'm adding a Bluetooth earpiece with a mike so I can use the service hands free. While at home, I can just use my iPhone in speaker phone mode, but if I'm out and about, I'd rather keep my phone in my pocket, instead of in my hand, so I'll use the earpiece. I chose the earpiece design over a headset design because where I'll be using it, I don't want to cover both ears, I'll want to be able to hear my environment.

I myself would have preferred a hard case for the glasses with enough room to store the hotspot and a Bluetooth earpiece. Not only would it provide better protection for the glasses, it could keep all the pieces I need to use the service in one place.

I'm sorry to hear that cold is still bothering you, but at this point, probably all you can do is try to treat the symptoms so you don't feel quite so rotten and let it run it's course.

Sounds like despite being in the 21st century, that university is still stuck in the dark ages. Go figure!

2018-01-13 03:27:22

That device sounds awesome.  I would love to get my hands on something like that, but I'm sure it'd cost me an arm, leg, and a nut sack. 

All seriousness though, I do hope that they work out for you.   If you ever need longer micro-USB cables that will charge anything even with fast charging, I generally go with the PS4 charger cables.  They are only like 5 USD and are 10 feet long and support fast charging for android, etc etc.    Very useful seeing as I have  four of these and they are very sturdy.

My Solo album, "A Life Seen Through Broken Eyes", available now:
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My YouTube Channel

2018-01-13 04:10:00

I love those cables

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2018-01-13 05:37:50

Orko wrote:

Hmm, Dark, you have a good point there about the glasses. All I can say is that apparently Aira is targeted at people who's vision is so poor that glasses wouldn't do them any good. In my case, before I lost my vision, I did wear a pair of very strong and thick bifocals, but once I started using the long white cane, I realized that the glasses weren't doing anything useful any more, so I quit wearing them.

As for the Aira glasses themselves, they are a commercial product called Glasses Cam, which Aira loads their software onto. They resemble a pair of Aviator sun glasses, Aviator being a brand, not a type. Attached to the right temple is the camera in a long thin case with a couple of buttons on it. The back of the right temple, behind the ear, is where the batteries for the camera are stored.

The glasses connect to the world and the Aira service via WiFi, so you also have to carry around a WiFi hotspot that connects to the internet using a cellular data connection. Part of your monthly subscription pays for that connection. The hotspot is about the size of an iPhone 5, but about twice as thick and an inch shorter. It has two buttons on it though you only need one of them. You also get a cloth bag to store the glasses in when they are not in use, a USB charging adaptor, and a micro USB charging cable which is used for both the glasses and the hotspot. To all of this I'm adding a Bluetooth earpiece with a mike so I can use the service hands free. While at home, I can just use my iPhone in speaker phone mode, but if I'm out and about, I'd rather keep my phone in my pocket, instead of in my hand, so I'll use the earpiece. I chose the earpiece design over a headset design because where I'll be using it, I don't want to cover both ears, I'll want to be able to hear my environment.

I myself would have preferred a hard case for the glasses with enough room to store the hotspot and a Bluetooth earpiece. Not only would it provide better protection for the glasses, it could keep all the pieces I need to use the service in one place.

I'm sorry to hear that cold is still bothering you, but at this point, probably all you can do is try to treat the symptoms so you don't feel quite so rotten and let it run it's course.

Sounds like despite being in the 21st century, that university is still stuck in the dark ages. Go figure!

How much would that setup normally run, and how much is the  subscription?    Can't you get a discount for using a already active wifi hotspot?    OR can you reverse it and connect your mobile device to it so you can  hop online for whatever?  You said it uses your phone or what not, which is nice.  I wear hearing aids, so I'd have to use a headphones amplifier and a good set of ear buds so I don't blow the drivers.

*shrugs*  Nice though.

My Solo album, "A Life Seen Through Broken Eyes", available now:
iTunes Spotify YouTube
My YouTube Channel

2018-01-13 09:19:07

The cost for the equipment is part of your subscription so there is nothing to buy. The glasses and hotspot only provide the video connection so the assistant can see what you are looking at. The smart phone app is used to connect to the service and provides the audio between you and the assistant as well as other functions like reporting on battery condition or service usage. You can also use the service with just your smart phone in which case the service uses the camera in your phone. I don't know if the subscription prices are lower if you decide to use your phone's camera  instead of the glasses, but I would think that it would be lower without the glasses.

Depending on how much you plan to use it, there are several different subscription plans to choose with the primary difference being how many minutes of use you get each month. I decided to start off with the basic plan which gives me 100 minutes per month and costs $89 per month.

They also have a referral program where if someone I refered to the Aira service signs up, we both get a free month of service.