Friday Open Thread

Now a free new Web-based program for the blind aims to improve the situation. It's called WebAnywhere, and it was developed by a computer science graduate student at the University of Washington. Unlike software that has to be installed on PCs, WebAnywhere is an Internet application that can make Web surfing accessible to the blind on most any computer. The developer, Jeffrey Bigham, hopes it lets blind people check a flight time on a public computer at the airport, plan a bus route at the library or type up a quick e-mail at an Internet cafe.

To get WebAnywhere running, a blind person has to manage to get online, which can be complicated on a computer not already set up to give verbal feedback. But Bigham's research found that Web-savvy blind people often know plenty of keyboard tricks and when to ask for help.

Once online, a blind Web surfer can use the WebAnywhere browser, which can link to and then read out loud any page — as long as the computer has speakers or a headphone jack. The program can skip around the section titles, tab through charts or read the page from top to bottom.

Bigham says he hopes others will make improvements to his program, which is open-source to invite tinkering. He doesn't have a personal connection to the issue of computer accessibility — except through his fellow students who are blind — but recognizes the area as wide open for programmers.

said by TK Junk Mail :

I tried it and it isn't easy to use, but it does work. And if you are blind it is better than nothing. And it is only in Alpha testing and should improve over time as an open source project.

said by Hazy Arc:

You Northerners make me laugh..."Oh...it's 97 degrees...it's so hot outside." Ha.

said by devil24:

You wuss!!!

Come to Houston anytime and experience what real HEAT + HUMIDITY feels like.

said by devil24:

You wuss!!!

Come to Houston anytime and experience what real HEAT + HUMIDITY feels like.

said by devil24:

You wuss!!!

Come to Houston anytime and experience what real HEAT + HUMIDITY feels like.

said by Hazy Arc:

You Northerners make me laugh..."Oh...it's 97 degrees...it's so hot outside." Ha.

said by NY Tel:

I am so glad it is the end of the week, the electricity is on, the A/C is on and so is the cooler.

Kinda makes you wish for winter.

said by NY Tel

Kinda makes you wish for winter.
[/BQUOTE :

C'mon, man. Don't wish winter back on me just yet.

said by Jeffrey:

Ok Spring or fall.
I like it when everything is in bloom and green etc. but this humidity makes it really unbearable and the Ozone oyyyy, the ozone.
--

"I chose and my world was shaken, So what?
The choice may have been mistaken-The choosing was not,
You have to move on."

said by NY Tel:

I am so glad it is the end of the week, the electricity is on, the A/C is on and so is the cooler.

said by NY Tel:

Kinda makes you wish for winter.

said by NY Tel:

Kinda makes you wish for winter.

said by baineschile:

BATMAN....Batmannnnnnnnnn.............

Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in a black-and-white striped shirt and an orange jumpsuit labeled "Jail Bird."

In the age of the Internet, it might not be hard to guess what happened to those pictures: Someone posted them on the social networking site Facebook. And that offered remarkable evidence for Jay Sullivan, the prosecutor handling Lipton's drunken-driving case.

Sullivan used the pictures to paint Lipton as an unrepentant partier who lived it up while his victim recovered in the hospital. A judge agreed, calling the pictures depraved when sentencing Lipton to two years in prison.

said by itsbry:

...at least we saved some gas by not having to hit the accelerator.

A new kind of malicious software could pose a danger to Windows users who download music files on peer-to-peer networks.

The new malware inserts links to dangerous Web pages within ASF (Advanced Systems Format) media files.

If a user plays an infected music file, it will launch Internet Explorer and load a malicious Web page which asks the user to download a codec, a well-known trick to get someone to download malware.

The actual download is not a codec but a Trojan horse, which installs a proxy program on the PC, Emm said. The proxy program allows hackers to route other traffic through the compromised PC, helping the hacker essentially cover their tracks for other malicious activity, Emm said.

The ".mp3" extension of the files is not modified, however, so victims may not immediately notice the change, according to Kaspersky Lab.

Most savvy PC users are aware of the codec ruse, but the style of attack is still effective since many media players do need to receive updated codecs occasionally in order to play files.

"Users downloading from P2P networks need to exercise caution anyway, but should also be sensitive to pop-ups appearing upon playing a downloaded video or audio stream," Secure Computing said.

"I think that outside a minority of users who really know about all the dangers implied with Internet use, the vast majority of people have no idea that such a codec download could lead to a Trojan infection," Citay wrote.

Trend Micro calls the malware "Troj_Medpinch.a," Secure Computing named it " "Trojan.ASF.Hijacker.gen" and Kaspersky calls it "Worm.Win32.GetCodec.a."

said by fatness:

This is pretty cool: »www.pinktentacle.com/2008/07/vid···olition/

quote:

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Unlike conventional demolition that begins at the top of the building, Kajima’s new method starts on the bottom floor, where the support columns are cut and replaced with giant computer-controlled jacks. Once the floor is demolished and the debris removed, the entire building is lowered and work begins on the next floor. The process is repeated for each floor until the entire building is gone.

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(youtube clip)

said by Kiwi:

A break for two weeks, after 4 years!

Meanwhinkle, some half way decent movies are coming out, great, about time. 'Wanted', 'Jumper' and because I'm behind the curve,'I Am Legend' excellent. Anymore with good CGI? Sure BaitMan and the Clone, I'll wait for the traffic to slow down....

said by SipSizzurp:

Did somebody say Friday ? I just did a Google image search on "George Bush". Much better than the movies !

said by pnh102:

It's a good thing they didn't do that with Obama... then there'd be all sorts of whining about how "offensive" the image is.

said by RR Conductor:

Your shot bombed.