This is wonderful even though I haven't the slightest clue as to what
you do asides from what you just wrote. I love the way we as blind
people overcome obstacles like they are nothing. Keep up the great job.
On Mar 16, 2008, at 12:15 AM, Justin Harford wrote:
Hello
There is a bunch of stuff in this email that I am not sure everyone
will understand off hand, but there were people talking about stuff
they do with their macs and I just felt like writing about something
people don't talk about much on the list with the purpose of drawing
peoples attention to a software medium that is not as widely known.
So this email is just a rant on how I do science with my mac. For
those of you who have followed the business with logger 3 under
windows, they don't have the monopoly on science access anymore.
A while back I posted to the list asking about the accessibility of
a program called logger pro 3, software used to interface lab pro
sensors with a computer to allow the person to take measurements in
the lab such as mass, temperature, PH etc. This program has other
capabilities too such as automatic collection of data and various
other functions that I have not used yet.
The company that makes the software, Vernier, has begun making
logger 3 accessible. under OS X. They started with version 3.6
released earlier this year and supposedly they tell me that for
their next big release they are testing it more for accessibility
with voiceover.
At present I have successfully made it do measurements of temp and
mass. Earlier this week I did a lab on my own, measuring the heat
released in a reaction with magnesium and magnesium oxide metals
using a standard calorimeter, logger 3 temperature and mass sensors,
standard beakers, and a touch pipetter.
I am still unable to take a regression of several data points which
I had to do for a lab where we found the extinction coefficient $
\varepsilon$ (for the latex lovers of the list). That is at the
moment the thing that I have missed having in the software.
There are other sscientific applications that I have made use of for
my science and math classes at Berkeley. I use the LaTeX
typesetting language to write out all my lab reports. I have a
homework package that formats all my assignments with my name, the
graders name, and the assignment and the date in the headers of the
page, and the work itself in multicolumn text. I have recently been
working also a lot with a package for LaTeX called pstricks, which I
suspect could be a good way for blind folks to draw, basically
saying this from the fact that I have found different rules to
remember when drawing pictures. Thus far I have graphed exponential
functions, as well as doing reflections across the x and y axes, and
translations. I have not yet managed to find how to reflect across
the line $y = x$ for inverse functions. I have also managed to come
up with a way for drawing lewis dot structures for my chem class,
illustrating double bonds, and up to 4 bonding systems. I am sorry
to say that I have not yet figured out how to show more than 4 bonds
to a center atom without it looking goddy. Of corse LaTeX is great
for all my math assignemnts. My GSI can write up quizes for me in
LaTeX which he emails and I do on my mac.
I used to use the apple calculator but I have recently discovered a
scientific calculator that runs from the terminal called maxima.
Those of you with macports can acquire it by typing
port install maxima
In the terminal and waiting a number of hours. It provides a nice
easy way to do calculations, sort of like how you would do in the
braille note calculator, except much better. It is faster than
apple calc because there is no need to go searching for buttons.
I also use tables for finding outputs for functions. I also have a
spread sheet with element properties on it, in multiple sheets. One
sheet has the periodic table of elements in a spacial form showing
the element symbol and the number in a layout that a sighted person
would use. This is important in chemistry to know the locations of
elements to each other as there are periodic properties demonstrated
as you progress in different directions on the table. I also have a
sheet which has a bunch of other information on the elements like
molar mass (which I use alot), boiling and melting points,
ionization energies etc. I added a sheet that shows electronic and
molecular geometries of different bond systems. I have dictionary
entries for each of the element symbols so that VO will read the
names when I am reading the periodic table sheet. I have -
following the symbols on the periodic table and the entries include
these - so that they are not reading as element names everywhere
else. For example,
- I
Will read as iodine. But I by itself will just read as I. That's
just something I set up on my computer.
I suppose I should note that I installed a windows virtual machine
thinking I was going to need to use the logger 3 software with the
jaws scripts, but I have not come around to actually using the
virtual machine for anything.
Regards
Justin Harford
Into this wild abyss, the weary fiend stood on the brink of hell and
looked awhile, pondering his voyage
John Milton
Paradise Lost
