FileDir 2.7 Available

http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/dirsetup.exe


Version 2.7
Released June 26, 2007

Fixed a corrupt zip archive being created when its location was in a
subfolder of the current folder.
Fixed Home, End, PageUp, and PageDown not working with the JAWS cursor in
the optional scripts.

Enhanced the wild card capability of filters. Previously, a * character
could be at the beginning or end of a pattern, or both, but not in the
middle (a limitation of the SQL parser built into the .NET Framework). This
restriction has been programmed around, thus allowing a pattern such as the
following:
calendar*.doc
As before, multiple, alternate filters may be separated by a | character,
e.g., calendar*.doc|*bill*

As before, Shift+T says the type of the current item in the Windows
registry, as well as its attributes such as ReadOnly, Hidden, or System.
A new command, Control+Shift+T, shows all "extended properties" of a file or
folder item that are available to Windows Explorer. Depending on the type,
32 possible properties may be examined as follows:
Name
Size
Type
Date Modified
Date Created
Date Accessed
Attributes
Status
Owner
Author
Title
Subject
Category
Pages
Comments
Copyright
Artist
Album Title
Year
Track Number
Genre
Duration
Bit Rate
Protected
Camera Model
Date Picture Taken
Dimensions
Episode Name
Program Description
Audio sample size
Audio sample rate
Channels

Rail Racer Released

For those of you who have been reading my blog, a week or so ago, I posted information about Rail Racer and the demo. Now, you can get the full game for 33 dollars US by going to
http://www.blindadrenaline.com.

Handy Tip For JAWS 7.0 and 8.0

Today on the Blind Tech Mailing List someone posted a tip which I think will be quite handy for a lot of people who are using JAWS 7.0 or 8.0. The tip does not work if you have a version of JAWS that is under 7.0.

If you press the insert key plus the windows key plus the F4 key combination, JAWS will shut down and close other processes that are asociated with it. This keystroke would be handy because as most of you may have experienced before, JAWS sometimes will not respond. For people who are just starting to use their computers, they will think of shutting down the computer and for those of us who are more experienced with the computer, we just go in to the task manager and shut down the process. There is a problem to that though. What if there is a process that also starts with the letter J besides the JAWS process? Well in either case, those two ways would take pretty long.

Now you are probably wondering how on earth you are going to access the keystroke. Well, there are several different ways to do it. The way I would do it is by using your left hand and hold the insert key and put your thumb on the windows key, and finally hit the F4 key with your index finger. The other way is by holding the insert key with your left hand, pressing the windows key with your thumb and use your middle finger to hit the F4 key.

Just as a reminder to all, this keystroke only works with JAWS 7.0 and 8.0. I hope you find this tip handy.

FX Radio Is Back

Here is something interesting for all of you who are reading this blog. A couple of blind people named
PatrickPerdue
and
Derek Lane
started a stream called FX Radio back in 2005 and it stopped for a while but now, it's back!

If you don't know what it is about, you can read Patrick's post about it on his Live Journal. The link is
http://borrisinabox.livejournal.com/135865.html.

All I have to say is that it's weird and it's cool so listen to it now!!!

Skype Scripts for JAWS Updated

Doug Lee has posted Revision 455 of his JAWS scripts for Skype. You can retrieve it at
http://dlee.org/skype.

Two New Versions of Skype Available.

Two new versions of Skype are now available.

Skype version
3.2.0.163
is now available and one place where you can download it from is at
www.skype.com.
Here are the changes in this version:

feature: Added Latvian localization done by Intars Students
improvement: Audio calls improved
change: Do not accept multichats from not authorized contacts
change: IE plugin updated
change: Extras Manager updated to version 1.2.0.261
bugfix: CCleaner removed 2 Skype related registry entries
bugfix: Tray icon menu not translated during login
bugfix: Skype crashed on password change notification
bugfix: On rare occasions Skype crashed when opening options.
bugfix: Skype may have crashed in large multichats
bugfix: NTLM proxy authentication did not work

Also Skype version
3.5.0.107
beta is now
available and one place where you can download it
from is at
www.skype.com/go/getskype-beta.
This is a direct link to the .EXE file for Skype 3.5
beta. Here are the changes in this version:

feature: Auto redial
feature: Call Transfer
feature: Device Indicators
feature: Edit chat messages
feature: Message history loading granulated
feature: Private Telephone Numbers
feature: Send contacts inside chat
feature: Visual indicators for Audio In / Audio Out in options
feature: Show examples of notifications / alerts in options
feature: Added Latvian localization - Intars Students
feature: In-Client Hardware store button
change: Extras Manager updated to version 1.2.0.261
change: Options categories smoothly slide open and close when changed
Updated language files: Arabic (Eriksen
Translations Inc.), Bulgarian (Nikolina Filipova
& Nikolay Filipov), Czech (Petr Silon), Danish
(Eriksen Translations Inc), German
(Claudius Henrichs & Dick Schiferli), Estonian
(Eve Loopere), Greek (Panagiotis Sidiropoulos
http://www.magenta.gr
French (Fabrice IMPERIAL & Bruno Lépaulard),
Italian (Daniele Conte), Japanese
(Mayu Shimizu), Hungarian (Mark Bender & Laszlo
Koncz & Gabor Stefanik),Latvian (Intars
Students), Lithuanian (Viktoras Kriukovas),
Norwegian (Stig Auestad), Dutch (Kees
Koenders), Polish (Karol Szastok),
Portuguese-Portugal (Francisco Ferreira, Portuguese-Brazil
(Leslie Predrotti), Finnish (Heino Keränen),
Swedish (Anders Olsson), Russian (Eriksen
Translations Inc), Romanian (Péter Henning and
Mónika Iancu), Turkish (Ömer Emin
Dede)

Serotek Releases the World's First Web-based Access Technology Tool for the Blind

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Janelle Schulenberg

Tacet Consulting

612-720-1068

janelle@tacetconsulting.com

Serotek Makes Web 2.0 Accessible to the Blind

Technology Company Introduces SA To Go

Minneapolis, Minn. - June 13, 2007 - Serotek Corporation, the leading provider of Internet and digital information accessibility software and services,
announces the public beta release of a web application called SA To Go (System Access To Go), the first product to make Web 2.0 accessible to the blind
and the visually impaired. SA To Go is a web-resident product stemming from Serotek's award-winning System Access software. More than a screen reader,
System Access requires no installation and provides complete control of your e-mail, makes web surfing easy, and offers intuitive access to Microsoft Office
productivity tools like Word, PowerPoint and Excel. SA To Go makes System Access available on the Web for instant operation and has no permanence on the
using computer. Users can now access System Access software anytime, anywhere that Internet access is available.

"We believe SA To Go will revolutionize the way blind people use the computer," said Mike Calvo, CEO, Serotek Corporation, "That's why we felt it critical
to leverage the power of Web 2.0 to continue to fulfill our promise of accessibility anywhere."

SA To Go
provides instant accessibility. Once online, users can visit
www.satogo.com
and it appears in seconds. When finished, the user simply closes the program
and any personal information vanishes leaving the host computer completely unchanged.

"Microsoft applauds Serotek's innovation with respect to access for all," said Daniel Hubbell, Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation, "SA To Go is
a revolution for people who need access to computers away from home."

Because of technologies like Fonix's text-to-speech and its small size, SA To Go loads within seconds giving the blind user the same access on the go as
his sighted peers. And since SA To Go is a true web application, accessibility is no longer an expensive option; companies that want to provide public
accessibility to customers can do so for a fraction of the cost.

"Serotek's new SA To Go application gives blind and visually impaired users quick, convenient access to PC functions," says Tim K. Hong, VP of Sales, Fonix
Speech, Inc. "SA To Go incorporates Fonix text-to-speech, which is optimized to provide clear, intelligible TTS voices without using large amounts of processing
power or memory. Fonix speech technology is a good fit for Serotek's System Access Mobile applications."

Serotek is putting the system out for public Beta because they are encouraging user input. The company can imagine hundreds of applications but believes
users will direct its true potential.

"We think we've only scratched the surface of the potential of SA To Go," says Calvo, "That's why we're inviting users to take it for a spin and let us
know how they think it might be applied."
The company will be surveying users on a regular basis and encouraging users to e-mail their ideas and comments to SAToGo@serotek.com.
To participate in the public beta, users can go to http://www.satogo.com and follow the instructions. Immediate accessibility will lead the user through
the registration process. For more information about Serotek and its family of System Access accessibility tools, visit
www.serotek.com.

Serotek Corporation

Serotek Corporation is a leading technology company that develops software and manufactures accessibility solutions. Committed to the mission of providing
accessibility anywhere, Serotek launched an online community specifically designed to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Since then, Serotek has
introduced several powerful, affordable solutions that require minimal training, including System Access, for which it was awarded the prestigious da Vinci
award for innovation in universal accessibility by the National Multiple Sclerosis Association. For more information, visit www.serotek.com.

Fonix Corporation

Fonix Corporation (OTC BB: FNIX), based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is an innovative speech recognition and text-to-speech technology company that provides
value-added speech solutions through its wholly owned subsidiary, Fonix Speech, Inc., currently offering voice solutions for mobile/wireless devices; interactive
video games, toys and appliances; computer telephony systems; the assistive market and automotive telematics. Fonix provides developers and manufacturers
with cost-effective speech solutions to enhance devices and systems. Visit www.fonix.com for more information, or call (801) 553-6600
and say "Sales."

Microsoft Corporation

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full
potential. For more information, visit www.microsoft.com.

Demo of Rail Racer Available

Today
Blind Adrenaline
has released a demo for Rail Racer which is a very complex game. You can
click here
to find out more about rail racer on the Rail Racer Page.

TextPal 3.8 Available

You can get this new version of TextPal by going to
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/palsetup.exe

Version 3.8
Released June 9, 2007

Fixed the Yield command, Alt+Y, saying "Yield selected" when it meant "Yield
all," and vice versa (depending on whether text is selected).
Fixed the Paste command, Control+V, removing a trailing line break from text
that is inserted. Made the Copy Append and Cut Append commands, Alt+C and
Alt+X, insert a line break before appended text if none is present, thus
making it easier to identify separate chunks of text that you append to the
clipboard.

Upgraded to the latest, 1.86 version of the Ruby interpreter. Improved
documentation about regular expressions in TextPal/Ruby.

Enhanced the status command, Alt+Z, so that it indicates the state of word
wrap, as well as indent mode and selection size. As before, F8 starts a
selection and Shift+F8 completes it. Now Alt+Shift+F8 is a quick way of
returning to the point that marked the start of a selection.

Added support for programming in Java, e.g., with the Standard Widget
Toolkit (SWT). The Pick Compiler command, Control+Shift+F5, includes Java
in the list of languages, and if chosen, configures settings for
ToolCommand, ErrorPosition, AbbreviateOutput, NavigatePart, and
CommentCharacter. These and other settings may be examined and refined in
the Settings dialog, Alt+S. They may also be edited more directly and
flexibly with the Manual Settings command, Alt+Shift+M.

Jamal

ESpeak Version 1.26 Released

Today, I recieved an e-mail on the NVDA list which talks about the new release of ESpeak which is up to version 1.26. The e-mail is below:

I have released a new version of eSpeak, 1.26, at
http://espeak.sourceforge.net

This includes the Windows SAPI5 version, but not the NVDA integrated
version, which may be built and released by the NVDA developers.

eSpeak 1.26 includes some bug fixes, and improvements to languages
including: Afrikaans, German, Hungarian, Portuguese, and Romanian.
There is also an initial draft of Icelandic.

I have made some changes to the English "en-r", which is my attempt to
make a voice which is less British. I won't go so far as to call it
"American" yet :-)

Freedom Scientific and Serotek Reach Agreement to End Lawsuit

I am glad that Freedom Scientific and Serotek have come upon an agreement to end the lawsuit. It has been worrying for some people but now it's finally over and so is the petition that 430 of you guys signed. You can read about it below:

(St. Petersburg, Florida, and Minneapolis, Minnesota – June 4, 2007) Freedom Scientific and Serotek jointly announced today that they have reached an agreement
whereby Serotek has agreed that it was inadvertently infringing Freedom Scientific’s federally-registered trademark.

“It is unfortunate that we had to take this action,” said Lee Hamilton, President and CEO of Freedom Scientific, “but trademarks are valuable corporate
assets, and they must be protected, or they are lost. This agreement accomplishes that, and we have agreed to dismiss the lawsuit. As part of this agreement,
Serotek has agreed not to use our trademark or any other trademark that is similar.”

“We are pleased with the settlement agreement,” said Mike Calvo, CEO, Serotek. “We will be renaming the FreedomBox and other affected products and services
in a separate announcement in the near future.”