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Subject:
From:
monte single <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
VICUG-L: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
Date:
Sat, 12 Dec 1998 23:30:11 -0600
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Hello Willie,
In your recent posting, about Opera 3.21 you said you were/are using win 3.1, and
jwf or window-eyes. Have you encountered  the problems with multiple windows that
Jamal speaks of in the other part of this message?

Thanks
Monte Single
Living in the original "Toon Town" Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Jamal Mazrui wrote:

> Yes, the multiple windows are problematic, especially since focus is
> not always placed in the window one would expect.  Also, although one
> can move from link to link on a page using keystrokes, a non-standard way
> of indicating the link with focus is used, which screen readers have
> difficulty tracking.  I tried with Window-Eyes and someone else I know
> tried with JFW.
>
> Regards,
> Jamal
>
> ----- Original Message Follows -----
>
> From: Martin Tibor <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:      Re: TECH:  Opera browser is small and fast
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Can be more specific. Which readers etc.? Is it due to the multiple screens?
>
> At 12:03 PM 12/6/98 +0400, Jamal Mazrui wrote:
> >Opera apparently works well for low vision users.  It does not, however,
> >for blind users of screen readers.  I've consistently heard this and
> >experienced it myself.  I hope the company addresses this problem.
> >
> >Regards,
> >Jamal
> >
> >----- Original Message Follows -----
> >
> >From: Martin Tibor <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject:      Re: TECH:  Opera browser is small and fast
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >>From some very clever folks in Norway Opera is just one of the browsers I
> use,
> >but I can testify to its speed, compact size and the fact that is very
> >accessible with keyboard commands. It is assistive technology friendly. Sure,
> >you have to pay for it but it represents a good value. If you need
> >magnification on your browser you will find it quite impressive. It will
> reduce
> >to a 20% scale or magnify to 1000%. You can download it for free and use it
> for
> >month and determine if it is useful before shelling out $35.
> >
> >Here is the text for scaling of text from their help file:
> >
> >Scaling / Zoom
> >
> >Opera can scale the complete contents of a document. You can also choose to
> >only scale the text. Here you can also choose font and colours. Opera can
> scale
> >documents from 20 - 1000%. You can type in the percentage directly or choose
> >from a list. You can also use the keyboard for scaling by pressing the '+' key
> >on the number pad you increase the scaling by 10%. Likewise if you use the '-'
> >key the scaling is reduced by 10%. Repeated keystrokes change the scaling down
> >to 20% or up to 1000%.
> >We have also added more keys to make it easier for people with eye problems:
> >6 or * on the numeric keypad - Zooms to 100%
> >7 or CTRL-"-" - zooms out 100% (ie. 400 - 300)
> >8 or CTRL-"+" - zooms in 100% (ie. 500 - 600)
> >
> >At 03:58 AM 12/6/98 -0500, M. J. P. Senk wrote:
> >>I have heard that the Opera browser allows more control over colors and
> >>size of the displayed text than its bigger competitors.  I could not reach
> >>http://www.operasoft.com just before posting this article from today's
> >>Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
> >>
> >>   Sotto voce browser: As Microsoft, Netscape battle, quite Opera keeps
> >>   going
> >>
> >>   Sunday, December 06, 1998
> >>
> >>   By Michael Newman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
> >>
> >>   The Antitrust Trial of the Century, like much else in the computer
> >>   world, is proving to be something of a letdown. Last week's highlight
> >>   was a debate about the meaning and etymology of a common term for
> >>   urination.
> >>
> >>   More about that later. The Justice Department's suit against Microsoft
> >>   is ostensibly about its tactics in the browser market, though the
> >>   testimony does veer off to some strange territory. And Microsoft's
> >>   tactics in the browser market are of keen interest to Sandra
> >>   Thorbjornsen, director of sales and marketing for Opera Software.
> >>
> >>   Opera develops and markets a browser program to view and retrieve
> >>   information on the World Wide Web, and by any measure - number of
> >>   users, number of employees, amount of disk space its program requires
> >>   - it is small. And it competes directly with the world's largest, most
> >>   powerful software company in the very market that is the subject of
> >>   the Justice Department's lawsuit.
> >>
> >>   Still, Thorbjornsen is reticent about the case. "We have our opinions"
> >>   she says. But she declines to elaborate.
> >>
> >>   "We're just working on making our browser better," she says. "We're
> >>   just going to keep a low profile. We have our hands full."
> >>
> >>   Last week Opera released the latest version of its browser, also
> >>   called Opera. Like the browsers currently offered by Microsoft and
> >>   Netscape, Opera's has been through several iterations; the current
> >>   version is 3.5.
> >>
> >>   The similarities pretty much stop there, however. To begin with, Opera
> >>   is a fraction of the size of Netscape's Communicator or Microsoft's
> >>   Internet Explorer - 5.1 megabytes with "Java support" compared to 14.3
> >>   and 16.9, respectively.
> >>
> >>   As a result, Opera says, its browser runs on new computers far more
> >>   quickly, and on older computers far more easily, than Netscape's or
> >>   Microsoft's. Indeed, Opera says users need only a 386 chip and 6
> >>   megabytes of random-access memory.
> >>
> >>   Reviews of the browser have been enthusiastic. C/Net, an online
> >>   computer-news site, said it is "blindingly fast and a refreshing
> >>   alternative to the monster-truck Internet suites." A reviewer for
> >>   Wired magazine called it "the fastest browser I've ever used."
> >>
> >>   The browser looks much like the other two, with a row of icons across
> >>   the top indicating "back," "forward" and the rest. It can also have a
> >>   separate window of sites along the side of the screen, like
> >>   Microsoft's latest version of Internet Explorer.
> >>
> >>   It does have unique features. Opening a new browser window, for
> >>   instance, is far faster with Opera, since it can keep many windows
> >>   open at once. Other browsers offer only one window at a time; to look
> >>   at two Web sites simultaneously, it's necessary to start up a second
> >>   version of the program
> >>
> >>   Another difference is less to Opera's advantage: After a 30-day free
> >>   trial, users must send the company $35 or the software won't work
> >>   anymore. Smaller and faster may be better, but free beats cheap every
> >>   time.
> >>
> >>   Still, Thorbjornsen estimates there are about a million users of the
> >>   browser, and new users register at the rate of several thousand per
> >>   month.
> >>
> >>   "What we have found is that people are looking for an alternative,"
> >>   she says. Many are "happily running it on low-resource computers."
> >>
> >>   In fact, Opera appears to be a happy, low-resource company itself.
> >>   Founded in 1994 by a group of engineers at the Norwegian equivalent of
> >>   AT&T, it is privately held. It has only 15 employees, most of them
> >>   based in Norway.
> >>
> >>   ("We'd be very pleased to be in Silicon Valley," says Thorbjornsen,
> >>   who heads up Opera's North American operations from her one-woman
> >>   office in ... Cleveland? "Unfortunately we're in Cleveland and not
> >>   Silicon Valley. Cleveland will have to do for the moment.")
> >>
> >>   Opera says its plan, besides continuing its promotion with individual
> >>   users, is to "pursue strategic alliances with high-tech companies and
> >>   institutions."
> >>
> >>   It is, undoubtedly, a long shot. "They're slugging it out with two
> >>   rather well-heeled companies, especially now that AOL has bought
> >>   Netscape," says Jim Balderston, an industry analyst at Zona Research
> >>   in Silicon Valley.
> >>
> >>   "The problem they face is, a browser is basically a commodity - and a
> >>   commodity is driven by brand recognition and brand loyalty," he says.
> >>   "That doesn't mean their product isn't superior. Their problem is just
> >>   how to get it to desktops." In Zona's quarterly surveys of business
> >>   users, he notes, Opera doesn't even register.
> >>
> >>   But "they may play a role in the larger market of driving the quality
> >>   of the more commercially recognized browsers," he says. "They become
> >>   the freewheeling, small, agile innovator."
> >>
> >>   It is a role that Thorbjornsen relishes. "We're just carrying on doing
> >>   what we've been doing," she says. "Yes, we are competing seriously
> >>   with them," she says, referring Microsoft and Netscape. "We have a
> >>   competing product."
> >>
> >>   There is no danger, however, of Thorbjornsen being summoned to testify
> >>   in the antitrust case. She's more than happy about that, especially
> >>   given the turn the trial took last week.
> >>
> >>   In a videotaped deposition, Justice lawyer David Boies pressed
> >>   Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates repeatedly about what a Microsoft
> >>   executive meant when he said the company was going to be "pissing on"
> >>   a competitor's product. After some back and forth, Gates conceded that
> >>   a fair synonym for the term was, well, to criticize strongly.
> >>
> >>   It is an impulse that, so far anyway, Opera has resisted. "We prefer
> >>   to concentrate on our software," Thorbjornsen says. "We'll let users
> >>   be the judge."
> >>
> >Marty Tibor
> >1 Stop Speech Recognition and Adaptive Technology Synapse
> >3095 Kerner Blvd., Suite S, San Rafael, CA  94901
> >toll-free 888-285-9988
> >http://www.synapseadaptive.com
> >Providers of adaptive and assistive technology solutions.
> >http://www.unixspeech.com
> >UNIX, mainframe and Mac speech recognition
> >http://www.synapseadaptive.com/joel/default.htm
> >Synapse hosts the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Unofficial Information Pages
> >
> >
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> >
>
> Marty Tibor
> 1 Stop Speech Recognition and Adaptive Technology Synapse
> 3095 Kerner Blvd., Suite S, San Rafael, CA  94901
> toll-free 888-285-9988
> http://www.synapseadaptive.com
> Providers of adaptive and assistive technology solutions.
> http://www.unixspeech.com
> UNIX, mainframe and Mac speech recognition
> http://www.synapseadaptive.com/joel/default.htm
> Synapse hosts the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Unofficial Information Pages
>
> VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
> To join or leave the list, send a message to
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