Mark Your Calendars for October 11 - 13

We'll be celebrating our 30th anniversary! We will be honoring all our Telephone Pioneer equipment repair personnel and our volunteer narrators, as well as holding Open House afternoons here at the Dolloff Building, with tours, entertainment and refreshments. The new Technology Exploration Center at ASSETT will be on display as well, so please do try to join us! We're planning now to have parking available for you, and any reader who attends will have his/her name put in the hat for the door prize drawing.

We mailed the first Talking Books to NH readers in 1970. We served only 525 readers back then, and the books were on heavy records packed in big, black containers held shut with straps and buckles. Back then, Washington produced five hundred new Talking Books a year. Today we serve over two thousand people and NLS produces at least 2,000 books each year. How we've grown!

Come celebrate with us!

I Have Seen the Future - It's Here Now!

E-books have been much in the news over the past year, and the technological among us have been enthusiastic about the ease of use, light weight, and capacity of these battery-powered page-by-page book displays. Now there is an e-book that reads aloud!

Ostrich Software says its Road Runner can read any text-based file - e-mail, on-line newsletters, web pages and any form of on-line reading material. This includes on-line books and scanned material. The three-megabyte storage capacity can hold as much as 2,000 pages of text, offers excellent searching, holds your place when you turn it off, has adjustable voice type, reading speed and volume, runs on two AA batteries, come with its own headphones and 9-pin PC serial cable. All this for less than $300.00!

To go with this item you'll need access to an online full-text library or bookstore. Many public libraries now offer their communities free access to the 'Net, thus saving you the expense of buying your own computer.

To download books through a library's computer you'll need to register with the library and also with the online bookstore site. The bookstore site will need your credit card information so that you can be charged, just as you would be if you purchased a book in printed form. There are also sites where you can download books that are out of copyright, thus available without any cost.

E-Mail Without a Computer!

It is now possible to send and receive e-mail without a computer. CrossMedia Networks Corp. offers a voice email service through which you can send and receive email over any standard touch-tone phone.

MyInBox, as the service is called, allows you to speak your choices - hear messages, compose replies and new messages, and delete unwanted email. You can set it to screen out unwanted messages, and you can have it send a notification to your pager or wireless phone the moment a "priority" message arrives. You can control message playback by saying, "speak faster," "speak slower," speak softer," "speak louder." If you're having trouble, just say "help" and help will be there.

The company has entered into a relationship with the National Federation of the Blind that gives you a reduced price - $7.95 a month for 30 minutes free access, $12.95 for 90 minutes, plus a one-time set-up fee of $5.00. If you mention the promotion code "NFB" you will also get your first 30 days' service free. When you call CrossMedia at 1-877-726-7877, you'll be asked to provide:

• your current email address and password, if you have one - and it will remain confidential
• your name, address and telephone number
• a seven-digit account code and a four-digit pass code that you will use to access your email. CM recommends using your current telephone number as your account code
  the promotion code NFB and your credit card number

For a demonstration, call 1-877-246-3366.

Another new item on the technology front is the I.D. MATE, a portable electronic device that allows you to create a recorded voice message associated with a barcode label that you scan yourself. You can quickly label and identify commercial packages in your cupboard, freezer or refrigerator, or attach reprogrammable bar codes to prescription bottles, containers of leftovers, cassettes, CDs, important papers or file folders - even clothing. The entire device weighs 2-1/2 pounds and stores in a convenient carrying case. At approximately $1700.00 however, it's no cheap toy! For more information, visit Envision America's web site at www.envisionamerica.com or call them at 1-800-890-1180.

Accessible Computer Games

Rob Betz has rewritten some of the most popular 1-player computer games to make them completely accessible by blind players , including Battleship, FreeCell, Word Play, Word Scramble, Black Jack and Yahtzee. They're designed to interface directly with JAWS for Windows v. 3.3 or higher, and with Window-Eyes v. 3.1 or higher.

You can download a 15-day trial of each game from his website, order individual games by mail, phone or online, or purchase the Accessible Games 8-Pak. For information, visit www.GamesForTheBlind.com or email Games@gamesfortheblind.com

Is Your Braille Perfect ?

If you sometimes stumble over contractions as you're reading a Braille book, here's help! Infinidot Access Services has developed a handy booklet called FINAL TOUCH that allows you to quickly reference that mysterious dot formation. Entries are not necessarily in alphabetical order but instead are in dot-logic order, grouped by dot formation. Sections are arranged by: single letter words, letter combos, dots & dot combos, lower case formations, mirror images, and final touches. The booklets are pocket size: about 5" x 7", 33 pages, printed on durable card stock and bound on the side.

FINAL TOUCH is priced at $5.00 and can be ordered directly from

Infinidot Access Services
4303 South M Street
Tacoma WA 98408
Phone: (253) 471-9248
Email: sunshine@integrityol.com

"Voice of the Lake" Honored for Service

From his home near Melvin Bay, Talking Book reader Bill Whall spends most of his waking hours monitoring his radios - Marine Patrol, state, county and local police, VHF, CB and weather stations. On air, he reports boating accidents, disabled boats, off-station navigational aids and a host of other situations. When he begins to pick up static, he knows it's the sign of an approaching storm and he quickly starts calling weather stations to chart its course. If wild weather heads for Lake Winnipesaukee, he quickly broadcasts a warning to boaters. He's familiar with countless boaters and has used his radio to assist hundreds of them.

On May 23, Bill Whall was honored with the Bunzi Boating Safety Award, an engraved Steuben crystal bowl, presented in person by C.T. Moyer III, president of the American Boat and Yacht Council based in Edgewater MD. Reserved for those who have saved a life in a boating accident, or have selflessly dedicated themselves in a volunteer capacity to improving boater safety, this was only the 12th time the award has been presented.

"I just love it," said Mr. Whall of his role as an auxiliary member of the NH Marine Patrol. "If someone is willing to spend their hard-earned money in the beautiful state of New Hampshire then it should be my privilege to help them any way I can." In accepting the award, he said, "This is for all the people who volunteer."

Congratulations, Bill!