While it is sometimes depressing when someone or another team beats you to an idea that you have had, and been trying reach. This is far beyond depressing. It is great news that the iconverse team has come out with a app for kids with no speech.
It is the iconverse app for iphone. This little app allows for a child or non verbal person to relay basic information to a person. The app is 4.99. We heard about this app from another blog site:
http://blog.robbclan.com/?p=388&cpage=1#comment-233
And I encourage those to get the info that learned from the blogger, and also to get more info from the iconverse site iconverseapp.com....
Monday, March 23, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Slow but better than zero
Well, we have our .org registered now the website has to be built, but in the meantime we are going to continue with postings on blogger while we devise a website. we will be setting up twitter too and changing the twits to post on here so no worries if you do not have a twitter account you can keep up with our progress on blogger.
As far as the pc thing goes we have not moved forward just yet. We have 4 kids and work so most of that will take place at night but mostly on the weekends. Hopefully we get things going fairly soon though.
As far as the pc thing goes we have not moved forward just yet. We have 4 kids and work so most of that will take place at night but mostly on the weekends. Hopefully we get things going fairly soon though.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Crucial Update!!!
So my wife and I got into a discussion about the direction I am headed in with this and we came to the conclusion that I am going about things in the wrong way. We have decided that I need to change direction a little and start off for writing apps for the ipod touch.
just to backup for a sec....We decided to call the non-profit the Through Our Eyes Project Organization. Well my wife actually as started this through her t-shirt shop on cafepress.com, and it just seemed to be a good fit for what I am looking to do. So we will just incoporate the tech thing under the same umbrella.
Through Our eyes will encompass a number of things for the Autism and disability community aiming specifically at the schools that are providing the necessary education for Autistic individuals to function in the world. We will use a vendor that is cenralized and well known to give people access to making donations to the various schools in form of financial gifts or purchasing things on a wish list and sending them directly to the school. This will take the handling of goods off our hands while providing a vehicle for the schools to get the things on their list. These things will be limited to a certain value to help promote the giving of donations. Some of the cash given will support the shipping of the items to the individual schools all over the country.
As for the technical aspect, we will continue to work on things and try to provide necessary software to individuals through ipod touch applications. We figure that the ipod touch is the better candidate than the iphone, but the software could be ported over to the iphone as well. ipod touch would be one of the gifts for the individuals if they cant afford it, but the software could be bought and donated as well. The way we look at it is that we could provide this to those that needed it as a low cost and donations would be given in some form maybe through paypal or something similar. There maybe changes to this. Remember these are just brainstorms and could be adjusted accordingly.
As for volunteers, we are looking for anybody that can program the ipod touch or many other devices. We hope that this grows so that we can help people as soon possible. We will be doing a web page soon, and will start some type of community for those that wish to help, but dont hesitate to email us at throughoureyesproject@gmail.com. We will be getting an official email soon, but for now this is the best place.
back to the story....
We did some research and found that we needed a Mac to really get the job done without hacking the phone and things of that sort. While this was a good idea, we set off to the mac store to do research on which mac we were going to purchase and such and found that it was pretty pricey to buy one. After asking an apple store employee a bunch of questions we left the store to rethink if there was anyway for us to do this without dropping tons of money on a mac.
Well during a brainstorm session i figured that we could set up a virtual machine and run a mac. So with that I began more research on the proper software to do this. Being a Unix Admin, I started looking at all of the open source programs out there. While vmware seems to be one of the better choices, I continued to search and found XEN and virtualbox. Both seemed to be what I wanted. Easy to setup and get started asap. So I decided to go with Virtualbox. If Virtualbox does not cut it, Ill move on to XEn and so on until I find a fit.
So far VirtualBox has been pretty simple. I got a Mac Instance setup, but am lacking the OS to fully bring it up. Did some searching and found a beta that really didnt seem to give me what I needed so most likely I will be off to purchase OS X Leopard in the very near future.
just to backup for a sec....We decided to call the non-profit the Through Our Eyes Project Organization. Well my wife actually as started this through her t-shirt shop on cafepress.com, and it just seemed to be a good fit for what I am looking to do. So we will just incoporate the tech thing under the same umbrella.
Through Our eyes will encompass a number of things for the Autism and disability community aiming specifically at the schools that are providing the necessary education for Autistic individuals to function in the world. We will use a vendor that is cenralized and well known to give people access to making donations to the various schools in form of financial gifts or purchasing things on a wish list and sending them directly to the school. This will take the handling of goods off our hands while providing a vehicle for the schools to get the things on their list. These things will be limited to a certain value to help promote the giving of donations. Some of the cash given will support the shipping of the items to the individual schools all over the country.
As for the technical aspect, we will continue to work on things and try to provide necessary software to individuals through ipod touch applications. We figure that the ipod touch is the better candidate than the iphone, but the software could be ported over to the iphone as well. ipod touch would be one of the gifts for the individuals if they cant afford it, but the software could be bought and donated as well. The way we look at it is that we could provide this to those that needed it as a low cost and donations would be given in some form maybe through paypal or something similar. There maybe changes to this. Remember these are just brainstorms and could be adjusted accordingly.
As for volunteers, we are looking for anybody that can program the ipod touch or many other devices. We hope that this grows so that we can help people as soon possible. We will be doing a web page soon, and will start some type of community for those that wish to help, but dont hesitate to email us at throughoureyesproject@gmail.com. We will be getting an official email soon, but for now this is the best place.
back to the story....
We did some research and found that we needed a Mac to really get the job done without hacking the phone and things of that sort. While this was a good idea, we set off to the mac store to do research on which mac we were going to purchase and such and found that it was pretty pricey to buy one. After asking an apple store employee a bunch of questions we left the store to rethink if there was anyway for us to do this without dropping tons of money on a mac.
Well during a brainstorm session i figured that we could set up a virtual machine and run a mac. So with that I began more research on the proper software to do this. Being a Unix Admin, I started looking at all of the open source programs out there. While vmware seems to be one of the better choices, I continued to search and found XEN and virtualbox. Both seemed to be what I wanted. Easy to setup and get started asap. So I decided to go with Virtualbox. If Virtualbox does not cut it, Ill move on to XEn and so on until I find a fit.
So far VirtualBox has been pretty simple. I got a Mac Instance setup, but am lacking the OS to fully bring it up. Did some searching and found a beta that really didnt seem to give me what I needed so most likely I will be off to purchase OS X Leopard in the very near future.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Oh C++ how I love you so
Well.. its been rough the last couple of weeks, but I have to check in to keep the blog going.. Must reach goal...anyways... I have been switched to day shift which I really hate, and it has been really affecting my family life and studying..
Switching to days have been tough.. for some reason working nights I was thinking a lot clearer, and maybe that is because it was against the norm..
I have been really struggling to find time to study C and also anything else I need that will take me to the next level of my goal, and that is to write a program that would help people with no speech.
I am off to the book store to try and find a book that well assist in me learning C++ and stuff about algorithms. Why algorithms? well not only does it go hand and hand with C and databases, but it appears that GOOGLE has contacted me for an interview..
Just so you know, I am not the smartest person in the world and from what I hear..their test are off the charts. It seems to me that you have to be a super Wiley coyote smart like genius to get in..but I cant turn down an interview with the big G...This is a once in a life time chance..so I must prepare for the battle or conquest to climb mount GOOGLE..
Switching to days have been tough.. for some reason working nights I was thinking a lot clearer, and maybe that is because it was against the norm..
I have been really struggling to find time to study C and also anything else I need that will take me to the next level of my goal, and that is to write a program that would help people with no speech.
I am off to the book store to try and find a book that well assist in me learning C++ and stuff about algorithms. Why algorithms? well not only does it go hand and hand with C and databases, but it appears that GOOGLE has contacted me for an interview..
Just so you know, I am not the smartest person in the world and from what I hear..their test are off the charts. It seems to me that you have to be a super Wiley coyote smart like genius to get in..but I cant turn down an interview with the big G...This is a once in a life time chance..so I must prepare for the battle or conquest to climb mount GOOGLE..
Friday, January 2, 2009
Steady Progress C++
I have managed to make some progress with C++ but still have a way to go. I am studying creating strings. As far as the taking the trip video / slide show.. hopefully I can have one up on youtube after about a week. Im going to be asking my wife and sister inlaw to help me take this on.
Well up and atom or adam! the day is short and I have a lot to do...
Well up and atom or adam! the day is short and I have a lot to do...
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Highway Robbery
I decided to do some research to see what companies or organizations are out there that I may be able to collaborate with to get faster production or maybe add to what they already have existing. I guess I don't like to" reinvent the wheel" as they say, but I have to tell you that so far tonight I have gone to about 5 websites that claim to help kids with Autism and other disabilities. I know I have stated this in a previous blog but I am kinda peeved right now as I read through some of the prices. There are companies that are selling computers for 1000 bucks or more saying that it is the most updated for kids autism. Well that is really nice but I can get a machine from some of the corporate giants for about half of that at this time. I also so a site that says that it has written programs / software for kids of special needs, and all it is is repackaged crap that they actually use for ESL students. I am sure that it would help Autistic kids a little but all of these people. companies and organizations are missing the point.
You cant just lump autistic kids into a category with other disabilities and expect them to respond as the others. It isnt that way at all. They fail on so many levels. You have to write specifically for the autism community. Everything that is done should have these kids and adults in mind. You have to understand how they learn or process information. In addition to that these companies want to charge crazy amounts of money for their software and services. No doubt that some of the software will help like "travel with me". That software prepares a autistic child for travel. Is there any reason we should be charging 60 or more for it though?
These companies are exploiting parents and taking them for a ride big time. Most parents with autistic children don't have that kinda cash to put out like that, and I'm going to do something about it cause it is ridiculous that these people want to basically steal money from people that are struggling. I cant even say that it is the American way cause some of the companies are from the UK.
The funny thing is that all of these people are wondering why the world economy is the way it is now. Well its pretty simple to see that greed was in the drivers seat, and what makes it worse is that we all have to pay for it while greed continues to consume everything.
Well got new things on my list to do which should help take some stress off of those parents.
update**
as said before I have a lot of work to do and if anyone out there has experience and wants to assist me please let me know email is blue.disaster@gmail.com.
You cant just lump autistic kids into a category with other disabilities and expect them to respond as the others. It isnt that way at all. They fail on so many levels. You have to write specifically for the autism community. Everything that is done should have these kids and adults in mind. You have to understand how they learn or process information. In addition to that these companies want to charge crazy amounts of money for their software and services. No doubt that some of the software will help like "travel with me". That software prepares a autistic child for travel. Is there any reason we should be charging 60 or more for it though?
These companies are exploiting parents and taking them for a ride big time. Most parents with autistic children don't have that kinda cash to put out like that, and I'm going to do something about it cause it is ridiculous that these people want to basically steal money from people that are struggling. I cant even say that it is the American way cause some of the companies are from the UK.
The funny thing is that all of these people are wondering why the world economy is the way it is now. Well its pretty simple to see that greed was in the drivers seat, and what makes it worse is that we all have to pay for it while greed continues to consume everything.
Well got new things on my list to do which should help take some stress off of those parents.
update**
- create travel medium
- write facial expression program.
- write pecs program for nds
- write pecs program for touch based devices.
as said before I have a lot of work to do and if anyone out there has experience and wants to assist me please let me know email is blue.disaster@gmail.com.
Santa stole my brain
Since last post I have been trying to swallow c++ as fast as possible to try and get the show on the road, but the holidays have really been whipping up on me. Has been so hard to focus basically cause there are so many things to do and not enough time.
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