Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Vocabulary and Confession: popcorn kernel

RantWoman is having one of those weeks where she is a little too Bad Friend even for the Association of Bad Friends.

The precise issue: vocabulary.

And Biblical Exegesis, in severely digested form.

And Sexism.

RantWoman is not clear to elaborate except in the spirit of Quaker confession. Quaker Confession as in "those other denominations often have confessions in their bulletins for people who have trouble thinking of what to admit to on their own. But Bad Friends confess to ALL KINDS of things."

RantWoman further notes that the vocabulary discussion occured on Facebook and included the hitherto unknown to RantWoman insight that the term in question is considered EXTREMELY offensive to some speakers of English and much milder to others.

RantWoman's confession: there is a certain female Russian punk band. RantWoman has in fact mentioned them elsewhere on her blog, but is not doing so here in the spirit of the containment on Facebook of linguistic discussion. The band's name is a synym for the term some Bad Friends on Facebook were getting their underwear in a wad over.

RantWoman's confession: for various reasons the Patriarch of All Russian has been called numerous times to utter the Band's name including the offensive term simply because the band has come up in conversation. RantWoman admits she only OCCASIONALLY regrets that no one has taught the Patriarch of All Russia any elegant circumlocutions so that he can avoid uttering the problematic term.

RantWoman further admitted that perhaps the vocabulary questions need further research, the kind of linguistic research sometimes enhanced with alcohol and even disco balls.

In fact, one of the reasons alcohol helps with this kind of linguistic research: the Russian language is particularly rich in options for adding nuance and twists even to flat-out vulgarities. There are prefixes, suffixes, vowel-zero alteration, perfective and imperfective verb forms, and if one somehow turns a vulgarity into one of Russian's famous verbs of motion, even determinate and indeterminate verbs.

But if mere mention of the offending term is too Bad Friend, how ever will people get to visit all these even more elaborate options? Or is this just another wacky opportunity to visit Planet RantWoman that might be oh a bit much?

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Bless you Uncle Harry!

Harry Lee Flack Obituary

In loving memory of Uncle Harry:
http://obituaries.durangoherald.com/obituaries/durangoherald/obituary.aspx?n=harry-lee-flack&pid=174472891

RantWoman deeply appreciates the option of having the obituary read to her and the option of enlarging the print. RantWoman also really likes the memorial even though it leaves RantWoman confused as to exactly which dams Uncle Harry worked on during his long career as a concrete engineer for the bureau of Reclamation. RantWoman offers a list based on memory of holiday slide shows. But that was a long time ago; RantWoman HOPES she remembers correctly.

Technically it's Great Uncle Harry, RantMom's mother's older brother. uncle Harry passed away March 21 at the age of 98. RantMom still has some aunts and uncles alive, but Uncle Harry and his wife Davidena were the ones the RantFamily knew best. They lived an easy holiday morning drive from the RantFamily home in CO and our families spent many holidays together. RantWoman had no patience for dishwashing and "chick chatter" in the kitchen but was always interested, as a celebration subsided, when RantDad would encourage Uncle Harry to get out slides of all his dam projects.

Computational aside: Uncle Harry was into...the slide rule! RantWoman thinks there may have been big mainframe computers and some adding machines by the end of his career, but uncle Harry was a slide rule guy!

Grand Coulee dam
Probably one of Uncle Harry's projects if RantWoman's memory serves correctly.



And this wonderful history site about the Works Project Administration. RantWoman think s it's sort of unlikely that Uncle Harry would have had much good to say about activism and unrest so it's a funny blessing to land on this site while memorializing Uncle Harry.

http://content.lib.washington.edu/grandcouleeweb/




Hoover Dam



Morrow Point Dam




Glen Canyon Dam



Blue Mesa Dam
This one is sort of conceptual. RantWoman found a picture she liked of the reservoir and did not really pay attention to whether the dam is in the picture or not. Please bear with RantWoman's oversight. This is also the dam the Rant Family saw the most of between driving back and forth to see Aunt Davidena and Uncle Harry and numerous school field trips, RantWoman can still smell the mx of sandy dust and water spray hovering on the walkway over the dam.



And while RantWoman is at it, an obituary also for Aunt Davidena.
http://www.montrosepress.com/obituaries/davidena-grace-flack/article_2c8eec95-e75a-58ca-aad8-390797c18dbd.html
RantWoman did not realize the family had a second son who died in infancy. Aunt Davidena died of Alzheimer's. There is only a faint hint of that in the obituary. RantWoman lately has taken to saying that passing away or as a beloved Friend from RantWoman's Meeting  GrandMa FF says "dropping body," is not easy and RantWoman does not blame anyone who needs to make some noise on the way out. Alas, RantWoman also has room in her heart for the fact that Alzheimer's can be beastly undignified and Aunt Davidena would not have enjoyed that. Blessings upon both Uncle Harry and Aunt Davidena.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Friends Journal 2009 article: Sex offenders are people too.

RantWoman stashes this as another item about Meetings' experience with sex offenders. Lots of terminology and reference to studies. RantWoman would probably have edited differently.

http://www.friendsjournal.org/sex-offenders-are-people-too/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=3017766&relatedposts_position=1

Slate article: Historical research. Indiana Women's Prison.

Really amazing and STUNNING historical research by women from and about the history of the Indiana Women's prison, including bursting the bubble myth of the benign Quaker founders.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2015/03/indiana_women_s_prison_a_revisionist_history.html

Friday, March 27, 2015

High School Peace Awards: Spread the thought

RantWoman's email abounds with ideas that people hope will catch fire. In the realm of evoking engagement about peace among youth, RantWoman QUITE likes this item from a former member of her Meeting:

From one Margaret, who mentions another.
I am giving you the link to an on-line article about our Student Peace Awards.  This same article also appeared in print.  We received an enormous amount of publicity this year.  This is not the best picture nor the best written article, but it gives a good idea of the various activities of the recipients. 

A couple of the schools are alternative public schools.  They are small and the students have a variety of problems, so just being alive and in school is a major achievement.
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20150320/NEWS/150329968&template=fairfaxTimes

We invite 32 high schools (29 public and 3 private) to send us the name of their selection, and 23 responded.  We take it from there.  We

- Send them a congratulatory letter

- Write a booklet, containing a 250-350 word bio for each recipient

- Arrange a public reception in their honor, with about 250 attending

- Send out publicity to local and high school news sources

- Give each recipient $150 for themselves and $100 to give to a charity of their choice

- Present each student with a framed certificate in his or her school, with as much hoopla as possible, generally at an annual honors assembly in June

Many of the public schools graduate approximately 1000 students a year, so this is a very large deal.

Our current sponsoring organizations include many religious organizations, a couple of Rotary clubs, the Stewart R. Mott foundation, and the Conflict Resolution Department of George Mason University. 

My friend, (also a Margaret), and I started all this 13 years ago with one sponsoring group (the Herndon Friends Meeting) and one school.  While each of us engages other volunteers to assist, we split the jobs pretty equally.  I make sure the bios get written and published and I arrange with the schools to get the certificates presented.  I also send the publicity to the schools.  Margaret F arranges the reception and keeps the financial books.  She has also written (and I edited) a book on gardening in Northern Virginia which we sell at garden shows and through Amazon.  All proceeds go to the Peace Awards.  We make a very good team.

We have another volunteer who keeps track of the sponsoring organizations, and another who deals with publicity outside of the schools.

We have expanded as much as we want to expand and now we are working on getting other groups to begin similar things in their neck of the woods.  We know about five peace awards which have now sprung up.

Peace and Cheer

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Popcorn Kernel: single standard of linguistic presence

The following may or may not represent interaction with actual RantWoman email; RantWoman has had other analogous conversations many times. Hold RantWoman and all conversational counterparts in the Light.

RantWoman is having the same sort of "client education" conversations she sometimes has with language services clients. Only she is having them with beloved Friends in our Meeting. All conversations also subject to arbitrary RantWoman message manglement. Please hold ... in the light.

"...We are not the UN..."

What? You think God needs less linguistic faithfulness than the UN?

Look, God IS versatile. God--and the UN--and lots of day-to-day interactions where linguistic presence is at least as critical as at the UN happen under considerably less than ideal linguistic conditions, but would you please COPE if RantWoman sometimes needs to fly off the handle over something that seems utterly inconsequential to you?

Popcorn kernel in the realm of Miracle Cure

RantWoman is afflicted by conversational exploding popcorn kernels. Probably it is just as well the popcorn kernels sometimes explode at some remove from actual conversations.

One of today's popcorn kernels

Jesus and his Magic Mud Friend "....pretty neat that Jesus would be able to cure..by spitting in dirt and rubbing mud in someone's eyes...?"

RantWoman:  "...Duuuude! Way more people go blind every year from infections than are affected by the very rare condition RantWoman does not remember the name of where the spitting in the mud thing MIGHT actually work...."

PS RantWoman might SOMEDAY feel able to go systematically through some Biblical references to blindness, but NOT RIGHT NOW. Hold that in the Light!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Lucille Walls, July 24, 1960 - March 19, 2015

Really, God? Are you JOKING?



Hezekiah Walker singing Every Praise on Lucille Walls' Facebook wall??

WTF kind of theological and cosmic memorial joke IS that?

Lu's husband Andrew called me Friday morning to tell me heartbreaking news. He caught me on a bus. I did not even get it at first. Lu died Thursday of severe pneumonia. Andrew was devastated. I was deeply touched that he called me but the call also came with trust that I would help with notifications. So I have been notifying some lists.  And reading the floods of worth on Lu's Facebook wall. I mean to compile more of a bio on my other blog.

And I keep checking back on Facebookfor all the new stuff from a large extended family and many admirers.. 

And in the meantime, hold the families in the Light and  groove again on Hezekiah Walker!


PS and this video is dedicated to her husband Andrew basil Arana!
http://theberry.com/2015/03/17/this-mashup-of-famous-dance-scenes-is-your-new-favorite-video-video/#.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Like John Woolman?

One of the popcorn kernels that exploded in RantWoman's head after the most recent Meeting for Business.

If the popcorn imagery does not work, think of it as fractals where one point can expand into a new iteration of patterns.

...like John Woolman did...

Friend,
--RantWoman DEEPLY esteems your many gifts.

--RantWoman deeply appreciates your presence in her life and her Meeting.

--RantWoman realizes that MAYBE it would be more reflective of "soft persuasion" to talk to you individually. RantWoman is deeply humble both about such efforts being beyond her Light and about a need to see whether there is Light others may help shine upon...

Um yeah John Woolman did often travel with an elder, but you know what? I think we recognize continuing revelation and MIGHT even get to clarity about knowing the identity of a support committee before approving....

RantWoman has to be true to Light about growing the number of people who work with certain challenging connections among different flavors or Quakers.

RantWoman is VERY humble about trying to be patient as new people just work with needed process.

RantWoman has in mind the kind of spiritual / activism study groups practiced by the likes of Gandhi or Nelson Mandela.

RantWoman realizes you are even more challenged by thoughts  of tiptoeing very far into the electronic universe than someone whose behavior HAS evolved since a moment of completely throwing up his hands about electronic interactions.

Still, if you were to tiptoe into a few webpages or into a Friends Spiritual Accountability group on Facebook, you might find a number of resources....

Or, dare RantWoman in bad Friend / Arrogant Bitch humble practitioner of ... bang on a really sore point, perhaps instead of complaining about being overwhelmed,  thee could stop turning down RantWoman's REPEATED offers of help  Please hold this last in the Light; RantWoman will come back to it after an email digression she might or might not be clear to blog about in the realm of Language Nerd QA for Dummies.

Lord have mercy on us all.  PLEASE hold us in the Light.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Monday, March 16, 2015

Boring?

Life would be boring without....

BORING?

During Meeting for Worship, RantWoman's brain brimmed with addictive meditations on war, peace, paths to Quakerism, pacifism and alternative service, other Giant Issues. RantWoman kept testing whether something was supposed to emerge from her mouth, a test which faltered partly on RantWoman's lack of leading to go on for at least two hours. Thank the Lord?

Along the way, stuck on the word "boring," the RantWoman theological timewarp transported RantWoman back a few years to a Salt and Light event that occurred in Seattle.
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2011/05/notes-from-salt-and-light-march-11-12.html
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2013/01/where-are-your-children.html

And entangled with reflections on theological diversity, another post
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2011/09/more-low-salt-popcorn-god-of-bus-and-of.html

At a recent Meeting for Business, RantWoman found herself called unexpectedly to
reflect on a car-ride conversation that attached the word "boring" to some of the Salt and Light proceedings. RantWoman would phrase the North American all in our heads biblical exegesis part of the experience differently: the Arevalos got really a lot of mileage about of a few short Bible passages, but that was not the only story.

Aminda Arevalo told a story of a marero, a Salvadoran gangster.who came to her school, pointed a gun to her head, and demanded money, "rent," and threatened her children. Aminda turned him down flat, saying she refused to fund his violence. His extortion attempt failing, he  fled and never came back. Say what you will, "Boring" is not the word RantWoman would apply to that kind of prophetic witneess.
There are 100,000 gang-affiliated youth in Soyapango, the suburb of San Salvador where the Arevalos minister. The Arevalos flavor of Salt and Light keeps their youth in school, in church, out of the hands of the gangs. Say what North Americans will, "boring" is not the word RantWoman would use about that either.

As for exactly WHAT this has to do with a recent Meeting For Business, RantWoman's spiritual compost heap is working on onions. There is another layer or angle of twitch connected for RantWoman with the word "boring," but for now RantWoman regrets that readers are just going to have to live in suspense....

And as for a call to vocal ministry, the last time RantWoman tested a call to minister about these exact themes was after the children entered Meeting. God rather firmly instructed RantWoman that probably there should be another time for messages about gangsters putting guns to the head of a school principal.

Life would be boring without...?

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Racism links of the day

RantWoman is collecting a couple links she may or may not have time to pay more attention to:

An item about Friends and anti-racism work in Durham NC
http://cscottholmes.blogspot.com/2014/12/black-lives-matter-i-cant-breathe-short.html

An item about 19 African American Men in SanFrancisco in March 2015  getting cuffed and searchs for "Making a video while black."
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/swarms-cops-guns-drawn-raid-music-video-set-unlawfully-cuff-search-entire-cast/
RantWoman notes comments about open display of drug paraphrenalia; RantWoman does not see it.

Small further rant: RantWoman has a time or too recently  felt led to grumble about not filling up social media talking about for instance her Meeting and racism because RantWoman is busy being practically useful. Hold that thought.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The JAWS PDF Documents for Business Meeting Thang

Jesus Christ on a Pizza Crust! Other people need to grumble about finding parking and traffic. RantWoman needs to grumble about technological accessibility. Cope.

Remember RantWoman's rantings about what she is not giving up for Lent? RantWoman has been falling down on the job, but attempts to prepare her soul for Meeting for Business have served up several spectacular opportunities to catch up.

Here, for example, at the bottom of this rant is only one possible unrequested digression and detour to Planet RantWoman, the Help Page inside JAWS for the new "Convenient OCR" function available in JAWS versions 13 and higher. Conveniently for people who send RantWoman texts such as the Draft State of the meeting report in graphics rather than readable text PDF's, RantWoman has access to both JAWS 14 and JAWS 15. RantWoman knows how to party.

Alert readers will note that the help file below refers to the "Convenient" OCR function. Convenient, as opposed to what, the slightly less annoying than a root canal OCR function? RantWoman needs the "Convenient OCR function because a first pre-draft of something sent in a Word document somehow in the conversion to official draft and PDF became one of those graphic documents where Mr. JAWS cannot find the text without the "Convenient OCR."

Here RantWoman will do her readers two favors:
--refrain until a separate post from going on about the other issues of getting the pre-draft.
--acknowledge that the help files excerpted here are in fact a lot bigger a chunk than RantWoman thought she was copying. RantWoman has no idea how that occurred, but has left in the excess partly because she thinks if she reads  it again, it will help answer another question from someone else in RantWoman's email streams. Welcome to Planet RantWoman.


What's New in JAWS 13


JAWS 13 offers several new features and improvements as described on this page. To learn more, read the entire What's New or press INSERT+F6 to open a list of headings and then jump directly to a specific item.

Convenient OCR


Frequently, you will encounter images that contain textual information. These can include a PDF file, the setup screen of an application, or the menu of selections for a DVD movie. While these images contain text that is readable by a sighted person, JAWS is unable to read the text as it is part of the image.

The new Convenient OCR (Optical Character Recognition) feature enables you to access any image on the screen that includes text. With just a few simple keystrokes, JAWS will recognize the image in a matter of seconds and activate the JAWS cursor so you can navigate the resulting text. The recognized text will be in the same location as the actual image on the screen. In order to differentiate the recognized text from other text that may be in the window, JAWS will use a different voice when it encounters the recognized text. When you activate the PC cursor, or switch to another application or dialog box, the text is removed and you will need to perform the OCR again.

To use Convenient OCR, the following layered keystrokes have been added:

  • INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, W. Recognizes the current application window that has focus.
  • INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, S. Recognizes the entire screen.
  • INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, C. Recognizes the currently selected control, such as a graphical button.
  • INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, Q. Cancels recognition while it is in progress.
  • INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, QUESTION MARK. Speaks a brief help message describing the commands in the OCR layer.

The following examples illustrate just some of the uses of this new feature.

  • You insert a DVD movie into your computer which brings up a menu allowing you to select from various DVD features. You press INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, W and after a few seconds, JAWS will alert you that OCR is complete. At this point, the JAWS cursor will be active and you can navigate around the screen using the ARROW keys and read the text of the menu. When you hear the option you want, press NUMPAD SLASH to perform a left-mouse-click, or INSERT+NUMPAD PLUS to route PC to JAWS to activate the option. Prior to JAWS 13, this menu would have been completely inaccessible.

Note: Depending on the type of screen the DVD displays and the quality of the text, the Convenient OCR may not always work. Some DVD screens will be recognized better than others.

  • You open a PDF in Adobe Reader which turns out to be inaccessible. Press INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, W to have JAWS recognize the text currently visible on the screen which you can then navigate with the JAWS cursor. Before performing OCR in Acrobat Reader, press CTRL+1 to set the zoom level to Actual Size. While this will cause less of the image to be displayed on the screen, this will result in higher accuracy during recognition.
  • You try to install or use an application whose interface is not accessible, such as Acronis® True Imageâ„¢ Home 2011 or 2012. If no text is readily available when pressing TAB or when using the JAWS Cursor, you can try Convenient OCR. Start with the PC Cursor and press INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, W to recognize the text of the welcome screen graphic. You can then use the JAWS Cursor and NUMPAD SLASH (left mouse button) to move to and choose what are possible buttons and links.

If you are not getting clear recognition results or you find that text is running together, refer to FAQ 63556 for ways to optimize performance.

Note that to correctly recognize text in other languages, you can configure the primary and secondary OCR language. A new Convenient OCR item has been added to the main tree view in Settings Center. When you expand this item, you have Primary Recognition Language and Secondary Recognition Language settings. Use the SPACEBAR to cycle through the available languages until you hear the one you want, or press F6 to move to the combo box and select a language.

When you install JAWS from the program disc, the OCR components are automatically installed. If you download JAWS from the Web site and have an active Internet connection when you begin the installation, the OCR components will be downloaded during the install. If you do not have an active Internet connection when you install JAWS from the Web download, a message is displayed at the end of the installation stating that some components were not installed. To use the OCR feature, establish an Internet connection and run the installation again so the OCR components are downloaded.

Quick Settings


Quick Settings is a replacement for the former Adjust JAWS Options dialog box, and it has been designed to make it easy to change application-specific settings as well as individual document settings. With Quick Settings you now have the ability to easily:

  • Change settings for individual documents or applications.
  • Determine whether changes will still be in effect after your JAWS session has ended, when the computer is rebooted, or when a new window gains focus. Note that the persistency level cannot be set for individual document settings. Document settings will always be written to disk.

To open Quick Settings, press INSERT+V. This single keystroke eliminates the need for INSERT+CTRL+B (Adjust Braille Settings) since braille settings are conveniently included in Quick Settings.

What is the advantage of using Quick Settings?


When using the Adjust JAWS Options tree view in previous JAWS versions, it was not clear if changes were being applied specifically to an application or document, or globally as JAWS default settings. To get around this issue, Quick Settings offers persistence levels, which are quickly accessed through a context menu by pressing the APPLICATIONS key. The current persistence setting is indicated with an icon in the tree view and a check mark in the context menu. The icons are useful for a sighted trainer since it shows the current level settings at a glance. Persistence levels are labeled as follows:

  • Restore settings when JAWS exits. Think of this as session specific. When you close JAWS, the setting returns to its default value. This persistence is represented by the JAWS icon in the tree view.
  • Restore settings when focus changes. When you change focus to another application or document, the setting returns to its default value. This persistence is represented by the double window icon in the tree view.
  • Save the settings. When selected, the current value becomes the default and is written to disk. This level is represented by the disk drive icon in the tree view.

Note: If you intend to adjust persistence, from the default (save to disk), you must set the persistence level for the setting before changing the setting. Persistence levels for document-specific settings cannot be changed, therefore, the context menu does not display. In this case, any changes made to the setting are immediately saved to disk.

How does it differ from Settings Center?


The Quick Settings window is very similar to that used by Settings Center. It has a search box, settings tree view pane, configuration display pane, and help message pane. The major difference is that you can set how long changes to settings will apply for individual documents or applications. This is known as the persistence level.

Note:Â You cannot switch to the JAWS default file (default.jcf) when using Quick Settings. To make default changes that apply to ALL applications, use Settings Center.

How do I use Quick Settings?


To launch Quick Settings in any application or document,

  1. Press INSERT+V. This convenient keystroke is the same that was used to open the Adjust JAWS Options tree view.

    For example, with a Word document open, press INSERT+V.

  2. The cursor moves to the Search box. If you know the setting that you want to change, type a term for it in the Search box. Next, press DOWN ARROW to move to the filtered results in the tree view.

    For example, type the term â€Å“typing” (without the quotes), press DOWN ARROW to move to Typing Echo in the filtered result list, and then press ENTER. Focus now moves to Typing Echo in the tree view. The default setting for Typing Echo is Characters.

  3. If you want to change the persistence level, press the APPLICATIONS key, and then select Restore settings when JAWS exits, or Restore settings when focus changes. (Note that Save the settings is always the default selection when viewing persistence levels for the first time.)

    For example, press the ARROW keys to move to Restore Settings when Focus Changes and then press ENTER.

  4. Next, press SPACEBAR to change combo box values, or select check boxes, radio buttons, or other buttons, and then press ENTER. (You can also press F6 to jump between the tree view and the Configuration pane to change settings.) The setting now uses both the selected persistence level and the selected value. The value is saved permanently, or until you change focus, or close JAWS as set by the persistence level.

    For example, press SPACEBAR to select None as the Typing Echo setting, and then press ENTER. As long as focus remains in the current Word document, typing is not echoed. When you move focus away from the document to another application and then back to the Word document, the value for Typing Echo is restored to Characters.

Which files are affected by Quick Settings?


Changes made using Quick Settings are stored in the current application̢۪s JCF file or the current document̢۪s JSI file. These files, along with other persistence level files, are stored in your user settings folder. It can be found by selecting Start Menu, All Programs, JAWS X (where X is version 13 or later), Explore JAWS, and then Explore My Settings.

New Table Layer Keystrokes


JAWS 13 includes a new keystroke layer for navigating tables. While the current keystrokes for navigating tables are still available, using the Table layer eliminates the need to have to hold down several keys at once to perform a table navigation command.

Below are some of the layered keystrokes for table navigation. (For a complete list, see Table Layer Keystrokes.) Press and release INSERT+SPACEBAR, followed by T to get to the table layer. Then press any of the following keystrokes.

  • ARROW Key to move by cell.
  • CTRL+ARROW Keys move to the beginning or end of a column or row.
  • HOME or END to move to the beginning or end of the current row.
  • CTRL+HOME to jump to the first cell in a table.
  • CTRL+END to jump to the last cell in a table.
  • QUESTION MARK to list the keystrokes you can use in this layer.

The Table Layer remains active until you press a key that does not perform a table command, such as ESC, SPACEBAR, TAB, or ENTER.

Results Viewer


The Results Viewer is a more feature-rich replacement for Virtual Viewer, used with Research It, Skim Reading, and Custom Summary features. The new Results Viewer allows you to display script or internally generated HTML output in a web control window, which will offer more flexibility with the output format. The Results Viewer will support the following features and actions:

  • Able to navigate the web control and exhibit the same behavior experienced when a JAWS or MAGic user navigates a Web page
  • Output can be formatted with a wider range of fonts, colors, and sizes, or inserted into tables or various styles of lists.
  • Select links now with the mouse in addition to the keyboard open web pages or invoke custom behaviors as defined in JAWS scripts
  • The contents of the Results Viewer will persist, even after a focus change, until you choose to close the viewer
  • Text selection and copy are now an option with both the keyboard and mouse and includes on screen highlighting
  • Navigation Quick Keys are now available for use
  • Activate links using the SPACEBAR or ENTER key
  • Generate a list of links or headers
  • When using MAGic with JAWS, the magnified display shall track the contents during MAGic navigation
  • Activate links in the viewer via the mouse
  • The JAWS "General Options\Document Automatically Reads" option can be used to specify speech behaviors on Results Viewer startup
  • Language switching

Note:Â The legacy Virtual Viewer will continue to be utilized for all other features including JAWS INSERT+F1 Help.

Citrix XenDesktop Support


Citrix XenDesktop 4 and later is now supported by JAWS 13. The initial JAWS 13 release (13.0.303) supports desktop virtualization of the Windows 7 32-bit operating system. JAWS 13.0.527 and later adds support for Windows 7 64-bit. Like the Terminal Services and Citrix XenApp support, JAWS uses advanced technology that minimizes the use of available bandwidth, maximizes speed, and provides the full array of synthesizer and braille display configurations.

Improved Access to Top Most Windows


A solution is available to make it easier to interact with Top Most Windows, often referred to as On Top Windows. These are application windows that pop up, without gaining focus or being in the ALT+TAB order. These are often found with firewall or antivirus programs and are intended to interrupt the user with information they must act on before continuing. You cannot minimize them or press ALT+TAB to move away from them by design. Unfortunately, this presents a problem for keyboard only users since it is difficult to interact with them without mouse clicking in them first. Screen reader users are often troubled by these windows which cover up windows they were working in making it appear as if something is not working correctly when in fact, it is one of these On Top windows blocking the application they are focused on.

Now, in JAWS 13, these On Top windows are included in the JAWS Task List, also known as the Window List dialog box (INSERT+F10), so you can check to see if one of these windows is present and to switch focus to the window from the Task List dialog box using the Switch To button. You will be able to identify such On Top windows if they are in the JAWS Task List because they will include the term "On Top" in the name.

JAWS Merge Utility Updated


The JAWS Merge Utility has been updated so you can merge settings from a previous version of JAWS installed on your computer, such as JAWS 12, into JAWS 13. Due to the changes made to enhance support for Microsoft Word and Excel, any settings files associated with Microsoft Word and Excel 2007 and 2010 will not be merged. All other settings files will be merged as expected.

Automatically Detect Focus 40 Blue over Bluetooth


JAWS can automatically detect the Focus 40 Blue over Bluetooth at start up without the need to manually select the correct COM port. To configure this option, do the following:

  • From the JAWS application window, open the Options menu and choose Braille to open the Braille Basic Settings dialog box.
  • In the Default Braille Display combo box, make sure Focus is set as the default braille display, and then select the Modify Settings button.
  • In the Select the output port edit combo box, choose Bluetooth then select OK. Select OK again when prompted to restart JAWS for these settings to take effect, then select OK once more to close the Braille Basic Settings dialog box.
  • Once you have established a Bluetooth connection between the Focus 40 Blue and computer, close and restart JAWS. JAWS will automatically find the correct Bluetooth serial port and begin using the Focus 40 Blue.

JAWS Find with Context Specific History


The JAWS Find feature lets you search for words or phrases in documents and Web pages. The terms entered are stored in a global history. Often, these terms are only relevant to the document or domain name on which the search was performed. In JAWS 13, you can now select the Context Specific History check box, which configures the Find feature to only display terms searched for in that document or domain. This drastically reduces the list of items in the search history, and ensures that the most relevant terms are always available for that document or domain.

Note the following about this new option in the JAWS Find dialog box (INSERT+CTRL+F or CTRL+F for Web pages).

  • The Context Specific History check box is selected by default.
  • The first time you open the JAWS Find dialog box, the option is unavailable. Once you enter a search term, the check box is now available.
  • Any search term entered is only stored for that document or domain.
  • If the check box is cleared, the search term becomes global and is available for any document or domain.
  • The search history maintains a list of the last 25 terms.

JAWS Cursor Support in Internet Explorer 9 and Microsoft Outlook 2010


Full JAWS Cursor support is available in Internet Explorer 9 and Microsoft Outlook 2010. In addition, Braille Cursor navigation while in Line Mode is also available in these applications.

Microsoft Word Improvements


The interface to the Word Object Model has been rewritten. You will experience a more responsive and accurate interface to Word.





Nuclear Zero: very cool campaign for global elimination of Nuclear weapons.

Surfed to the top of RantWoman's info streams, for everyone's edification:

http://www.nuclearzero.org/

Includes both usual useful things like information and a petition.
Also, for the Bad Friends among us, includes a detonation option in case one needs to calculate damage potential for any good or bad reason.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

The Marryin' Thang: Faithfulness in Friend of the Court Briefs

First, another of those articles about what a wonderful thing marriage is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/upshot/study-finds-more-reasons-to-get-and-stay-married.html?WT.mc_id=2015-Q1-KWP-AUD_DEV-0101-0331&WT.mc_ev=click&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1420088400&bicmet=1451624400&ad-keywords=AUDDEVMAR&kwp_0=10703&kwp_4=78873&kwp_1=125932&_r=0


RantWoman decided to leave the citation above more as general cheerleading than specifically any comment on same-gender marriage. But RantWoman is called presently to honor the faithfulness of the FLGBTQC Ad-hoc Committee on Friend of the Court Briefs. 
http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2015/03/friend-of-court-brief-before-us-supreme.html

RantWoman is very glad Friend of the Court Briefs are getting drafted as federal circuit after federal circuit considers and overrules bans on same-gender marriage. RantWoman is especially glad this work is happening; although she considers it very important, RantWoman herself has neitehr time nor clear leading to do it herself. RantWoman's call to recognize the faithfulness of those who do it is even stronger for their doing it partly on RantWoman's behalf.

RantWoman Needs to STOP here.

...and...

...resist temptation to some seasonal thrash metal riffs on a succesion of marriage-themed psychic sore spots. (Two weddings and sour notes still lurking from a previous State of Society effort. Growl. Grumble. Snarl, and ON TO THE NEXT ...)

Prison Statistic popcorn kernel

RantWoman would like to have something concise and coherent to say about #Selma50.

RantWoman has also been seasoning a need to go on after a recent Disaster Resilience and Social Media workshop #snapsmem to go on about how there were 300,000 tweets, FACTS from #Ferguson and #MikeBrown before a lot of the mainstream media noticed the story. Or RantWoman could just be darned grateful for a recent Department of Justice report about systemic racist injustice in #ferguson.

Instead, RantWoman has the following: 16 states have more people in prison than in college housing.
From Vox.com

In other words, still far too much to do!.


Saturday, March 7, 2015

Pollen, prayerfully

RantWoman, are you really having an allergic reaction to the phrase "prayerful discernment?" Is it POSSIBLE it's just the pollen?

uhhhhh....

The Wellbriety Journey to Forgiveness

This video is very moving remembrances from people who attended Indian boarding schools.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Ministry but not a recorded minister? Vocabulary


Conflict is a Gift of God Friend is asking Meeting to recognize his ministry and Meeting is having vocabulary  lessons.

One vocabulary lesson is about Faith and Practice, ministry, and how we have ministries under our care but do not record ministers. RantWoman is not prepared to interact about the history of the North Pacific Yearly Meeting (NPYM) Faith and Practice, but in the NPYM Faith and Practice, the term Released Friend is the only applicable concept.

 
Ah, but Friend from another Yearly Meeting insists we can only have a ministry under our care if we also have ministers.

 Um no.

Do we need theological excursions about "We are all ministers of God?" Will the word God derail the conversation, especially since the NPYM Faith and Practice and ongoing revision have all sorts of ways of working with that word?

How about the priesthood of all believers? RantWoman will be fine if someone is called to go there; RantWoman is clear for herself of need to go another direction in a separate post.

 RantWoman can cite a whole long list of documents introducing Friends and specific ministries done by NPYM Friends that do not use the term minister. RantWoman can cite these documents from memory; if someone wants to know exactly what wording is used , they are going to have to ask someone with better eyes and do research themselves, and on p-p-paper to boot!

 List of such documents in more or less reverse chronological order dating back at least to the 1980’s:

 --Two letters of support for people serving as hospital chaplains.

 --A letter of recognition for a Friend with a leading to work about homelessness in our area of Seattle.

 --At least two letters of visitation for specific Friends while incarcerated.

 --A letter of support for a Friend working against an anti-Gay rights initiative.

 --Multiple documents related to the Monroe Worship Group, the family worship connected with the Monroe Worship Group.

--The original process of establishing Alternatives to Violence in WA prisons.


RantWoman does not as of today's Light see a need to interact with all of these documents as part of the question of further care of a specific ministry, but MIGHT think to add such review to a to-do list for ongoing support of said ministry.

RantWoman does urge that Friends hold Business Meeting in the Light.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Latest especially upsetting police shooting. Prayers in order to ...

RantWoman files these links about the most recent LAPD shooting here with prayers and in remembrance. RantWoman prays and must tend to other things.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/graphic-footage-lapd-officer-shoots-homeless-man-after-responding-to-report-of-altercation/#.VPPeUexCbS0.twitter
(The Raw Story. Readers have to click an additional time to begin the footage. Extremely graphic. Repetitive profanity. Extremely loud, even after RantWoman thought she had adjusted the volumme.)

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82948390/


#blacklivesmatter