[Sderby] Revolution Request

[Mini Mike]

Perhaps you could us a demo/presentation at our next meeting on Jan 12th?

Mike.

On Thursday 02 January 2003 16:33, Mr Alan Carter wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> My name is Alan Carter. I=92m the author of a free Linux package called
> Skipper, visible at http://home.freeuk.net/skipperproject. Skipper adds
> 2 highly configurable extra layers, inside and outside X, and makes all
> Linux apps fully accessible to people with all sorts of impaired
> movement.
>
> It works a treat - I=92ve tested it with people suffering from severe
> Cerebral Palsy, stroke damage, impact brain injuries from road traffic
> accidents and so on.
>
> With old P233 computers being easy to find and Linux being free, there
> is no reason why anyone with a mind need be isolated - or even bored -
> any more. There is certainly no excuse for raising kids to be
> functionally illiterate just because they=92ve got Cerebral Palsy.
>
> Obviously Skipper projects freeware power into a new area of need, and
> it also opens the question of what around 2,000,000 people will do when
> they get access to the Internet and can earn kudos for the first time
> in their lives. Setting Skipper boxen up is also fun hacking. (See the
> =93VxD Configuration=94 page for examples of graphical programming of I=
/O
> processing, the =93Selecting Sensors=94 page for some really noddy, rai=
ny
> afternoon type hardware interfacing. For the inventive there=92s also t=
he
> =93Further Work=94 page!)
>
> I=92ve joined this list because I need help. I need to start a fashion,
> and get loads of households with movement impaired people in them into
> the Linux community. The charities are no help at all with this. The
> sociology is nasty, and means that (for example) the vast number of
> existing texts available at Project Gutenberg are never used as large
> print books, and are never fed into the Festival voice synthesiser to
> produce talking books. People who need large print and talking books
> are being held in the pre-IT era by vested interests that are even
> worse than Micro$oft, and the same is true of movement impaired people.
>
>
> So the people (around 1 in 250 of the total population) who are being
> cheated out of the Information Age - but who need it most - need Linux
> enthusiasts tracking down their movement impaired neighbours, relatives=
,
> colleauges=92 relatives and so on, finding Christmas-obsoleted old PCs,
> downloading Skipper, setting the people up, showing them what=92s out
> there and (where the users are willing) making them famous. It has to
> happen directly, on the ground, in the free software, just do it, zero
> administration way.
>
> I=92m currently staying near Alfreton (hence this list), and can meet
> interested hackers, help and support in whatever way I can. Please,
> please, help get the penguin where it needs to be - and remember this
> is waiting to happen worldwide.
>
> TIA,
>
> Alan