Ah yes but you see, I was born sometime after the discovery of fire and find the idea of using a glorified hole punch to take notes outdated, plus it doesn't meet my needs at all. My needs aren't note taking (I have a decently trained memory and a great PDA for that) what I'm interested in are editing highly complex text files. For example, I'm interested in editing BIND host files that have lots of complex tabbing and formatting. The thing that attracts me to different Braille displays are the edit keys where you can tap a key near the letter you wish to edit and have the cursor routed there. Actually, what's kicking my back side and forcing me to make a move here are editing SS7 dialplans or Asterisk dial plan and control files. Think about editing text files that control the handling of telephone numbers. Outside the US, in Europe for example, it's relatively simple because a decent dial plan would consist of only an extremely few number of lines (tens tops). In the US though our number planning never made sense and requires thousands of lines of entries. Anyway, something to help me edit all these flat files that I deal with daily is where I'm wanting help. The pen that comes with a slate though is good for getting a floppy out of an older automatic feed disk drive for what it's worth or better still clearing out a bowl after you burn that sticky icky. Jokes aside though, great suggestion, thank you it's just not exactly what I need and I was speaking in a tongue and cheek way about the slate. I've seen them used very successfully and it amazes me how fast some people can use them to take notes. I completely believe you got a masters using a slate as one of your main tools. With practice the simplicity probably works for you in terms of raw speed and ease of use. Lots of practice though!
----- Original Message ----- From: "Howard Kaufman" <wa9top@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 3:01 PM Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: braille display question
Scott, try a slate. It's only $30 and you don't have to charge it up. Sharpen your stylus on the sidewalk and use steno books for paper. If you get two slates, you flip the top one down while you are writing on the second one. Got two Master's degrees that way.