Newsletter Archives

• Windows’ built-in basics

  Posted on October 24, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.43 • 2022-10-24

  ACCESSIBILITY

  

  By Chris Husted

  When it comes to adaptive and assistive technologies, especially those found under Ease of Access in Windows Settings, most people think the extra functions do not apply to them, simply because they are not disabled.

  Nothing could be further from the truth.

  As Stephen Dawes, a long-time Plus member and a Senior IT Systems Analyst based in Calgary, Canada, points out, “When a technology is developed to help a specific group of people, and when it is done right, everyone benefits.”

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.43.0, 2022-10-24).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Accessibility, AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter Accessibility, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Windows 10, Windows 11

• Welcome to assistive and adaptive technology

  Posted on July 18, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.29 • 2022-07-18

  ACCESSIBILITY

  

  By Chris Husted

  The future of technology is in your hands, hands-free.

  Whether people know it or not, many of the latest features that make using the phone in their hand so much easier all came from developing “assistive and adaptive technology” (AAT), that branch of research and development specifically dedicated to help disabled people with their daily lives.

  More than 13 million Americans use assistive technology devices, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But with the population aging, the number of people with vision impairment and age-related dexterity issues is growing. Chances are, you already use assistive technology or know someone who does.

  Stephen Dawes, a senior systems analyst for the local government Calgary, Canada, has lived the history of assistive and adaptive technology related to computers. He also foretells an interesting future.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.29.0, 2022-07-18).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Accessibility, AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter Accessibility, Adaptive & Assistive Technology, AskWoody Plus Newsletter

• Will Fastie: How to speak machine

  Posted on June 6, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.23 • 2022-06-06

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  This newsletter’s editor in chief is proficient in more than 16 programming languages. At many of them, he’s an expert. That’s what happens when you understand how a computer works at the most fundamental level.

  Of course, some of those languages are related to or derivative of other languages, such C and C++. “I call them all languages because they are languages. You must understand the syntax. You must understand what the words you are writing mean. You must understand how they are applied. It is a translation of a set of requirements into something that is actionable,” says Will.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.23.0, 2022-06-06).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles

• Lance Whitney: Taking center stage

  Posted on April 18, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  When a person with 25 years’ experience as a technology writer has some wisdom to impart, it pays to listen.

  Lance Whitney has been a full-time freelance tech journalist for “only” the past 12 years, but that comes after decades of working in IT first as a technician, then as a consultant, and today as a writer of tech articles scripted especially for IT professionals and for the everyday user, as AskWoody readers already know.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.16.0, 2022-04-18).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles

• Roberta Scholz: Editing in the mind’s eye

  Posted on March 14, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  Everyone needs that mental space to better appreciate whatever they are doing at that point in time, whether it be working on a project or assignment, organizing their day, or even writing an email.

  It’s that mental step back to understand exactly what they are doing and the impact it will have on other people, and feel empowered to make changes for the better.

  Roberta Scholz, the woman behind the editing of all the AskWoody articles that you read, has this skill down to a fine art.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.11.0 (2022-03-14).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles

• Tried, tested, and true: Max Stul Oppenheimer

  Posted on January 31, 2022 at 02:44 CST by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  For most people, graduating from either Harvard Law School with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree or from Princeton University in engineering with distinction (cum laude) would mark a lifetime achievement.

  For Max Stul Oppenheimer, writer of the Legal Brief articles for AskWoody, graduating with both marked only the start of long career specializing in law and technology.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.05.0 (2022-01-31).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles

• Brian Livingston: A man without secrets

  Posted on November 8, 2021 at 02:43 CST by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  The driving advancement of computers over the past few decades rolled like a juggernaut through people’s lives.

  Some people made good of the ride, others held on for dear life, and the unfortunate were cast aside or crushed underneath. Imagine a man investigating the impending damage and doom rushing onward toward the crowd, and then warning all who stood in its path. That’s Brian Livingston.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.43.0 (2021-11-08).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles

• Older Geeks: Keeping it clean

  Posted on September 20, 2021 at 02:44 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  Hidden away in a small town of 5,000 in the Missouri Ozarks is a small computer-repair shop run by a pair of self-confessed “super nerds” who over more than a decade have amassed some 4,000 freeware programs that all satisfy one steadfast credo: “No ads, no crapware, no b.s.”

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.36.F (2021-09-20).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Profiles

• Meet Fred, the empowerer

  Posted on August 2, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.29 • 2021-08-02

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  If a single organization were approaching five decades of experience in educating people about computers and helping them to solve problems they were having with their PCs, it would be called an institution.

  Fred Langa, who writes for AskWoody, is just that.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.29.0 (2021-08-02).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.29.F (2021-08-02).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles

• Woody Leonhard – A new life in paradise

  Posted on March 15, 2021 at 01:08 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.10 • 2021-03-15

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  Is he having fun yet?

  Late last year, after 28 years of publishing everything everyone needed to know about Windows, esteemed AskWoody founder Woody Leonhard retired. He disappeared from our screens, but never drifted far from our thoughts. That voice we had grown accustomed to, calling out Windows for its shortfalls – sometimes with a roar, sometimes a grumble, but never a whimper – had gone.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.10.0 (2021-03-15).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.10.F (2021-03-15).

  AskWoody, AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter AskWoody Plus Newsletter