[NFBCS] Bragging on Curtis and a General Thank You

Thu Oct 17 19:10:17 UTC 2024

Hey Johathan--welcome welcome--and always full of great information--I am a
VPN user and love your rundown
*Denise  M Robinson*
Denise M Robinson, Ph.D., CTVI, AT, IT, CVI Endorsement, Director/CEO
425-220-6935

YouTube Channel: @DrDeniseMRobinsontech
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7YW7Ves0phCwCOtaZ3wWFw>
YOURTECHVISION.COM
Dr Denise M Robinson – Educational Services for Instruction in Access
Technology/Braille/Nemeth and other Access skills
<https://yourtechvision.com/>
Technology that gives YOU Vision....

On Thu, Oct 17, 2024 at 2:08 PM Mosen, Jonathan via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Hello to all.
>
> This is my first message to this list although I have been lurking for a
> while. So by way of brief introduction, I began working with the National
> Federation of the Blind in late August, and am thrilled to be here. I have
> met with several of you as I work on a few projects that President
> Riccobono has asked me to take on, and no doubt I’ll have the privilege of
> working with many more of you in the years ahead. Thank you very much to
> everyone I’ve met so far who has been so welcoming.
>
> Now, I thought I would chime in regarding Maurice’s VPN question.
>
>
>
> VPNs have several benefits.
>
> They can encrypt your traffic and keep you secure when you are connected
> to an open wireless hotspot, such as when you’re at a café, airport or some
> hotels.
>
> They can make computers think you are in a different location. This can be
> useful for accessing content that’s geoblocked. Quite a few blind people
> are using them for this purpose at the moment, because the Meta AI
> component of the Meta Smart Glasses is only available in a small number of
> countries. So I’ve provided a lot of assistance to blind people around the
> world who haven’t concerned themselves with VPNs before these glasses came
> along.
>
> And yes, they can also serve as an intermediary that blocks trackers and
> other identifiers.
>
> When it comes to deciding whether a VPN is the best option, it’s worth
> considering the use case. For example, if you want to use a VPN to access
> streaming content from a particular country, changing the DNS in your
> router or device to point to a DNS for this specific purpose might give
> better results, because traffic channeled through a VPN is likely to be
> slower and a bit less responsive. One example of an entity that serves this
> purpose is https://SmartDNSProxy.com.
>
> If the main concern is eliminating trackers as well as clutter that can
> make life difficult for screen reader users, there may be viable
> alternatives to a VPN as well. Maurice, since you are in the Apple
> ecosystem, there are Safari extensions and other tools that seek to do
> this. There are a lot of them and I’ve not tried them all, although I have
> installed a few. One that seems to be particularly effective is a tool
> called 1Blocker. It’s available for iOS, iPadOS and macOS, and it’s a
> universal purchase, so once you’ve bought it, it works on all your Apple
> devices.
>
> What I like about this particular tool is that it installs itself as
> several Safari extensions and then gives you granular configurability over
> what you want to block. It has a VPN profile although it’s only using that
> profile to work some magic locally on your device. The VPN profile approach
> allows the app to block some trackers and unwanted content even within
> apps, not just browsers. I’ve found that it has sped up my browsing
> significantly and eliminated clutter, which means some sites have become
> easier to navigate.
>
> There are similar extensions for Windows browsers.
>
> There are many VPN providers out there, and I hunted around to find one
> that was even remotely well behaved on Windows. Express VPN is quite good
> in Windows and iOS, the two platforms on which I have it installed. They
> also have a generous policy in terms of how many devices can be running it
> at one time.
>
> Hope that helps and would be interested in others’ experiences.
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> *On Behalf Of *Maurice Mines via
> NFBCS
> *Sent:* Friday, 18 October 2024 5:18 am
> *To:* NFBnet NFBCS mailing list mailing list <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> *Cc:* Maurice Mines <maurice at mmines.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [NFBCS] Bragging on Curtis and a General Thank You
>
>
>
> Good morning to my good friend Curtis Chong, I was about to add to all of
> the thank you Post thinking something scary might've happened to our friend
> and colleague. So it was good to see him explain the reasons why everyone
> was posting thank you emails.
>
>
>
> Now a question for the list and I'm sure Curtis will chime in on this
> potentially is it a good practice to run a virtual private network either
> software or hardware or my case both. I found that by running one I ain't
> get fewer commercials commercials on the web, and or via spam and or
> fishing laden emails. So I think using a virtual private network set up has
> been very helpful. But is this real or is it just because it's made it
> tougher for the bad guys to actually do anything to mess with my set up
> somehow. Any thoughts? By the way for sake of clarity and faithfulness.
> Many on this list or Microsoft Windows users, I am a mac user for about 80%
> of my computer usage time. I do use Windows when I need to dictate things
> that are serious in terms of writing, some on this list no I have a written
> expression disorder. I can read fine I just cannot spell to save my life
> says a very strange testing many years ago.
>
>
>
> Be well everyone and enjoy the rest of your Thursday. Catching up on
> things after spending quality time in San Francisco at the rideshare
> Raleigh.
>
>
>
> Maurice A. Mines.
>
> President National Federation of the blind deaf blind division.
>
> Amateur radio call sign kd0iko.
>
>
>
> PS please be aware that the text above has been dictated to the computer
> using Apple dictation system. There may in fact mistakes in the text above,
> yet there's something you truly don't understand please reach out to me and
> ask me what my original intent may have been. Thank you all very much for
> reading this email.
>
>
>
> On Oct 17, 2024, at 15:34, Curtis Chong via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> Good morning everyone:
>
>
>
> I very much appreciate the positive comments posted on this list from Joe,
> Michael, and others. Although I do feel quite flattered, may I say that
> Harry Staley, my co-participant on the panel, as a working I.T.
> professional himself who has been (as it were) in the trenches contributed
> a lot more in terms of practical suggestions and real-world experience to
> this presentation. I am glad that the people who are coming up are like
> Harry. May I also point out that Harry Staley is, himself, an NFB
> scholarship winner, having been awarded the big scholarship at our 2018
> national convention.
>
>
>
> Warm regards,
>
>
>
> Curtis Chong
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> *On Behalf Of *Joe Orozco via
> NFBCS
> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 16, 2024 8:32 PM
> *To:* 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> *Cc:* Joe Orozco <jsorozco at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* [NFBCS] Bragging on Curtis and a General Thank You
>
>
>
> I want to take a moment to brag on one of our fellow subscribers. Curtis
> Chong generously gave up his evening today to talk to my high school and
> college mentoring students about technology options, how to advocate for
> them, and the essentials of using them. His responses were thorough,
> thoughtful, and absolutely relevant to their experiences. I mean, the guy
> still sounds like he did 25 years ago and is clearly every bit as sharp as
> he was back then. I don’t know if Harry Staley is subscribed here or not,
> but he was the younger representative and was just as potent at his wiser
> co-panelist.
>
>
>
> I share this with the list, because last summer I requested people who
> would be willing to provide informational interviews to some of my
> students. I had more than a handful of volunteers. We had logistical issues
> crop up, but I still have those messages and will be following up again in
> the near future.
>
>
>
> It’s a beautiful thing when working professionals give of their time to
> give advice to the younger generation, particularly in a field as critical
> as computer science and information technology. I am very grateful for the
> offline support like what our mentoring program experienced this evening
> and for the excellent support exchanged here on the list on a daily basis.
>
>
>
> Very grateful,
>
>
>
> Joe
>
>
>
> --
>
> Joe Orozco: Your Message, My Mission
>
> https://joeorozco.com/services/
>
>
>
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