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Hello! I have Type I Usher myself and my vision tanked when I was 27 (~8 years ago). I'm a writer, so I can't give you much programming advice but I've been through the gamut in terms of technology and life changes. I'm happy to share what has and hasn't worked for me. My email is in my profile.

I do want to say one thing, though: It absolutely sucks at first but you'll adapt. One day at a time.

Yep. Individual character development isn't Liu's strongest suit. His characters are mostly just allegories to prove a point. (Wenje - bitterness, Luo Ji - logic, etc.) But Liu is brilliant in his deception of mass psychology--the various ways in which large groups react to hopelessness.

Interestingly, I see a lot of parallels between Liu and Thomas Hardy. They both wrote sweeping tales that use individuals to represent abstract ideas. So, it's not just an Eastern thing.

Not a stupid question at all. I use an assortment of accessibility tools. I can still read visually thanks to my absurdly large screen and equally absurdly large text in inverted colors. I can also hear (low-resolution sound quality) through a cochlear implant, so i use VoiceOver to navigate. To read more long-form text such as books, articles, etc. I use a refreshable Braille display.

Basically, I use a bit of everything because no one accessibility tool meets all of my needs. Better than nothing, I guess.

I should clarify something about deafblindness. Very, very rarely is a deafblind person totally deaf and blind. Usually they have some residual hearing or sight, and I fall into that camp.

Hope that answers your question!

Deafblind person here. Braille isn't a nice to have for me. It's a must-have. We Deafblind are certainly a rare species , and unfortunately, usually forgotten. I learned Braille "later" in life when my sight nosedived at age 27. Best decision I've ever made.

A few thoughts about the low Braille literacy levels. First of all, most visually impaired children are not completely blind, and this is especially true with progressive eye conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa (which I have as part of Usher syndrome, which presents with hearing and viision losses). Magnification and color technology has enabled people who can't read 12-point fonts to read now. For instance, I'm close to completely blind in one eye, and have somethign like 20/300 in the other ... and I can use built-in features to zoom in/invert colors to read visually. So, "visually impaired" =/= completely blind.

Also, you must use Braille every day to develop neural pathways to process it quickly. It only took me 2 weeks to learn the code. It took me much, much longer to internalize it--to the point when I can jsut put my fingers on it and get it. For people who can still see, especially if they see enough to benefit handsomely form magnification technology, it's hard to feel motivated.

There are a lot of other issues that I won't get into. But what I can say is that blind people can get away without learnign Braille, sure, but they won't be able to excel at certain things.

For instance, Braille is still the only thing that gives blind people a spatial appreciation for language. Language is more than words. It comes in paragraphs, has puncuation, et cetera. If a blind person wnats to truly master their language, they must learn Braille. They can get buy without it, sure, but ... they won't excel at it.

On the pratical side, you need to know braille to label things. This is why I advocate for at least a functional knowledge of Braille. If you have a labeler, you can label wine bottles and cans that feel identical. This is where audio-only approach fails.

There's a lot more I could say on the topic, but I'll stop here. Just putting this out there: I wish people would stop sayign that text-to-speech technology has obviated Braille. There are Deafblind people out ther, too, and Braille will always have a place for those who want to excel at writing and reading.

I'll take your word for it...

Why do people want machine guns at the gun range in the first place?

(Genuinely curious. I've never held a gun before in my life, so I wouldn't know.)

I wasn't really thinking about driving skills, but about equipment failure. There will always be a risk of equipment failure for automated machinery. Also, there's a risk of human error in the code governing driving.

One possible workaround is to have several people at some centralized location monitor driverless car performance. A monitorer could override the car and drive the car remotely in the event of equipment failure or bugs in the code.

But, maybe that's a pipe dream.

I was thinking that driverless cars would be a boon for people who cannot drive (for whatever reason -- visual or otherwise).

I do wonder, however, if laws will require driverless cars to have a person who is able to drive. (For legal or liability reasons in case of an equipment failure.) I do hope that doesn't happen, but it's possible.

Public transit-only travel is workable in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. as well. Although in Philadelphia, you would have to take the buses quite often to compensate for the gaps in the subway system.

It may be the fact that the airplane is in the air that makes the difference. Being 20,000 feet in the air is quite different than cruising along on the highway in a bus.

That being said, I wonder what the driverless cars would do for the blind/visually-impaired. It could be quite liberating for them. They wouldn't have to live near public transit/take jobs with public transit access. Neat.

SCOTUS is indeed limited to the question raised during the appeals process. Even if SCOTUS thought "geez this patent sucks," they can't do anything.

Why not? Well, for better or worse, the American judicial system puts a lot of weight on trial courts and juries' ability to assess facts. The appeals system was set up in such a way to prevent higher courts from actually deciding the case. If SCTOUS had found that the lower courts applied the wrong rule of evidence (burden of proof here), then the case would have gone back to trial and retried (isn't that crazy?).

And trust me, law school doesn't quality everyone as a guru. I have some experience with appeals, but I'm far from an issue & appeals lawyer (they're pros at this). So, take my words with a grain of salt.

Well, I don't know about law guru, but I did go to law school. Take that for what its worth.

I'm not an issues and appeals lawyer, but here's what I know about appeals. Appeals are only for questions of law, never for questions of facts. And the question of law must be unsettled (otherwise, why would SCOTUS take the case?) SCOTUS probably took this case to clarify the defendant's burden of proof regarding invalidity defenses.

Now, this particular case was about the standard of proof for invalidity defenses (and jury instructions). The trial court told the jury that MS had to defend against invalidity claim by clear and convincing evidence. Microsoft thought that was the wrong standard. SCOTUS said that the lower court was right.

So, since the lower courts applied the right standard, this is the end of the line. The verdict against MS will stand.

tl;dr: appeals (cetorari_ to SCOTUS) focuses on unsolved or ambiguous questions of law, not factual issues. (Mixed questions of fact and law is a whole 'nother story...you don't want to know).

I think this case does make things marginally better. Before you jump all over me, look at the holding.

The Court said that it will maintain the CCE standard for invalidity defenses, not plaintiffs' claims of invalidity. It's a fine point, but important one neverhtless.

You see, CCE has been the standard for plaintiffs alleging patent invalidity since 1982. It's right in the statute. http://openjurist.org/title-35/us-code/section-282/presumpti... . The problem was that Microsoft was trying to reduce the burden of proof for the defense.

A weaker burden for defenses is very very bad. That means, even if a plaintiff shows, by substantial evidence, that a patent is invalid, a defendant can just give the minimal amount of defense...and the defendant will win.

So, this improves things...a tiny, weeny bit.

Sigh. I know...

I just think that Congress needs to be reeducated about the different needs of today's technology industry versus the old-days of steel mills. It won't be easy, but I'm confident it will happen someday.

The question is whether I'll be alive then (heh).

The plaintiffs trying to invalidate the patents have always had to climb a steep hill. My point is that this case doesn't change that. If you look at the statute and precedent, the plaintiffs always had to establish invalidity by clear and convincing evidence. (The appropiateness of that is a question for Congress, not the Court because the statute is clear on this point.)

So, this case just makes things equal between the plaintiffs and defendants. Once the plaintiffs do overcome the admittedly-high obstacle of proving invalidity, the defendant can't just put up a weak defense and get away with it. That's good!

Your problem with the patent system is completely valid, but the Supreme Court can't change law (or is not supposed to). Congress is the one who is responsible for this quagmire, not the Court.

The whole patent system is broken, and this case improves things by a nanogram (is that a word?)./

I don't think the article does the case justice.

If you look at the holding, the Court just says that all invalidity defenses must be established by "clear and convincing evidence" (higher than preponderance of evidence but lower than beyond a reasonable doubt.)

It has been well-established that patent validity is a basic assumption. So, a plaintiff must prove patent invalidity by clear and convincing evidence. The issue here is once the plaintiff establishes patent invalidity, how much evidence does the defendant need to give to rebut the assumption of invalidity. The Court said that the higher standard of proof, not the lower standard of proof.

Maybe I'm being thickheaded here, but I don't see how that's terrible at all. In fact, it makes things equal. Once the plaintiff shows patent invalidity, it shouldn't be that easy for a defendant to rebut the assumption of invalidity.

I'm trying to figure out the American resistance to meat pies. I mean, we have corn dogs here.

I don't get it. Is it the prejudice against British food? (I love some good fish and chips every once in a while.)Satisfaction with burgers and fries? Lack of imagination? Not enough exposure?

What is it?

I lived in London for six months and discovered the wonderfulness of pasties. I admit that I would eat pasties whenever I didn't feel like cooking (which was often).

Why a pasty craze never took off here in the U.S., I will never know. Delicious meat in an easy-to-eat package? I'm sold.

Most people are decent human beings. But you have to watch out for the minority who are not - they can destroy your business.

I would say that one scenario where you should consult a lawyer at the begfinning of a startup is if the startup engages in a sticky legal area. You know, sharing files, privacy issues, etc. (I'm just thinking off the top of my head here, there's a lot more gray legal areas out there.) How terrible would it be if you found out that your business model is basically illegal conduct?

Be aware of the changing regulatory landscape of the internet - especially in the U.S.

(I don't want to be all doom and gloom, but it's more about figuring out if the startup is worth the risk.)

Yep, I have backup plans galore. I even have a backup plan to my backup plan.

All good here.

Well, one other tip would be - hold it on when you ahem pull out. You don't want any spillage.

Also, make sure you use the right size. If it's too tight or too loose - increased risk of breakage or leakage.

Ok, now I'm a bit weirded out by myself. I'm a woman, so I guess I'm deeply invested in proper condom usage.

Wow, these women are the height of irresponsibility.

Here's my theory about why people think that women are more responsible for birth control.

1. They are more directly affected by pregnancy. They are the ones who would have to bear the child or to have an abortion. Abortions are not fun. Vacuuming your uterus is probably not a pleasant experience. Of course, I'm being somewhat flippant. I do think that women who have foresight and intelligence are responsible human beings who try to have children only when they want to. Of course, there are cultural and socioeconomic issues at play here. I"m not trying to suggest that men are not affected by children, but they don't need to bear the physical consequences. So birth control is more of an abstract conception for men. Although they bear the financial consequences...sometimes.

2. The idea that women are more responsible in general. Of course, this is a terrible and misguided stereotype. I know many irresponsible women (One similar to your story - she has two kids now.)If women seem more responsible, it's probably because society teaches women to be responsible and risk-averse from birth.

EDIT: for grammar and formatting.

Sometimes, when my life isn't going well, I like to revert back to my favorite books. Re-reading particular books that gives me a specific feeling - usually happiness, wonderment, etc. - can be relaxing.

It takes effort and focus to get into a new book. Maybe you can bypass that by just re-reading a old favorite?

Just a suggestion. Obviously, this may bore you.

Well, if this is true...

I can't help but to feel like this is not a good PR move.

Oh, good ol' days of the internets...

You know, your question got me thinking. I've been trying to imagine a open platform for social networking and I just...can't...conceive of one. Maybe my mind is too limited and uncreative, but I just feel like a open platform would defeat the purpose of social networking sites.

For example, LinkedIn - a social network for professionals. If LinkedIn became "open," its utility disappears. You would not be able to trust your "connections" because the network wouldn't be full of professionals. Closed platforms are a bit more trustworthy (and only a bit!). Facebook is probably as open as it gets.

That's my guess anyway.

Yes, I see where you're coming from. Let me refine my point. Niches will probably get smaller and smaller. Facebook may lose market-power to smaller, more focused networks. I'm just not sure if that will weaken Facebook to the point that Facebook stops being "the" social network. Facebook is still the ultimate place for global connectivity. Perhaps Facebook will remain Facebook, but people will stop using it as their main social outlet.

Like you said, this could result in dominant players within a vertical space. But, how large will these vertical spaces be? I don't know. If i knew, I'd be a millionaire. (I'm not.)

Thanks for the mind candy though.

Agreed 100% and I would just add this one point. Social networks are a winner-take-all game. You're either dominant or nothing. Nobody wants to use a social network with only 400 other people on it. That would defeat the whole purpose. Of course, there are specific niches such as Twitter, but Twitter dominates its niche.

In a way, social communication and network sites are anti-competitive.

I looked at the cited page (http://www.humorwriters.org/startlingstats.html) which is a weird writing workshop article that gets its information from a site that "helps writers get published." I smell something fishy here.

I also searched the publishing site and found nada. Of course, I didn't do an exhaustive search, but still...

Just as an aside, I wouldn't be surprised if some college grads never read a "proper book" after college. I don't think that means the end of literacy - we do read a lot on the internet...

Also, we sit in many more contexts: driving, work, watching TV, eating dinner, etc.

That being said, I'm a bit overwhelmed nowadays with all of the health scares. Sometimtes I feel like whatever I do, I'm killing myself. So I just give up and live my life. I'm going to die one way or another, right? (Not exactly good philosophy.)

Yeah, I can see how that kind of behavior would result in resentment. You're right that a founder cash-out can have a lot of negative consequences, but one should make it clear that alignment is a big part of investors' concerns as well.