Jaws does not always speak or respond to key strokes after computer is locked over night.

I’m continuing my promis to log every bug I encounter with freedom scientific.

I lgoged a problem yesterday. The description is below. I recieved a response today that is also shown below and the solution they propose is infuriating.

Greetings,

I leave both my PC’s in work powered on every day. I’ve two machines running Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 X64.

The version of Jaws in use is that released last week.

I have found that since Jaws version 11, Windows 7 X64 does not respond when the PC is left unattended and locked for a number of hours.

This problem is not found on Windows XP.

This problem is reproducible every time and has been replicated on a number of different machines running Windows 7 X64.

Steps to problem:

Lock the machine at 5PM with Jaws still running.

Unlock the machine at 9AM.

Jaws does not respond to any commands and no speech or Braille is produced.

No other applications seem to cause it as the issue has been reproduced by rebooting the PC and leaving it sitting on the desktop.

The Jaws dump files are attached to this message.

I have also attached the dump files for Skype. I have been able to reproduce a problem where if the history log is enabled on Skype chat messages and over a thousand messages are received in one window, Jaws becomes sluggish and continues to become more sluggish over time until it eventually stops responding. This is completely unrelated to the issue reported above. I am aware that you do not distribute the Skype scripts but the issue may still be of interest to you.

If you require any more information to assist you in reproducing and resolving these issues please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best regards

Darragh Ó Héiligh

What follows is the response recieved by Tracey Jackson, a representative of the Freedom scientific support department:

Dear Darragh

Thank you for contacting Freedom Scientific technical Support. First of all, I want you to make sure you have disabled any sleep/hibernation/suspend mode the system may be entering in when locking it. Also, set all settings to turn off hard drives and other components to never under the power options to eliminate this as a possibility of an issue. Once this has been done, try locking the system for a long period of time and see if the issue persist.

If it does, I want you to email me back wit the serial number for the JAWS® screen reading software, the best times to reach you and the phone number you will be available on at the system. At this point, I will escalade the issue.

Be sure to include all previous correspondence pertaining to this matter when replying to this message so that we might better
assist you.

Regards,
Mr. Tracey Jackson,
Technical Support Specialist
Freedom Scientific

Phone support: 727 803 8600, option #2
E-mail Support: support@freedomscientific.com
Visit our website at:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/

Finally: Here is the response that I sent back. Of course, I will continue to document the progress or lack there of.

Tracey,

Turning off Windows power saving features isn’t a solution to a
problem that has started with Jaws11.

My serial number is 12345. –>removed.

You may contact me between 2 and 5PM GMT+1 / 9 AM to 12PM Eastern.

Darragh

Making Listen and Learn Recordings better.

As many of you already know, I run another site called Listen and Learn Recordings LAL Recordings for short.

I have been running this site for two years.
Unfortunately, I’ve lost motivation a little. Other things come up, I get interested in something, and LAL Recordings falls by the wayside. I try to keep it updated but I suppose, without user feedback, and more people chipping in, it can be difficult.

So, coming up to it’s second year, it’s make or break time.

I assume Listen And Learn Recordings will continue but I hope it will grow more in it’s third year than ever before. It’s grown and evolved a lot in the past eighteen months since it’s humble beginnings and in fact, with the new website ten months ago, it’s become much more professional and organised. But it can do more. It can be of help to more people! But how? What do you need and want from the site. Is it a waste of time? Are there other sites on the Internet that do a better job? Are there other topics that you would like to see explained on the site? Or, of course, would you like to see another live show on LALRecordings. The choices and possibilities are endless. You tell me what you want and I will do it.

There are two polls on the Listen And Learn Recordings website. I would really appreciate it if you would take a moment to tick a box. Of course, if you have other topics or suggestions, please always feel free to Email me.

I’ve just over two months. Two months from now, I will either say, that’s enough. Lets just archive LALRecordings and let some other site take over from it. but with any luck, I’ll get some useful feed back from these questions and I’ll launch year three with some very specific plans and aims.

I’ve loved doing Listen And Learn Recordings. It’s something that I hope is of benefit to people. Lets keep that continuing.

Thanks.

Circular breathing while playing the whistle.

It’s unusual for me to blog twice in one day, but you really need to take a look at this. It’s incredible! This fella is playing the whistle while using circular breathing. I’ve never heard anything like it.

Interestingly, I felt light headed while listening to him as being a whistle player my self, I know what it’s like holding a note for too long and trying to catch up. I kept expecting him to phraze things by taking a quick breath but that breath never came! Astounding!

Seirously. Even if your not a musician or you have no interest in Irish music, your still going to appreciate this tallent.

Hmmmm. I’d love to be able to do it. Any tips?

Jaws does not respond after a long period of inactivity in Windows 7.

The below is another email that I have sent to Freedom Scientific support this morning in relation to two other bugs / problems that I have encountered with Jaws 11. This continues on from my promis last week that I will highlight every single problem that I find while using Jaws 11 as I can no longer afford to Tollerate the amount of issues I have experienced with this version of the screen reader.

It is my hope that these reports will be actioned with updates to Jaws 11. In my opinion it would be unfair and unjust to expect consumers of Jaws for Windows to pay for the resolution of these bugs in version 12 of the product so I have repeatedly asked that these problems are fixed in hot fixes to Jaws 11. I urge other users of Jaws 11 to follow this example. It is time that Freedom Scientific improve the quality of their Jaws for windows product. even if this means limiting the speed of the development of enhancements and new features.

Greetings,

I leave both my PC’s in work powered on every day. I’ve two machines running Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 X64.
The version of Jaws in use is that released last week.

I have found that since Jaws version 11, Windows 7 X64 does not respond when the PC is left unattended and locked for a number of hours.

This problem is not found on Windows XP.

This problem is reproduceable every time and has been replicated on a number of different machines running Windows 7 X64.

Steps to problem:
Lock the machine at 5PM with Jaws still running.
Unlock the machine at 9AM.
Jaws does not respond to any commands and no speech or Braille is produced.

No other applications seem to cause it as the issue has been reproduced by rebooting the PC and leaving it sitting on the desktop.

The Jaws dump files are attached to this message.

I have also attached the dump files for Skype. I have been able to reproduce a problem where if the history log is enabled on skype chat messages and over a thousand messages are received in one window, Jaws becomes sluggish and continues to become more sluggish over time until it eventually stops responding. This is completely unrelated to the issue reported above. I am aware that you do not distribute the Skype scripts but the issue may still be of interest to you.

If you require any more information to assist you in reproducing and resolving these issues please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best regards

Darragh Ó Héiligh

Email sent to Freedom scientific regarding two Jaws bugs

This is an Email I have just sent to Freedom scientific regarding two bugs that are causing me particular pain every day. Even though these issues were reported well in advance of the recently released hot fix, they have yet to be resolved. If you are experiencing any issues with Jaws, I would encourage you to use the contact information below. More people need to speak out.

I am personally tired of the situation we have found our selves in as users of Jaws. Since around version 5, we have waited with bated breath for the next release to come out only to find that they’ve released new features and along with it, new bugs. What is even worse than this, they’ve continued this trend by building on this. They advertise that a bug has been fixed and in the next release, they’ll break the very thing they fixed the year before! For example: Jaws 8 fixed a bug in Jaws 7 with remote desktop. After some time in remote desktop, the alt key would stick. Obiously, it wasn’t a keyboard problem. The issue only emerged when Jaws was running. This was fixed for Jaws 8. The release notes said that customers who used remote desktop over slow connections encountered an issue where the alt key seemed to stick. In version 9, 10 and 11, this issue has returned with vengence. In fact, it has even been found in Jaws tandem! AGain, we report bugs, we pay our SMA upgrade fees, and again, we put up and shut up.

I’m tired of it. I’m not shutting up any more. I will email Freedom scientific continually until I am happy that the bugs that I am encountering are resolved. If the issues I am encountering are not bugs then I expect that as the maker of this software they at the very least give me instructions that will assist me in solving the issue my self. Instead, every email is responded to with a cannd paragraph telling me to upgrade my version of Jaws to the latest available from the Freedom scientific. website. If I emailed them telling them that the world was going to end, I bet I would get the same stupid response.

I’m through ranting.

Contact details: Manager at the top: BGahan@freedomscientific.com
Manager of Technical support: Bcarver@FreedomScientific.com
Escalations manager: johncarson@FreedomScientific.com

Here is the email:

Dear John,

Telling me that if it cannot be duplicated then the issue will be closed is not acceptable.
If I can duplicate it and document my system then you as Freedomscientific and the developer of this product have an obligation to fix this fault.

If you had a car where the drivers side door was particularly stiff to open but the manufacturer couldn’t reproduce the fault on their side would you except that there was nothing that could be done to fix this? Even if the manufacturer of the car couldn’t resolve the issue, the least you would expect would be that they would communicate a number of tried and tested instructions that would determine the cause of the problem and its associated solution.

If there is any information you require that would enable you to determine a solution to this then please contact me.

You acknowledge once again that the Windows explorer issue has been assigned to a development team. You have however not given any justification as to why, even after a hot fix has been released, paying users of Jaws are still left with a major bug without even a patch or an estimated time to the next hot fix.

Bringing this back to a common sinario, If you bought a TV and one channel didn’t work your first action would be to contact the manufacturer. If the manufacturer said that the issue was known and the relevant department were working on it, you would validly assume that an update to your TV would be released shortly to rectify this. Surely, after paying for a TV, the company would recognise that as a supplier, they had an obligation to you to ensure the product you had purchased was up to the task? In fact, you are protected by law to ensure that products you purchase are “suitable for merchantability”.
If an update was released after you had reported this fault I’m sure you can understand that you would be particularly frustrated that your new TV had still not been fixed and you still had an empty channel after shelling out good money for it.

It is not unreasonable to expect and in fact even demand that a product is free from defects. Of course. Being aware of the challenges Freedomscientific experience, it is understandable that certain issues are not caught during testing. However, it is not acceptable for those issues to be ignored or in the very least extensively tested and retested. I am aware and thankful that my reports have been actioned but more communication as to what is happening is required from Freedomscientific. I cannot afford to experience problems with my interface to my job and indeed my life any more. I am not sure if you are sighted or if you use Jaws, but imagine that tree views showed more information than you needed or wanted before the item you were looking for. Imagine that the title bar of Windows explorer wasn’t read. Imagine that, as reported earlier today, your monitor froze and went dim when two third party applications froze. Imagine that when you got in in the morning, your monitor wouldn’t turn on until you turned it on and off a few times just because you’d left your computer on overnight. Imagine that in Lotus notes 8, your monitor only showed the top part of the message in certain messages until you pressed tab for an undefinitive amount of times. You wouldn’t…. No. You couldn’t use your computer productively every day.

This is what I am encountering.

I administer a system with hundreds of virtual servers, hundreds of physical servers and thousands of work stations. Believe me, I am not exaggerating the numbers. In 1 OU in active directory there are 690 computers. This is the average size of an OU in this organization. I am fighting to keep my job as it is becoming known at a high level that my screen reader is causing problems for me when navigating around VMware VSphear, I cannot access the Dell Console utility, I cannot access Dell open manage, I cannot access IT assistant, I cannot access the lists in Trend micro, I cannot access any of the HP SAN software, I cannot access the SAN switches. The list goes on. I am fighting to keep this job and it is not helping that I have had to send you almost ten emails today alone to highlight defects, problems and issues in your software. It is not helping that I cringe every time I want to look around active directory because every tree view is speaking a lode of irrelevant rubbish before the item. It isn’t helping that I cannot use Data protector because it is also an MMC based application and I am having issues with the tree view in this also.

I expect an acknowledgement of this mail detailing a summary of steps that will be taken for all the issues that I have reported to Freedom scientific today as well as a time frame for the resolution of same.

Best regards

Darragh Ó Héiligh

From: John Carson [mailto:johncarson@FreedomScientific.com]
Sent: 20 May 2010 15:45
To: Darragh Ó Héiligh
Subject: RE: Escalations Issue # 198219

Hello Darragh;

As stated in a previous email, the title bar issue in Windows 7 using Windows Explorer has been duplicated by us and is assigned to the development team.

As to the issue with the MMC in Windows XP, this issue has not been duplicated by us, and is currently being looked at by our test department, if it can be reproduced, then it will be assigned to the development team for resolution, and if it can’t be duplicated then we will close this issue.

Kind regards,

John H. Carson, Jr.
escalations Manager
Freedom Scientific, LLC.

From: Darragh Ó Héiligh [mailto:d@digitaldarragh.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 1:54 AM
To: Darragh Ó Héiligh; John Carson
Subject: RE: Escalations Issue # 198219

Jonn,

I have not recieved a further update from you in relation to what Freedomscientific are doing to assist in determining a solution to this issue. As specified in my origional message on this matter, this is having a particularly noticeable affect on my efficiency therefore I require an answer detailing the steps Freedomscientific are taking to address this.

I await your response.

Best regards

Darragh Ó Héiligh

Fáilte go dtí DigitalDarragh.com


http://www.lalrecordings.com

From: Darragh Ó Héiligh
Sent: 07 May 2010 11:28
To: John Carson
Subject: RE: Escalations Issue # 198219

Hello John,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I have run Jaws 11 with the default settings and in fact, this morning, I had the opportunity to install Jaws 11 on a new installation of Windows XP and a second poweredge 1950 server running Windows 2008 standard and I replicated the issue again.

The steps are:
1. Start mmc from the run dialogue box.
2. Start something like computer management by adding it to the console.
3. Open system for example. Now arrow around the items below system.
4. Jaws will speak the sub title of the window. I.e, the line below the menu bar.
Again, this only happens with Jaws 11.

This is the very latest version of Jaws11 available from the Freedomscientific.com website.

There are no applications installed on the Windows 2008 server. I have not even applied any updates to it as for obvious reasons, I needed to install Jaws on it first.

If you like, you or someone in your department can tandem onto my machine to verify this. The port should be open. At least, it was 6 months ago when I was using tandem every day of the week. If this is something you would be interested in doing let me know and I’ll ask our firewall person to open the required port for my machine.

Thanks for your assistance iwht this. As I’m sure you can understand, I use the MMC very regularly at work so although this would be considered a minor bug it’s very frustrating when I’m trying to do things very quickly like adding a cert to the default route authority. Actually, come ot think about it, I was manually configuring group policy on a stand alone server earlier and I found the same problem in the tree view in the group policy editor @gpedit.msc@ so maybe it’s a larger tree view related issue?

Darragh

From: John Carson [mailto:johncarson@FreedomScientific.com]
Sent: 05 May 2010 20:16
To: Darragh Ó Héiligh
Subject: RE: Escalations Issue # 198219

Hello Darragh;

Thanks for being able to assist us in working towards a resolution for you, however, an audio file in is not necessarily what we need.

If I can be more specific, we need information from your computer, such as what configuration settings do you change in JAWS?

Also, if you run JAWS in default mode, does this still happen the way that you originally described?

You can run JAWS in default mode by following these directions if you are not familiar with doing this already:

1. Unload JAWS with Insert + F4
2. 2. Go to the Run dialog and type the following: JAWS11 /default and press enter.
Then test your application with the steps you provided to us.

Thanks again.

Kind regards,

John H. Carson, Jr.
escalations Manager
Freedom Scientific, LLC.

From: Darragh Ó Héiligh [mailto:d@digitaldarragh.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 2:47 PM
To: John Carson
Subject: RE: Escalations Issue # 198219

John,
I will record the audio produced by Elequents to demonstrate the issue tomorrow in work.

Thanks for your assistance.

Best regards

Darragh Ó Héiligh

Fáilte go dtí DigitalDarragh.com


http://www.lalrecordings.com

From: John Carson [mailto:johncarson@FreedomScientific.com]
Sent: 05 May 2010 19:46
To: Darragh Ó Héiligh
Subject: Escalations Issue # 198219

Hello Darragh;

Recently you contacted our technical support department about an issue with JAWS 11.0.1430, specifically, you’re reporting 2 issues, one in Windows 7 with insert T not speaking the title and the second is in Windows XP running the MMC.

I am writing to inform you that the first issue, pressing Insert T while in Windows Explorer in Windows 7 has been reproduced, and is being assigned to our test and development team for their review for possible resolution.

The second issue was also tested, and we can’t reproduce this issue, the MMC loads the correct scripts, and the tree view worked fine during our testing by using the steps you provided. If you have any further information that you can add that might help us to reproduce this issue, please provide them to me so that we can test further, otherwise we will close this part of the record.

Thank you for reporting these issues to us and we appreciate your patience in this matter.

Kind regards,

John H. Carson, Jr.
escalations Manager
Freedom Scientific, LLC.

Your thoughts would be very welcome.

Browse the Internet without the crap.

I was asked to block a number of websites on indevidual computers without using a Proxy. It was a really quick dirty fix. But, it works reasonably well.

Afterword, I found the following website with a very comprehensive list of websites that can be blocked.

http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/

Is Scotland closing?

During a conversation last night, the eldest child of the person I was speaking to asked if Scotland was closing on the 18th of June. It took a second but I copped on that the child must have heard some of the advertisement telling of the pending closure of the Halifax bank. Halifax is a trading name of Bank of Scotland. The child must have picked up the advertisement incorrectly and concluded that Scotland was closing on the 18th of June.

Priceless!

Still busy.

Things with me are as busy as ever. Ever hear the saying ask a busy man if you need something done? Well, that’s how it’s been with me. I’ve three jobs at the moment. I’m doing my 9 to 5 job, I’m almost finished creating the website for an online radio station called Mushroom FM and I’m also doing work for a local charity. They use to get me to do work for them a few years ago but they made the silly mistake of getting someone else in since 2008 and now their regretting it and I’ve been asked to pick up the pieces. They have increased the number of PC’s they use in the office but there are no policies or restrictions in place to keep people from messing things up. The result of this is that a virus has been spread around every computer and there’s a lot of crapware installed such as tool bars and other non-work related applications.

I’ve a huge task on my plate over the next few weeks to completely over hall their PC and telecommunications infrastructure. I think I’ll try to document a lot of the changes I make on the blog as it will possibly be interesting to some of you.

I’m also attempting to complete a few projects I’ve started at home. I’m changing the house phone system over to VOIP. IF this is successful and reliable, it is something I will implement in other places as well. I’m doing this by interfacing a Trixbox machine with Blueface. Again, More documentation will be forthcoming on the blog but first I have to figure out a problem that I’ve encountered with connecting both systems. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to figure out because although documentation is available and people have blogged about their experiences with getting Trixbox up and running, a lot of the information out there conflicts with its self.

The final project I’m working on at home is radio related. I’m now broadcasting on 70Cems and 2Metres on the amateur radio frequencies. I recently purchased a Kenwood tS2000 radio so I’m active on the airwaves again. I’ve also purchased a multiband antenna and I’ve purchased a magnetic ballin for a long wire Arial for HF so I’m hoping to be up on those bands very shortly. I need to brush up on Morse code. I’ve not been active on HF in about ten years so I’m very rusty. Actually, first, I need to buy a new mores key. The one I have is just a straight key but I’d rather paddles instead.

A protected post will be along shortly writing about the work situation. If you have an account on the site you’ll be able to read that. If you don’t, now is the time to create one.

Basic comparasons between Irish Broadband / Imagine and Vodafone Ireland.

These are basic tests done via Irish ISP test, pings and downloads.

  • Vodafone Ireland: Connection jitter: 0.2ms.
  • Imagine / Irish broadband: Connection jitter: 1ms.
  • Vodafone Ireland: packet loss: 0.0%.
  • Imagine / Irish broadband: Packet loss 0.0%.
  • Vodafone Ireland: Connection mos score: 4.2.
  • Imagine / Irish broadband: Connection score: 4.1.
  • Vodafone Ireland: Download speed: 3.02mbps.
  • Imagine / Irish broadband: Download speed: 3.45mbps.
  • Vodafone Ireland: Upload speed: 316 kbps.
  • Imagine / Irish broadband: Upload speed: 3.10mbps.
  • Vodafone Ireland: Quality of service: 57%.
  • Imagine / Irish broadband: Quality of service: 91%

When downloading a 96MB file from a site in the US I got the same download speeds on both connections: between 230kbps and 240kbps. Interestingly though, on Vodafone, I found the download speed started at 280kbps but on Imagine / Irish broadband, the download started at a much lower speed.

Pinging a server on the Blacknight network, I got a response of 11MS from Imagine / Irish broadband but with Vodafone Ireland the response came in at 33ms.

These tests were carried out within seconds of each other.

I’m going to contact Vodafone via Number Finder tomorrow to cancel the contract for both my home phone and broadband. Imagine, please don’t mess this up!

I’ll shortly change over to a VOIP provider, or if I’m feeling adventurous I’ll set up a server here for it.

I’m just a tad concerned about the Jitter result. it’s point 1 percentage higher on this new connection. ha. na. I’m being too cautious.

In fairness though, I’ve had such a bad nternet connection for so long, I’m afraid that I’m just subscribing to more problems.