Grant Laird, Jr. Blog

Note: It is not over till it is over. I was rather disappointed with their answer. If you feel same thing as I did, you should email to John Alvarez and tell him we want closed captioning on Dallas Cowboys Channel now — not later! Anyway, read on…

Grant W. Laird Jr.
http://blog.grantlairdjr.com

From: Alvarez, John (Dallas) [mailto:John_Alvarez2@cable.comcast.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 9:05 AM
To: ‘grant@deafnetwork.com’
Cc: Biasatti, Angel [mailto:Angel_Biasatti@cable.comcast.com]
Subject: Re: Dallas Cowboys Channel offers closed captioning?

Grant-

Thank you very much for your inquiry about closed captioning on the Dallas Cowboys Channel. For this football season, we will not be able to offer closed captioning but we will certainly explore the possibility for next season. As you know, we are a very new channel and are still working on a lot of aspects of the channel. As we move forward, we will evaluate how we can make the channel better and more relevant to our loyal cable subscribers.

Thanks again for your question and please feel free to contact me any time if you have any more questions.

John Alvarez
Sports Programming/Affiliate Relations Director
Dallas Cowboys Channel
A Comcast Sports Network
Phone: 972-830-3910
Fax: 972-830-3924
Cell: 214-632-0555

—–Original Message—–
From: Grant W. Laird Jr. [mailto:grant@deafnetwork.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 2:23 AM
To: Biasatti, Angel [mailto:Angel_Biasatti@cable.comcast.com]
Subject: Dallas Cowboys Channel offers closed captioning?

Angel,

My name is Grant W. Laird, Jr. from Garland, Texas. I am long-time subscriber to Comcast phone system, Internet and cable TV. (Formerly HOME & ATTBI also)

This is my first time to write letter to Comcast Cable Communications. I just learned that Comcast now offers Dallas Cowboys Channel which is very exciting. They are not offering any closed captioned on it at all - it’s really affect Deaf and hard of hearing community including myself. I am long-time Cowboys fan and couldn’t understand anything they said on this channel.

Is there anyway Dallas Cowboys Channel will reconsider and start offer closed captioning in near future?

Again, I don’t know if you are familiar to it or not - I found your email address from press release on announcement. I would appreciate if you can forward to right people who can assist me.

I am looking forward to hear from you soon.

http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=2224301

Regards,
Grant W. Laird, Jr.
Garland, Texas

http://desktop.google.com

Few days ago, I installed Google Desktop Search (GDS) on my computer. It took only couple of hours to index my whole hard drive including huge spaces from my Microsoft Outlook 2003. Lucky I did reformat my hard drive last week so there are not too many files to index except Outlook.

Couple of months ago, I’ve tested another search program (Copernic Desktop Search) which is similar to GDS – GDS is way very fast and integrate with Google website which makes it looks almost normal. Copernic is nice but too slow to index entirely hard drive – at least it’s my opinion.

I haven’t had chance to play more features on GDS but I already pleased with it so far. One thing I want to make comment about GDS, it is obviously powerful tool which mean it is not suitable for public computer or workstation. I noticed GDS even pick up everything from IE browser including webmail and it even list all of my AIM conversation. You get the picture – it is design for individual user – not multiple except in some case.

Anyway, GDS is still in beta – you should give it a try. Right now, it only supports MS Outlook & Express, AIM, IE browser, text, MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint.

Google Desktop Search
http://desktop.google.com

The eWeek.com published about GDS: (long but very good information)
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1678974,00.asp

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

They finally released both IP-Relay and Sprint Relay Wireless add-on on your T-Mobile Sidekick in your “Download Fun”. You can find Download Fun (catalog) on your Hiptop JUMP selections. Note: I haven’t try it on Sidekick II but it should work pretty much same.

To install IP-Relay on your T-Mobile Sidekick

Go to Download Fun
1. Find “IP-Relay” in application category & select it
2. It will ask PREVIEW or PURCHASE
3. Since it is free, go ahead and click PURCHASE
4. It will install automatically for you – it may require restart your Sidekick.

They only offer relay service. They have many font type and style to pick to fit your preference. It is very simple and straightforward. You also can save or email conversation after finished using relay service. Another nice feature – they have Relay Etiquette which helps you using their service quickly and properly ways to do it.

To install Sprint Relay Wireless Powered by GoAmerica on your T-Mobile Sidekick

Go to Download Fun
1. Find “Sprint Relay Wireless” in application category & select it
2. It will ask PREVIEW or PURCHASE
3. Since it is free, go ahead and click PURCHASE
4. It will install automatically for you – it may require restart your Sidekick.

This is real nice add-on to your Sidekick including relay service, TTY service and pager service. They also have contact and recent call feature which is a plus. However relay service is only free to anybody and TTY / Pager feature is for paid registration which is handling by GoAmerica. It cost $9.95 a month. (Optional) Anyway, their relay service is neat – they use red bold font at operator side which is easy to read for me. Of course you can view or copy conversation with relay service.

Grant W. Laird, Jr.
http://blog.grantlairdjr.com