When making an Instant Messaging relay call, I’ve been using Hamilton IP Relay (hiprelay) strictly because their operators start relaying my messages as soon as they’re received, rather than waiting for a GA. Sometimes, when my message is long, it’s a nice gesture for the hearing caller. Text-based Relay service is miserably slow for hearing callers, so I’m always looking for ways to speed up the phone call so they are willing to use relay services again in the future.

Today I received a newsletter from Sorenson which surprised me. It read:

Sorenson IP Relay is the first IP Relay service to not require GA or SK.

I do not know if Hamilton by policy require GA and SK, which may be ignored, but I know that I haven’t typed GA with Hamilton for ages, several months long before Siprelay, Sorenson’s IP Relay, was launched in September. Did Sorenson make a false claim?

Rochester Institute of Technology is mentioned in Doonesbury’s October 26 comic.

I have a friend who is a recent graduate of the Electrical Engineering masters program at RIT. When he showed me the comic, I exclaimed he should post it to his website showcasing his resume. It’s not often that your alma mater is in a nationally syndicated comic. :) Now to get Gallaudet University into a Ziggy or Garfield comic.

Doonesbury Website - Democrat & Chronicle: ‘Doonesbury’ chuckles

I do not own oil stock. I am not a Republican. I want the Bush Administration to end as quickly and painlessly as much as you do, so do read the below thought-provoking excerpt.

Ah, so the theory is that higher gas prices is actually fueling more alternative energy initiatives. It’s forcing Americans to be more conservative with what energy we use today, preserving the environment. Read the full article without delay, and decide whether the current gas price justifies itself.

Deaf People are everywhere! In all corners of the USA, in every crook and cranny. Even your neighbor down the street. Deaf America proves it. Deaf America is a map where you can add yourself if you are deaf and an ASL user.

This is really an almost meaningless but fun map. I’m sure even I, on the west coast, will be surprised to discover new deaf neighbors!

Click on the red pins to see the user’s picture.

Do you wish you could do more for the environment? Do you ponder to yourself, “What more could I do to help stop global warming?”, after reading a newsstory on Katrina and Rita?

Are you driving a vehicle that consumes more gasoline than you wish it would? Are you, for any reason, “stuck” with it? Or maybe, you like the power or size of your vehicle, but not the MPG it gets? Maybe some of us cannot rationalize the cost of purchasing a hybrid vehicle, or there isn’t yet a hybrid model that fits your needs?

With TerraPass, you can offset an amount of carbon dioxide that exactly counterbalances your driving. The amount of carbon dioxide you emit into the atmosphere is calculated by your car’s gas-efficiency and how many miles is driven a year. Use this calculator to estimate your car’s emissions.

TerraPass is a program that invests your money into Clean Energy initiatives. Quite simply, TerraPass members finance projects that reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions. TerraPass purchases is certified to eliminate the equivalent of your car’s carbon dioxide pollution, helping to preserve the environment for future generations.

With the Microsoft and AOL possible merger making headlines across business sections, debates are being made about whether they’d be able to re-establish themselves as a contender to Google, in terms of paid search; and Yahoo!, in terms of page visits.

The idea flashed before me: a Yahoo! and Google merger? Insane, just insane.

That’d send the competition racing past melting point. Before you scoff and say Yahoo! and Google, being competitors between themselves, wouldn’t dream of merging, think about the 1993 meeting in which Bill Gates told Steve Case (AOL chairman), “I can buy 20% of you or I can buy all of you.” It wasn’t nice back then.

With Google and Yahoo! together, I’d never be able to sleep. Microsoft and AOL wouldn’t be able to either.

It is purely from my personal experience that I view America as being advanced in the sense that  we have the discrimination and disability laws, meanwhile Europe and a number of other countries being advanced in their attitude toward disablity issues.

Which do you prefer? Attitude or law? While we do not want to appear as taking our protection and rights for granted, I’ll have to say with the right attitude, such laws would not need to exist. In other words, the laws, such as the ADA, were written because poor attitude is so prelevant we cannot quickly erode its barriers.

How often have you dreamed of a world that was backwards, but to our advantage? Deaf people, along other “disabled” people, are no longer the minority, but the majority? Hearing people would instantly experience and feel what it’s like to lack accommodations they so take for granted.

There is a video illustrating this backwards world. While funny, the fact that it’s not an American commerical, but an European one, strikes me. The short video, I feel, amplifies the attitude which that makes discrimination laws not as needed as it is here in America.

<a target=”window” href=”http://www.ad-awards.com/inc/video.swf?id=104″>http://www.ad-awards.com/inc/video.swf?id=104</a>

Don’t you find it annoying that when you are signing up for something, such as a discount Metro card, you’re required to submit a photocopy of your audiogram? An audiogram that is no older than 6 months? Gimme a break.

I’d love to find just one person with severe/profound hearing loss that has had his or her hearing restored to normal levels. When I was diagnosed as profoundly deaf at a young age (I am born deaf), that should have been the final audiogram I’d ever need for the rest of my life. No way, dude, a miracle isn’t gonna happen–I’m deaf, period. Forever.

For those with temporary hearing loss, audiograms should be issued indicating as such. And on my audiogram, it shall be written “Deaf forever–valid until death”.

Deaf Katrina Survivor Tells Story on CNN Video

I mentally prepared myself for the potentially thousands of bodies being exposed upon the slow drainage of Katrina’s aftermath. New Orleans’ mayor proclaimed that it would be another wake up for the nation.

Only before I received this wake up call, I was shook by this totally insensitive comment by our former first lady, also the very mother of the President of the United States.

I am utterly disgusted.

Barbara Bush: It’s Good Enough for the Poor