Internaf Newsletter April 2000 Issue Page 2 Home    Index    Page1    Page2    Page3    Page4     Support-- By Joe Villa I had this really fine column all written out when something happened to me for the first time which changed my entire out look on things.  I wanted to share it with all of you because it is my hope that someone will benefit from it. For the first time, I got a powerful rebuttal from one of my posts.  My post was sent in response to a dear friendís cry for help.  Another person wrote to me personally, letting me know how unfeeling I was being.  This is a classic example of how words were misunderstood and the true thoughts of the post were not conveyed correctly.  I was horrified to think that my intentions of being supportive and helpful could have been misconstrued and used to hurt or depress someone further. I may be making a ìmountain out of a mole-hillî here but my point is that even the best intentions can be misinterpreted.  I love words, which is why I quote Webster so much in my writings.  When we write, it is so hard to really put forth our own feelings and emotions in the written word.  That is why a poem, story or even email post is never the same from one reader to the next.  Every word is at the mercy of the individual reader.  Sometimes an occasional ì)))î or ìhahaî helps when the words are to be taken in a joking manner.  Even then, the joke may not be taken the same way and feelings could be hurt.  I am not certain that there is an answer to this. I have written before about barriers, I guess another barrier we must overcome is the lack of a personal connection with each other.  I canít imagine how difficult it must be for those whose native language is not English.  Now I speak French as a second language, but in my many travels to Quebec and Northern Vermont (in my high school years), I learned that Canadian French is so much different in that words have different meanings in just the way they are pronounced and used. I love posts, which have no real flow to them.  They are not properly worded but come from the heart.  I guess I advocate caution though in the way we read messages here on the InterNaf.  However, as this person was so kind to point out to me, responses directed towards very few people or even just one person need to be carefully thought out sometimes.  After all support is often needed but seldom asked for in a straight-forward way.   As Webster defines support, ìas to comfortî what sort of comfort are we giving if we hurt someone in the process of trying to help them just because care was not taking in how we put forth our own feelings in the written word.  In the future I will be more careful. To the two people directly involved in this, I thank the one who pointed out my error and I pray that I have made clear to the second person the true intent of my post to support and encourage you.  Of Mice and Midis - By Rawnie Dunn Lately, MIDIs have been a hot topic on the Internet.  Just last month, when I visited several of the tried-and-true websites I usually visit to download a free MIDI, I found, to my frustration, that many of these sites had been shut down.  In "Trouble For MIDI Music Lovers" http://www.discoverynet.com/~ajsnead/sitenote/trouble.html Jack of Jack's "MIDI Music" states, with alarm, that: "...At least one overseas site has had their equipment and records confiscated by the police!  In The USA, It Is Believed Some Sites And Their E-Mail Are Being Monitored By The FBI.  These law suits have been made by large companies and organizations, suggesting violation of various copyright laws.  This has scared many individual web site owners!  Therefore, many web sites or their music have been removed from the internet until these problems are addressed and resolved..." He adds:  "I Do Believe In Copyright Protection For Original Artists, Composers, Songwriters, MIDI Music Sequencers, Etc. What I Don't Believe In, Is Unclear Laws, That Lawyers Have To Continually Debate In Court And Lawsuits Against Unsuspecting Individuals For Ungodly Amounts Of Money!!!" while the NMPA Press release  http://www.netclue.ch/nmpa.html warns that: "The fact that a website may not be charging customers directly to examine or download copyrighted musical works does not mean that its activities do not cause harm to writers and copyright owners," Murphy pointed out. "The U.S. Congress recognized this fact by passing criminal statutes designed to thwart those who appropriate the intellectual property of others and distribute it freely on the internet." As Enchante` of "midi-carousel"  http://www.mybonbon.com/ says "May God help us all when the day comes that 'fun' becomes copyrighted.". On the other hand... MIDI-fun doesn't just 'happen'.  MIDIS are arranged--and sometimes composed, too--by individuals who've invested lots of their own time, talent, and money into making MIDIs.  They may do this hoping to earn a living, to help out friends or a 'cause', or maybe just to express themselves, etc.  But whatever their motive is, it's pretty unlikely that they are now insisting on the enforcement of copyright laws because they are anti-'fun'. A few short questions were asked of a well-known MIDI-making INTERNAFfer.  However, at article-submission time, he was representing INTERNAF at the NAF annual membership mtg. 2000 in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA, where they were talking about Ataxia Awareness Day, and couldn't be reached.   Therefore, I have taken the liberty of culling "answers" from excerpts from letters and documents previously written by him.  So, here--with his last-minute permission--is a short imaginary conversation with composer/arranger, MIDI-maker, and 'fun' person, Chris Polhill:  (...Yes, that Chris Polhill!) RD:  Chris, how did you first get interested in making MIDIs? CP:  "Before Ataxia, I played guitar and keyboards in a band.  My first home computer was an Atari ST that I learned to compose using MIDI and mouse clicks.  It helped ease the pain of not being able to use conventional instruments any longer.  I also did a diploma in sound recording, which kept me involved with live bands- even if instead of being on stage, I was at the back doing the mixing." Chris Polhill Mixing RD:  Two of your MIDIs can be heard on the still under construction Ataxia Awareness Greetings website.  Why did you donate them? CP:  "As most of you know, the Idea for an International Ataxia Awareness Day has been circulating for quite some time now, but only recently has a date been set, and it is now being taken seriously as something we can all benefit from in some way." RD:  It looks like there will be lots of opportunities for creative INTERNAFfers to become involved in A.A.D. CP:  "It is hoped that candlelit meetings can take place all around the world on this day.  Photographs of such meetings with internationally recognized background scenes will provide a basis for articles to be submitted to local and national media, enhancing our main objective ñ To raise Ataxia Awareness." Following are some of the alternatives to a regular mouse: The Joystick Control Centre v2     FREE lets you assign keystrokes to the buttons on your joystick  ...Each joystick button can register up to 6 keystrokes. http://www.jumbo.com/pages/utilities/files  ToggleMOUSE  $20                 - Reduce mouse movement with QuickPoint and ScreenWrap                 - Reduce mouse clicks with ActiMouse and EconoClick                 - and much more http://www.toggle.com/products/togglemouse/index.html  Mouse Tool     $20 -clicks for you when you stop moving your cursor... http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html  Joystick-to-Mouse  $50 allows the joystick to position the mouse cursor and enables the joystick buttons to operate as mouse buttons... http://www.imgpresents.com/joy2mse/j2m.htm  Dragon NaturallySpeaking $100+ - English [British, Australian, Teen, American] French, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Swedish. http://www.dragonsys.com/products/index.html  Dragon NaturallySpeaking Demonstrations   United States and Canada http://www.dragonsys.com/products/demo/index.html  Footrat  $30; Modified Mouse $55 -All the clicking and dragging-and-dropping can be accomplished with the included TouchTime software or foot pedal http://www.TouchTime.com/cgi-bin/foot36.cgi  MS EasyBall  $25 -helps gross motor skills with an extra-large, easy-to-use one button trackball mouse http://www.healthboards.com/cerebral-palsy/105.html OR   http://www.kidsdomain.com/review/kdr/_age2to5-index.html  Home    Index    Page1    Page2    Page3    Page4