Oh man, it's been a good week for announcements! Raymond Chen has written a book, which is something I (along with most of the Win32 programming world) have been longing for.
Then I wake up today to find out that Microsoft has announced the dates for PDC 2007. No information on content or costs, but the dates are a good start. :-)
So yeah, that's two items which make this geek very happy. I'm hoping to get that book very early next year, and spend some time congratulating Raymond in person at PDC later in the year. :-)
An item which makes this geek unhappy is our idiotic government with regards to the way they print money. During the last redesign of our cash here in the US, many people said "make it accessible for people with disabilities" which our government promptly ignored. Because, it's fun to be one of the only countries in the world to not make their money accessible. So when our government was sued over this, I was quite happy. Call me crazy, but I think that our government (which is "for the people") should perhaps listen to its 1.3 million citizens who are legally blind and give them fair access to money, as is stipulated by laws which our government ratified. So, I was very happy to see our court system enforcing this law. However, the idiot in office decided that it would be expensive to redesign our currency again, so he's asking the courts to reverse its decision. Um, hello? Dumbass, if you listened the last time, it wouldn't be so expensive. So man up and do it right for once. Yes, it's expensive to do. It's also the right thing to do.
As an aside, I got a large amount of cleaning done last night, so I think that if I hit the floors pretty hard tonight, I'll have the house in respectable shape to greet Elissa's family. I head out on Thursday -- I'm very excited! :-)
Personally, I like money just the way it is, with all bills the same size. Call me discriminatory, but I don't want each bill to be a different size...
They don't have to be different sizes -- they can have braille markings, different textures in certain spots or any number of other markings. Also, blind people tend to have amazing skills at telling sizes with very small differences. It's not like you need the bills to have major differences. Just SOME differences.
Oh yeah, and I should note that having lived in a country which differentiates its money (Canada), it's a really nice thing. It makes figuring your cash out really easy compared to the US. Right now, you have to physically look at each bill to have an idea of its value. In Canada, you just look at the colors and you can have an idea.
Better accessibility rarely makes things harder for people when done properly. I bet you make use of accessibility improvements on a daily basis without even thinking of it, such as elevators and touch-tone phones.
Coins are all different sizes and that does not seem to cause grief
In Canada even the $1 and $2 coins are slightly different sizes and they have other means of distinguishing them
I have several friends who are legally blind (althogh what that means can vary widely) One can read the news paper althey they have tunnel vision so badly they basically read it one character at a time.
Another is completely blind and has no vision at all.
One can tell the bills apart by color. The other by the various markings on the bills but not size as they are all the same size.
it is possible to make it accessible by blind people without having to make different sizes (like the Netherlands and many other European countries)
One thing that does change is the composition of the "paper"
The currency in Canada feels different than US currency as the compiosition has more plastic and more durable materials that the US bills which are mostly cotton.
Here the government simply issues it and while there's some hue and cry about it. people use it. That has not always been the case in the US (ie/ the Susan B Anthony dollar coin and the Sacagewea US coins)
Not sure how you overcome that resistance to change
Now, the one that really makes me wonder is all the drive thru ATM's that are marked in Braille :)
@Norm -- the dollar coins don't go over well here because the gov't doesn't get rid of the bills. If we transitioned like Canada did where the bill is removed from circulation and the coins are phased in, then people would change and it'd be fine.
As for braille on drive-up ATMs, I asked a blind friend once. The answer is that they want to be able to enter their PIN number by themselves when a friend drives them. This way they can keep their information private. However, most ATMs have so many accessibility issues that the visually impaired tend to avoid them anyways.
The US dollar bills are the most ugly bills I've ever seen. They're just very boring .... very green. Yuck. Now I'm not that fond of the Euro bills either, but they are better than the US bills.
As far as design is concerned I think the bills for the Dutch guilder are among the nicest. Well at least they are very colorful. Just have a look:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederlandse_gulden
And we've had special marks for blind people for as long as I can remember (more than 36 years).
In Australia all our notes are the same size but are beautifully coloured; like opals, coral and our outback desert soil.
So we have Red, purples, Orange blue and green notes.
Australia's plastic money is made of a non-porous polymer with a specially developed protective coating so the notes stay cleaner and don't absorb moisture. They last on average 4-5 times longer in circulation and can go through the wash without problems ;-)
They have several different encryption techniques to make them very hard to copy.
AS kids we used to put them in the oven to make them small. Now that I am older I value my plastic notes too much to do this ;-)
From what I understand, Australian currency is the gold standard "best" there is both in terms of security features and accessibility. I've heard tons of good stuff about your money.
Though I have to admit, the link that Rob posted showing Dutch money is rather pretty.
Can't we just make money more accessible to... everybody?
Seriously, it would not require much to make paper money accessible for the blind. Braille dots would be OK, but they can wear down easily, but what about differences in the shapes (rounded versus square corners, scalloped edges)? Coins would just require a difference in the indentations along the edges and more discernable differences in coin sizes.
Another important change would be to increase the contrast on both paper money and coins so that people with subnormal vision or cataracts can still read them.
I agree Dr Scott -- if *I* got to pick how to change US currency, here's my plan:
1) Get rid of 1$ bills and phase in 1$ and 2$ coins. The coins would be the same size, but have different edges to "feel" the difference by, and would be different colors.
2) Change the material to be a polymer like AU dollars. More sturdy of a material, wears less.
3) Colorize 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 (and higher) bills so that no two bills are the same color.
4) Vary the denominational markings on the bills by texture.
5) Look into ways to make the bills more secure by checking out what works for other countries.
Plastic coated money would be cool. I think the shrinky-dink money would be cool... for very low denominations ;) Mini-money
The US government doesn't even make/own its money so that could be part of the problem. :P
@Aaron - wo why don't you just adopt Canadian money since it already has all those characteristics :)
After flipping through four books, I couldn't find where I had initially read about the US not owning its money. After a bit of searching on the internet I found these two links which explain the situation pretty well.
http://www.maxexchange.com/ybj/chapter_1.htm
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=22016
RE: Braille dots on the ATMs, I heard that it's just an issue of mass production. The ATM factories are tooled to have braille dots on the keypad, and it obviously wouldn't be worth the retooling expense to remove them just because they're making a batch of ATMs that happen to be intended for drive-up use.
@Adam - it's just one of those "makes you wonder" kind of things although I'm fairly certain that the ATM's in the drive throughs are no different than the ones for walk ups