Toluu

Deaf Adventures in Johnson City

My Experiences as a Deaf and partially employed person freshly moved to Johnson City, TN. As I search for new jobs, I experince new things in my social life, my professional life and family life.

My very first customer review, Sprint BlackBerry Pearl 8130April 15 2008

Here's a vlog post about my new BlackBerry purchased last month, I give it a 8 out of 10. I'm very satisfied with the camera and messaging services. If there's anything I missed, please let me have it in the comments! Thanks!

UPDATE:

well it seems that we have some night owls on my blog.

The difference between the 8130 and the 8330 is that the 8130 has a suretype system meaning that each key has 2 letters assigned to it. So there's a big learning curve in adopting to the Pearl from a qwerty keyboard.

I ordered my BB Pearl from sprintrelaystore.com and am using the data-only plan. It is a steal because I am getting EVDO high speed internet access. And it allows for tethering to laptops at no extra charge.

One of my favorite things about the pearl is that it's so small and can easily fit in my pocket. It felt so weird transitioning from a sidekick to this because there was no bulky device in my pocket. it's very nice and very powerful for such a small device.

asking the Deaf community what smartphone is the best?March 17 2008

Vlog post asking for suggestions for a good smartphone because my sidekick 3 broke a few weeks ago. Considering iPhones and blackberries. I'd like to get a forum started in the comments if possible.

BlackBerries with Wifi and 3GMarch 12 2008

come on! make it happen!

Driving myself crazy looking up a BlackBerry Curve with both wifi and 3G. I guess it's not happening. Any suggestions?

data only phone plans cont'dMarch 11 2008

The rentless pursuit for a data-only phone plan continues. I'm not
seeing any phone plans available from verizon that is data-only.

So far there are three wireless companies that provide data-only plans
that I'm aware of.

T-mobile (coverage sucks in the southeast, especially in the Johnson
City, TN area and carolinas)

Sprint (must verify deafness, to get unlimited data. However rumors of
the company going under are rampant due to lack of business and poor
customer service)

AT&T (comparable data-only plan but with a messaging limit of 5000 per
month. must verify deafness too. but has gotten me upset because plan
does not include iPhones or blackberries)

UPDATE: my mistake, I thought Sprint Relay had to verify deafness but they don't.

Playing with seesmicFebruary 27 2008

Alright, I'm wondering how this will work...I think this is going to be fantastic for the deaf community to communicate back and forth. I'm happy and excited to be a part of the alpha community.

seesmic does have its limitations. There are no subtitles or captioning options for deaf viewers to watch people using voice. I think that seesmic could embrace the potential of being a huge part of the online deaf community.

One way to do this is putting up an language option for "American Sign Language" in order for signers to be able to find each other more easily once seesmic goes final. I'm not sure if I'm the only one using seesmic that can sign but I'd welcome the opportunity to try to communicate with another deaf friend through seesmic.

Anyways Here's my first seesmic video. I'm just introducing myself as Louis Ricciardi, living here in Johnson City and explaining that I'm curious how this site will benefit the deaf community. I tried to voice for myself a little bit. Sorry if you can't understand my voice or I'm not loud enough. Anyway let me know what you think of the concept!



update: wow i just posted my video 30 minutes ago and I already have 9 replies. I haven't had a chance to see them all but I appreciate the positive response!