Don's Blog

SnapVRS Gone Aggressive Against Sorenson!
Don's Blog Somebody’s frothing at the mouth (hands?)! I recently got an email this morning with an amusing ad from SnapVRS that snipes at Sorenson. This is the first blatant attack on Sorenson I’ve seen in a long while from another VRS competitor. I’ve seen a similar advertisement from Purple, but there was no actual mention of...
Tue, Aug 31 2010

My Experiences: Deaf Youth USA, Visual Revolution...
Don's Blog A word of warning—this is a long article. So for those who’re impatient and just want a quick summary; it was an awesome experience, learned a lot, and definitely will be attending again for the next event. It wasn’t just about learning, it was about empowerment, unification, and bonding. I certainly made a lot of...
Sun, Jul 11 2010

A Deaf View: Alcatraz Cruises, Fun, But Not Deaf-Friendly.
Don's Blog A friend of mine and I both went to visit the Alcatraz island. I had heard much about it, and finally had a chance to visit it. We used Alcatraz Cruises to be able to reach the island. The island was quite interesting, I was surprised to hear Al Capone, AKA “Scarface”, was imprisoned at the...
Wed, May 26 2010

Sorenson Responds to FCC About VRS Rate Cut Proposal
Don's Blog A visitor left a comment to my post regarding the recent FCC VRS rate cut proposal. What surprised me was that the comment was directly from Sorenson. I checked the IP address, geolocated the IP, and am able to verify that the comment was indeed left from the Sorenson Communications Headquarters in Utah. I have not...
Tue, May 11 2010

VRS Rate Cuts NOT the death of VRS
Don's Blog I was going to let this go past without writing a post on this, but I’ve been getting quite a lot of calls on the concern about VRS rate cuts being the end of VRS. So I figured I’d write a post on it. As many of you already know, I am employed by PurpleVRS as...
Sun, May 09 2010

Taking Action Against Nelnet for Refusing VRS Calls
Don's Blog Nelnet emailed me the third party release forms. So I emailed them a response. I will be copying this into a letter, printing it out, then will send it via standard mail so they have a hard copy of it. I have already begun looking for an attorney, if you know of one, the referral would...
Fri, Apr 23 2010

Nelnet Refusing Calls from VRS Customers
Don's Blog I owe money in college student loans to two entities: one is the government, and one is Nelnet. I'm notoriously absent-minded, so it isn't a surprise when I forget my password to a site. Up to date, I've been making my monthly payments via Nelnet's website. Until now, that is. I forgot my password. So...
Wed, Apr 21 2010

NAD Responds to the FCC Declaratory Ruling
Don's Blog Bobbie Beth Scoggins of NAD responded to the FCC Declaratory Ruling via text and a vlog. I thought she shared several good points. It is good to see that the NAD is addressing it. As always, the short version as quoted from the NAD article: The TRS Fund does not pay for VRS calls placed for...
Sat, Mar 13 2010

Purple and FCC Hugs and Makes Up!
Don's Blog See? There’s some home to humanity after all! If Purple and FCC can get along, so can we all! FCC and Purple reached an agreement and made peace. Purple has issued a press release. Purple has survived the previous crisis, and will continue to serve customers! For those of you, who’re like me and have short attention...
Tue, Mar 09 2010

PurpleVRS: Still Alive, and Still Fighting!
Don's Blog PurpleVRS has issued a press release on the current ongoing situation with FCC, which includes how it will affect PurpleVRS. The article can be accessed directly at: [link] The article is quite long, so I’ll summarize it up for those who’re in a hurry, or have short attention spans. Basically, PurpleVRS has formally asked FCC to reconsider [...]
Wed, Mar 03 2010

FCC Vlog on FCC VRS Declaratory Ruling
Don's Blog The FCC has released a vlog on the recent VRS ruling, and I thought I'd share it with you all. In the Matter of Structure and Practices of the Video Relay Service Program. The FCC Reaffirms Rules and Policies of Video Relay Service. CG Docket No. 10-51 News Release: Word |PDF Declaratory Ruling: Word | PDF The above content can be directly [...]
Mon, Mar 01 2010

Vlog by Kelby Brick, Vice President of PurpleVRS on FCC...
Don's Blog Before I go any further, I’d like to reiterate a very important point that I failed to mention in my other two posts, a point that is already clearly positioned to the right of this web page. While I may work for Purple VRS, all of my posts, comments, and so on are of my [...]
Sun, Feb 28 2010

PurpleVRS Responds to FCC Ruling
Don's Blog A message from Kelby Brick (Vice President of Purple Communications, Inc., for Regulatory and Strategic Policy) was recently issued. Keep in mind, the message was compiled in a hurry since he's currently in Washington DC addressing the situation. I apologize if this post was hurried, but I just clocked out, and am in the middle [...]
Sat, Feb 27 2010

FCC to VRS Providers: PAY US BACK!
Don's Blog As many of you already know, I currently work for Purple Communications. We just received notice from Purple that when FCC had made their ruling on Feb 25th on how VRS providers can be reimbursed, they also included a very interesting requirement: VRS providers are to pay FCC back for the amounts billed that had to [...]
Fri, Feb 26 2010

Two from Viable Plead Guilty in VRS Fraud
Don's Blog As shared by Bruce Gross of WRAD: WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Anthony Mowl, the former assistant vice president of business development for Viable Communications Inc. (Viable), and Donald Tropp, the former human resources manager for Viable, pleaded guilty today to engaging in a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Communications Commission'...
Thu, Jan 14 2010

Talk on VP while flying thanks to FREE in-flight Wi-Fi!
Don's Blog Ever wish you could talk to people via videophone while on a plane enroute to somewhere? Or go online for free while on the plane? Or wish you could use the Wi-Fi while at the airport for free? Thanks to Google, now you can! Google is paying for free wifi for everyone on the planes, and [...]
Thu, Nov 12 2009

ViableVRS Slammed by Federal Class Action Lawsuits
Don's Blog Just when I thought ViableVRS was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when they got snapped up (pun intended) by Snap!VRS, Viable gets slammed by a federal class action lawsuit. Ouch. And apparently it’s not the only one, there’s another lawsuit pending that I wasn’t aware of. Interesting. I almost feel [...]
Tue, Sep 08 2009

Hell, it’s about time: ADA Upgrade, Deaf Style! (HR3101)
Don's Blog Just heard that Congress is considering a bill (HR 3101) about internet captioning. Got excited! Did some checking — the few blogs that I found only had vlogs talking about it, or simple blurbs. Very limited information for me to cut my teeth on. So I decided to do research and detailed analysis. Found the actual [...]
Tue, Sep 01 2009

Snap!VRS is buying Viable Communications!
Don's Blog Just found out about this. From the article: Pearl River, N.Y. — Snap!VRS announced today its plans to acquire Viable Communications, Inc. The companies reached agreement on Friday and will immediately begin the difficult work of stabilizing Viable's business operations and restoring the confidence of its significant constituent base. Current Snap!VRS and Viabl...
Wed, Aug 19 2009

Purple P3 Netbook Reduced to $149
Don's Blog Purple Communications just reduced the cost of their netbook from the initial price of $199 to $149. The D-Link wifi router is no longer free, and now costs $20 if you want to also get a wifi router. Keep in mind, this is if you have your discount code. If you do not have one, just [...]
Mon, Aug 17 2009

Are You Neutral?
Don's Blog A bud of mine, Travis Dougherty, posted a video on Facebook. I thought it delivered quite a powerful message. Facebook, of course, wouldn't share the video to the public (being a “closed garden”). But I found a copy of the video on YouTube. It also is subtitled. Just wanted to share it with ya'all, [...]
Tue, Feb 10 2009

My Trip to Fremont
Don's Blog Nathan Kester generously let me crash at his place for the night before the Pleasanton DeafNation Expo 2008 event. He told me Viable was hosting an event at the City Beach recreational facility, and that he was going there to meet up with a few friends of his. I decided I’d go too. As soon [...]
Sun, Oct 26 2008

Video Relay Services VS Text-based Relay Services
Don's Blog A friend of mine while talking to me via IM asked me why I preferred the Video Relay Services over the Text-based Relay Services. She dared to tell me to “elaborate”. She asked for it, so I elaborated. (The friend of mine is Rachel S. in Rochester, NY- greetings goes out to her! Thanks [...]
Sat, Sep 13 2008

MoveOn.org Not Captioning Videos
Don's Blog Noticed that MoveOn.org wasn’t captioning the videos they were sending out in their mass emails. So I sent them an email just a few minutes ago: I'm a blogger at DonCullen.net. I am deaf, am a member of the California Association of the Deaf, National Association of the Deaf, and the World Federation of the Deaf. [...]
Wed, Sep 03 2008

National Forum on Disability Issues
Don's Blog Got a newsletter from the NAD. A part of it said: The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is pleased to be a Hosting Sponsor of the “National Forum on Disability Issues.” This forum will feature the presumptive Republican candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (by satellite) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), representing the presumptive Democratic candidate, [...]
Fri, Jul 25 2008

Comcast Screw-up
Don's Blog Two weeks ago, I contacted Comcast asking them to establish service here for cable TV and broadband internet. They informed me that they’d be out to our residence in a few days. True to their word, they showed up the day after I contacted them. After a cursory examination of our house, the technician informed [...]
Sun, Jul 20 2008

Google Now Captioning Videos!
Don's Blog Or at the very least, the political ones! They’ve developed software that transliterates spoken speech into text for videos. The end result is captions on the videos, and also a side benefit is that now spoken words can be used as keywords for searching! Pretty cool! The internet just got a bit more accessible [...]
Tue, Jul 15 2008

Viable VPAD Pictures
Don's Blog Thought you’d like to see the pictures I took of the VPAD while I was in a hotel at Los Angles after I bought it! I bought the Viable VPAD at the Deaf Nation Expo 2008 at Pomona, California. That’s basically right next to (if not part of) Los Angles. They said it was $99, but [...]
Mon, Jul 14 2008

Viable VPAD
Don's Blog Recall the Viable VPAD I blogged about, where I actually drove all the way down to Los Angles to buy it? Will be reviewing it sometime this week or the next as soon as I have switched over to Comcast. I haven't been able to test it since I bought it (bad high speed [...]
Sun, Jul 13 2008

Congress Trying to Make Internet Accessible to the Deaf
Don's Blog I was reading the news when I saw a mention of Congress in the process of legislation that would substantially enhance accessibility for the deaf and the disabled for the internet. Naturally, this got my attention. Here’s the link if you’d like to read the bill for yourself: [link] For those who’re wondering, the bill has just [...]
Fri, Jun 27 2008

Obama & Captioning for the Deaf Update
Don's Blog As some of you may know, I’ve been in contact with the Obama administration regarding captioning all of their video media on their website. I got a response from them: Dear Friend, Thank you for contacting us about closed captioning of video on our website.  We appreciate your message, and work hard to make our website accessible. To [...]
Fri, Jun 27 2008

Obama and Captioning
Don's Blog I noticed that most of the media on Barack Obama's website was not captioned. They did have a webpage that contained links to several captioned videos, but that's it: the rest of the website wasn't captioned with the exception of the disabilities issue page. So... I sent a message to the Obama administration: “There's a problem [...]
Fri, Jun 27 2008