Ke5ter

iPhone 4 and facetime - close enough!
Ke5ter Well, time has arrived. More than 3 years ago, I anticipated that there will be a phone that has a video-conferencing capability and would use wifi, which has enough bandwidth to carry out a VC conference. My post on iPhone: future iPhone for deaf people. Facetime on YouTube: They showed sign language at the end. [...]
Wed, Jul 28 2010

Viagra could double risk of hearing loss
Ke5ter Viagra could double risk of hearing loss | Reuters. A new US study suggests men who take Pfizer's Viagra (sildenafil) or similar drugs for erectile dysfunction may double their chances of hearing impairment, bolstering a Food and Drug Administration warning from 2007 about this side effect.
Thu, May 20 2010

Communication in the Deaflympics
Ke5ter In this post, I'm going to write a bit of my experience traveling in the SE Asia (Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong). It was my first time attending the Deaflympics and as a person who has played a lot of sports, I'm familiar with these especially basketball. Before I start, I wanted to share [...]
Sun, May 09 2010

Displacement
Ke5ter I just purchased a one way plane ticket to Seoul, Korea and that's a little over a month from now when I will have stepped my foot over there for one more time. Like one of my friends' favorite maxims, “No replacement for displacement.” He's a big fan of the LS series engine with those [...]
Sun, May 02 2010

Just feel like writing something here. I realize that...
Ke5ter Just feel like writing something here. I realize that writing is simply thinking through our fingers. And that's great because I myself love to type. I suppose I don't have much choice because I'm deaf so this is pretty much the only mode I could communicate with hearing people. Unless they know sign [...]
Wed, Jan 20 2010

California School for the Deaf at Fremont - Clock Tower
Ke5ter Liked how this pic turned out.
Fri, Jan 15 2010

The New Sidekick LX
Ke5ter The new Sidekick LX is coming out on May 13th, though you can get on one sooner if you're already a T-Mobile customer. The pic here: Before I share my opinion on this, one guy named Vic couldn't have said it any better: The sidekick found its humble beginnings in the deaf/hard-of-hearing world, and it has always [...]
Fri, Apr 17 2009

25 random things about me
Ke5ter 1. My first meal when I was adopted to here from Korea was a happy meal from McDonald. 2. I'm not much of a talker myself, so if you find me pretty quiet, don't feel offended. You can be assured that my thoughts are almost always running at 100 mph per hour. If [...]
Sun, Feb 08 2009

Re-defining Deaf
Ke5ter Ryan Commerson and Wayne Betts Jr made a short movie - link here. It's a cool movie. Basically, they're trying to change the misconception about deaf people being dumb because in the past, the word, deaf, was always associated with dumb and that hearing loss had to be fixed. They were tired of [...]
Sat, Nov 15 2008

Famous deaf people throughout history
Ke5ter link No Tags
Tue, Oct 07 2008

International Day of Sign Language
Ke5ter .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } [[string:by2:International Day of Sign Language No Tags
Sun, Oct 05 2008

Tabula rasa
Ke5ter Tabula rasa With a limited auditory input (I can only hear low sounds with a db of about 70 in my left ear but profound in my right ear), I believe in this and thanks to technology we have like computers and the Web, we're able to input a lot of information through our eyes [...]
Thu, Oct 02 2008

on 43 things
Ke5ter 6,366 people want to learn sign language. link Cool. :-) sign language
Wed, Jul 16 2008

My Smart Hands Baby Sign Language
Ke5ter Cool. sign language
Wed, Jul 16 2008

Strange dream
Ke5ter Hmm, I had a strange dream. There will be another Tower of Babel event and this time, everyone will become deaf, thus need to rely on one language to communicate. That would be sign language. Another way to communicate is to use computers or anything that uses texts. No Tags
Mon, Jul 14 2008

Deaf People’s Inner Voice
Ke5ter Link “Do profoundly deaf people who learn to talk have a voice in their head?” – Heather & Allen Exby “My best answer to this,” Hauser wrote, “is that the brain has a special capacity to develop phonological representations, even when it does not have auditory input. The representations might be dramatically different from what...
Fri, Jun 27 2008

The Google Sign
Ke5ter I knew it. It was a matter of time before someone would create a Google Doodle logo in ASL. That has happened. Here's the image below. Click on ‘Grades 7-9′, and Region 2 to see it. Kudos to Molly Kestenbaum for creating the art and getting nominated! Vote for [...]
Tue, May 13 2008

The Ball - ASL story
Ke5ter Ben Bahan. One of the greatest ASL storytellers. ASL, deafness, videos
Wed, May 07 2008

Workforce Recruitment Program Success Story
Ke5ter Thought I'd share this story that my former manager asked me to write for the program. --- Success Story There are many paths to the top of mountain but the view is always the same. - Chinese proverb by Nathan W. Kester 4.5.06 Hi, my name is Nathan W. Kester and I'm going to write how [...]
Sat, Apr 12 2008

Captioned videos on Google Video
Ke5ter Thought I'd spread the word out. [link] Displays 100 highest relevant videos with captions. Here's for a starter on Steven Pinker who is a linguist/professor at MIT. He supports that ASL is a language since humans have an innate ability to communicate, thus a language. :-) captions, google
Tue, Feb 26 2008

DeafYouthUsa.org
Ke5ter There are many good writers out there but one of the best writers I've come to know is my friend, Megan Malzkuhn. You can visit her blog at www.malzed.com/blog. She's trying to start a new organization body for those who are fresh out of high school and realize that life after high [...]
Tue, Feb 12 2008

new version of DeafPulse.com is released!!
Ke5ter Finally launched. DeafPulse.com Will update again soon later. Enjoy the site! deafpulse.com
Sun, Feb 03 2008

ASL history chart
Ke5ter Thanks to Don who posted a link to Google's news archive. I decided to explore a little further and saw this great chart generated by Google. So I made this chart with a bit of ASL history. ASL history chart. 1816 - Sign language from France was brought to the United States by Thomas Gallaudet, [...]
Fri, Jan 25 2008

MSU plans sign-language dorm
Ke5ter This confirms it. I'm convinced that American Sign Language is the fastest growing language in the nation right now. via The Detroit News Starting this fall, Michigan State University students can live in a dorm where American Sign Language will be the primary mode of communication, university leaders announced Thursday. MSU's ASL Living/Learning commu...
Thu, Jan 24 2008

Color By Hand: The American Sign Language Spectrum
Ke5ter Color By Hand: The American Sign Language Spectrum Very cool. Someone made a very nice post, using colors to learn American Sign Language, on their website, colourlovers.com. sign language
Tue, Jan 22 2008

Viable.net gets published in Tech Digest
Ke5ter techdigest.tv viable.net One of the more interesting products on show at CES Unveiled this afternoon was Viable's video phone aimed at the deaf and hard of hearing amongst us. The newly-established company's put a lot of time and money into developing the phone, which is completely portable and wireless. With a 10.2″ touch screen, the unit has [.....
Sun, Jan 06 2008

Obama visits Iowa School for the Deaf!
Ke5ter Crowd turns out for late Obama rally “Hope” and “Change” is how Democrat Barack Obama described his path to the White House, and he urged the estimated 1,050 people who saw him Tuesday night at Iowa School for the Deaf to join him and bring a friend to Thursday's caucuses. It's important to do so, he [...]
Wed, Jan 02 2008

VRS service at Brubank airport
Ke5ter Cool! wonder how many of these that are installed in airports around the U.S. ? deafness, travel
Wed, Jan 02 2008

Work partners grow special bond with language
Ke5ter Good story. By Christina Salerno / The Modesto Bee Lots of people make friends with their co-workers. Few go so far as to learn a second language to communicate with them. That's the story of Timothy Lopez and Brandon Bearce. The duo have been hauling away piles of discarded furniture, yard debris and other materials for [...]
Wed, Jan 02 2008

Dorm of the Deaf comic strip
Ke5ter by Jan-Karl, as told to Dustin Glick - the artist Click on the pic to see the full comic strip. comics, deafness
Tue, Dec 11 2007

AT&T iPhone Data-only Plan For Deaf people
Ke5ter I was working on a new version of DeafPulse.com (yes, finally!) and saw this post from Gizmodo about AT&T bringing back the data-only plan for the deaf after killing the plan because people were complaining about how unfair the plan was. Ha, one Gizmodo staff wrote this: We wouldn't usually call people douchebags lightly [...]
Tue, Dec 11 2007

Google maps and captioned movies mashup!
Ke5ter Awesome! finally a website showing Google maps and captioned movies. Looks pretty good to me and updated.
Wed, Nov 28 2007

ISD is not an institution, it is a boarding school.
Ke5ter Kent Schafer, former student at ISD and now a webmaster at idhhc.state.il.us, sent me an article link to ISD's increased enrollment number. It's a refreshing news because ISD has been on the decline for as long as I can remember. It peaked at almost 500 students thirty years ago but now half [...]
Mon, Nov 26 2007

ISD sees enrollment boom, 63 new students
Ke5ter My alma mater, Illinois School for the Deaf, got published in the Jacksonville Journal-Courier about how ISD is seeing an increase in enrollment numbers. I think it's got to do with the technology and more information available through the web. ISD sees enrollment boom by Darrin Burn. Rachel Sweigart heard the wrong words at the [...]
Mon, Nov 26 2007

Deaf coffee shop owner - Yunakokimama
Ke5ter Someone linked my blog to her ‘Stumbleupon' and she described that she and her husband own a coffee shop in Greensboro, NC! I am born deaf in Japan. I came to USA for achieving dream since I found out that Mss. Heather who is deaf was honored as miss America. Now My husband and I [...]
Wed, Nov 21 2007

Back to the Future - Korean adoption story
Ke5ter Written sometime in 2002., “Back to the Future” was my fave childhood movie about a young guy who goes back in time with a flying car. The best chilldhood movie ever made. When the 747 Boeing finally put its wheels on the ground, I made a sigh of relief and stretched out my legs, [...]
Sun, Nov 18 2007

Southwest Airline is the best airline, period.
Ke5ter I just got flown in to Illinois to see my only grandmother who suffered a bad stroke and it appears that she will not ever regain consciousness. I want to share feedback that Southwest Airline is the best, most deaf-friendly airline that I've ridden on. They don't do seat assignments, just A, B, or [...]
Wed, Nov 14 2007

Virtual interpreters a possibility?
Ke5ter Saw this article on BBS news: Technique links words to signing The system, called SiSi (Say It Sign It) was created by a group of students in the UK. SiSi will enable deaf people to have simultaneous sign language interpretations of meetings and presentations. It uses speech recognition to animate a digital character or avatar. IBM says [...]
Mon, Sep 24 2007

Marriage proposal - 'ILY sign' on a cake
Ke5ter One of my co-workers' friend who is learning to become an interpreter recently proposed to his fiance with a cake that said “ILY” sign. I would have put up his picture but I don't have his permission, tho. That strikes me something. I haven't never really thought about putting a ‘ILY [...]
Mon, Aug 20 2007

Tip #2 - Do you know ASL?
Ke5ter In my recent interview with Google, obviously, I need an interpreter, so in requesting for one, I didn't say “I'm deaf, I need an interpreter for our interview, so please get one for me.” Instead, I asked “Do you happen to be fluent in ASL? If not, then we'd need an interpreter.” Then, [...]
Thu, Jul 26 2007

Why I didn't get a cochlear implant?
Ke5ter Not too long ago, I actually thought about getting a cochlear implant so I can start talking to hearing people and maybe on phone but I realize there are no guarantees that I would be able to carry intelligible speech and my past speech therapy didn't go so well either. Also, I didn't [...]
Thu, Jul 26 2007

Tip #1 - get your own interpreter
Ke5ter For the next five days, I'm going to write a tip that I think will help a deaf person to succeed. My first tip is “get your own interpreter.” I've had a fair share of working with different interpreters. Some are great, some good, and some bad. Some were certified, some weren't. [...]
Wed, Jul 25 2007

Sign language in matchbooks
Ke5ter Saw this from Kottke.org. Sign Language in matchbooks. Isn't that awesome? I'm going to make one for myself. ASL, cool, deafness
Wed, Jul 11 2007

Illinois School for the Deaf is one of the five...
Ke5ter Got this email from a friend. My alma mater, ISD, is one of the semi-finalists that could win $25,000 dollars from Expo, the maker of dry board markers. The one that has the most votes will win, so it needs every of your vote. Click here to vote! Hello Everyone! The Junior High science [...]
Tue, May 15 2007

We need to output more.
Ke5ter Output. First, I'm going to share a little story I learned in a math class that led me to the idea of outputting. I remember one of the beautiful things about mathematics was this concept called a function. One time I was sitting in a math class and the teacher was explaining what does a [...]
Thu, Apr 26 2007

Finally, Caption Playback - posted by Ken Harrenstien, ...
Ke5ter Thought I'd post this to help spread the word out. Finally, Caption Playback on Google Video “...however, this is exactly the same problem faced by the early proponents of CC, and it is this very issue which has compelled us to start with baby mis-steps sooner, rather than a giant leap of perfection later. Now [...]
Wed, Apr 25 2007

"Through Deaf Eyes" PBS documentary on Google Video
Ke5ter Wow, guess there's no need to download the documentary off the Net as it's on Google Video now. deafness, videos
Thu, Apr 12 2007

DeafPulse.com - new features and more feeds
Ke5ter I've just released a newer version of Deafpulse.com. One big new feature is the added functionality of collapsing sections. Click on any white headings or “more” links, it'll expand to show more news. By default, current deaf news/blogs, youtube, and flickr sections are laid open but they all can be collapsed if [...]
Tue, Apr 03 2007

Nice blog by a late-deafened man who lost most of his...
Ke5ter Saw this from DeafPulse.com. Roy Talyer's blog: a New World called Deafness. Living life as a hearing person with all of the sounds of our world and then being faced with the transitions from the hearing world to total silence in the Deaf world is an overwhelming challenge. As I said in part nine The reality is that [...]
Mon, Apr 02 2007

Nice article by a Duke student who met a group of...
Ke5ter “The learning process never ends, even on vacation.” by Megan Bode. “My most important experience, however, had nothing to do with personal adaptation to an unfamiliar environment. On our first day in the hotel, we met a group of deaf kids across the hall. One of them, David, had some hearing, and was able to tell [...]
Wed, Mar 28 2007