| Szukaj:Słowo(a): Web Accessibility Initiative |
Od zawsze /powinno/ się robić strony tak, aby mogło korzystać z nich jak najwięcej użytkowników. Strona /powinna/ być tak zaprojektowana, aby można było odczytać z niej informacje w *każdej* rozdzielczości. To jest zadanie webmastera. Powinieneś też uwzględnić ludzi z ograniczeniami (np. niepełnosprawnych) korzystających z sieci. Poczytaj o WCAG i Web Access Initiative na stronie W3C: http://www.w3c.org/WAI/ Jeśli robisz stronę pod /konkretną/ rozdzielczość to zawsze tracisz Powinno się robić strony dostępne dla jak największej liczby Wiem że piszę nie na tą grupę, bo to graficzna (oglądam czasami |
Te błędy walidatora to tylko dowód na to, że nikt w Urzędzie nie jest w stanie ani odebrać takiej pracy, ani nawet sensownie sformułować warunków jej wykonania. Przypominam, że jest to strona miejska, więc na przykład po uwagę powinny zostać wzięte zalecenia WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative). Ktoś o tym pomyślał? To jest generalnie problem ogólnopolski, ale skoro już powołano do życia coś nowego, to warto się było głębiej nad tym powoływaniem zastanowić. To by kosztowało więcej, jasne, ale skoro miasto ma ambicje bycia katalizatorem rozwoju technologicznego (były takie plany, były), to warto zainwestować we własny wizerunek. |
Info sobre el juego: The Lost Experience is a multimedia puzzle game in which a ragtag band of rebels (DJ Dan, Tonya, the Retrievers of Truth forum posters, Persephone and Rachel Blake) take on a no-goodnik foundation with a nefarious agenda. Followers of the game are treated as interested parties seeking access to the results of the rebel research or as possible allies in the battle against the Dark Side. Wanna play? Participants are tipped to the existence of a new password and a new clue through a TV commercial or by a change at a familiar in-game Website. Cracking a code or solving a problem reveals a password, which then unlocks a data dump at a clue location, usually in the form of a Flash/Shockwave presentation of documents, a podcast or a videocast. Clues, tips and revelations are delivered through TV commercials, IM conversations, camera phones, blogs, Website source code, voice mail, books, newspaper advertisements and just about everything else you can think of but skywriting. The Lost Experience has revealed these island-related revelations: DHARMA stands for Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications, the Dharma Initiative scientists vanished decades ago and haven't been heard from since, a Dharma-brand shark (like the "toothy SOB" that attacked Michael and Sawyer after the wreck of the raft) washed up dead near Australia, a fellow named Magnus Hanso (named on the blast-door map) may have owned and operated the Black Rock back in ye olden times and Sun's dad's company is building a supersecret boat for the Hanso crew right this very minute. (El subrayado es para los amantes del shark! Juaaaaaaa) Fuente: eonline.com |
This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing UK company based in Krakow. TAK-Outsourcing is a young company providing Accounts Receivable services to customers in the UK. We are currently seeking PROGRAMMERS (DEVELOPERS) to work on a part - time or short - term contract. Requirements: GOOD SPOKEN ENGLISH Ability to take initiative, pro-activity Good analytical skills and high attention to details Developing the company website in PHP To help develop a database using Microsoft Access Developing interfaces to two 3rd party systems We offer: Work in an international environment High possibility for self-development An attractive remuneration If interested please send your CV in ENGLISH ONLY and mail it to: recruitment@tak-outsourcing.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Poszukujesz pracy w międzynarodowej firmie? Dołącz do nas! Dajemy Ci możliwość pracy w brytyjskiej firmie usytuowanej w Krakowie. TAK-Outsourcing jest młodą firmą dostarczającą usługi klientom w Wielkiej Brytanii. Obecnie poszukujemy chętnych na stanowisko PROGRAMISTA do pracy na pół etatu bądź krótkoterminowej Wymagania: DOBRA ZNAJOMOŚĆ JĘZYKA ANGIELSKIEGO W MOWIE tworzenie stron internetowych firmy (PHP) pomoc w opracowaniu bazy danych firmy w Microsoft Access opracowywanie interfejsow do systemów Oferujemy: - pracę w międzynarodowym środowisku - możliwości rozwoju - atrakcyjne wynagrodzenie Jeśli jesteś zainteresowany prześlij swoje CV w JĘZYKU ANGIELSKIM na adres: recruitment@tak-outsourcing.com |
Witaj, Dokładnie tak. Jeśli Twoim celem jest dotarcie do klientów, pozycjonowanie usług bądź produktów w sieci pierwszym krokiem powinno być usunięcię błędów i doporowadzenie kodu do zgodności z standardami. Pamiętaj że wśród Twoich klientów są też osoby niepełnosprawne, warto poczytać np. o Web Accessibility Initiative. Dla przykładu wszystkie stronki unii europjeskiej, rządowe itp. muszą spełniać ww. kryteria. powodzenia, krzysztof redesigned |
Czytając wypowiedz Krzysztof redesigned zaciekawiło mnie „Web Accessibility Initiative. Dla przykładu wszystkie stronki unii europjeskiej, rządowe itp. muszą spełniać ww. kryteria.” Co to za kryteria pierwszy raz słyszę o czymś takim. Obszar działania wojewódzki a jeśli chodzi grupy docelowe , firmy transportowe bardzo dobry pomysł , Urzędem statystycznym to tam najlepiej zostawic reklamy ulotki tak to się zgodze dobry pomysł właśnie zastanawiam się nad naprawa Tirów oraz naczepów siodłowych.
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KONKURS w edycji CZERWIEC 2008 - WYNIKI PERŁA INTERNETU: Parafia św. Zygmunta i św. Jadwigi Śl. w Kędzierzynie-Koźlu www.parafiakozle.pl  Postanowiliśmy przyznać dodatkowe wyróżnienie dla strony: Parafii św. Zygmunta i św. Jadwigi Śl. w Kędzierzynie-Koźlu za wersję strony dla niedowidzących. Wyróżnienie nazwaliśmy WAI modyfikacje. WAI to skrót od Web Accessibility Initiative (pl. Inicjatywa dostępności do sieci). Inicjatywa W3C mająca na celu zwiększenie szeroko rozumianej dostępności stron internetowych. Dostępność dla osób niepełnosprawnych.  WYRÓŻNIENIE: Sekrety Urody i Zdrowia www.sekretyurody.eu  WYRÓŻNIENIE: Portal społecznościowy JakLeci www.jakleci.pl  GRATULUJEMY WYGRANEJ I WYRÓŻNIONYM!!! Strony nagrodzone w konkursie stron Perły Internetu Zapraszamy do edycji LIPIEC 2008: http://forum.kataloog.info/viewtopic.php?t=5385 |
AFRICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS www.academicjournals.org/ajpsir Dear. Colleague Introducing 'African Journal of Political Science and International Relations (AJPSIR)' The African Journal of Political Science and International Relations (AJPSIR) publish rigorous theoretical reasoning and advanced empirical research in all areas of the subjects. We welcome articles or proposals from all perspectives and on all subjects pertaining to Africa, Africa's relationship to the world, public policy, international relations, comparative politics, political methodology, political theory, political history and culture, global political economy, strategy and environment. The journal will also address developments within the discipline. Each issue will normally contain a mixture of peer-reviewed research articles, reviews or essays using a variety of methodologies and approaches. Our objective is to inform authors of the decision on their manuscript(s) within four weeks of submission. Following acceptance, a paper will normally be published in the next issue. Instruction for authors and other details are available on our website www.academicjournals.org/AJPSIR Prospective authors should send their manuscript(s) to ajpsir@academicjournals.org Open Access One key request of researchers across the world is unrestricted access to research publications. AJPSIR is fully committed Open Access Initiative by providing free access to all articles (both abstract and full PDF text) as soon as they are published. We ask you to support this initiative by publishing your papers in this journal. Invitation to Review AJPSIR is seeking for qualified reviewers as members of the review board team. AJPSIR serves as a great resource for researchers and students across the globe. We ask you to support this initiative by joining our reviewer's team. If you are interested in serving as a reviewer, kindly send us your resume to ajpsir@academicjournals.org Publication Alert We will be glad to send you a publication alert showing the table of content with link to the various abstracts and full PDF text of articles published in each issue. Kindly send us an email if you will like to receive publication alert. Best regards, Clementina Anighoro Editorial Assistant African Journal of Political Science and International Relations (AJPSIR) E-mail: ajpsir@academicjournals.org http://www.academicjournals.org/AJPSIR |
<snip well, these trolls just seek attention and when you don't give them
<snip yeah i agree with you, but the major problem with me (personally) is
<snip well, i had previously suggested that we could have intellectual
<snip The fact of the matter is, there were some good guys in this group
the fact of the matter is, from what I have observed in the past, most of the good guys get bored and just leave NGs such as this rather than *doing* something about it and taking an initiative on their own. It's a good thing that you have taken up this point now. All the same, the bottomline is - An NG *is* what you create out of it. "The battle of evermore" - Led Zep |
voltAGE [ ÄvÏ™ ] claimed:
They are not ordinary trolls. They are skilled and have one goal: destroy a2h. Take a look at this document: http://www.altairiv.demon.co.uk/troll/trollfaq.html to see what I mean (this is _not_ usual troll faq). Technique used here is similar to what I see in Poland. Ask stupid But we *react*. React as a group, and react very strongly to any atempt to
It'd be naive to think that one person or two or three could do anything about what this group is. We need more people understanding the need to return a2h to it's original form.
That's true. I'd be off such discussions because I'm not very good at tehnical aspects of anything (I'm a mathematician) ;-) I'd love to read those though.
What I mean is, that there are more importand issues that website. Importand thing is to have rules of what is valid to post/ask. What's offtopic and what's welcomed. This has to happen in our heads. We need to have common idea, an institution. The website would be then just a byproduct of our needs; byproduct of a2h institution in our heads.
This is a circle. We need more intelectuals, but they won't come because there are not enough intelectuals. That's why I think this ng is destroyed. We don't need a fix. We need to rebuild it.
I'll try to show you what I mean by fighting trolls and making this group better in next few days. It will be controversial, but maybe you'll like it. Maybe even others will join. I'll try to ask my friends from Poland to help us :
Thats sooo true. FUT Warning. |
Witam, CzytaliÂście to?!?!? Novell Gives Small Businesses Networking at the Right Price - Free * Novell will provide small companies free out-of-the-box networking PROVO, Utah - April 10, 2003 - Small businesses are looking for a The small business market is one of the most dynamic sectors of the "Novell has long been a backbone of corporate networks, but small Most small businesses turn to local solution providers, instead of "Novell Small Business Suite is our most popular small business package, In addition to delivering the Novell Small Business Suite through its For more information, customers should contact their solution provider Partners seeking more information should visit |
No wyglada ze sie chlopcy wreszcie za marketing wzieli. W zasadzie kierunek OK. Masz mala siec lub sie uczysz to mozesz zainstalowac i uzywac darmo. Zarobiles troche grosza i urosles to sie podziel i uzywaj dalej znanego ci srodowiska w pelnej wersji. Jak to wypali to Small M$ sie zrobi small. Kris
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Poniżej masz informacje zebrane z grupy pl.comp.www + moje zakładki: CSS:Basics CSS:Tutorials CSS:Guides CSS: Layout Resources CSS: Tips, Techniques & Articles Strony o technikach zastępowania tekstu obrazkiem: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fir/ CSS Floats: Lektura obowiązkowa: + kod http://www.csszengarden.com. "Magia IE": :hover dla IE IE na Macu Hacki: CSS: Forms Dostępność: Po Polsku : Narzedzia : Po angielsku : rowniez ksiazki: -"Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity" (J. Nielsen) |
A do propozycji Tomka dołączam niezbędnę listę kursów (na jakiś czas wystarczy - zebrane z pl.comp.www i nie tylko ;]): CSS:Basics CSS:Tutorials CSS:Guides CSS: Layout Resources CSS: Tips, Techniques & Articles Strony o technikach zastępowania tekstu obrazkiem: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fir/ CSS Floats: Lektura obowiązkowa: + kod http://www.csszengarden.com. "Magia IE": :hover dla IE IE na Macu Hacki: CSS: Forms Jakieś materiały na temat reguł tworzenia wyglądu strony, kolory...: http://www.usability.gov/guidelines/ Po Polsku : -Seminarium Human Computer Interaction Narzedzia : Po angielsku : rowniez ksiazki: -"Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity" (J. Nielsen) |
Darious not an issue to current business as we have already suffered the pain by pulling our GMail product from the market a couple of years ago due to confusion. As registrants of the TM in the US prior to google we are covered by Google have the financial & political clout to perhaps pull the rug. Moving away from a potential huge GMail windfall the company is The distribution channel means they no longer need to utilise partners The channel also makes them more appealing to the buyside audience as Also the model has high operational gearing due to the research The GEO monitor is an exciting product & receiving positive feedback To add the 'Cherry on top' the Major intiative the company has been The management are strong & well equipped for the task, CEO owns a very large portion of the company. Not bad for a ÂŁ4m who in my opinion are grossly undervalued by the Time will tell as ever where the value of the company is in the future Regal Petroleum having a good day as well I see. |
FRAUD INFO Lehman Collapse Probed by 3 Federal Grand Juries By Linda Sandler and Christopher Scinta Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which last month filed the largest bankruptcy in history, is the subject of three federal criminal probes and at least 12 subpoenas, according to a lawyer for the failed bank. Lead Lehman bankruptcy lawyer Harvey Miller said yesterday in Manhattan federal court that the investigations were launched by New York U.S. attorneys in Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as in Newark, New Jersey. They are focusing in part on Lehman's role in the $330 billion auction rate securities market and possible crimes associated with its $6 billion June stock issue, according to a person familiar with the case. '`It's clear they have given it some urgency and priority,'' said Robert Plotkin, a former Justice Department attorney, now a white collar criminal defense lawyer at Richmond, Virginia-based McGuireWooods. ``Given the notoriety and the headlines, this would be one of the ones that would be on a faster track.'' The demise of Lehman, which sought court protection Sept. 15, accelerated a global credit crisis that has wiped out $30 trillion of equity value in the past year. The U.S. has begun investigations of mortgage lending, securitization and failed banks including New York-based Lehman. The FBI is looking into 26 firms, including American International Group Inc., a senior law- enforcement official said. `An Outcry' ``There's been an outcry from people in the streets, and that puts pressure on prosecutors to do something,'' said Todd Harrison, a former New York federal prosecutor now with Washington-based Patton Boggs. ``They're going to be looking at all aspects of the credit crisis, including the rating agencies and the mortgage lenders who packaged and sold securities.'' The New York Post reported today that Lehman Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld is among the 12 subpoenaed, without saying where it got the information. CNBC reported former Lehman Chief Financial Officer Erin Callan, 42, now Credit Suisse's global hedge fund chief, was subpoenaed, without saying where it got the information. She didn't immediately return calls seeking comment. ``It could be an early notice to him not to destroy any documents, obstruct the investigation or talk to witnesses out of school,'' said Plotkin of the reported subpoena of Fuld, 62. ``They also might want to get him in there and nail down his story before he has a chance to talk to advisers.'' June Stock Sale Investigators have subpoenaed Ernst & Young LLP, Lehman's auditor; U.K.-based bank Barclays Plc, which bought Lehman's North American brokerage; and the New Jersey Division of Investments, which runs a pension fund that lost $115.6 million on a $180 million investment in the June stock sale, according to people familiar with the case. It's not clear whether these subpoenas are part of the 12 noted by Miller, 75, of New York-based Weil, Gotshal & Manges. In court yesterday, he said a state attorney general is also probing Lehman, without elaborating. Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia in Manhattan, Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell, and Fuld's lawyer, Patricia Hynes of London-based Allen & Overy, declined to comment. Garcia, 47, Campbell, 42, and Newark, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie have increased their resources to prepare for possible prosecutions associated with the credit crisis and bank failures. Christie, 46, has subpoenaed documents to determine whether Lehman failed to fully disclose its eroding financial condition at the time of the $6 billion stock offering, according to people familiar with the matter. Opened Inquiries Campbell has opened inquiries into whether Lehman executives misled investors about the firm's financial health and whether Zurich-based UBS AG lied to investors about securities backed by subprime mortgages, according to a person familiar with the case. Also subpoenaed by federal prosecutors were Putnam Investments LLC, the Boston-based mutual fund firm that oversees about $163 billion and bought Lehman bonds and shares; New York- based fund manager BlackRock Inc., a Lehman creditor; AIG, once the world's largest insurer; and New York-based C.V. Starr & Co., run by ex-AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg, according to the people. The grand jury probes follow not only the implosion of Lehman, but the collapse of New York-based Bear Stearns Cos. earlier this year, the U.S. government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the rescue of New York-based AIG. Auction Rate Securities On the issue of auction rate securities, the grand juries may be exploring whether Lehman misled investors about the viability of the securities. The market collapsed in February after demand for the debt dried up. Banks paid to manage bidding on the debt abandoned the market and stopped acting as buyers of last resort. That caused rates to rise to as high as 20 percent. Last month, Brooklyn prosecutors charged two former Credit Suisse Group Inc. traders with fraudulently selling corporate clients more than $1 billion of auction-rate securities linked to subprime mortgages, which they claimed were backed by U.S. guaranteed student loans. A challenge for U.S. attorneys considering prosecutions based on the collapse of the subprime or auction rate markets will be to distinguish normal business activities from fraud. Prosecutors may rely on e-mails obtained through subpoenas, interviews of employees and forensic accounting to build a case. The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recently released several e-mails it obtained from the bank as part of a hearing Oct. 6 in Washington. Bear Stearns Campbell, who obtained indictments of former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin in June, cited e-mails showing their disparagement of the securities they were touting to clients. The defendants, who pleaded not guilty, face fraud charges for cheating investors out of $1.6 billion. ``E-mails are a great tool,'' said Christie. ``People seem freer to say things in e-mails that they might not say otherwise.'' Prosecutors may seek to bring a securities fraud prosecution if they can show that Lehman officials sought to mislead investors as to the financial health of the firm. ``They'll be looking for any misrepresentation by the heads of the divisions or anyone working for them,'' said Patton Boggs lawyer Todd Harrison. ``For an indictment, the misrepresentation has to be material and you need to show that investors relied on it to invest more money or keep money in.'' The case is In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 08-13555, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). F.B.I. Struggles to Handle Financial Fraud Cases By ERIC LICHTBLAU, DAVID JOHNSTON and RON NIXON WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is struggling to find enough agents and resources to investigate criminal wrongdoing tied to the country’s economic crisis, according to current and former bureau officials. The bureau slashed its criminal investigative work force to expand its national security role after the Sept. 11 attacks, shifting more than 1,800 agents, or nearly one-third of all agents in criminal programs, to terrorism and intelligence duties. Current and former officials say the cutbacks have left the bureau seriously exposed in investigating areas like white-collar crime, which has taken on urgent importance in recent weeks because of the nation’s economic woes. The pressure on the F.B.I. has recently increased with the disclosure of criminal investigations into some of the largest players in the financial collapse, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The F.B.I. is planning to double the number of agents working financial crimes by reassigning several hundred agents amid a mood of national alarm. But some people inside and out of the Justice Department wonder where the agents will come from and whether they will be enough. So depleted are the ranks of the F.B.I.’s white-collar investigators that executives in the private sector say they have had difficulty attracting the bureau’s attention in cases involving possible frauds of millions of dollars. Since 2004, F.B.I. officials have warned that mortgage fraud posed a looming threat, and the bureau has repeatedly asked the Bush administration for more money to replenish the ranks of agents handling nonterrorism investigations, according to records and interviews. But each year, the requests have been denied, with no new agents approved for financial crimes, as policy makers focused on counterterrorism. According to previously undisclosed internal F.B.I. data, the cutbacks have been particularly severe in staffing for investigations into white-collar crimes like mortgage fraud, with a loss of 625 agents, or 36 percent of its 2001 levels. Over all, the number of criminal cases that the F.B.I. has brought to federal prosecutors — including a wide range of crimes like drug trafficking and violent crime — dropped 26 percent in the last seven years, going from 11,029 cases to 8,187, Justice Department data showed. “Clearly, we have felt the effects of moving resources from criminal investigations to national security,” said John Miller, an assistant director at the F.B.I. “In white-collar crime, while we initiated fewer cases over all, we targeted the areas where we could have the biggest impact. We focused on multimillion-dollar corporate fraud, where we could make arrests but also recover money for the fraud victims.” But Justice Department data, which include cases from other agencies, like the Secret Service and Postal Service, illustrate the impact. Prosecutions of frauds against financial institutions dropped 48 percent from 2000 to 2007, insurance fraud cases plummeted 75 percent, and securities fraud cases dropped 17 percent. Statistics from a research group at Syracuse University, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, using somewhat different methodology and looking only at the F.B.I., show an even steeper decline of nearly 50 percent in overall white-collar crime prosecutions in the same period. In addition to the investigations into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the F.B.I. is carrying out investigations of American International Group and Lehman Brothers, and it has opened more than 1,500 other mortgage-related investigations. Some F.B.I. officials worry privately that the trillion-dollar federal bailout of the financial industry may itself become a problem because it contains inadequate controls to deter fraud. No one has suggested that a quicker response would have averted the mortgage meltdown, but some officials said a faster reaction might have deterred more of the early schemes that seized on loose federal lending regulations. “They were very late to the game,” Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who has quarreled with the F.B.I. over its financing priorities, said of the bureau’s response to the mortgage crisis. “They were not on top of this, and they’re just now starting to really do something.” Republicans and Democrats in Congress are pushing for a more aggressive response by the F.B.I. Representatives Mark S. Kirk, an Illinois Republican who sits on the House appropriations committee, and Chris P. Carney, a Pennsylvania Democrat, called on Congress to triple the F.B.I.’s financing for financial crimes investigations. “To fix our system and prevent a repeat of the events we now see,” they wrote in a letter this month to Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, “we have got to set an example by bringing the full might of federal law enforcement against the people who illegally profited or destroyed companies at the expense of our country.” In public, Mr. Mueller has said that the bureau is doing more with less, when it comes to criminal prosecutions. And Justice Department officials have repeatedly asserted the administration’s commitment to fight violent and white-collar crime even as they have not provided the bureau additional resources. But current and former officials say Mr. Mueller has lost a behind-the-scenes battle with the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget to replenish the criminal ranks. Interviews and internal records show that F.B.I. officials realized the growing danger posed by financial fraud in the housing market beginning in 2003 and 2004 but were rebuffed by the Justice Department and the budget office in their efforts to acquire more resources. “The administration’s top priority since the 9/11 attacks has been counterterrorism,” Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman, said. “In part, that’s reflected by a significant investment of resources at the F.B.I. to answer the call from Congress and the American public to become a domestic intelligence agency in addition to a law enforcement agency.” From 2001 to 2007, the F.B.I. sought an increase of more than 1,100 agents for criminal investigations apart from national security. Instead, it suffered a decrease of 132 agents, according to internal F.B.I. figures obtained by The New York Times. During these years, the bureau asked for an increase of $800 million, but received only $50 million more. In the 2007 budget cycle, the F.B.I. obtained money for a total of one new agent for criminal investigations. In 2004, one senior F.B.I. official, Chris Swecker, warned publicly that a flood of fraudulent mortgage deals had the potential to become “an epidemic.” Yet the next year, as public warnings about fraud in the subprime lending markets began to approach their height, the F.B.I. had the equivalent of only 15 full-time agents devoted to mortgage fraud out of a total of some 13,000 agents in the bureau. That number has grown to 177 agents, who have opened 1,522 cases. But the staffing level is still hundreds of agents below the levels seen in the 1980s during the savings and loan crisis. F.B.I. officials said they had had no choice but to make the cuts in the criminal division, which they said were necessary to expand the bureau’s national security effort, particularly in the wake of criticism of the bureau’s performance in failing to detect the Sept. 11 plot. In white-collar crime, they said the bureau has given up only lower-level cases of marginal significance that might have never been prosecuted anyway. They say they have focused the available criminal resources on public corruption and other difficult crime issues in which the F.B.I. can make a unique contribution. “We only had a finite number of white-collar crime agents available to address the threat that mortgage fraud posed,” said Joseph Ford, who retired from the F.B.I. this year and once served as its chief financial officer. The Justice Department is relying more than ever on the state and local authorities to pick up the slack through joint task forces. And private investigators say that companies victimized by fraud are turning to them in increasing numbers because they are unable to attract much attention from the F.B.I. anymore. In some instances, private investigative and accounting firms are now collecting evidence, taking witness statements and even testifying before grand juries, in effect preparing courtroom-ready prosecutions they can take to the F.B.I. or local authorities. “Anytime you bring to the F.B.I. a case that is thoroughly investigated and reduce the amount of work for investigators, the likelihood is that they will take the case and present it for prosecution,” said Alton Sizemore, a former F.B.I. agent who is a fraud examiner for Forensic Strategic Solutions in Birmingham, Ala. One American company facing extortion demands last year from a computer hacker used private investigators from the Kroll firm to do much of the legwork in the case as the F.B.I. monitored and directed the situation behind the scenes, said Daniel Karson, executive managing director for Kroll. The private investigators even went undercover and set up a sting operation that led them to Germany, where the authorities made an arrest. Mr. Karson said the F.B.I. no longer had the resources to take on such lower-level cases by itself. “When you come in with a garden variety, plain vanilla crime, you may have to stand in the queue,” he said. Some critics question whether the shift indicates not just a lack of resources, but a lack of interest by the Bush administration. After the collapse of Enron in 2002, the Justice Department moved aggressively against corporate fraud — too aggressively, in the view of some people within the administration. It set up a national task force to tackle the problem, garnered hundreds of convictions at companies like WorldCom, Adelphia and Enron, and forced the closure of Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm, for its role in the Enron collapse. But several former law enforcement officials said in interviews that senior administration officials, particularly at the White House and the Treasury Department, had made clear to them that they were concerned the Justice Department and the F.B.I. were taking an antibusiness attitude that could chill corporate risk taking. Justice Department officials said political pressures had never influenced the way prosecutors approached corporate cases. But the department’s approach has become noticeably more tempered in the last several years. This spring and summer, as public concerns about the subprime mortgage crisis were growing, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey rejected repeated calls for the creation of a national task force like the one used after the Enron collapse. The attorney general likened the problem to “white-collar street-crime” that could best be handled by individual United States attorneys’ offices. In the last four years, the Justice Department has scored fewer of the big-name prosecutions that marked President Bush’s first term in office. Even when investigations have pointed to corporate wrongdoing, the Justice Department has agreed, in dozens of cases in the last four years, to “deferred prosecutions" that allowed companies to pay fines in order to avoid criminal prosecution. Paul J. McNulty, who served as deputy attorney general under Alberto R. Gonzales, said the complexity of white-collar investigations and the shortage of investigators had driven a decline in high-profile cases. “There’s no question that the department has been stretched thin when it comes to resources generally, and that has affected white-collar enforcement in a variety of areas,” Mr. McNulty said in an interview. “What happened is that the first years after the Enron collapse, there were some very high profile, noticeable cases — the low-hanging fruit — that gave Justice the opportunity to rack up some very big wins,” he said. “Those cases played themselves out and it became tougher to find those big cases.” Citigroup Wins Parmalat Case, $364 Million Jury Award (Update3) By David Voreacos Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. beat a lawsuit seeking $1.92 billion in damages when a New Jersey state court jury ruled it didn't help corrupt executives at Parmalat SA loot the Italian dairy before the company collapsed in 2003. Lawyers for Parmalat Chief Executive Officer Enrico Bondi failed to prove that the New York-based bank aided in thefts that helped bankrupt the company, jurors ruled today in Hackensack, New Jersey. Jurors ordered Parmalat to pay $364.2 million in damages to Citigroup after finding the dairy committed fraud, negligent misrepresentation and conversion, also known as theft. Bondi's lawyers argued that Citigroup was willfully blind to looting by ex-CEO Calisto Tanzi and former Chief Financial Officer Fausto Tonna, who are on trial in Parma, Italy, on fraudulent-bankruptcy charges. Lawyers for Citigroup, a banker for Parmalat from 1994 to 2003, said its employees didn't know about the looting and its reasonable safeguards were thwarted. ``Tonna and Tanzi committed a massive fraud not just on Citi, they committed it on all sorts of people, and they got away with it,'' Citigroup attorney Theodore Wells said in closing arguments last week. ``They got away with it because what they did was brazen and unprecedented.'' Parmalat went bankrupt after revealing that a 3.95 billion- euro ($5.34 billion) account at Bank of America Corp. didn't exist and stating that documents certifying the account were falsified. Parmalat emerged from bankruptcy and returned to the Italian stock market in 2005 after a two-year reorganization under Bondi. `Convincing Arguments' ``The fact that neither Citi nor its employees did anything wrong was the most convincing argument,'' Wells said today in an interview after the verdict. ``Not one single fact witness testified that Citi or its employees did anything wrong.'' Bondi intends to appeal, attorney Kenneth Chiate said. ``The jury did what they're supposed to do,'' Chiate said. ``Citi probably believes that the jury came to the right verdict. Parmalat does not believe it was the right verdict.'' Citigroup must present the judgment to a bankruptcy court in Parma, Italy, a Parmalat spokeswoman said. If the judgment is authorized in that court, Citigroup would likely receive about 18.8 million Parmalat shares, the spokeswoman said. Jurors deliberated for three days before returning a verdict in a trial that began May 15. The jury found by a 6-1 margin Citigroup didn't aid and abet a breach of fiduciary duty. It agreed by the same margin on Citigroup's counterclaims that Parmalat engaged in fraud, negligent misrepresentation and conversion. 4th-Biggest 2008 Award Jurors awarded $364.2 million each of the first two claims and $210.2 million on the conversion claim. The judgment was capped at $364.2 million. It's the fifth-largest verdict in the U.S. so far in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The juror who voted against Citigroup, Lisa Mansolillo Dalie, said that while she disagreed with the other six, all took the job seriously and reached honest conclusions. ``I obviously absorbed the evidence in a completely different way than the majority of others,'' said Dalie, 48, a graphic artist. ``I did believe that Citigroup was involved.'' Bondi's lawyers, she said, ``had a strong circumstantial case. The e-mails and some of the testimony led me to certain opinions that were bolstered by plaintiffs' experts.'' Jurors ``all really gave it careful consideration,'' said Dalie, who broke her foot during the trial. `Thought Things Through' ``I don't think anybody rushed to judgment here,'' she said. ``Nobody made their decision based on just wanting to get out of the jury room or ending this case. Everybody really thought things through and came to the verdict they truly believed in.'' Parmalat has negotiated settlements with banks and auditors that worked for the company during the time of the fraud. At the trial, Bondi attorney Steven Madison argued that Citigroup ``turned a blind eye to a massive fraud and looting. Without the assistance of Citibank providing that cash and assistance on false financial statements, the whole house of cards would have come down much sooner.'' In his summation, Wells said, ``Citi was mugged. It's like somebody robbed you, put a gun, took your money and then somebody later on criticized you. `Oh, you should have done some jujitsu and beat the robber up. It's your fault you got robbed.' It's an insanity.'' Citigroup succeeded in limiting the scope of the case before the trial began. Superior Court Judge Jonathan Harris agreed in April to dismiss Bondi's claims of fraud, conspiracy, racketeering and unjust enrichment. Enron Comparison At the trial, Citigroup lawyer John Baughman said Bondi's lawyers repeatedly strained during 50 days of trial testimony to tie the Parmalat fraud to the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001. ``They don't give you evidence, they just give you buzzwords over and over and over again,'' Baughman told the jury. ``They're treating you like children. They think you're not going to use your critical thinking.'' Citigroup is ``delighted the jury has vindicated our position,'' said Andrea Hurst, a spokeswoman. ``We have said from the beginning of this case that we have done nothing wrong. Citi was the largest victim of the Parmalat fraud and not part of it,'' the company said in a statement. The case is Bondi v. Citigroup, BER-L-10902-04, New Jersey Superior Court (Hackensack). To contact the reporter on this story: David Voreacos in Hackensack, New Jersey, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net. Online global fraud racket busted LONDON: FBI officers recently busted a secret international website that helped fraudsters buy and sell stolen credit card details. The site has been shut down and nearly 60 people, including 11 in Britain, have been arrested in connection with the fraud, said FBI officers. The operations of the site was exposed after undercover FBI officers infiltrated it and spent nearly two years identifying the key users worldwide and then conducted a series of raids in UK, US, Germany and Turkey. It was the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which led the UK arm of the global operation to expose the shady deals of DarkMarket. Officials said on Friday that the fraudsters had been carrying on this business for the last three years. It had a membership base of around 2500 people. The site that provide access only on invitation, used to sell personal data such as online banking details and also allowed criminals to exchange information about how to commit fraud. SOCA termed it as "one of the most pernicious online criminal forums in the world", which helped many criminals to commit online fraud worth millions. According to FBI estimates the scale of potential fraud and loss from the site's activities is to the tune of more than £40m. A man was recently convicted of buying £250,000 of personal data on the site in only six weeks, it said, estimating that the information could have been used to commit £10m of identity fraud. The FBI estimated the site had 2,500 registered members at its peak Identity fraud 'fastest-growing crime' With identity fraud becoming the nation's fastest-growing crime, Crime Stoppers has urged Australians to stop throwing personal information into rubbish bins. Identity fraud has claimed half-a-million victims in the last 12 months at an estimated cost of $1 billion to the national economy, says the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). And professional women in their 20s and 30s are most at risk. Despite the danger, a Newspoll survey shows nearly 70 per cent of people throw away bank and credit card statements, social security and tax file number details, utility bills and other personal information. Ahead of national identity fraud awareness week, Crime Stoppers has urged Australians to shred their statements and personal information, as well as digital information held on CDs, before throwing it away. "This is the only safe way to ensure that your personal information is secure from dumpster divers," said Crime Stoppers chairman Peter Price. Over the past year, 383,300 people experienced at least one unauthorised, fraudulent transaction using their credit card or account details, the ABS said. Another 124,000 fell victim to identity fraud, with unauthorised people using their driver's licence, tax file number or passport to conduct business, open accounts or take out loans illegally in their name. National identity fraud awareness week runs next week from Monday to Friday. © 2008 AAP Death records plan to curb identity fraud Each week, vetted organisations including credit reference agencies will be sent encrypted files containing details of everyone who has died in the UK. The move is aimed at reducing fraud by criminals who use obituaries and other information to build up an identity to open bank accounts, commit benefit fraud or aid illegal immigration. In one case that came to court last month, a 39-year-old Edinburgh man admitted to stealing the identity of a dead child to open a bank account and obtain credit cards. Over three years more than Ł200,000 passed through the account. This type of crime can be devastating for relatives of the deceased who have to deal with the consequences, as well as having a knock-on affect on legitimate borrowers as banks raise costs to recoup their losses. Around 12,000 records a week will be made available by the General Register Office for England & Wales, and its Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts. They will go to credit checking firms who have applied to receive the information under the initiative. Figures suggest that the cost of the crime to the UK is in the region of £1.7bn every year. The UK's Fraud Prevention Service, Cifas, said that last year alone its members had identified 65,043 victims. "Identity fraud continues to be a serious problem which we know helps enable other criminal activity such as benefit fraud, illegal immigration, illegal working, drug trafficking and terrorism," said Meg Hillier, the Home Office minister with responsibility for identity fraud. Peter Hurst, chief executive of Cifas, said there were still far too many people falling victim to ID fraud. "Identity fraud is serious, and no-one should be complacent about it," he said. "Quite apart from financial losses, the effect on victims can be very distressing. Where a victim's identity has been seriously compromised it can be an extremely time-consuming and frustrating process to untangle the threads of deception. Israeli hacker 'The Analyzer' accused of masterminding global fraud The United States is seeking the extradition from Canada of an Israeli hacker known as "The Analyzer" over charges of masterminding a multimillion-dollar worldwide online fraud. Ehud Tenenbaum, 29, was arrested in late August over charges relating to a $1.8-million theft from a Calgary financial institution. While he was granted bail last week, he was arrested again on a provisional warrant under the Extradition Act before he could post the required $30,000 bail. Canwest News Service reported on Friday that Court of Queen's Bench Justice Bryan Mahoney denied Tenenbaum bail on the U.S. charges. The court heard on Friday that the allegations against Tenenbaum involved potentially hundreds of financial institutions in Russia, Turkey, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and other countries. "Mr. Tenenbaum is alleged by the government of the U.S. to be one of the principal hackers, if not the mastermind, of their entire global operation," Canwest quoted federal Crown prosecutor David Gates as arguing. "Mr. Tenenbaum and others did the actual hacking into financial institutions to obtain [debit and credit] card PIN numbers, and then sold them to others in their operation." The U.S. government now has 60 days to submit an extradition order to have him taken back to face the charges, according to Canwest. Canada's justice minister then has 30 days to decide whether or not an extradition hearing can take place. Tenenbaum is renowned for his computer prowess and hacking abilities, and was sentenced to 15 months in jail in Israel in 1998 for hacking into the Pentagon computer system in the U.S. Canwest reported that Gates could not say exactly how much money has been stolen as a result of the alleged hacking by Tenenbaum over the past year, but said it is in the millions of dollars, and the investigation is ongoing. |
Niepełnosprawni już raz musieli wypowiedzieć wojnę symbolicznym trzem schodom, by ktokolwiek zwrócił uwagę na ich problemy. Czy podobną wojnę o internet będą musieli stoczyć niewidomi? - Gdyby nie to wszędobylskie: "wpisz kod z obrazka" - wzdycha Adam Ostrowski, masażysta z Oleśnicy. - Dziś praktycznie nie mogę samodzielnie założyć konta pocztowego, zarejestrować się w serwisie czy nawet wysłać SMS-a - mówi. Nie może, bo nie widzi ani kodu, ani obrazka. Jest niewidomy. Co nie przeszkadza mu korzystać ze stron internetowych. - Buszuję w internecie od dziewięciu lat - mówi. Czyta wiadomości w portalach, korzysta z poczty, komunikatorów, płaci w e-sklepach i robi z domu przelewy. Przelew w banku: zgaduj-zgadula Niewidomi do surfowania w sieci używają tzw. czytników ekranu (najpopularniejsze to Window Eyes i Jaws, w zależności od wersji kosztują od 2 tys. zł w górę). Mówią na nie: gaduła, gadaczka. Programy-gaduły dzięki wbudowanym syntezatorom mowy udźwiękowiają praktycznie wszystko - zarówno strony internetowe, jak i system operacyjny czy aplikacje (np. edytory tekstowe). - Skąd wiem, że komputer się zawiesił? Kiedy nagle zamilknie - opowiada 26-letni Jacek z Gdańska. A jego Window Eyes gada non stop. Kiedy zwykła osoba wchodzi na stronę internetową, od razu klika myszką w odpowiedni nagłówek czy dział serwisu. Jacek musi poczekać. Gaduła najpierw wylicza: linków - sto pięćdziesiąt osiem, ramek - dwie. Potem mozolnie, link po linku, czyta to, co umieścił w sieci twórca strony: Jacek słyszy np. link poczta, link forum, link sport, ale także niewiele mówiące komunikaty typu: "więcej" czy "obrazek". Tam, gdzie widząca osoba zobaczy reklamę, niewidomy usłyszy np. adv134323555587. Jeśli strona jest dobrze przygotowana, Jacek może znacznie usprawnić wizytę na niej - np. skacząc po nagłówkach i omijając dziwnie brzmiące linki. Tyle że przy tworzeniu stron internetowych o niewidomych mało kto pamięta. Choćby wspomniane obrazki z kodem - mają zapobiec masowemu zakładaniu kont przez roboty spamerów. Ale założenie konta uniemożliwiają też niewidomym. Adam Ostrowski mógłby zarejestrować się w dowolnym serwisie, gdyby zadbał o to jego twórca - np. umieścił obok obrazka specjalny plik dźwiękowy. Niewidomy słyszy wówczas ciąg cyfr, które ma wpisać zamiast kodu. Tak jest np. przy rejestracji konta w skrzynce pocztowej Gmail czy niektórych serwisach Microsoftu. - Nie znam jednak żadnego polskiego serwisu, który tak robi - mówi masażysta z Oleśnicy. Kolejny problem - internetowa bankowość. Dla niewidomych to bardzo ważne, żeby nie jeździć do oddziału przez pół miasta, by zlecić np. przelew. Radzą sobie nawet z tym, że od banków dostają papierowe karty z hasłami jednorazowymi. Listę wystarczy wrzucić na skaner, a dzięki programom rozpoznającym tekst, kody zapisać w pliku. Kiedy trzeba zrobić przelew, gadacz mówi, jakie cyfry wpisać. Ostrowski płaci tak w Inteligo - i nie narzeka, bo system zwykle prosi o kody po kolei. Krzysztof Bruzda, 36-letni mieszkaniec Wrocławia z kontem w Investbanku, ma bardziej pod górkę. - Sama strona banku zrobiona jest dość dobrze. Kłopoty zaczynają się, gdy trzeba wykonać przelew - mówi Bruzda (korzysta z czytnika Jaws). Bo kiedy chce wysłać pieniądze, otwiera się dodatkowe okno stworzone w skrypcie Java. W okienku wyświetlone są przyciski do pobrania klucza koniecznego do przelewu. Dla osoby widzącej to pestka. - A gaduła mówi: pusto. Nie widzi tekstu, nic. I przelewy robi moja druga połowa - kwituje wrocławianin. Problemem są też konta, które przy logowaniu wypełniają losowo część hasła, a resztę każą uzupełnić użytkownikowi (tak jest np. w BZ WBK czy Pekao SA). - Ale ja nie wiem, który znak z hasła miałbym wpisać. Słyszę tylko: pole edycyjne, pole edycyjne. A które to pole? - pyta Bruzda. Niedostępne tango Kłopoty z przelewami czy obrazkowymi kodami to tylko wierzchołek góry lodowej. Sieciowych barier jest znacznie więcej. - Główny grzech to bałaganiarski kod - mówi Tomasz Kępski, programista z agencji interaktywnej Janmedia Interactive, który od kilku lat zajmuje się dostępnością stron. Dla osób widzących to bez znaczenia. - Przeglądarki internetowe z dużą tolerancją traktują niedbalstwo twórców stron i niejako maskują pewne błędy - wyjaśnia Kępski. Niewidomi przykładami barier sypią jak z rękawa. Niby prosta rzecz - nagłówki. - A tam, gdzie ich nie ma, niewidomy musi przebijać się przez masę linków, zanim znajdzie ten, o który mu chodzi. W dużym portalu może być ich nawet kilkaset - mówi Michał Kijewski, prezes warszawskiej spółki Lumen, która sprzedaje sprzęt dla niewidomych. Sam ma poważną wadę wzroku, ale przy korzystaniu z internetu udaje mu się podglądać. Inny przykład: właściciele stron nagminnie zapominają, by opisywać grafiki, które widnieją na stronie. Dla widzących są zrozumiałe: tu wyszukiwarka, tu przycisk "wyślij" lub "biuro obsługi klienta". - A gaduła mi mówi: "przycisk" albo: "grafika 1550". Czy to jest kontakt do firmy, czy link do formularza, czy może jeszcze coś innego, mogę się dowiedzieć jedynie poprzez kliknięcie - mówi Bruzda. Gdyby odwiedził stronę prezydenta (www.prezydent.pl) i chciał skorzystać z wyszukiwarki, zamiast: "znajdź w serwisie" usłyszałby: "templates images lk lk link05 gif" (strona premiera także nie ułatwia niewidomym życia). Prawdziwą udręką są strony z elementami wykonanymi w technologii Flash. Czytniki kiepsko sobie z nimi radzą. Jak mówi Bruzda, przykładem jest strona internetowa Radia WAWA. - To pewnie ładnie wygląda, ale dla mnie to jak jakiś koszmar - mówi. Zanim gaduła zdąży się rozkręcić, wpada na reklamę. "Bo do tanga trzeba dwojga" - podśpiewuje facet na przystanku, a Krzysztof Bruzda irytuje się, bo reklamy nie może ani zamknąć, ani zatrzymać. Gdyby widział, kliknąłby w krzyżyk w okienku, w którym wyświetla się filmik. Ale jest bezradny - nie ma linków, nie ma nagłówków, dla niego strona niemal nie istnieje. Jaws nie jest w stanie go pokierować. Jeden punkt na sto Teoretycznie problemów być nie powinno - wystarczyłoby, gdyby osoby tworzące strony wzięły sobie do serca zalecenia organizacji W3C, pilnującej standardów w pisaniu stron WWW (zwłaszcza tzw. inicjatywy WAI - Web Accessibility Initiative, związanej z dostępnością stron dla osób niepełnosprawnych). - Gdybym miał określić znajomość problemu wśród administratorów stron internetowych w skali od 0 do 100 punktów, to przyznałbym... jeden. Nie biorą go na poważnie. Już bardziej dostrzegają to działy zajmujące się wizerunkiem firm - mówi Artur Marcinkowski, szef agencji IArt, która wraz ze śląskim oddziałem Polskiego Związku Niewidomych ruszyła jesienią ub. r. z projektem Widzialni (pod adresem widzialni.eu). Akcja ma na celu uświadomienie kłopotów, z jakimi borykają się osoby niewidome. Zwłaszcza urzędom publicznym - te bowiem z definicji powinny dbać o to, by informacje były dostępne także dla osób niewidomych. O tym mówi i konstytucja, i ustawa o dostępie do informacji publicznej z 2001 r., a także deklaracja podpisana w 2006 w Rydze przez ministrów krajów unijnych. Ten ostatni dokument zakłada, że do 2010 r. wszystkie publiczne strony powinny zostać dostosowane do potrzeb osób niepełnosprawnych, zwłaszcza niewidomych. - Kilka dobrych lat zajęło, zanim zaczęto dostosowywać podjazdy do wózków inwalidzkich. Przypuszczam, że tak samo będzie z internetem - mówi Marcinkowski. Na razie jest co poprawiać. Niewidomi pracujący przy projekcie Widzialni sprawdzili kilkadziesiąt Biuletynów Informacji Publicznej na stronach publicznych organizacji. Żaden nie spełniał wymagań W3C, nawet tych podstawowych. Widzialni opublikowali też raport z testów ośmiu serwisów - PKP, Policji, TVP, resortu pracy i polityki społecznej, LOT-u, ZUS-u, Sądu Najwyższego i Komendy Głównej Państwowej Straży Pożarnej. Najlepiej wypadły - bo ze słabą czwórką - strony ministerstwa i kolei. Najgorzej oceniono LOT, TVP i Sąd Najwyższy. Według raportu niektóre informacje tak dobrze "ukryto", że niewidomi nie byli w stanie ich znaleźć. Gadające protezy Z szacunków Światowej Organizacji Zdrowia wynika, że w Polsce ponad pół miliona osób ma kłopoty ze wzrokiem. Około stu tysięcy to osoby z dużym ubytkiem widzenia. Sam Polski Związek Niewidomych zrzesza ponad 70 tys. osób. Ilu z nich surfuje? Henryk Rzepka z PZN szacuje, że 5-15 tys. Tylu potencjalnych klientów mogą tracić firmy, które niedbale przygotowują swoje strony. - Osoby niewidome są mocno zdeterminowane, by sobie radzić - uważa jednak Tomasz Kępski z Janmedia Interactive. - Tam, gdzie serwis oferuje treści unikalne, jak np. rozkład jazdy w PKP albo serwis z lokalnymi wiadomościami, będą szukali sposobu - mówi. Ale już np. w przypadku sklepów internetowych oferujących popularne produkty niewidomy może wybrać stronę wygodniejszą w obsłudze. Niektóre firmy zaczęły dostrzegać problem niewidomych - choć niekoniecznie stosując się do zasad W3C. Jak mówi Kępski, obok już prowadzonego serwisu pojawia się wersja dla osób niewidomych (tak jest np. w ZUS). - Tyle że takie alternatywne strony często traktowane są po macoszemu i po kilku tygodniach zaczynają się problemy, bo nie są aktualizowane równolegle do podstawowej strony - uważa specjalista. Bank Nordea do przelewów wydaje specjalne karty z kodami w alfabecie Braille'a. Udostępnił też klientom program Intelligent Web Reader (IWR) gdyńskiej firmy Ivo Software, który udźwiękowia stronę internetową banku. - Sprawa jest ważna społecznie, ale my traktujemy to też jak normalny biznes - mówił w grudniu zeszłego roku Włodzimierz Kiciński, prezes Nordea Bank Polska. - Osoba niewidoma dostaje oprogramowanie za darmo i nie płaci za obsługę rachunku, ale przelewy są płatne. Stosowany przez Nordeę, a także kilkadziesiąt innych firm i instytucji (m.in. samorządów czy ministerstw) IWR budzi mieszane uczucia. Także wśród niewidomych. Adam Ostrowski: - Pamiętam konferencję jednego z ministrów. Chwalił się, że w końcu dzięki IWR niewidomi będą mogli korzystać z internetu. Totalna bzdura. Nie trzeba robić stron specjalnie dla nas. Wystarczy robić je po prostu dla wszystkich, zgodnie z wytycznymi. IWR to proteza, która nie rozwiązuje problemu - mówi Ostrowski. Inni zauważają, że IWR działa w bardzo ograniczonym zakresie - bo udźwiękowia tylko te strony, które mu za to zapłacą (wyjątek dotyczy niektórych organizacji użyteczności publicznej). W efekcie da się z niej przejrzeć zaledwie kilkadziesiąt stron internetowych. W porównaniu z miliardami stron w sieci to kropla w morzu. Poza tym IWR czytnika takiego jak np. Jaws nie zastąpi - bo nie obsługuje systemu operacyjnego ani żadnych innych programów. - Kierujemy nasz program do osób, które jeszcze nie mają specjalistycznego oprogramowania i nie mają możliwości, by wydać na nie kilka tysięcy - odpiera zarzuty Łukasz Osowski, szef Ivo Software. - IWR jest bezpłatny. I za cenę bezpłatności dajemy ograniczony zasób stron. Dodaje, że jego firma zastanawia się, jak uczynić program zupełnie wolnym, tak by czytał wszystkie strony. - Poza tym w ten sposób też uczulamy administratorów i właścicieli serwisu na problemy osób niewidomych. Ta świadomość jest dziś na dramatycznie niskim poziomie - uważa Osowski. Z danych firmy wynika, że miesięcznie z IWR korzysta 4-7 tys. osób. Czy niewidomi wyobrażają sobie życie bez internetu? - Oj, trudno by się było przyzwyczaić - mówi Adam Ostrowski. - Mimo tych wszystkich barier internet i tak wiele rzeczy w naszym życiu uprościł i pozwolił uniezależnić się od pomocy innych osób. Źródło: gazeta.pl |