Enchiladas, Anti-Spyware, and Anagrams, Oh My!
On Friday my boss, Brian Charlson, suggested that I needed to do something fun this weekend. I have no idea how Brian could have sensed that I was feeling a little bit stressed. Unless, of course, it was my response to his asking how things were going. In retrospect, the answer should have been something like, “Fine, thank you, how are things going with you?” Instead, I provided him with a list of all the negative words that can be formed by rearranging the letters in the name of a particular software product we use. I love anagram servers!
Brian, you will be pleased to know that I rented a movie on Saturday, went snowshoeing today, and am about to go make mole—pronounced mo lay—enchiladas. For those of you not familiar with mole—mo lay—it’s a sauce made with Mexican chocolate and chile, completely devoid of burrowing animals and tasting far better than one might expect from a chocolate chile sauce. But I foolishly checked my email before heading off to the kitchen. The response from Microsoft was sitting there in my Inbox.
It was a generic response. One that failed to even mention the issue that I raised in my [Open Letter](http://blog.carrolltech.org/archives/6 “Read my Open Letter to Microsoft on the topic of MS AntiSpyware”). The only remotely relevant item was a link to the [MS AntiSpyware newsgroups page](http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp?ICP=spyware&sLCID=us “Go to the web interface of the Microsoft newsgroups related to MS AntiSpyware Beta”). I dutifully followed the link, searched and browsed the newsgroups, and found two answers, sent by one person, to the question of accessibility:
From February 5th:
(snip)
This issue is most assuredly not forgotten. Microsoft has this in mind and work is being done on it. I don’t know the specifics, but they’ve not
solicited bug reports in several areas—spelling/grammar, accessibility, and localization, because all three areas are well understood and work committed already on them.
(snip)
From February 20th:
(snip)
Yes—accessability (sic) issues are a known issue and have not been worked on in the builds released so far.
(snip)
I also found a link to an [MS AntiSpyware FAQ](http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm “Read the FAQ for MS Antispyware version 1.0.509”) which includes “Accessibility features not included (for the beta)” under the section on “Known bugs/errors/unpopular features.”
I suppose that’s better than nothing. But it is not an indication of when we might see these access issues addressed, and we have spyware problems now. Which brings me to the following:
1. In my quest for an accessible anti-spyware solution, one of the products I downloaded was [Spybot Search and Destroy](http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html “Visit the home page for Spybot Search and Destroy”). During the installation, when asked to select components, I found “Full Installation for Blind Users” among the choices. At first I thought I was hallucinating, but, nope, it really said that. I tried it out briefly and it’s looking like my quest may be over! I’ll use it this week and keep you posted.
2. If you are a stressed logophile, check out the [Internet Anagram Server](http://wordsmith.org/anagram/ “Try Wordsmith.org’s Internet Anagram Server”). I would do an advanced search to maximize your fun and minimize your time. The trick to the advanced search page is knowing that the form fields are labeled via links. The links are intended to be helpful by taking you to a detailed description of each field; however, there is a good chance that your screen reader won’t realize that they are labels. That said, as you tab through the form you’ll move over the links and can thus identify the fields. Once you get used to this little quirk, you’ll find that the advanced search is pretty cool. I usually start by typing in a word or phrase (like “Microsoft AntiSpyware”) and selecting the Yes radio button for “Print candidate word list only.” That way your results will be a simple list of the words that can be created from the letters in your search term. This in and of itself can be quite fun. If a particular word strikes your fancy, go back and add that word to the “Anagrams must include this word” edit box, change the “Print candidate word list only” to No, and execute the search again. This time, your results will be a list of all of the anagrams which include your chosen word. Sometimes it takes a bit of work to get the perfect anagram. But when you finally come up with something as satisfying as “Fie! A raw PC monstrosity!” you are likely to find that the combined feelings of triumph and amusement do wonders for relieving the stress that drove you to the anagram server in the first place.
3. If you don’t know what a logophile is—I didn’t, until I looked it up—or why “fie” is appropriate for inclusion in my AntiSpyware anagram, check out [dictionary.com](http://www.dictionary.com “Look up words online”). It contains both a dictionary and a thesaurus, and works well with screen readers. But if you’ve read through my weekend ramblings, the least I can do is cut you some slack:
Logophile: a “word lover” or “word buff”
Fie: Used to express distaste or disapproval
And with that, I have some enchiladas to make and a mindless television show to find since Brian will undoubtedly expect me to work tomorrow.
—jd