I am Now Self-Learning the Cranmer Abacus for the Very First Time!

My 15-digit Cranmer Abacus is now 2 days old. It costed me ₱518 or US$10.28.

Hello World! Since I became totally BLIND, I have been missing the use of my mathematics skill, so I decided to purchase a Cranmer Abacus! The Cranmer Abacus was invented by the late Dr Tim Cranmer during the mid-1960s for BLIND persons to perform basic mathematical operations. So, I figure, why not “play” with a Cranmer Abacus for myself? ☺️

My new Cranmer Abacus measures 178x82x10mm (7×3.25×0.4in), as measured by Josh, my wife’s nephew. It consists of 15 metal rods, 75 white round beads with red felt behind them, enclosed in a black plastic case. (My wife informed me of the colors.)

Prior to receiving my Cranmer Abacus, I downloaded the Bookshare eBook, The Abacus Made Easy, copyrighted in 1975, into my iOS Voice Dream Reader & Android Legere Reader applications. Since I am already skilled in LOGIC, as well as other numerical systems, such as binary, self-learning the abacus without my eyesight, is almost like I’m relearning 6502 computer assembly language, all over again, convincing me to make the purchase! ☺️

As an highly skilled & experienced scientist, computer scientist/programmer whom does mental mathematics every single day, one would wonder, what practical use would I have with an abacus! ☺️ Well, whom still remember the first time when “playing” with an electronic calculator was FUN? Exactly! ☺️

For those that are curious about what my Cranmer Abacus looks like, or require more information, the American Printing House for the Blind has a Cranmer Abacus for sale. Mine has 15 rods or digits.

Though I can utilize my mobile computing devices for mathematical operations, I often wondered what I would use to compute if my device(s) were to experience “dead battery”, firmware issues, or even a nuclear holocaust. ☺️ Besides, I’m totally BLIND, and can simply use my Cranmer Abacus to store a number, such as a mobile phone number, for later recollection, without requiring a battery nor electrical power. ☺️

Another practical use of my new Cranmer Abacus, is to store a one-time PIN or OTP… Unlike sighted persons, blindness prevents me from “looking” at the OTP for typing the numerical code on the touchscreen; sure enough, I can try to memorize the OTP, however, I’m over 50 years old, and my short-term memory is not like it was during my younger days.

Though my Cranmer Abacus is easy to use, the callouses & arthritis pain in my fingers, from 40+ years of QWERTY touch-typing, somewhat hinders my ability of manipulating & reading the abacus beads. Maybe my next Cranmer Abacus will be a much larger one…

Thanks for reading my latest blog post! Have a Great Day!

🇵🇭🇺🇸👨‍🦯🦽 📱⌨️📻🎧 📚✝️ 🪀🥣♉️💎

UPDATE (April 22, 2022): Using The vOICe app from SeeingWithSound on my Android smartphone, I SCANNED my Cranmer Abacus! Here is the screen-recording:

As a side-note, my Cranmer Abacus came from the Resources for the Blind, Inc (RBI) in The Philippines! ☺️

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Published by Marcos 🇵🇭🇺🇸

Happily-Married, comfortably poor, permanently disabled and totally BLIND. A Terrorism SURVIVOR that's still SURVIVING Terrorism + post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Scientist since 1977, Acoustician since 1979, Computer Scientist/Programmer since 1982, Seismologist since 1988, Criminologist (Behavioral Scientist) since 1992, and many more! Also, had worked in two civilian and one military virology labs in the USA between 1993 and 2003. A Generation X, Filipino-American US expat, living in The Philippines, whom was naturally-born in Boston, grew up mostly in Seattle, some in Chicago, and have lived in Anchorage & San Francisco. Became permanently-disabled in 2003 due to health-related illness, ending my moonlighting career as an independent private investigator in the USA. RETIRED independent developer of computing & electronics technologies after 35 wonderful years, including 20 wonderful years in GNU/Linux development & 8 wonderful years as an independent embedded systems developer of digital electronics. Former speech synthesis systems developer of 30 wonderful years, specializing in foreign language phoneme-to-speech synthesis. Also was a beta tester of third-party software-based speech synthesizers. Former FCC-licensed amateur radio operator of 20 wonderful years, beginning with 2m packet-radio & AmSat communications between Anchorage & Manila. Former member of Anchorage Amateur Radio Club and Mike & Key ARC in Seattle. Learned 10-finger QWERTY touch-typing on a manual typewriter in 1980 at a US-based elementary school. Mastered 10-finger QWERTY touch-typing without looking at the keyboard in 1986. Now have osteoarthritis in both of my hands from all that touch-typing! My primary computer programming language is C, which I learned in 1990. My secondary programming language is B.A.S.I.C., which I self-learned in 1982. Prior to my sight-loss, I used to program in LISP/CLISP and Prolog for my early development of artificial intelligence & machine learning programs. Daily, to compensate/facilitate my sight-loss, I am actively using Apple iOS VoiceOver, Google Android TalkBack and Amazon Fire OS VoiceView screen-readers, in addition to my external Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard and sometimes, my Orbit Writer Braille keyboard, as HOBBIES.

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