[Athen] Passing along news re MacKichan software

[foreigntype at gmail.com]

Good morning ATHEN-ites,

am passing along the information about the demise of MacKichan software,
the company that handles Scientific Notebook, Scientific Word, & Math Talk.
The company shuttered as of June 30, 2021. Here is an update from the CEO:

There is information in this news release regarding how to handle both
individual & site licenses for Scientific Notebook. This is a tough one for
those of us who do research & train colleagues & students on accessible
math software for people with mobility impairments & learning disabilities
such as dysgraphia & dyscalculia.

While Scientific Word may end up in the realm of open source software (good
thing), math talk & the algorithm that produces the interface for
Scientific Notebook & between Dragon NaturallySpeaking & Scientific
Notebook is unlikely to be replicated because of copyright & proprietary
restrictions.

In any case, here is the press release, now a couple of months old. My
suggestion is that you share the Scientific Notebook licensing information
with those on your campus who have this program and want to continue using
it.

I received this on another listserv this morning.
SOURCE:
Jane Fridrich
Assistive Technologist
Laurier University

Hi, the website of MacKichan software makers of MathTalk and Scientific
Notebook have closed June 30th.  We used scientific notebook as a great
math conversion tool.  An unfortunate casualty of COVID? The open source
code sounds promising...


>From their site: https://www.mackichan.com/


MacKichan Software, Inc. has gone out of businessSales have ceased for
Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, and Scientific Notebook
MacKichan Software, Inc., after providing word processing software for
those who speak the language of mathematics for forty years (under several
names), closed its doors on June 30, 2021. This marks the end of sales and
support for the MacKichan Software products.

All owners of Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, or Scientific Notebook
should have a serial number that was included in their purchase. This
number is also included in the license file for your installation as the
last line in the file. If you need to install your software on a new or
different computer, you will need to re-activate the software on that
computer using that serial number. The software can be activated as before,
using the Help/Activate menu item. This contacts the MacKichan Software
licensing server, which we will keep running for at least two years.

Sites with permanent site licenses will, of course, be free to use
Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, and/or Scientific Notebook as long
as they like. Those sites that have paid for maintenance with home-use
satellite licenses can continue, but will be unable to create new satellite
licenses after their maintenance agreement expires.

We expect to make Scientific Word an open source product eventually. Since
both Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Notebook contain the proprietary
computer algebra system MuPAD, they cannot be made open source. When the
open source project for Scientific Word is established, an announcement
will be made here.

We hope to make version 5.5 of Scientific Word available in the future. It
currently contains several components that are licensed and not owned by
MacKichan Software. These components need to be removed, and our intention
is then to make Scientific Word version 5.5 open source.

Barry MacKichan
President
MacKichan Software, Inc.

July 1, 2021

The latest released version of these products is 6.1.2. To update your
program to the latest release, click here.
The same page also contains links to the installers for version 5.5 and the
manuals for versions 5.5 and 6.


Wink Harner
Accessibility Consultant/Alternative Text Production
The Foreign Type

Portland OR
foreigntype at gmail.com
480-984-0034

This email was dictated using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Please forgive
quirks, misrecognitions, or errata .
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