I wish I had another box but I'm not that rich yet....its a shame we had = to sell that old 486. ----- Original Message ----- From: <lobap@adaptech.net> To: <blinux-list@redhat.com> Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 12:09 PM Subject: Re: Had enough with windows....going insane.....need advice Hi: Do you have a second computer with speech which you can use as a terminal to install Linux and next install and get ready brltty to work with your BL40 on the main system? It can be a way to go. Or you can use BL40 as the speakup synth for your Linux os installation, get everything ready with brltty, make speakup silent and activate brltty. I'm not sure why you got so much trouble with Windows, I'm not a fun of M= S but can make their products to work for my needs and win98 SE and win2k pro work-station versions seems in my case relatively stable. Thanks, Pawe=B3. On Sat, 12 Jan 2002, David Csercsics wrote: > Yes I suppose you are right I could do that but the trouble is that I can't > use the same serial port for speech and braille through the same device. So > I probably could use speakup to get the thing installed but I'd be stuc= k > somewhere after I compiled brltty and installed it for my braille displ= ay > because you'd have two programs trying to talk to the same device throu= gh > the same port so something should conflict in theory. Not to mention th= at > the braille lite's speech would drive anyone pretty much crazy :) > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Janina Sajka" <janina@afb.net> > To: <blinux-list@redhat.com> > Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 9:50 AM > Subject: Re: Had enough with windows....going insane.....need advice > > > > Without a hardware synth, you don't have a lot of options, though the= re > > are some. Most notably, you can run emacspeak with the IBM ViaVoice > > software speech engine. > > > > You say you have a Braille Lite 40. You can use that as a speech > > synthesizer over the serial port with speakup, and speakup supports fully > > speech enabled installations of linux. Consult: > > > > http://www.linux-speakup.org > > > > For advice on partitioning and installation issues, read. You need to > > learn a little before you dive in--unless you're happy to blow away y= our > > hard drive at any time, which maybe you are. You might want to start with: > > > > http://www.linux-speakup.org/ftp/disks/redhat/HOWTO_INSTALL.html > > > > As for your other issues: > > > > OCR support has recently begun to emerge both in emacspeak and speaku= p. > > > > Word and Excell access is available now. It was discussed at length o= n > > this list over just the past two days.So, consult the archive and loo= k at > > recent messages here. > > On Fri, 11 Jan 2002, David Csercsics wrote: > > > > > Ok so I've tried 5 versions of windows all of which crash quite a b= it no > > > matter how much you mess with them. And dang it I liked linux a hec= k of > a > > > lot when I was able to use it. I have a set of SuSE cd's here but t= he > > > trouble is that suse-blinux no longer detects my braille display (h= ad to > get > > > a new one recently because I needed a portable braille display.) so= I > cannot > > > install that on this machine. I have a braille lite 40 here now. I don't > > > really think it matters to me which linux I decide to use. Got some > > > questions though. I've got a 45 GB hd sitting in this box with an athlon > 4 > > > chip and 768 mb of ram. How should I partition my drive for linux? What > > > would be the easiest distro to hack a boot disk for so that I can > install > > > without sighted help as I don't trust a lot of people with my compu= ter > and > > > most of the people I know would faint if they had to install anythi= ng > other > > > than windows so it looks like I'll be doing it myself. Also is ther= e a > way > > > to read ms word and excel documents under linux? I get a lot of tho= se > and it > > > seems saving things as plain text is a foreign concept to a lot of > people. I > > > assume that I would have to sacrifice ocr for a reliable operating > system. > > > By that I mean that there is ocr for windows but the os crashes too > often > > > and I am forever reinstalling but I've treid to put up with it beca= use I > > > haven't been able to get a dual boot to work at all. All that seems= to > > > happen when I try to dual boot si windows becomes twice as unstable. So > am I > > > correct that there is no useable ocr for linux? Any > > > comments/suggestions/advice/whatever would be greatly appreciated a= t > this > > > point as I'm going to slowly go insane and I've got a huge programm= ing > > > project I've gotta get started on (studying computer science in college) > and > > > I need to use my computer for a lot of other things and I really ca= n't > > > afford to waste a lot of time and torture myself with instability. = The > lack > > > of ocr is probably going to hurt but I suppose that I can figure > something > > > out. I should also point out taht I have a fast internet connecdtio= n and > a > > > cd burner and half a dozen different linux iso's sitting on my driv= e. > Oh, > > > almost forgot, I don't have a hardware synth. If you need more deta= ils > about > > > my setup you can always ask. Thanks for taking the time to read thi= s and > not > > > pressing the delete button already. :) I will quit before I cause m= ore > > > trouble here and I will go back to insanity for a bit before I free= ze up > > > again. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > > Blinux-list@redhat.com > > > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > > > > -- > > > > Janina Sajka, Director > > Technology Research and Development > > Governmental Relations Group > > American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) > > > > Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 > > > > Chair, Accessibility SIG > > Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) > > http://www.openebook.org > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Blinux-list@redhat.com > > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Blinux-list@redhat.com > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list