Would speakup run on a powerbook, using a dectalk express anyways? I've never heard much about linux on mac's whether we could access it or not. At 01:40 PM 6/17/02 -0400, you wrote: >I know this isn't directly the list to start a thread on this subject, but >the very last quote I find problematic. > >Why can't you ask someone to buy a pc? I imagine a pc which would be >capable of playing a digital book can be had for what? $50 maybe less? > >so in 2005, what kind of outdated but easily obtained cots hardware might be >hanging out for next to nothing? what if these things could be played on a >gameboy or something? doesn't thenew on have decent sound? > >how cheap would unit price be on 2000000 gameboys for the government? I'm >not proposing this as an actual solution, but an analogy of a solution > >In a way, linux is a great example of using very outdated hardware to still >do very useful work. a p250 with 32mb ram doesgreat sound effect stuff in >real time with free linux software. for next to nothing in cost. > >a powerbook (old model) running linux oughta be able to play digital books >and plenty more as well. and people are throwing them away. > > just a though. > >Joel > >-----Original Message----- >From: blinux-list-admin@redhat.com >[mailto:blinux-list-admin@redhat.com]On Behalf Of Janina Sajka >Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2002 3:43 PM >To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca; blinux-list@redhat.com >Subject: All Ears: Library Service Seeks New Digital Player > > >>From today's Washington Post regarding the National Library >Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped here in the U.S. >and its progress toward serving patrons with Digital Talking >Books: > > >washingtonpost.com >All Ears: Library Service Seeks New Digital Player > >By Linda Hales >Washington Post Staff Writer >Saturday, June 15, 2002; Page C01 > >For 71 years, the Library of Congress has served as the nation's guardian >angel of literacy, ensuring the blind and reading-disabled free access to >millions of talking books and magazines. Now the digital revolution is about >to make that task easier -- or harder still -- depending on how well the >library succeeds in its new role as design patron. > >The library is planning a $75 million, three-year conversion from cassette >tapes to microchips -- the audio program's first technological update in >three decades. > >The goal is to trade 23 million cassettes for memory cards, just as vinyl >was supplanted by tape back in the 1970s. To do so, the library, which >supplies special playback equipment, will need by 2008 a new digital device >to serve 730,000 reading-disabled people. As many as 3 million people may be >eligible for the program, which is operated by a branch of the library known >as the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. >Director Frank Kurt Cylke calls this "the greatest challenge NLS has ever >faced." > >Consumer electronics are among the most evolved of modern designs, >incorporating the latest technology, dazzling aesthetics and >user-friendliness. But those involved in the talking-book program believe >the library's next-generation machine will need features not available in >standard off-the-shelf products. While PCs and cell phones are becoming >throwaway equipment, the library is focusing on the kind of durability that >has enabled its current machine design to survive so long. "We can't afford >to go through massive, wrenching changes like this very often," explains >Michael Moodie, NLS research and development officer. > >To figure out what such a machine might look like, and how it might work, >the library enlisted the Industrial Designers Society of America, >headquartered near Dulles airport. IDSA turned the quest into a contest >involving industrial design students across the country. June 7 was judgment >day. > >More than 140 prototypes were spread out on tables in a conference room at >the NLS offices at 13th and Taylor streets NW, in Petworth. There were >pocket-size players and tabletop entries. Some models resembled silvery >boomboxes and retro phones. One device was shaped like a football. Another >looked like Darth Vader's helmet. A silvery "Lady Bug" had all the sleekness >anyone could expect in the 21st century but broke the contest rules by >requiring a separate docking station. > >Students had been asked to incorporate real-world needs of users: tactile >markings for sightless readers; large controls for arthritic hands to >manipulate; portability, but also extraordinary stability. All were supposed >to be impervious to spilled drinks and able to withstand occasional shipping >in little more than a Manila envelope. > >Agile young minds responded with a mind-bending array of buttons, levers, >hinges and even a zipper that could activate functions. Most of the youthful >designers had taken inspiration from the tools of their environment: PC >gaming gadgets, MP3 players and contemporary "blob" architecture. > >But as the jury of six professional designers and senior library staff >members worked their way around the room, a clear preference emerged for >something familiar. First prize went to a prototype in the shape of a book. > >The winner was "Dook," a rectangular device that opened like a standard >volume. Designer Lachezar Tsvetanov, a junior at the University of >Bridgeport in Connecticut, put the controls in one half, speakers and memory >card in the other half, and volume regulator in the hinge. > >Tsvetanov, who grew up in Bulgaria, chose the form for two reasons. He >thought a book would be immediately familiar to seniors, who make up half >the program's users and are seen as wary of new technology. The designer was >also determined that people who needed talking books be able to blend into >the world around them. > >"Users want to be like anybody else," he said. "If you see a young blind >person walking down the street and holding an odd-shaped product, it would >really stand out." > >Tsvetanov will be awarded $5,000 for ingenuity at the industrial design >society's annual conference July 20-23 in Monterey, Calif. And his device >will be displayed at the library's Madison Building on Capitol Hill, along >with four second- and third-place winners. > >The contest was not intended to produce a design for manufacture. The NLS >hoped merely to glean ideas for the next step in the process before asking >Congress to put millions into the 2005 budget for a total upgrade. > >Director Cylke estimates the cost of converting to the new system will be >"an additional $25 million a year for a three-year period." The current NLS >budget is about $48 million. > >Design innovation has empowered the audiobook program from the start. >According to the NLS, the long-playing record was invented for the talking >book program in the 1930s. In the 1970s, the library developed a special >player for its four-track tapes, which can play for six hours. (Copyright >law requires that NLS materials be usable only by program participants.) The >1970s-era tape player, which is large and ungainly by today's standard, is >still in use today. > >Throughout the judging process, Moodie worried aloud about the potential for >breakage, the difficulty of manufacturing, and the cost. Fellow judge Brian >Matt, an industrial designer from Boston who teaches at MIT and the Rhode >Island School of Design, held out for something smart and aesthetically >pleasing. Thomas Bickford, an NLS senior reviewer for audiobooks, couldn't >see and didn't care what color the buttons were, only whether he could feel >his way around the controls. Jim Mueller, an industrial designer in >Chantilly and an IDSA expert in universally accessible design, was taken >with the idea of a digital book. > >"I can't think of anything that could be a more eloquent format," he said >later. > >The NLS began on an experimental basis transferring cassette titles to >digital format last year. By the library's own count, at least 1 million >digital machines will be needed. > >There is also a move to make use of PCs. A software-based talking book >player is being tested on a PC. Some eligible readers have DSL lines or >cable and are asking for Internet delivery, which the NLS hopes to begin in >a limited fashion in 2003. > >But Moodie believes there will be a need for a playback machine for a long >time to come. "You can't say to somebody, 'You have to buy a PC if you want >to read,' " he says. > > > >© 2002 The Washington Post Company > > 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 > > Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. > See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Blinux-list@redhat.com >https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list >--- >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). >Version: 6.0.368 / Virus Database: 204 - Release Date: 5/29/2002 > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Blinux-list@redhat.com >https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > >