sure, oncelinux is on there, serial ports are serial ports and all the other connectors work as though it were any other kind of hardware... and the sound is pretty decent on the ones I've seen. the real question is what has to happen to get access to osX since it's running linux down there somewhere. now, that would be a nice PR stunt for apple, have the blind market all buying imacs which are accessible out of the box. J -----Original Message----- From: blinux-list-admin@redhat.com [mailto:blinux-list-admin@redhat.com]On Behalf Of Brent Harding Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 2:51 PM To: blinux-list@redhat.com Subject: RE: All Ears: Library Service Seeks New Digital Player 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so in 2005, what kind of outdated but easily obtained cots hardware might be 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In a way, linux is a great example of using very outdated hardware to still 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 > > _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. 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