well, there's pack mate and braille note. the main advantage of the pac mate is that you can detach the display. The braillenote is rugged but prone to intermittent crashing. you can do more with both than just note taking the pac mate uses jaws, the braille note family uses keysoft There are many other solutions out there as well. ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Heim" <jheim@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:14 AM Subject: Re: buying braille display So you can read braille books from the NLS on your Pac Mate? I am interested in combining functions. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lee Maschmeyer" <lee_maschmeyer@xxxxxxxxx> To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 10:08 AM Subject: Re: buying braille display > Hi John, > > Perhaps the first thing to know about braille displays is that they come > in different lengths (number of characters on the braille line). Back in > the days of DOS an 80-character display made sense since the screens in > those days were 80 characters wide. Since screens are no longer limited to > 80 characters there seems less of a reason to have such a huge display. > (Note that I've never had an 80-character display so am not talking from > experience in this decision.) For me, 40 characters is better. I don't > want to go with less than 40 because I spend a lot of time reading braille > books from NLS and they're formatted pretty close to 40 characters. Though > shorter displays are cheaper they might be awkward reading a 40-character > braille line and the programming might or might not be able to get around > this satisfactorily; again I've used only 40-character displays. > > As you mentioned, there are notetakers and there are just plain displays. > The only notetaker I have experience with is the PAC Mate. I like this > because I can detach the braille portion and use it with my desktop; both > brltty and Windows screenreaders deal very well with this. The PAC Mate as > a notetaker is pretty good too; the braille display attaches securely to > it and makes a single physical unit that is easy to carry and use when I'm > away from my desk. > > I've never been to CSUN, but it's coming up in March and I can't imagine > they would have a shortage of hardware to examine. > > HTH, > > -- > Lee Maschmeyer > <lee_maschmeyer@xxxxxxxxx> > > "Be kind to your fur-bearing friends, > For a skunk may be somebody's brother." > --Fred Allen > > > _______________________________________________ > Blinux-list mailing list > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list