I use Emacs, with Boodler, as a Talking Clock. There is a sound scape that speaks time every 15 minutes. -- Sent from Discordia using Gnus for Emacs. Email: r.d.t.prater@xxxxxxxxx Long days and pleasant nights! Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx> writes: > For reading, if I can't read it in Firefox, I usually convert it to > plain text and read it in nano. > > Gmail's view as HTML function works for most attached documents, and > the following command line utilities are all useful: > > catdoc for .doc and I believe .rtf(and I believe catdoc also includes > commands to handle xls and ppt). > odt2txt works for OpenDocument Format, which is the most notable > format Gmail can't convert to html. > html2text handles whatever I get from Gmail's conversion or web pages > I save for offline reference. > pdftotext which is part of poppler-utils does fairly well, though > formatting sometimes causes converted files having text out of order. > pdfimages could be used to extract images from a PDF for feeding to an > OCR program. > > Granted, I know of no command line tools for dealing with ePub or > Kindle formats, and while my talking eReader can handle most formats, > it doesn't do Kindle. > > Personally, I wish more eBook services offered plain text versions of > their content. > > And for what it's worth, as someone who doesn't use braille, I'd > rather there was a version of Orca that was only a screen reader > instead of being forced to install braille support I don't use, and I > suspect there are at least a few braille users with no interest in > speech who would like the option of installing braille support with > having to install a screen reader or speech synth. > > As for the which keystroke should my screen reader's talking clock be > attached to: > 1. I didn't even know that was a feature in some screen readers, > though apparently it doesn't work with either combination mentioned on > my install of Orca(granted, I'm running the most bare bones of > xservers I can instead of a proper desktop environment). > 2. I think we might be getting too caught up in trivial details. > Besides, I have trouble imagining someone giving Linux a try and being > tripped up by something so small. Trying Linux isn't something the > non-Power user is likely to do without much prodding from a power > user, and I would think anyone who could be scared off by this would > either be scared off much sooner, or wouldn't make the attempt. > 3. My bedroom has four devices with talking clock functionality, and > in the unlikely event that I'm at my keyboard without having at least > one of them within arm's reach, I can always google time. Now, maybe > I'm not representative of screen reader users, but it seems likely > that most screen reader users own at least one talking clock, and > quite frankly, no matter which key binding is used, this seems like > the kind of thing most wouldn't even know exists(I've been using Orca > daily for over 4 years, and this is the first time I've heard of this > feature period), and it certainly is the kind of functionality one is > likely to stumble upon by accident(who even thinks to try hotkey > combinations involving the insert key?). _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list