If you want real time stuff, I'd get a braille display to, using brltty. Chris Norman <!-- chris.norman4 at ntlworld.com --> ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Homuth" <james@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 5:59 PM Subject: Re: General questions from someone who's never used Speakup... > I'm wondering, though, what kind of feedback overall I can expect > from it. I'm giving serious thought to getting into system > administration, yes, but if it's going to offer as much or, I guess, > as little feedback as programs like asap for DOS have, then it > probably isn't really worth my switching, and I'd likely be better > off sticking to administering linux systems as best I can remotely, > since I get more feedback that way. Also, how does it handle > environments wherein the text is constantly changing? IE an active > realtime communications medium. If I understand it correctly, it's > designed to stop speaking when you start typing... is there perhaps a > way that that can be changed, or at least temporarily disabled? > Questions like that I'd rather have answered before I start looking > for old computers to turn into experimental linux boxes. > > James > At 12:19 PM 9/18/2006, you wrote: >>I think it all depends on what you want out of linux. Are you hoping to >>become a linux system administrator? If so, you'll want to get to know >>speakup -- it rocks. I use it every day. I even have speakup on my laptop >>as >>opposed to Windows 98. (It's a very old laptop.) >> >>But if you're just looking for a way to read email and browse the web, I >>don't think you'll see a productivity increase by switching from a >>windows/jaws system to linux/speakup. >> >>I've been telling all my blind friends who make their living doing >>computer >>support to get into linux. IMO, it's a great career move. You're hardly >>handicapped at all in linux system administration. Almost everything is >>text >>based. >> >>But if you're not a computer nerd, I wouldn't bother trying to learn >>linux/speakup. WWhen the GUI screen readers are better, then it might be >>worthwhile to switch. >> >>I definately think the way to get started is with an older machine. I >>have >>a LAN in my home running, well, everything... web server, dhcp, caching >>dns, >>samba. It even has 2 sound cards so I can record more than 1 radio program >>at a time. And it's just a pentium 450 with 384 Mb of ram. >> >>I don't know what the laws are like where you live but in Madison, >>Wisconsin, you have to pay like $20 to dispose of a computer. So people >>are >>more than willing to give you an old computer that linux and speakup will >>run on just fine. That's how I would start. >> >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "James Homuth" <james at the-jdh.com> >>To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> >>Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 5:52 PM >>Subject: General questions from someone who's never used Speakup... >> >> >> >I do have linux experience, though not running it off my own machine, >> > since until recently I'd been unaware of anything remotely decent so >> > far as text-to-speech capabilities for it. What I'd like to know, >> > however, is what kind of feedback/configurability is offered with the >> > current version of Speakup? I should probably point out that, coming >> > from Windows, I'm probably going to end up comparing this with >> > whatever expectations I have after using JAWS and/or Window Eyes. >> > I've been tossing around the idea of finding a spare machine just to >> > fiddle around with linux and check out Speakup, at the very least, >> > but I like to know what I'm getting into before I go and jump in with >> > both feet. If anyone knows where I can get my hands on something like >> > a demo of the program in action, or can maybe tell me what their >> > experience with Speakup has been like, that'd be awesome. Email me on >> > or off list, whichever. >> > >> > James >> > >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > Speakup mailing list >> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >> > >> > >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Speakup mailing list >>Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
