New and in need of help.

[Geoff Shang]

Hi Anna, and welcome to the list.

On Tue, 29 Jan 2002, Anna Schneider wrote:

> I have a lot of questions though,
> some of which may seem very silly, but I don't know where else to ask.  My
> attempts to get help on the other list seem to have petered out and I'm
> not sure why.

Well, I for one apologise for this.  I'm a member over there but am way way
behind on that list.

> I am fairly sure of my specific needs in a system t this point, I just
> don't know of how to go about investigating those needs.

Well, knowing what you want is a big help to us.  Perhaps you could tell
us what you want and we can try our best to help you get it.

> I also need to
> be referred to some basic documentation or a Linux dictionary or something
> because I don't know the terminology.  For example, what is a kernel?

The Linux kernel is the guts of the Linux operating system.  It controls
all input and output and keeps track of system resources.  The Linux kernel
is available as C source code, and it is the Linux kernel that speakup is
included in (or patched into) in order to work.  The kernel is the first
thing to load, and it is for this reason that speakup provides speech from
very early in the boot process.

> If anyone here has the time and is willing to walk me through this
> process, I would really really appreciate it.  I will probably be starting
> a small business soon too which is one reason why getting this taken care
> of is an imperative.

Well, all of us on here have had to do all this before, so ask away.  Also,
you may want to join us on the speak freely reflector where we can explain
things to you and literally talk you through anything you want help with.

You can get the speak freely for windows program either from
http://www.speakfreely.org or from
ftp://linux-speakup.org/pub/speakup/goodies/ .  In the latter case, you can
get speakfb.zip which is the speak freely package, then you can get
speakfre.exe and replace the old one with that if you want mixing support
(i.e. so you can understand it if 2 people speak at once).  Note though
that some people have had trouble getting this one to work, so if you don't
want to bother, don't worry about it.  If you use JFW, you can get the
scripts from the ftp site in the file speakfreely-jfwscrp.zip.

Once you have it installed and running, have a hunt through the menus.
Fill in at least your name in the appropriate place so we know who you are
when you show up, and then open a connection to lwl.braille.uwo.ca:4074 and
you'll be away.  If you want to see who else is on, visit
http://lwl.braille.uwo.ca/speakup.html and you'll see a list.

Feel free to write mee privately or on list if you have any further
queries.  Once again, welcome to the list, and you won't regret choosing
Linux.

Geoff.