interesting experiment.

Janina Sajka janina at afb.net
Sun May 19 01:36:35 EDT 2002


Here's another one. 

Can one yet get a readable report on installed hardware under
Windows?

As I recall, there's such a thing, but it writes a graphical
file. Not at all as friendly as dmesg.

On Sun, 19 May 2002, Cecil H. Whitley wrote:

> Hi,
> even more usefull....
> You've got your network settings set to "obtain an ip address
> automatically"..... How do you find your current ip address?  Under 9x?
> Under NT?  Under 2k/xp?
> You have to remember which operating system and which command to use because
> it's not the same in all cases.
> 
> Admittedly the learning curve is less steep, but the os itself is less
> powerfull as well.  Fewer features directly relate to easier to learn.  Less
> capability also directly equates to less learning needed.  GUI's have some
> benefits, almost any 1d10t can erase/format his/her hard drive in less time.
> It's amazing how fast sighted people can trash a windows system.  Keeps me
> employed anyway.
> Cecil
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Janina Sajka" <janina at afb.net>
> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 12:49 AM
> Subject: Re: interesting experiment.
> 
> 
> > On Sun, 19 May 2002, Octavian Rasnita wrote:
> >
> > > If you know a good text editor under Linux please tell me.
> >
> > emacs and/or vim. You'll never need anything else. So, learn them
> > or go back toWindows.
> >
> > > Well, under Windows, you don't need to remember anything at all.
> >
> > That's not true. What is your card's mac address? Go ahead. Find
> > it.
> > Then tell us you don't need to remember anything.
> >
> > > You open a window, and it explains you what you should do there.
> > > You have to press the space bar to check some checkboxes, to press some
> > > buttons, etc, and if you don't know something, press shift+f10 (or the
> right
> > > mouse button and choose "what's this?" or press F1 to view the help file
> > > wich is much much more easier to navigate than the man pages under
> Linux.
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> > > Teddy,
> > > orasnita at home.ro
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Janina Sajka" <janina at afb.net>
> > > To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> > > Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 6:14 AM
> > > Subject: Re: interesting experiment.
> > >
> > >
> > > OK, let's take this one question at a time ...
> > >
> > > On Sun, 19 May 2002, Octavian Rasnita wrote:
> > >
> > > > Are there any games accessible for the blind under Linux, like under
> > > > Windows?
> > > > Please tell me some web addresses.
> > >
> > > I was with you until you said "like Windows." I have no idea
> > > about Windows. I know nothing about it.
> > >
> > > But, if you want games, you can find them. Maybe they're better,
> > > maybe not. But they're out there. Emacs comes with games, and
> > > some are speech enabled by emacspeak. The only game I really know
> > > much about is gnu chess which can be obtained from
> > > http://www.gnu.org.
> > >
> > > I'm generally too interested in things to play games on my
> > > computer. Last thing I'm likely to do, so I'm out of knowledge
> > > here.
> > >
> > > > Are there any good sound editing programs for Linux, like Sound Forge,
> > > Cool
> > > > Edit, Gold Wave, etc, and programs for creating MIDI music, like Cake
> > > Walk?
> > >
> > >
> > > There's ecasound and sox. Very accessible. And there's
> > > gramophone. I recently came across a java midi patch editor, but
> > > I haven't had the time to get it working yet to find out about
> > > its accessibility. Admitedly, these are less functional than the
> > > Windows apps you mention for many tasks. Is this what you do? Or
> > > are these academic questions?
> > >
> > > > Is there a text editor, that has macro features, Regular expressions,
> the
> > > > ability to save in Windows/Mac/Unix format, etc?
> > >
> > > What is Mac format? I've never heard of that. And what is Windows
> > > format?
> > > And, why would you care?
> > >
> > > Is there powerful text editing, formatting, scripting? Of course
> > > there is. Far more powerful than in Windows or Mac. There are
> > > probably too many to mention, actually. Linux/Unix has the
> > > proprietary world beat hands down on this one.
> > >
> > > Those format questions are themselves silly. You don't need them.
> > > You certainly don't need them to communicate with anyone, or to
> > > print out lovely reports, or design lovely e-content for on line
> > > publishing, etc.
> > >
> > > In fact, you do better to forget them and use the superior tools
> > > available on Linux.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > ... Just a few things that camed to mind.
> > > >
> > > > A lot of things are accessible, but ... harder to learn, harder to
> > > configure
> > > > and harder to use, if I am not so bright to remember 1000 command line
> > > > parameters.
> > >
> > > Give me a break. Grow up. How do you remember 1,000 dialog boxes.
> > > How do you remember where to tell windows to show extensions to
> > > files, for example. Or how about finding your ethernet card's mac
> > > address. Do you remember that? I could go on. This is another
> > > bogus argument.
> > >
> > > But, if you think the gui is actually superior, you're going to
> > > lose this excuse soon enough. GNOME is coming. What sad song are
> > > you going to sing then?
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Thank you for the links.
> > > > Teddy,
> > > > orasnita at home.ro
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Janina Sajka" <janina at afb.net>
> > > > To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> > > > Sent: Saturday, May 18, 2002 9:59 PM
> > > > Subject: Re: interesting experiment.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, 18 May 2002, Darrell Shandrow wrote:
> > > > > I just wish Linux were
> > > > > a more viable general purpose workstation; I use Windows for that
> > > purpose.
> > > > >
> > > > Hi, Darrell:
> > > >
> > > > Just wondering what you think is missing from Linux' desktop
> > > > applications.
> > > >
> > > > In case this sounds loaded, it might be. The underlying question
> > > > might be: Is it your knowledge deficit, or is it Linux itself?
> > > > For my own experience in this matter, I've found it's my
> > > > knowledge deficit almost without exception.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
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> > > >
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> > > >
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > Janina Sajka, Director
> > > Technology Research and Development
> > > Governmental Relations Group
> > > American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
> > >
> > > Email: janina at afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175
> > >
> > > Chair, Accessibility SIG
> > > Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
> > > http://www.openebook.org
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
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> > >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Janina Sajka, Director
> > Technology Research and Development
> > Governmental Relations Group
> > American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
> >
> > Email: janina at afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175
> >
> > Chair, Accessibility SIG
> > Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
> > http://www.openebook.org
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> 
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> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org





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