Googling for PAC Mate

[William Loughborough]

At 10:29 AM 4/26/2003 -0500, rmann at rmisp.net wrote:
>I don't know if I would want to learn a new system .

Although the idea of change/growth is often daunting, it is actually way 
easier/quicker than one first fears.

It's a lot easier to learn one-hand input than to learn about 
kernels/compiling and such. I got up to 30 wpm on a one-hand chording 
keyboard in less than a month and I'm way past the age when one is supposed 
to pick up new stuff easily.

Also, there'd be a socket for plugging in a braille or QWERTY device and 
you would be able to use voice dictation as well. But to outline vaporware 
features feels very awkward for me since I've only done the various forms 
independently and getting all that on one machine will turn out to be 
tedious, but doable. So, don't worry your pretty little head about learning 
a new technique because this will take a couple years if I last that long.

In summary, I've used one-hand chording, Perkins brailler, QWERTY, and 
Dragon Dictate and my usual choice is QWERTY but for portability it sucks 
because you have to tote this huge keyboard around with you. Voice is still 
on the drawing board as far as I'm concerned although progress is happening 
(but it's always still "six months away"). Braille input is OK but I just 
never got very good at it and can only read it by visual means (and never 
really got beyond Grade I), one-hand chording was great except for the need 
for a very specialized device. Since I already knew the other methods, it 
seemed easiest to learn for some obscure reason. If size/portability 
weren't the central desired features the notebook wins hands down but 
they're just too big to tote hence the notion previously outlined.

Don't get me wrong - this is ALL VAPORWARE at this time, but I am confident 
it will get done in the fullness of time. I'm just not sure if retrofitting 
a PAC Mate with Linux is where it's at, or even where to start, but others 
who disagree will certainly try it if given the opportunity.

--
Love.

It's Bad Luck to be Superstitious!