Zipspeak question and report

[Janina Sajka]

Hey, Debee:

So great to see you on the Speakup list. Welcome.

I remember so well how you pushed me to sign up for Netcom back in the 1980's. I wouldn't do it because it was a toll call. You were right!


Debee Norling writes:
> Zipspeak is running just wonderfully on my Toshiba Libretto. I'm a newbie,
> but I try to read everything I can find.
> 
> If you're looking for something PDA-like, let me suggest this machine; they
> frequently sell now for as low as $350 on Ebay and have very popular support
> on the net. Toshiba still has DOS/Windows drivers available and many Linux
> enthusiasts use these mini-notebooks as well. Google for Libretto and you'll
> find weeks of reading!
> 
> The Libretto is about the size of a videocassette and weighs a bit over a
> pound.  Mine is a 75MHZ Pentium, but later models are faster. Even so, after
> running Windows for a decade, I'm amazed how fast Linux is!
> 
> It is truly cool to have Linux in my purse. The numeric keypad is
> integrated; you have to hold down the "FN" key while pressing character
> keys. With a little practice, most of the SpeakUp commands can be accessed
> by touch typing from the home row.
> 
> I haven't had this much fun with computers in years! There is still a lot I
> have to figure out, like how to get my PCMCIA ethernet and my other PCMCIA
> Wi-fi card working under Linux.  And much of the documentation assumes I'm
> already a wizard ... but hobbies are supposed to be challenging!
> 
> Is the current version of ZipSpeak based on Slackware 8.1?  It appears so.
> Is there a later version?  The maintainer's web page doesn't seem to work. I
> know Matt Campbell was the first maintainer, but according to the readme,
> the current maintainer is at the non-working URL:  www.saqibshaikh.com
> 
> The readme that came with Zipspeak said this distribution was especially for
> beginners and stated that it would be easy to add additional packages from
> the Slackware distribution, and that documentation was included. But now I'm
> running ZipSpeak, I can't find documentation on how to add more packages. It
> might be there and I'm not looking in the right place. I wouldn't worry
> about this so much except that one of the packages that seems to be missing
> is Info. All the docs on the net suggest that beginners read info pages. So
> I think I need the documentation package to read the documentation!
> 
> 
> 
>        --   Debee
> (Deborah Norling)
> Alternate Media Specialist
> DeAnza College
> Phone: 408-864-5815
> Work: norling deborah "AT" deanza.edu
> Home: debee "At" jfcl.com
> 
> 
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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