serial conversion with speakup

[Tom Moore]

Hi.
There is a lot to be said for using software speech on laptops.
I do it myself, but your forgetting about the problem of not being able to install the os on the laptop with out speech.

Tom

On Sun, Oct 31, 2004 at 09:38:32PM -0500, Janina Sajka wrote:
> Frankly, I would just go with software speech--especially if you have a
> decent audio system on that laptop and are able to play other audio
> while getting software speech.
> 
> To my mind any kind of attachment on a laptop is a nuisance, whether its
> a serial cable to an external synth, or a pcmcia card plus the cable and
> the hw synth, or a usb cable and synth for that matter. I believe
> laptops are more easily used without extra appendages hanging off every
> port.
> 
> Lorne Webber writes:
> > while we're on the topic of conversion into serial, another option that I'm
> > thinking about is PCMCIA to serial.
> > I too have a laptop that is sadly lacking a serial port, as well as Zack, I
> > know at least one other person right off who doesn't have a serial port on
> > their laptop. It looks like their going the way of 3 1/2 inch floppy drives
> > on laptops, obviously I prefer having a floppy drive, and of course a serial
> > port too.
> > I'm afraid this is becoming a trend, and the community is going to have to
> > adapt to it.
> > obviously USB to serial is probably not the answer, but I found a company
> > that manufactures PCMCIA to serial, and, I figure, Because they share
> > electronic fundamentals with native bus architectures such as PCI and ISA,
> > they function exactly like standard COM ports and should be able to be
> > addressed as such by most application software.
> > (of course that's also what the manufactures say about USB to serial
> > converters),
> > the address for the particular product I'm interested in is:
> > http://www.quatech.com/catalog/rs232_pcmcia.php
> > I'm curious what you folks think about this possibility, its drawbacks as
> > well as its benefits. one benefit besides the obvious one if it succeeds, is
> > that the frequency of a laptop not having both a serial and PCMCIA port is
> > virtually unheard of, but again, I could be wrong, and If I am, please tell
> > me.
> > 
> > Thanks.
> > Lorne
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> -- 
> 	
> 				Janina Sajka, Chair
> 				Accessibility Workgroup
> 				Free Standards Group (FSG)
> 
> janina at freestandards.org	Phone: +1 202.494.7040
> 
> 
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