serial conversion with speakup

[Janina Sajka]

Interesting, Igor. I had the exact opposite experience.

Igor Gueths writes:
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> The only problem I find with software speech, however, is that it consumes a shitload of power...At least on my laptop specifically. Example: My battery life will be cut from about 3/4 hours 
> to about half that usually.
> 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
> > > 
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > 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
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> - -- 
> "The answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42." -- Douglas Adams
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> 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