Dos Questions

[Eleni Vamvakari]

This is my first email in a group on digest mode, so I'm snipping to
avoid  cluttering the list.  Hope that's allowed.

Hi Glen.  Yes, I did some reasearch and it seems you were right.  I'll
have to see if I can find more info on the SbTalker and whether or not
I can use it on my system.  It's a Compaq Armada 1750, Pentium II with
between 64 and 192 (not sure on mine) mb sdram and a hard disk that
has the potential to go up to 10gb.  I've gotta check my actual model,
since this one was given to me and I'm not sure on it's specs.  Still,
it should be able to handle it.  I actually never use the numpad, even
on my desktop.

"> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:35:04 -0500
> From: "Glenn Ervin" <GlennErvin at cableone.net>
> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."
> 	<speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Subject: Re: Questions about DOS (sorry if off-topic)
> Message-ID: <FD4096CD510840F2B2FC00082AACB604 at AVERATECLAPTOP>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> My speech program has always been Jaws, because it is the only one to which
> I felt the keyboard commands with the number pad made sense, and that is one
> of the reasons which I still prefer Windows to Linux, that is, all of the
> screenreaders for Linux use that weird keyboard command structure, IMHO.
> But when I was using DOS, to which I did virtually all of the commands
> either in batch files, or individually, I always wanted a good software
> synth solution.
> I used a SoundBlaster card, and there was a software driver for use with a
> screenreader, and it sounded quite good, but computers back then could not
> handle the overhead of the synthesizer.
> I wonder if it was called SbTalker?
> I'll bet it would work with a sound blaster card much better with Jaws for
> DOS, which has been free now for some time.
> I wish I could use my Artic215 card now, as I would still use it if I had an
> ISA slot on my computers.
> HTH.
> Glenn"

Hi Jayson,

I have a demo of ASAP but can't find a full version anywhere.  I've
never heard of the Laptop synthesizer but am fascinated by all
different synths so would love some info on it or to hear sound
samples for it.  If I can't get a software synth to work, I'd like to
find a Keynote Gold SA.  I have the Voicecard in my Keynote gold
1200XE but am not sure if it fits a standard pcmcia slot.  If there
are any hardware synths that sound better than the Keynote please do
let me know.  I didn't know that about Oscar.  Thanks for the warning.
 I guess I'll try this Recognita that I found and see how it works.
If not, then what about Omnipage, Paperport or Textbridge?  Still need
to find a decent scanner too.  I read up on the Scanpage by Logitech
and was impressed so we'll see how that goes.

"> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:55:32 -0400
> From: "Jayson Smith" <ratguy at insightbb.com>
> To: "Speakup" <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Subject: Re: Questions about DOS (sorry if off-topic)
> Message-ID: <94B2AB5061A9490DA81F4A830ABB3A83 at Boe>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> 	reply-type=original
>
> It took me a while to get used to the Jaws way of doing things with the
> numeric keypad, but I'm used to it now. During our DOS days, we always used
> Automatic Screen Access Program, or ASAP. The main reason was that we ran
> Computersmith Enterprises, and sold ASAP for a while, and also developed the
> Laptalk speech synthesizer. So it took me a bit of time to adjust from the
> ASAP way of doing things to the JFW way of doing things. Then, when I got
> into Linux, I found they did things the ASAP way.
>      We used to use OSCAR also. The problem with it now is that it was copy
> protected. Unless TSI released a free version or something before they went
> under, I assume if you could find a copy, it would be protected. The
> particular protection scheme they used was one that Jaws also used in early
> days, and I never found a way to make an actual copy or image of such
> protected disks. Believe me, I tried.
> Jayson"