serial conversion with speakup

[Zachary]

I'm wondering if the software synthesizer will work with my laptop, or if 
I'll require sighted assistance to handle installation.  Does it matter?  Or 
is a hardware synthesizer required for speech during an install?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Janina Sajka" <janina at rednote.net>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: serial conversion with speakup


> 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
>
>
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