ebook reading and linux?

ebook reading and linux?

[Karen Lewellen]

Hi all,
just wondering what if anything allows for reading ebooks, for example 
those circulated via overdrive at public libraries in Linux?
Thanks,
Karen

Raspberry Pi

[David Goldfield]

Hi.  Has anyone on this list done any investigation into the new Raspberry
Pi computer?  www.raspberrypi.org is their site.  Essentially this will be a
$25 computer running certain distros of Linux.  I'm wondering how accessible
this thing could be with the right software installed. I'm very intrigued by
this project.

David 



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Re: Raspberry Pi

[Tim Chase]

On 09/15/11 10:56, David Goldfield wrote:
> Hi.  Has anyone on this list done any investigation into the
> new Raspberry Pi computer?  I'm wondering how accessible this
> thing could be with the right software installed. I'm very
> intrigued by this project.

I too am interested by this project.  However, as best I can tell 
it has an ARM processor running at 700MHz and 128MB or 256MB of 
RAM.  Running a GUI *and* access-software might be a bit tight. 
However, if you're comfortable at the command-line, one might be 
able to skip the GUI and just use a Speakup kernel or something 
like "yasr" for accessible console access.  From what I gather, 
the "A" model is $25 and has the 128MB of RAM but lacks 
networking while the "B" model costs $5-10 more but has a 10/100 
wired network adapter and 256MB of RAM.  To get wireless, it 
sounds like one might need to go with a USB wifi adapter.

Accessibility-wise, because it supports USB, in theory you should 
be able to use a USB braille terminal or TTS synth.  If you're 
using a software TTS, it lists having a standard 3.5mm audio jack 
in addition to including an audio signal on the HDMI output.

-tim

Re: Raspberry Pi

[Luke Yelavich]

On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 03:42:38AM EST, Tim Chase wrote:
> On 09/15/11 10:56, David Goldfield wrote:
> >Hi.  Has anyone on this list done any investigation into the
> >new Raspberry Pi computer?  I'm wondering how accessible this
> >thing could be with the right software installed. I'm very
> >intrigued by this project.
> 
> I too am interested by this project.  However, as best I can tell it
> has an ARM processor running at 700MHz and 128MB or 256MB of RAM.
> Running a GUI *and* access-software might be a bit tight. However,
> if you're comfortable at the command-line, one might be able to skip
> the GUI and just use a Speakup kernel or something like "yasr" for
> accessible console access.  From what I gather, the "A" model is $25
> and has the 128MB of RAM but lacks networking while the "B" model
> costs $5-10 more but has a 10/100 wired network adapter and 256MB of
> RAM.  To get wireless, it sounds like one might need to go with a
> USB wifi adapter.

Its also worth noting that the CPU of this machine does not support the armv7 instruction set, which is what Ubuntu uses, so you will have to use the Debian armel port on this hardware. Afaik Debian is also working on an armef port, which will also not work on the CPU in this device.

Luke

Re: ebook reading and linux?

[Jason White]

Karen Lewellen  <blinux-list@redhat.com> wrote:
>just wondering what if anything allows for reading ebooks, for example 
>those circulated via overdrive at public libraries in Linux?

Calibre seems to be the application of choice these days. I don't know
anything about its accessibility or lack thereof. It was reviewed recently at
LWN:
http://lwn.net/Articles/456939/

Re: ebook reading and linux?

[Karen Lewellen]

Thanks Jason,
This seems more of an organizer with the assumption being that you have a 
second device for the reading, not so much, or not clearly to serve  as the 
reader it  self.  Although there does seem to be an application included 
for that purpose.
looks interesting none the less.
Karen

On Fri, 16 Sep 2011, Jason White wrote:

> Karen Lewellen  <blinux-list@redhat.com> wrote:
>> just wondering what if anything allows for reading ebooks, for example
>> those circulated via overdrive at public libraries in Linux?
>
> Calibre seems to be the application of choice these days. I don't know
> anything about its accessibility or lack thereof. It was reviewed recently at
> LWN:
> http://lwn.net/Articles/456939/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>
>

Re: ebook reading and linux?

[Jan and Bertil Smark Nilsson]

On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 11:51:20AM -0400, Karen Lewellen wrote:
> Hi all,
> just wondering what if anything allows for reading ebooks, for
> example those circulated via overdrive at public libraries in Linux?

Have a look at http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/EPub

I haven't tried any of them. I normally go for lit when I have a 
choice. There is a program called clit which will convert .lit 
files to html, and athen it's up to you.

Bertil

Re: ebook reading and linux?

[John J. Boyer]

If you want to translate Bookshare xml files to Braille you might be 
interested in liblouisutdml project with it's file2brl command-line 
interrface. You can also use BrailleBlaster, which uses liblouisutdml as 
its braille transcription engine. For links to these projects go to 
http://www.abilitiessoft.com 

John

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 02:47:58PM +1000, Jan and Bertil Smark Nilsson wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 11:51:20AM -0400, Karen Lewellen wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > just wondering what if anything allows for reading ebooks, for
> > example those circulated via overdrive at public libraries in Linux?
> 
> Have a look at http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/EPub
> 
> I haven't tried any of them. I normally go for lit when I have a 
> choice. There is a program called clit which will convert .lit 
> files to html, and athen it's up to you.
> 
> Bertil
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

-- 
John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
Abilitiessoft, Inc.
http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Madison, Wisconsin USA
Developing software for people with disabilities