RE: VMware/JFW issues

RE: VMware/JFW issues

[Watson, Keith]

Lloyd,

Well I'm no technical expert but I have learned a bit about the way JAWS
works over the past month or so. Being a new user to the software. It seems
that JFW in a Windows install uses a .DLL to "grab" the video stream and
pull what it needs to translate to speech. I learned this because I had Zoom
Text installed before the JFW installed. As ZoomText does the same thing, it
interferes with the JFW .DLL in the video chain and JFW acts weird. 

This said, think about what VMware is doing. It's emulating an OS. When JFW
installs in the emulation what is being fed to the video chain is not being
fed directly back through to the hardware. Its being routed back through the
original OS and then to the hardware. This would tend to make me believe
that JFW would give you partial to no response. 

Remember, I'm no Gates Guru, or Linux Guru for that matter. But this is what
my thinking on the matter leads me to believe. If anyone else concurs let me
know. If I'm full of hot air, feel free to burst my bubble, you won't hurt
my feelings.

Keith Watson

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lloyd G. Rasmussen [mailto:lras@loc.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 7:45 AM
To: blinux-list@redhat.com
Subject: Re: VMWare/JFW issues


I would guess that VMWare is not a good enough imitation of Windows for
software text-to-speech to run in it.  If you can do an install into a
hardware synth of some kind you might have slightly better performance.
But as far as I know, this might not work at all.  Is your sound card tied
up doing Linux sounds already?  Do you have IBM ViaVoice for Linux already
installed?  (ViaVoice and Eloquence shipped with JFW are essentially the
same text-to-speech engine).

At 03:56 PM 6/20/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi. I've recently been attempting to get a working VMWare/win98
>installation using JFW, but I'm encountering quite a few strange
>problems, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something
>like this before?
>
>I was using an ancient version of JFW 3.0, but this simply refused to
>work on windows; I received the infamous BSOD whenever JFW was
>launched. So I decided to grab the latest 3.5 demo, hoping that the
>problems would be solved.
>
>The demo starts nicely, and the intro speaks. The demo introduction
>sounds as if it's pre-recorded, while the remainder of the
>installation is synthesized speech through the soundcard. For some
>reason, the synthesized speech is pure static, though the occasional
>sound effects play nicely. Additionally, every other sound which
>windows makes works, so I'm sure the card is configured correctly. I
>know that the static is synthesized speech because I can occasionally
>make out fragments of words behind the static; I can't link this
>phenomena to anything, however.
>
>I've emailed HJ tech support, but I haven't received a response
>yet. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that I'm only running a
>demo and there are paying customers who need help first, whether there
>is normally a few-day delay for support, or whether VMWare either
>isn't supported or isn't well-understood. :) I'm considering going to
>the VMWare folks next, but I don't know quite what to say. "Hey, guys?
>Your SB16 emulation works in 99% of the cases which I've found, but in
>this instance . . . " Plus I'm not even sure which piece of software
>is originating this problem, and I can't reboot to windows to test
>it. Has anyone else experienced this?
>
>This isn't my only problem, however. I'd like to use my soundcard,
>instead of my dectalk, for speech synthesis under VMWare. For some
>reason, when VMWare opens up the serial ports upon startup, it seems
>to bombard the port with a large amount of binary data -- such a large
>amount in fact that I can't seem to cleanly access the serial ports
>after powering down. I've tried killing every Emacspeak session on my
>system and using VMWare, but as soon as I start Emacspeak after
>powering down VMWare the gibberish starts. Restarting Emacspeak or the
>speech server doesn't solve the problem either; I'm forced to reboot
>my system. Ideally I'd like to run Emacspeak and VMWare simultaneously
>(while deactivating the Emacspeak speech server, of course), since I
>usually have dozens of Emacs buffers open, and it's a pain to reload
>all of the files and webpages which I usually have open. Has anyone
>experienced anything like this and, if so, is there a solution?
>
>Thanks.
>
Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer
National Library Service f/t Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress    (202) 707-0535  <lras@loc.gov>
<http://www.loc.gov/nls/>
HOME:  <lras@sprynet.com>   <http://lras.home.sprynet.com

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Re: VMware/JFW issues

[Nolan Darilek]

>>>>> "Watson," == Watson, Keith <kwatson@grtk.com> writes:

    Watson,> This said, think about what VMware is doing. It's
    Watson,> emulating an OS. When JFW installs in the emulation what
    Watson,> is being fed to the video chain is not being fed directly
    Watson,> back through to the hardware. Its being routed back
    Watson,> through the original OS and then to the hardware. This
    Watson,> would tend to make me believe that JFW would give you
    Watson,> partial to no response.

Hrm. IIRC, VMWare emulates an X86, not an OS. If I understand your
above explanation correctly, then JFW intercepts the stream before it
reaches the video card. (I'm thinking it has to do more, since simply
intercepting a stream isn't enough.) I'm not sure how VMWare's X86
emulation would factor into this. Furthermore, I don't know how the
fact that VMWare reflects the data to Linux would effect this either,
since then I would have received no response instead of partial
response.

Anyhow, just a quick update. HJ has responded and refused to support
running JFW under VMWare. So, I went to a competitor. :) So far the
WindowEyes 3.1 demo exhibits none of the symptoms which the JFW demo
did. My only problem is that internet explorer doesn't speak, but I
have an older version which I'll try upgrading later today and,
according to the documentation, that should resolve the issues which
I'm having. I'll send a message here if I manage to get everything
working. So far everything is running smoothly however; I have VMWare
and WindowEyes running on TTY12 using my SBLive for speech synthesis
and Emacspeak for everything else. I can even play MP3's under Linux
while windows/VMWare uses the soundcard for synthesis. :)

Re: VMware/JFW issues

[brent harding]

Does vmware run under x or the console prompt? If under x, how do you boot
up with it? Can windows be on a different partition? I kind of want to do
this because others in my family use windows, and I want to run stuff that
needs to always stay on which runs in linux, and a laptop for the main
linux machine won't work too good, I've never even tried linux on that yet,
I don't know what brands of hardware and what type of disk connections are
used. It's a dell inspiron 3500, they make servers and stuff, but I don't
need those huge 100 gb disk systems just to run a moo, a couple of email
lists, and a small ftp system for friends to give me files I want.
I couldn't imagine how many thousands of dollars those machines might cost.
At 03:01 PM 6/27/00 -0500, you wrote:
>>>>>> "Watson," == Watson, Keith <kwatson@grtk.com> writes:
>
>    Watson,> This said, think about what VMware is doing. It's
>    Watson,> emulating an OS. When JFW installs in the emulation what
>    Watson,> is being fed to the video chain is not being fed directly
>    Watson,> back through to the hardware. Its being routed back
>    Watson,> through the original OS and then to the hardware. This
>    Watson,> would tend to make me believe that JFW would give you
>    Watson,> partial to no response.
>
>Hrm. IIRC, VMWare emulates an X86, not an OS. If I understand your
>above explanation correctly, then JFW intercepts the stream before it
>reaches the video card. (I'm thinking it has to do more, since simply
>intercepting a stream isn't enough.) I'm not sure how VMWare's X86
>emulation would factor into this. Furthermore, I don't know how the
>fact that VMWare reflects the data to Linux would effect this either,
>since then I would have received no response instead of partial
>response.
>
>Anyhow, just a quick update. HJ has responded and refused to support
>running JFW under VMWare. So, I went to a competitor. :) So far the
>WindowEyes 3.1 demo exhibits none of the symptoms which the JFW demo
>did. My only problem is that internet explorer doesn't speak, but I
>have an older version which I'll try upgrading later today and,
>according to the documentation, that should resolve the issues which
>I'm having. I'll send a message here if I manage to get everything
>working. So far everything is running smoothly however; I have VMWare
>and WindowEyes running on TTY12 using my SBLive for speech synthesis
>and Emacspeak for everything else. I can even play MP3's under Linux
>while windows/VMWare uses the soundcard for synthesis. :)
>
>---
>Send your message for blinux-list to blinux-list@redhat.com
>Blinux software archive at ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux
>Blinux web page at http://leb.net/blinux
>To unsubscribe send mail to blinux-list-request@redhat.com
>with subject line: unsubscribe
>
>

Re: VMWare/JFW issues

[Jacob Schmude]

Hi
	Whether linux ViaVoice is installed or not, it won't be
changed. JFW can't see it and it can't see jfw.

On Wed, 21 Jun 2000, Lloyd G. Rasmussen wrote:

> I would guess that VMWare is not a good enough imitation of Windows for
> software text-to-speech to run in it.  If you can do an install into a
> hardware synth of some kind you might have slightly better performance.
> But as far as I know, this might not work at all.  Is your sound card tied
> up doing Linux sounds already?  Do you have IBM ViaVoice for Linux already
> installed?  (ViaVoice and Eloquence shipped with JFW are essentially the
> same text-to-speech engine).
> 
> At 03:56 PM 6/20/00 -0500, you wrote:
> >Hi. I've recently been attempting to get a working VMWare/win98
> >installation using JFW, but I'm encountering quite a few strange
> >problems, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something
> >like this before?
> >
> >I was using an ancient version of JFW 3.0, but this simply refused to
> >work on windows; I received the infamous BSOD whenever JFW was
> >launched. So I decided to grab the latest 3.5 demo, hoping that the
> >problems would be solved.
> >
> >The demo starts nicely, and the intro speaks. The demo introduction
> >sounds as if it's pre-recorded, while the remainder of the
> >installation is synthesized speech through the soundcard. For some
> >reason, the synthesized speech is pure static, though the occasional
> >sound effects play nicely. Additionally, every other sound which
> >windows makes works, so I'm sure the card is configured correctly. I
> >know that the static is synthesized speech because I can occasionally
> >make out fragments of words behind the static; I can't link this
> >phenomena to anything, however.
> >
> >I've emailed HJ tech support, but I haven't received a response
> >yet. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that I'm only running a
> >demo and there are paying customers who need help first, whether there
> >is normally a few-day delay for support, or whether VMWare either
> >isn't supported or isn't well-understood. :) I'm considering going to
> >the VMWare folks next, but I don't know quite what to say. "Hey, guys?
> >Your SB16 emulation works in 99% of the cases which I've found, but in
> >this instance . . . " Plus I'm not even sure which piece of software
> >is originating this problem, and I can't reboot to windows to test
> >it. Has anyone else experienced this?
> >
> >This isn't my only problem, however. I'd like to use my soundcard,
> >instead of my dectalk, for speech synthesis under VMWare. For some
> >reason, when VMWare opens up the serial ports upon startup, it seems
> >to bombard the port with a large amount of binary data -- such a large
> >amount in fact that I can't seem to cleanly access the serial ports
> >after powering down. I've tried killing every Emacspeak session on my
> >system and using VMWare, but as soon as I start Emacspeak after
> >powering down VMWare the gibberish starts. Restarting Emacspeak or the
> >speech server doesn't solve the problem either; I'm forced to reboot
> >my system. Ideally I'd like to run Emacspeak and VMWare simultaneously
> >(while deactivating the Emacspeak speech server, of course), since I
> >usually have dozens of Emacs buffers open, and it's a pain to reload
> >all of the files and webpages which I usually have open. Has anyone
> >experienced anything like this and, if so, is there a solution?
> >
> >Thanks.
> >
> Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer
> National Library Service f/t Blind and Physically Handicapped
> Library of Congress    (202) 707-0535  <lras@loc.gov>
> <http://www.loc.gov/nls/>
> HOME:  <lras@sprynet.com>   <http://lras.home.sprynet.com
> 
> ---
> Send your message for blinux-list to blinux-list@redhat.com
> Blinux software archive at ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux
> Blinux web page at http://leb.net/blinux
> To unsubscribe send mail to blinux-list-request@redhat.com
> with subject line: unsubscribe
> 
> 

Re: VMWare/JFW issues

[Lloyd G. Rasmussen]

I would guess that VMWare is not a good enough imitation of Windows for
software text-to-speech to run in it.  If you can do an install into a
hardware synth of some kind you might have slightly better performance.
But as far as I know, this might not work at all.  Is your sound card tied
up doing Linux sounds already?  Do you have IBM ViaVoice for Linux already
installed?  (ViaVoice and Eloquence shipped with JFW are essentially the
same text-to-speech engine).

At 03:56 PM 6/20/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi. I've recently been attempting to get a working VMWare/win98
>installation using JFW, but I'm encountering quite a few strange
>problems, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something
>like this before?
>
>I was using an ancient version of JFW 3.0, but this simply refused to
>work on windows; I received the infamous BSOD whenever JFW was
>launched. So I decided to grab the latest 3.5 demo, hoping that the
>problems would be solved.
>
>The demo starts nicely, and the intro speaks. The demo introduction
>sounds as if it's pre-recorded, while the remainder of the
>installation is synthesized speech through the soundcard. For some
>reason, the synthesized speech is pure static, though the occasional
>sound effects play nicely. Additionally, every other sound which
>windows makes works, so I'm sure the card is configured correctly. I
>know that the static is synthesized speech because I can occasionally
>make out fragments of words behind the static; I can't link this
>phenomena to anything, however.
>
>I've emailed HJ tech support, but I haven't received a response
>yet. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that I'm only running a
>demo and there are paying customers who need help first, whether there
>is normally a few-day delay for support, or whether VMWare either
>isn't supported or isn't well-understood. :) I'm considering going to
>the VMWare folks next, but I don't know quite what to say. "Hey, guys?
>Your SB16 emulation works in 99% of the cases which I've found, but in
>this instance . . . " Plus I'm not even sure which piece of software
>is originating this problem, and I can't reboot to windows to test
>it. Has anyone else experienced this?
>
>This isn't my only problem, however. I'd like to use my soundcard,
>instead of my dectalk, for speech synthesis under VMWare. For some
>reason, when VMWare opens up the serial ports upon startup, it seems
>to bombard the port with a large amount of binary data -- such a large
>amount in fact that I can't seem to cleanly access the serial ports
>after powering down. I've tried killing every Emacspeak session on my
>system and using VMWare, but as soon as I start Emacspeak after
>powering down VMWare the gibberish starts. Restarting Emacspeak or the
>speech server doesn't solve the problem either; I'm forced to reboot
>my system. Ideally I'd like to run Emacspeak and VMWare simultaneously
>(while deactivating the Emacspeak speech server, of course), since I
>usually have dozens of Emacs buffers open, and it's a pain to reload
>all of the files and webpages which I usually have open. Has anyone
>experienced anything like this and, if so, is there a solution?
>
>Thanks.
>
Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer
National Library Service f/t Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress    (202) 707-0535  <lras@loc.gov>
<http://www.loc.gov/nls/>
HOME:  <lras@sprynet.com>   <http://lras.home.sprynet.com

Re: VMWare/JFW issues

[brent harding]

What version does debian's apt program download? What else does it need to
run, and how do you use it with speech?
At 09:35 AM 6/21/00 +1000, you wrote:
>Nolan Darilek writes:
>This seems to be a problem with the latest vmware.
>
>it will go away if you use vmware v1 rather than v2.
>
>of course you are using an older version so you loose the updates in v2.
>
>have no idea why this is broken in v2 and fine in v1.
>
>Bart
> 
> > Hi. I've recently been attempting to get a working VMWare/win98
> > installation using JFW, but I'm encountering quite a few strange
> > problems, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something
> > like this before?
> > 
> > I was using an ancient version of JFW 3.0, but this simply refused to
> > work on windows; I received the infamous BSOD whenever JFW was
> > launched. So I decided to grab the latest 3.5 demo, hoping that the
> > problems would be solved.
> > 
> > The demo starts nicely, and the intro speaks. The demo introduction
> > sounds as if it's pre-recorded, while the remainder of the
> > installation is synthesized speech through the soundcard. For some
> > reason, the synthesized speech is pure static, though the occasional
> > sound effects play nicely. Additionally, every other sound which
> > windows makes works, so I'm sure the card is configured correctly. I
> > know that the static is synthesized speech because I can occasionally
> > make out fragments of words behind the static; I can't link this
> > phenomena to anything, however.
> > 
> > I've emailed HJ tech support, but I haven't received a response
> > yet. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that I'm only running a
> > demo and there are paying customers who need help first, whether there
> > is normally a few-day delay for support, or whether VMWare either
> > isn't supported or isn't well-understood. :) I'm considering going to
> > the VMWare folks next, but I don't know quite what to say. "Hey, guys?
> > Your SB16 emulation works in 99% of the cases which I've found, but in
> > this instance . . . " Plus I'm not even sure which piece of software
> > is originating this problem, and I can't reboot to windows to test
> > it. Has anyone else experienced this?
> > 
> > This isn't my only problem, however. I'd like to use my soundcard,
> > instead of my dectalk, for speech synthesis under VMWare. For some
> > reason, when VMWare opens up the serial ports upon startup, it seems
> > to bombard the port with a large amount of binary data -- such a large
> > amount in fact that I can't seem to cleanly access the serial ports
> > after powering down. I've tried killing every Emacspeak session on my
> > system and using VMWare, but as soon as I start Emacspeak after
> > powering down VMWare the gibberish starts. Restarting Emacspeak or the
> > speech server doesn't solve the problem either; I'm forced to reboot
> > my system. Ideally I'd like to run Emacspeak and VMWare simultaneously
> > (while deactivating the Emacspeak speech server, of course), since I
> > usually have dozens of Emacs buffers open, and it's a pain to reload
> > all of the files and webpages which I usually have open. Has anyone
> > experienced anything like this and, if so, is there a solution?
> > 
> > Thanks.
> > 
> > ---
> > Send your message for blinux-list to blinux-list@redhat.com
> > Blinux software archive at ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux
> > Blinux web page at http://leb.net/blinux
> > To unsubscribe send mail to blinux-list-request@redhat.com
> > with subject line: unsubscribe
> > 
>
>---
>Send your message for blinux-list to blinux-list@redhat.com
>Blinux software archive at ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux
>Blinux web page at http://leb.net/blinux
>To unsubscribe send mail to blinux-list-request@redhat.com
>with subject line: unsubscribe
>
>

Re: VMWare/JFW issues

[brent harding]

How do you boot linux with vmware, thought it was an x-windows program. If
you do it, can I use the windows that is on my other partition, boot them
both at a time, and run linux for some stuff and windows for other things
without rebooting. I use window-eyes. Windows is on /dev/hda1 and debian is
on /dev/hda2. At 03:56 PM 6/20/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi. I've recently been attempting to get a working VMWare/win98
>installation using JFW, but I'm encountering quite a few strange
>problems, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something
>like this before?
>
>I was using an ancient version of JFW 3.0, but this simply refused to
>work on windows; I received the infamous BSOD whenever JFW was
>launched. So I decided to grab the latest 3.5 demo, hoping that the
>problems would be solved.
>
>The demo starts nicely, and the intro speaks. The demo introduction
>sounds as if it's pre-recorded, while the remainder of the
>installation is synthesized speech through the soundcard. For some
>reason, the synthesized speech is pure static, though the occasional
>sound effects play nicely. Additionally, every other sound which
>windows makes works, so I'm sure the card is configured correctly. I
>know that the static is synthesized speech because I can occasionally
>make out fragments of words behind the static; I can't link this
>phenomena to anything, however.
>
>I've emailed HJ tech support, but I haven't received a response
>yet. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that I'm only running a
>demo and there are paying customers who need help first, whether there
>is normally a few-day delay for support, or whether VMWare either
>isn't supported or isn't well-understood. :) I'm considering going to
>the VMWare folks next, but I don't know quite what to say. "Hey, guys?
>Your SB16 emulation works in 99% of the cases which I've found, but in
>this instance . . . " Plus I'm not even sure which piece of software
>is originating this problem, and I can't reboot to windows to test
>it. Has anyone else experienced this?
>
>This isn't my only problem, however. I'd like to use my soundcard,
>instead of my dectalk, for speech synthesis under VMWare. For some
>reason, when VMWare opens up the serial ports upon startup, it seems
>to bombard the port with a large amount of binary data -- such a large
>amount in fact that I can't seem to cleanly access the serial ports
>after powering down. I've tried killing every Emacspeak session on my
>system and using VMWare, but as soon as I start Emacspeak after
>powering down VMWare the gibberish starts. Restarting Emacspeak or the
>speech server doesn't solve the problem either; I'm forced to reboot
>my system. Ideally I'd like to run Emacspeak and VMWare simultaneously
>(while deactivating the Emacspeak speech server, of course), since I
>usually have dozens of Emacs buffers open, and it's a pain to reload
>all of the files and webpages which I usually have open. Has anyone
>experienced anything like this and, if so, is there a solution?
>
>Thanks.
>
>---
>Send your message for blinux-list to blinux-list@redhat.com
>Blinux software archive at ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux
>Blinux web page at http://leb.net/blinux
>To unsubscribe send mail to blinux-list-request@redhat.com
>with subject line: unsubscribe
>
>

VMWare/JFW issues

[bart bunting]

Nolan Darilek writes:
This seems to be a problem with the latest vmware.

it will go away if you use vmware v1 rather than v2.

of course you are using an older version so you loose the updates in v2.

have no idea why this is broken in v2 and fine in v1.

Bart
 
 > Hi. I've recently been attempting to get a working VMWare/win98
 > installation using JFW, but I'm encountering quite a few strange
 > problems, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something
 > like this before?
 > 
 > I was using an ancient version of JFW 3.0, but this simply refused to
 > work on windows; I received the infamous BSOD whenever JFW was
 > launched. So I decided to grab the latest 3.5 demo, hoping that the
 > problems would be solved.
 > 
 > The demo starts nicely, and the intro speaks. The demo introduction
 > sounds as if it's pre-recorded, while the remainder of the
 > installation is synthesized speech through the soundcard. For some
 > reason, the synthesized speech is pure static, though the occasional
 > sound effects play nicely. Additionally, every other sound which
 > windows makes works, so I'm sure the card is configured correctly. I
 > know that the static is synthesized speech because I can occasionally
 > make out fragments of words behind the static; I can't link this
 > phenomena to anything, however.
 > 
 > I've emailed HJ tech support, but I haven't received a response
 > yet. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that I'm only running a
 > demo and there are paying customers who need help first, whether there
 > is normally a few-day delay for support, or whether VMWare either
 > isn't supported or isn't well-understood. :) I'm considering going to
 > the VMWare folks next, but I don't know quite what to say. "Hey, guys?
 > Your SB16 emulation works in 99% of the cases which I've found, but in
 > this instance . . . " Plus I'm not even sure which piece of software
 > is originating this problem, and I can't reboot to windows to test
 > it. Has anyone else experienced this?
 > 
 > This isn't my only problem, however. I'd like to use my soundcard,
 > instead of my dectalk, for speech synthesis under VMWare. For some
 > reason, when VMWare opens up the serial ports upon startup, it seems
 > to bombard the port with a large amount of binary data -- such a large
 > amount in fact that I can't seem to cleanly access the serial ports
 > after powering down. I've tried killing every Emacspeak session on my
 > system and using VMWare, but as soon as I start Emacspeak after
 > powering down VMWare the gibberish starts. Restarting Emacspeak or the
 > speech server doesn't solve the problem either; I'm forced to reboot
 > my system. Ideally I'd like to run Emacspeak and VMWare simultaneously
 > (while deactivating the Emacspeak speech server, of course), since I
 > usually have dozens of Emacs buffers open, and it's a pain to reload
 > all of the files and webpages which I usually have open. Has anyone
 > experienced anything like this and, if so, is there a solution?
 > 
 > Thanks.
 > 
 > ---
 > Send your message for blinux-list to blinux-list@redhat.com
 > Blinux software archive at ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux
 > Blinux web page at http://leb.net/blinux
 > To unsubscribe send mail to blinux-list-request@redhat.com
 > with subject line: unsubscribe
 > 

VMWare/JFW issues

[Nolan Darilek]

Hi. I've recently been attempting to get a working VMWare/win98
installation using JFW, but I'm encountering quite a few strange
problems, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something
like this before?

I was using an ancient version of JFW 3.0, but this simply refused to
work on windows; I received the infamous BSOD whenever JFW was
launched. So I decided to grab the latest 3.5 demo, hoping that the
problems would be solved.

The demo starts nicely, and the intro speaks. The demo introduction
sounds as if it's pre-recorded, while the remainder of the
installation is synthesized speech through the soundcard. For some
reason, the synthesized speech is pure static, though the occasional
sound effects play nicely. Additionally, every other sound which
windows makes works, so I'm sure the card is configured correctly. I
know that the static is synthesized speech because I can occasionally
make out fragments of words behind the static; I can't link this
phenomena to anything, however.

I've emailed HJ tech support, but I haven't received a response
yet. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that I'm only running a
demo and there are paying customers who need help first, whether there
is normally a few-day delay for support, or whether VMWare either
isn't supported or isn't well-understood. :) I'm considering going to
the VMWare folks next, but I don't know quite what to say. "Hey, guys?
Your SB16 emulation works in 99% of the cases which I've found, but in
this instance . . . " Plus I'm not even sure which piece of software
is originating this problem, and I can't reboot to windows to test
it. Has anyone else experienced this?

This isn't my only problem, however. I'd like to use my soundcard,
instead of my dectalk, for speech synthesis under VMWare. For some
reason, when VMWare opens up the serial ports upon startup, it seems
to bombard the port with a large amount of binary data -- such a large
amount in fact that I can't seem to cleanly access the serial ports
after powering down. I've tried killing every Emacspeak session on my
system and using VMWare, but as soon as I start Emacspeak after
powering down VMWare the gibberish starts. Restarting Emacspeak or the
speech server doesn't solve the problem either; I'm forced to reboot
my system. Ideally I'd like to run Emacspeak and VMWare simultaneously
(while deactivating the Emacspeak speech server, of course), since I
usually have dozens of Emacs buffers open, and it's a pain to reload
all of the files and webpages which I usually have open. Has anyone
experienced anything like this and, if so, is there a solution?

Thanks.