SpeakUp Newbie

SpeakUp Newbie

[Stoppard]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1002 bytes --]

Hi all,
I am new to this list so please go easy on me.  After reading some of the posts i feel like i have jumped into an Olympic size swimming pool.

The reason why i joined this list is because i have wanted to start using Linux for quite some time but other things have got in the way.  I think i would like to start with something fairly simple like ZipSpeak as i am running windows 98.  But i don't know much about hardware synthiszers.  I was thinking of going for the Double talk Lt, but after reading the archives i belive some one said they had to flash the bios before it would work with speak up.
I am looking for something on the cheap side that will work with Jaws too (if needed).  The Dec talk express seems to crop up a lot but like i said i really don't know much about hardware sythiszers or where to get them.

Also i Notice that when i get messages from this list they are , (i think) being from the person and not,
speakup@braille.uwo.ca

Thanks in advance,
Nigel, (UK)

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1846 bytes --]

SpeakUp Newbie

[John covici]

Well, as of now, you will need a piece of hardware -- this may
change, but not quickly.  

It will cost you some significant money -- the Lighttalk is going to
be in the $300 u.s. range -- other things are more expensive unless
you can get them used.

zipspeak is no longer being maintained, so that is no longer an
option.

If you just want to play, there are two linux distributions on a cd
which talk, which are both derivations of knoppix.  To do those, you
would have to download them and burn the cds yourself.

One is based on speakup which not in its final location at
ftp.braille.uwo.ca and the other one is based on emacspeak which is
at http://oralux.org .

Also, I highly recomend you get speakfreely and get on the reflector
and ask there -- you will find people on there who will give you a
few pointers along this road.

I hope some of  these help you.

P.S.  The from: line does point back to the person, but if you notice
there is a reply which points back to the list.  Also, if you could
turn off your html, this would be helpful on this list.


on Saturday 07/05/2003 Stoppard(stoppard@ntlworld.com) wrote
 > Hi all,
 > I am new to this list so please go easy on me.  After reading some of the posts i feel like i have jumped into an Olympic size swimming pool.

-- 
         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: Speak Freely Newbie

[Stoppard]

Hi Jhon,
Thanks for the info.  I hope i have turned off HTML for this list under
adding new contact in OE 5.5.

I know Zipspeak is not maintained but since it can still be downloaded i
guess it can still be used?
I have not heared of either of the two you mentioned.  I liked zipspeak as i
did not have to repartition my hard drive on my only working computer.

Thought i would try the mailing list first, i have had a look at the
reflector home page and it says the most recent version is the first one in
a while that is again compatible with Windows to Linux systems.  I notice on
the Speakup web site there are two different address to point the reflector
to, is there a better one to use?  Espsherly since speakfreely should work
with both?

Thanks very much,
Nigel
----- Original Message -----
From: "John covici" <covici@ccs.covici.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 11:11 AM
Subject: SpeakUp Newbie


> Well, as of now, you will need a piece of hardware -- this may
> change, but not quickly.
>
> It will cost you some significant money -- the Lighttalk is going to
> be in the $300 u.s. range -- other things are more expensive unless
> you can get them used.
>
> zipspeak is no longer being maintained, so that is no longer an
> option.
>
> If you just want to play, there are two linux distributions on a cd
> which talk, which are both derivations of knoppix.  To do those, you
> would have to download them and burn the cds yourself.
>
> One is based on speakup which not in its final location at
> ftp.braille.uwo.ca and the other one is based on emacspeak which is
> at http://oralux.org .
>
> Also, I highly recomend you get speakfreely and get on the reflector
> and ask there -- you will find people on there who will give you a
> few pointers along this road.
>
> I hope some of  these help you.
>
> P.S.  The from: line does point back to the person, but if you notice
> there is a reply which points back to the list.  Also, if you could
> turn off your html, this would be helpful on this list.
>
>
> on Saturday 07/05/2003 Stoppard(stoppard@ntlworld.com) wrote
>  > Hi all,
>  > I am new to this list so please go easy on me.  After reading some of
the posts i feel like i have jumped into an Olympic size swimming pool.
>
> --
>          John Covici
>          covici@ccs.covici.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Speak Freely Newbie

[Gregory Nowak]

Zipspeak is no longer being maintained, and has some problems with it,
but you should still be able to grab zipslack, drop the speakup.i for
ide hardware, or speakup.s for scsi hardware kernel into it, and have
it working.

Greg


On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 03:19:58PM +0100, Stoppard wrote:
> Hi Jhon,
> Thanks for the info.  I hope i have turned off HTML for this list under
> adding new contact in OE 5.5.
> 
> I know Zipspeak is not maintained but since it can still be downloaded i
> guess it can still be used?
> I have not heared of either of the two you mentioned.  I liked zipspeak as i
> did not have to repartition my hard drive on my only working computer.
> 
> Thought i would try the mailing list first, i have had a look at the
> reflector home page and it says the most recent version is the first one in
> a while that is again compatible with Windows to Linux systems.  I notice on
> the Speakup web site there are two different address to point the reflector
> to, is there a better one to use?  Espsherly since speakfreely should work
> with both?
> 
> Thanks very much,
> Nigel

ZipSpeak newbie

[Stoppard]

Thanks for the info but ZipSpeak can still be downloaded from
ftp://linux-speakup.org/pub/speakup/disks/slackware/zipspeak/
May i ask what problems ZipSpeakUp has and if the methodof using ZipSlack
then dropping the zipspeakUp kerrnel in  reduces these problems?

Thanks in advance,
Nigel

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregory Nowak" <greg@romuald.net.eu.org>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 7:44 PM
Subject: Re: Speak Freely Newbie


> Zipspeak is no longer being maintained, and has some problems with it,
> but you should still be able to grab zipslack, drop the speakup.i for
> ide hardware, or speakup.s for scsi hardware kernel into it, and have
> it working.
>
> Greg
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 03:19:58PM +0100, Stoppard wrote:
> > Hi Jhon,
> > Thanks for the info.  I hope i have turned off HTML for this list under
> > adding new contact in OE 5.5.
> >
> > I know Zipspeak is not maintained but since it can still be downloaded i
> > guess it can still be used?
> > I have not heared of either of the two you mentioned.  I liked zipspeak
as i
> > did not have to repartition my hard drive on my only working computer.
> >
> > Thought i would try the mailing list first, i have had a look at the
> > reflector home page and it says the most recent version is the first one
in
> > a while that is again compatible with Windows to Linux systems.  I
notice on
> > the Speakup web site there are two different address to point the
reflector
> > to, is there a better one to use?  Espsherly since speakfreely should
work
> > with both?
> >
> > Thanks very much,
> > Nigel
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: ZipSpeak newbie

[Alex Snow]

I have found that zipspeak has problems with loading modules for
various devices. I'd just grab zipslack and replace it's kernel with
the apropriate kernel with speakup compiled in. this can be found in
the kernels/speakup.i directory in the correct version of slackware
your version of zipslack is.
On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 08:38:25PM +0100,
Stoppard wrote:
> Thanks for the info but ZipSpeak can still be downloaded from
> ftp://linux-speakup.org/pub/speakup/disks/slackware/zipspeak/
> May i ask what problems ZipSpeakUp has and if the methodof using ZipSlack
> then dropping the zipspeakUp kerrnel in  reduces these problems?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Nigel
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gregory Nowak" <greg@romuald.net.eu.org>
> To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 7:44 PM
> Subject: Re: Speak Freely Newbie
> 
> 
> > Zipspeak is no longer being maintained, and has some problems with it,
> > but you should still be able to grab zipslack, drop the speakup.i for
> > ide hardware, or speakup.s for scsi hardware kernel into it, and have
> > it working.
> >
> > Greg
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 03:19:58PM +0100, Stoppard wrote:
> > > Hi Jhon,
> > > Thanks for the info.  I hope i have turned off HTML for this list under
> > > adding new contact in OE 5.5.
> > >
> > > I know Zipspeak is not maintained but since it can still be downloaded i
> > > guess it can still be used?
> > > I have not heared of either of the two you mentioned.  I liked zipspeak
> as i
> > > did not have to repartition my hard drive on my only working computer.
> > >
> > > Thought i would try the mailing list first, i have had a look at the
> > > reflector home page and it says the most recent version is the first one
> in
> > > a while that is again compatible with Windows to Linux systems.  I
> notice on
> > > the Speakup web site there are two different address to point the
> reflector
> > > to, is there a better one to use?  Espsherly since speakfreely should
> work
> > > with both?
> > >
> > > Thanks very much,
> > > Nigel
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: ZipSpeak newbie

[Gregory Nowak]

Yes, that's another one. The kernel was 2.2.21 I believe, but the
module tree was still the one for 2.2.18. 

Greg


On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 04:34:50PM -0400, Alex Snow wrote:
> I have found that zipspeak has problems with loading modules for
> various devices. I'd just grab zipslack and replace it's kernel with
> the apropriate kernel with speakup compiled in. this can be found in
> the kernels/speakup.i directory in the correct version of slackware
> your version of zipslack is.

Re: ZipSpeak newbie

[Alex Snow]

Ah so that's why nothing would load.On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 03:41:31PM
-0500, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> Yes, that's another one. The kernel was 2.2.21 I believe, but the
> module tree was still the one for 2.2.18. 
> 
> Greg
> 
> 
> On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 04:34:50PM -0400, Alex Snow wrote:
> > I have found that zipspeak has problems with loading modules for
> > various devices. I'd just grab zipslack and replace it's kernel with
> > the apropriate kernel with speakup compiled in. this can be found in
> > the kernels/speakup.i directory in the correct version of slackware
> > your version of zipslack is.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: ZipSpeak newbie

[Gregory Nowak]

Well, I don't remember all of them. I remember one of the problems was
that /etc/fstab had cr/lf terminated line endings, which caused the
init scripts to complain about it. There were some others, and Saqib,
the zipspeak maintainer had been notified about them as they were
discovered. I mainly encountered them when I was helping Ann Tate with
zipspeak. If she is still on this list, maybe her memory on those bugs
will be better then mine.

I think your second question was if you can take zipslack, and drop
the zipspeak kernel into it. I wouldn't advise that, since the
zipspeak kernel is older then any of the recent zipslack kernels, and
I also seem to recall that there were some problems with the way it
was configured as well.
Use my first advice (I.E., get zipslack, and drop either the speakup.i
or speakup.s kernel into it depending on your hardware).

Greg


On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 08:38:25PM +0100, Stoppard wrote:
> Thanks for the info but ZipSpeak can still be downloaded from
> ftp://linux-speakup.org/pub/speakup/disks/slackware/zipspeak/
> May i ask what problems ZipSpeakUp has and if the methodof using ZipSlack
> then dropping the zipspeakUp kerrnel in  reduces these problems?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Nigel
>