Hardware questions.

Hardware questions.

[Anna Schneider]

Once again, thank you everyone for your help.  Here's another round of 
questions.

It was recommended to me by someone on this list that I make sure that the 
hardware I get with my computer is Linux and speech compatible.  Or maybe 
it was just Linux.  So that when I order my computer, I can be specific.  
I would like to go laptop if possible, but I understand that that may not 
work.  Again, if people could please go from experience.  I do think I 
will wind up using a combination of Speakup with Red Hat and Emacs with 
Emacspeak which I know is Linux too but if it's important, well you all 
know.  Please define acronyms and other computer terminology as you answer 
or you are going to get a lot of "what did that mean questions".  Remember 
I'm learning not only about Linux but Im' catching up with the computer 
world in general so I'm major out of the loop.

Thank you ago.  Here goes.

Can people here recommend based on experience:

a certain type of Cd burner?  I was led to understand that this is better 
than CD ROM because it can be used to write to as well as to read from.

a printer.  I don't know that I need color printing, but I do need one 
that is fairly flexible in terms of formatting.  I will, for example, need 
to print everything from standard documents to labels and invoices.

a sound card

a video card.  This should be decent quality.  I'm an artist and I use a 
lot of color, and in the event that I ever find a way to play with my 
images on the computer, even if it's through a hired assistant, I should 
have decent color capability.  It does not have to be top of the line, 
just decent.

modem.  I was led to understand by a friend that for laptop there are 
actually modem cards that can be taken in and out of a slot that can also 
be used for data cards and things.  This would be nice, but I'm willing to 
listen to all modem suggestions.

And last of all scanners.  Some debate seems to have occurred on this 
issue and it's left me very confused.  OCR shop is looking good to me at 
present.  If there are other options please explain, but in the meantime, 
can anyone recommend a brand and model of SCSI scanner, and what will I 
need in order to hook it into my computer?

If there's anything hardware wise I've left out, please feel free to 
mention it as well.

Thank you again.  And of course, references to sources of info on the web 
are always welcome.

Anna

Re: Hardware questions.

[Frank Carmickle]

Hi Anna

These are some pretty tough questions that take a lot of research.  If you
would like you can certainly give me a call to discuss the options.  I
will give you some ideas in line.

On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Anna Schneider wrote:
snip
> I would like to go laptop if possible, but I understand that that may not 
> work.  Again, if people could please go from experience.  I do think I 
> will wind up using a combination of Speakup with Red Hat and Emacs with 
> Emacspeak which I know is Linux too but if it's important, well you all 

You certainly can go with a laptop if you like.  Most of the current
models from hp sony toshiba ibm gateway and compaq will work.  However
your going to want to choose one carefully to make sure that it has a
supported sound card modem and ethernet...  http://www.linux-laptop.net is
your friend in this regard.

> a certain type of Cd burner?  I was led to understand that this is better 

If your going to be getting a laptop it will be an item that you will want
to have as a component of the laptop.  Most usb cdburners are expensive
and slow.  Most pcmcia scsi cards are expensive also.  
 
> a printer.  I don't know that I need color printing, but I do need one 

As far as printers go you need to decide on how much printing your going
to be doing.  If your doing a lot then your going to want to spend the
extra money on a printer that isn't going to die on you.  Most printers
these days are made just good enough to get the job
done.  http://www.linuxprinting.org is the place to find a compatible
printer that will work with the software that you want to use. There
however aren't very good descriptions on this sight about a printers
features.  

> a sound card

Once again this is an included device in a laptop.  You will want to read
up about different laptops and what sound devices they have.  Currently
the best sound device I know of in laptops are the ymfpci chips.  This
audio controller is made by Yamaha.  It comes on some sony's hp's and ibm's
if I am remembering correctly.  
 
> a video card.  This should be decent quality.  I'm an artist and I use a 

Pretty much all video cards are of reasonable quality these days.  Once
again part of the laptop.  If the folks at the linuxlaptops sight know
anything they will know whether or not the video card is xfree86
compatible.
 
> modem.  I was led to understand by a friend that for laptop there are 

Sure you could get a modem on a pcmcia card.  Most likely you will find
that laptops come with modems these days.  This is a very tricky area
however.  There are very few modems that work with the linux kernel.  I
think that the linux laptops page will once again help you with this.  
 
> And last of all scanners.  Some debate seems to have occurred on this 

Yeah...  A very very very ridiculous argument.  I would like to set some
people straight.  Twain means nothing sane means nothing.  Everyone uses
what ever command set they want.  Some come closer to compliance with
twain then others.  http://www.mostang.com/sane/ is the sane home
page.  You can find out there which scanners work well.  You will probably
want a usb scanner.  There going to be the most economical way to
scan.  Like I said above about cd burners scsi cards for laptops get
expensive.  Usb scanning should be just as fast.

If I can be more help feel free to call.  

-- 
     Frank Carmickle
phone:     412 761-9568
email:     frankiec@dryrose.com

Re: Hardware questions.

[Charles Crawford]

Linus on laptops is intersting.  How do you get speakup to work when there 
is no mumber pad?

-- charlie.

Re: Hardware questions.

[Christopher A. Peterson]

You modify the keymap to use some keys on the normal keyboard.

Perhaps I'll undertake the task of setting up a keymap similar to the Jaws
laptop keymap as thats the only one I know.

Btw, has anyone thought of mapping the windows keys (on those keyboards)
to do something?

Ttyl,
Chris





On Mon, Feb 04, 2002 at 12:08:56PM -0500, Charles
Crawford wrote:
> Linus on laptops is intersting.  How do you get speakup to work when there 
> is no mumber pad?
> 
> -- charlie.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Hardware questions.

[Frank Carmickle]

On Mon, 4 Feb 2002, Christopher A. Peterson wrote:

> You modify the keymap to use some keys on the normal keyboard.

On most laptops the fn or function key does this for you.

> 
> Perhaps I'll undertake the task of setting up a keymap similar to the Jaws
> laptop keymap as thats the only one I know.

That's almost what the current speakup map looks like on a laptop.  Only
thing is hold the m for insert is really not cool.  I am going to map my
right windows key to this if you don't do it first.  There are a few other
things that I would change.  But I'm not sitting at my laptop right now
and I don't remember what they were.  Anyone care to through in more ideas
about laptop keymaps?

-- 
     Frank Carmickle
phone:     412 761-9568
email:     frankiec@dryrose.com

Re: Hardware questions.

[Gregory Nowak]

Yeah, that's been discussed on this list several months ago if you care to search the archives.
Greg


On Mon, Feb 04, 2002 at 11:24:05AM -0600, Christopher A. Peterson wrote:
> You modify the keymap to use some keys on the normal keyboard.
> 
> Perhaps I'll undertake the task of setting up a keymap similar to the Jaws
> laptop keymap as thats the only one I know.
> 
> Btw, has anyone thought of mapping the windows keys (on those keyboards)
> to do something?
> 
> Ttyl,
> Chris
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Feb 04, 2002 at 12:08:56PM -0500, Charles
> Crawford wrote:
> > Linus on laptops is intersting.  How do you get speakup to work when there 
> > is no mumber pad?
> > 
> > -- charlie.
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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: Hardware questions.

[Thomas Ward]

There is a laptop key map in Red Hat 7.2 for Laptop's or you can get an
external ps2 numpad to plugin, and that works great.

----- Original Message -----
From: Charles Crawford <ccrawford@acb.org>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 12:08 PM
Subject: Re: Hardware questions.


> Linus on laptops is intersting.  How do you get speakup to work when there
> is no mumber pad?
>
> -- charlie.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Hardware questions.

[Janina Sajka]

You take a numeric keypad with you and plug it into the ps2 mouse port. I 
do this with my IBM Thinkpad.

Better still would be to build a pop-up keypad for the Thinkpad, which 
could actually be done, but I haven't worked on this yet. One could do it 
with speakup's character encodings.
 On Mon, 4 Feb 2002, Charles Crawford 
wrote:

> Linus on laptops is intersting.  How do you get speakup to work when there 
> is no mumber pad?
> 
> -- charlie.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: Hardware questions.

[Gregory Nowak]

You use a different keymap. Several are made for speakup and laptops.
Greg


On Mon, Feb 04, 2002 at 12:08:56PM -0500, Charles Crawford wrote:
> Linus on laptops is intersting.  How do you get speakup to work when there 
> is no mumber pad?
> 
> -- charlie.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Hardware questions.

[Thomas Ward]

Hi, Anna. Well, If you want to go laptop IBM has some laptop's that are 99%
Linux compatible, but they do cary a heavy price tag.
The IBM t23 and the IBM T22 series are just a couple of examples.
However, it is much better to build a desktop, for many reasons. You can
upgrade anything it yourself if you have the ability to do that kind of
thing. You know exactly the hardware in the box, and you can make it 100%
Linux compatible right out of the box. most of all it is usually much
cheaper than a laptop.
and here is what I would use for hardware.

Soundcard: Soundblaster Live value or Soundblaster Live Platnem.
Modem: 3com USR Linux modem. This is the only modem 100% that clames to be
officially supported. Although there are plenty of others that can be used.
Printer: Lexmark z53 ink jet.Wonderful printer, and even comes with Red Hat
drivers right out of the box. Easy to config.
Scanner: HP 6390 scannerSCSI .It is a pretty decent SCSI scanner and OCR
Shop support's it.
As far as vidio cards go try and get ATI Rage, because most ATI's are
supported by Linux. Especially, if you plan to use X in the future.
As far as rom burner goes I am sure everyone will give you a different make
and moddle. I use a creative burner, and thus far haven't had much trouble,
but you can probably use HP, Philips, Sony, or whatever sounds good to you.


----- Original Message -----
From: Anna Schneider <annas@drizzle.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 1:58 AM
Subject: Hardware questions.


>
> Once again, thank you everyone for your help.  Here's another round of
> questions.
>
> It was recommended to me by someone on this list that I make sure that the
> hardware I get with my computer is Linux and speech compatible.  Or maybe
> it was just Linux.  So that when I order my computer, I can be specific.
> I would like to go laptop if possible, but I understand that that may not
> work.  Again, if people could please go from experience.  I do think I
> will wind up using a combination of Speakup with Red Hat and Emacs with
> Emacspeak which I know is Linux too but if it's important, well you all
> know.  Please define acronyms and other computer terminology as you answer
> or you are going to get a lot of "what did that mean questions".  Remember
> I'm learning not only about Linux but Im' catching up with the computer
> world in general so I'm major out of the loop.
>
> Thank you ago.  Here goes.
>
> Can people here recommend based on experience:
>
> a certain type of Cd burner?  I was led to understand that this is better
> than CD ROM because it can be used to write to as well as to read from.
>
> a printer.  I don't know that I need color printing, but I do need one
> that is fairly flexible in terms of formatting.  I will, for example, need
> to print everything from standard documents to labels and invoices.
>
> a sound card
>
> a video card.  This should be decent quality.  I'm an artist and I use a
> lot of color, and in the event that I ever find a way to play with my
> images on the computer, even if it's through a hired assistant, I should
> have decent color capability.  It does not have to be top of the line,
> just decent.
>
> modem.  I was led to understand by a friend that for laptop there are
> actually modem cards that can be taken in and out of a slot that can also
> be used for data cards and things.  This would be nice, but I'm willing to
> listen to all modem suggestions.
>
> And last of all scanners.  Some debate seems to have occurred on this
> issue and it's left me very confused.  OCR shop is looking good to me at
> present.  If there are other options please explain, but in the meantime,
> can anyone recommend a brand and model of SCSI scanner, and what will I
> need in order to hook it into my computer?
>
> If there's anything hardware wise I've left out, please feel free to
> mention it as well.
>
> Thank you again.  And of course, references to sources of info on the web
> are always welcome.
>
> Anna
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Hardware questions.

[Gregory Nowak]

Someone on this list posted a while back that plextor is the best kind of burner to get, as you can supposedly upgrade their firmware from gnu/linux.
Greg


On Mon, Feb 04, 2002 at 12:32:43PM -0500, Thomas Ward wrote:
> Hi, Anna. Well, If you want to go laptop IBM has some laptop's that are 99%
> Linux compatible, but they do cary a heavy price tag.
> The IBM t23 and the IBM T22 series are just a couple of examples.
> However, it is much better to build a desktop, for many reasons. You can
> upgrade anything it yourself if you have the ability to do that kind of
> thing. You know exactly the hardware in the box, and you can make it 100%
> Linux compatible right out of the box. most of all it is usually much
> cheaper than a laptop.
> and here is what I would use for hardware.
> 
> Soundcard: Soundblaster Live value or Soundblaster Live Platnem.
> Modem: 3com USR Linux modem. This is the only modem 100% that clames to be
> officially supported. Although there are plenty of others that can be used.
> Printer: Lexmark z53 ink jet.Wonderful printer, and even comes with Red Hat
> drivers right out of the box. Easy to config.
> Scanner: HP 6390 scannerSCSI .It is a pretty decent SCSI scanner and OCR
> Shop support's it.
> As far as vidio cards go try and get ATI Rage, because most ATI's are
> supported by Linux. Especially, if you plan to use X in the future.
> As far as rom burner goes I am sure everyone will give you a different make
> and moddle. I use a creative burner, and thus far haven't had much trouble,
> but you can probably use HP, Philips, Sony, or whatever sounds good to you.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Anna Schneider <annas@drizzle.com>
> To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 1:58 AM
> Subject: Hardware questions.
> 
> 
> >
> > Once again, thank you everyone for your help.  Here's another round of
> > questions.
> >
> > It was recommended to me by someone on this list that I make sure that the
> > hardware I get with my computer is Linux and speech compatible.  Or maybe
> > it was just Linux.  So that when I order my computer, I can be specific.
> > I would like to go laptop if possible, but I understand that that may not
> > work.  Again, if people could please go from experience.  I do think I
> > will wind up using a combination of Speakup with Red Hat and Emacs with
> > Emacspeak which I know is Linux too but if it's important, well you all
> > know.  Please define acronyms and other computer terminology as you answer
> > or you are going to get a lot of "what did that mean questions".  Remember
> > I'm learning not only about Linux but Im' catching up with the computer
> > world in general so I'm major out of the loop.
> >
> > Thank you ago.  Here goes.
> >
> > Can people here recommend based on experience:
> >
> > a certain type of Cd burner?  I was led to understand that this is better
> > than CD ROM because it can be used to write to as well as to read from.
> >
> > a printer.  I don't know that I need color printing, but I do need one
> > that is fairly flexible in terms of formatting.  I will, for example, need
> > to print everything from standard documents to labels and invoices.
> >
> > a sound card
> >
> > a video card.  This should be decent quality.  I'm an artist and I use a
> > lot of color, and in the event that I ever find a way to play with my
> > images on the computer, even if it's through a hired assistant, I should
> > have decent color capability.  It does not have to be top of the line,
> > just decent.
> >
> > modem.  I was led to understand by a friend that for laptop there are
> > actually modem cards that can be taken in and out of a slot that can also
> > be used for data cards and things.  This would be nice, but I'm willing to
> > listen to all modem suggestions.
> >
> > And last of all scanners.  Some debate seems to have occurred on this
> > issue and it's left me very confused.  OCR shop is looking good to me at
> > present.  If there are other options please explain, but in the meantime,
> > can anyone recommend a brand and model of SCSI scanner, and what will I
> > need in order to hook it into my computer?
> >
> > If there's anything hardware wise I've left out, please feel free to
> > mention it as well.
> >
> > Thank you again.  And of course, references to sources of info on the web
> > are always welcome.
> >
> > Anna
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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