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                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 966

                           Tuesday, June 29, 1993

Today's Topics:


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                            Survey On Braille Cod
                                 NLS CD ROM
                        HP Scanners and Portable PCs
                            Xerox Reading Edge ?
                             Re: computer speed
                                mouse pointer
                           Re: Satisfaxtion modem
                            Braille code changes
                                   thanks
                             HELP WITH ARCHIVES


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Subject: Survey On Braille Cod
From: Warren.Figueiredo@f6.n3800.z1.fidonet.org (Warren Figueiredo)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3800/6 - CompuChurch (tm) IH, Baton Rouge LA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Questions about the proposed braille code changes, the questionnaire,
both diskette and hardcopy samples of the Unified Braille code can be
obtained from the Dr. Hilda Caton at the Braille Research Center.located
at the American Printing House for the Blind. Give her a call at
800-223-1839. She and her staff wish to hear from all interested
persons.

Warren

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Subject: NLS CD ROM
From: David.Tanner@f234.n109.z1.fidonet.org (David Tanner)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/234 - Braille Bank BBS, Oakton Va


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

I finally got the cd rom player into my system at work and started
trying to use the NLS cd rom disk.  I had been told to expect that
it wasn't going to work to well with speech, and boy were they
right. ASAP and Jaws both would pick up some parts of what was
going on on the screen, but never enough to know what to do or
where you were very well.

I wondered if you have seen the disk and done any work with it. If
so, I wondered if you had been able to come up with a way to know
what field you are on on the criteria screen?

I also will be getting a cd here at home soon and wondered if you
had any suggestions as to particular cd rom's that work
particularly well wth speech. Of course I want an encyclopedia, and
something like MS Bookshelf, but I would also like to know of any
of the games that will work with speech and would also be of
interest to a 9 year old boy. My kid is starting to take an
interest in the computer and dad is the one who is going to have to
work with him since mom has about zilch interest in a computer
other than occasionally jumping on to CompuServ to see what new
recipes she can find.

    D. T.

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Subject: HP Scanners and Portable PCs
From: David.Tanner@f234.n109.z1.fidonet.org (David Tanner)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/234 - Braille Bank BBS, Oakton Va


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

I would very much like that info on using the HP's with portable
computers.

By the way I am haveing quite a bit of good luck with Reading
Advantage, but I am waiting to recompair it with Oscar and OpenBook
until next week. I got the surprise of my life tuesday this week
when I found out I had a HP2-C coming for my system at work. Well,
it showed up thursday afternoon, but since I was packing the system
up for our office's big move from Oakton Va. to Rockville MD. I
decided to wait till we get to the new offices next week to unpack
the new scanner. I did have a little fun tuesday running Reading
Advantage with Window Bridge in a DOS window. I did get it to work,
but had some problems flipping between applications through the
task manager. I was very pleased however with the way Reading
Advantage worked with the Window Bridge speech software. The two
seemed to work much better together than Oscar and WIndow Bridge,
and I just never have been to satisfied attemting to use OpenBook
with Window Bridge instead of OpenBook's own speech.

    D. T.

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Subject: Xerox Reading Edge ?
From: David.Tanner@f234.n109.z1.fidonet.org (David Tanner)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/234 - Braille Bank BBS, Oakton Va


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

In a msg on <Jun 02 09:56>, Bob Williams of 1:268/302 writes:

 BW>      Can anybody give me some advice about the Xerox O C R system
 BW> that is designed to be used with a computer and scanner?
 BW> Specifically, is there enough difference between the two Xerox
 BW> scanners to warrent the $1700 price difference?  Would I be
 BW> better off buying a H P Scanjet 2P ( street price is $699 ) ?How
 BW> does this system compare to Arkenstone and/or OSCAR ?  Has either
 BW> of the competition lowered prices to compete with Xerox?
 BW>      Thanks in advance.

There is some bit of difference between the top end Xerox scanner
which is sold with Reading Advantedge and the HP2-P. First the
Xerox scanner you are talking about has a higher resolution which
means it will successfully recognize smaller print than the Scan
Jet 2-P. 2. The Scan Jet 2-P will take paper lengths up to 11.5
inches long while the Xerox takes paper lengths up to 14 inches
long. 3. The Xerox has the book edge feature which in some
instances makes it easier to scan into the middle of a book,
although I question just how much real difference that makes on
most books. 5. The HP 2-p has a feature that is only found on
Hewlett-Packard HP2-P and HP2-C scanners; the auto contrastfeature
which is able to fairly accurately judge the correct contrast for
scanning the document.  Depending upon the particular document
selecting a accurate  contrast to get a good scan may require
rescanning the  document several times.

Personally, I would split the difference and buy the Scan Jet 2-C.
The HP 2-C has the 14 inch scanning surface, has the higher
resolution to allow good scanning of smaller print, and has the
auto contrast feature like the HP 2-p. The only thing that differs
between it and the Xerox scanner is that the Xerox doesn't have the
auto contrast capability, and the HP 2-P  doesn't have the bookedge
scanner, which is an exclusive to Xerox scanners. The HP 2-C can be
baught for as low as $1299.00 and probably a little lower in
comparison to a price of $1700 FOR THE Xerox scanner. Both are nice
scanners, but I would expect a little better overall satisfaction
with the HP 2-C.  D. T.

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Subject: Re: computer speed
From: David.Tanner@f234.n109.z1.fidonet.org (David Tanner)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/234 - Braille Bank BBS, Oakton Va


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

In a msg on <Jun 04 12:49>, Walter Siren of 1:396/17.42 writes:

 IO>> thing with 486es is the local bus. That gives external speed
 IO>> that's equal to the cpu speed, but this is mostly for video
 IO>> applications. It helps windows with redrawing and anything
 IO>> that comes to the screen. Something I need like a hole in
 IO>> the head. <grin> Those doublers are only good for

It looks like that is where local bus is mostly being used so far,
but I noticed that a couple of the new machines that PC Computing
reviewed in the March issue this year in the article on local bus
technology showed a couple of systems were using the local bus for
data transfer for the IBE hard disk controller also. and one was
placing a SCSI interface in one of the local bus slots. If that
happens we could see some good reasons for local bus for our uses
too.  Just imagine having your scanner interface in the local bus
slot so that data from the scanner readched the cpu more than twice
as fast. Then if the data could reach the disk drive more than
twice as fast we might get to a point that the system would start
reading what we scanned almost as soon as the scanner went down the
page.

It still seems crazy that you have a 32 bit processor running at
66MHZ and yet data is forced through parts of thw system at a slow
8MHZ.

    D. T.

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Subject: mouse pointer
From: David.Tanner@f234.n109.z1.fidonet.org (David Tanner)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/234 - Braille Bank BBS, Oakton Va


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Good luck with getting an Alva from your state agency. As you
probably know Alva is the only Braille display other than Teeman
which can be used with Windows and the Window Bridge speech and
Braille access software. I think you will be very pleased with the
Alva. Hopefully you realize that Window Bridge can be set up to use
only the Braille display without speech since speech would be of no
use to you as a deaf person.

    D. T.

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Subject: Re: Satisfaxtion modem
From: Les.Kriegler@p0.f207.n2613.z1.fidonet.org (Les Kriegler)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:2613/207.0 - The Recovery Room, Rochester NY


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 BH> Does the 200 use the CASMGR.SYS, the CASMGR.EXE and the FAXPOP TSR
 BH> programs?  I have little trouble running all three of these

Yes, the 200 uses all of those programs.
 BH> The trouble comes when I use the FAX.EXE program for
 BH> printing or sending an ASCII fax.  Once I exit the FAX.EXE, I have a
 BH> lot of trouble receiving subsequent faxes.  If I do not load the
 BH> FAXPOP.EXE and then use the FAX.EXE and then leave that program, I
 BH> get an error message that tells me an overlay called FRIEZE cannot be
 BH> unloaded.  Intel cannot figure out what the problem is.  I have had
 BH> this same problem with 3 different MB's with different memory, so do
 BH> not think it is hardware related.  The problem seems to be some sort
 BH> of conflict between the FRIEZE overlay and VE--something to do with
 BH> interrupts, although there is no apparent conflict.

Are you loading the drivers into upper memory?  If you are,
you might try loading everything into lower memory initially,
including Vocal-Eyes which might isolate the problem for you.
If you are running Dos 6, you can do this at startup by
pressing the F8 key as MS Dos is starting.  If you cannot see
the screen, you will need assistance in going through each
line of your config.sys file to determine what you wish to
start high or low.  Beyond this, I recall last year havaing a
problem which, although not related to yours, was solved by
loading my Cache program with disk writes turned off.  In my
case, running pc-cache, a PCTools cache program was started
with the following:  pc-cache /write=off.  Again, I have run
the program to which you refer with Vocal-Eyes, and they have
worked well, although I only use WordPerfect to send out my
faxes.  Hope you solve this one soon.  Les

... SENILE.COM found . . . Out Of Memory . . .

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Subject: Braille code changes
From: George.Mccoy@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (George Mccoy)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/89.0 - BlinkLink, Pittsburgh PA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Other than complaining here on the echo about the morons who want to
steal our lateracy, What can we do?  Whom else can we contact to get
this lunacy stopped?

I would appreciate and will implement any suggestions anyone has.

So far, I have written to both my senators, my congressman and the
library of congress expressing my total and unalterable opposition to
the changes.

Thanks, in advance,
George and Bullet

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Subject: thanks
From: George.Mccoy@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (George Mccoy)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/89.0 - BlinkLink, Pittsburgh PA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who helped us test the
beta version of Q READ.  Version 1.0 is being alfa tested, even as I
type.  It contains all the improvements you have asked for, except for
the ability to read from archives, and we're working on that one, too.

We have a much better reader for your participation.  I hope you'll give
it another try when version 1.0 comes out.

Thanks again,
George

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Subject: HELP WITH ARCHIVES
From: George.Mccoy@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (George Mccoy)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/89.0 - BlinkLink, Pittsburgh PA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Hello all!

I am trying to fix Q READ so it will read files from inside archives.
The approach I'm taking is as follows:

When a file with a .zip, .arc, .arj, .lzh, .pak or .zoo extension is
selected, I'm gonna list the files contained in the archive in a menu.
When the user selects one of them, I will use the user's existing
decompression utility to uncompress the selected file.  When the user
exits Q READ, the uncompressed file will be deleted and the user will
never see it.

This approach has two main weaknesses.  First, if the user doesn't have
the required decompression utility for the type of archive selected, the
process will fail.  Secondly, I must obtain information on each of these
file formats in order to list the compressed files.

I don't think there's anything we can do about the first problem other
than to inform the user and suggest he/she obrtain the required utility.

To solve the second problem, I am once again hoping for some help from
the good folks on this echo.  Does anyone know where I can obtain
information on how to read the files lists in the above-mentioned
archives?  I have it for .zip, .arc and .arj but not for the others.

Also, can anyone suggest a better general approach to the problem?  If
so, I'm all ears.

Thanks, in advance for any help you can offer,
George and Bullet

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                 End of Issue # 966 of the Blind News Digest

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