🚀 go-pugleaf

                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 983

                          Wednesday, July 21, 1993

Today's Topics:


                                ******


                              lans and mskermit
                             re: Star Trek Visor
                           WINDOWS 3.* AND SPEECH
                 Re: Magazine supplyer you may want info on
                                  Re: Artic
                          Re: Braille code changes
                         Re: Back from doggie school
                              GAMES AND SPEECH
    Speaking of upgrading...Problems with old Artic SynPhonix and 386...
                            reading the graphics


                                ******


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Subject: lans and mskermit
From: dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)


i suggest you update to msvibm.zip on
watsun.cc.columbia.edu in the
/kermit/bin subdirectory.  remember use the type binary
command before you do the get.  This is version 3.13
and what you describe may or may not be a bug now.
If it is, please write to kermit@columbia.edu and
tell them about it so we can fix it.  there were several
lan improvements in 3.12 and now in 3.13.

<dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil>
j. DaShiell
Naval Air Warfare Center
Aircraft Division Warminster
Street and Jacksonville Roads
Warminster, PA   18974-5000
(215)-441-2229




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Subject: re: Star Trek Visor
From: SUKPWM@MVS.sas.com (Phil)
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.

dear all,
i have read with interest a couple of articles about the 'star trek'
visor invented at john hopkin's hospital.  one of the articles
mentioned a paper written by nasa about this invention.  has anyone
read it?  i understand that the visor is designed to help people with
periferal vision or macular dystrophy.  how effective is it?  does it
increase detailed vision as well?  are there any plans to make it
available for users?

any replies would be much appreciated.

thanks,

phil.





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Subject: WINDOWS 3.* AND SPEECH
From: johnw@gorn.echo.com (John Watkins)

Hi all,

Has anyone tried the new "winvission" program for artic business
vission version 3.08 ( I think that's is the latest version)?  If
you have used it, how did it work??

Are there any other speech programs or add on programs out there
that will work with "ms windows"?

Thanks for any info!!

John Watkins






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Subject: Re: Magazine supplyer you may want info on
From: Bill.Holton@p0.f165.n264.z1.fidonet.org (Bill Holton)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:264/165.0 - The Back Door, Richmond VA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 -=> Quoting Anthony Hodgetts to Sam Troia <=-

 AH> Hey Sam, ok, well I think Richard is going to look into this, and
 AH> well we'll see. Thanks for the warning about the high prices.. I heard
 AH> there were 2 subscription rates, 1 for if you want to keep the mags
 AH> and the other if you wish to send them back when finished.. THe 2nd is
 AH> cheaper..

  Actually, Recorded Periodicals has gone to a one-price system, and
most magazines cost about $25 per year.  May I recommend highly a
magazine they publish called simply "Computers," which is a
collection of articles from Byte, PC World and Datamation.  I also
subscribe to Discover Magazine, but they have many others, such as
Omni, Nature, and many, many more.  Excellent value for the money.
Until recently they also had a program where, if you were on SSI,
you were eligible for two free subscriptions, but finances have
caused them to suspend that program.

... Coke is for sissies!

--
Uucp: ..!uunet!bunker!hcap!hnews!264!165.0!Bill.Holton
Internet: Bill.Holton@p0.f165.n264.z1.fidonet.org




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Subject: Re: Artic
From: Paul.Henrichsen@f12.n205.z1.fidonet.org (Paul Henrichsen)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:205/12 - Stingray!, Fresno CA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 -=> Quoting Dennis Bartlett to All <=-

 DB> Does anyone know if Artic is going to support any other
 DB> synthesizers with their
 DB> product for Windows? I hope that they are planning to at
 DB> least support the most
 DB> popular synthesizers.

Hi, Dennis.  Well, you know Artic.
They feel that their synthesizer and speech rules are the
best in the west.  However, they are at least going to
support the Dectalk PC and the Dectalk Kurzweil.
It has always been a contention of mine that they don't support more
synthesizers, but with their new Transport, they will probably rely on
that to take up the slack for anyone who feels they want a portable
synthesizer.  Having played with it for quite a while, I gotta say, it's
pretty good.  I hope that answers your question.

... What do you mean? You actually read this Tagline?!?
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12

--
Uucp: ..!uunet!bunker!hcap!hnews!205!12!Paul.Henrichsen
Internet: Paul.Henrichsen@f12.n205.z1.fidonet.org




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Subject: Re: Braille code changes
From: Donald.Roberts@f88.n119.z1.fidonet.org (Donald Roberts)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:119/88 - Madman BBS, Chico CA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

I don't know about you, but for me, nemith
 SB| code and computer braille both came out long after I was
 SB| out of school. I often
 SB| see many small r\programs in PC-Computing which I would like to try, but
 SB| frankly, I do not read computer braille well enough or
 SB| confidently enough to try
 SB| and input one of those programs into my computer from the
 SB| braille copy.

Hello Stew,

Amen! I stopped my subscription to braille computer magazines
for that same reason.

It seems to me, however, that this really makes the case for a
unified braille code.
___
 X JABBER v1.2 X A seminar on Time Travel will be held 2 weeks ago

--
Uucp: ..!uunet!bunker!hcap!hnews!119!88!Donald.Roberts
Internet: Donald.Roberts@f88.n119.z1.fidonet.org




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Subject: Re: Back from doggie school
From: Bob.Humbert@p0.f99.n215.z1.fidonet.org (Bob Humbert)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:215/99.0 - Blink Connection, San Leandro CA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 -=> Quoting George Mccoy to Bob Humbert <=-

 GM> You are very wise to wait a few months to compare the dog and the
 GM> cane. It takes that long for you and your dog to really get used to
 GM> each other.
 GM>
 GM> Once again, Good luck,
 GM> George and Bullet

In my last post, I asked if there were any blind since birth dog users who
waited until their fifties or so to get their first dog.  So far, I have had
no response to that inquiry.  I asked the question because I am beginning to
wonder if it is too late to teach this old dog new tricks.  We are off to a
rocky start because of a few mistakes made by my wife, the dog, and me.  When
I returned from doggie school graduation I found that my wife had 29 people
waiting to see us.  It was a good party, but after an emotional reunion with
the dog and his 4h raiser, it was a lot of pressure on both of us.  A few
days after my return, my wife left for Wisconsin to attend a wedding and will
be gone for a week.  I am left here with two boys age 5 and 9, plus Harvard.
He has had two accidents in the house, and when I worked him late at night,
he did quite well everywhere except at the intersection that I must cross
most of the time.  He refused to cross it at all.  When I insisted, he went
diagonally across the street.  When I totally blindly led him on heel to the
corner that I wanted him to go to I found nothing to cause him to refuse to
cross that street.  Fortunately, it was 1-30 am or I would have been in a lot
of danger.  3 attempts later with him trying various tricks to avoid making
the crossing, I, myself started to get disorientated, the reason for which I
got the dog in the first place, and had to give up.  Hopefully, when I can
get some sighted assistance, we can resolve this problem.  For now, I feel as
if I am in more danger with the dog than I was with my cane.

Oh, well, this too shall pass.  When my wife returns to relieve me of some of
the baby sitting duties, life should mellow out and I know that Harvard and
I will become a good working team.  Right now though, I'm just frustrated
because the timing of our lives events is the pits.

You congratulate me and you get to hear all of my woes.  I'll try not to do
that again, but I just needed the opportunity to ventilate a little.

--
Uucp: ..!uunet!bunker!hcap!hnews!215!99.0!Bob.Humbert
Internet: Bob.Humbert@p0.f99.n215.z1.fidonet.org




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Subject: GAMES AND SPEECH
From: Russ.Kiehne@f421.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Russ Kiehne)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/421 - Twilight Clone Mac, Rockville MD


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

[Note from Bill McGarry -- Unfortunately, I do not have the room
either on my BBS or on the FTP site to carry all of these text
games.]

 -=> Quoting Noel Romey to Russ Kiehne <=-

 NR> Hi Russ,
 NR> I am interested in your games.  What do some of the games include.
 NR> I would be glad if you responded.
 NR> Thanks

 NR> Noel

 NR> P.S.  I would be interested in the games, and if I gave you the disks,

 NR> would you send me the games?
 NR> thanks!

If you send the disks I can copy them for you!  Here is the list of
games I currently have!

    Area 3 -- Text adventure games

2-GAMES.ARJ   106487 10-07-91 Two text adventures, Countryside and Fantasy
ADVENTUR.ARJ   54478 10-07-91 The original text adventure game.
AGT-1.ARJ     343717 10-07-91 Adventure Game Toolkit     1 of 2
AGT-2.ARJ     347233 10-07-91 Adventure Game Toolkit   2 of 2
ALIEN.ARJ      15627 10-07-91 You are the only survivor of a space crash, in
                              basic.
AMIS.ARJ       31714 10-16-87 A mis adventure v1.3 text adventure game!
AMULET.ARJ     72310 10-07-91 This is a fantasy adventure which takes place in
                              the Yendor's castle
ANIMALS.ARJ     6604 10-07-91 Animal guessing game - may be used as a door
ASKFILM.ARJ    65746 12-19-92 Film trivia game
ASTRIVIA.ARJ   43279 10-07-91 Astrosoft trivia game-science & entertainment
BACCARAT.ARJ    2103 10-07-91 Text based baccarat game, in basic.
BASEBALL.ARJ   27354 10-07-91 Text based baseball game.
BIBLTRIV.ARJ   39300 03-17-89 Bible trivia game
BJTALK.ARJ     34369 10-07-91 A talking blackjack game
BLACKJCK.ARJ    4990 10-07-91 Blackjack game in basic. Good with speech!
BMASTER.ARJ    80803 03-29-91 Bible master version 1.2 bible quiz game
BONES.ARJ      69851 10-07-91 Bones bones bones the game of the haunted
                              mansion.
BRAMINAR.ARJ   47432 01-20-91 object is to beat the evil one, text game
CASTAWAY.ARJ  100860 10-07-91 2 text adventure games from buttonware, castaway
                              and south american trek
CHINA.ARJ      14788 10-07-91 Make money trading in the China sea, in basic.
CLAYTON.ARJ     8322 11-15-92 CLAYTON MANOR ADVENTURE! Mr.  Clayton famous for
                              his money and his great sense of adventure, has
                              died. in basic
CLIFF.ARJ     115091 03-08-92 Cliff Diver in "crime to the ninth power" text
                              game.
COIN.ARJ       36098 10-07-91 Sherlock Holmes at his best! - text adventure
                              game.
CRALF.ARJ     179551 12-13-92 In this text adventure try to escape from the
                              castle ralf!
CRIBBAGE.ARJ   16658 01-13-93 Card game of Cribbage. good with speech!
CRUISE.ARJ     44922 10-19-90 A murder has been committed on the luxury cruise
                              ship S.S. Hedonist.
CRYPT20.ARJ    67231 10-07-91 explore a church crypt, direct screen writes.
CTA.ARJ        50947 05-17-93 A Christian text adventure.
DERELICT.ARJ   27145 10-07-91 Derelict is a text adventure game.
DESERT.ARJ      3477 10-07-91 The object is to travel 40 miles across the great
                              gobi desert! in basic.
DITCH2.ARJ    171771 02-07-93 Text adventure, setting is a university campus.
DND.ARJ        82660 01-04-92 Dungeons of the Necromancer's Domain, a computer
                              fantasy role playing game.
DRUGLORD.arj   40284 11-09-92 A New game that challenges you to become a
                              druglord.
DRUGWAR.ARJ    26771 03-21-92 Drug war is a game based on the new york drug
                              market.
DRWHO.ARJ      44632 10-07-91 DR. Who text adventure game. source and compiled
                              code
DUDLEY.ARJ    108858 10-07-91 A text adventure game from AGT
DUNGEON.ARJ   133117 03-11-92 Dungeon text game. IBM version of the DEC Zork
                              game.
EAMON1.ARJ     53579 10-07-91 SANYO/IBM EAMON MAIN HALL and BEGINNERS CAVE DISK
                              text adventure game 1 of 4
EAMON2.ARJ     48805 10-07-91 Disk 2 of the Eamon series
EAMON3.ARJ     91721 10-07-91 Disk 3 of the Eamon series
EAMON4.ARJ     66040 10-07-91 Disk 4 of the Eamon series
EC.ARJ         65018 10-07-91 Enchanted castle text adventure game
EDGETIME.ARJ   89428 08-02-92 THE HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF TIME, A puzzle of time
                              and space (Text adventure)
ELSINO.ARJ     75575 01-08-93 CASTLE ELSINORE text adventure game
EMPIRE.ARJ     10554 10-07-91 Be the ruler of a unimportant european country
                              way back in the medieval ages.
FBCOACH.ARJ    44221 10-07-91 a text based football game.
FBI.ARJ       122611 10-07-91 In this adventure direct agents to capture the
                              bad guys.
FCTNRY11.ARJ   40195 02-01-93 ictionary, the game of obscure words.
FIFI.ARJ       21361 10-07-91 This adventure takes place in Madam Fifi's
                              whorehouse!! in basic
FOOTBALL.ARJ    9256 10-07-91 2 text based football games in basic.
FORTUNE.ARJ    20562 10-07-91 a very early wheel of fortune, also good with
                              speech
G-MANOR.ARJ    59138 10-07-91 defeat the sinister hound! text adventure game.
GAGS106B.ARJ  213951 10-07-91 The generic adventure game system (GAGS) is a
                              great game generator!
GTNW.ARJ       17952 10-07-91 Global thermo nuclear wartext adventure!
GYM.ARJ        31508 10-07-91 Find your clothes in a gym! text adventure game
HANGMAN.ARJ    47801 10-07-91 Three Flavors of the Game.
HEARTS.ARJ     15797 10-10-91 The card game of hearts good with speech.
HHQUIZ.ARJ     40476 08-02-92 a trivia quiz to test your knowledge of the
                              Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
HLWD.ARJ       94566 12-19-92 Hollywood film trivia, one to four players.
HOBBIT.ARJ      5692 10-07-91 in this game you become a hobbit theif trying to
                              steal the orb of zot in basic
HORNADET.ARJ   24886 10-07-91 The Castle of Hornadette text adventure game
HORSE.ARJ       2972 10-07-91 Text based horse racing game, in basic.
HOTEL.ARJ     178094 01-08-93 The text adventure HOTEL was created with the
                              Adventure Game Toolkit, In it you attempt to put
                              out of business the corrupt government of a city.
HUGECAVE.ARJ  346985 01-08-90 Humongous cave from AGT text adventure game!
HUMBUG.ARJ    132013 08-29-91 You, Sidney Widdershins, are sent to your
                              Grandad's for the school holidays!
IBMADV.ARJ     37699 10-07-91 Infiltrate IBM Headquarters text adventure game
JACJIM.ARJ     74565 08-28-91 Jacaranda Jim is forced to crashland on the
                              strange world of Ibberspleen IV.
JOTS.ARJ       62010 10-07-91 A neat word association-spelling game.
KING.ARJ        4496 10-07-91 a text-strategy game in basic.
KQUEST.ARJ     59407 10-22-91 In this text adventure find the treasure.
KROZ.ARJ       32918 10-09-91 Kroz, the Great Underground Adventure V. 2.1 for
                              the IBM PC good with speech.
LAB.ARJ       110569 01-08-93 Deadly Labyrinth - AGT text adventure Game
LANDER.ARJ     12031 10-07-91 Lunar Lander text adventure game
LJ.ARJ         66502 01-08-93 Lonely Jamie text adventure game
LORD.ARJ      179741 10-07-91 Frodo and his Pauls. - text adventure game!
LOSTGOLD.ARJ    7863 10-07-91 Find the lost Duchmans gold in basic.
LOVEFIRE.ARJ   58291 10-07-91 A boy meets girl love story text adventure
LPARTY.ARJ     89771 10-07-91 A menu driven text adventure game
MAGE.ARJ       11429 10-07-91 A text adventure in basic.
MANOR.ARJ      47504 01-08-93 This text adventure takes place in hampton manor!
MAROONED.ARJ   23360 11-15-90 You have crashed your ship on a hostile alien
                              planet and must try to escape.
MAYAKDOM.ARJ   35287 10-07-91 escape from Maya's kingdom! text adventure game
MCMURPHY.ARJ   85862 10-07-91 Text adventure game Mcmurphys mansion find the 10
                              million dollars
MEGA.ARJ       93984 10-07-91 Make as much money in 20 years as you can through
                              investments good with speech
MLYAHT.ARJ     25305 01-29-92 Microlink yahtze--works with speech, takes a
                              little playing around to read dic
MMB.ARJ        42729 01-08-93 Murder in the Marching Band text adventure game
MONOPOLY.ARJ   48713 10-07-91 Monopoly Play intuitively.  good sound effects
MURDER.ARJ     89544 01-08-93 Murder on Violet Island text adventure game
MURDERS.ARJ    72758 10-07-91 Murders in the museum text adventure game
MYTHOLGY.ARJ   17847 10-07-91 good mythology game/quiz challenging!
NECTAR.ARJ     17741 10-07-91 Text adventure game in basic.
NEIGHORN.ARJ  203616 10-07-91 5 text adventure games - crime, island, haunted,
                              submarine and terror!
NEWYORK.ARJ    29844 10-07-91 In this adventure the object is to escape from
                              New York text adventure game
NIRV31.ARJ    119947 10-07-91 Nirvana is a light-hearted text game, and it
                              takes imagination!
NOBEER.ARJ    156600 02-11-92 ANOTHER LIFELESS PLANET AND ME WITH NO BEER  v
                              1.3 text adventure game
NOVA.ARJ      141578 10-07-91 Supernova: An adventure set in the future.
OKLIB.ARJ     208356 03-23-93 Oklib's revenge a text adventure from agt!
OLDHOUSE.ARJ   24239 10-07-91 Find the bomb in the old house - text adventure
                              game
PAG.ARJ        91244 06-09-93 Personalized text adventure game from agt.
PARANOIA.ARJ   76499 10-07-91 A text adventure game from AGT
PASSION.ARJ    82721 10-07-91 The passion pit - An r-rated text adventure game.
PAULS1ST.ARJ   83441 02-27-93 This is a text adventure game where you play the
                              role of the apostle Paul on his first missionary
                              journey.
PC-GOLF.ARJ    28096 10-07-91 PC golf works with speech!
PEARL.ARJ  --- TBBS v2.1/NM

--
Uucp: ..!uunet!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!421!Russ.Kiehne
Internet: Russ.Kiehne@f421.n109.z1.fidonet.org




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Subject: Speaking of upgrading...Problems with old Artic SynPhonix and 386...
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, Donna.

I believe those older symphonics and votalker cards can not operate
above 8 mhz.  Sometimes you can get them to work at 10mhz, but the
results are problematical.  I have never heard of a way to upgrade the
Symphonics card, itself.  It might be time to consider another
synthesizer, although it's hard to say goodby to an old friend.  Sorry
to be the bearer of such bad news.

There are several nice internal speech cards available including
Doubletalk and Sounding Board.  These 2 are fairly low priced devices.

I didn't catch what kind of screen review package you are running.  Make
sure your package will support the synthesizer of your choice, before
you buy.  Hope this helps.

Take care,
George and Bullet

--
Uucp: ..!uunet!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!89.0!George.Mccoy
Internet: George.Mccoy@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org




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Subject: reading the graphics
From: Sam.Troia@p4.f203.n2603.z1.fidonet.org (Sam Troia)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:2603/203.4 - The BATcave, Brooklyn NY


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 > Since I have last written to you, Tempral Acquity
 > Products told me about Music Printer Pluss.  I checked
 > it with Bert Cohen who got my equipment for me.  He
 > said that it looked good.  The command line will use
 > speech, the graphics card is for the notation.  I will
 > need a Vga graphics card to run the program.

Hi again Rosie,

If at all possible, you should check and see if Music Printer Plus
has a demo available.  That way you would be able to try it and see
how much of it actually works with speech.

I'm wondering a few things.  First, since this is a music printing
program, you should make sure that the company hasn't skimped on
the sequencing portion of the program. That is, does this program
have all of the fancy features of something like Cakewalk Pro?
Also what kind of notation does this program use in the
note-editing screen in the sequencer?  Is it standard score
notation or is it MIDI notation?

And now for the biggie!  When you're in score editing and printing
mode, as a blind person, how will you conquer the reading of score
notation for editing and such?  I know you said you'll be getting a
VGA card; this will help your computer but no speech package in
existence will handle the graphics in score notation.  Have you
thought about this and how will you tackle the problem?

Again if at all possible, you should try and find out if there are
any other blind MIDI users who successfully run this program?  If
there are, they could probably be invaluable to you.

In closing I guess the reason for all these questions is that I
would hate to hear that you bought something that was of little or
no use to you.

Sam

--
Uucp: ..!uunet!bunker!hcap!hnews!2603!203.4!Sam.Troia
Internet: Sam.Troia@p4.f203.n2603.z1.fidonet.org




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                 End of Issue # 983 of the Blind News Digest

                                ******