From hzo at gmx.de Sat May 1 13:06:08 2004 From: hzo at gmx.de (Hans Zoebelein) Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 15:06:08 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Emacspeak-20.0 (LeapDog) Unleashed! (fwd) Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 18:51:26 -0700 From: T. V. Raman Subject: Emacspeak-20.0 (LeapDog) Unleashed! Emacspeak-20.0 (LeapDog) Unleashed! ---------------------------------- For Immediate Release: San Jose, Calif., (May 1, 2004) Emacspeak-2004: Empowering Experienced Users --Zero cost of ownership makes priceless software affordable! Emacspeak Inc (NASDOG: ESPK) --http://emacspeak.sf.net-- announces the immediate world-wide availability of Emacspeak 20.0 --a powerful audio desktop for leveraging today's evolving service-oriented semantic WWW. Investors Note: --------------- With several prominent analysts initiating coverage, NASDOG: ESPK is now trading over the net at levels close to that once attained by DogCom high-fliers. What Is It? ----------- Emacspeak is a fully functional audio desktop that provides complete eyes-free access to all major 32 and 64 bit operating environments. By seamlessly blending all aspects of the Internet such as Web-surfing and electronic messaging into the audio desktop, Emacspeak enables speech access to local and remote information with a consistent and well-integrated user interface. A rich suite of task-oriented tools provides efficient speech-enabled access to the evolving semantic WWW. Major Enhancements: ------------------- 0) Adds outline and bookmark support for Daisy Digital Books. 1) Speech-enables package ido.el. 2) Speech-enables package iswitchb. 3) Speech-enables new visual GDB interface (Emacs 21.3.50 CVS). 4) Speech-enables package re-builder.el. 5) Enhances XSLT support within Emacs/W3. 6) New productivity wizards. 7) New URL templates for productive Web access. 8) Updated WebSearch tools. 9) Updated JDE support. 10) Updated ECB support. See the NEWS file for additional details. Establishing Freedom: --------------------- Never a toy system, Emacspeak is now voluntarily bundled with all major Linux distributions. Though designed to be modular, distributors have freely chosen to bundle the fully integrated system without any undue pressure --- a documented success for the integrated innovation embodied by the system. The integrity of the Emacspeak codebase is ensured by the reliable and secure Linux platform used to develop the software. Extensive studies have shown that thanks to these features, users consider Emacspeak to be absolutely priceless. Thanks to this wide-spread user demand, the present version is being made available at the same zero-cost as earlier releases. At the same time, Emacspeak-2003 continues to innovate in the area of speech and multimodal interaction and carries forward the well-established Open Source tradition of introducing user interface features that eventually show up in luser environments. On this theme, when once challenged by a proponent of a crash-prone but well-marketed windowing system with the assertion "Emacs is a system from the 70's", the creator of Emacspeak evinced surprise at the unusual candor manifest in the assertion that it would take popular idiot-proven interfaces until the year 2070 to catch up to where the Emacspeak audio desktop is today. Industry experts welcomed this refreshing breath of Courage Certainty and Clarity (CCC) at a time when users are reeling from the Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) unleashed by complex software systems backed by even more convoluted press releases. Independent Test Results: ------------------------- Independent test results have proven that unlike some modern (and not so modern) software, Emacspeak can be safely uninstalled without adversely affecting the continued performance of the computer. These same tests also revealed that once uninstalled, the user stopped functioning altogether. Speaking with Aster Labrador, the creator of Emacspeak once pointed out that these results re-emphasize the user-centric design of Emacspeak; "It is the user --and not the computer-- that stops functioning when Emacspeak is uninstalled!". Note from Aster and Bubbles: ---------------------------- UnDoctored Videos Inc. is currently looking for volunteers to star in a video demonstrating such complete user failure. Obtaining Emacspeak: -------------------- Emacspeak can be downloaded from sourceforge --see http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/emacspeak/ You can visit Emacspeak on the WWW at http://emacspeak.sf.net. You can subscribe to the emacspeak mailing list emacspeak at cs.vassar.edu by sending mail to the list request address emacspeak-request at cs.vassar.edu. The latest development snapshot of Emacspeak is available via anonymous CVS from sourceforge. History: -------- Emacspeak-20.0 -- AKA LeapDog -- continues the long established GNU/Emacs tradition of integrated innovation to create a pleasurable computing environment for eyes-free interaction. emacspeak-19.0 --AKA WorkDog-- is designed to enhance user productivity at work and leisure. Emacspeak-18.0 --code named GoodDog-- continued the Emacspeak tradition of enhancing user productivity and thereby reducing total cost of ownership. Emacspeak-17.0 --code named HappyDog-- enhances user productivity by exploiting today's evolving WWW standards. Emacspeak-16.0 --code named CleverDog-- the follow-up to SmartDog-- continued the tradition of working better, faster, smarter. Emacspeak-15.0 --code named SmartDog--followed up on TopDog as the next in a continuing a series of award-winning audio desktop releases from Emacspeak Inc. Emacspeak-14.0 --code named TopDog--was the first release of this millennium. Emacspeak-13.0 --codenamed YellowLab-- was the closing release of the 20th. century. Emacspeak-12.0 --code named GoldenDog-- began leveraging the evolving semantic WWW to provide task-oriented speech access to Webformation. Emacspeak-11.0 --code named Aster-- went the final step in making Linux a zero-cost Internet access solution for blind and visually impaired users. Emacspeak-10.0 --(AKA Emacspeak-2000) code named WonderDog-- continued the tradition of award-winning software releases designed to make eyes-free computing a productive and pleasurable experience. Emacspeak-9.0 --(AKA Emacspeak 99) code named BlackLab-- continued to innovate in the areas of speech interaction and interactive accessibility. Emacspeak-8.0 --(AKA Emacspeak-98++) code named BlackDog-- was a major upgrade to the speech output extension to Emacs. Emacspeak-95 (code named Illinois) was released as OpenSource on the Internet in May 1995 as the first complete speech interface to UNIX workstations. The subsequent release, Emacspeak-96 (code named Egypt) made available in May 1996 provided significant enhancements to the interface. Emacspeak-97 (Tennessee) went further in providing a true audio desktop. Emacspeak-98 integrated Internetworking into all aspects of the audio desktop to provide the first fully interactive speech-enabled WebTop. About Emacspeak: ---------------- Originally based at Cornell (NY) http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman --home to Auditory User Interfaces (AUI) on the WWW-- Emacspeak is now maintained on SourceForge --http://emacspeak.sf.net-- and is mirrored world-wide by an international network of software archives and bundled voluntarily with all major Linux distributions. On Monday, April 12, 1999, Emacspeak became part of the Smithsonian's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The Emacspeak mailing list is archived at Vassar --the home of the Emacspeak mailing list-- thanks to Greg Priest-Dorman, and provides a valuable knowledge base for new users. Press/Analyst Contact: Hubbell Labrador Going forward, BubbleDog acknowledges her monopoly on setting the direction of the Emacspeak Audio Desktop, and promises to exercise this freedom to innovate and her resulting power responsibly (as before) in the interest of all dogs. About This Release: ------------------ Windows-Free (WF) is a favorite battle-cry of The League Against Forced Fenestration (LAFF). --see http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm for details on the ill-effects of Forced Fenestration. CopyWrite )C( Aster and Hubbell Labrador. All Writes Reserved. GoldenDog (DM), BlackDog (DM) etc., are Registered Dogmarks of Aster and Hubbell Labrador. All other dogs belong to their respective owners. Thanks, --Raman -- Best Regards, --raman Email: raman at cs.cornell.edu WWW: http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/ AIM: TVRaman PGP: http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/raman-almaden.asc IRC: irc://irc.gnu.org/emacspeak From hzo at gmx.de Mon May 3 04:35:56 2004 From: hzo at gmx.de (Hans Zoebelein) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 06:35:56 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Cepstral Speech Server for Emacspeak 20. (fwd) Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 19:32:52 +1000 From: Tim Cross Subject: Cepstral Speech Server for Emacspeak 20. Resent-Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 05:33:00 -0400 (EDT) I have added an updated version of my Cepstral Theta speech server for Emacspeak 20 to my web page. Its working for me, so should work (though I rushed it a bit!). I've also included a patched version of the tcldtk.c file for the software dectalk which will work with version 5.0 of the dectalk software from fonix (though tis is not installed by the install script). At this point, the Cepstral server seems a bit more stable than the dectalk 5.0 one and I find it a bit easier to understand. However, the dectalk is more feature rich (e.g. split caps support, tones, wider range of voices and all/some/none punctuation support etc). The main problem I'm finding with the dectalk server is that when there is no speech, the cpu load goes up to 100%. Ironically, it drops down to nearly nothing when it is speaking!). When I get time, I will attempt to track down problems with the dectalk server (I've now got the manuals) and I'll try to improve support for the cepstral server. The url for the tar file is http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~tcross There are two links - one for the 19.x version of emacspeak and one for the new version 20. I recommend going with the one for emacspeak 20 (What, you haven't upgraded yet?) As usual, any problems, let me know. Tim From hzo at gmx.de Mon May 3 15:18:37 2004 From: hzo at gmx.de (Hans Zoebelein) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 17:18:37 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Flite Binaries for Slackware now Available (fwd) Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 09:34:05 -0700 From: Steve Holmes To: speakup at braille.uwo.ca, emacspeak users Subject: Flite Binaries for Slackware now Available -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 After going through much trial and tribulation in the past with compiling Flite, I decided to build a Slackware compatible binary package for others to use in case they can't get big enough swaps allocated or if their machines are too slow for compilation, or if you're just plain lazy:). Look for flite-1.2-i386-1.tgz at my FTP site: ftp://ftp.holmesgrown.com/slackware-packages As time goes on, I'll probably be adding more as I come across the need and build such things. Hope this all helps. - -- HolmesGrown Solutions The best solutions for the best price! http://ld.net/?holmesgrown -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFAk9FwWSjv55S0LfERAjvgAKCpJ5Ph5Z7pc+7eYazeDpbELNni9ACcD4rH zsJZfit6pszW6xea1CwXCxU= =idK6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----