Sonar GNU/Linux merges with Vinux

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I use Emacs, with Boodler, as a Talking Clock. There is a sound scape
	that speaks time every 15 minutes.
-- 
Sent from Discordia using Gnus for Emacs.
Email: r.d.t.prater at gmail.com
Long days and pleasant nights!

Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list at redhat.com> writes:

> For reading, if I can't read it in Firefox, I usually convert it to
> plain text and read it in nano.
>
> Gmail's view as HTML function works for most attached documents, and
> the following command line utilities are all useful:
>
> catdoc for .doc and I believe .rtf(and I believe catdoc also includes
> commands to handle xls and ppt).
> odt2txt works for OpenDocument Format, which is the most notable
> format Gmail can't convert to html.
> html2text handles whatever I get from Gmail's conversion or web pages
> I save for offline reference.
> pdftotext which is part of poppler-utils does fairly well, though
> formatting sometimes causes converted files having text out of order.
> pdfimages could be used to extract images from a PDF for feeding to an
> OCR program.
>
> Granted, I know of no command line tools for dealing with ePub or
> Kindle formats, and while my talking eReader can handle most formats,
> it doesn't do Kindle.
>
> Personally, I wish more eBook services offered plain text versions of
> their content.
>
> And for what it's worth, as someone who doesn't use braille, I'd
> rather there was a version of Orca that was only a screen reader
> instead of being forced to install braille support I don't use, and I
> suspect there are at least a few braille users with no interest in
> speech who would like the option of installing braille support with
> having to install a screen reader or speech synth.
>
> As for the which keystroke should my screen reader's talking clock be
> attached to:
> 1. I didn't even know that was a feature in some screen readers,
> though apparently it doesn't work with either combination mentioned on
> my install of Orca(granted, I'm running the most bare bones of
> xservers I can instead of a proper desktop environment).
> 2. I think we might be getting too caught up in trivial details.
> Besides, I have trouble imagining someone giving Linux a try and being
> tripped up by something so small. Trying Linux isn't something the
> non-Power user is likely to do without much prodding from a power
> user, and I would think anyone who could be scared off by this would
> either be scared off much sooner, or wouldn't make the attempt.
> 3. My bedroom has four devices with talking clock functionality, and
> in the unlikely event that I'm at my keyboard without having at least
> one of them within arm's reach, I can always google time. Now, maybe
> I'm not representative of screen reader users, but it seems likely
> that most screen reader users own at least one talking clock, and
> quite frankly, no matter which key binding is used, this seems like
> the kind of thing most wouldn't even know exists(I've been using Orca
> daily for over 4 years, and this is the first time I've heard of this
> feature period), and it certainly is the kind of functionality one is
> likely to stumble upon by accident(who even thinks to try hotkey
> combinations involving the insert key?).