Hi Karen and all listers,
Last night I was disturbing the party in stating that in my opinion
Arachne is too much grafical to be of use to blind people.
This morning I used packet radio.
Packet radio is the radio amateurs own 'internet' system.
Because it runs via the aether and is not allowed to use a broad
bandwidth the system is slow.
Compared to internet very slow. But due to this slow nature pictures
or graficals are seldom used and that makes the system ideal for
non seeing people.
The most popular modes are mailing and chatting.
All commands are given by keystrokes... the mouse is of no use for
the most common simple DOS programms. The output is pure ASCII and can
of course made diverted to a read bar or speech processor.
Maybe it is possible to convert such a program from the original AX25
(is Amateur X25) protocol to internet protocol.
But before we think about that let me give an example of a packet
radio session.
Let's assume I am going to collect today's mail.
I start the computer, a 286 actualy, and the transceiver at the local
acces frequency.
To start the program i type its name: BAYCOM
Loading takes about 1 minut and than I type:
C PI8CDR C is connect and PI8CDR is the callsign of local acces point.
Now I wait for the downloading of the welcome message:
Hello Bastiaan ... welcome to ..... etcetera (All text in ASCII)
(Note there is no password... the program uses my amateur callsign)
If there is any mail the ISP is telling me, e.g.:
There are 12 messages for you.
Type RN (Read New) to read them.
Please type KM (Kill Mine) after reading.
Than:
Give your command A,B,C,D, etcetera.
A,B, C, D are a list of possible commands like:
A is Abort downloadinc
B is Bye to close the connection
C is Connect
D is Disconnect
I is information
H or ? is Help
R is Read
S is Send
This is not the full list but a few examples.
To read the messages in the mailbox I have two options.
first: type RN (Read New)... now all messages are downloaded to me
second: I ask for a list using the LM (List Mine) command
now i get a list stating the message number, the sender, the subject and
the number of bytes.
An interesting message? well type R #### (Read message number ####) and
only that message will come to you.
You can also look on the bulletinboard, connect to someone special and
chat for hours and send messages yourself.
SP is Send Personal
SR is Send Reply
SC is send Copy
SB is Send Bulletin
C plus callsign is connect me to callsign
This is not all, just an impression.
Many blind radio amateurs are using it (CB also) so this is possible,
but if it is possible or practicle to adapt Arachne from grafics to text
only? Or that we should try to adapt BAYCOM (or any other packet radio
program) to internet?
I don't know... but if anyone is able and willing to do the work around
I will ask the author of BAYCOM for the source. Perhaps he will disclose
the secrets to us.
Maybe there is a radio amateur in your neighborhood using packet radio
or you may want to give it a try on CB (providing there is packet
activity at your place). Let me know I will send you the program.
Bastiaan
.
-- This mail was written by user of Arachne, the Ultimate Internet Client
-- Arachne V1.61, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
