'll take your word for it as i know absolutely nothing about it <smile>.
On 10/10/2011 11:55 AM, Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith wrote:
I'm not disputing that, but the point is that the model we have doesn't have
the right ports. Simple and strait forward as that.
On 10 Oct 2011, at 01:51, Dane trethowan wrote:
Actually the circuits for the Mountbattin Braille Writer go back further than
your embosser does.
The Mountbattin Braille Writer - or at least my model - has a USB port but I never
managed to get this working under the Mac so hence the purchase of the Keyspan USB to
serial adaptor, that way I can have the Mac communicate directly through the serial ports
of the Mountbattin which themselves are very configurable to the point of being able to
"dump" text from just about any computer or note taking device on the planet
and have it embossed, stored to memory for editing on the Mountbattin, transferred from
the Mountbattin to another computer etc.
I'm not saying one system is better than another, they're totaly different so
I'm just making some points about my setup.
On 10/10/2011 11:44 AM, Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith wrote:
Hello Dane
We have Dolphin Publisher for DAISY and it's the best publisher package in the
world. It gives you absolute control over absolutely every function of your
DAISY recording and it can synchronise human reading with on-screen text in
real time. So what you finish up with is a book read by a person and on the
screen the text is displayed and scrolls at the exact speed that the voice
reads. I did that for Gordon with one of the Jennings books, and the results
were spectacular. I'm trying to get hold of more of those books, but that's a
matter for another time and another place.
As for the Braille, yes; I know about your embosser. But ours is a different
system. Unfortunately it's somewhat older than yours, the label says it was
made in April 2001. it doesn't have USB on it, nor does it have Ethernet. So
it's kind of difficult to use on the Mac. I bought a Keyspan adapter, on the
advice of members of our other group. But I never got it to work on the Mac at
all; it's just not visible.
Be that as it may, we now have to try and get it all set up on Windows. We have
DBT for Windows, (version 11.1) and if we can get the adapter to play nice
Gordon has a heap if things he needs to emboss.
As for Office I think we are on the same page. I refuse to pay those
extortionate prices for software. Microsoft is pricing itself out of the
market, in my opinion. There are alternatives for both Mac and Windows which
will do just about everything you can do with Office and buying the whole lot
of them together for both platforms would still leave you paying less than
you'd pay for Office.
Lynne
On 10 Oct 2011, at 01:26, Dane trethowan wrote:
I'm not going to comment on Daisy production as its an area I'm not familiar
with.
I have Braille embossing going on my Mac with my Keyspan adaptor and my
Mountbattin Braille Writer, have had it going for a number of years now, there
was document explaining how it all worked published on the Internet.
No intention of buying any Microsoft Office products either, we've discussed the reasons
already but the other main reasons says volumes, all my substitute software was far
cheaper than the Microsoft products were, in fact I doubt whehter the cost of the
substitute software would even come to the price of one of Microsoft's
"Stand-alone" Office applications.
On 10/10/2011 11:13 AM, Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith wrote:
Helo Dane
Microsoft products are very bloated for the most part. There is a lot of junk
inside their self-extracting archives which a lot of people who know about this
kind of stuff say simply doesn't need to be there.
As you might know, Windows itself is very messy as far as cleaning up temporary
files and old registry entries are concerned. We don't plan on doing more than
we have too with Windows; don't get me wrong. We migrated to the Mac so that we
could escape from all the dross that Windows brings with it. But whether we
like it or not there are certain tasks which you simply cannot accomplish under
OSX so we have little option where they are concerned.
For instance, Braille transcription. We haven't been able to get any joy at all
on the mac with that. Our Keyspan adapter has never shown us any signs of
working on the Mac, and I doubt it ever will. Gordon is now getting pretty
irritated by the lack of functionality in that area so we are going to have to
use Windows. Our embosser has done absolutely nothing for almost 2 years now
and that situation is one which we find intolerable.
DAISY publication is another area where we need Windows. There's absolutely
nothing which comes close to meeting our needs on the Mac and that stuff that
they did with Open Office is a bit of a joke. It's absolutely no use at all for
what we need. Gordon needs to be able to control the navigation points, and all
that thing does is very basic production with no level of user control at all.
As for Office, we have absolutely no intention whatsoever of installing
Microsoft Office. It's a very over-rated and grossly over-priced suite of
software which, although you can now buy it in separate components, is simply
not worth the money.
Lynne
On 10 Oct 2011, at 00:55, Dane trethowan wrote:
Yes indeed<smiloe>.
I've never relied or been tempted to use any Microsoft products much at all, in
the main they're very bulky for one thing.
I've always had trouble getting Outlook Express to work so I gave up on that.
did try Outlook 2003 at one point though it appeared to be a mess when it came
to all its functions and integrating them hence I spent a lot more time using
that software and wasting that time if that makes any sense.
The "Live" stuff I didn't enjoy at all and thus have found replacements for many of the
"Live" utilities and functions. for example Miranda is an excellent multi protocol chat
client in much the same way as Adium for the Mac. I can write my blogs under Windows using
something called Blogjet, not the most accessible piece of software on the planet but it is usable.
I don't use Microsoft Office utilities as I've found substitutes for them,
Jarte Plus for Word Processing, nothing for spreadsheet design yet and Ask Sam
for database management, could also use that for Word Processing too if i
wanted.
and for email? Well i use the now tried and true Thunderbird, I use NVDA a lot of the
time so I'm insulated for the problems that users of Window-eyes have with this
software<smile>.
On 10/10/2011 10:45 AM, Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith wrote:
Hello Dane
On 10 Oct 2011, at 00:08, Dane Trethowan wrote:
Thanks, I never thought of relying on it anyway<smile>.
Just a figure of speech.
Lynne
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