You repeatedly use the word “We”. I take it from that then that you’re a designer of these things. Is that correct? Again , I’m not in any way attempting to diminish the value of this project. Quite the contrary. That is why this group exists, to discuss technologies such as this. Also, I am not disinterested in the project as a long-term aim. My own situation is just too difficult at the moment for me to be able to commit to doing things properly and I’d prefer not to take on another project just now if I cannot dedicate the resources to do the thing right. I certainly wish the developers luck in what they are doing. The concept is certainly a very interesting one.
I can certainly appreciate the argument against building commercial or even multi-machine devices. i can see where you’re coming from in terms of cost. Yes, you’re right in as much as that it would definitely make the project less attractive if the costs were to spiral out of control by making it a commercial venture. I can see also why constructing the things could be problematic in terms of technical constraints. I am not sure exactly what these systems use but if the aim of the game were to make ends meet, the practicalities would most likely be such that it couldn’t be done without significant cost increases as well as design difficulties. For a start, if you’re going to use these things as a commercial proposition, you’d need to resolve the issues of either having an in-built SD or CF card reader, a CD drive, HDMI interface, or any combination of the three. Woopse! There goes your cost, right up through the ceiling. So yes, it is best to keep the thing out of the realm of commercial entities. So, OK, let’s discuss the thing on a totally non-commercial basis. DAISY is a great medium and if a player or even better a recorder can be developed which costs the user next to nothing, then more power to the developers. Obviously there are going to be limits. That’s only to be expected but it doesn’t have to put the carbosh on things. The project does definitely have its merits, and it’s definitely worth pursuing. Indeed, we here at Techno Chat would very much welcome the opportunity to do an audio feature with somebody closely involved with the project. Kind regards <--- Gordon Smith ---> <[email protected]> Information Technology Accessibility Consultant; Providing Help & Support To Young People LivingWith Visual Impairment, plus Braille Transcription services. On 11 Nov 2013, at 14:59, Dane Trethowan <[email protected]> wrote: Okay, well its not a personal observation actually and it really doesn't have much to do with the list to be honest so perhaps I can try and make things a little clearer. I'm not being personally shunned, what I have found is a... well.. very odd type of attitude. I've explained the concept of the "Pi Player" and explained that the system is in multiple parts, for example you have the Raspberry Pi computer at the player's center and other parts plugging into this - the speaker, the dongle for the remote control, the memory stick for the content etc -. I appreciate the discussion particularly on this list surrounding the "Pi Player" and similar subjects however its a shame that other people have suggested that the whole idea is utterly useless and worthless because of the nature of the "Pi Player's" design of having multiple components so perhaps "Shunned" was a too stronger term to be used here. Now I admit, we'd really love to build everything into a case like a Plextalk, a Victor Reader stream etc and we are looking at options to do this now that 3D printing is becoming move viable however if we start building custom boxes and making custom designs then the whole cost of the thing sky rockets dramatically when the central point of this project is to provide a low cost Daisy solution to those who want it, people have the choice of putting it together themselves or - if need be - we can send out all the parts required so all the user need do is plug everything in and switch on. There's no way that the "Pi Player" will ever take the place of the commercially available products but remember that most of those products are at least 3 times the price of one of our "Daisy Pi" configurations which can be built from off-the-shelf hardware and most of us have a budget we have to live by. ======================================= The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> ---------------------------------------
