[Icon-tech] I cheat with the Icon...

John Esak john at valar.com
Tue Oct 21 17:52:03 MDT 2008


Ah, that is a good feature of the Braille Plus.  Are you saying that it is
easier or even possible to do some of the characters I need so much in the
console with a Braille Plus and the Braille keyboard than the Icon.  For
example I use some control characters lots of times, and I use the pipe
hundreds of times a day..  Maybe some of these are possible on the handheld
Icon, I sure had some trouble finding a few of the things I needed.  The
keyboard in the docking station changes this for the better, but I will have
to get adept at some method of using SpeakUp.

John


> -----Original Message-----
> From: icon-tech-bounces at mulcahy.ws 
> [mailto:icon-tech-bounces at mulcahy.ws] On Behalf Of Beth Koenig
> Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 1:00 PM
> To: Icon technical discussions.
> Subject: Re: [Icon-tech] I cheat with the Icon...
> 
> Another reason I use the Braille Plus and not the Icon. For 
> me a braille keyboard is essential and even more so when 
> using the console. In fact I use the Braille keyboard so much 
> that I hardly ever bother to plug in a qwerty keyboard.
> Beth Koenig
> bethko at gmail.com
> Director of Deaf Blind Services
> Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center
> 2960 Main Street A100
> Irvine, CA 92614
> http://www.deafadvocacy.org/dbs
> Health, safety, and productivity are the cornerstones of 
> independence. At the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center we 
> provide the training and services necessary for the deaf and 
> disabled to achieve equality and independence in all areas of life.
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 6:28 AM, Marc Mulcahy 
> <marc at levelstar.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 	The docking station doesn't have any way to emulate the 
> numeric keypad, and
> 	maybe it should.  Something for the docking station 
> firmware todo list...
> 	
> 
> 
> 
> 	> -----Original Message-----
> 	> From: icon-tech-bounces at mulcahy.ws
> 	
> 	> [mailto:icon-tech-bounces at mulcahy.ws] On Behalf Of 
> Larry Skutchan
> 	> Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 6:23 AM
> 	> To: john at valar.com; Icon technical discussions.
> 	
> 	> Subject: RE: [Icon-tech] I cheat with the Icon...
> 	>
> 	> Actually, you can do quite a bit if not all of this with Icon
> 	> and even a bit more conveniently with Braille+.
> 	> One thing you need to know are the Speakup review commands
> 	> which happen to be on the numeric keypad. If using the device
> 	> by itself, you can switch to numeric by using Pound+Program
> 	> 2. Once there, use 7, 8, and 9 to read the previous line,
> 	> current line, and next line respectively. The row above that
> 	> does words, and the one above that moves by letters.
> 	> Now, if you huse an external keyboard, you can leave the unit
> 	> in num mode and switch between the keyboards, but I am
> 	> honestly not sure how to do this with the unit inside the
> 	> docking station.
> 	>
> 	>
> 	>
> 	>
> 	> -----Original Message-----
> 	> From: icon-tech-bounces at mulcahy.ws
> 	> [mailto:icon-tech-bounces at mulcahy.ws] On Behalf Of John Esak
> 	> Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2008 5:50 AM
> 	> To: 'Beth Koenig'
> 	> Cc: icont
> 	> Subject: RE: [Icon-tech] I cheat with the Icon...
> 	>
> 	> Hi Beth (and Jamal),
> 	> Thanks for replying... I do certainly use external keyboards
> 	> with the Icon.
> 	> Actually now that I have the docking station this is so easy.
> 	> But still, you
> 	> are misunderstanding my question.... maybe.   Maybe not.
> 	>
> 	> I am adept at using the console to implement the things I do.
> 	> I store files run small programs, design some things for
> 	> other systems all at just a script level. Until a compiler
> 	> and more importatnly the libraries become available... in an
> 	> SDK would be great...) but anyway until then, I just script
> 	> what I need in the shell.  However, I've been doing this by
> 	> ssh'ing into the unit.  When I use the docking station, I am
> 	> severely limited because I don't know the "navigation" Jamal
> 	> talked about, so I still login from other systems.  But now,
> 	> I wish to use the unit directly.  I know that doing this with
> 	> just the Icon itself is difficult to impossible.  I've done
> 	> very limited things, but it is just too cumbersome.  So, with
> 	> the docking station keyboard it would at least be possible to
> 	> work conveniently except for the fact that I don't know how
> 	> to get around with the speech as installed.  I mean that if I
> 	> execute a command I hear the results, but I don't know how to
> 	> go over them... analagous to what one would do with the JAWS
> 	> cursor.  Without a display it of course doesn't make sense,
> 	> but the results must be there somewhere.  For example, let's
> 	> take the simplest idea.
> 	> When ssh'd in if I do a simple listing of the directory I'm
> 	> in with "ls -l", I will hear the listing of the permissions
> 	> link count owner, group, date-time and name of the files in
> 	> that directory.  Obviously, this is one heck of a lot of
> 	> "stuff" to hear and absorb. On the screen when I'm ssh'd into
> 	> the console, I can just JAWS cursor around and hear whatever
> 	> I want to hear again.  How do you do this with the native
> 	> speech engine.  Is this the navigation Jamal was talking
> 	> about?  I hope so.  Is there a cheat sheet somewhere... even
> 	> a full discussion of the speech engine itself... whatever.
> 	> Anything to get me started.  I must admit, I haven't even
> 	> looked any farther than this list yet.  I was hoping someone
> 	> here could just tell me what they do or did to start off, and
> 	> I can take it from there.
> 	>
> 	> Thanks...
> 	>
> 	> John
> 	>
> 	>
> 	> > -----Original Message-----
> 	> > From: Beth Koenig [mailto:bethko at gmail.com]
> 	> > Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2008 4:58 AM
> 	> > To: john at valar.com; Icon technical discussions.
> 	> > Subject: Re: [Icon-tech] I cheat with the Icon...
> 	> >
> 	> > This is interesting. I have always just used the brl plus
> 	> to do stuff.
> 	> > I think since you have an icon you are going to want a
> 	> keyboard when
> 	> > working in the console. I use the built in brl 
> keyboard on my unit.
> 	> > To use the console you need to learn speakup but it's
> 	> really easy to
> 	> > get around and read thing with basic navigation.
> 	> > What kinds of things are you wanting to do with the unit?
> 	> > Beth Koenig
> 	> > bethko at gmail.com
> 	> > Director of Deaf Blind Services
> 	> > Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center
> 	> > 2960 Main Street A100
> 	> > Irvine, CA 92614
> 	> > http://www.deafadvocacy.org/dbs
> 	> > Health, safety, and productivity are the cornerstones of
> 	> independence.
> 	> > At the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center we provide the
> 	> training and
> 	> > services necessary for the deaf and disabled to achieve
> 	> equality and
> 	> > independence in all areas of life.
> 	> >
> 	> >
> 	> >
> 	> > On Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 10:56 PM, John Esak 
> <john at valar.com> wrote:
> 	> >
> 	> >
> 	> >       Okay, I have to fess up. I've been using the Icon for
> 	> the past
> 	> > year with so
> 	> >       much success and loving every second of it... 
> but I've been
> 	> > doing it through
> 	> >       the back door.  I simply leave it connected to my
> 	> network either
> 	> > at home or
> 	> >       at work... (and I've even been thinking of buying a
> 	> second one...
> 	> > just to
> 	> >       make that easier.. but then I'd have all that 
> sync problem to
> 	> > worry about...
> 	> >       maybe rsync... anyway not the issue at hand.)  I keep
> 	> it on the
> 	> > network and
> 	> >       then just ssh into the console from any of my other
> 	> machines using a
> 	> >       terminal emulator... usually FacetWin or Anzio.  At
> 	> that point
> 	> > JAWS works
> 	> >       just fine and I can get along fine.  But, now 
> I have need of
> 	> > taking the unit
> 	> >       into environments where there won't be a PC 
> or workstation
> 	> > anywhere to ssh
> 	> >       in from, and what is the point of requiring 
> another machine
> 	> > anyway...  I
> 	> >       need to learn a little more about the best ways to
> 	> work with the
> 	> > native
> 	> >       speech technology in the unit.  Can some of you point
> 	> me to the
> 	> > best place
> 	> >       to start learning about Speak Up or whatever 
> is best to use.
> 	> >
> 	> >       Thanks.
> 	> >
> 	> >       John
> 	> >
> 	> >
> 	> >       _______________________________________________
> 	> >       Icon-tech mailing list
> 	> >       Icon-tech at mulcahy.ws
> 	> >       http://www.mulcahy.ws/mailman/listinfo/icon-tech
> 	> >
> 	> >
> 	>
> 	>
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