Computer Training & Sales/Disability Consulting 464 Sylvania Avenue phone (215) 572-5882 Glenside, PA 19038-3629 fax (215) 572-6045 September 30, 1996 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS Once again it is time for that informal document I call a newsletter. Much has been happening in the world of technology since my last issue in June, 1996. In addition to bringing you up to date, I will try to pass along interesting tips for your use. CHANGES AND UPGRADES No, this time I am not going to begin this section with information about windows. Yes, much has been happening in that area, and we will get to it, but, let me begin with news on reading systems and note takers. Arkenstone will be releasing an upgrade to the OpenBook unbound system in November. This will be a major upgrade known as version 3.0. It will contain many exciting features including; the ability to scan in the background while one reads; the ability to scan material directly into your word processor; improved character recognition even though what is already there is quite good; the ability to enlarge letters on the screen, change the color of the background, foreground and the cursor; and many more improvements. what about the cost of the upgrade? If you purchase OpenBook Unbound after July, 1996, the upgrade is free. If you own a version of Openbook Unbound beginning with the number 2, 2.0, etc., the upgrade is $100.00. If you have a version of openBook beginning with the number 1, 1.0, etc., the upgrade is $300.00. However, if you upgrade from version 1.x to version 2.2 now, the cost is $100.00, and you will be able to upgrade to Version 3.0 for another $100.00, for a total of $200.00. If you own version 1.x and you want to take advantage of that savings you need to move quickly. Feel free to contact Young Opportunities for more information. The area of Note Takers has undergone considerable change since the last issue of this technological collage. Blazie Engineering has come out with a SuperFlash option for the Braille 'n' Speak which will enable one to get an additional 2mb of storage. Yes, that is in addition to the storage already present. It is my understanding that the super flash upgrade will be available for the Type 'N' Speak and Braille Lite in October. Among other changes, the new software upgrade allows one to: make folders (you may call them directories), in order to better arrange files; to move groups of files among folders; and it contains an improved move command for moving the cursor in the file. Artic Technologies is now shipping its new line of Braille note takers which includes the Ergo Braille, the Braille pad, and the Sqwert. The Ergo Braille and Braille Pad are very compact and have one of the best key board touches I have seen. They hold up to 700K of files, and one does not need to declare the size of the file in advance. Indeed, the file management process is much more like that on a standard computer in that you must close a file before moving to the next file. both note takers also include a calendar and alarms reminder system. They retail at $995.00 each which is a good buy. The Sqwert is a stripped down version of the transtype which is still extremely functional and is a great note taker for those who type and do not know Braille. It also sells for $995.00. All three note takers can be used as external speech synthesizers. okay! have it your way we'll turn to windows news. Artic announces that version 2.30 of winvision solo is out and version 3.8 of winvision 95 is scheduled for release on October 1, 1996. Features include improved tracking and support for the Keynote Gold synthesizer. In my discussion with Dale McDaniel he emphasized that both Winvision Solo and Winvision 95 support a wide range of synthesizers including all of the DECTalk family, the Accent SA and synthesizers that emulate it, all of the Blazie note takers; and Text Assist with the sound blaster. The company is really opening up its software. Also, a windows 95 version of Magnum, Artic's screen enlargement software, is in Beta test and should be released within the next month. Microtalk announces that by the time this newsletter hits the streets it will have an upgrade to ASAW. Among the new and interesting features will be a scope option that allows you to make and save settings with six different options all the way from globally, affecting all programs, to the title of the local window you are using. A new literary reading mode will make the flow of speech go more smoothly from sentence to sentence. An improved installation program will, among other improvements, test your synthesizer as ASAW is installing to make sure that it is connected properly. There will be improved tracking including the ability to have the mouse cursor follow the reading cursor. Henter-Joyce will be releasing JAWS for Windows Version 2.0 on October 14, 1996. That version will support windows 3.1, 3.11 and Windows 95. The current version of JFW is version 1.21.23 which boasts improved support for netscape. In my last issue of this newsletter I discussed the cost of the upgrades and the software maintenance agreements. That information remains accurate. The cost of JAWS for Windows 2.0 for new purchasers will be $795.00 and the cost to a new purchaser of the combination Jaws for DOS and Jaws for Windows package will be $990.00. However, if you already own Jaws for Dos and wanted to add Jaws for Windows be aware that as of November 1, 1996, the cost of doing so will increase from $495.00 to $595.00. fully functioning timed evaluations of Jaws for Windows will continue to be $39.95.00. GW Micro has released Window-eyes 1.05. Along with other improvements, this update handles spreadsheets efficiently. It has been tested on, Lotus, Excel and Microsoft Works and handles them all. This new version also adds a lot of functionality for the mouse improving the ability to fill out forms. DON'T FORGET! Young Opportunities carries all of the above products at below market prices and provides excellent technical support. Visa, Master Card and American Express orders are accepted. TAKING THE PLUNGE WITH WINDOWS 95 Let me say at the outset that the first time i explored a windows 3.11 screen I Wanted to send for an orientation and mobility instructor. That screen was anything but intuitive to me, an old dos command line fan. In fact, i do not believe that windows screens are intuitive to anyone who has been blind for most of his or her life. In addition to understanding the concepts of tiled and overlapping windows groups, child windows, etc., there is the problem of unlabeled icons which seem to abound on many screens. There is also the problem of remembering to maximize the window in which you are working, etc. so if all of this is true, why bother to learn windows at all. Unfortunately, whether it pleases us old dos curmudgeons or not, windows is the way of the future. It is taking over more and more work sites, and less and less programs are being written for dos. Many major companies have announced the last upgrade to our old DOS favorites. In addition, there are real benefits to putting up with the hassle of learning windows. with windows you can have a number of programs running at once. You can make better use of files that produce sounds. out on the internet you can listen to radio programs from across the world, and even talk regularly to others across the world for no more than the cost of a sound card, software and a local telephone call. If you think that these things are exciting, they are just the beginning of a rapidly expanding field of communications. As a person who can remember trying to find readers for books that are now readily available in electronic format or which can be scanned into the computer, I revel in any improved communications. so, I persisted and learned a lot about windows 3.11. Screen reading programs improved as I studied and I began to feel a bit comfortable. Then came windows 95 and it raised a lot of questions for me. Let me try to tell you the answers I now know having been working with windows 95 for about three months. My first concern was what I would loose if I moved to windows 95. Would my old dos programs still run? What about my old windows programs? Would I need to give up my old pal DOS? there is so much talk about this being a new operating system it was downright scary. The answers are as follows: Not only don't you need to give up your old programs, you can keep DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.x on your computer providing that you have enough disk space. Here is how to load Windows 95 and keep windows 3.x and dos 6.22 on your system. Go into Windows 3.x and run SETup from the disk drive that contains your Windows 95 disk. By the way, do yourself a favor and get your windows upgrade to windows 95 on a cdrom if you have a drive for it. You not only avoid having to change a vast quantity of disks, you get extra software thrown in. If you try to run windows 95 setup from DOS and windows 3.x is detected, the program suggests that you go into windows 3.1 and run setup from there. Okay, so now your on your way filled with trepidation. Not so bad, just answer the questions. But, and this is the most important thing, when the program recommends that you install the program in a directory called windows say no and write in another directory name such as win95. That's the major hurtle and win95 setup will mildly try to discourage you from this course. If you stand firm, you will have your old DOS 6.x, windows 3.x and Windows 95 all comfortably coexisting on your computer. Its too bad that people don't get along with each other as well. Since you can do all of the above through windows 3.1 any screen reader that can handle 3.1 can be used for that stage of the operation. However, after a large amount of the work is done, your computer reboots and, since it is now running windows 95, all speech is lost unless you have a program that can handle it. Here is an important word of warning. After the computer reboots you will hear a lot of disk activity. If you ask a sighted person what is on the screen they will tell you that it looks multicolored and doesn't have any text. A friend of mine described it as "static." Leave your computer on. Windows 95 is doing work behind the scenes and can take five or ten minutes to complete the task. You may think that something went wrong, but be very patient. Alright, so now you have all three systems on your computer. How do you get from one system to another. Because you have all three systems windows will give you a brief period of time to make a choice when it boots up. Right after the initial whirring of the hard drive if you push the F8 key you will get a menu in which either choice 7 or choice 8 will take you to the old familiar dos 6.22. If you let the system run you will end up in windows 95. Don't despair you can get back to DOS by pushing control-escape, then typing "u" and "m". If you just want to run a dos shell type control-escape, "r" and then "command.com" Do not type the quotes above. Dos 7.0 which comes with Windows 95 can run almost every program that ran in Dos 6.22 with no problem. At first it will not talk well for you, but, you can solve that problem by adding the line "switches=/c" to your config.sys file. After that it talks so well you will probably not know that you are running a new version of dos. I only have one program that I know of that I can't run in Dos 7.0 and that is a special font program for my WordPerfect 5.1 Plus called Facelift. I'm not sure why but I suspect it has to do with the graphical nature of the fonts. If you are running a dectalk have it load on the way into windows 95, then when in the program type control-escape, "r" and the path and name of your windows 95 screen reading program. When you run a dos shell you can bring up almost any screen reading program that runs under dos and go back and forth between windows 95 and dos with the alt-tab keys. If you know you are finished with a dos session type "exit" and you will be back int windows 95 with your screen reader running. I find windows 95 easier to use than windows 3.x, and from the listserves I read on the internet other blind people agree with me. It has a start up button which appears at load up and if you hit enter you can down arrow through all of the start up possibilities. If you hit enter when you come to programs you can down arrow through all of them and hit enter on the one you want to run. Also, I find that windows 95 does not crash my system nearly as much as windows 3.11. Finally, suppose you want to boot directly to DOS and run windows 95 when you choose. No problem. The easiest way is to make a batch file in your root directory that does nothing but fool the computer into thinking it has loaded windows 95. All you put in that batch file is "@echo off" and save it. With it present you will boot directly to dos 7.0. You can also edit a file called msdos.sys which is in your root directory. change the line that says "loadgui=1" to "loadgui=0" and you will boot directly to dos 7.0. Msdos.,sys is a hidden file which means that in order to edit it you will need to unhide and unprotect it. To do this type "attrib -h -s -r msdos.sys. After you have made the change and closed the file, don't forget to type "attrib +h +s +r msdos.sys" to rehide and reprotect it. so there you have it. The above was not meant to be a tutorial, just a reassurance to those of you who contemplate going to windows 95. You don't give up your old friendly dos programs. You can stay in dos all of the time if you choose to do so even with windows 95 on the computer. Indeed, you can force your computer to automatically start in DOS 7.0 which, as previously stated does a fine job running old familiar dos programs. GET IT IN BRAILLE If you are a Braille user then you know the feeling, there are some things that just shouldn't be read in any form but Braille. Let's see, there's math, foreign languages, and technical manuals. Speaking of manuals, if you want Braille copies of the DoubleTalk and ASAP manuals contact HotKey Systems, 63-25B Bourton Street, 1B, Rego Park, New York 11374, phone (718) 335-1788. Dave and Ann Durber, owners of the business care about the quality of their Brailling service and that caring pays off in accuracy. For transcription prices give them a call. TALK ME THROUGH TUTORIALS Phil Scovall is at it again. Since our last newsletter he has produced a tutorial on Lynx, a program that lets you surf the internet from a Unix shell. Phil has also produced a tutorial called Checkbook which comes with a disk containing a check book program written by Marilyn Price. Each program sells for $20.00 and, you will recall, that Phil demonstrates what he is teaching through using his own talking computer. CLOSING TIME Time, cost and postage tell me that it is time to end this newsletter. Address any comments to me at the address on the front page or contact me by e-mail at Youngopp@voicenet.com. Also visit my home page at http://www.voicenet.com/~youngopp.