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I had that calculator when I was in junior high, 1977-78. It was certainly better than the other talking calculator I remember being out around that time, whose synthsized voice sounded like a bad robot voice from an OTR show like X Minus 1.
Wait a minute, I might be confusing the calculators. The one I used in middle school was a bit bigger, with larger keys. The other one was smaller, and as I say, not a strong voice. What I remember is the first thing you heard when you turned it on was oh point oh oh.
@Thumper1964 The Speech Plus was about the size of a videotape. On the top left, it had a metal thing to run a lanyard through. Unloke every other calculator I've ever seen, the numeric keypas was configured like a telephone keypad. There were two lines of buttons to the left of the keyboard. The rightmost of these had plus, minus, times, and divide by, or as the calculator said, over. The topmost key on the left row was the M for memory Running down from there you had M+, M-, and clear. To the right of the xero on the keypad, where the pound key would be, was a key which said "times minus" when you pressed it. It was supposed to make it easier multiplying negative numbers, but it didn't do anything you couldn't do yourself quite a bit quicker. To the right of the numeric keypad, you had the equals key on top, then a sbutton to read the display, then a switch to turn auto-announcing of key-pressses on or off, then the swap key. You'd perform a calculation, press equals, then use the key below it to read the resulto on the display.On the right edge at the top was a fat knob that you pulled to turn the unit on, and you turned the knob for your volume control. Below that was a sub-mini jack for an earphone. Do you know how hard it is to find things with submini plugs? The left edge simplay contained a recessed hole for the battery charger. Above the keypad was the display, and some embossed print, I think Speech+. Battery was nicad, or course, built into the calculator. There was nothing very interesting inside the calculator, as I discovered one day when I was in a curious mood.
@Thumper1964 I liked being able to press 4 and root very quickly. The Speech Plus was so responsive that it would say "fruit". It would have been cool if I could have press "plus" and the number 8 quickly so that I could get it to say "fruit plate" but it didn't do well with plus and 8.
@Thumper1964 Was that the one where if you hit the overflow button a bunch of times you could get it to say over flover flover flover? Good times. Lol.
@Bruce @Thumper1964 I also remember APH's version of that calculator, which they called the Student Speech Plus calculator. It was essentially the same but the rocker switch on the right hand side had a different function. I can't remember which version did which function but one calculator used the rocker switch to control the speed that the result was spoken. The other calculator, I think, used the rocker switch to silence keyboard entry.
Wow, I never saw the desktop version but the APH version was the one that used the rocker switch to increase the rate of speed when speaking the result.
Oh no, I just had a look at the Monarch Braille display page, aph.org/product/monarch/, and the price literally had me… Now I do wish I was a monarch with a lot of money to play with! :)
Take flight with the Monarch, a multiline braille device that renders tactile graphics integrated with braille on the first-of-its-kind 10-line by 32-cell refreshable braille display.
I would love to find out how much these things cost to make. I mean yeah piezoelectric cells do cost a bit to manufacture and there's a ton of them in it, I'll give them that at least. But still I bet there's a hell of a lot of profit being put on there.
Holy hell, I'm somewhat glad that I never really had to deal with this. The printers I used with the Braille Lite 2000 and the Millennium series just worked.
@remixman Hard choice between connecting two Braille 'n Speaks together vs hooking it up to a modem at my elementary school and dialing the Blazie Engineering BBS back in 1996 and accidentally deleting some posts off the board.
@sclower @remixman Oh, so you're the one who deleted those posts; I have a bone to pick with you, sir. 😀 Just kidding; I never even knew this. How on earth did you manage to do that? Did you give yourself sysop access or something?
@remixman LOL I was just trying to back up a level with B-chord. Then I saw the number of posts go down from 500 to 499, then 498, and then I panicked and hung up.
@cublanco They have changed quite a bit but I think it's too bad that we don't have many speech-only devices without Braille output. They're more inexpensive and smaller.
@cachondo @cublanco Yes; I corrected myself in a subsequent message. Yes, the BT Speak certainly does, along with the Orbit Speak, although the latter doesn't provide email and Web access.
@cublanco we're plagued by poor screen reader performance on platforms that works well on small hardware, I suppose. It'd be interesting to try mocking up a full Windows experience with NVDA in something that sized, but I can't imagine you'll get decent battery life out of it.
I never liked the term notetaker but I think the answer is yes, as long as the device is powerful and is compatible with commonly used file formats. . Obviously, if you're required to use something like Word or PowerPoint, then you have to have a Mac or a PC, unless you can do what you need with a phone or tablet. But this debate always comes up: the specialized vs mainstream products and where and how specialized devices can be used and whether or not there's still a place for them.
@Lino_JR @cublanco Actually, the BT Braille has been announced; the pricing and availability have not yet been announced but that will change very, very soon. The product itself has been announced.
@cublanco I would literally buy an NVDA remote. A device the size of the hable one, maybe (although not in that dreadful plastic), with braille input keys and a SIM card so it'd work wherever. USB-C audio output and a built-in speaker, and a companion app (or config file on the device) to connect it to my home-running NVDA instance. Obviously I'd want to map all the keys so I could press everything I need to with the smaller form factor keyboard, but being able to fully remote control a home PC from a device the size of an Orbit Writer appeals greatly.
@cachondo @cublanco Well there is the iOS NVDA Remote App which still works and still exists, though it's keyboard input is... Questionable at times. It got me out of a bind yesterday though. I installed an updated sound driver, of course all my sound went bye-bye. Opened the remote app, it had a remembered connection to my desktop since that's primarily what I use it with, could arrow around and hear VoiceOver speaking what was on-screen. Fixed my sound that way.
@FreakyFwoof @cublanco oh the app is useful, no doubt about it. But if you're schlepping a bluetooth keyboard around anyway, you don't need a braille keyboard sized input device.
@cachondo @cublanco I would purchase that as well actually. I’ve often wanted something tiny I could use on the couch to control my laptop, which I realize is not that big, but which generally lives across the house in my home office.
@Bruce @cublanco I don't like the term "notetaker" because, even in the 1990s, the Braille 'n Speak was so much more than a notetaker. Fortunately, Blazie Technologies doesn't use that term for the BT Speak and I don't think it should be used for any of the BT Speak's competitors, because most of them are true computers. If my BT Speak is a notetaker, then I may as well call my Windows computer a calculator.
@cublanco @Bruce I understand. Sure, the BT Speak, BrailleSense, BrailleNote, even the Orbit Speak are all computers. While the Orbit Speak might not offer all of the features you'll find in those othher devices, I wouldn't even call that device a notetaker.
@technolass @cublanco Yes, you have a compact, all in one device with ann integrated Braille display with blindness-specific and Braille-friendly applications or at least apps oriented for the needs of Braille users.
@cublanco@melendez.land I use my BrailleSense6 on a daily basis. Granted, it does a lot more than the notetakers of the 90s, but I prefer it to hauling my laptop around because it's got better battery life and instant power on/off. I don't like using my phone for everything, so for me the BS6 is perfect.
@techsinger @Bruce I get where you two are coming from and I respect it. We still talk about dialing a phone. 😀 Notetaker is just not a term that I prefer to use, because these devices do so much more.
@Bruce I would respectfully agree. After all, many FM systems for the hearing impaired haven't used FM since the late 2000s, if then. The other problem, of course, is that everything else is worse. I think the one that amused me most is "blind computer", as in "do you have your blind computer" which I was actually asked once. I don't know what else to call it which would get the small, fairly limited, and accessible nature across. I understand @DavidGoldfield having an issue with the term perfectly, though, I just think we could go further and end up with worse.
I get that. It's not a wonderful term. Whatever it's changed to, though, if it is, can we avoid "blind computer"? Also, "keyboard thingy" is a bit much.
@techsinger @Bruce I think the term "Braille Computer" is less problematic than "blind computer." My BT Speak, for me, is a Linux device. Sure, it's got a bunch of custom apps and starts out with a custom UI but it's a computer.
@techsinger @Bruce The term Braille computer would be inaccurate with a device with only speech without a Braille display and with a QWERTY keyboard. At one point, the Braille 'n Speak was being marketed as a PDA or personal digital (or was it data) assistant and I really liked that term.
@cublanco Woiuld you believe, I actually have a PacMate still? It was given to me in 2005. The power switch doesn't work, but it's stuck in the on position. If I charge it, it actually worked last time I did. Think that was a couple years ago when my friend and I were trying to pretend the device belonged to the Illuminati
@techsinger No, but if you're talking to a sighted person who might be experiencing blindness technology for the first time, "braille computer" is a good compromise, I think, that bridges the gap and foments understanding.
@Bruce That wasn't just the BNS, as I recall. There were a ton of "PDA" devices. That term has gone dead, though, it's now called a "phone". Which, I may say, is just as bad as notetaker for not including functionality in the definition. How many people have complained about the call quality on some iOS devices (and some cheaper androids) and been told "well, it's not really intended for calls". The response "why on earth isn't it, it's called a phone", is quite reasonable.
@techsinger @Bruce That is actually a very valid point. These devices are pocket computers that can do so much and yet we call them phones. Yes, no argument from me on that.
@CallumStoneman @cublanco not sure how I'd power such a design. NVDA remote doesn't output audio, so I'd need to do tts on-device. Something like an eSP32 probably wouldn't cut the mustard for the level of text to speech we'd want. I mean I could live the dream and solder in an RC8650 from the doubletalk people, I suppose. But nobody'd buy that other than me.
Gitlab doesn't even have a fedi account so I can harass them for making the new data collection opt-out instead of opt-in RT: friedcheese.us/objects/4a758f6…
Products are so desperate to integrate #ai they have forsaken any kind of user research to gauge the demand of these features. #vscode has gone a step further and would never assume their chatbot sidebar would need a "close" button.
Gimp niveau débutant. Vite fait mais pour faire sourire, ça peut le faire. "Nous en sommes en 2025 après JC, toute la Gaule est sous la canicule. Toute la Gaule ? Non, une région, l'Armorique, résiste et possède un climat tempéré."
@Mikołaj Hołysz @aaron @Arkadiusz Świętnicki🇵🇱 I think blinux email list has moved not long ago, orca email list is often used. Real time chats are not used frequently I think.
* Rhythm: a music player that delivers a seamless audio experience with a beautiful Material You design 🛡️ * WAFRN: client for the Fediverse, Bluesky and more 🛡️
This is a repository of apps to be used with your F-Droid client. Applications in this repository are official binaries built by the original application developers, taken from their resp. repositories (mostly Github, GitLab, Codeberg).
Me and @alyssa6595 will be getting married in 83 days. I only know this because of the countdown timer. Anyways. We have a lil' wedding website put together. You can RSVP for the live stream, check out our amazon registry, and my favorite part is the guestbook. You can record a video message for us. I'd love to get some messages and RSVP's from all around the world. Including from the penguins in Antarctica. Wait. Do penguins even live there? Please re-post and share. event.lovecastapp.com/Liam-and…
Aaaah, you guys! Congratulations! I wish you all the happiness. I hope I will be able to record something, but I will DM it to you instead. Private wishes with best thoughts are more special, anyway. None of you is going to be free soon, so enjoy the freedom of unmarried life until you can. 😉 And all the good luck, and best thoughts. And well, I don't live in the super cold regions of the Earth, but I can send a message from my tiny corner of the world. :)
Have you ever wanted to keep your device's screen on longer than your device display's default sleep timeout? Want to make your screen go to max brightness
Handicap : sur Internet, l’accessibilité est un problème majeur loin d’être résolu lemonde.fr/societe/article/202… (abonnés) L' @adullact , qui réalise des tests automatiques sur les pages d’accueil de dizaines de milliers de sites publics, détecte en moyenne 34 erreurs grossières sur chacune.
A partir du 28 juin, les sites de banque, e-commerce ou médias doivent être utilisables par tous : navigation au clavier, lisibilité des textes et de la structure des pages, sous-titres pour les vidéos… Mais seule une infime minorité respecte les nor…
Ahaha! Accessibilité, oui. Par exemple, le site impots.gouv.fr pour les professionnels n'est pas accessible presque du tout. On a un captcha sans alternative à chaque login, plus le site même a des menus qui sont… extrêmement durs à manier, parfois c'est impossible même pour un utilisateur avancé de lecteurs d'écran. Et c'est zone Gouv…
#AudioMo Day 30 part 2: Here's an honorary mention. I came up with this slow, plodding, barely moving thing about an hour ago and called it 'Incandescent Heat' because that's about all I can manage today. It feels sad, contemplative and like saying farewell, so it seemed fitting to post again before the month runs out. Or in this case, slowly shuffles out in it's hot slippers like the old man it is.
AI slop classic, somebody files a bug report for a vuln, doesn’t disclose they’ve used AI when asked, argues in the comments - and includes his AI prompt in the paste.
My favourite quote from Backwards is, “Believe me, I'd love to join this little expedition, only I suffer from a terrible mental affliction known as “sanity”.”
Wow, I just read the first two links and it's amazing, it feels like the submitters think they're going to be paid for submitting nothing of value. Will continue reading.
I hate AI even more now.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/29/business/ai-video-deepfake-google-veo-3-quiz.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Sk8.XdfS.yL5vayl3E57x&smid=em-share
@sun yep from "it's all trash haha, losers this will never be successful" to "guys you have to stop it's too good now it's dangerous" within like 2 years
if you're peering at MICE you should have peering with my buddy's network AS53597 where I have some equipment too. Well peered networks are so much better than a lot of the over-priced colos out there
@feld 😮 this is my second router at MICE actually since I’m also in Minneapolis, so we probably already are. I’ll have to look after my long drive home lol
If you've not been paying attention, you will no longer be receiving emails from Let's Encrypt telling you a certificate is expiring: Expiration Notification Service Has Ended
Since its inception, Let’s Encrypt has been sending expiration notification emails to subscribers that have provided an email address to us via the ACME API. This service ended on June 4, 2025.
A free Playdate app to sideload: xkpd, Paul Straw's xkcd reader—check out the latest comic, go to a specific one, or jump around randomly. Cool use of the new networking APIs!
feld
in reply to tedu • • •