It really doesn't talk to applications well, unfortunately. Just because it now WORKS doesn't mean it works well! It's still better than JAWS + windows ($3000!!) though.
As others before me have said, EMACSspeak is widely considered the way to go by blind Linux users, or at least the more advanced ones.
Why is it always Mozart used in these kinds of tests? Why not some more interesting classical music? Mozart always sounds like elevator music to me. How about some Lizst or Rachmaninov or even Bartok? Something with a little "chest hair"?
Let's face it, Mozart was the Britney Spears of his period...
Let's just hope that never happens... Is there anything around at the moment that ONLY runs on XP?
I help blind users with access to computers, and the evil JAWS screen reader package ($1800!) comes with limitations; you can only install it on win95, 98, ME (why?), and XP home only. No win2000 of any flavour, and no XP pro. The reasons for its restrictions are not technical though; they are built in to ensure that corporate users are charged more than personal ones...
I've started teaching one of my clients some linux skills as X can now talk... the Linux revolution is here for the blind community, as it is for the rest of us!
Nice rant. Feel better to have go that off your chest? I'm not sure whether it's worth my time replying to all that flamebait, but then again I don't want some of your "theories" going unquestioned.
1. Who exactly says that Linux refers to 'just the kernel'?
2. There is nothing hypocritical in drawing a line between heavy-handed RIAA overreactions towards fileswappers and enforcement of the GPL. The assumption that everyone on here is a pirate and a thief is a typical FUD smear and potentially defamatory. Lucky you hide behind anonymity.
3. You're all over the place in this one. Let me just say that most academics I know would not be pleased to be described as "students". Oh, and the unemployed. Talk about hard targets!
4. Some non-slashdot types actually do know and care about the SCO-Linux issue and other computer related information. And since when do people at the "mall or coffee shop" care about anything besides their latte or their orgy of consumption? Or their enormous cars?
5. "If a Windows company or even Microsoft itself owned a 'tech news' site and posted anti-Linux articles all the time"
Sounds like most of the computer media to me.
6. You've got me there. The unmatched quality and diversity in pop music today has no equal. On a similar subject, Hollywood movies and American TV are also bywords for mediocrity. They are popular because morons are constantly saturated with messages that they need/want it.
7. See #2. And stop defaming me. But while we're on the subject of Kazaa, it seems more than a little appropriate to me that a company that has made its money on spyware and piracy should be inflicted by this sort of thing.
8. Now we know what direction this comes from - the disgruntled McCarthyist distrust of anything that doesn't make money for a small group. Now there's an attitude I often find at the "mall or coffee shop". Anything free must be contaminated by hippies. Probably packed full of drugs or something.
9. I'm not surprised that the editors don't like you if you always post like that.
10. See #9.
11. Someone like you accusing/. of spin and hypocrisy? Very amusing.
12. Yes,/. don't like Microsoft. Big deal. Not what I would describe as a revelation.
13. This opinion poll shows that a sample size of less than 300 self-selected idiots is not particularly relevant. The site crashed when I tried to vote, too.
14. Didn't Microsoft Borrow(TM) the whole idea of a GUI from some company back in the old days?
15. The people who say "Linux is ready for the desktop" never specify whose desktop we are talking about here. No, it's not for the completely untrained user, but surely any Microsoft trained person would be capable of running apps under X? Not all Linux time is spent at the console you know.
16. Spyware is an unfortunate choice of words when describing windows XP, and you have obviously missed the point. The issue with XP is not that media player grabs song titles, but that it and other parts of XP contain Microsoft backdoors allowing examination of a computer from Redmond...
17. Wow, IRC. Great evidence.
18. Banner ads? What banner ads? (Firefox!)
Once again, sorry for responding to the troll, but I couldn't let some of those things go unanswered...
is this lamented personality, for the benefit of clueless Australians who can't be bothered googling the phrase and dealing with the increasingly crappy news sites?
wow, so words are in fact defined by the dictionary, rather than the speech community that uses them? Wow, your magnificant insights are going to revolutionize the field of linguistics...
Very true! Application is the key. A widely acknowledged idea in linguistics is that motivation is the key to learning a new (natural, ie human) language; I suspect that a very similar process goes on with computer languages. Fair enough too, there's only so much 'foo' and 'wibble' that anyone can take. Although, if it's Python, at least the Flying Circus references can keep you amused for a while...
Personally, I found that playing with computational linguistics, natural language processing and the like were the keys to really understanding 'the fundamentals', as it allowed me to connect my degree in linguistics with my self-taught computer skills.
Also, try reading "Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", by Douglas Hofstadter. It's mind-expanding in many ways.
books, books, books! At least, that's the way I like to learn these things. I found 'Unix Shell Programming' by Kochan & Wood was both a good way to learn shell scripting and programming techniques more generally.
I should point out that I'm in a similar boat, poking my way through programming at my own slow pace, and that I have a very, very long way to go. Nevertheless, I've found that working in one easy(ish) language at a time based on books like the one above or even O'Reilly's 'Learning $Language' series has been very effective. Stick with python is my advice, it's simple, object-oriented (if you want it to be!) and very powerful.
Look, there is a difference between hacking and cracking... there has to be! By using exploits to access systems belonging to other people, you are breaking and entering, regardless of how clever your exploit is or how benign your activities are. However, you are correct in saying that the mere presence of cracking skills does not negate hacking ability. I'm just tired of telling people that I like to hack and hearing all the standard crackers/viruses/scammers paranoia.
When I did maths in high school it was generally pretty dull, and only certain things stick out from the drudgery of solving endless problems from intensely boring maths texts. The things that stand out are the things that seemed to be somehow useful to me, and that I would then develop a bit more interest in. inevitable quote...
"Children, if you don't learn roman numerals, you'll never know the dates that certain motion pictures were copyrighted"
anyway, the trick is not only to make the particular concepts relevant to the kids as much as possible, but to add some variation to the way in which these concepts are taught and applied. Even with the vastly primitive computing power of my high school days (LOGO on a 386) I still remember learning about iteration and recursion very clearly, even though I couldn't tell you a single other thing I learnt that year.
This is not to say that computers are some magic solution. As much of a solution as is possible here can be gained through providing as varied and diverse an environment as possible.
And as for those that don't want to learn, whose existence has already been much lamented amongst other posts, simply make it clear to them what their alternatives are; to learn the skills they need to become useful members of society, or to remove themselves from the classroom and the school and any chance of a particularly successful future.
Look, if you want to find out what's playing on commercial radio at any given time, simply examine the current music charts and pick at random from them... failing that, stairway to heaven or hotel california is always a good bet.
Australian radio sure does suck, but from what I've heard its even worse in the states!
Slashdot Mirror
It really doesn't talk to applications well, unfortunately. Just because it now WORKS doesn't mean it works well! It's still better than JAWS + windows ($3000!!) though.
As others before me have said, EMACSspeak is widely considered the way to go by blind Linux users, or at least the more advanced ones.
Why is it always Mozart used in these kinds of tests? Why not some more interesting classical music? Mozart always sounds like elevator music to me. How about some Lizst or Rachmaninov or even Bartok? Something with a little "chest hair"?
Let's face it, Mozart was the Britney Spears of his period...
Insightful, yet content-free? Very Zen.
Let's just hope that never happens... Is there anything around at the moment that ONLY runs on XP?
I help blind users with access to computers, and the evil JAWS screen reader package ($1800!) comes with limitations; you can only install it on win95, 98, ME (why?), and XP home only. No win2000 of any flavour, and no XP pro. The reasons for its restrictions are not technical though; they are built in to ensure that corporate users are charged more than personal ones...
I've started teaching one of my clients some linux skills as X can now talk... the Linux revolution is here for the blind community, as it is for the rest of us!
Readers with taste! Good to see.
OO is slow as hell on my Redhat system too. Probably because I'm merely a neophyte and haven't compiled my own kernel yet though.
Much as I may dislike M$'s business methods, I have to say Office is good software.
Nice rant. Feel better to have go that off your chest? I'm not sure whether it's worth my time replying to all that flamebait, but then again I don't want some of your "theories" going unquestioned.
1. Who exactly says that Linux refers to 'just the kernel'?
2. There is nothing hypocritical in drawing a line between heavy-handed RIAA overreactions towards fileswappers and enforcement of the GPL. The assumption that everyone on here is a pirate and a thief is a typical FUD smear and potentially defamatory. Lucky you hide behind anonymity.
3. You're all over the place in this one. Let me just say that most academics I know would not be pleased to be described as "students". Oh, and the unemployed. Talk about hard targets!
4. Some non-slashdot types actually do know and care about the SCO-Linux issue and other computer related information. And since when do people at the "mall or coffee shop" care about anything besides their latte or their orgy of consumption? Or their enormous cars?
5. "If a Windows company or even Microsoft itself owned a 'tech news' site and posted anti-Linux articles all the time"
Sounds like most of the computer media to me.
6. You've got me there. The unmatched quality and diversity in pop music today has no equal. On a similar subject, Hollywood movies and American TV are also bywords for mediocrity. They are popular because morons are constantly saturated with messages that they need/want it.
7. See #2. And stop defaming me. But while we're on the subject of Kazaa, it seems more than a little appropriate to me that a company that has made its money on spyware and piracy should be inflicted by this sort of thing.
8. Now we know what direction this comes from - the disgruntled McCarthyist distrust of anything that doesn't make money for a small group. Now there's an attitude I often find at the "mall or coffee shop". Anything free must be contaminated by hippies. Probably packed full of drugs or something.
9. I'm not surprised that the editors don't like you if you always post like that.
10. See #9.
11. Someone like you accusing /. of spin and hypocrisy? Very amusing.
12. Yes, /. don't like Microsoft. Big deal. Not what I would describe as a revelation.
13. This opinion poll shows that a sample size of less than 300 self-selected idiots is not particularly relevant. The site crashed when I tried to vote, too.
14. Didn't Microsoft Borrow(TM) the whole idea of a GUI from some company back in the old days?
15. The people who say "Linux is ready for the desktop" never specify whose desktop we are talking about here. No, it's not for the completely untrained user, but surely any Microsoft trained person would be capable of running apps under X? Not all Linux time is spent at the console you know.
16. Spyware is an unfortunate choice of words when describing windows XP, and you have obviously missed the point. The issue with XP is not that media player grabs song titles, but that it and other parts of XP contain Microsoft backdoors allowing examination of a computer from Redmond...
17. Wow, IRC. Great evidence.
18. Banner ads? What banner ads? (Firefox!)
Once again, sorry for responding to the troll, but I couldn't let some of those things go unanswered...
is this lamented personality, for the benefit of clueless Australians who can't be bothered googling the phrase and dealing with the increasingly crappy news sites?
+1, Telling it like it is...
wow, so words are in fact defined by the dictionary, rather than the speech community that uses them? Wow, your magnificant insights are going to revolutionize the field of linguistics...
Very true! Application is the key. A widely acknowledged idea in linguistics is that motivation is the key to learning a new (natural, ie human) language; I suspect that a very similar process goes on with computer languages. Fair enough too, there's only so much 'foo' and 'wibble' that anyone can take. Although, if it's Python, at least the Flying Circus references can keep you amused for a while...
Personally, I found that playing with computational linguistics, natural language processing and the like were the keys to really understanding 'the fundamentals', as it allowed me to connect my degree in linguistics with my self-taught computer skills.
Also, try reading "Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", by Douglas Hofstadter. It's mind-expanding in many ways.
books, books, books! At least, that's the way I like to learn these things. I found 'Unix Shell Programming' by Kochan & Wood was both a good way to learn shell scripting and programming techniques more generally.
I should point out that I'm in a similar boat, poking my way through programming at my own slow pace, and that I have a very, very long way to go. Nevertheless, I've found that working in one easy(ish) language at a time based on books like the one above or even O'Reilly's 'Learning $Language' series has been very effective. Stick with python is my advice, it's simple, object-oriented (if you want it to be!) and very powerful.
Look, there is a difference between hacking and cracking... there has to be! By using exploits to access systems belonging to other people, you are breaking and entering, regardless of how clever your exploit is or how benign your activities are. However, you are correct in saying that the mere presence of cracking skills does not negate hacking ability. I'm just tired of telling people that I like to hack and hearing all the standard crackers/viruses/scammers paranoia.
When I did maths in high school it was generally pretty dull, and only certain things stick out from the drudgery of solving endless problems from intensely boring maths texts. The things that stand out are the things that seemed to be somehow useful to me, and that I would then develop a bit more interest in. inevitable quote...
"Children, if you don't learn roman numerals, you'll never know the dates that certain motion pictures were copyrighted"
anyway, the trick is not only to make the particular concepts relevant to the kids as much as possible, but to add some variation to the way in which these concepts are taught and applied. Even with the vastly primitive computing power of my high school days (LOGO on a 386) I still remember learning about iteration and recursion very clearly, even though I couldn't tell you a single other thing I learnt that year.
This is not to say that computers are some magic solution. As much of a solution as is possible here can be gained through providing as varied and diverse an environment as possible.
And as for those that don't want to learn, whose existence has already been much lamented amongst other posts, simply make it clear to them what their alternatives are; to learn the skills they need to become useful members of society, or to remove themselves from the classroom and the school and any chance of a particularly successful future.
yes. no. mu.
In Australia, too. For obscure books and such it's unbeatable, as well as being very very cheap when the exchange rate is good.
Look, if you want to find out what's playing on commercial radio at any given time, simply examine the current music charts and pick at random from them... failing that, stairway to heaven or hotel california is always a good bet. Australian radio sure does suck, but from what I've heard its even worse in the states!