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#1
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OT? Chromebook
I have an internet friend who's 67, has multiple sclerosis, and is going
blind, and the doctor said she is dying. She also doesn't have a lot of money for extra expenses. After years of using webtv, they discontinued her kind of webtv a year or two ago, and she bought a Chromebook. Now she says that everyone tells her, tactlessly in my opinion, that she bought the wrong thing. She may have other questions about her Chromebook. Is there a newsgroup that deals with it?? If not, some other forum?? My immediate question is, Is there software, perhaps included in the OS, or external, even paid, that will do text to speech????. She's had to pretty much drop out of the online discussion group we met in because she has trouble reading. And for example, the moderator rejected one of her contributions and she can't read his letter well enough to understand it. Second, I guess I don't know what she uses for email. but she has a gmail address. I didn't think about this when we were on the phone but i guess on Chromebook too, one can make any browser image bigger with cntl-mouse-wheel or cntl-+. If she's using some other Chromebook email program, is there a way to make the image bigger with that? Thanks. |
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#2
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OT? Chromebook
On 03/09/2014 06:14 PM, micky wrote:
I have an internet friend who's 67, has multiple sclerosis, and is going blind, and the doctor said she is dying. She also doesn't have a lot of money for extra expenses. After years of using webtv, they discontinued her kind of webtv a year or two ago, and she bought a Chromebook. Now she says that everyone tells her, tactlessly in my opinion, that she bought the wrong thing. She may have other questions about her Chromebook. Is there a newsgroup that deals with it?? If not, some other forum?? My immediate question is, Is there software, perhaps included in the OS, or external, even paid, that will do text to speech????. She's had to pretty much drop out of the online discussion group we met in because she has trouble reading. And for example, the moderator rejected one of her contributions and she can't read his letter well enough to understand it. Second, I guess I don't know what she uses for email. but she has a gmail address. I didn't think about this when we were on the phone but i guess on Chromebook too, one can make any browser image bigger with cntl-mouse-wheel or cntl-+. If she's using some other Chromebook email program, is there a way to make the image bigger with that? Thanks. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...kkbak?hl=en-US |
#3
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OT? Chromebook
micky wrote:
I have an internet friend who's 67, has multiple sclerosis, and is going blind, and the doctor said she is dying. She also doesn't have a lot of money for extra expenses. After years of using webtv, they discontinued her kind of webtv a year or two ago, and she bought a Chromebook. Now she says that everyone tells her, tactlessly in my opinion, that she bought the wrong thing. She may have other questions about her Chromebook. Is there a newsgroup that deals with it?? If not, some other forum?? My immediate question is, Is there software, perhaps included in the OS, or external, even paid, that will do text to speech????. She's had to pretty much drop out of the online discussion group we met in because she has trouble reading. And for example, the moderator rejected one of her contributions and she can't read his letter well enough to understand it. Second, I guess I don't know what she uses for email. but she has a gmail address. I didn't think about this when we were on the phone but i guess on Chromebook too, one can make any browser image bigger with cntl-mouse-wheel or cntl-+. If she's using some other Chromebook email program, is there a way to make the image bigger with that? Thanks. There's ChromeVox. Text to speech. http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsig...ost.aspx?id=65 pressing Ctrl + Alt + Z at the sign-in screen should start ChromeVox. I tried it here and got speech! Converting speech to commands, appears to be a browser-based thing. Which means perhaps you can't control every aspect of machine operation with it. It all has the smell of "Beta" about it. http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-...peech-to-text/ There is even talk of Accessibility options here. I guess there's a magnify option of some sort. http://www.chromestory.com/2013/02/a...n-chromebooks/ You can even get stuck in Magnify, requiring disabling the setting in Accessibility to recover. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...al/eYYDPR8TYsU ******* I'd say you have plenty of half-options, and lots of research work to do. Like, how does versioning work in ChromeOS, what version is your friend running, what version is needed for some or all of these features ? Paul |
#4
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OT? Chromebook
On Sun, 09 Mar 2014 19:14:40 -0400, micky
wrote: I have an internet friend who's 67, has multiple sclerosis, and is going blind, and the doctor said she is dying. She also doesn't have a lot of money for extra expenses. Her life is both better and worse than this sounds. She does have a home that is, I think, paid for; a husband who loves her and who doesn't mind when she talks on the phone at length to internet friends; a little grandchild who lives nearby and visits regularly. OTOH, she walks with a walker and a back brace (the brace doesn't bother her anymore and makes walking a lot easier), but she falls a lot when getting out of a chair. Her husband just got her a lift chair, which reclines and is comfortable, and then when getting up, the seat lifts and makes it much easier to get up. OTOH, the chair advertised that Medicare would pay for it and it turns out Medicare ony pays for the mechanism that lifts, which I think they valued at 175 dollars, and the rest of the chair, which iirc is much more, the buyer has to pay for. While that's fair, their advertising was misleading and probably got them convinced they wanted it before they found out how much it would cost them. This couple could afford it, I guess, but many others have much less money. She has cranial/spinal fluid on the brain, which means she can't fly anywhere. So when they went to see their other kid and her family, they had to drive maybe 1000 miles each way. As to dying, the doctor told her she had one, maybe two years to live. That was 3 1/2 years ago. In some ways she's gotten worse, in other ways she hasn't. . And she can't let her toddler grandchild wander around alone, even on her quiet suburban street, because there is a pond 100 feet away or less with alligators, water mocassins, and, somewhere, coral snakes. Even she may not go there because she can't run away like most people can. She probably doesn't need voice to text, because her typing seems good, touch typiing I think which doesn't require much eyesight. Although everythng she types is in capitals. The magnify might be very good. Windows has something and I don't like it, but then again, I don't need it. If I did, I might like it a lot more. After years of using webtv, they discontinued her kind of webtv a year or two ago, and she bought a Chromebook. Now she says that everyone tells her, tactlessly in my opinion, that she bought the wrong thing. She may have other questions about her Chromebook. Is there a newsgroup that deals with it?? If not, some other forum?? My immediate question is, Is there software, perhaps included in the OS, or external, even paid, that will do text to speech????. She's had to pretty much drop out of the online discussion group we met in because she has trouble reading. And for example, the moderator rejected one of her contributions and she can't read his letter well enough to understand it. Second, I guess I don't know what she uses for email. but she has a gmail address. I didn't think about this when we were on the phone but i guess on Chromebook too, one can make any browser image bigger with cntl-mouse-wheel or cntl-+. If she's using some other Chromebook email program, is there a way to make the image bigger with that? Thanks. |
#5
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OT? Chromebook
micky wrote:
I have an internet friend who's 67, has multiple sclerosis, and is going blind, and the doctor said she is dying. She also doesn't have a lot of money for extra expenses. After years of using webtv, they discontinued her kind of webtv a year or two ago, and she bought a Chromebook. Now she says that everyone tells her, tactlessly in my opinion, that she bought the wrong thing. She may have other questions about her Chromebook. Is there a newsgroup that deals with it?? If not, some other forum?? There's a Usenet group! ;-) alt.chrome and ........ "BearWare is now dedicated to Chromebooks". http://bearware.info/ Try there, 'micky'! My immediate question is, Is there software, perhaps included in the OS, or external, even paid, that will do text to speech????. She's had to pretty much drop out of the online discussion group we met in because she has trouble reading. And for example, the moderator rejected one of her contributions and she can't read his letter well enough to understand it. Second, I guess I don't know what she uses for email. but she has a gmail address. I didn't think about this when we were on the phone but i guess on Chromebook too, one can make any browser image bigger with cntl-mouse-wheel or cntl-+. If she's using some other Chromebook email program, is there a way to make the image bigger with that? Thanks. |
#6
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OT? Chromebook
On Mon, 10 Mar 2014 09:19:36 +0000, ~BD~ wrote:
micky wrote: I have an internet friend who's 67, has multiple sclerosis, and is going blind, and the doctor said she is dying. She also doesn't have a lot of money for extra expenses. After years of using webtv, they discontinued her kind of webtv a year or two ago, and she bought a Chromebook. Now she says that everyone tells her, tactlessly in my opinion, that she bought the wrong thing. She may have other questions about her Chromebook. Is there a newsgroup that deals with it?? If not, some other forum?? There's a Usenet group! ;-) alt.chrome I can't seem to get it with eternal-september. I dl'd new groups. You have giganews or bt.com? Giganews, I guess. and ........ "BearWare is now dedicated to Chromebooks". http://bearware.info/ Try there, 'micky'! OK. This one I find. "Traditionally with a Chromebook, you do everything on the web. " It's amazing to me that Chromebooks were only announced in May 2011, and only shipped in June, and yet there are "traditions". I think of traditions as things my gggggggrandparents did, or at least my grandparents, that they taught to my paents who taught them to me. But it's only one word. "Times have changed, most productivity Apps have off-line capability and todays web apps and services are so good that they allow you to do virtually everything you could do with your old computer offline or online. Non-traditionally you can do much more." So maybe this overcomes most of the objections of those who told her she bought the wrong thing. Maybe not. I see one advertised for 400 dollars. They were cheap, that was the advantage, right? I remember now a year or two ago when I heard about them and that they were cheap, but I didn't want to do everything from a web browser, especailly newsgroups and email. Thanks. I'll read further. My immediate question is, Is there software, perhaps included in the OS, or external, even paid, that will do text to speech????. She's had to pretty much drop out of the online discussion group we met in because she has trouble reading. And for example, the moderator rejected one of her contributions and she can't read his letter well enough to understand it. Second, I guess I don't know what she uses for email. but she has a gmail address. I didn't think about this when we were on the phone but i guess on Chromebook too, one can make any browser image bigger with cntl-mouse-wheel or cntl-+. If she's using some other Chromebook email program, is there a way to make the image bigger with that? Thanks. |
#7
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OT? Chromebook
micky wrote:
On Mon, 10 Mar 2014 09:19:36 +0000, ~BD~ wrote: micky wrote: I have an internet friend who's 67, has multiple sclerosis, and is going blind, and the doctor said she is dying. She also doesn't have a lot of money for extra expenses. After years of using webtv, they discontinued her kind of webtv a year or two ago, and she bought a Chromebook. Now she says that everyone tells her, tactlessly in my opinion, that she bought the wrong thing. She may have other questions about her Chromebook. Is there a newsgroup that deals with it?? If not, some other forum?? There's a Usenet group! ;-) alt.chrome I can't seem to get it with eternal-september. I dl'd new groups. You have giganews or bt.com? Giganews, I guess. You are correct. I have Giganews .... *courtesy* of BT! :-) and ........ "BearWare is now dedicated to Chromebooks". http://bearware.info/ Try there, 'micky'! OK. This one I find. "Traditionally with a Chromebook, you do everything on the web. " It's amazing to me that Chromebooks were only announced in May 2011, and only shipped in June, and yet there are "traditions". I think of traditions as things my gggggggrandparents did, or at least my grandparents, that they taught to my parents who taught them to me. But it's only one word. "Times have changed, most productivity Apps have off-line capability and todays web apps and services are so good that they allow you to do virtually everything you could do with your old computer offline or online. Non-traditionally you can do much more." So maybe this overcomes most of the objections of those who told her she bought the wrong thing. Maybe not. I see one advertised for 400 dollars. They were cheap, that was the advantage, right? I remember now a year or two ago when I heard about them and that they were cheap, but I didn't want to do everything from a web browser, especially newsgroups and email. Thanks. I'll read further. You are most welcome! :-) My immediate question is, Is there software, perhaps included in the OS, or external, even paid, that will do text to speech????. She's had to pretty much drop out of the online discussion group we met in because she has trouble reading. And for example, the moderator rejected one of her contributions and she can't read his letter well enough to understand it. Second, I guess I don't know what she uses for email. but she has a gmail address. I didn't think about this when we were on the phone but i guess on Chromebook too, one can make any browser image bigger with cntl-mouse-wheel or cntl-+. If she's using some other Chromebook email program, is there a way to make the image bigger with that? Thanks. -- The only people who make a difference are the people who believe they can. |
#8
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OT? Chromebook
In message , micky
writes: [] My immediate question is, Is there software, perhaps included in the OS, or external, even paid, that will do text to speech????. She's had Sounds like you're getting lots of help from people who know the answers, so this may not be relevant: If you can produce what you want spoken as plain text to a serial port, external text-to-speech synthesizers do, or at least did, exist. They used to be very expensive, but since so many of the blind-access softwares now use software speech synthesis and just come out through the sound card, you _might_ find one s/h at a reasonable price. I think the best-known one was Dectalk. (But if you can get the chrome itself to speak, so much the better.) to pretty much drop out of the online discussion group we met in because she has trouble reading. And for example, the moderator rejected one of her contributions and she can't read his letter well enough to understand it. That's sad. Can you intercede? [] Fine on her not needing speech _in_put; I get very tired of explaining to people that my blind friends don't need that, either - they (especially she who was a professional audio typist) can type considerably better than I can. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change [via Penny Mayes )] |
#9
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OT? Chromebook
On Mon, 10 Mar 2014 18:54:11 +0000, ~BD~ wrote:
micky wrote: On Mon, 10 Mar 2014 09:19:36 +0000, ~BD~ wrote: micky wrote: I have an internet friend who's 67, has multiple sclerosis, and is going blind, and the doctor said she is dying. She also doesn't have a lot of money for extra expenses. After years of using webtv, they discontinued her kind of webtv a year or two ago, and she bought a Chromebook. Now she says that everyone tells her, tactlessly in my opinion, that she bought the wrong thing. She may have other questions about her Chromebook. Is there a newsgroup that deals with it?? If not, some other forum?? There's a Usenet group! ;-) alt.chrome I can't seem to get it with eternal-september. I dl'd new groups. You have giganews or bt.com? Giganews, I guess. You are correct. I have Giganews .... *courtesy* of BT! :-) That's pretty good. In the USA, first I had Erols.com a local service that was dial-up only in Baltimore, though they kept promising me it would add high-speed. (10 years later it never did, in Baltimore). I had newsgroups courtesy of Erols/RCN/Starpower. But then they got rid of them without even warning me. Then I got Verizon DSL. Verizon is a major phone company supplying home phones to 10 or 30% of the country, and I had newsgroups, courtesy of Verizon, but then they got rid of them without even warning me, iirc. And I needed newsgroups to find out how to get newsgroups again. Now I have E-S, courtesy of me and E-S, which is fine but has a shorter retention period than giga. |
#10
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OT? Chromebook
On Tue, 11 Mar 2014 00:15:47 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote: In message , micky writes: [] My immediate question is, Is there software, perhaps included in the OS, or external, even paid, that will do text to speech????. She's had Sounds like you're getting lots of help from people who know the answers, so this may not be relevant: If you can produce what you want spoken as plain text to a serial port, external text-to-speech synthesizers do, or at least did, exist. They used to be very expensive, but since so many of the blind-access softwares now use software speech synthesis and just come out through the sound card, you _might_ find one s/h at a reasonable price. I think the best-known one was Dectalk. (But if you can get the chrome itself to speak, so much the better.) to pretty much drop out of the online discussion group we met in because she has trouble reading. And for example, the moderator rejected one of her contributions and she can't read his letter well enough to understand it. That's sad. Can you intercede? That's what the text to speech is supposed to do. Other than that, she lives about 900 miles from me near Cape Canaveral and it's hard to do things from a distance, especially since I don't know Chrome. (I did dl it on my previous computer but didn't like it because either I didn't understand it or it had too few preferences and too few menu items) Some time, I plan to drive to see my brother in south Florida, and plan to stop and say hello. I can imagine spending a day and two nights there then, in order to fix what I can, but scheduling a 4 or 5 week trip is not so easy, especailly since I don't want to be in Florida in the summer, and don't want to be on a sightseeing trip in Virginia or Carolina when it's winter (and feel no need to leave home in the spring and fall, when it's so nice here) . (I already a few years ago took one weekend trip to Myrtle Beach, SC, in march, thinking it would be a like a tropical resort or at least a spring break from cold weather, and it was cold there with snow on the ground.) These plans may sound silly, but until the latest phone call she hadn't told me death was supposed to be so near. It's not like there are no resources in Florida. Someone from county Social Services made a 4 hour appointment with her and went over everything they have. I don't know about neighbors on her street. It's hard to ask a stranger, but most guys would be tickled pink to fix someone's setup and at least 10% of them, unless they are all old guys, should know enough to help Maybe that's why it was a mistake to by a Chromebook, because "everyone" knows something about Windows, but not about that. Maybe she can find a computer club in the area. Or maybe I can. It's not actually Cape Canaveral. It's Titusville. Well, I found one, I guess. Google doesn't find the club***, only a pdf of its newsletter, and the issue is from January 2012. Not only that, inside the newletter are a dozen web and email addresses and they're all wrong, ending in .us instead of .info. However I won't mention that when I call one of them on the .....wait for it.... the telphone. *It's a nice newsletter, 8 pages, well done. Lots of pictures, including an article and picture of Kim Komando. She's prrrettty. Even if the club is not doing well it has 9 phone numbers and surely someone will know someone who has time to help her. ***Even though it has a webpage with a similar address, and the last date on that is end of November of last year. Maybe they forgot they had once posted their newsletter so no one updates it. OTOH, I'm reading the lastest post on the club website, and it says they are wrapping up a year of operations since the club disbanded. Well from my friend's pov, maybe that will leave ex-members with more desire than ever to have a computer project beyond what they do at home. [] Fine on her not needing speech _in_put; I get very tired of explaining to people that my blind friends don't need that, either - they WHAT'S THAT? WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY? (especially she who was a professional audio typist) can type considerably better than I can. I |
#11
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OT? Chromebook
On Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:26:01 -0400, micky
wrote: There's a Usenet group! ;-) alt.chrome I can't seem to get it with eternal-september. I dl'd new groups. You have giganews or bt.com? Giganews, I guess. That's pretty good. In the USA, first I had Erols.com a local service that was dial-up only in Baltimore, though they kept promising me it would add high-speed. (10 years later it never did, in Baltimore). It had newsgroups, but then they got rid of them without even warning me. Then I got Verizon DSL. Verizon is a major phone company supplying home phones to 10 or 30% of the country, and it had newsgroups, but then they got rid of them without even warning me, iirc. And I needed newsgroups to find out how to get newsgroups again. Now I have E-S, which is fine but has a shorter retention period than giga. |
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