Hi, Alan,
Do you remember the Apple II E? That was the very first computer I
learned
to operate. I remember there were two drives side by side. The first one
was
for your speech program like word rap or word talk which is what I used.
The
second drive was for the floppy disk that you stored information on. If
I
remember correctly, control L turned the voice on and off. I almost
bought
an Apple II E from someone but I didn't have quite enough money to pay
for
it. I sure loved that machine though. It wasn't that hard to learn to
operate either.
Rosemarie
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-computing-boun...@jaws-users.com
[mailto:blind-computing-boun...@jaws-users.com] On Behalf Of Alan Dicey
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 5:44 PM
To: blind-computing@jaws-users.com
Subject: [Blind-Computing] Computer museum,
Dear Kim,
Oh yes!
Vert, it was later called Soft Vert!
Nice simple program!
But it was just the software to make the hardware work, and one could
use
Accent, Echo, Votrax, oh, so many different ones.
I remember you could purchase a Echo sound card from Radio Shack for
about
$80 and then you could use a computer without sight!
Big difference now with JAWS almost a thousand dollars!
And those 5 and 1/2 inch floppy disks, that held 362 K of data!
LOL!
I can hardly believe it!
In 1985, I purchased an external hard drive, to go with my IBM PC.
It was 30 MB!
It cost $900
Can you believe that?
I have single cuts of music that are larger than 30 MB!
and my T-Drives cost about $79 each!
LOL!
With Best Regards,
Alan
Miami, Florida
Alan Dicey, President
United States Braille Chess Association - USBCA
"Yes, Blind or Visually Impaired People Can, and Do, Play Chess!!!"
United States Braille Chess Association Home Page:
http://AmericanBlindChess.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kim Kelly" <kim...@clearwire.net>
To: <blind-computing@jaws-users.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 8:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Blind-Computing] Computer museum,
I remember taking a computer class in the mid 80s, and we used a huge
computer and two floppy disks and we used a speech program called "Vert
Plus".
Has anyone heard of that speech synthesizer? I thought that class was
so
fascinating.
Learning Doss and all of those commands.
What memories.
Kim Kelly
Clarkston Washington
Email and facebook:
kim...@clearwire.net
Alternative E-mail:
kim...@samobile.net
skype:
kblinky971
Visit my website
http://www.samobile.net/users/kimk59/
Keep on smiling and everyone will wonder what you've been up too.
author unknown
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lenny McHugh" <lmch...@verizon.net>
To: <blind-computing@jaws-users.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Blind-Computing] Computer museum,
Well, my first PC type computer was Maryland Computer Systems ITS,
information through speech. I then upgraded to total talk PC again by
Dean Blazie.
Then at home Karen won an 8088 Packard Bell xt computer. With that
system
I used jaws for dos. I believe that in the mid 1980s is when I
purchased
jaws for windows 1 for windows 3.0. At that time I hated windows and
still am not a fan of PCs. Give me my old big mainframes. B5500, B6700
then into the larger IBM mainframes. The first computer that I worked
on
was an RCA spectra 70 and the IBM 1401.
On these systems I had to write my own read /write macros and multiply
and divide routines. That was a lot of fun.
For the ITS, it was the world's first talking computer linked to an
IBM
mainframe. When it was linked a news release was sent out through AP.
I
started receiving calls from all around the world inquiring about it.
--------------------------------------------------
From: "heather kd5cbl" <kd5...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 7:07 PM
To: <blind-computing@jaws-users.com>
Subject: Re: [Blind-Computing] Computer museum,
One of my favorite system is weird! It was a 280 or 480 something
back
in the 80s. We had to use vex. I remember that we thought it was
the
coolest thing. That was when you had two floppy drives and about 2
or
three buttons to turn the computer on. That thing is still probley
working today! I remember we took the computer apart in school to
see
how the components worked. Remember that is when it took two folks
to
carry it or maybe it is because we were so little. I just remember
playing that typing game where you hit a key before the ghost gets
you.
And I remember all the commands just to make the computer function.
You
had to do it in the exact order or you had to do it all over again.
I
remember having to type "win" inter to make the windows come up. I
remember that if you wanted to spell check something, you had to put
another flopp disk in that had the dictionary or part of it to get
the
correct word. I liked my old dos based commands. I was real
disappointed when you did not have the direct access to windows root
comands. I mean you can still have access but, dos was just so much
more efficient. Heather
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