Category: Geeks r Us
hello everyone,
I'm not sure what to call this writing. A blog post, or a technology review?
I'll probably go with the ladder however. I'm not exactly sure how or what my image is within the blind community. I tested Windows vista and 7 illegally and wrote reviews for most of these products, though they never got consoladated into one central place -eurpod.com has a lot of them, but not all.
I suppose, though, in the long run I am your average high school student moving on to college, who has a computer life just as much as he does a computer one. My mom is not too supportive of a lot of my endevours-mainly because she doesn't see the point in a lot that I do.
She purchased JAWS, full outright for the price of $1313 two years ago. And this, my dear readers, is how I think I'll start my treck down this article.
My mother did purchase JAWS, after I was using my school's license without their knowing. I'd install the school JAWS on my computer, because the authorization number was located in the "authorization number" field of the jaws version dialog.
As a 6th grader I really did not see the consequences coming. I kept resetting their license, using my name as the "name" field on the form.
Untoil FreedomScientific really clamped their JAWS on me, by calling the school and letting them know that their license is about to be revoked.
So mom the next day called them and ordered the professional version of JAWS.
Throughout the years to come, JAWS served me well. It was fast and responsive. At the time I had a Toshiba Satelite machine, with an intel Celeron 2.8 GHz CPU and it ran fine. (you can still find reviews I wrote using that machine! )
I met several friends over the past years, specifically ones who are in college so I could relatively compare my situation with theirs.
One of them, Peter whom I met in the 8th grade, talked of System Access for the first time, saying how great the product is. I think I was a bit more closed minded than I am today, because I didn't try System Access until the end of my 9th grade year. Or was it 10th?
My results with the product were mixed. I loved the mobile network no doubt, but hated the lag which existed when fast typing. It was a .2 second lag, nothing a lot of people would make an issue out of, but I honestly like to know and hear each letter I type, not just for confidence purposes as a journalist but simply to make sure that I'm on track and writing what my mind desires. I never ran the remote access functionality a try, but Peter did demonstrate it to me over the phone, so I had a sense of how it works.
My trial expired that summer, and I cast System access into the sea of who knows how many other products I've cast into the past.
During my Windows 7 testing phase, I had to reinstall my computer a lot. I think it is simply the responsibility of any beta tester. You don't just upgrade from version to version;You often times re-format.
This is where the big shark began poking out it's head again, stretching as it went. FreedomScientific did not like this. They felt that I was pirating their product, which I can understand. I had several conversations with Bryan Carver from over there-none of which were in the least friendliest-and after a while, I resorted to using pirated cracks with the product.
I also got a netbook last year, which meant that now I had two computers-my IBM laptop and my tiny Toshiba netbook. (There's a review of this Toshiba Netbook somewhere on zonebbs.com, in the boards-as well as my jaws issue.)
So I again called Pete, not just for pure advice reasons but to also see how he was doing in general. He suggested System Access, saying that it is the primary screen reader he uses.
During that 2-year gap I mentioned, I had oppertunities to use Satogo, their web-based product which allows you to use a screen reader from anywhere, and I was really impressed. Being able to go to my media center's computer lab and firing up a screen reader right there made me actually feel normal as far as a blind person. I was always an advocate of blindness being limitless, so I also used Satogo in several of my middle school presentations where I showcased blindness with this idea to over 300 students. Needless to say, all of them were impressed with the access idea.
Back to the point however-I have drifted again. Pete suggested that I get the loan-where you can pay for 24 months $40 and in the end have a full license copy of System Access. I pondered this and decided not to go with it. I tried to log in to my previous account with Satogo, and found that it was... non-existant.
Somehow, over two years I suppose, things change. So I gave System access another thirty day trial, and for this I am guilty-honestly I am an honest person and this was, in my mind, bypassing the system. So if anyone at Serotek is reading, I do deserve a punishment for doing a double-trial. I'm not sure if I was aware that I tried SA two years ago, but it was something that popped in my mind and caused some restlessness on my part.
And again, I did not give it a deep test. I've found the keyboard lag a problem, both on my netbook and on my home laptop. I also found that Yahoo Messenger was not accessible, something I used and still use to maintain my long distance relationship with my girlfriend. All of these really prevented me from using the product to it's fullest and, aside from watching a few movies on SA Mobile, I really felt no motivation to switch or consider stepping out of the shark's lare.
What to say. I recently built my new desktop PC, with an AMD Phenom quad core CPU that has 64-bit support. My main laptop did not support 64-bit, sporting a Core Duo processor. With talks of the next version of Windows being 64-bit only, I figured my 4-year old laptop had to go.
For college, this meant that my netbook would have to be the machine I'd use when in classes, while the desktop would run in my room.
I'm actually really afraid of theft, especially in college, of my technology. So I figured that I could use remote access to directly use my desktop from my netbook, thus allowing me to essentially constantly use my desktop. It would also let me use a central location for all documents and programs I install.
Jaws tandom costs money, and so does remote access. While tandom over the internet is free, it is a nightmare. Often times, response lag takes a long time with tandom over the internet.
What to say. It was time again to consider System access because of the free remote access functionality. I also get two licenses (that is, licenses to use two machines), which means a lot. Right now I'm using cracks on both of my machines with JAWS. That is not good, not just because it is illegal and FS will disable it eventually, but because each time there is a newer JAWS update, I'd need to wait a few months in dreaded 40 minute mode. Um, no.
I've mentioned linux before and I will bring it up again. While I've used it on and off in the last few days, and it's accessibility is great, doing things such as remote access or broadcasting my radio show by means of "stereo mix" is very challenging. It is not impossible, but not all apps are orca-friendly, which could be a potential problem. Orca is a fairly good screen reader, but at this moment, linux's accessibility frameworks are not widely known let alone documented for developers. Gnome provides this for all apps, and each program that uses the Gnome workspace will probably be 90% accessible, the lack of it is still noticeable. With that said, linux is still great for usage in any daily task, especially if one wants a lightweight environment to use.
I tried System access again today.
my experiences with the product this morning weren't the best, on a freshly re-installed Netbook. Satogo seems to use the Internet to fetch a lot of it's audio, which is really interesting. Though E-speak seems to be integrated into the Satogo copy you run on your machine, but I have no real way of confirming this just yet.
Still, for some reason, hitting enter on links did not bring them up-I had to open each link in individual windows with shift+enter to get them working. This ended up frustrating me since I had a billion IE windows open by the middle of the day. So I went back to JAWS on the Netbook but didn't give up on System Access yet.
Tonight I tried it on my desktop PC. In fact, I'm using it as I type this.
There is still a .2 second keyboard lag when typing fast, a lag that jaws does not have-JAWS pronounces each letter as I type it. I would really love to know how others feel about this, so please tell me your comments.
System access, to my knowledge, also does not have options to output the audio to another soundcard. This might be an obscure feature but one which I use when broadcasting my talk show. It allows me to have JAWS going to another soundcard and my voice/station music to go through the Stereo mix of my main card. (for those who keep saying that the microphone lags in Windows 7, it doesn't if you use the stereo mix option on your soundcard and go into the speakers under playback and use the microphone volume there, and not by using the microphone option under the recording page to play it back to your soundcard.)
With that aside, I will have to use some alternative method for rooting my audio of system access to another soundcard. I use edcast to broadcast, and sound recorder to record my shows, so no, I can't use an audio pipeline.
Yahoo messenger isn't supported, though the virtual mouse comes in handy. It lets me read messages in the conversation window relatively good. I've been informed that there is a client called Instant Bird which I will try. I don't like Miranda because it uses too many tabbed windows and can be hard to control at times.
7 days and counting!
Again, my Satogo account was "not able to be authorized", probably due to inactivity. So I had to register again and as a part of my Satogo subscription, I have 7 days to try all System access features, including the mobile network and remote access.
I will finally put it to the test and use it with all of my every day applications. Visual Studio 2010, Adobe reader, edcast, and a host of other apps will be tried.
Conclusions:
While I clearly hoped to switch fully to Linux, I sadly don't see it happening just yet. The day is close, though. Just the past 4-5 months gave Linux some major progress as far as accessibility and response time when using the built-in screen reader. You can certainly use Linux for web-browsing, twitter, and even the pigeon messenger/TTitter client for tweeting, it is still not the most intuitive operating system if you just want to use it. I know there are a lot of blinux users who are in the Visually Impaired community, and I understand why they are using it as their main operating system: It's light, free, stable, and because it's free, you know what is in it. The truth, though, is that right now a blind person cannot use Linux in their lifetime without having to use the command line a few times. The sighted can simply use mainstream software, but with a visual impairment things can be slightly different. Vinux certainly tries to combat this problem by including software out of the box which just works, as well as having all accessibility set up and ready to go.
While command line usage is very minimal in Linux, it's still there. Also keep in mind that I was using a beta release of the OS-which is still a month from release, so improvements will happen. Ubuntu really didn't support my Netbook hardware which I also found a bit disappointing. It's Toshiba. What do you expect?
Similarly, I see a weird spark in Serotek. Sure, they are like any other access company. They compete in the market, and thus they advertise. Take a look at the System Access account screen yourself and hear Mike Calvo promote the mobile network yourself. There is nothing wrong with a company promoting their product, of course, but I am simply saying that as an example.
However Serotek have fairly seceded in being commercial and having a community with the mobile network. Their company is dedicated and I know my experiences with their customer service were beyond excellent. Right now, the company has user's intentions at heart, and I hope and send luck to them that they will not turn the other cheek like Freedom Scientific did. All companies start off as "good" but competition can lead them to a struggle for power, which is exactly what happened with FS. It's a deep concept, but one which I'm sure Mike Calvo and his team see reflected in the monopoly which now exists within our industry.
As a technology reviewer, I of course make assumptions to myself. Who doesn't? But by sharing my assumptions like with my day #0 Linux article and than later sharing my results, I hope to not only present to you an unbiased look at technology, but also an outlook which attempts to share all ups and downs. Linux, for example, would make a great OS for the person who only needs e-mail, web browsing, social networks and maybe even Twitter. (TTitter requires some command line configuration to integrate with Orca). It is also good for the advanced user who loves to compile sometimes and does not have a fast-pace life. There are a lot you can get done with Linux than Windows.
Let's now take that to System Access. I will be looking at several aspects throughout the week. Usability, compatibility, customizability, support, and documentation to name a few things.
A month from now, I will also re-visit Linux and use it once more, since betas are never a good way to assume things and take ideas from. And please, respected reader, keep that in mind, not just now, but whenever else I look at a beta product.
So, time to rev up the engines and... Access the week, with System access!
-Tamas Geczy
April 4-5, 2010
I have a questionb to ask you.
If you invented your own program, how would you like it if some one used your program illegally?
I am sure glad I don't know where you are because I would of turned you in.
Hats off to your mom for not liking what you do!
I hope the school you go to keeps a good eye on you.
Grow up!
I am sure glad that Freedom Scientific climbed all over you for what you did.
Did you learn your lesson? I sure hope so!
if I invented my own program, I would not charge a rediculus amount for it and only allow it to be used on one computer.
fact is, most consumers have more than one computer.
If I need something, I will get it in any ways possible. Illegal or not. So no, I have not learned my lesson, but nor did Freedom Scientific with their price levels, and other nonsensical judgements and policies. Too bad you can't transfer back your authorization to the ILM server, otherwise I could of always done that before re-formatting. Nope. Sorry.
also, my school did not provide me with JAWS at home, while the other blind student did get access to it on her home computer. Thus, my mom had to go out and buy JAWS where as she could use the school's copy. Why do you think my mom did it? Because she wanted to show my school, "ha!" . And retaliate against them.
In the same sense, I hope to show FS, "ha!" and that a lot of people are not sticking with their stupid products.
Journalist,
I do owe you an apology. It is none of my business in what you do.
I didn't have the right to come at you like I did.
Peace?
Thank you,
We've gone through the Jaws issue on another board. With a proper license you can have Jaws on more then one machine. You need the pro version, but okay I'm not here for that debate. Smile.
About your yahoo deal. Have you tried MSN with your setup yet? You can add Yahoo contacts and chat easy.
of course :) Peace always.
I also owe you an apology though since I did not make the circumstances clear in my review, at least on the school not providing the license ETC.
I'm not a promoter of illegal software/piracy and strongly believe that if one has the resources and options of getting a product or service they should. Sadly, JAWS is out of the hands of many. Being from Hungary, for me, personally, also means that until I became a US citizen a year ago, I had no state agency support either. Since System Access is in my budget range, chances are that I'll end up getting it simply because it offers more features than JAWS does at it's current state. I also hope that others in our community look at other options and don't disgard them as automatically bad because they aren't made by Freedom Scientific.
peace and respect,
Tomi
I meant Windows Live Messenger. New name for the beast, not MSN.
hi,
yes... I know, and I have the pro version... However FS will not license my counts anymore, and a dongle can only license one computer at a time so I'm sort of screwed in that regard. I also need a good remote access solution for college.
Thanks for pointing MSN/Windows Live out. I did try it, but for some reason it will not text to my girlfriend's number. Oddly, she has Alltel/now Verizon, so I have no idea why! MSN tells me that her carrier is not supported.
My other option would be AIM, though with that, I can send her messages but when she replies AIM tells her that her message cannot be sent. Very odd, again. :)
All the best,
Tomi
A lot of people also swear by NVDA.
Sure it's not perfect, in fact it has come a long way in 4 years.
Hopefully with their display hooks they can improve it even more.
with that said, a lot of people tend to judge a screen reader by the voice, rather than what it can do.
Hi Tomi,
You don't owe me any apologies. I am the one who attacked you first.
Big grin!
Jaws is the first and only screen reader I had anything to do with, and I really like Jaws!
I think it is nice that there are many screen reading programs out there so people can have the choice to use what ever they want.
Sad to see how a very decent review is turned into a dispute fest.
I'd definitely review NVDA if I were you, version 2010-1 just came out and they generally do a lot of improving in-between versions, and it is freeware.
That being said, keep up the System Access review and tell us what you find. What happened to their $9.95 a month plan, I thought you could lease SA that way for as long, or as little, as you like.
I've been a Jaws user since 1998 but I am growing incredibly frustrated with FS's tendency to overcharge European customers without any locatization, for spending huge sums of money on copyright and patent law suits that make no sense and for being in general more busy stiffling their users and competitors than to bring genuine innovation. Jaws is still the best screen reader in my experience, Window Eyes has too much emphasis on the mouse cursor when I tried it, Hal has issues e.g. with pdf files that they are too slow to address, but I keep my eye on NVDA and System Access, as well as Linux and Apple for new possibilities.
cheers, keep up the reviews.
I found your other reviews quite thorough, especially in light of your apparent age.
However you say:
I think the way to go on this testing stuff is to go with the Mac. The screen readers for Windows, with the exception of NVDA, are pretty expensive. However, with a Mac, you get VoiceOver right out of the box, and you have nothing to worry about when it comes to authorization codes for VoiceOver and things like that. Those codes don't exist. Also, you won't have to deal with crack software for your screen reader and being accused of that data harvesting that Robo mentioned. Aside from all of this, Mac seems to be the most stable OS out of all of the operating systems that exist. A Mac computer is expensive, but an OS upgrade only costs $29.
Journalist would not be accused of data harvesting, let me be extremely clear on this: The author of the cracked software would be the harvester, and Journalist, like my relative, would be potential food. Make no mistake about it: cracks aren't written for your benefit: they're written so you can use a security-compromised piece of software that will do any number of things to and with your data.
He does well and is learning. Smile. Now back to your Live messenger. Here's the fix.
You must add her number in the messenger under mobile. She then signs on the windows live messenger and set her ID and number up so that you can send messages, but that is not necessary unless she wants to send them back to you via messenger. You can send SMS to her on Verizon. I have one and it works. Look in Windows live messenger when you are adding her and you'll understand what I mean. If not ask me private and I'll give you the pages.
alright, a couple of interesting comments :)
Well, I ended up paying $420 for system access last night. I got the standalone non u3 version with Eloquence. It lets me use it upon two computers and unlike with JAWS, I can choose to use it upon any two I desire. +, in case I get a third, I can just use www.satogo.com. So for me, it is a very much viable solution. for $420 it was well worth it, and I will be putting out the review next week.
Second, the fact that you can't remove your license from a computer with JAWS is, again, another serious limitation of JAWS. Yes you can click the "remove product activation" item in the jaws folder, but all that does is erase one file and that's it. It does not contact servers.
Previously, when they used those floppy authorization disks, you could always run a utility to transfer back your license count to the disk. Of course, you had the issue of the floppy wear and tear, but it worked, and worked very well until ILM came into play in 2007.
While I know that stating this in the review was not practical or ethical, I did it for two main reasons. Firstly because it allowed me to bring up the main issues Freedom Scientific faces, because I have a license for JAWS-fully functional, JAWS pro license. But I cannot use it because of some of their limitations. I've also often times left my dongle at home because I leave it in my desktop for instance and take my netbook to school, only to forget it at home sitting in the desktop and running in 40 minute mode. Sure, this is intirely an issue of self-planning and that I still can't keep track of everything I take to school, especially when the bus leaves at 6:30 and I have to be there in time.
In fact, here's another limitation. Now that I want System access, I wish to sell my JAWS pro license for $600. On ebay. If I did this, of course, the buyer would get my JAWS authorization disks, dongle, and anything else I can find since I've owned it since 2005. Guess what? I can't do this, because their license agreement clearly states:
"The Licensee may not sublicense, assign, or transfer this license to another party. Any attempt to sublicense, assign or transfer any of the rights, duties or obligations under this agreement shall be null and void and without any legal effect."
So there you have it. While I understand those who are JAWS users, for me, it does not suit my lifestyle simply because I am a technology enthusiast with at least 4 computers at home, who reinstalls his machines constantly either because of corrupting the boot sector or in general for testing and starting off in a clear state. When you reformat, you can isolate application bugs more easily. While virtual machines are an option, they can be resource intensive especially when running windows 7 under Windows 7.
Now, let's talk about my decision to purchase System Access and not go with NVDA. I love NVDA with dear heart, and it is going really well in my opinion. Now, in 2010.2, they are actually working on display hooks, which has already done incredible wonders for some applications. But NVDA's development is bottlenecked by it's developers and community. While I'm not a true computer programmer and the code which I could contribute to NVDA is sparce, NVDA's advantage is disadvantage is that there aren't 1 million developers working on it. This is clearly an advantage because chances of it being less stable after each release and snapshot are very little, since all code changes are easier to track. As far as I know, the only two develoeprs of NVDA are Mick and Jamie, with 3 or 4 other "sub-developrs" who include the language translations coordinator and other community members who contribute to BZR.
This, to the disadvantage of NVDA, means that their development is slower than with System Access or any other screen reader. Priorities are also different. It took NVDA 4-5 years to get display hooks, which is fine. They started off simple and went from there. System Access had display hooks a while ago. On other sides such as Windows 7 support, both NVDA and System Access had the advantage of using Native APIs, because they were able to integrate with the OS and interface-level changes Microsoft made. This, I presume, will be an advantage when Windows 8 starts to go in Alpha and beta either late this year or Early next year. Thus, for me, the fact that a screen reader does not use complex video chaining is good when testing Microsoft Operating Systems.
Second, continuing my paragraph above about pirated software. I think that most people in this world, in their entire lifetime, have done something illegal as far as digital content goes wether it is in software or downloading a pirated CD or book. Notice that I said most people. This is hard to generalize because I don't know every single person in this world and I never will. But those people who are high up in the tech arena-developers, software enthusiasts, techies who know how to download what from where, have done some form of this act. I won't debate this because there is a fine line of what is piracy for some and what it is for others. Is ripping your CDs piracy? Some book publishers believe that you scanning in your books into digital form is piracy, when you could buy the E-text version from the publisher. Thus, is ripping cds also qualify as theft and piracy?
So the line is very much unset as far as this goes. The chances of software piracy among techies is perhaps slightly lower, but whether you did it to bypass a certain fee (such as Apple's $10 fee for updating your iPod Touch to a new major OS), download youtube videos using a pirated copy of a Youtube downloader that costs probably no more than $15-20, it is still piracy and yes, thus, a $1.25 software or even one which costs $.99 or .000001 would also be considered pirating.
With that said, it is true that malicious code is inserted in pirated software. I am 18, so will for sure look into the credit score thing, thanks for those who stated it :)
I always recommend that people use a hex editor or other text scanning utility to check any "crack" they get, and in my case with the JFW one I did this quite thoroughly using Analogx.com Text Scan and a wide array of hex editors. However it's not only pirated software that can steal your identity. Websites, spywear, and more.
Finally, I do encourage open software, but also recognize it's limitations. Limitations such as slower development, and sometimes the requirement of technical skills and a deep understanding of that program's subsystems. I also see the ups of open source-knowing what code does what. Does anyone know what the FSAtProxy.exe file does that JAWS starts? From all you know, it could be transmitting every data you input using JAWS over the internet. This is unlikely, but I'm going out on a limb with it to demonstrate the true fear I have of closed-source software: The fact that any code could be inserted to control you as a consumer. Even code that reports statistics can be bad.
Feel free to comment. If any of this upset anyone... I am sorry. Know that I try to see all of the perspectives you share and thus am not the debating type of person. Debates are good, but not seeing the other side isn't. The debates that are good are those which stem from an open mind possessed by all parties within the debate.
Peace, love, and respect,
Tomi
I agree with robo that admitting to having used pirated software is unprofessional in a review, you should never state that publically in a review, I believe. Whether you actually do is of course your choice.
I am not so convinced of FS's thin profit margins, at least not if they focused their business model better.
NVDA has two full time programmers and let us assume they get paid around 70K a year, a jr programmer could be had for probably 48 or 50 these days, and let us add $10000 for admin costs regarding employees, $40000 for a receptionist and $50000 for other expenses, rent, utilities, phone etc.
So around 250K or the equivalent of around 300 Jaws licenses a year.
I do not know what the population of the U.S. blind/VI computer users is but I would guess in the 3 to 8 million category (obviously many seniors here, but older people are getting increasingly computer savvy).
Basically what I am saying is that I do not see why lighter software could not be sold at lower prices and then specialty solutions could be sold as a more expensive add-on, e.g. scripts or softwear implmentations for advanced Office, programming, sound editing etc.
The sad thing seems to be lack of collaboration, both in the AT and IT world.
We have probably 4 or 5 independent implementation of video intercept hooking, which is a bad idea in the first place. I am sure it is very complex code and it must've cost endless hours and money to implement over and over again.
If more energy would've gone into forcing big companies like Microsoft to make their O.S. more accessible in the first place, perhaps better things would've come of it.
Apparently MSAA is a very waterred down version of the original suggested IAccessible2 standard and once other companies adapted it Microsoft invented the UIA standard and is trying to push that now. The result being that AT companies have to keep implementing new interfaces and standards into their products, often without significant improvements, now some support IAccessible2, some msaa, some UIA and so on.
I know Freedom scientific is much bigger than just Jaws development of course, but I wonder how much Jaws users are supporting things like PacMate development, and the PacMate and pretty much all braille notetakers, for my money, are overpriced and under performing, compared to available mainstream PDAs, netbooks etc.
Looking at approach like Apple's it is frefreshing, simple and does not cost the users extra and it is giving blind users the notion that perhaps they have a right to enjoy the computer without having to pay extra for accessibility software.
I am curious as to where this will go though. Will NVDA expand, will Microsoft implement a screen reader like Apple's, will this notion go away, will companies like Serotek with their new vission be successful, or will we slowly revert back to the GW Micro/Freedom Scientific world.
I am hoping that open source technology will prevail to some extent and that more pressure and work can e put into investing in interfaces and standards to make it easier to build on it, and in such a scenario we might be able to see improvements and price drops for the software.
I understand ths small markets, high production costs etc, but I am beginning to feel, like most people, that it is very unfir for a user to pay twice as much for the screen reader software than for the computer in the first place.
But that is vastly off topic and just thoughts from attending CSUN and subsequent look into open source software.
Cheers
-B
Hi guys I use a macbook pro. I struggled with voc rehab for a year but finally got one. it has 4gigs of ram 250gig hard drive snow leopard and windows7 64bit installed with bootcamp and a pentium 2.5ghz processor. its pretty fast. My only complaint is that jim kitchen's games won't run under windows7 64bit so I'm looking for a windows xp virtual machine vmware image so I can play his games. Also phillip benefall of blastbay studios has made bgt audio game creation toolkit in beta he is now taking pre-orders for it and I bought it. Well I bought one of several versions. $0 is for the demo. you can make games that are open source but you canot compile them. $30 lets you make and compile free games. $99 lets you make one game you can sell and the rest must be freeware and $350 or $400 or something like that lets you make unlimitted sellable games. I also like and am using system access and samnet with build a bundle. It works great with windows7 speech recognition. I also use nvda on the windows7 side. it works good also. I will be downloading the latest vinux version 3 and try it ut out on the windows7 side in vmware player. Also you guys can get voxin for $5 which is eloquence for linux. Oh did you also know that cereproc makes pretty good voices? www.cereproc.com . and in the coming six months you'll be able to send them recordings of your own voice, friends voices, favorite readers voices, and maybe pay them some money and they'll turn that the recordings and text transcripts of the recordings into a sapi5 linux or apple tts voice.
Josh jkenn337@gmail.com