Category: Let's talk
hi
Who on here remembers the outspoken screen reader for mac and windows? also do you remember keynote gold multimedia for windows95 and keysoft for windows95 and windows98? I have a mac os7 emulator and it has outspoken built in it lets me run mac os7.5 inside or on top of windows7 or xp. or windows8 whichever you choose. the command key is the grave accent, left windows key is option key. but how do I better use outspoken and what applications does outspoken for mac work with? and this emulator has all the voices like pipe organ, bells, bubbles, histerical, boing, fred, bruce, albert, and others.
And do you remember Keynote Gold Multimedia? pulsedata's software speech for windows95 and win98? I still have it and know where to get it but you need to run it in a virtual machine or emulator inside of vmware player like in a virtual windows95 98 or maybe xp would still work with keynote gold multimedia and keysoft. when keysoft starts up it says "welcome to keysoft" press enter and it says, "keysoft s-t demonstration version 2.4A main menu." since this is abandonware I wish someone could crack this or re-create it for use in windows7 and keynote gold for use with nvda.
Ugh.I haven't used OutSpoken in about twenty years. That has to be the absolute worst speach I've ever heard.
Worst speech I've ever heard was the braille lite/nspeak, accent synthesizer, votrax, and echo.
I remember using Outspoken in I think 8th grade (so in the 1996-97 school year), I think I may have been introduced to computers earlier than that but don't remember which screenreader (if any) that I used. But in 8th grade, I started with the Artic screen reader and I think an Alva braille display, which they had set up in a little room. But when they later put me with the rest of the class, I used Outspoken on the computer I used. I don't miss that I needed much sighted assistance to get assignments done, but I actually do miss the way the synthesizer sounded. I think I can still remember some of what I used to do, a lot of editing assignments mostly. I also remember using a Kaynote Gold to practice typing and to write an assignment. I don't really remember getting to play around with either the Outspoken computer or the Keynote Gold, as I mostly only used them when with my VI teacher.
1996 / 1997 would be about right for time frame, though OS 8 came out around late 97 with better networking.
At that time my daughter was a tiny tot, so I was not concerned with what they did in school yet.
Interesting.
I actually loved the Echo. The speach quality would be horrible by today's standards but it still holds no small amount of nostalgia for me. Lo-ding, please wait ay my nute. LOL. But the OutSpoken synthesizer was so staticy that I could never understand it. Then there was the Braille N' Speak/Braille Lite, which I always thought sounded like some sort of robotic frog.
The Braille Lite was actually pretty amusing if you played around with the speech settings. There was a certain pitch configuration that I had it set at, with the frequency set as high as it would go, that amused my 8-year-old self to no end, lol. As for Outspoken, I used that in school a few times. I never got to play around with the voices very much, but I thought they were pretty cool.
I actually have two echos for the pc and one for the apple. Each pc version is external, but one must be plugged in and has a knob on it. The other has a dial and uses a 9-volt battery. I like the first better. The one for the Apple is internal, so only the wedge-shaped speaker is visible. Even for me, the Echo is purely for nostalgia, unless it really becomes necessary for me to use it. I just bought a Dectalk Express, so hopefully, that will work. For some reason, I couldn't test it with XP, even though I went into the DOS prompt and tried to install my ASAP demo using Portspeak. That brings me to my KeyNote Golds. I have two of them, and both are identical. They're laptops running a stripped down version of MS-DOS 6.21 and the full suite of KeySoft programs. I also have VocalEyes installed on them. Each uses a KeyNote Gold VoiceCard synthesizer, which looks like a pcmcia card with a specialised connection that is used to connect the cord with a flat connector on one side and a headphone jack on the other. To my horror, I discovered that one of the cards is broken! The other works, and I have another that was never opened, but I have no idea where to find it. Unfortunately, I don't have the software or I could install it on another DOS machine. Anyway, it uses the same voice as the Windows version, which I have never seen, and the BrailleNotes.
I found Outspoken 3.0 for Windows here. It doesn't say demo, so this may be a full version.
http://allinaccess.com/happ/#dos
Does the Echo PC sound the same as the one for the Apple? That's something I've always wondered.
Yes. They both use the same voice. But there are two different versions, and I think that one pronounces things a bit better than the other.
Interesting.
The Braille and Speak reminds me of a guy who had a laryngectomy, and they had to replace his voice with an electrolarynx. Do you remember the old days of Slackware installation with a hardware synth? Or Debian, for that matter.
I have never used either of those. But I do have a Braille Lite 2000 and also a Braille Blazer (embosser and synthesizer). Both use the same voice. I'm not sure, out of those and the Echo, which is worse! hahaha I think the Echo has more inflection.
The Echo does have more inflection.