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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Linux does it better
  • Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 15:55:16 +0000 (UTC)

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005, James Miller wrote:

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005, sindi keesan wrote:

I was not using Windows for anything else. What do other people still
need it for that linux cannot do?

Machine translation (Systran). There are languageA<->languageB
dictionaries for Linux, but no machine translators that can provide a
semblance of translation for discursive speech. WINE so far has not worked
with Systran. I'm not speaking of BL here, so pardon the digression. But
to speak of BL, one could use Altavista's/Babelfish's web translation
portal: but it seems to use java or something so the place where you enter
text won't display. Then, there's the problem of entering foreign

You are right, I cannot even SEE any place to enter using links2.
Is it cheating to use Mozilla instead after updating to glibc 2.2.5?
Or Opera? (By the way, can I enter four dns numbers instead of two? Mine seem to be down frequently so I end up using lynx or links via sdf, which by the way can now be direct-dialed for $84/year with ISDN or regular modem. It is often quicker to download to your home account there and then ftp or kermit files at 1.8-2.4K when BL site is downloading via direct connection at 600 bytes/sec.)

You can probably enter 'foreign' characters by setting up to use a different console keyboard and screen font. I think BL3 kernel allows this. And there are other fonts for X - will Xvesa let you use them?

characters. Other occasions when I need to resort to Windows: my
university also has a printing system with which you can send print jobs
from any machine on the campus network (including from your personal
computer in your campus apt.) to central printers. The software it uses is
called Pharos, and it requires Windows. And not just *any* Windows. It has
to be Win2K or better (it's hard to believe that educational institutions
allow themselves to become marketing arms for M$ like this. And this

Our university issues students CDs with the latest Windows programs for connecting to their internet but you can also dial in with a terminal program in text mode if you know how. They use some form of unix. What is the OS of your university? Can it really be Windows?

printing system is not the only place where this problem crops up: in
order to use the campus-wide wireless network, you must have Win2K or
better as well. A friend who was still using WinME got a wireless card and
tried to connect and was unable because he was using an "outdated"
version). Pharos uses ActiveX. I also would really like to have the option
of using speech-to-text software (like Dragon Naturally Speaking) since I
need to write long papers at times and typing can create a bottle-neck.
Ironically, IBM produced a very capable speech recognition package for
Linux. But they stopped development and no longer make it available for
download. Bootleg copies can still be gotten. So, if I want to have this
speech-to-text software and remain within legal/ethical boundaries, I
would have to use Windows. I wish this weren't the case. But for some
fields, like higher level studies in the humanities, Linux just doesn't
provide everything needed. Sad but true.

I have not yet tried out a linux CAD program as we are happy with the DOS one. Is there a linux text-to-speech program?


James
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org




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