[nvda] Re: nvda and OCR software

There was a comedian in the 70's named Benny Hill that had a comedy bit about why people should never assume anything. I was merely trying to answer the question by what I have personally used concerning free or open source solutions. I do have a strong difference of opinion when it comes to open source software than most people. I and many others on the NVDA list have worked very hard whether it be in promotion or actual coding of the project and to hear someone come along and say that open source solutions whether it be for OCR software or a free screen reader is a waste of time could very easily be taken offense to on an open source screen reader list. I do find that the friends I have both on the NVDA list and with the GOCR team, both work very hard at what they do. I myself was also working on an open source screen reader in Visual Basic 6 just to show the non believers that it could be done. I have also created a search engine specificly for Jaws scripts at the moment with an appealing graphic layout for the sighted just to show that it could be done. I do not consider what I do, nor what the GOCR nor the NVDA team does as you stated a waste of time or lagging behind other higher cost software. In fact I thought it very noble of one of the developers to work with you that one day on Audasity so that it would be a bit more usable for you and for others. Please don't take what I have said in this response as an attack on you, it is just in the hopes that you will see that alot of people have put their heart into projects like this and that many do it just for the pure love of doing it. It is not considered a waste of time to the people that do it. My only point in all of this has been that not all open source software is bad. In fact quite the contrary, much of the open source software is not so focused on being a do it all product but more focused on doing certain things well or even better than its competitors. After all what was Linux when it was first released. Nothing more than a kernel to an operating system. It was the Linux supporters that turned it into a full operating system. Now where is Linux 10 years or so down the road? Running the internet you and I are exchanging emails on. How could a project like GOCR help that certain blind person 10 years down the road that just got turned down by his or her blind agency because he or she does not plan to use it for school or work but simply to read a book they were given in print. To go even farther, what if that particular blind person was on assisted housing trying to find work but not wanting or able to do the work their blind agency is able to provide them. What do they do then? Do they spend the last of their food mony on a 200 dollar OCR program or do they look for a free alternative and advance in their life. That is the point to having a free alternative to the 200 dollar solutions such as open book or kurtzweil. That in my heart is not considered a waste of time and effort. 
JohnPG search for all of your Jaws scripts at http://www.blindcrawler.com/
Also be sure to check out Blind Crawler's Legend of the Green Dragon server at http://www.blindcrawler.com/lotg/ 
There will be more to come from Blind Crawler very soon.
Administrator: John Greer
Blind Crawler.com
----- Original Message ----- From: "Gene" <gsasner@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: <nvda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 5:59 PM
Subject: [nvda] Re: nvda and OCR software



John
I didn't make general statements about you being uninformed and I didn't attack you. If you read such messages as attacks, I'm sorry. I specifically pointed out statements you made that are not correct. You said that OCR is mainly a blind person's application. It isn't. You said that is exorbitantly expensive to get OCR software. It isn't. Yes, you are incorrect in those statements. But making any sort of general statement that you are uninformed? Where did I make such a statement? I didn't.
As far as how you answered the question versus how I answered it, I gave information I thought relevant. At times, people want to know about a topic and they frame a question in a certain way because they are unaware of different options or solutions. Since I don't know what someone knows, if I believe certain information may be helpful, I may include it if it seems that it may be useful. I am not telling anyone to do anything if I include such information. I'm providing options the person may either not know about or may not have given adequate consideration. 

Gene
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To post messages to the list send email to
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To modify your NVDA Email settings go to:
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Thank you for your continued support of Nonvisual Desktop Access, an open 
source free screen reader for Microsoft Windows:
http://www.nvda-project.org/
To get the latest NVDA snapshot:
http://www.nvda-project.org/snapshots/
Report bugs or make feature requests at:
http://trac.nvda-project.org/
Message Archive:
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