Re: in the market for a new laptop:suggetsions?

  • From: "Bryan Schulz" <b.schulz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2008 17:44:41 -0600

hi,

sometimes forcing usb to older technology is a gamble.
i haven't actually needed to proove this but a pcmcia card with parallel port should solve your situation. if it was a desktop tower, i would say just buy a pci card with the parallel commection.

Bryan Schulz
The BEST Solution
www.best-acts.com

----- Original Message ----- From: "tribble" <lauraeaves@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: in the market for a new laptop:suggetsions?


your mail prompts me to ask a question that I was going to post on another
list.
I have an old braille embosser that can use COM for parallel but not USB. I bought a USB to parallel adaptor so I could use it on my Lenovo laptop, but
when I go into the device manager to find the appropriate lpt port to
specify to the embosser software, there is none there, even though I
installed all the drivers and rebooted, etc.
Does this mean that my old embosser is unusable without an old motherboard
with serial and/or parallel ports?
I hope not. it's a good embosser and the old parts are rapidly becoming a
thing of the past.
Comments welcome.
--le

----- Original Message ----- From: "Bryan Schulz" <b.schulz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 1:53 PM
Subject: Re: in the market for a new laptop:suggetsions?


hi,

the serial port is not an important reason to insist on a dell.
usb to serial converters or pcmcia card are about $40 max.

Bryan Schulz
The BEST Solution
www.best-acts.com

----- Original Message ----- From: "Nick Stockton" <nstockton@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: in the market for a new laptop:suggetsions?


The problem with hp is that they don't provide XP drivers on their site so
you have to look up the drivers for each piece of hardware separately on
google.  I helped my uncle downgrade (I consider it an upgrade) to XP an
hp computer earlier this year.  After searching and searching and
searching I was able to find all the needed drivers to get speech up and
running on the computer.  I was never able to find the PCI drivers  for
the computer how ever and so when he got a PCI modem to install in it, he
had to take it back to the store and exchange it for a USB modem.
I'd recommend Dell's latitude series of business laptops myself specially
if your like me and either have or think you might have at some point a
device that requires a real serial port and not a USB port.  The latitude
series of laptops are the only series of laptops that still offer a serial port, making it the default choice for hardware engineers or the blind who
might still need one.  Apart from the latitude series is also Linux
compatible and there are loads of howtos online for setting up linux on
different latitude models. I myself have my dell latitude d600 setup with
a dual boot system of XP-pro and debian gnu/linux.

Nick Stockton
----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Hunt" <huntp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 9:45 AM
Subject: Re: in the market for a new laptop:suggetsions?


Hi,

If I were you my main concern would be finding a laptop downgradable to
XP. I doubt you'll find one these days that comes with it pre-installed
though - Vista is ubiquitous now and it's a right pain in the ass.

I've bought two new machines in the past 12 months - an HP laptop and an
HP desktop and they both came with Vista Home Premium and the quality of
JAWS's support for it is well below that of XP.  Even simple tasks like
reading back and forth through text files (regardless of the editor being used) causes problems such as the previous line being read instead of the
next one when you down-arrow and then repeated "blank" being spoken when
you arrow back upwards until you refresh the screen.  Also the command
prompt isn't read properly under Vista - as soon as the window starts to
scroll JAWS starts reading random lines from the window under the command
prompt!  It doesn't read some of the dialogues in VS 2005 that it does
under XP either. These are just a few examples.

I've just bought a new laptop and my main priority was making sure it
supported XP.

AMD processors are just as good as Intel ones and they generally have
slower clock speeds but are more efficient so compare favorably with
Intel chips that are clocked quicker.

Paul

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tyler Littlefield" <tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 2:35 PM
Subject: Re: in the market for a new laptop:suggetsions?


that answers a lot.
I've seen amd processors out there, and hear they're really good; their
speed calculations look different from pentium though. How is that
measured?

Thanks,
Tyler Littlefield
email: tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
web: tysdomain-com
Visit for quality software and web design.
skype: st8amnd2005

----- Original Message ----- From: "Nimer" <nimerjaber1@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 7:26 AM
Subject: Re: in the market for a new laptop:suggetsions?


Hello,
your operating system is not a trial!!!!! If you want XP, you're going
to have to request it from the manufacturers. I would go for a 64-bit
machine with a 32-bit OS personally. At least 2 gigs of ram, but I
would up it. As big a hard drive you can get, at least a core 2 duo or
an AMD x2 processor, at least 256 MB video card dedicated memory.

Thanks
Nimer J

Nimer M. Jaber

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Tyler Littlefield wrote:
Hello list,
I'm in the market for a new laptop.
My max price range is about 1100. I'm not totally sure what I need; of
course I'm looking for the best deal, but I also need something that
Jaws will work on.
From what I've heard, jaws does not work on 64-bit vista; are there
still laptops shipped with 32 bit, or even better XP?
I know a lot of the computer companies started sending everything with
vista.
I've also seen things like 60 day trials and etc on vista; am I going
to have to purchase a full copy after I get the laptop?

Thanks,
Tyler Littlefield
email: tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
web: tysdomain-com
Visit for quality software and web design.
skype: st8amnd2005

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