From: chuckh AT taconic DOT net
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 1997 08:50:28 -0500
Message-Id: <9702221350.AA00905@host.taconic.net>
To: opendos AT mail DOT tacoma DOT net
Subject: [opendos] speech access to bootstrap messages
Sender: owner-opendos AT mail DOT tacoma DOT net
Precedence: bulk

On 1997-02-21 cwg01 AT gnofn DOT org said to chuckh AT taconic DOT net
   >On Fri, 21 Feb 1997 jdashiel AT eagle1 DOT eaglenet DOT com wrote:
   >Oh have I got an idea for an invention, just wish I had $$ to do it,
   >a voiceCGA card which plugs into a computer and provides a voice to
   >the boot process.  Allow someone to hear their computer's setting
   >and adjust as needed to make the computer run properly.  Designed
   >properly, it would emulate a text screen and maybe even those fancy
   >graphics screens as long as there was recognizable words on there.
Our PROVOX screen reader creates a file called "pv.log" when it starts up,
containing a snapshot of the current video page at the time it is executed.
Since it is possible to load it as a device driver in config.sys, as in:
device=c:\dir\provox.exe
then this usually means the snapshot contains the system description
generated by the BIOS and those difficult to get at early messages. Once the
snapshot has been taken, subsequent writes to the screen are also
duplicated into the PV.LOG file, up to and including the execution of "part
2" of the package, "pv.exe", which supplies startup parameters, specifies
ports and devices, etc.
As soon as I can figure out how to download opendos in the dark I will be
porting PROVOX to the Opendos environment. It is currently freeware, and
will remain so.
Chuck.


N0MQP & Dash: Back Home Again In Thunder Country
"A Mighty Shepherd Is My Dog"

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