Emacspeak-13.0 (YellowLab) Unleashed!

["T. V. Raman" <ramantv@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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              Emacspeak-13.0 (YellowLab) Unleashed!
              -------------------------------------

For Immediate Release:

San Jose, Calif., (November 22, 2000)
    Emacspeak-2001: Speech-enabling The Semantic WWW
    --Zero cost of ownership makes priceless software affordable!

Emacspeak Inc (NASDOG: ESPK) --http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net--
announces the immediate world-wide availability of Emacspeak 13.0
- --a powerful audio desktop for leveraging today's evolving
semantic WWW.

What Is It?
- -----------

Emacspeak is a fully functional audio desktop that provides
complete eyes-free access to all major 32 and 64 bit operating
environments. By seamlessly blending all aspects of the Internet
such as Web-surfing and electronic messaging into the audio
desktop, Emacspeak enables speech access to local and remote
information with a consistent and well-integrated user
interface. A rich suite of task-oriented tools provides efficient
speech-enabled access to the evolving semantic WWW. With support
for the freely downloadable IBM ViaVoice TTS (Outloud) speech
synthesis engine, Emacspeak now turns Linux into the first
zero-cost Internet access solution for blind and visually
impaired users.

Major Enhancements:
- -------------------

1  Graphical Desktop Environments:
    A)  Sawfish: Interface Sawfish window manager to TTS servers.
    B) Sample configuration for   speech-enabling Sawfish.
2)  Sound Themes: Configurable themes for auditory icons.
3) Streaming Media: Navigate media streams using FreeAmp and TRPlayer.
4) Music:  Single click access to MP3 playlists.
5) XML and SGML:
    A) Single keystroke browsing of XML documents.
    B) DTD authoring.
    C) XSL authoring.
6)  Desktop Calculator: Speech-enables a simple desktop calculator.
7)  Enhanced table browsing.
8)  Dictation: Speech-enabled  interface to ViaVoice ASR for   dictation.
9)  Generic Modes: Speech-enables javascript-mode, apache-generic-mode and friends.
10) JDE and JDEBug: Fully speech-enables all JDEBug  features.

See the NEWS file for additional details. The Emacspeak source
distribution now includes a structured FAQ list designed to introduce
new and old users to the Emacspeak environment.

Opening Doors To A Windows-Free Millennium:
- -------------------------------------

Emacspeak is now voluntarily bundled with all major Linux
distributions.  The integrity of the Emacspeak codebase is
ensured by the reliable and secure Linux platform used to develop
the software.  Extensive studies have shown that thanks to these
features, users consider Emacspeak to be absolutely
priceless. Thanks to this wide-spread user demand, the present
version is being made available at the same zero cost as earlier
releases. At the same time, Emacspeak-2001 continues to innovate
in the area of speech interaction and carries forward the
well-established Open Source tradition of introducing user
interface features that eventually show up in commercial user
environments. On this theme, when once challenged by a proponent
of a crash-prone but well-marketed windowing system with the
assertion "Emacs is a system from the 70's", the creator of
Emacspeak expressed surprise at the unusual candor manifest in
the assertion that it would take popular idiot-proof interfaces
until the year 2070 to catch up to where the Emacspeak audio
desktop is today. Upon hearing this, the said proponent of the
crash-prone system turned blue in the face (screen), crashed to
the floor and refused to get booted (ever again).

Industry experts welcomed this refreshing breath of Courage
Certainty and Clarity (CCC) at a time when users are reeling from
the Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) unleashed by complex
software systems backed by even more convoluted press releases.

Independent Test Results:
- -------------------------

Independent test results have proven that unlike some modern
software, Emacspeak can be easily uninstalled without adversely
affecting the continued performance of the computer. These same
tests also revealed that once uninstalled, the user stopped
functioning altogether.  Speaking with Aster Labrador, the
creator of Emacspeak once pointed out that these results
re-emphasize the user-centric design of Emacspeak; "It is the
user --and not the computer-- that stops functioning when
Emacspeak is uninstalled!". 

Note from Aster and Bubbles:
(UnDoctored Videos Inc. is currently looking for volunteers to
star in a video demonstrating such complete user failure).

History:
- --------

Emacspeak-13.0 --code named YellowLab-- is the newest in a series
of award-winning audio desktop releases from Emacspeak Inc.
Emacspeak-12.0 --code named GoldenDog-- leveraged the evolving
semantic WWW to provide task-oriented speech access to electronic
information on the Internet. Emacspeak-11.0 --code named Aster--
went the final step in making Linux a zero-cost Internet access
solution for blind and visually impaired users. Emacspeak-10.0
- --(AKA Emacspeak-2000) code named WonderDog-- was the next in a
series of award-winning software releases designed to make
eyes-free computing a productive and pleasurable
experience. Emacspeak-9.0 --(AKA Emacspeak 99) code named
BlackLab-- continued to innovate in the areas of speech
interaction and interactive accessibility. Emacspeak-8.0 --(AKA
Emacspeak-98++) code named BlackDog-- was a major upgrade to the
speech output extension to Emacs.

Emacspeak-95 (code named Illinois) was released as OpenSource on
the Internet in May 1995 as the first complete speech interface
to UNIX workstations. The subsequent release, Emacspeak-96 (code
named Egypt) made available in May 1996 provided significant
enhancements to the interface. Emacspeak-97 (Tennessee) went
further in providing a true audio desktop. Emacspeak-98
integrated Internetworking into all aspects of the audio desktop
to provide the first fully interactive speech-enabled WebTop.

Obtaining Emacspeak:
- --------------------

Emacspeak can be downloaded from sourceforge via HTTP or FTP:
http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net
ftp://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/pub/emacspeak You can visit
Emacspeak on the WWW at
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/emacspeak (Cornell) --You
can also pick up emacspeak via anonymous ftp from
ftp://ftp.cs.cornell.edu/pub/raman/emacspeak/.

Note that in my  experience the the sourceforge site is more
reliable than the Cornell site due to the operating system
each site has chosen to run.

You can subscribe to the emacspeak mailing list
emacspeak@xxxxxxxxxxx by sending mail to the list request
address emacspeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxx

About Emacspeak:
- ----------------

Based at Cornell (NY) http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman --home
to Auditory User Interfaces (AUI) on the WWW-- Emacspeak is
mirrored world-wide by an international network of software
archives and bundled voluntarily with all major Linux
distributions. On Monday, April 12, 1999, Emacspeak became part
of the Smithsonian's Permanent Research Collection on Information
Technology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American
History.

The Emacspeak mailing list is archived at Vassar --the home of the
Emacspeak mailing list-- thanks to Greg Priest-Dorman, and provides a
valuable knowledge base for new users.

Press/Analyst Contact: Hubbell Labrador

About This Release:
- ------------------

According to Hubbell Labrador, the integrity of the
 Emacspeak codebase is assured; we are unaware of any
 changes made to the source code without our knowledge.

Windows-Free (WF) is a favorite battle-cry of The League Against
Forced Fenestration (LAFF).  --see
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm for details on
the ill-effects of Forced Fenestration.

CopyWrite )C( Aster and Hubbell Labrador. All Writes Reserved.
GoldenDog (DM),  BlackDog (DM) etc., are Registered Dogmarks of Aster and Hubbell Labrador.
All other dogs belong to their respective owners.
   

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-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

      
Email:  raman@xxxxxxxxxxx
WWW: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/             
PGP:    http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/raman.asc 

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