San Jose, Calif., (November 21, 2001)
Emacspeak-2002++: Empowering Experienced Users
--Zero cost of ownership makes priceless software affordable!
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Emacspeak Inc (NASDOG: ESPK) announces the immediate world-wide availability of Emacspeak 15.0 --a powerful audio desktop for leveraging today's evolving semantic WWW.
With several prominent analysts recently initiating coverage, NASDOG: ESPK is now trading over the net at levels close to that attained recently by last year's DogCom high-fliers.
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.
See the NEWS file for additional details.
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 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 recently 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
surprize at the unusual candor manifest in the
assertion that it would take popular idiot-proven
interfaces until the year 2070 to catch up to where
the Emacspeak audio desktop is today. 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 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).
You can visit Emacspeak at SourceForgeor Cornell. The latest development snapshot of Emacspeak is available via anonymous CVS from sourceforge.
You can subscribe to the emacspeak mailing list [email protected] by sending mail to the list request address [email protected].
Emacspeak-15.0 --code named SmartDog--is a follow-up to TopDog and the next in a continuing a series of award-winning audio desktop releases from Emacspeak Inc. Emacspeak-14.0 --code named TopDog--was the first release of this millennium. Emacspeak-13.0 --codenamed YellowLab-- was the closing release of the 20th. century. Emacspeak-12.0 --code named GoldenDog-- first leveraged the evolving sematnic 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 last 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.
Based at Cornell (NY) http://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
BubbleDog acknowledges her monopoly on the future direction
the the Emacspeak Audio desktop, and promises to exercise
her power responsibly (as before) going forward.
According to Hubbell Labrador, this release does not contain the much-vaunted SmartTag feature --despite the codename. Emacspeak Inc. promises to introduce SmartDogs soon based on customer demand.
Windows-Free (WF) is a favorite battle-cry of The League
Against Forced Fenestration (LAFF).
--see this
overview of 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.
