Somehow I have ended up with a copy of ViaVoice for Mac OS X. It appears to be the newest version, although I recall hearing something about it not being updated in the last couple years. This could be a problem for a new macbook. I decided to give it a try anyway.

The package comes with an instruction book and CD, a headphone/microphone combination attached to a USB adapter, and an audio plug to connect the USB adapter box to the audio output port on the computer. There are also a few other things I haven’t figured out yet.

I inserted the CD into the macbook slot, decided to actually read the instructions in the book and try tp follow them, and found the first minor glitch. The book assumes the CD will start on its own. I helped out and opened the CD. From there it is pretty much a no brainer, going step by step through plugging all the devices in and positioning the headphone/microphone, then going through an initial test to see if all the parts are working. Audio: check. Microphone: problem. It suggested I close the setup assistant and start over. Same thing. It suggested I restart the computer after plugging in the USB. O.K. Once again, the message: “It appears that your microphone may not be connected. Check your connections, close SetUpAssistant, and repeat this setup test again. You may need to restart your compuer after plugging in the mic.” Hmmmm. Back to the book: Getting Help; Obtaining Technical Support: “A solution to your problem might already exist! Before contacting technical support, check the Frequently Asked Questions database and the Tested Systems list. The Internet address is http://www.ibm.com/viavoice. Click the support link in the left panel on the web page. Then, select your speech product.”

I typed in the url and ended up at IBM software through a redirect. Clicking on the support link took me to their websphere section. Backing up and trying the support & download link at the top and searching through their software by name and category got me nowhere. There is no more viavoice on their site. There is a Websphere Voice, however. But there is no Macintosh version (I should have paid more attention to the discussion about ViaVoice a couple months ago). Nothing, nada, nowhere.

So I made a trip to friend Google and found: Nuance – IBM ViaVoice Release 10 Mac OS X Edition. Hey! The picture looks just like the box I have here! O.K., so after navigating through the site, I found this knowledgebase article: “Error message: ‘The microphone does not appear to be connected’ when using OS 10.2.” It actually has some very good information there, like turning ON the speech and microphone recognition in System Preferences. In OS 10.4 that turns on the native speech recognition, but ViaVoice still couldn’t get through. So, the next step was to reboot and try it again. Next: Remove the ViaVoice folder from the Applications folder, and the ViaVoice login from the users folder. But there is no ViaVoice login in the users folder. Sooo, Spotlight! then trash all the ViaVoice files (about 20 of them!), and empty the trash. Reboot, re-install, reboot, download and install the update, reboot, and try again.

Oooookay, first there’s the warning on the update download page, saying this is only for OS 10.2. But I download, reboot, install, and reboot anyway. It says to start the setup assistant from a specified path in the Finder menu, but it’s not there. Spotlight! again. This time it acted like it was recognizing the microphone, but not me. After a couple tries, and taking off the headphone, I tried one last time, fairly shouting the passage. Amazingly, that worked. So I put the headphone back on, and shouted into the microphone. Finally past that hurdle, I got to the testing voice quality. I spoke slightly louder than normal, and it said the quality was good. I tried again in a normal voice and the quality dropped to poor. After getting it back up to fair quality, I moved to the next section, which is to read passages as they are displayed.

I don’t think it’s supposed to be this hard. It’s beginning to dawn on me why I ended up with this: last one to arrive, having missed out on the previous conversation about how bad it is? But giving in to a masochistic streak, I finished the setup, and now have no idea what to do with it, especially since I’m now hoarse from reading aloud. On the upside, the reading passages were interesting.

Learning Javascript, by Shelley Powers, O’Reilly, 2006.

This is not a book for beginners. Let me repeat: this is not a book for beginners. Although the Preface states, “Readers of this book should be familiar with web page technology, including CSS and HTML/XHTML … [p]revious programming experience isn’t required, though some sections may require extra review if you have no previous exposure to programming,” there is a strong assumption from the start that the reader at least (a) has some experience with current programming concepts and practices, (b) has some experience with web page coding and practices, or (c) has a lot of time to learn (a) and (b) while working through the book. That said, however, this really is an excellent resource.

I fall into categories (a) and (b) above, but I’m rusty when it comes to javascript, and wanted something of a refresher. Instead, the book had the effect of dropping me into a working laboratory where everything, though nicely explained, remained confusing for quite a way into the book. But by the time the author got to the complex stuff, it all made sense and fell together perfectly, rather like finally understanding how all the tools in that laboratory make everything work so smoothly.

The book seems fast paced, and often left me wishing there were more detailed explanations of some of the examples. But the concepts and examples are interwoven, so just working through the book brought some understanding. The end of each chapter has review questions, with the answers at the end of the book, for those who find that helpful. But what impressed me was that the errata sheet is already available at O’Reilly. There are a few errata, and they’ll be handy to know if you’re trying the examples given in the book. Additional resources are also sprinkled throughout the book which all appear to still be working.

The author’s practical bias comes through very strongly in the book. In the introduction, and throughout the book, there are frequent “best practices.” Paramount to her philosophy of best practices is the admonition, “whatever JavaScript functionality you create, it must not come between your site and your site’s visitors.” Consequently, she often recommends solutions other than javascript to ensure accessibility by all types of browsers and users. There are also good discussions of the issues surrounding using javascript, especially the cross platform issues and what is on the horizon. Because of the browser compatibility issues, the author covers work-arounds each step of the way, with different options and a discussion of what works best and why.

If book titles are supposed to be descriptive of the content, I’m not so sure “Learning Javascript” is the best title for this book, although it fits well if one thinks of it as learning another programming language. You’ll find this book a lot more helpful if your familiarity with web technology includes using CSS and XHTML, or if you have some experience with another programming language.

Test Driving Linux: From Windows to Linux in 60 Seconds, by David Brickner. O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2005. Available from Amazon and O’Reilly.

This is definitely the book to start with if you are new to Linux. It comes with a live CD: Move, a version of Mandrake Linux that runs entirely from the CD, with no installation required. It is written in a personable, informal style which makes it not only interesting but often fun to read.

The intended audience is “Windows users who have heard of Linux and want to find out what all the fuss is about without committing a lot of time or hard-drive space,” and assumes no prior knowledge of Linux. But not wanting to exclude people like me, the book also claims it “can turn existing linux users into more effective Linux users.” But it really is for people who are currently using Windows, at whatever level. There are many references to Windows features and layouts for comparison. There are also many references to Windows problems as a reason to switch to Linux. The author is an unabashed Linux apologist.

I really like the organization of the book. It starts with the obligatory introduction to Linux, but in this case the beginning introduction is brief. Introduction is what the whole book is about, so “introductory” explanations and comments are throughout the book. The first chapter goes through starting up the CD, using the KDE desktop, and a “typical” application (KWrite). Chapter Two goes into web surfing, and Chapter Three covers file management. While there is a chapter at the back with “Solutions to Common Problems,” a lot of what you’ll encounter is included in the main material. For example, after the CD loaded, my screen went blank. Sure enough, there in the last paragraph of the booting section, I found, “One minor problem I have found on a few computers is that the screen will go blank and won’t come back up. If this happens, just press any key on the keyboard and the screen should come back up.” Yep, that worked. Oddly enough, the section on “Customizing the Desktop,” with all the great configuration details and tips, is stuck in between the chapters on applications. I suppose it fits there if one thinks of the chapters progressing along the virtual path most would take in trying out a new operating system.

Brickner is honest, but optimistic, about shortcomings in Linux, such as games and video. An obvious gamer himself, he devotes a lot of space to discussing the games that are available, and resources for finding them. He spends a lot less time on video, which is very briefly covered in the audio section. He also does not ignore other common programs and features available with Linux that are not on the CD, and even offers frank assessments of Linux distros to install after trying out the Move CD.

The application programs covered are the KDE suite of e-mail, organizer and Instant Messaging, Open Office Write and Calc, the GIMP, and GnuCash. Although very little time is spent on the GIMP, the necessary basics are covered: scaling, resizing, and cropping. It’s just enough to get one started. He includes a detailed explanation of how to remove red-eye, but only succeeds in making it look harder than it needs to be. A lot more space is given to the other programs, especially GnuCash. Brickner gives a great explanation of how double-entry accounting works by way of explaining how to use GnuCash.

There are plenty of screenshots. Some of the screenshot images produced text that was too small to be of much use, but I found that much of the text generally didn’t need the screenshots anyway. The only problem I had was trying to get an internet connection on one of the computers I tried it out on. I couldn’t figure out how to get a working connection over the local netwok, and the book gave no clues.

Despite the shortcomings, which are minor, this is an excellent book. It is the book to give (or recommend) to the skeptic or clueless person who asks what Linux is. It presents Linux as a friendly, usable alternative, with a manual that is anything but dry. We need more books like this.

Mandrakelinux Discovery 10.1 (Starter Guide: Mandrakelinux 10.1), by MandrakeSoft, Inc, 2004, ISBN 284798085-7.

Another “dated” book, but the only one I could find for Mandrake, which is now Mandriva. The book, which comes with an install CD, does promise a free update to the next version, however. I was anxious to see just how easy or difficult the install would be. Like many Linux users, I’ve had a few nightmare installs, but Mandrake has a reputation for being one of the easiest installs. Like Yellow Dog Linux, it also happens to be one of the distributions that is “sold.” The price of the book, with CD, roughly corresponds to the cost of purchasing Mandrake (or Mandriva) with one month of support (I suppose that’s considered enough to get you up and running).

So, book in hand, I popped the CD into an available PC. Since the hard disk had been wiped, there were no dicey issues related to preserving Windows during partitioning. Chapter One in the book is one page long, titled, Installation Warning, with the almost required caveats about defragging Windows and backing up data. Chapter Two is Before Installation, and Chapter Three gives the step by step details of going through an install. I was amazed. I had never seen Install instructions so perfectly matched to what I was seeing on the screen, with really good explanations of the options for each screen. It was a breeze.

In fact, it was deceptively easy. From there, the book proceeds to sections on “Migrating to Linux from Windows and Mac OS X,” and “Linux for Beginners.” It starts out with good use of images and screenshots. But beyond these introductory sections, the book begins showing some holes.

The first clue is that there is no author, other than the corporate author, Mandrakesoft, who apparently outsourced the bookwriting to Neodoc (www.neodoc.biz). The book reads like a compilation of several contributors, with minimal editing. Consequently, occasional grammar and typographic errors pop up, which, thankfully, are little more than distractions. However, when it comes to the illustrations, the helpful balloon labeling was abandoned after the first sections, so labels are difficult to distinguish from the image itself. Definitely a drawback for novices. A few of the explanations will leave novices scratching their heads as well (for example, in explaining “Bcc” in e-mail messages it states simply, “No recipient will have access to the mail addresses to which this message was sent.” Huh??).

The second half of the book presumes a greater comfort level using Linux than the first half. The section on applications (Mozilla browser and email client, OpenOffice (writer and spreadsheet), Konqueror File Manager, XXMS for audio, Xine and MPlayer for video, and CD burning) is generally easy to follow. Most directions and explanations are detailed enough, especially with the screenshots and images, to be useful. There are some, however, which seem to have been inserted almost as an afterthought (the editing problem again?).

After the applications sections, however, the required level of expertise is extremely variable. I also wondered about the placement of some of the chapters. Lightly thrown in between hardware setup and setting up networks is “Parameterizing your Mount Points,” which goes into detail about partitioning, then talks about SMB Directories and, very briefly, NSF. The chapter is in stark contrast to the Hardware Setup and Network Setup sections. It looks more like Appendix material to me.

Also rather puzzling is the chapter on “Personalizing your System,” which is near the end of the book, even after the chapter on “Securing your Linux Box” (which runs through the steps with no explanation). Like the Hardware and Network setup sections, it is written well, and has meaty stuff like automating backups and configuring startup services. So why is it hidden at the back?

The cover states, “Your First Linux Desktop,” implying it is for those new to Linux, but not necessarily new to computers. With the beginner level aspects, such as installing, configuring, and applications, it does a fairly good job of introducing this version of Linux to computer users. Despite the shortcomings noted above, it is worth having if you’re thinking of trying out Mandrake/Mandriva. Better to have a manual in hand when you need one than have to rely on online forums for basic stuff. As to whether to choose Mandrake/Mandriva over some of the other distros, well, that’s a post for another day.

Awright! Got it up and running ! (The DeLi homepage is here)

The install was pretty straightforward, text based. There is a nice installation instruction page on the DeLi wiki. It pretty much recognized everything (at least as far as I can see right now). At the bottom of the Instruction page, it says,

• After the packages are installed remove the CD-ROM (the disk, not the drive itself) and press CRTL+ALT+DEL to boot into your new DeLi Linux system

• Log in as root with the password you chose before. Now you can run delisetup to configure your system.

Uh huh, delisetup. Well, that’s where xconfig resides, which is what you need to get a graphical user interface. So I took a deep breath, and tried to gingerly step into the xconfig section of delisetup. It actually wasn’t that bad, even though I had very little information about the monitor and video card (other than the fact that it is not a separate card, and the system is circa 1997). I went back and forth a couple times, trying to make sure I got it right, held my breath again and finished the setup. It took me back to the command prompt.

I stared at it for awhile trying to remember the command to start Xwindows. Checked my cheatsheet card, looked for my pocket Linux book (which, now that I recall, my son borrowed, so it’s probably buried under a pile of God knows what), gave up and decided to go back to book reviews. As I was scanning the Mandrakelinux Discovery 10.1 book I was working on, I happened to spot an entry about entering a command if the graphical version was not displaying: “startx.” Good grief. How could I not remember that? Bingo, we’ve got graphics now!

I poked around a bit, but couldn’t find a utility to set up users, so I’m in there as “root” (normally not a good thing) until I change the settings via the command line interface.

Bottom line: Hey, it works on a 1997 Compaq with 32MB of memory: I don’t think I was really testing its limits! During the install process it asked about using the free space on the disk (which has Windows98 on it, and had over 1GB of free space). On reboot, it actually booted into Win98 because I wasn’t there to choose Linux from the bootloader at startup. Overall,

• Ease of install = medium
• Knowledge required = some knowledge, or a Linux reference, will be really helpful
• Features = limited, but acceptable (this is for low memory machines, after all!)