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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 color=navy face=Arial id="role_document"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Thanks for the
encouragement, Snoopi, but unfortunately I have no influence on Fonix
decisions. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I was thinking tho that we might be able
to get federal grant support (NIH-NIDCD) for such a project. Whoever thinks
this would be a good use of OUR tax dollars, please reply. If I can show enough
need for the project (to take publicly-available source code for DECtalk and
update it to run with current operating systems and be usable to current screen
readers and accessible devices), then we can show the need. I’ll
volunteer to write the application, and have been able to get funding for
similar projects in the past, and I’d be extremely interested in making
this happen – IF enough users out there want it. Please let me know what
you think.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>corine</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b>
dectalk-bounces@bluegrasspals.com [mailto:dectalk-bounces@bluegrasspals.com] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Dectalk@aol.com<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> </span></font><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Monday,
February 27, 2006</span></font><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>11:02 AM</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> dectalk@bluegrasspals.com<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [DECtalk] new to the
list</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><strong><b><font size=4
color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>Well, Corine is on this list. When she reads that this can
be done, she'll probably call Fonix and scream for permission. I've been
trying to tell her that this could be done, but Fonix says it can't. I
know it can, I had friends crack and modify other programs, even Windows
professional. Illegal as you can get, but we did it. So I laugh
when Fonix says it can't be done, I know it can.</span></font></b></strong></p>
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face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><strong><b><font size=4
color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>I hope we get the go ahead, it would put Fonix back on track.</span></font></b></strong></p>
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face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><strong><b><font size=4
color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>SNOOPI</span></font></b></strong></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=4 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>In a
message dated </span></font><font size=4 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>2/27/2006</span></font><font
size=4 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'> </span></font><font size=4 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>3:00:22 A.M.</span></font><font
size=4 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'> Pacific Standard Time, shaun.e@xtra.co.nz writes:</span></font></p>
</div>
<blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid blue 1.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 4.0pt;
margin-left:3.75pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>What we
could do is approach the current owner of dectalk and ask them if we could hack
the old code out of either the old dectalk synths, or out of old software, say
4.3 and make some open source mod bassed on that.<br>
We couldn't call that dectalk or access 32.<br>
Probably open dectalk simular to open office or whatever though.<br>
We could have someone set up something on sf.net.<br>
There are loads of such opensource projects on linux, I don't see any problem
if we get permission to, if we just hacked the code and based on that made our
own synth.<br>
After they will not sell olded out dated software.<br>
At </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>09:52 p.m.</span></font><font size=2
color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'> </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>27/02/2006</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>, you wrote:<br>
>Hi,<br>
>Let's not start World War III about this, but here are a few more thoughts<br>
>on this.<br>
>First, if you've ever seen the darker side of the net, you doubtless know<br>
>there are people out there who just love to take popular commercial
software<br>
>packages and crack them. Copy protection mechanisms are disabled,<br>
>registration key systems are bypassed or, if not bypassed, a key generator<br>
>program is included so you can make up your own key out of thin air.
In<br>
>some cases, the crackers may even have to disable sanity checks built into<br>
>the programs designed to prevent just this sort of happening. Also
there<br>
>are programs on the market designed to encrypt executables so they can't be<br>
>cracked so easily. E.G. you write a program that's going to bring in<br>
>millions, run it through an encrypter program before putting it on the<br>
>market so crackers either can't crack it at all or have to do lots of extra<br>
>work to get the job done.<br>
>Also, I'm not saying that by disassembling a program you get the original<br>
>source. You don't. What you'd get is the machine code, probably
something<br>
>like assembly language for whatever microprocesser the program was designed<br>
>for. Let's say you took the Apple II Textalker program and
disassembled it.<br>
>You'd most likely get 6502 machine code. Now Textalker may well have
been<br>
>written in Assembly, but the original source would probably have meaningful<br>
>label names if not comments, and the developers of the original program<br>
>would know, or would have known, how to make changes to their
version. With<br>
>a disassembled program you wouldn't get the meaningful label names,
comments<br>
>or anything, and you wouldn't have the knowledge of the program's internal<br>
>structure that the original developer had. But still, if you knew
what you<br>
>were doing you could probably modify the software, and you could certainly<br>
>find out how certain things were done. In fact, the author of Cider
Press<br>
>did disassemble some copy protection code on some old Apple II cassette<br>
>tapes to find out how it worked and how to circumvent it.<br>
>As for the DECtalk software itself, I seem to recall that the DECtalk PC<br>
>uses an 80186 processor and the Express uses an 80386. Both have some
type<br>
>of digital to analog convertor. So it might not have been that
difficult<br>
>for Digital to modify the software to run under Windows, since I don't<br>
>assume they're emulating an old board.<br>
>Jayson.<br>
><br>
>----- Original Message -----<br>
>From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@baechler.net><br>
>To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk@bluegrasspals.com><br>
>Sent: </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Monday, February 27,
2006</span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>3:22 AM</span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><br>
>Subject: Re: [DECtalk] new to the list<br>
><br>
><br>
>> Hi. I'm sorry, but I'll have to disagree with you here.
First, the<br>
>> point of compiling a program in the first place is so that the source<br>
>> isn't easily apparent. If it was possible to just randomly<br>
>> disassemble software, we wouldn't need the GPL, BSD, Linux or any<br>
>> other open source project. I could just take the Windows kernel,<br>
>> crack it, invent my own version and release it as the free kernel or<br>
>> something. It obviously doesn't work that way. Also,
remember a<br>
>> previous discussion about emulating the Echo on the Apple II?
The<br>
>> problem is the same in both cases. The Echo is a chip on a card
that<br>
>> goes into the computer. The DEC-Talk is a separate<br>
>> computer. According to the manual, it has its own<br>
>> microprocessor. So, even if they had the firmware, it wouldn't
do<br>
>> them much good. It's a nice thought though. Considering
that it<br>
>> keeps getting sold, it's no surprise to me that they don't have the<br>
>> 4.40 source, or won't release it if they do. Personally I would
like<br>
>> to see a good, high quality open source synthesizer, either using<br>
>> already existing hardware such as the DEC-Talk or easily programmable<br>
>> software with good speech quality. I'm not interested in what's<br>
>> already out there for free, it all sounds like crap and won't sing<br>
>> very well if at all.<br>
>><br>
>> At </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>08:12 PM</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'> </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>2/26/2006</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>, you wrote:<br>
>> >I also don't understand how Fonix could have lost the code.
If the only<br>
>> >copy is on a dead hard drive obviously they could send the drive
in to a<br>
>> >data recovery company if they still have it, but those places are<br>
>expensive.<br>
>> >I mean, with the move from Digital to Force and then from Force to
Fonix,<br>
>> >you'd think somebody somewhere would have something laying
around. I<br>
>have<br>
>> >the firmware version 4.2CD for the Express as well as the DECtalk
PC<br>
>drivers<br>
>> >which as I understand it actually contain the DECtalk code which
is<br>
>loaded<br>
>> >onto the board at startup. And of course the 4.3 demo is
available at<br>
>the<br>
>> >archive. I don't know how to disassemble the software, but
bet the right<br>
>> >person who knew what they were doing could do it and create
machine code<br>
>> >from which new equivalent source code for the lost versions could
be<br>
>> >recreated.<br>
>><br>
>> _______________________________________________<br>
>> DECtalk mailing list<br>
>> DECtalk@bluegrasspals.com<br>
>> http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk<br>
><br>
>_______________________________________________<br>
>DECtalk mailing list<br>
>DECtalk@bluegrasspals.com<br>
>http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
DECtalk mailing list<br>
DECtalk@bluegrasspals.com<br>
http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk</span></font></p>
</blockquote>
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