This may be a very accessible program for those interested in the topic.
I'm sending this along to the list for the benefit of those interested. It
is a first time review of the program.
Steve
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 21:30:43 +1100
From: Steve Pattison <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Multiple recipients of NFBnet GUI-TALK Mailing List
<[log in to unmask]>
To: Multiple recipients of NFBnet GUI-TALK Mailing List <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Fwd: FireTalk
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Amy Ruell <[log in to unmask]>
Impressions from a lister regarding Fire Talk!!!
I spent most of yesterday working with FireTalk and I wanted to report
my first impressions.
For those of you that do not know what Firetalk is, well, basically,
it is another internet voice chat and conferencing program. FirEtalk
is Free, and can be gotten from:
www.firetalk.com
Personally, I have found this program to be miles ahead of the others
I have tried. The audio sounds great, and from what I have observed
firsthand from other users on line, will perform just as well on a
slower machine as it does on a real powerhouse type pc. I personally
have a fairly fast machine (450 mhz), but I heard people using 133 mhz
machines that sounded just as good as anybody else. More over, the
program seems to be totally unaffected by the number of users in any
given room or forum. I was in a forum last night that had over 50
people in it, and it sounded no different than a forum with 2 or 3.
Is FireTalk speech friendly? Well, it uses all standard wins
controls, but it has the problem of not shifting focus on its own in
every instance. For example there is a list of contacts on the main
screen. This list is actually a standard listview, but you can't tab
into it. You must first use your screenreaders mouse movement keys to
first click on the listview to force focus. Once this is done, the
list is perfectly useable with your up and down arrow keys. This is
generally the case with any of the lists that can be present in the
program. In many cases, one must also click on certain buttons to
activate certain things, but most of it is also available via the
menus. Yes, it does use standard windows type pull down menus.
There is a push to talk button, but this thankfully can also be done
vial the control key. Holding down the control key is the same as
pushing the talk button. The program is actually smart enough to know
when to use half duplex style "push to talk" type communication, and
when to use hands free full duplex type. If a forum has more than 7
users, you are automatically put into forced push to talk mode. Any
forum with less than 7 users is full duplex hands free. In the
options area of the program, you can force push to talk mode to always
be active, even during one on one private conversations which is my
own personal favorite way of using the program. Full duplex
conversing is a neat thing, but I don't like my microphone being
activated every time my dog barks, or there is any other noise loud
enough to trigger my end of the conversation. At least we have the
choice with Firetalk.
It is my understanding that the Firetalk folks are very interested in
making their program as accessible as possible as they want it to be
useable by as wide an audience as it can be. I highly recommend that
this program be given a serious look by those of you that have any
interest at all in starting up any type of group chat. Blind line and
Handitalk immediately come to mind as really good candidates for this
type of program, and now that the quality is so good even on slower
machines, I think it would be great to have a couple of forums like
this.
For those of you that are JFW users, I believe there is someone on
there that is working on firetalk scripts. I am going to see what can
be done about some Window Eyes set files as well. Perhaps if enough
Window Eyes users get going with Firetalk, we can get GW Micro to do
their own set files for the program. I am going to attempt to write
some myself, so if that happens, I will upload them to the GW Micro
web site. Give Firetalk a try. I think many of you will be
pleasantly surprised if you don't mind mousing around a bit...
--All the best,
-- Rick Alfaro
-- [log in to unmask]
Regards Steve,
mailto:[log in to unmask]
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