A brief history of talking computers

Oxide and Friends Twitter Space: August 30th, 2021 A brief history of talking computers We’ve been holding a Twitter Space weekly on Mondays at 5p for about an hour. Even though it’s not (yet?) a feature of Twitter Spaces, we have been recording them all; here is the recording for our Twitter Space for August 30, 2021. In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers on August 30th included special guest Matt Campbell, as well as MattSci, TVRaman, Jessamyn West and Dan Cross. (Did we miss your name and/or get it wrong? Drop a PR!) Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:Brian Dear’s The Friendly Orange GlowBrodie Lockard created amazing software on PLATOControl Data Corp Homework[@2:47](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=167) Matt’s intro Deane Blazie created TotalTalk, a speaking terminal. See his 2004 interview.Apple IIe computer and the Echo II speech synthesizer card.[@4:15](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=255) The Echo ][ sound sample Wargames computer: GREETINGS PROFESSOR FALKEN. Listen > SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?

> Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War?

> …

> Is this a game or is it real?

> WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

> …

> What’s it doing?

> It’s learning…

> …

> A STRANGE GAME.

> THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS

> NOT TO PLAY.[@7:46](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=466) Prose 2000 sampleDECtalk audio sample[@12:14](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=734) Apple to PC Keynote Gold, Master Touch, Zoom Text[@14:53](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=893) Keynote Gold sampleTalking Moose. Watch a sample.[@17:17](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=1037) GUI screen readers outSPOKEN used QuickDrawWindow Bridge 1992[@21:58](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=1318) Meeting another sight impaired person on a MUDpwWebSpeakEmacspeak[@26:44](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=1604) Early programming experiences Apple IIGS[@28:47](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=1727) Emacspeak user base[@31:34](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=1894) Things were getting better on the Windows side.. JAWS, patch parody sampleMicrosoft Narrator[@36:12](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=2172) Linux SpeakupMixing multiple sound streams, hardware limitationsSlackwareZipSpeak by Matthew Campbell[@44:53](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=2693) Editors for the visually impaired? ed text editorEdbrowse[@49:36](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=2976) Working on accessibility (a11y) for pay FreedomBoxGNOME EsounDKDE aRtsGnopernicusOrca[@57:46](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=3466) Microsoft Active AccessibilityAT-SPICORBA, D-Bus[@1:03:11](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=3791) Handheld devices Apple VoiceOverGoogle TalkBackiPhone Screen Recognition article[@1:08:09](https://youtu.be/b9GVJg0LRX4?t=4089) What should software engineers know about accessibility? Use a mature UI framework!Microsoft UI Automation is the successor to MSAA.AccessKit by today’s speaker Matt Campbell DECtalk samples One of the most important settings a blind person will want to change in their speech synthesizer is how fast it talks. JAWS parody clipAlt text image captionsTopical recent conference presentation: - Emily Shea (2019) Voice Driven Development video If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next Twitter space will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time; stay tuned to our Twitter feeds for details. We’d love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!