Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Ted Dog]

Thanks, I can hopely talk a family member that mades TV programs into helping, she has lots of nice promo videos for a few car company websites.
But she only his two modes broadcast quality and effort ( days to weeks ) OR cell phone capture.

Its the nature of the audience, Early adopters are handcapped but the usefulness would be evident to those caregivers and family. Disabled people do not know this exist nor would it be worth the time to learn.
The file downloads get corrupted on the journey across the pond, same happens if the servers are located in the Asia rim.
Their has been large scale cyber-attacks against USA, I think this could be a side effect. Switzerland host should work fine in the European market.

[Ted Dog]

Also could be your code is solid and there is not much to discuss.
I got angry once as a programmer for a large project at a huge software house, in the lack of feedback I was getting from my group, then unit and the testers. We had time set aside for peer review, units watching over other units code for error, and a team of testers. Two full days were set aside for this process, correction time was planned in. I was twiddling my thumbs for hours a day, waiting for some feedback.
A had enough and marched in to the QA testing group and challenged the team leader. He laughed at me, my code caused him all sorts of problems that his boss had to be the one to assign my code to a tester. Code was so clean that the testing group fought over it, for an easy day, they used automated script testing and my code would spin for about three hours without causing a blip.
Of course it backfired one cycle, The final release QA master triggered a bug, that blew-up my code. My code testing was skipped that cycle due to many reasons. I'm chilling at my desk as was my habit the final hour of week. As the firestorm of cursing mixed with my name found me! He never heard of me, never made it to his code watch list. He thought I was new and did not know the system.
I pulled up my bug list and scrolled back months of no bugs to report. To which he left to go scream at the testing leadership. They accepted blame, while I fixed the bug (code in a shared library) I called the testing group to tell them I fix it, and they where able to salvage that milestone, on just my word and backing of my reputation on clean code.

[mikeslr]

Hi ETP and All,
Revised: 6/29: See http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=710825#710825

Congratulations on Mousecam pup. For many, hopefully most, it appears to be the best current solution to a difficult situation. Regretfully, I am currently unable to explore it for two reasons. The only webcam I have occasional access to is built into a Toshiba Satellite L775d which doesn't play well with Puppies. The Toshiba belongs to my wife, an only child, who never really became accustomed to sharing her toys.
Hopefully the attached desktop file may be of value to mousepup users on those occasions when they have to use an onscreen keyboard. As I understand it, the keyboard pet you've used is xvkbd. The attached is a keyboard layout which doesn't require –in fact currently works better without-- radar or NavBar. As indicated by the attached photo, it is designed as a spiral around a central space-key, with the most frequently used letters closest to that key and, whenever possible, letters frequently associated with those close to them. That arrangement should reduce mouse-cursor movement when typing to a minimum. Further efficiency might be achieved in two* ways, both through settings in Xvkbd's property menu. The first is Automatic Click, which provides:
“Set on/off of the automatic click feature and the delay before automatic click is activated. If this feature is set, xvkbd will work as if left mouse button is clicked when mouse pointer is moved on a button and stays long enough. You may want to set Jump Pointer? to OFF to avoid auto-repeating.” The Automatic Click dialog enables one to set how long the absence of movement will result in a “click.”
The other Xvkbd setting is quick modifiers. If Quick Modifiers is enabled, it will be activated by pressing a key on the xvkbd window, move the pointer outside of the key, and then release the mouse button or equivalent.
The direction of the pointer motion will select the modifier:
up - Shift
right - AltGr
right-up - Shift AltGr
left - Control
left-up - Shift Control
down - Meta
left-down – Alt

An illustration on the xvkbd website, http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/, makes the above clearer.
It would seem that Automatic Click and Quick Modifiers are incompatible, but I don't know. If incompatible, which would prove more useful may be an individual preference.
According to the xvkbd website there are four ways to set alternative keyboard as the default. But the only way I found –and understood-- was as follows: There's a file named “xvkbd” in /etc/X11/app-defaults. Rename it “xvkbd-original” --in case something gets screwed up. Download the attached to somewhere and delete the false zip ending. Copy it to /etc/x11/app-defaults, and then delete the “-Square” suffix. Restart xvkbd.

I hope it proves useful.

mikesLr

* p.s. Without the necessary restrictions of radar/Navbar, xvkbd's word-completion module proves to be fully functional and easy to use.

[ETP]

Hi mikeslr,

Thanks for your alternate keyboard layout which makes a useful addition to the accessibility tools. I realise how much effort you have put into this aspect and it is good to see that you have achieved your goal. Despite the inclusion in MouseCam of Google voice search, dictation and the option for voice mail, there will inevitably still be a need to input text into fields.

When I first saw Will Best’s original post in the “Single Switch” thread I had my doubts about that project thinking that it might take something like the combined resources of IBM and Canonical to achieve! Happily I was wrong. It just took the persistence and team work of a few “Puppy” enthusiasts.

Your post has reminded me to mention that XBMC does include its own on-screen keyboard when text input is needed.

I also just had a sobering thought about voice mail in that it opens up the possibility of being remotely nagged to do some domestic chore.

[Ted Dog]

remotely nagged over nagged in person.... I know how I'd choose. That way I can do this

[mikeslr]

Hi All,

Googling reveals that an xml file is used to define the layout of the the xbmc keyboard. It was suggested that that file can be customized using a text editor. I'll leave doing so to someone who knows what he or she is doing for two reasons. The first is that a quick examination of the xml file failed to reveal a section where the alphanumeric keys are easily apparent and modifiable. But more importantly, xbmc associates its keys with various actions of the applications it controls. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keyboard
I have great confidence in my ability to create total chaos when fiddling with things whose ramifications I don't fully understand.
It makes more sense to use the xbmc keyboard, as it is, for the applications xbmc is specifically designed for, and to use an onscreen xvkbd keyboard for word-processing, text editing, spread-sheets, etc.: those activities for which xbmc wasn't designed.
So, if I was mistaken, and xvkbd hasn't been included in mousepup, perhaps including it in the ISO for easy installation --ala Slacko's initial handling of Frisbee-- might be considered.

mikesLr

[musher0]

[musher0]

Hi, ETP.

Hoping to get more people interested in this good and original Puppy, I just gave your MouseCam Pup a little push on the French side! http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=708245#708245

Continue the good work!

musher0

[ETP]

Hi mikeslr,
Just to clarify your point XVkbd is included in MouseCam Pup and is launched from the keyboard icon in Eviacam. Please see screen-shot which also shows the options I used.
Another alternative when text input into a field is required is to dictate what is needed and then copy and paste the dictated text into the field using the Eviacam click panel on the left hand side of the screen.

@ musher0,

Thanks for your interest and promotion. It is surprising how often unexpected universal treats such as Vocaroo come out of specialist projects.

[greengeek]

Eviacam tells me my cameras frame rate is too low. It seems to work initially but then gradually seems to become unstable and jittery, then the cursor drifts off towards the bottom of screen. Anyone experiencing something similar?
(I'm using a Toshiba TE2100 2.2GHz, 500MB ram with a cheap usb webcam which works fine for Skype etc)

[ETP]

Hi greengeek,

Head tracking is CPU intensive which may be an issue and in addition Eviacam is a bit tricky to get the best out of. It does however respond well to manual tweaking.

It needs to see 25 to 30 fps from the cam and CPU usage in HTOP will probably then be in the range of 25% to 40%. It is best to avoid repeatedly running the wizard and to make manual adjustments instead.

Start by launching HTOP followed by Eviacam. Go straight to configuration and on the advanced tab set CPU to high. On the click panel set dwell to 20. (i.e. 2 seconds)
On the motion tab set smoothness to 8.

Next run the wizard and follow the instructions. Avoid making excessive head movements. Just concentrate on viewing the visible screen edges.
Subsequent tweaking of the X and Y settings is best done manually toggling Eviacam off and on using the scroll lock. Ensure that you use the home key between adjustments to centre the cursor.
Concentrate on getting the X setting right before moving on to the Y setting. Once you have determined the optimum values for your hardware combination make a note of them!
The aim is a smooth range of full edge to edge cursor movement without excessive head movements.
I settled for X=17 and Y=16 using a cheap Logitech C270 but settings will vary wildly depending on your hardware. (10 to 24 possibly)
Good luck.

[mikeslr]

Hi All,

Just a note to mention that I've published a pet providing an alternate radar for use with the Square Keyboard, and to make changing keyboard layouts easier.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=708614#708614.

Happy computing,

mikesLr

[oui]

Hi

Wonderful ETP! Thank you very much!

Questions:
- how to load the seamonkey bookmarks and history to continue to use them (from pre existent Precise save file)?
- how to load more dictionaries for Chrome (I never did use Chrome as I have a very very old personal file for Seamonkey with emails in it as Mozilla is the Puppy suite since Puppy 1.4) for other languages?
- how to load stuff for dictate in other languages?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=708820#708820

Kind regards

[ETP]

[Ted Dog]

speaking Klingon is the dividing line between geek and nerd....