BookPort and Linux

[Kirk Reiser]

There are a lot of linux users using bookports all the time.  You
don't have the fancy interface to do the indexing of the text files
but plain text files stored into the notes directory on the bookport
work pretty well.  You don't have options like setting multiple
bookmarks and the less granular movements such as by sentence or
paragraph aren't there but the basic move by line, word and character
work just fine.

You can either mount the bookport using the usb cable or as many of us
do just slip a compact flash into a card reader and read and write
directly to the card and then slip it back into the bookport.

If you want to emulate some of the higher order movement functions you
can manipulate the text file before moving it to place each sentence
as a line of it's own which is what the bookport software on a windows
box does.

If you get the later more recent beta software upgrades you get very
good mp3 file movement without the windows transfer software.

Reading text files which is what I do most of the time I get over 55
hours on a single set of bateries.  In my opinion that is pretty
bloody good.  I've heard mp3 users get about 20 although I almost
never use it with mp3 files.

I never go anywhere without my bookport and have read probably over
ten thousand pages since getting it.  I find I feel lost if I'm caught
out somewhere without it anymore I depend on it so much.

  Kirk

-- 

Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061