- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Question about using Cisco's Packet Tracer on AnY OS with ANY screenreader
by Megan Bening 24 Feb '15

24 Feb '15

Hi all, Has anyone found an accessible way to get Packet Tracer to read out? I have a group project for college and I (and another visually impaired person who is also in the class) have been using old hardware Cisco routers, which has been working well until now. However, we are in a position where a group of us is supposed to collaborate on configuring a virtual network, consisting of 6 routers, through Packet Tracer, and we only have access to 4. We’re put in a position where the needed modifications are detrimental to the learning process of the rest of the group, as the assignment needs to be heavily modified to include only the 4 routers we have access to. The options seem to be for me to not work with a group and do everything myself, which I feel is a little over ambitious as the project scope was meant to include 4 people, or using a system we don’t have access to and getting a fellow group member to read screen output. Has anyone had experience using this and getting it to read out on Windows, Linux, or Mac? From what I’ve read DynaMIPS would work well, but doesn’t interface to Packet Tracer and requires more Linux configuration knowledge to set up than I currently have. Thoughts, anyone? Thanks so much for taking the time to read! Megan

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Vmware Workstation9 on windows7 host not grabbing keyboard input
by David Mehler 23 Feb '15

23 Feb '15

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has seen the issue where at least Vmware Workstation9 is not sending keyboard input properly to a guest? This is on a Windows7 host system, and at first I thought the issue was strictly limited to Windows 7 host with a screen reader, and windows x guest also with a screen reader running. In those circumstances doing a control g on the vm, or going to the vm menu and selecting grab input, certain keys are not passed, for example the numpad keys appear to interact with both screen readers with a sluggishness on the guest side. As I said I thought this was at first a windows issue, I just booted a Linux guest vm and tried it, wanting to do some builds, just out of curiousity I hit the numpad the host screen reader responded which it should not have done. I've uninstalled and reinstalled vmware workstation, googled and found several items on the net indicating a windows update might be responsible for this and removed the ones indicated I can provide the articles if needed but none of it has fixed the problem. Any assistance appreciated, my windows vms are useless since I can't get them to remote in and the Linux ones I have to access by a local ssh client. Thanks. Dave.

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Vmware Workstation9 on windows7 host not grabbing keyboard input
by David Mehler 23 Feb '15

23 Feb '15

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has seen the issue where at least Vmware Workstation9 is not sending keyboard input properly to a guest? This is on a Windows7 host system, and at first I thought the issue was strictly limited to Windows 7 host with a screen reader, and windows x guest also with a screen reader running. In those circumstances doing a control g on the vm, or going to the vm menu and selecting grab input, certain keys are not passed, for example the numpad keys appear to interact with both screen readers with a sluggishness on the guest side. As I said I thought this was at first a windows issue, I just booted a Linux guest vm and tried it, wanting to do some builds, just out of curiousity I hit the numpad the host screen reader responded which it should not have done. I've uninstalled and reinstalled vmware workstation, googled and found several items on the net indicating a windows update might be responsible for this and removed the ones indicated I can provide the articles if needed but none of it has fixed the problem. Any assistance appreciated, my windows vms are useless since I can't get them to remote in and the Linux ones I have to access by a local ssh client. Thanks. Dave.

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Holiday management.
by Darragh Ó Héiligh 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

Hello, Do any of you use any decent tools for managing holidays in your team? I need something that will do the following: 1. Let me record sick leave. 2. Let me schedule annual leave. 3. Warn me if I've scheduled annual leave at a time when someone else is on annual leave. 4. If it would tell me a week in advance when someone is on leave it would be fantastic. 5. .net based would also be preferable. Any suggestions? Regards Darragh

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Holiday management.
by Darragh Ó Héiligh 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

Hello, Do any of you use any decent tools for managing holidays in your team? I need something that will do the following: 1. Let me record sick leave. 2. Let me schedule annual leave. 3. Warn me if I've scheduled annual leave at a time when someone else is on annual leave. 4. If it would tell me a week in advance when someone is on leave it would be fantastic. 5. .net based would also be preferable. Any suggestions? Regards Darragh

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Computer inventory software
by Michał Dziwisz 10 Feb '15

10 Feb '15

Hi, can somebody recommend any solution that is accessible? Soft can be free or paid, ofcourse if free then better. :) -- Best regards, Michał

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Servers virtualization.
by Informático 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

Hi: I probing Proxmox VE but their administration web page is not accesible. I need install 3 virtual servers (2 Debian Server and 1 Windows 2012 Server) and administer them from Windows 7 Work station. Can they suggest me some solution form this? Best regards, Ernesto

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Running VM's on your desktop.
by Darragh Ó Héiligh 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

I'm asking the question again so sorry for the repetition. What software are you using on your desktop to run vitual machines? I need to run VM's on Windows 8.1 X64. These VM's will primarily run Windows 7 but it's likely I'll need to spin up a few Linux VM's as well. Any suggestions? I was usingVMware workstation for a good while but the jaws keys weren't passing through to the guest. I tried Hyper-V but I had no luck with that at all as exclusive mode wouldn't work properly. Again with Jaws.

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Accessible document management system
by Michał Dziwisz 05 Feb '15

05 Feb '15

Hi, as this is my first post on this list, helo for everybody and sorry for my english, I'm from Poland, but hope you'll understand me. I am looking for a solution for company I'm working, this should be a software for colaboration and document management, somethink like ms sharepoint, but open source. This should has accessible interface because I am totaly blind, so I should have possibility doing an administrative task and help peoples with problems. Our company is about 500 employes and its growing. If you have some recomendations, let me know. -- Best regards, Michał

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My solution for remotely helping users
by Michał Dziwisz 04 Feb '15

04 Feb '15

Hi, I don't know somebody has tested it, but it works for me. I am using an USB redirector software: http://www.incentivespro.com/downloads.html it's a paid software, but license for 2 devices isn't expensive. My work PC is an usb redirector server, with connected and shared second USB keyboard and serial synthesizer Apollo II, from usb to serial converter. I thing it's should work with every hardvare synthesizer you can write driver for NVDA. The most complicated part it's a setup this tool on every PC you have customer, because you must install driver for usb to rs 232 converter, and setup a port number in rs 232 driver for your synthesizer, but after this it's simple. I have scripts for automating connection with my usb redirector server, so when customer is requesting help with his / her pc, the only thing required by me is clicking the "connect remote help" icon on his / her desktop, and the rest is for me. After connection script is automagically running portable version of nvda with preconfigured default serial synthesizer, and i have speech back by my Apollo II synth, and computer is controled by my second keyboard. I even can reboot computer if required and back to work, because i setup keyboard shortcut for running nvda. Ofcourse it is not solution for everybody, but if possible, it imho gives responsive and great way of remote work only for license for usb redirector server, windows client is free even for commercial use. -- Best regards, Michał

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