Tip: Machine Speak Up!

by Pier Marton | Dec 11, 2012 | iOS, Software, Sound | 2 comments

This is not about Siri nor about HAL, etc…

Do you want to have your computer read you a text or a webpage?
Not completely automated but getting closer:

In OS X, open a text item (Safari & Chrome work, not Firefox) and select/highlight it.
Then “Control Click” that selection and choose Speech/Start Speaking.
To tweak this to your liking, go to System Preferences and open up Dictation and Speech. Alex and Vicki are the most natural sounding artificial voices. You select the speed under Speaking Rate.

In iOS, go to Settings/General/Accessibility and turn on Speak Selection. There you can choose the Dialects/Languages and the Speaking Rate.

2 Comments

Anne-Sophie b. on December 12, 2012 at 8:23 am

Merci du tuyau!!!
- Pier Marton on December 13, 2012 at 4:09 pm
  
  Il faut que ça coule… Ça découle de soi!

News & Olds

BREAK THE SURFACE
_______________________________

To ride the unbalance* between:
1. excellence and a kind, singular and porous identity that contains some of the scruples, humor, humility, musicality & the beauty of a harsh and confusing, yet benign and rich reality – away from distractions.
2. the stupidity and blindness of complacency, violence, injustice, pretense, egos, short-term… wishful… and group “thinking,” and empty talk – in all of their surprising embodiments. And the false sense of fullness all of this provides.
_______________________________
An appeal for a world NOT so caught up in anthropo/ego/euro/ethno/oculo/esthetico -CENTRISM.
_______________________________
1. Beware of those who claim to be strong – they are often dangerous.
2. Unmask the hoax of “centrality” – ask an “EX-centric” for assistance?
3. Perceive the arrogance of normalcy: everybody, in one way or another, is handicapped… which brings us back to 1.
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*Not unrelated to “There is beauty and there are the humiliated. Whatever difficulties the enterprise may present, I should like never to be unfaithful either to the second or the first.” — Albert Camus