Mac Geekery

My work requires my undivided attention in several places at once. I enjoy multitasking, and switching back and forth is not a problem for me. However, I need to be hyperaware of instant activity in Jabber, email, and in many different web locations. If I'm not, I'm not helping our customers to their full due, nor immediately attentive of co-workers' needs and questions.

The main issue is email--I need to know when email's work-related, and when such email is from supervisors.

Thanks to celsuis1414.com, I was inspired to use OSX's Speech capacities in order to make these distinctions in a way that doesn't startle the way an on-screen message might. I've found that on-screen notifications, as in windows' making themselves frontmost, interrupt my typing and my line of thought, while sound does not. Anything more intrusive than Growl is a jolt. Quirk of my brain.

Following the sound creation directions at celsuis1414.com, I first opened System Preferences and set the system voice (Vicki) and speaking speed of speech. Then I opened iTerm and used the say command to convert text to speech.

I created several .aiff files, annoucing pertinent emails:

say -o site5.aiff "Email from work"

screenshot of progress at Flickr

I didn't want to make the phrases complicated, due to computerized speech limitations, and also due to the desire for simplicity. Just a heads-up, not an oratory, is all I need.

The .aiff files I created in Vicki's voice using the say command were deposited in my user folder--in my case, ~/carla. I then moved them to ~/Library/Sounds (my own Library, rather than the System's, or the main computer's). Then I set them up to be called from their relevant Mail.app rules.

I've uploaded the above example, so you can hear it, if you're curious.

Further related geeking:

• iTerm
• Apple's Speech Synthesis

If you'd like to testdrive iTerm, which will soon be tabbed as Linux shells are, here are the pertinent flavors of download--choose your source:

• MacUpdate
• Sourceforge
• Freshmeat (data is behind--last update was actually Sept. 18th, 2006)

Apple's Speech Synthesis actually has its own API, so you can tweak much more than offered by the Speech control panel:
Generating Speech Using the Cocoa Speech Synthesis API
Generating Speech Using the Carbon Speech Synthesis API
Four Ways to Improve Spoken Output
You can download the ADC's entire Speech Synthesis documentation via .pdf, as well.