Pick of the Week - Nov 10 [Show all picks]
Path Finder 5 - A feature-laden Finder replacement
Submit Hint • Search • The Forums • Links • Stats • Polls • FAQ • Headlines • RSS
12,000 hints and counting!

Listen to fortunes UNIX
Thu, Jan 6 2005 at 8:55AM PST • Contributed by: Anonymous
If you have fortune installed (via Fink, for instance), try this in the Terminal: 
fortune | say
The Mac will speak the fortune...

[robg adds: Yes, this is a very simple Unix hint ... but for those new to the Terminal, it might provide some learning value. The vertical bar (|) is the pipe symbol, and it takes the output of the first command (fortune) and sends it to the second (say). If you don't have fortune installed, you can obviously use most any other command; try ls | say in a small directory, for example.]
    •    
  • Currently 0.00 / 5
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  (0 votes cast)  
[4,677 views]  

Hint Options


Listen to fortunes | 12 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'Listen to fortunes' hint
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
the "say" command
Authored by: aaronrp on Thu, Jan 6 2005 at 10:25AM PST
Personally, I like the "say" command's ability to save words as a sound file (AIFF, but of course this can be converted to MP3 or whatever). If there's a way to do that from the GUI I don't know what it is (other than buying Audio Hijack or something like that).

[ Reply to This | # ]
the "say" command
Authored by: t3hl33t on Fri, Jan 7 2005 at 10:07AM PST
There is a freeware app to do that from the GUI that just uses the say command: get it at:
http://gmillar.cyberprune.com/dev/speakit.dmg.zip

[ Reply to This | # ]
the "say" command
Authored by: unaniharpist on Wed, Jun 29 2005 at 6:27AM PDT
Thanks *so* *much* for that address...I'm just after spending ages trying to do exactly what SpeakIt does for me in a second. Muchos appreciated!

[ Reply to This | # ]
Listen to fortunes
Authored by: s0ylgr3n on Thu, Jan 6 2005 at 10:25AM PST
Is "say" native only to 10.3 or is there a 10.2.8 equivalent?

Thanks,
~



[ Reply to This | # ]
say in 10.2
Authored by: alys on Fri, Jan 7 2005 at 6:13AM PST
Have you _tried_ it in 10.2? Open a terminal window and type:
say "any text goes here"


[ Reply to This | # ]
say in 10.2
Authored by: s0ylgr3n on Fri, Jan 7 2005 at 4:48PM PST
[cs2884-194:~] latch% say "any text goes here"
say: Command not found.
[cs2884-194:~] latch%

Thanks,
~

[ Reply to This | # ]
Warning message?
Authored by: sjonke on Thu, Jan 6 2005 at 5:31PM PST
Anyone else get the following message with this, and any other time that an applescript is run from the command line:
## Component Manager: attempting to find symbols in a component alias of type (regR/carP/x!bt)
What is the deal with that? Any way to get rid of the problem? It works anyway, it's just a tad annoying to always see that message.

---
--- What?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Warning message?
Authored by: wallybear on Tue, Jan 11 2005 at 9:25AM PST
This is an old problem caused by Toast 5 (Toast 6 seems OK).

Removing the file

/Library/Quicktime/Toast Video CD Support.qtx

will fix it, if you can't stand with this error message. (you will lose some VideoCD functionality in Toast, though).


[ Reply to This | # ]
Listen to fortunes
Authored by: bjelkeman on Fri, Jan 7 2005 at 6:51AM PST
Another nice use of the "say" command is just to type in "say" in the terminal, and hit return. Now every line you type will be spoken by the say command as you hit return.

Even better is to log into your collegues computer (use ssh computer.address) and use the say command to verbally abuse whoever is sitting on that computer. :)

[ Reply to This | # ]
Listen to fortunes
Authored by: t3hl33t on Fri, Jan 7 2005 at 10:11AM PST
You can't run it in a continuous loop though if it's a shell script. You need AppleScript to do that.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Shell loops
Authored by: gshenaut on Fri, Jan 7 2005 at 10:26AM PST 
while true ; do fortune -os | say ; done


[ Reply to This | # ]
Listen to fortunes
Authored by: daggerquill on Mon, Jan 10 2005 at 5:34PM PST
I personally like this: 
fortune | tee /dev/tty | say
It let's you read the fortune for when you can't understand the voice, and it's a neat way for a newbie to start thinking about pipes and 'tee'.

---
Always remember: pillage *before* you burn

[ Reply to This | # ]

Search

Advanced

From our Sponsor...

User Functions





Don't have an account yet? Sign up as a New User
Lost your password?

What's New:

Hints

No new hints

Comments last 2 days


Links last 2 weeks

No recent new links

What's New in the Forums?

The Editor's Corner...

Here are some of my (robg) other projects...

•  The Robservatory
My blog - Macs, tech, etc.
•  Mac OS X Power Hound
The best of Hints in print
•  Inside iWork
An iWork training DVD
•  Macworld
Column, features, online...

Hints by Topic

 

News from Macworld

The macosxhints Poll

What version of OS X are you running as your main OS?

What version of OS X are you running as your main OS?

  •  10.6
  •  10.5
  •  10.4
  •  10.3
  •  10.2
  •  10.1
  •  10.0
  •  10.0 Public Beta
This poll has 0 more questions.
Results
Other polls | 11,390 votes | 42 comments
Copyright © 2009 Mac Publishing LLC (Privacy Policy) Contact Us
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.

Visit other IDG sites:


Powered by Geeklog Created this page in 0.05 seconds