News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

June 30, 2008

humor

Your Mac would rather…just…sing!

Posted Jun. 30, ’08, 9:58 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Apple » Humor

macbooksingign.jpgYou probably didn’t even know that your Mac could carry a tune (well, outside of your music playing app of choice). I mean, it’s not about to win American Idol or anything, but it’s got a few musical tricks up its sleeve that you can coax out of it with some well-placed terminal commands (you can accomplish these tricks using the Speech preference pane as well, but it’s actually little easier to just cut and paste).

The UsingMac blog gives an example of a few songs you can have your Mac sing, with the help of some extra Text-to-Speech voices that you might not know about (they’re accessible under Speech if you go to the drop down menu and select “Show More Voices”). They’re not like the hyper-real Alex voice that Apple spent so much time perfecting, so these probably aren’t the voices you want reading you your morning news feed—unless you’re a very special brand of odd—but they might be worth a moment or two of amusement in your otherwise dull and boring day.

osascript -e ‘say “oh This is a silly song silly song silly song this is the silliest song ive ever ever heard So why keep you listening listening listening while you are supposed to work to work to work to work its because i hate my job hate my job hate my job its because i hate my job more than anything else No its because youve no life youve no life youve no life and you better go get one after forwarding this crap” using “cellos”’

Now if only my computer could vary its repertoire a little bit. Would it be too much to ask for the occasional track by The Who, or The Four Person British Band From Liverpool That Shall Not Be Named?

[via Lifehacker]


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