Talking Clock Copyright (C) Moose O'Malley, ------------- September 2007. +===========================================================+ | T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S | +===========================================================+ | * Introduction | * Advanced Options | * Ship's 8 Bells Method of Saying the Time | * Creating your own Sound Files | * The Future | * Special Thanks to | * Reviews / Awards / CDs | * Freeware Information | * Warranty | * Amendment History | * Contacting the Program's Author +===========================================================+ Introduction : -------------- Talking Clock for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, etc. This program is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. See "Freeware Information" below. In the early 1980's, I played around with a fantastic Talking Clock program for the Commodore 64 ! This program recreates the functionality of this old program, but with additional functionality and a more user friendly interface, and now a whole range of "ready made" voice impersonations (Clint Eastwood, etc) that you can download from my WEB page. The idea behind Talking Clock is that once spoken digits and AM / PM are recorded into seperate sound files, Talking Clock will read the time out to you ! For example, it will speak eight fifty two PM at 8:52 PM if you want it to. Current Voice Impersonations available on from my WEB Page include : - Moose's Voice - Darlene's Sexy Voice - John's Duke Nukem 3D - John's Yoda - Moose's Mrs Doubtfire - Robert's Clint Eastwood - Robert's Sean Connery (These ZIP files are now password protected. Only those who make a donation to support my efforts get the password to UnZIP these files). To give your PC a real nautical flavour, Talking Clock also supports the "Ship's 8 Bells Method of Saying the Time". (For further information, please refer to the "Ship's 8 Bells Method of Saying the Time" section below). You can download recordings of my voice for the Talking Clock now from my WEB Page and its mirrors (see below or Email me for details), along with voice impersonations of the Duke Nuke'em (hillarious !!), Clint Eastwood, Mrs Doubtfire, and others !! Alternatively, you can create your own sounds, as described in "Creating your own Sound Files" below. To say the current time, simply click (with your left mouse button) on the time in the main window. To enter the Settings Screen, right or middle mouse click on the time in the main window or choose the "Settings" option under the "File" menu. Various playback methods and sound options are available (See "Advanced Options" below). I hope you really enjoy using this program !! Advanced Options : ------------------ As said above, you can download "ready made" recordings from my WEB Page or you can create your own sounds, as described in "Creating your own Sound Files" below. Once you have the sound files, put them in the same directory as the Talking Clock EXE file (or else put them in their own Sound Directory and alter Talking Clock's Settings to point to the new Sound Directory), and then simply select (within Talking Clock) when you want the time spoken. The options include : - Say Time Every Hour - Never Say the Time - Say Time Every Minute - Say Time Every Quarter Hour - Say Time Every Half Hour - and others. and Talking Clock will read the time out when required. Also, to say the current time, simply click (with your left mouse button) on the time in the main window. And, to enter the Settings Screen, right or middle mouse click on the time in the main window or choose the "Settings" option under the "File" menu. Various playback methods are available to help improve the playback quality of the spoken time and to help reduce pauses between numbers when saying the time. These playback methods are : - Sequential - Fast - Optimised The Fast Playback method loads all required WAV files and then plays them all in quick succession. The Optimised Playback method loads all required WAV files for the spoken digits and then plays them all in quick succession - other sounds (Prefix / suffix) are loaded and played sequentially. The Sequential Playback method loads and then plays each WAV file in turn, so there can be significant pauses between spoken digits while the WAVs for the next digit are loaded. The Fast and Optimised methods are far superior to the Sequential method. The options available for Prefix and suffix sound selection are : - Prefix.WAV / Suffix.WAV only - Random Prefix / Suffix Sound - Random Prefix / Suffix Sound with Blank option The sounds in prefix.wav is played before the time is spoken, and the sounds in suffix.wav are played after the sound is spoken. So, for example, prefix.wav could contain the speech "The time is now" and the suffix.wav file could contain "Mike". IF the "Prefix.WAV / Suffix.WAV only" is checked, then only prefix.wav and suffix.wav are used. IF "Random Prefix / Suffix Sound" is checked, then a random prefix is chosen out of all files matching "prefix*.wav" in the current directory. Similarly for the suffix sounds. If the "Random Prefix / Suffix Sound with Blank option" is checked then "No sound" is also one of the random prefixes and suffixes that could also be played. Ship's 8 Bells Method of Saying the Time : ------------------------------------------ On Ships, a serious of bell rings are used to convey the time throughout the ship. For example, at : - 12:30 1 bell. i.e. ding. - 1:00 2 bells in quick succession. i.e. ding.ding. - 1:30 2 bells, pause and another bell. i.e. ding.ding... ding. - 2:00 2 bells, pause and 2 bells. i.e. ding.ding... ding.ding. - 2:30 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 1 bell. i.e. ding.ding... ding.ding... ding. - 3:00 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 2 bells. i.e. ding.ding... ding.ding... ding.ding. - 3:30 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 1 bell. i.e. ding.ding... ding.ding... ding.ding... ding. - 4:00 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 2 bells. i.e. ding.ding... ding.ding... ding.ding... ding.ding. After this point (i.e. at 4:30 PM) the whole cycle starts again, and 4:30 is the same as 12:30, 5:00 is the same as 1:00, and so on, until 8:00, when the whole whole cycle starts yet again, etc throughout the whole 24 hour day. As of version 3.0, Talking Clock supports this "Ship's 8 Bells Method of Saying the Time", which gives Talking Clock and your computer a distinctly nautical flavour ! Please note that the 8 Bells sounds are included in the ZIP archive containing Talking Clock. This functionality was added especially for Scott M ! Creating your own Sound Files : ------------------------------- To do this, you will need to record the following sound files : 0.wav 10.wav 20.wav 1.wav 11.wav 30.wav 2.wav 12.wav 40.wav 3.wav 13.wav 50.wav 4.wav 14.wav 5.wav 15.wav am.wav 6.wav 16.wav pm.wav 7.wav 17.wav 8.wav 18.wav prefix.wav (Optional) 9.wav 19.wav suffix.wav (Optional) So, for example, you would say the number "0" and save this as "0.wav", then start a new sound file, and say the number "1" and save this as "1.wav", etc. I know this is a bit of mucking around, and to get the sounds consistent volume and pitch and the same length - so that the time speech sounds good - is even more work. You will also get the best results if you remove "dead space" at the start and end of each recording. i.e. places where there are no sound. But, you will only have to do this once. This can be done by using Windows Sound Recorder or any other sound recording program. You will also need a microphone plugged into your sound card as well. The sound files "prefix.wav" and "suffix.wav" are optional, but can be fun to use as well. You can also have multiple prefix and suffic sounds so that you can get multiple / random intros to the sound. For example : prefix.wav might contain "The time is now", prefix1.wav might contain "Hey, buddy, the time is ", etc. So, this can add some nice variation to the speaking. Remember : The funnier the better - this is a fun program after all. The Future : ------------- This is an early release of the program, and several interesting things could be done with it in the future. For example, imagine having : - Billy Connelly, - Burt Lancaster, - Charles Bronson, - Data (of Star Trek), - David Bowie (like in the Major Tom song when he counts down), - Davros / Daleks, - Elvis, - Groucho Marx, - James T. Kirk (William Shatner), - Judy Garland, - Liza Minelli, - Michael Jackson to annoy your friends, - Orson Welles, - Peter Ustinov, - Spike Milligan, - Spock (Leonard Nimoy), - the Queen, - Tom "Dr Who" Baker, - Zsa Zsa Gabor, - or some other interesting voice reading out the time !!! Or if anyone has a nice / different voice, please let me know as well. A nice Irish accent, a lovely French accent, a gruff Scottish accent, or other interesting accents would also be great to hear in Talking Clock !! For Star Trek, you could also have the Beaming down and Communicator sounds as Prefix and Suffix sounds. All it takes is good samples of the required sounds, and this will work. I am now actively pursuing the recording of some of the above via the use of voice impersonators. To avoid copyright problems, all sound sets I distribute will need voices done by impersonators and all SFX will need to be synthesised from scratch. If anyone gets any good samples like these, please let me know. If I had time and a decent recording set-up, I would do this myself. Also, I might (if enough people like the idea) have a play around with speech generation, so that the program will not need sound files at all - it will simply generate the speech itself. If anyone knows any good algorithms for this, or books on this, or places on the Internet where I can find out about this, please EMail me. Special Thanks to : ------------------- - the clever person who wrote the talking clock program on the Commodore 64 in the early 1980's. - Ted Tatman for his helpful suggestions and advice, and his kind review of Talking Clock in the 1997 Ziff Davis Shareware Awards. - Darlene Tatman for her excellent sexy american voice and WAVS ! - John Carsey for his brilliant and hillarious Duke Nukem 3D impersonations. - Robert Moon for his awesome Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery impersonations - he is a brilliant voice impressionist and musician !! Anyone wanting to contact Robert can do so via : Email: robert.moons@sympatico.ca WEB Page: http://www3.sympatico.ca/robert.moons - Scott M for prompting me to do the Ship's 8 Bells work, and for also supplying some sound samples of the bells ringing. - Anybody who has registered this program and supported my efforts and the efforts of the above people. Reviews / Awards / CDs : ---------------------------------- Version 1.1 of this program received a 4 Star rating (out of 5) in the 1997 Ziff Davis shareware awards. Thanks Ted !! Version 1.5 and later of this program were included on Microforum Inc.'s (in Toronto Canada) shareware CDs. Freeware Information : ----------------------- This is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. However, if you find the program useful, then please consider making a PayPal donation to support my efforts. (To make a donation, please run the program and select the "About" option under the Help menu, and then click the PayPal link on the "About" screen). Warranty : ---------- This software and the accompanying files are provided "as is" and without warranties as to performance or merchantability or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. The user assumes the entire risk of using this software. If you do find any faults with this program, email me and let me know. Amendment History : -------------------- Vers Date Description 1.0 27-Jan-1997 First Public Release. 1.1 27-Jan-1997 Add in Registration functionality. (1,677 lines of code / comments). 1.2 04-Apr-1997 Display the current time in red on a black background to make it look a bit like an LED clock. Add in a "Say the Time NOW" button. Add in a "Say Time Every Quarter Hour" option. (Thanks to Ted Tatman for these suggestions !!) 1.3 08-Apr-1997 Add in various sound playback methods (Fast, Optimised, and Sequential). Move the Time Say Frequency up to the menu area to unclutter the main screen. Add in skeleton code for other functions - which are under construction. Limit some functionality to Registered users only - to try and encourage some Registrations. Turn Off the Maximise icon - it wasn't needed. 1.4 28-Apr-1997 Cater for the situation where the same sound exists multiple times in the current time - use the already loaded sound (instead of loading it again) to avoid the "MMSYSTEM265 This alias is already in use by this program. Use a unique alias rather than the device name" errors. 1.5 02-May-1997 Add in support for multiple prefix and suffix files - which are now chosen at Random. Disable timed saying of the Time while the time is being played (such as when the user pressed the "Say Time Now" button). Fix another cause of the "alias is already in use" error. 1.5a 06-May-1997 Make sure one of the playback Sequential / Optimised / Fastest options is checked. 1.6 17-Jun-1997 Save settings automatically on Windows 95 shutdown (Registered Users only). Start Minimised if set in Shortcut / settings (Registered Users only). Improve application startup - size and position form before user sees it. Add in Menu items for viewing my Shareware Catalog, the Readme file, and the Registration Form. Disable all items under the "Choose Voice Speech Set" menu - this menu is for future use only. 1.7 20-Dec-1997 Make Talking Clock Icon in Win 95 Task Bar display time when Talking Clock is minimised. Enable Talking Clock to say the time every 5 and 10 minutes as well. (Register Users only). Make sure at least the basic settings are checked so that Talking Clock will say the time - This has only been a problem if users upgrade from old version of Talking Clock. 1.8 01-Jan-1997 Improve application startup - size and position form before user sees it. Add in 24 hour clock support (Registered Users only !). (3,486 lines of code / comments). 2.0 11-Jan-1998 Fix a long standing but very elusive problem to do with "DateEncode" errors which occured on some machines under some conditions. Once I could replicate the error, it was reasonably straight forward to get a workaround for what was another bug in Delphi. (3,658 lines of code / comments). 2.1 14-Jan-1998 Fix a little bug which occured when there were no suffix WAV files - basically the file search record needed some further validation. (3,663 lines of code / comments). 2.2 08-Mar-1998 If the "Random Prefix / Suffix Sound" option is checked and there is a Prefix sound and no Suffix sound or vica versa, then stop Talking Clock using the existing Prefix (or Suffix) sound to use as the missing Suffix (or Prefix) sound. Fix problem with the "Prefix / Suffix WAV Only" option being uncheckable - a problem seems to have occured during the compile, as a recompilation (of the identical code) fixed this problem. Strange ! (3,674 lines of code / comments). 3.0 29-Oct-1999 Massive improvements for this new release !!! Add in Ships 8 Bells method of saying the time. (For further information, see above). (Added especially for Scott M !). Great new Tabbed Notebook style Settings Screen. Ability to have "No Prefix and No Suffix" Option (Registered Users only). Enable the user to select the "Sound File (WAV) Directory" so that multiple sound sample sets can be kept on your harddrive in different directories - making changing sounds easy. (Registered Users only). Improve main window, add tool tips to time and . Remove the "Say Time Now" button - it is no longer needed. Left Mouse Clicking on the time display will now speak the time. Right or Middle Mouse Clicking on the time display will enable you to view or change the settings. Much better and smoother PlayBack of sounds - many improvements internal to Talking Clock. Should now be no problems when Talking Clock is speaking a long sound sample and you want to shutdown Windows. (Added especially for Rich Levine). Implement Full Main Window scaling - so you can resize the window and everything will re-scale. Enhanced "About ..." window. Hope everyone likes the new version !! (6,852 lines of code / comments). 3.1 02-Nov-1999 Add in "Inform Me of Missing Sound Files (During Playback)" option onto the Settings Screen. Some sound sets have no PREFIX.WAV, so see if PREFIX0.WAV, PREFIX00.WAV, or PREFIX1.WAV exist to use instead when the Settings Screen option "Prefix.WAV / Suffix.WAV only" is selected. Fix a small bug in the Prefix sound selection. (6,927 lines of code / comments). 9-Jan-2001 Price rise from $5 to $20. 3.2 ??-??-???? Work around another bug in Borland Delphi to fix NTDLL.DLL errors on closedown which occured on some Windows NT configurations. 3.3 24-Nov-2001 Store the INI settings file in the program's directory, rather that in the Windows' directory - there's enough crap there already ! ;) Make the mouse cursor a hand point when it hovers over Talking Clock to indicate that a left-mouse button click does something. i.e. Talking Clock speaks the current time. Add Restore Factory Defaults, Always on Top, and Auto-Run at Windows Startup options to the File menu. Add in support for "Big Fonts" and "Other Sized Fonts". Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. Brand New About Screen and associated functionality. Add in support for the Maximise icon in the top right corner of the program's main window. This program is now for 32 bit Windows or later. e.g. Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, or later. i.e. Windows 3.x is no longer supported. Talking Clock is now installed via an executable installation program, and now includes the basic talking clock sounds : Moose's Voice and Ship's Bells by default "out of the box". (14,175 lines of code / comments). 3.4 5-Feb-2002 Change 0 to 12 at midnight when displaying a 12 hour clock. Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. Introduce yet more Anti-Hacker / Anti-Cracker measures. (15,788 lines of code / comments.) 3.4b 20-Nov-2002 Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. Registered Users - please contact me via email. (45,298 lines of code / comments.) 3.4f 3-Sep-2007 This program is now FREEWARE - see "Freeware Information" above. If this program was not downloaded from my Home Page, then it is most likely an old version. The latest version of this program is available from my Home page and its mirrors. Mike "Moose" O'Malley ____________________________________________________ Moose's Software Valley - Established July, 1996. WEB: http://move.to/moose ____________________________________________________