Mini-Project: Command line speech synth tool for Windows

The story behind this mini-project is, a friend of mine mentioned how he would SSH into his Mac at home and use “say” to send a short message to his parents, just like in a past XKCD webcomic:

Mac users, lucky you. You get a Terminal utility called “say” that converts text to speech. Windows doesn’t come with this tool, so I thought, it couldn’t be that difficult to make my own command line speech synth tool for Windows.

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Cloning directory in Windows with dummy files

Given an existing directory containing files and folders, how can I reproduce the same structure somewhere else on the hard drive (or otherwise), but instead of copying the full file contents, just have dummy files with the same name?

This question came from a question on Atomic MPC forums that I thought would be really simple on unix given the multitude of shell utilities, but might be a little tricky on Windows command prompt.

So first, we want to re-create present working directory structure, replacing “C:\test” with where you want the files to be placed:

for /f "delims=" %i in ('dir /a:d /b /s') do @mkdir "C:\test%~pnxi"

Then, we’ll just write empty files for every name that we have in our current directory into the target directory.

for /f "delims=" %i in ('dir /a:-d /b /s') do @echo. > "C:\test%~pnxi"

So it’s not that difficult after all. Note that this won’t copy hidden files across – if you know you have them, then you probably know how to tweak the command to get them across too.

Enjoy.

Update: Here’s an explanation of how it works:

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Windows 7 RC is out – Let’s all download at once

Windows 7 RC is finally available for download! It’s still free at this stage so this is the perfect opportunity to play with the latest version of Windows.

Unfortunately, Microsoft’s FAQ answers “Will I get a free copy of Windows 7 once it’s released for volunteering to test the Windows 7 RC?” – “Sorry, no.”

Anyway, we should see if we can knock down Microsoft’s servers again by having everyone download at once, just like with the beta.

Windows 7 Beta is still available to students

Today, Microsoft stopped offering downloads for its Beta version of Window 7 (Build 6.1.7000).

Sorry, Windows 7 Beta downloads are no longer available. If your download was interrupted, you can still finish it. And, you can still register for a product key or look up the key you’ve already gotten.

Students rejoice! The download is still available to you. Simply rock up to your MSDNAA site and find “Windows 7 Beta”. It has been out on MSDNAA since 5 Feb 09!

If you don’t see this on your MSDNAA , it’s about time to bug your MSDNAA administrator for it. This is what MSDNAA is about. Giving students all the good stuff.

For Sydney Uni students, your MSDNAA can be found at:

• http://msdn70.e-academy.c0m/ele_ele/ for Electrical Engineering, and
• http://msdn70.e-academy.c0m/usyd_itech/ for School of IT.

Upgrading computer without reinstalling Windows

One question that sometimes gets asked is, “How easy is it to upgrade a computer?” The answer is that it’s often quite simple (for someone who knows how to take apart a computer and replace parts). For others, just let your techie friends do the work.

Upgrading a computer can be a matter of less than an hour, including testing. This includes installing a new hard drive, adding more memory, etc. There are times, though, when upgrading a computer is not a simple task. One of the complications in upgrading a computer arises when your try to upgrade your CPU or motherboard, or both. It’s because Windows doesn’t like it when the core system hardware is changed. It might not even work at all.

But there’s a way around having to reinstalling Windows.

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