
Talking Clock		Copyright (C) Moose O'Malley, 
-------------		November 1999  (Originally Written January 1997)

Talking Clock for Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, NT, 2000.

Developed using 16-bit Delphi.

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 to from my WEB Page 
include :
- Moose's Voice
- Darlene's Sexy Voice         (Registered Users Only)
- John's Duke Nukem 3D         (Registered Users Only)
- John's Yoda                  (Registered Users Only)
- Moose's Mrs Doubtfire        (Registered Users Only)
- Robert's Clint Eastwood      (Registered Users Only)
- Robert's Sean Connery        (Registered Users Only)

(These "Registered Users Only" ZIP files are now password protected 
and only Registered Users 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 3 Stooges, 
Mae West, Duke Nuke'em (hillarious !!), Clint Eastwood,
and others hopefully coming soon !!

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 !!

As with all of my shareware so far, the Registration Fee is
only $5 (FIVE Dollars) and for this you get access to the 
full functionality of the program, free upgrades for life, 
and access to all the ready made voice impersonations  !!


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           (All vers)
- Never Say the Time            (Registered Vers only)
- Say Time Every Minute         (Registered Vers only)
- Say Time Every Quarter Hour   (Registered Vers only)
- Say Time Every Half Hour      (Registered Vers only)
- 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                    (All vers)
- Fast                          (Registered Vers only)
- Optimised                     (Registered Vers only)

The Fast Playback method (Registered Vers only)
loads all required WAV files and then plays them
all in quick succession.

The Optimised Playback method (Registered Vers only)
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 (available in the Shareware 
and Registered Vers) 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 (Registered version 
only), 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
(Registered version only) 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.


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, 
- 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.

These sound sets will be available to Registered Users.

If anyone gets any good samples like these, please let me know.

If anyone sends me any good samples, that I don't have already,
I will Email you a registered version of this program for free !!

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.


Shareware 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.


Limitations / Restrictions of the Shareware version :
-----------------------------------------------------

The Shareware version of this program has the following
limitations / restrictions :

- Some of the times at which the time can be spoken are not available.
- Some of the methods of loading sounds are not available.
- Most of the "Prefix / Suffix Sound" options are not available.
- The program will not save its settings on Windows Shutdown,
  but it will still save its settings when you manually exit / 
  close the program - just not when Windows terminates the program.
- A "Shareware" label is displayed in the Menu area of Text Buttons.
- Every now and then a "You have used this program xxx times, 
  Please Register" message will appear on program startup.
- The "Select Sound File (WAV) Directory" option is not
  available.
- Sound Sample Directories are not enabled.

In addition to this, you cannot use the following sounds :
- Darlene's Sexy Voice         (Registered Users Only)
- John's Duke Nukem 3D         (Registered Users Only)
- John's Yoda                  (Registered Users Only)
- Moose's Mrs Doubtfire        (Registered Users Only)
- Robert's Clint Eastwood      (Registered Users Only)
- Robert's Sean Connery        (Registered Users Only)

These ZIP files are now password protected following an incident
where I found several "developers" trying to sell my hard work
with their own "copy cat" programs on the Internet. (27-Oct-1999)
As a result, only Registered Users get the password to UnZIP 
these files.

To remove all the limitaions of the shareware version,
please Register.


Sharware Information :
----------------------

This is NOT free software.  This product is shareware.  

But, it only costs $5 (FIVE) dollars to buy !

This means that you can try out the software for evaluation 
purposes without charge for a period of 21 days to enable you
to decide whether to purchase / register it.

If you use this software after the 21 day evaluation period
a registration fee is required.  See the Registration Form
in the file register.txt.

Unregistered use of this software after the 21-day evaluation 
period is in violation of U.S. and international copyright laws.

If you do not purchase / register the software after the 21 day
trial period, then you must delete it from your system.

In order to encourage me to develop this software and keep 
developing other software, I encourage you to do the right 
thing and register the software.

I could have easily have made the programs nag you to Register, 
or expire after 21 days of use, but I do not like this approach.

From April 97 on, however, some of the new functionality being 
added to my programs will be available for Registered users only.
I tried to avoid doing this, but now I have been forced to do 
this to try and encourage some Registrations.

I live in the hope that if people use the programs, then they 
will register them.

Registered users will receive FREE upgrades of the program for
the life of the program.  i.e. as long as I keep improving the
program, registered users will get this new / additional 
functionality for FREE.

To Register, please complete the Registration Form in
the file register.txt.


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.


Ammendment 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).


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.

Moose
-----------------------------------------------------------------
 EMail         : Moose@rocknet.net.au
 Home Page     : http://www.rocknet.net.au/~moose/
 Mirrors       : See above Home Page.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
