Inspired by the tips on creating sound files at celsius1414 , Carla has written an excellent step-by-step tutorial on setting up spoken notifications in Mail.app using one of Mac OS X’s built-in speech capabilities.

She walks through creating the aiff files using the say command, where to store them and how to attach them to rules to pick out the emails that you especially need to know about.

For her it’s all about staying attentive to the important things at work:

I need to be hyperaware of instant activity in Jabber, email, and in many different web locations. If I’m not, I’m not helping our customers to their full due, nor immediately attentive of co-workers’ needs and questions.

The main issue is email — I need to know when email’s work-related, and when such email is from supervisors.

Check out the tutorial on her web site or on MacGeekery .email, mail.app, apple mail, notification, alerts, spoken word, aiff, speech, tips

Damon Parker took the AppleScript referred to in an old macOSXHints post and cleaned it up , tweaking it in the process so that it will announce the subject of an incoming message as well as the sender.

At least two other AppleScripts (this one and this one) will also provide spoken notification of arriving emails.

Personally, it can’t think of anything more annoying (well, one thing), but it might be useful for those who are so inclined, especially if it was run by a Mail.app rule with very restrictive conditions.applescript, notification, speech, mail.app, apple mail, subject

Australians have a cultural habit known as the “Tall Poppy Syndrome”. In this country anyone who achieves great success in their career, in business or social service is exposed to constant and wide-spread ridicule. Sporting success is of course an exception to the general rule.

Some attribute this to the nation’s convict past and the resulting distrust of authority and of highflyers in general; others see here a tyranny of mediocrity brought about by Australia’s isolation from the mother country. Whatever the source, this “Tall Poppy Syndrome” makes it easy to understand the scorn heaped on Steve Jobs in some quarters for his graduation speech recently delivered at Stanford.

He is an easy figure to knock – incredibly wealthy, phenomenally successful (or “lucky” as his detractors say), vain, arrogant, grasping, and so on and so on.

But what he had to say in his speech to those students , heading out into the world, was very good. “Don’t be afraid to fail”. Excellent advice. “Stay foolish. Stay hungry.” Excellent advice. I don’t know if this is exactly what he had in mind, but anyone who fosters a daring approach to the world, who advocates “thinking outside the box” and who asks people to not get complacent, but who always hope for more, is OK in my books.

I wish that someone had said those things to me. I can’t remember any useful advice in the speeches I heard at the three graduations I have been to. Can you?steve jobs, life, tall poppies, graduation, valedictory, speech, Stanford