PlainTalk SR (speech recognition) Code Name: Casper
Keep Talking
Most AV and high end PowerPC computers today have speech recognition software in which a person talks and the computer responds with a reply or an action. Upon saying "What time is it?", the computer will reply "Seven-zero-three-P-M". If you have the correct software you can ask the computer the questions after the following instructions:
Version Information:
If you have PlainTalk version 1.0 (for 660AV and 840AV only), you
would need to have System Speech Rules v1.2 AND be running
AppleScript 1.1 to enable the Easter eggs. Consider upgrading to
PlainTalk 1.3 if there is no easier way to obtain AS 1.1.
If you have PlainTalk version 1.2 (for Power Macintosh only), you
can turn on Speech Recognition and try out the eggs immediately.
If you have upgraded to PlainTalk version 1.3 (for 660AV, 840AV,
and Power Macintosh with System 7.5), the new System Speech Rules
file only contains one of the 1.2 Easter eggs. There are no known
side-effects by downgrading System Speech Rules, but you should
keep a backup of the original handy.
Ask the computer the following under the situations indicated:
1. "Are there any Easter Eggs?" in Finder
2. "Do you need help?" in SimpleText/TeachText
3. "I need help!" in SimpleText/TeachText
4. "Tell me about Casper." with Speech Setup open
5. "What about Speech Recognition?" with Speech Setup open
6. "Did anyone test you?" with Speech Setup open
7. "Who was the boss?" with Speech Setup open
(The responses are below so you can try the egg first before seeing/hearing the responce)
Balloon Help
Also, try selecting the version number with Balloon Help in Speech Setup.
Ô£øJoking Around
From: Wayne Rugenstein (jsracer@sky.net) and Wraithe (Ianm@gnu.ai.mit.edu)
Note: This is borderline between an easter egg and an undocumented trick. The egg is a programmer's joke, but it is not very secret.
Using Speech Recognition 1.4.1 say "tell me a joke" and it will tell you a knock-knock joke. If you say "go away" it will abort the joke. This is not much of an easter egg since the joke file, "Tell me a joke", is pretty obvious sitting there in the "Speakable Items" folder. If you crack the file open with ResEdit, you can see all of the different jokes (there are a lot of them). If you do not know how to do a knock-knock joke, here's what you do: Your computer will say "Knock, knock," you reply by saying "Who's there?" When it responds with a name, repeat the name, then say "who?"
 
Ô£øPlainTalk Voices (1.5)
From: MacWorld's MacSecrets
If you play around with PlainTalk's voices, you'll discover that four of them are musically inclined. The voices named Bad News, Good News, Pipe Organ, and Cellos each sing what you type, to specific melodies. Bad News sings a funeral march (specifically a Chopin Prelude). Good News sings to the graduation march Pomp and Circumstance. Pipe Organ sings to the theme music from the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show. Lastly, Cellos sings to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Peer Gynt, by Edvard Grieg. You may never hear these guys sing because they start over at the beginning of each punctuation mark. To avoid the problem, type the lyrics with NO punctuation. Then, if you have PlainTalk installed, you can make them speek in programs like SimpleText.
 
Speech Macro Editor
Go to "About Speech Macro Editor..." and Balloon help the pictures on the left-side of the window.
Ô£øSpeech Recognition's Characters
From: MacWorld's MacSecrets
Some of the characters you see in the Speech Recognition window resemble TV show personalities. Pat is from Saturday Night Live. Raymond is from the TV show, Raymond. There are also Connie (Chung) and Sally (Jessy Raphael, of talk-show fame).
Unusual Message
From: Patrick Dekker and Anthony Sciola (leaper@brown.edu)
I am told that in the Speech Setup v1.3 Control Panel, clicking the speaker icon and saying an often unusual message that was previously tucked away in the 'ttvd' resource will result in an egg. The text resource, I believe, is suppose to be "I sure like being inside this fancy computer". This egg will only work for version 1.3 of Speech Manager and will not work in any of the versions for the above trick described (the 'ttvd' resource does not exist in any of them).
In MacinTalk, version 1.4.1, and probably other versions, "I sure like being inside this fancy computer" is the sample text for the Fred default voice. A few other voices, other than the MacinTalk Pro voices, also have interesting sayings.
Ô£øVoices (1.1)
From: Dave11383@aol.com
In the Voices control panel, if you hold Option and click on the version number, the selected voice says "Greetings From Tubian", or something like that.
These are the Responses to Above: (The phrase in quotes is spoken by the computer, while the phrase without quotes is written in the speech window. If the phrase has just quotes, it is spoken and written.)
1. “If there were any do you think I would tell you?”
2. “I’m trapped inside this computer and I can’t escape!”
3. “I’m sorry, they did not have time to add my artificial intelligence module.”
4. “He’s a friendly ghost from ATG”-Version 1.2 updated by Jeff Shulman and Laile Di Silvestro
5. “Don’t forget ATG”-Version 1.2 by Kurt Rodarmer, Matt Pallakoff and Arlo Reeves
6. “Not to mention ULQ”-Of course! I was tested by “Braz” Ford and Morgan Wize
7. “Our fearless leader”-The boss was Tim Schaaff
Note: ATG stands for Apple's "Advanced Technology Group". Also, Casper was the development name for Speech Recognition.
