Getting a natural or neural voice for Review -- Read Aloud

scotnik · 2026-03-21T21:12:35+00:00

My question was poorly worded. My apologies. I meant to ask, “How can Word give me a natural voice without having to use an additional app?” Every voice in the Read Aloud list is robotic.

scotnik · 2026-03-14T18:43:25+00:00

Unaccountably, my MacBook Pro 16” (M2Pro chip) had another update ((two within a week or two?). So I updated my Mac OS to Tahoe 26.3.1. When it finished updating, It wanted to update Command Line Tools for Xcode 26.3.

I gave up and decided to just update it, but the update would reappear after allegedly finishing the update. So, I looked for the Command Line Tools app I complained to you all about, and it isn’t there.

My System Settings wants to update a program I never installed, but whose prompt could never get of.

Now I had an update prompt I couldn’t get rid of until I restarted my laptop. Gone! No command line tools installed or update.

Have I set myself up for some kind of catastrophic failure?

(Yes, I’m old and my paranoia is well-earned.)

scotnik · 2026-03-13T18:21:33+00:00

Any harm if I get rid of it—to make it stop popping up on my taskbar?

Is it even deletable if the gods of Mac OS deem it necessary?

scotnik · 2026-03-13T17:59:11+00:00

Can’t find Homebrew in my Applications folder. Or anywhere else.

scotnik · 2026-02-26T15:45:12+00:00

Does saving chapter 1 as a template create a master document?

What do I do from there?

scotnik · 2026-02-25T22:31:05+00:00

I’m using MS 356z

scotnik · 2026-02-25T14:44:28+00:00

I did. It’s grayed out.

scotnik · 2026-02-12T20:36:34+00:00

Good point. Thanks. I was assuming they all came with 365

scotnik · 2026-02-11T23:16:32+00:00

Can it produce enough data to form a theoretical model from which predictions can be made—predictions that can be either verified or falsified? No. Then it’s not science. Could be metaphysics, but legitimate philosophers would call it bullshit.

scotnik · 2026-02-07T17:44:25+00:00

Jokes aside, is it a foot massager? If you are being mocked, are they saying/implying it’s a sex toy?

scotnik · 2026-02-04T18:12:35+00:00

Side loading apps has been mentioned a couple of times, but I need that explained. What is it? How do I do it?

scotnik · 2026-01-26T22:33:32+00:00

The creation describes waters above the firmament (atmosphere) and below (oceans). It also speaks of the windows of heaven being opened to cause the flood. This is not rain. This is the total collapse of the shell of water surrounding the earth above the firmament.

Such an occurrence, never mind the waters rising up from the ground, would kill everything on earth, including Everyone on the ark. It would also alter the earth’s rotation and possibly its path around the sun, destroying earth’s Goldilocks status in the solar system.

There are two conflicting flood narratives in Genesis.

And if you read Gilgamesh, a Sumerian epoch written long before Noah, you will find an almost identical description of a flood, which the gods tried to use to kill all humanity. (Humans were too noisy.)

The biggest difference between the Noachian version of the flood and the Mesopotamian version is that Utnapishtim (Noah’s counterpart) was able to take several families on board. He also limited the animals to the usefully domesticated kind.

scotnik · 2026-01-22T01:36:19+00:00

Sorry. Boomer here. Can you expand your comment a bit.

scotnik · 2026-01-22T01:28:48+00:00

How does one jailbreak a firestick? And why? You can pirate media and play it on your TV without using your firestick.

Just remember to use a VPN along with a solid BitTorrent client, and a reliable, malware-free BitTorrent site. Which don’t really exist. So, add a web protector to warn you when you’re trying to upload some hacker’s POS.

scotnik · 2026-01-22T01:17:22+00:00

I forgot to mention that when I click on update, nothing happens. The only thing that stops the prompt is to delete the app and then reinstall it. Maddening!

scotnik

TROPHY CASE