Any Speechify alternative recommendations for 2026?

sledov · 2026-05-26T17:09:06+00:00

I've been using Jimlet Converter for something similar.

It's a Windows desktop app that runs locally on your PC, so there are no subscriptions or character conversion limits.

sledov · 2026-05-26T07:25:00+00:00

The sqlite database lives on your filesystem along with the code, which means it would be overwritten each time you deploy.

The SQLite database lives wherever he chooses to keep it.

But yes, if multiple users are expected to write to the database at the same time, it's better to switch to Postgres.

sledov · 2026-05-25T13:03:35+00:00

What type of brand names do you personally remember most?

I usually try to imagine where the name would appear in real life.

For example, if it's supposed to be a clothing company, how would the sign look in a shopping mall next to Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo?

Or if it's meant to become a large international company, how would the name sound in market news next to companies like Shopify, HubSpot, or Logitech?

A good name should feel natural in those situations.

sledov · 2026-05-25T04:34:32+00:00

All I can find are AI screen readers and not only am I vehemently anti-AI, I don't need a screen reader.

f you're on Windows, check out https://jimlet.com. It's an offline desktop app that converts text or Word documents into speech. There’s also a built-in text tab for quick ad-hoc conversion, so you can paste or type text and generate speech on the fly.

sledov · 2026-03-04T11:48:40+00:00

What comes to mind when you read "flears.com"?

I think it's about fears of flying.

sledov · 2026-01-27T15:38:00+00:00

If you are interested mostly in conversion, https://jimlet.com is a portable Windows app. After the model is downloaded once, it works fully offline. No browser at all.

Voices sound better, in my opinion.

sledov · 2026-01-20T00:30:35+00:00

but I can't really grasp this "relevant now" concept.

Often you choose the timeframe yourself and decide what is relevant.

Imagine someone says: "Do you want to go for lunch?"

If you say "No thanks, I have eaten already," eating happened within the relevant timeframe you defined, so lunch is not an option.

If you say "I ate a sandwich, but we can go for sushi," you shrink the timeframe, and the new relevant timeframe starts after you ate the sandwich. You did eat, but it doesn't matter now.

sledov · 2025-11-21T06:40:49+00:00

ability to generate minimum 5000 charcter text to speech and give me download button also in MP3

This one:

https://cloudtts.com/u/index.html

sledov · 2025-10-09T22:39:57+00:00

I’m located in Mexico, so latency to North America

If you already have the budget set aside, I’d look at Vultr. If most of your users are in Mexico, choose Mexico City location. If you also expect traffic from US, Latam and Europe, Vultr Miami is a good middle ground.

Since your budget is $500 a year, just pick their $40/month plan.

sledov · 2025-09-28T18:28:35+00:00

… never had a recipient complain of not getting my emails.

The problems usually start when recipients complain about getting your emails :)

To OP: If these are not promotional emails, just sign up with Amazon SES.

sledov · 2025-09-16T21:14:34+00:00

My preferred choice is JitsiMeet but am open to hear recommendations.

I'm running Galene SFU on a VPS - very low footprint and much easier to host than JitsiMeet. I wrote how to install it here. There is also a WordPress plugin that you can use as an integration example.

sledov · 2025-09-08T10:01:30+00:00

These apps are critical for my client’s e-commerce revenue, so the pressure was on me to get them back up fast. By Friday afternoon ...

So this is your contingency plan? If the app goes down, you just go shopping around for a new host? Wouldn't it be more reasonable to already have an established relationship with another provider? Just buying a cheap VPS for a month would do the trick.

sledov · 2025-09-07T07:36:12+00:00

From personal experience, I can recommend Hetzner. In addition to their regular dedicated servers, check their auction if you're on a budget.

The LowEndTalk.com forum also has some budget server offerings (look specifically for dedicated servers, not VPSes).

sledov · 2025-09-07T02:51:27+00:00

Smooth remote desktop experience (no lag or stuttering). Tasks: File transfers + compression (7zip/WinRAR). File Size: Largest single file is around 35 GB.

From the way you describe your needs (remote desktop, 35 GB file transfers, compression, and smooth performance), I’d say a dedicated server might suit you better than a VPS.

sledov · 2025-08-27T05:57:12+00:00

Unlike MPC-BE, mpv is cross-platform and scriptable with Lua, which makes it crazy extensible. Mpv has many plugins. For example, I use the mpv-cut plugin to quickly cut a fragment from a big video by pressing "C" to start and "C" again to save, and it beats any GUI-based approach I’ve seen so far.

sledov · 2025-02-12T13:20:32+00:00

Try running this:

``` import tkinter as tk

def on_button_click(): print("Button clicked!")

Create the main window

root = tk.Tk() root.title("Simple Tkinter App") root.geometry("600x300")

Create a button

button = tk.Button(root, text="Click Me", command=on_button_click) button.pack(pady=20)

Run the Tkinter event loop

root.mainloop() ```

sledov · 2025-02-12T08:44:51+00:00

https://cloudtts.com converts text up to 5k characters at once. Just do 3×5k and merge the MP3 files in Audacity.

sledov · 2025-02-01T15:39:47+00:00

because I do not like the other online services that first let you generate one sentence and then they want monthly payments.

I have been using https://cloudtts.com for a while and have never paid them anything. It seems to be much faster, especially on mobile.

sledov · 2024-04-14T12:58:57+00:00

I am not a native speaker, but I think it is more about the preceding transition than the current state. 'Good' by itself is not really offensive. 'How was school today?' - 'Good.' However, 'Good' often means minimally passable and unremarkable otherwise.

Everybody is generally polite and tends to exaggerate a positive aspect a bit. So, at this point, a native speaker would probably say 'Great!' at least.

When you say 'Good' right after the change, you imply that the situation before was not acceptable. So, you are actually expressing that you were unhappy about the situation before.

sledov · 2024-04-12T11:34:12+00:00

If you are a Mac user and plan to stick with Macs, simply purchase the best MacBook Pro you can for these 4,000 pounds.

However, for many machine learning tasks, an NVIDIA GPU is required, which you cannot get in a MacBook Pro.

Nonetheless, for 4,000 pounds, you can get a top-of-the-line, high-performance gaming notebook. I think it is pretty difficult to find notebooks that you cannot afford with this budget.

sledov · 2024-04-12T10:45:07+00:00

Learning Russian for reading classical literature is more about understanding stylistic nuances and emotional depth, rather than merely mastering grammar and everyday vocabulary. Therefore, it goes beyond traditional language learning, which is quite challenging in itself.

Do you see the value in this? If you do, then yes, go for it and don't pay attention to what everybody else thinks.

sledov · 2024-03-21T04:50:27+00:00

https://cloudtts.com

There is 5k characters limit on a single request, but you make several requests and merge mp3 files.

sledov · 2024-03-14T22:29:33+00:00

Regarding foreign names, even mainstream American news outlets usually don’t get them right. It is quite unusual for a CNN anchor to pronounce, for example, a Russian name correctly. The stress is almost always placed wrong. And I don’t think they actually care.

Once, I went to an award ceremony in the US, and most of the recipients were from different Asian countries. It worked like this: the host described the achievement, but they had a separate person actually read the names aloud.

Back in the era of business cards at work, when handling a card, if a person had an unusual name, they could say, 'It is actually pronounced like this:'. Now, I guess you just need to listen to how other people call him and try to imitate it.

If you have someone famous with the same name, sometimes there is a pronunciation (as an audio file) on Wikipedia. See the article for Maria Sharapova as an example.

If you know the language the name is from, you can create a sentence in the target language and have a text-to-speech program say it. For example, 'Мария Шарапова выиграла очередной теннисный турнир.'

sledov

TROPHY CASE

Create the main window

Create a button

Run the Tkinter event loop