NagMe 1.0 With 8-bit Samples A shareware program by Tom Wuttke This is shareware, but I am not going to nag you about it, as this program will do enough nagging as it is. The whole point of this program is to have someone electronic around to nag you about events in time. When it's time for class, or time to go to work, or when is your favorite TV show coming on, this program can remind you using a breathy female voice. I originally wrote it years ago for my Atari to remind me when to go to my college classes. It worked pretty well, except the speech was very distorted, the real time clock was always going haywire, and it completely tied up my computer. This one is in Windows 3.1*, and it can run in the background, 24 hours a day. The sound is now 16 bit 44 kz (or less, if you like) and runs into a sound card. The voices are very clear and intimidating, the female voice sounds sort of like the Star Trek ship's computer, only with more reverb. 1. What you need: * A PC running windows 3.1, or windows with multimedia * A 16 bit sound card (there is also an 8 bit version) * VBRUN100.DLL in your windows directory 2. What files are here: * NAGME.EXE the executable program * TEST.WAV a sample sound wave * NAGME.DAT data file holding all timer events (program modifies this) * NAGME.TXT this file * VBRUN100.DLL used to run Visual Basic executables * WHO\*.WAV sound samples to be used as names * WHAT\*.WAV sound samples to be used as events * WHEN\*.WAV sound samples to be used as times The only sound files the program counts on existing are the test.wav, nagme.exe, nagme.dat, and all the 10 time wave files. Also, the who, what, and when directories must exist. 3. How to install NagMe on your system: * Create a directory off your hard drive, the name doesn't matter. * Copy all the files into that directory, making sure the who, what, and when subdirectories are subdirectories off of the one with the executable in it. NOTE:When you unzipped this package, you should have used the -d option on pkunzip to create these subdirectories. If you didn't, then either unzip this thing again, or move the following files into these subdirectories: who\brian.wav who\chris.wav who\dave.wav who\ed.wav who\linda.wav who\tom.wav who\hey.wav who\youguys.wav what\appoint.wav what\class.wav what\exam.wav what\simpsons.wav what\trek.wav what\wakeup.wav when\in30.wav when\in25.wav when\in20.wav when\in15.wav when\in10.wav when\in5.wav when\in3.wav when\in2.wav when\in1.wav when\in0.wav I'm assuming you know a little about your sound card and the windows drivers that came with it, so I'm not going to get into how to set up sounds, other than you should know how to play .wav files already. * Make sure you have a copy of VBRUN100.DLL in your windows directory. You only need 1 copy of this file on your hard drive. * Using the file manager, or any other launcher, run NAGME.EXE. * The program will initially run as an icon, so now you should restore it. * Click on the test button, and make sure the sounds are working. 4. How to use this program: The main window holds a list of events. An event is any particular time of the week you would like to be reminded of, like your class schedule, or an appointment, or simply waking up. Each event has a person's name associated with it, so if you live with roommates, you can all use this program. Also displayed are the times and days of the week the event is valid, and whether or not it is a one-time event. To add an event, click on the add button, and up will come a dialog to let you enter all the details. Also, an existing event can be edited by double clicking on it, or using the edit key. Delete also works, jut like you would suspect. I don't even know why I'm bothering to write all this, I wrote the program as brain-dead as possible, even a child could figure it out. In the add/edit dialog, you can select the sound samples to be triggered, and the times they are triggered. On the left are the who and what. These are simply the .wav files in the who and what subdirectories. Notice you can only play sounds that are .wav, and that are in these subdirectories. The third column is the time and day of the week. Time is in military time, 00:00 to 23:59. Also, notice there are check boxes for the days of the week. If you put an X in the one-time only box, the event will automatically delete itself after it occurs. The forth column is the one that really makes this program useful. Note that you can be reminded of things BEFORE they happen. The program will trigger any combination of these prior notice messages. I usually like to be reminded twenty minutes before a class, and five minutes before a TV show, or even multiple times if the event is really important. Notice, we are totally ignoring seconds. In fact, the timer this program uses is at a low priority five second interval, so just don't worry about seconds. Trust me, your internal clock in your PC is probably off by a lot more than five seconds anyway. If you want this program to automatically start running whenever you boot windows, stick it in your startup.grp in the program mangler, I mean, manager. Or else, in your win.ini file add in to your run= line. That's it! GO ahead and set yourself silly reminders. It really amuses people who aren't used to computers that speak reminding them to get to class. 5. About the voice: Aren't the messages classic? They were recorded in my home studio with a decent microphone through a Sony DSP to add reverb and ambiance, and sampled at 44 khz 16 bit. When you register, you can ask me to make some custom samples for you, in that same voice. It can say anything you like, really. You might be saying, "But I only have an 8-bit card!" That's okay, use the 8 bit version of this program. The sampling rates on the 8 bit version are 22 khz, and they are all monural. And be sure to tell me you want 8 bit samples when you register, if you want any more. 6. How to Register: Speaking of registering, let's talk about it. I really don't care if anyone uses this program without registering it. Heck, to be honest, I wrote all of it in two days with Visual Basic*. But if you have the money, or would like to have more samples and source code, then read on... To register, just send me a check for nine dollars. (notice I didn't make up some stupid software company name) This will entitle you to any updates and all that. Tom Wuttke 2525 University Ave. Apartment J Madison, WI 53705 If you want the source code and more samples, I can email those to you for free after registration. Otherwise, please give me three more dollars to make up a disk and US Mail it to you. Oh, and by then I'll probably have the timer version done. It'll be just like this one, except that it is set up more as a timer, like to tell you when the cookies are done. I would love to hear from anyone with any comments. My email alias is tom@castlab.engr.wisc.edu, or my phone# is (608) 238-2463. If you include five more dollars, I'll give you the address and phone number of the person who does the samples for me. Please specify your address and email alias, what type of sound card you have, what samples you want and what sound format (mono or stereo, 8 or 16 bit, 22 khz or 44kz), what size of disks your machine takes, and your phone number just in case. Also, any comments or suggestions are welcome, even from people who aren't registered. 7. NOTICE of LIABILITY This program is as is, so don't sue me. I honestly did not put any viruses or fixed drive format commands in this, so don't blame me for that. One thing it does do, the sndPlaySound command will take over the entire machine for the duration of the sound. That means a download will most likely get interrupted. But other than that, you really shouldn't have any problems. There are ways around this I am thinking about looking into shortly. * MS-Windows 3.1 and Visual Basic are trademarks of Microsoft, Inc., and they might go ballistic if I don't say this