Drugged Mouse

I’m wondering if my mouse is smoking something (note: computer hardware).

This morning, I woke up early because of.. er.. tummy ache. Nine o’clock may not be early but then if you slept at 3:00 am, that’s like dawn or something.

After I relieved the pain (HEHE), I can’t sleep again. So, I opened the computer and started surfing. And then my mouse started to act strangely. The scroll would be functional but the cursor wouldn’t move. I thought maybe there’s a faulty wire inside but after lunch, the mouse is fully functional again.

It’s either the mouse is drugged or it’s as sleepy as I am. But according to Angeal, use brings wear, tear and rust – a good explanation of what’s happening to my mouse. Overused.

The mouse is a good piece of hardware, by the way. An A4Tech MOP-28 (as shown in the image above). It’s good for laptop users since it only has 60cm of wire and a petite size.

The Computer Sounds Like a Robot no More

I was experimenting on my computer when I bumped into the configuration of the Babylon dictionary. Then the ‘voice’ tab caught my attention. I did not know that there is a speak function in this dictionary, which I thought would be an advantage by my previous Encarta Dictionary. I must definitely acquire the habit of reading the readme files of programs.

Nevertheless, I clicked the tab. It contained the Say-it settings of the dictionary. You can choose the voice and adjust the speed of the pronunciation. I have two choices for the voice, one is called “Microsoft Anna-English (United States)” and the other one is the “TOSHIBA male adult (US).” I believe the latter is a preset of my laptop and the other one is Bill Gate’s secretary.

The best part is that you can try how the high-tech voices say anything. I tried typing several words into the text box. The result is fantastic. Years ago, when you commanded the Microsoft helper to speak, the sound is very robotic that even the gay wizard helper cannot do anything about it. Right now, the voice is.. so human.

Of course the voices have limitations. I tried some Filipino words and the voice mispronounced it by just spelling out the word. But Microsoft Anna got my favor when she (or it) pronounced my name correctly while the Toshiba dude did not.

The improvement of features like this is sensational. It makes me wonder what the future releases will be. Maybe the next version of the voices can already kick local rapper Gloc 9’s arse and his homies’.

Internet was Broken

1. I don’t know if it is the internet or my connection but for some reason, I was not able to open several websites in the last two days. I could not open random sites or even pages of a certain domain. I could open http://www.shartak.com while I could not open http://forum.shartak.com. I know little about networking and internet connections but Shartak got a free advertisement on this post.

2. Niña was back. But just for about a couple of hours. She secretly used her computer to get away from the boredom of being grounded. But that is not the Jedi way.