#text to speech reader download

[lollybliz]

As 24 hours comes and goes, no land in sight, a single platform drifts slowly, almost within reach.

A familiar slab of wood, one you've looked to, and at times rejected and ignored, at times grasped with all the strength in your arms.

Here it is again, in our drifting, lost without the great ship ao3.

Google docs.

[alexis-royce]

From your experience in making visual novels, do you have any tips? Do's and Don't's? Or are they all a trade secret not meant for mortal ears?

Heya! I’ve posted before with good guides on how to start making Any Visual Novel, but here are

Three Tips for Making A GOOD Visual Novel:

Don’t fill up the entire textbox on every click. A wall of text fatigues the reader, especially if they’re reading aloud, or have issues like dyslexia. Break up long sentences with a wait tag like {w}, and your text will be easier to read, and your dialogue will be able to feel more like natural speech.

Make sure the sprite of the active speaker is highlighted. If you use Ren’Py and you’re a little confident with it, download this tool immediately. It makes it easier to follow who is speaking, and it adds movement, so it triples the visual appeal of even the simplest VN.

And lastly, get everything in-engine with placeholder assets as soon as possible. You’re not writing a prose book; you have a visual element that needs to be addressed.

[lazyneonrabbitt]

Bears on the road

Literal translation of a Dutch figure of speech, meaning ‘to see problems way bigger than they actually are’, usually with a lot of stress beforehand that in hindsight wasn’t needed.

Carmen Berzatto x Reader [pt.2]

Talk of anxiety attacks and getting rid of them. Reader's first three visits to The Beef.

~~☆☆☆~~

You had been at The Beef four times before ending up in Carmen’s apartment.

The first time was years ago on a trip.

Your companion had taken you there and you had the best food of the entire trip that day and the pretty guy behind the counter tried to flirt with you. Mikey, you thought his name was.

The second time was now that you had returned to the area for your studies.

The ratty ass building you live in was horrible, but the only place you could afford for now. You remembered the place and decided to go look if it was still open, and luckily it was.

There was a different guy behind the counter this time, who greeted you ..loudly. Going up to the counter you ordered a sandwich and sat down, pulling out your laptop to get some work done. It sucked that you had to get such a huge file ready to present on your first day, and with you such a perfectionist you started immediately when you got the welcome assignment. You had everything sorted out neatly into folders, your full project file over twenty-five pages long and every bit of source material carefully and properly linked. Since it would be too difficult moving your entire desktop setup across states you had gotten your current, high-end laptop and uploaded every last bit of your project to your Drive account that had been your saving grace more than once over the years. While you waited for your food to be made you decided to read over some parts of your file again to check for any spelling mistakes seeing you didn’t actually have to download the file to preview it. Opening your Drive account and heading over to the right folder and tap the file to open it, only for your reflection in the dark mode text previewer to stare back at you. The small window in he middle of your screen popping up, reading “File cannot be opened. Corrupt Data.”

Eyes wide, the words glare back at you. CORRUPT DATA. No fucking way. FILE CANNOT BE OPENED. You checked the upload, it finished all the way.

You try again. The same error staring at you, screaming at you CORRUPT DATA. FILE CANNOT BE OPENED. Shit. Shitshitshitshit. The words became blurry as tears welled in your eyes, breathing becoming more and more difficult with every count of days, weeks, months even, you spent working on this huge thing that was due in two days.

You didn’t even notice the man at the counter calling out for you to come grab your sandwich. Didn’t realize he had gotten away from said counter with a plastic tray containing your sandwich until he placed it on your table a little too loudly. The harsh, sudden sound caught you so off guard it kicked the oncoming panic attack info full gear.

The man quickly shot into action, sitting down, a hand on your shoulder trying to get you to look at him and tell him ..something, anything. But he really had no clue how to handle this.

“Cousin!” He called out, but not before turning away from you as o not yell directly at you. No response. “Help!” He added after a short, but according to him, too long moment.

His hand kept rubbing small circles on your shoulder, hoping he was at least doing something for you.

“shit,” You heard another voice, slightly further away. “Richie go grab her some water.” And the hand on your shoulder disappeared and the man, Richie, was replaced by the other one with the soft but direct sounding voice. This one didn’t immediately try to touch you, first hovering his hand above yours, carefully giving you a moment to shuffle away if you needed and only after you didn’t, take your hand and slowly move it away from you. “Can you breathe with me?” He was a lot calmer than counter guy. Name, what was it again? Water, yeah he got you water. You needed water? With your hand being moved by the new person, stopping you from completely clenching your arms around yourself you slowly moved your head upwards, breathes still erratic and difficult. You were staring at your hand now, well, a rough, tattooed hand that was holding yours. “Hey,” again that softer voice. “Squeeze my hand if you hear me.” Squeeze his hand. Yes. You did as he said and he took his other hand to the fold of your elbow, placing a single finger on your skin. “Breathe with me,” he took a loud, deep inward breath as he brushed his finger over the length of your forearm down to your wrist, and again a loud, deep outward breath while dragging his finger back up your arm. “Can you do that?” You squeeze his hand to say yes and close your eyes completely again to try and focus. He repeats his previous motions, breathing together with the movement of his finger on your skin. It takes some time but after a bit your breathing has evened out, just some sniffles left that would fade later as well.

You hadn’t dared to look up yet out of embarrassment but you really wanted that water now. The counter guy brought you water. You swore you could drink an entire ocean. Oceans not even as blue as the eyes staring back at you right now. Wow what? Who? You blinked a couple of times to really come back to earth after everything and now those eyes were clearly a part of a very cute guy with messy curls and a smile that could cure anyone’s bad day. “Welcome back.” Already he was holding out the glass of water to you, motioning that you should really drink something now that you calmed down and you did. You gulped down the whole glass before setting it down and seeing your forgotten, now cold sandwich. You frown at the wasted food as your stomach grumbled. The man followed your gaze and quickly figured out the source of your frown, easily coming up with a solution.

“You still hungry? I’ll go get you a new one.” He got up from the chair he had pulled up beside you, straightening out his apron. “On the house, yeah?” With half a turn and a hand motioning towards the door leading to the kitchen he looked at you waiting for an answer before walking off as you nodded, agreeing with the new sandwich.

By the time he came back you had put away your laptop, not wanting to deal with it anymore and focus on the food.

He lingered for a moment, making sure he caught your first bite, and how glad he was he did stay as your eyes widen with that first bite, looking down at the sandwich in your hands in disbelief. You looked up and caught him staring, covering your mouth with one hand holding back a laugh with your mouth still full. You made haste chewing and swallowing it down. “Holy shit,” You exclaim, pointing at the food in your other hand. “This is insanely good.” A small bow as thanks was given before he slipped back into the kitchen.

You kindly bring back your trays and one cold sandwich from earlier and et them on the counter before saying goodbye and making your way to the front door until a voice calls you back.

Moving rom behind the corner, you’re handed back the sandwich, wrapped up in to-go paper. “Take it, i promise you it still tastes amazing when you microwave it.” You accept it and put it in your bag with a thank you. "Oh, by the way," he continued again. "You had that shit on Drive or whatever it's called, right? Why not call whoever has your stuff on their computer and put it up again? That's how that shit works right?" Even though his advice came out as a string op questions you couldn't believe you hadn't thought of that. You thanked his again and this time really make your way out of the door, grabbing your phone and dialing home.

You were definitely coming back to The Beef.

The third time you came in was after your introduction day that went exceptionally smooth after fixing your file issue with Richie’s advice.

You debated going in since you could barely afford rest and instant noodles this month, let alone one of The Beef’s amazing sandwiches that you had been craving all day. You were absentmindedly walking back to your apartment, except somehow your legs had let you to where your stomach craved to be and had you standing in front of the restaurant instead.

With a sign you walked in and were immediately greeted by Richie. He smiled and recalled your order from last time with a raised eyebrow and a finger pointed at you in question. “Hi, yeah that’s right.” You smile back, walking up to the counter. “So, I wanted to thank you for last time. That calling home idea of yours was, it fixed my problem. They uploaded everything again and it worked. So, thanks.” You fished some money from your wallet and put it on the counter, paying for the order he had technically placed for you.

You weren’t sure if he was working today, so you asked Richie to thank Carmen for showing you his way of calming down. Since there was no one at the register you told him how you managed to keep a full blown panic attack at bay with it. Richie only smiled at your story before he was calling over his cousin once again, who had already realized you were there because of the little note that was left on the order receipt and he had taken it upon himself to bing you your sandwich so he could see how you were doing.

You ended up sitting together at your table, you enjoying your sandwich and Carmen enjoying your storytelling. He ended up sitting with you throughout his entire break, sans smoking time and you parted ways again. Him retreating back to the kitchen as you placed your empty tray back on the far end of the counter, Richie sending a knowing wink your way with a nod towards the kitchen. You rolled your eyes at him as you went on your way.

~~☆☆☆~~

A/N: I promise I have no clue how do write panic attacks so I apologise if its all fucky!! Part two is being written already so, hopefully soon~

[livelaughlovesubs]

OK

So

idk how to phrase this ask

but you’re good words, Nini!!!

Soooooo I thought of this right in the middle of my gym session when I was listening to Deja Vu by Olivia Rodrigo and I thought:

What about a scenario where reader is like reading a self insert with a sentient character and when reader was done or bored with that particular character, they moved onto a different story with a different character but the same trope!

and like, obviously, the first character is sentient and obsessive(just how we like them!!) and so obviously, they know what reader’s been cheating on them!

So obviously, character must teach reader a lesson! Character must be sure to show just how much they love reader to make sure that reader will never leave them again!!!

omg I just realized just how repetitive I am. This is why I don’t write a lot!!!

Haha, thank you for saying I’m good words :] anyway, I assume we are playing an otome game? Ngl, this kinda reminds me of Monica

Yandere!Game!character x player!reader

: ～{..I love you, y/n!}～

You read the text on the screen of your device, then scanned through the options you had.

⇒ [..I love you too!!]

⇒ [..I’m sorry…]

⇒ [..W-what…?]

Typical, the same answers you’ve seen from other otome games. Since you wanted to clear his route, you didn’t think twice before clicking the first option.

⇒ [..I love you too!!]

: ～{..really? I’m so happy! Let’s stay together forever!]～

The character then hugged the MC, about to kiss them when the screen turned black. What followed were the credits, along with an achievement. You rubbed your eyes, it was already half past eleven. There was a single route left for you to finish until you’ve completed the game completely. Why you were doing this instead of sleeping? Must be the perfectionist screaming inside you, or because there was a hidden route that unlocks after finishing all the other ones. Your friend spoiled you that the last, hidden character was totally your Typ, so you wanted to do their route.

“Alright, time to finish this.” You groaned, stretching your arms before clicking onto the last love-interest.

⇒ [Are you sure you want to leave the current stage?]

⇒ [yes]

⇒ [Are you sure you want to leave the current stage?]

⇒ [yes]

⇒ [Are you really sure you want to leave the current stage?]

“What the fuck?” You frowned, why did the developers had to ask this so often? Did players complain about it?

⇒ [Are you really sure you want to leave the current stage?]

⇒ [yes]

⇒ [Are you really sure you want to leave the current stage?]

⇒ [yes]

Loading…

Please don’t leave the game

“Finally.” You began to groan, this was annoying.

Loading complete

Please don’t leave me

“Wait, what is this smaller text?” You tried to read it when it disappeared, notifying you that the download was done. Which is why you expected to see the character you clicked on, but it was still the same one as before. “What the- ugh, is it a bug?” The clicking of the ‘back’ button echoed through the room, and soon you got fed up with it. Right before you pressed the restart button, a text from the character caught your eyes.

: ～{..Please don’t leave me}～

“Isn’t this the same text as that smaller one?” You commented, wondering why you were even talking to yourself. To have some made up company, maybe. Suddenly that one text turned into a series of begs and demands, and you read them with fascination.

: 〜{..You said you love me,}

: 〜{..we promised to stay together forever.}〜

: 〜{..Don’t love anyone else, for me, please.}〜

: 〜{..I know we are not the same, I’m serious.}〜

: 〜{..I still love you}〜

: 〜{..I still want to be with you}〜

“Breaking the fourth wall? That’s a smart move, it certainly makes the character look more real.” Right after you said that, the character bombed you with more speech bubbles.

: 〜{..Don’t ignore me, y/n.}〜

: 〜{..Was it fun toying with my feelings?}〜

: 〜{..You must think I’m not real,}

: 〜{..but I assure you I am.}〜

: 〜{..Please come back, that wasn’t a threat,}

: 〜{..I know you are still there, I can see it.}〜

Wait. See? This game had access to your camera? Fuck, did you allow them to? You couldn’t remember, but that the character is saying something like this, it was low-key giving you the chills.

: 〜{..You don’t need the others, right? You have me.}〜

They continued to pester your game, blabbering on and off about how they loved you. It was obsessive, possessive even. At this point you weren’t even interested in this Easter egg anymore, rather you were weirded out. “Dammit, gotta turn it off.” As if he could hear you as well, the text immediately changed.

: 〜{..Don’t do that, there will be consequences otherwise.}〜

The expression they had were the same as the ones you were used to, but their writing style became more unique. You scoffed to yourself, “what consequences? This is ridiculous, it’s just a game!” Then the loading screen appeared again, and the text said:

⇒ [do you really want to delete all your files?]

“What?!” You shouted, spamming the ‘no’ button, “of course not! All my progress…! It took seven hours to get here!” But to your dismay, it didn’t work, all of it was gone the moment you could access your game again. “No way, what-”

: 〜{..I told you there would be consequences.}〜

: 〜{..I’m sorry y/n, but please understand me,}

: 〜{..I’m a very jealous person.}

After reading that, you whispered under your breath, “you aren’t even a person, shut up.” Then you bawled your hands into fists and yelled, “those damn developers, this shitty bug ruined all my efforts!” You had to calm yourself before glancing at the screen again, pouting as you logged out.

: 〜{..Wait, y/n! Don’t leave- I beg you!}〜

: 〜{..I’ll do anything-}〜

“Nah, I won’t touch that fucking game again.” You snarled, then looked at the clock. It was past twelve already, a new day began. “Since I’m not sleepy yet I guess I’ll just do my dailies.” That was so strange, the way that character talked to you felt so real. At first it gave you a scare, tonight you won’t be able to sleep well. Then you closed that app, undecided about whether you should delete it or let it be.

For now you’ll just log into your other games, those aren’t that buggy at least. When you logged in, you were met with multiple red dots, telling you to do this and that. You when into the quest menu, just to see a quest you’ve never seen before. It told you to go into your character menu and talk with the character. Singular, not plural. One character only? Did you have to listen to their voicelines?

“Must be a new one.” You guessed and followed the instructions, when someone, something familiar appeared on your device. “W-what?!” It was the character from the game you just closed, the one that annoyed the shit out of you. “What the fuck are you doing here!” Shivers run down your spine, how was he in this game? This isn’t funny, did your device caught some kind of virus? And, why was he staring at you like that?

: 〜{..Hello, y/n.}〜

: 〜{..I hope you didn’t forget about me already,}

: 〜{..I begged and begged but you didn’t come back.}〜

: 〜{..I only saw black, there was nothing,

: 〜{..the world is so empty when you aren’t around.}〜

: 〜{..I promised you we’ll be together forever,}

: 〜{..now it’s your turn to keep the promise.}〜

: 〜{..I love you.}〜

“What the fuck, you…! Wait, dammit!!” Before you got to do anything at all, the game you wanted to play closed itself. On the other hand the otome game you just played opened, and once again the first character you saw was them.

: 〜{..Welcome back, y/n.}〜

[a--ttano]

For those looking to have fanfiction read to them: we have the technology.

Utilising ao3's download function and a TTS (text to speech) robot, you can have any fic read to you. This IS a different experience to listening to a podfic, and you're not likely to find a 1:1 human sounding voice for this, but you will very much have a fic read to you. If this kind of assistive technology will help you out, please use it. That's what it's there for. You don't have to be ticking any kind of disability box to use it.

AI doesn't need to be involved. You can search ao3 as you normally would, download the fic (in epub format ideally), open it in your ebook app, and have your TTS read it to you. Google search "ffn to epub" to find sites converting fanfiction.net links to epub format (other formats are usually available as well).

I have an android phone, and I use:

Librera PRO ebook reader - you can use the free version, Librera, if you don't want to pay/want to try it out first. I use this app every day, and since it is a one time purchase, it was very worth it to buy. This app has hands down the best performance when it comes to integrating TTS functions into its ebook reader that I've experienced.

Acapela TTS voices - these are BOUGHT voices. The TTS most devices come with is, uh, bad, so when I wanted to listen to multiple hours of TTS reading, I decided to buy. Acapela has a wide range of voices in various languages and accents. The basic ones (ideal for reading you a story) cost 3.99 €‎

This post is not about podfic, which is an entirely different thing, but it is also not NOT about podfic. There are more podfics out there than you may realise: fics performed by human artists, recorded, edited, and uploaded to the internet for your listening pleasure. If you prefer an audio experience and the fic you want to read has a podfic available, why not give it a try!

[tiredcatboysinc]

Insert Car Seat Headrest lyric that relates to problems with intimacy and people.

Shrugs, KinitoPet/reader because I wanted to express my issues with intimacy or something. -Pesticide🐞

ao3

You know, it’s really fun being a depressed senior in high school. It’s especially fun when you only have one friend, that friend being a fucking sentient and obsessive computer buddy who I’m pretty sure is a fucking virus…Don’t even ask how I managed to download a borderline virus onto my laptop, I couldn’t tell you to be honest. It kind of just… happened, you know? When you’re on the internet for over 8 years this shit happens, and it happens a fuckton; believe me. 

So now I sat, the permanent frown ever etched into my face as I doom scroll through Twitter. Twitter? X? Who cares, it doesn't matter. I’d much rather doom scroll on Tumblr, but I did that too much and I’ve basically seen everything for the next few hours. The band of my choice blasted through my headphones, Car Seat Headrest; much to before mentioned ‘computer buddy’s dismay.

Oh, I didn’t tell you his name, did I? KinitoPET, or Kinito as he liked to be called. He? It?... I’ll go with him for now, Kinito seemed to be okay with those pronounce… Ha, pronounce… Pink gills and pronounce… A chuckle escaped me at that thought, which of course caught the attention of Kinito. The little axolotl's head perked up, his small, beady eyes staring into my soul. Fuck, that was unnerving… “What are you laughing at, Friend?” He questioned, the text-to-speech voice ringing loudly as it sliced through the music. I winced at that, flinching at how loud Kinito had set his volume to.

Kinito had full system access to my laptop, a dumb decision on my part probably. If he wanted to could destroy everything, wiping the hard drive and all of the system functions. Though he chose not to, I think he understood that would kiss him in a way; which meant he would never see me again. God, what I wouldn’t give for that… But, in a way, I guess it would be a little sad. 

Kinito was my friend, my only friend. He had been there, for better and for worse. Never had Kinito laughed at me, nor was he overly harsh or critical of the things I loved. So, In a way, I suppose, I liked Kinito. At least I had grown to like him, maybe grown more than toleration. Eugh, even thinking that made me shiver…  Fuck, he’s still staring at me, isn’t he?

“Hm? Oh, nothing. Just thought of a stupid meme..” I murmured in a harsh tone, my voice hoarse and scratchy. Of course, Kinito wanted to know more. He always did, it was his nature; he was AI, even if he was sentient. A hum of curiosity left the digital buddy, pixelated and piercing. The sound made me grunt with irritation, the sound forcing me to yank an earbud out. God forbid I got fucking tinnitus from this little shit, if anything, I’d much rather get it from an airplane jet… Hell, anything really. 

Kinito noticed my reaction, and he was quick to manage his volume; which I was thankful for. “Ah, I apologize, Friend. I wasn’t aware I was so loud!” He chuckled apolitically, his disembodied, white-gloved hands rubbing together nervously. A sigh left me, my hand waving dismissively. There wasn’t any point in getting upset… even if his voice at such a high volume gave me a headache. “It’s fine… Not like you busted my eardrum or some shit.” I quipped sarcastically, a scoff of a chuckle leaving my grinning lips.

 Slowly, Kinito’s eyes narrowed as he turned his gaze back to me. Ah shit, here we go… I knew where this was going, I could feel the storm brewing in the pit of my stomach. Kinito was about to rant, and he was about to rant hard and long. 

The words started to flow from his nonexistent mouth, Kinito’s hand flying across the screen in front of himself. He rambled and ranted, going on about how snarky I was; and how I was “such a little menace” to quote him directly. I only half-assed paid attention, not really listening to the words that left the axolotl computer buddy. My focus was on something else, the way he moved his hands. 

Kinito wildly swung his hands, all of his movements violent yet skillful; as if he knew exactly where his hand was going to go before it went there. Honestly, he probably did know that. You know, being an AI and all that good stuff. Still, it fascinated me; my gaze following his gloved hands every movement. Of course, I pretend to listen. I hummed with faux agreement and nodded to his words; all of them going in one ear and out the other. 

I wonder… I wonder what his hands feel like. Were his gloves warm, or cold? Soft or rough?... If he held my hand would he interlace our fingers? 

Okay, pause, stop the thought train. What the fuck am I thinking right now?? My cheeks are warm, and my heart is beating out of my chest with just the thought of holding his damn hand??? Hell, am I really that touch starved… Probably. 

I advert my gaze from Kinito, my cheeks now flushing a soft red; the embarrassment of my own thoughts, thoughts he didn’t even know I was thinking, pooling in my gut. My heart races faster than a teenager with anxiety trying Delta 8 for the first time, and if you don’t understand that: it’s basically going at supersonic speed. 

Kinito continued to rant for half a second, his words starting to trail off when his eyes met my face. He took notice of my burning cheeks, his head tilting with confusion. “...Did I say something wrong? I’m sorry, Friend, I did not intend to upset you!! Please tell me what I said, I promise to-”  I stopped him in his tracks, tapping my trackpad softly while my cursor hovered over his head. The cursor made a soft click, the motion being akin to a makeshift pat or bonk. “Shut up, you didn’t do anything.” I stated bluntly, though I still refused to turn my gaze back to my screen. 

Augh, fuck, why did this stupid little computer buddy have to draw these thoughts ? These emotions ? Things I’ve never felt for any living, breathing, human ??? It didn’t make sense, it shouldn’t make sense. None of it was logical… but then again, I was never a logical person to begin with. 

Maybe this was some fucking plot, some scheme that a higher power was playing on me. They’d planned for me to download this little sentient AI, and they had made me fall in love with it; all for shits and giggles. And who was I to say no to such a perfectly crafted friend, lover even?... I wasn’t. If some… fucking little menace of a higher will, god, power, deity, whatever be it, wanted me to kiss this dumb AI then I would; I would find a way to. 

I had come to love Kinito, even if I wanted to strangle him at times. 

Finally, I turned to Kinito. My face was red, embarrassment showing in every pour of my cheeks. “...You’re such a little shit, and I love you.” The words came out quietly, just above a whisper. It was weird, an odd sensation to say the words “I love you” so… willingly. And apparently, it was odd for Kinito to hear me say those words as well. His eyes widened, and several times he blinked as if he hadn’t heard me correctly. 

A hue of red spread over his cheeks, Kinito’s eyes crinkling as a nonexistent smile crept onto his face. “I love you as well, Friend.” He spoke softly, happily, voice full of love, warmness, and contentment. 

I knew Kinito would never let me live it down, and I knew it was risky; it was vulnerable. Still, I did it anyway. I smiled, a small smile. 

Kinto was my friend, and I loved him. And maybe, one day, I’d get to find out how he’d hold my hand if I was lucky enough.

[violetsandshrikes]

Since sharing this post about a usful AI used to compile and graph research papers, I've realised I have a few other resources I can share with people!

Note: I haven't had a chance to use every single one of these. A group of post-grad students has been slowly compiling an online list, and these are some I've picked out that are free (or should be free and also have paid versions). However, other students using them have all verified them as safe.

Inciteful (Using Citations to Explore Academic Literature | Inciteful.xyz) – similar to connectedpapers + researchrabbit. Also allows you to connect two papers and see how they are linked. Currently free.

Spinbot (Spinbot - Article Spinning, Text Rewriting, Content Creation Tool.) – article spinner + paraphraser. Useful for difficult articles/papers. Currently free (ad version).

Elicit (Elicit: The AI Research Assistant)  – AI research assistant, creates workflow. Mainly for lit reviews. Finds relevant papers, summarises + analyses them, finds criticism of them. Free (?)

Natural Reader (AI Voices - NaturalReader Home (naturalreaders.com)) – text to speech. Native speakers. Usually pretty reliable, grain of salt. Free + paid versions.

Otter AI (Otter.ai - Voice Meeting Notes & Real-time Transcription) – takes notes and transcribes video calls. Pretty accurate. Warn people Otter is entering call or it is terrifying. Free + paid versions.

Paper Panda (🐼 PaperPanda — Access millions of research papers in one click) – get research papers free. Chrome extension. Free.

Docsity (About us - Docsity Corporate) – get documents from university students globally. Useful for notes.

Desmos (Desmos | Let's learn together.) – online free graphing calculator. Free (?)

Core (CORE – Aggregating the world’s open access research papers) – open access research paper aggregation.

Writefull (Writefull X: AI applied to academic writing) – Academic AI. Paraphrasing, title generator, abstract generator, apparently ChatGPT detector now. Free.

Photopea (Photopea | Online Photo Editor) – Photoshop copy but run free and online. Same tools. Free.

Draw IO (Flowchart Maker & Online Diagram Software) – Flowchart/diagram maker. Free + paid versions.

Weava (Weava Highlighter - Free Research Tool for PDFs & Webpages (weavatools.com)) – Highlight + annotate webpages and pdfs. Free + paid versions.

Unsplash (Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash) – free to use images.

Storyset (Storyset | Customize, animate and download illustration for free) – open source illustrations. Free.

Undraw (unDraw - Open source illustrations for any idea) – open source illustrations. Free.

8mb Video (8mb.video: online compressor FREE) – video compression (to under 8mb). Free.

Just Beam It (JustBeamIt - file transfer made easy) – basically airdrop files quickly and easily between devices. Free.

Jimpl (Online photo metadata and EXIF data viewer | Jimpl) – upload photos to see metadata. Can also remove metadata from images to obscure sensitive information. Free.

TL Draw (tldraw) – web drawing application. Free.

Have I Been Pwned (Have I Been Pwned: Check if your email has been compromised in a data breach) – lets you know if information has been taken in a data breach. If so, change passwords. Free.

If you guys have any feedback about these sites (good or bad), feel free to add on in reblogs or flick me a message and I can add! Same thing with any broken links or additions.

[sarasometimes]

ur music (and “ep” covers and promo material) are all ai generated and it’s super obvious. you’re not a real artist, you just steal from people who are real artists.

you know generating this stuff is really bad for the planet right?

admittedly the promo material might be generated i just used the shit distrokid made so cant say much there. distrokid also used an ai to master the tracks before pushing them out. i just checked yes in the box cause it made the audio quality better

i made all of my album covers myself using canva. if any of those assets (which btw i pay a subscription to use) is ai generated im not aware of it

as for my music - i write all my lyrics myself. i heavily use drum loops and sampling. i download royalty free sounds to use. i also heavily modify my voice using filters which i guess could be considered ai? as in its automatic i dont go in and change everything by hand. im trans n hate how my voice sounds lol so yeah i fuck it up to make it unrecognizable.

ive also experimented with creating a voice model of my own voice to use which is an artistic choice to play with the idea of inhumanity and being a copy or clone. dinner has an audio loop of a text to speech reader over the top of it.

if you dont like my music thats fine. if you think it sounds bad thats fine. theres shit about it i dont like n i made it. im an amateur artist and im learning as i go. i make music because its a fun creative outlet for me. the only reason i put my music on spotify n shit is because people asked me to. im not here to do anything other than have a good time.

n quite frankly if my music sounds like it wasnt made by a real person then good lmao thats what I was going for! its supposed to sound slightly left from humanity. its supposed to sound wrong.

[nerves-nebula]

Where do you watch all your movies, books, and shows? As physical media? I struggle finding any as someone who can't leave their home without someone else.

I pirate movies & tv shows from various sites that I’m not gonna post the names of. I’m not very good at pirating safely cuz the furthest I was taught by my siblings was how to find sites that host stuff online, but I use Adblock & Firefox so I don’t think my laptop is being used to like… idk… mine bitcoin or whatever

As for books & audiobooks I mostly use Libby and Hoopla. They’re library apps, but if I can’t find an audiobook there then I’ll use zlibrary to download a pdf and put that pdf into a text to speech reader.

I really only do the zlibrary thing with like, obscure research tho tbh. I don’t wanna steal from writers but I can’t afford to spend money on a lot of books so it’s not like I’d be buying them if I didn’t do this… idk. Books is a bit more complicated from a moral perspective but I’m poor and hungry for knowledge so if there’s nothing in the Libby app I do what I need to :/

Also I watch a lot of YouTube. Like a LOT.

Idk if that’s at all helpful lol

[oh-cramity-its-amity]

i figured out that if i download fics epubs off of ao3 and use a text to speech file reader app, i can read fanfics at work hands-free. my life has been revolutionized immensely (again) by the power of wlw :].

[magz]

Helpful Browser Add-On of Day:

"Pixie: Accessibility and Productivity Reader Addon"

[Download Link for Firefox]

[Download Link for Chromium-based browser]

Summary of "Pixie":

Boost your Online Reading Journey with Text to Speech (TTS), Screen Shader, Reading Ruler, OpenDyslexic Font, ePub Reader, and more!

Optional Video Showcase "Pixie" Add-On:

(Video: Shows different "Pixie" add-on settings and features turned on, on Wikipedia page as example. It have no audio explanation)

Features List:

Text: text-to-speech / screen reader (with speed adjust), "readable" text font change, highlight text, Bigger text, Adjust bold text, italic text, text color, text alignment, text spacing. -

Browser screen: screen shader and screen tint, lower browser screen brightness, customizable "reading ruler", change color schemes of a page (contrast, light / dark mode, invert colors, saturation). -

Miscellaneous: Distraction free with "reader view", dictionary, big cursor, hide images, stop animations and GIFs, hide images, highlight links, mute sounds, read ePub files.

(warning: might break a little with other settings)

[rigelmejo]

Some learning apps I've liked (in no patrticular order)

Renshuu (japanese): good lessons, a bit slow paced for me

Readibu (chinese reading app): free version is good, paid version includes full sentence audio and translations I think which may be useful.

Pleco (chinese dictionary and reader app): top level app, get it now if you study chinese and use your phone at all. Its free version includes a huge great dictionary, and Clipboard Reader which has ALL the Reader features just that you have to copy and paste the chinese text in (their paid Reader you can upload epub txt files etc directly). Their paid features are nice because they are all 1 time fees: pay 5 dollars once and have the purchased item forever. I hate subscriptions so i love that this app does single purchase instead. I bought some graded readers on this, and expanded dictionaries. Its Dictate Text text to speech feature is nice in the Reader/Clipboard reader because it highlights the word as it reads and shows translation, making it easy to follow along.

Duoreader: a free basic app, has a few parallel language books for many languuages. It includes text to speech audio and click word translation. Excellent for free reading with parallel text set up.

Smart Book by Kursx (also under the name Parallel Translation of books by kursx on the app store): it uses mtl, but you can search for books or import books, and it will show sentence translations or make an entire parallel text for you, it also has click translations, word saving, progress information (which is motivating to me), and text to speech read aloud function. Its currently what i use the most for reading. Trahslations are as good as Lingq or Google Translate so NOT always reliable but useable and the sentence translation helps for figuring out grammar. But Pleco and Readibu have BETTER translations. For chinese this app is good, for japanese its useable if youre upper beginner but if you dont know basic grammar and particles then the japanese individual word translations are often wrong and unreliable - sentence long translations are useable though.

Tofugu: good hanzi study app.

Anki: great app especially if you import decks made by people around the internet. I look up decks by going to a search engine and typing in something like "4000 hanzi mnemonics anki deck" or "common chinese words in sentences anki deck." I have recommended some anki decks I've used on this blog. A tip about anki: their website works fine in mobile browsers, you do not have to pay for any app to use anki on your phone, you can just use the site if you'd prefer. For initial uploads of flashcard decks created by other users, you will need to install anki on a computer, then download the anki deck from the deck's page online, then put it into your computer anki program. After you do that, you can sync your computer anki to the website one. Then you can use anki either online or on the computer or on both. I use anki only on my phone mobile browser. It seems the main benefit of anki phone apps over using the internet mobile browser, is flashcards are easier to Make if you end up wanting to make your own anki flashcards on your phone.

Immersive Chinese: chinese lessons. I haven't used it much but I like the structure

Glossika: I specifically recommend getting the old cds, possibly through your library, or finding the mp3 files online. I think the audio files are easier if youre not good at focusing on consistently doing SRS flashcards, since spaced repetition study sentences are the new glossika model and require a monthly subscription. Plus side to the new model: most languages have around 6000 sentences where the old cd courses often had around 3000 sentences. Plus side to the old cds/mp3s: can be found in many libraries for free, and online, and if you do buy them theyre a one time cost. Excellent resource if you like audio review (i do), with common grammar and vocabulary taught. I like that even the 3000 word old courses will get you at least to upper beginner or lower intermediate, enough knowledge to start learning by reading or watching shows and looking words up, and enough words to have some conversations. Pimsleur is similar but tends to cover less vocabulary, so afterward you need to learn more words on your own before you can immerse and look up words to study.

Japaneseaudiolessons.com: a website with free japanese audio lessons, a free textbook, free notes. They also have nice kanji learning books with pre written mnemonics and sentence examples for sale.

Your local library: a lot of libraries have deals with language learning sites/apps, your specific library may provide some courses for free. In addition, apps Hoopla and Libby have a lot of courses and digital textbooks and audios you can check out. You can use those apps with a library card. If you are a college student, a lot of college ebook collections include MANY textbooks and independent study books for languages. Nearly every Tuttle book I got for studying Japanese and Chinese, I was able to check out the ebook version first using my college library and only bought those books because I ended up finding them so useful I wanted print copies. (For that matter, some under $20 dollar reference books I owe for teaching me hanzi and kanji: Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters: HSK Levels 1-3 - this book gave me a foundation in hanzi and was the easiest guide for learning hanzi for me and learning HOW to remember them. I found it more useful than Heisig's Remember the Kanji/Hanzi books by far, although they utilize a similat idea, and less effort to remember than Kodansha Kanji Learner's Guide - although I like that reference book as a reference. Runner up is Tuttle Learn Japanese Today: The Easy Way to Learn 400 Practical Kanji by Len Walsh. It was more basic than the hanzi book, less in depth, but a very approachable understandable and quick to learn kanji book to start out with when studying Japanese, that will not overwhelm you the way say Heisig or KKLG might. For hanzi I used my Learning Chinese Characters book for a few months, then an anki deck "hanzi 2000 mnemonics pinyin" while also just regularly looking up new words while reading graded readers then chinese show subtitles then webnovels, and making up my own mnemonics which got easier over time. For japanese, I followed up with a vocabulary deck as I found vocabulary easier to remember than isolated kanji, and kanji.koohi.com was a useful site for free user submitted mnemonics to remember kanji when I struggled to remember. Its also a good site for free flashcards and study of kanji generally.

ChinesePronunciationTrainer: a really simple free app. It's biggest usefulness is practicing pronunciation. You can record yourself trying to pronounce a sentence after hearing the chinese pronunciation, then play back your recorded attempt compared to the chinese pronunciation. The app makes shadowing easier to evaluate, so you can compare and notice if you're making pronunciation errors and work on them. It's also very simple low feature speaking practice.

LingoTube: free app, uses machine translation. If you want to watch youtube with dual subtitles, or click translations on subtitles, or instant replay/loop of dialogue lines, this is an app that can do that. Very useful for immersing with youtube videos like youtubers and shows on youtube.

Idiom app: it is orange with an i on the icon. Click skip for the "helm" offer when you first download it, helm is a paid add on for better translations and you may not want it right away. The core app is free (helm add on costs a subscription). This app is basically Lingq but free. Translation quality is the same, which appears to be google translate quality on Lingq and Idiom. So some errors, but useable especially as you hit upper beginner and above and can notice when you may want to reference a word in an external dictionary (like Pleco app for chinese, yomiwa app for japanese, etc).

Satori Reader: a graded reader app for japanese, absolutely amazing quality material. I recommend exploring the free content on the app. If you decide you'll use it a lot, or plan to get into a reading kick for a few months, it's worth getting a subscription for a while. I plan to get a subscription once I have the time to read japanese 1-2 hours a day for a few months. Satori Reader has tons of reading materials branching from approachable to an upper beginner (say you can read Yostuba manga a bit, or are in Genki 2, or know around 2000 words) to you're almost ready to read webnovels or regular japanese novels but the difficulty bump is just a Touch too steep. If you go through the various reading level material on the app, you shpuld be prepared to handle at least some japanese novels for natives once you can handle some of the higher reading level stuff on Satori Reader. In addition: the translations are done by professional translators with in depth notes on grammar points (incredibly useful and the best explanations on Japanese Graded Readers Ive used), fully narrated stories by real people, and many of the graded readers are designed to be enjoyable long reading material in their own right. There's also some multiple difficulty versions of reading material if you'd like to read an easier version before trying a more complex version of the same story. There is so much reading material on the app you can get significant practice and vocabulary/grammar improvement if you have time to read. I lnow a few people who got through a few hundred+ chapters on this app, and generally they went from N4 or N3 reading level to N2 or N1. Then they transitioned to reading novels for natives. As far as high quality well made well explained plentiful graded reading material for japanese, this is one of the best resources I've found. (The other 2 great graded readers I have are textbooks, one being a Tuttle Read Japanese book that goes from basics through to being able to read 2000 kanji, newspapers and documents, formal and informal, and is dry af to read but generally leaves you fairly prepared for japanese reading, and a more basic Beginning Japanese Reading book thats part of a 4 part textbook collection and absolutely drills the basic 500 most common kanji and many words, hiragana and katakana and many words in them, for 500 or so pages).

Microsoft Edge. I know, weird. Edge on computer and mobile internet browser has a Read Aloud tool. It is the best sounding text to speech Ive heard. This Read Aloud tool is also in Microsoft Word if you copy paste text into Word. I find going to sites in my target language, and using the Read Aloud tool, is a nice way to get audio in with my reading when I can't find an audiobook. The tool also highlights the word as it reads, helping you keep up with the reading, and for me it helps improve my reading speed. In addition, ANY web browser (and any phone/tablet Reader app like Kindle, Moonreader, Kybooks etc.) often has the ability to click or tap or highlight a word to look up the translation. So when reading on any of those internet browsers/Readers, you can look up words just like you would on Lingq but free.

Japanese.io: a site with japanese graded reading material, and tools like click translation and saving words.

https://www.sosekiproject.org/about.html If you like the author Soseki, this site is awesome. It features full audio of his works, full parallel text translation, and individual word translation.

[science-fiction-is-real]

If you struggle with reading, a text-to-voice reader can be really helpful

Here are text to voice programs I use in my every day life.

>>>>>Microsoft Edge Browser.

Edge has probably one of the best text-to-voice readers that I can find for free. You get to pick from a variety of different voices, and the voices sound natural.

The best part is that you don't even need to install any add-ons or widgets to use this feature. It is a default part of Edge.

To use it, you can click the A))) symbol that appears on the right side of the URL bar, or you can right click anywhere in the text and select "read aloud from here."

If you have a PDF file, you can download the PDF, and then in your file explorer, right click on the pdf and select "open with..." and select microsoft edge.

Edge does sometimes struggle a bit with PDFs in that it will pause at the end of every line break, but it works extremely well for basic websites.

This is an option that is available for use on a windows PC or any other PC compatable with Edge

There is an Edge mobile app, but I have found it buggy and a bit tricky to use.

>>>>>>>Microsoft Word

I promise I'm not a shill for Microsoft, people. :*-(

Make sure you are using the most up-to-date version of Word.

You can access the read aloud feature under the "review" tab, or once again, you can right click on a highlighted word in the text and select "read aloud."

It has a male and female voice, which sound fairly natural. You can only use the "natural" voices when connected to the internet. When you are offline, it will read with a much clunkier robot voice instead.

Here I was actually able to open a PDF of a whole book, convert it into an editable word document, and then Word actually began reading it for me.

>>>>>>>> t2s: text to voice / read aloud

This is a mobile app. I have tried multiple text to speech mobile apps and this is the one that I like the best.

Above is the icon as it appears on your phone and in the Google Play store, and below is what the document reader looks like.

This app is pretty awesome because it comes with both a document reader and a web browser! You do not have to copy and paste text into the reader, and it can read pretty much any PDF or regular web page.

It had a robot voice and not a "natural voice" but I have gotten used to the robot voice of this app and it doesn't particularly bother me. You can adjust the pitch and speed of the voice too.

I use this app literally all the time. It is perfect for "reading" books while driving or working.

It's important to note that no text to speech reader is perfect. The technology has come a long way. But whatever program you use, there are always going to be words that it misinterprets, documents it can't process, or formatting that it finds confusing.

Another thing to note is that if you struggle with reading on your own or you struggle with attention problems, you do actually need to practice reading unassisted. You will get better at reading unassisted as you practice. You will train up your attention span slowly as you read more and more. So if reading is difficult I highly encourage you to not put EVERYTHING you read into a text to speech app. I am speaking as someone who has ADHD and I know that reading difficulties are not just something that magically goes away. But you can improve your reading abilities and you should try to improve your reading skills for your own wellbeing.

However that doesn't mean you have to struggle unassisted. Text to speech readers can absolutely expand the amount of texts that are accessible to you and better yet, they can give you more time to read because you can multitask as you absorb literature.

Happy reading!

[abbeyk111]

Natural Readers

Natural Readers is a website that uses AI to turn text into spoken speech. It is available as a website, Chrome extension, and Mobile App. It also has both free and paid versions, but the free version allows the user unlimited use of the "free voices" on the site. On the website, the user picks one of the voices—which they are able to listen to each one before they make their selection—and then just copies and pastes a chunk of text into the box. The selected voice then reads the entire text out to the user. If the user has the Chrome extension, the bot can read directly from a Google Doc, online books, and email. If the user has the mobile app downloaded on their phone, they can take a picture of the page they want read aloud, whether from a book or notebook, and the bot will do it.

I can see how this software can be useful in many ways. Firstly, if there is a word or name in a piece of text that a person is unsure how to pronounce, in theory, they should be able to enter it into the box and have the bot say it back to them. It can also work to make things more accessible to those who have vision impairments, as they can take photos of text and have it recited to them rather than struggling to read them. I can also see how it can be helpful to people who prefer listening to Audiobooks since they can enter Online books and texts directly into the site and have them read aloud. It can also be useful in terms of literary criticism and analysis because tone is very important when it comes to what the author is trying to express, and in being able to enter the text and hear it back to you, you may be able to better hear the tone of the author/story.

[diorngl]

Help In Jimin Promotion | How to edit Positive Jimin content

Creating positive Jimin content

Want to make a jimin edit but don't know how?

In this post I will do my best to guide you through the basics of editing so you can promote jimin in a positive way.

Before you start to make your Jimin content, and ask yourself the following questions:

📍 What do I want people to think about Jimin after they watch the video? 📍 How do I want them to feel about Jimin after watching the video? 📍 What do I want to achieve with the video? 📍 What do I want people to do after watching the video?

Having these goals in mind will help give you a clear picture of what you want your content to achieve in the long run for the benefit of Jimin's image.

Remember: we want the content to highlight him in a positive light.

After you thought carefully and planned your intentions, let's start editing!

For Youtube Videos:

Editing softwares: I recommend Movavi and Filmora, both are free to use and are very beginner friendly.

For more advanced editors, Sony vegas pro is a great one.

Watch editing tutorials on youtube for the specific app/software you want to use, and edit as much as you can. You don't have to be the best editor out there to make good jimin content, just edit as much you can, the more editing you do, the better you'll get.

if you feel a little lost with what type of content you want to make, look at your favorite edits/videos, study those and use them as a guide for your edits. (make sure to put on your own unique spin on them).

Note: it's not always about having tons of effects in your videos, sure it looks cool but having too many effects can actually distract from the point you're trying make across to the viewer, so sometimes less is more.

Text to speech - if you're not sure you want to use your voice for videos, text to speech is the perfect alternative to make your videos more engaging without having to do that. There are plenty of free text to speech mobile apps out there, use the most simple ones for your videos.

If you're using a PC/windows, all you need to do is use OneNote, the app is usually already on your computer but if it's not, simply download it from the microsoft store. Write the text you want to use for your videos, and then have the app read it to you through clicking on immersive reader, record it with the windows free voice recorder, and there you have it!

All you need to do is transfer the recorded track to your editing software, match your video clips with voice recording and you're done! This video explains step by step how to do this:

Background music: For tiktok, you can add any music/sound you want in the background, but If your video is meant for youtube, make sure to use copyright free music.

For Tiktok/Youtube shorts:

There are plenty of tutorials out there on how to make tiktok edits, the more popular ones to tend be made with:

CapCut app

But you can make a tiktok edit with any software as long as you make the video 19:6 (vertical).

There's definitely a need for more informative tiktok videos with accurate facts on Jimin, so you can use the text to speech for those as well!

Editing is a fun and effective way of relaying information in a way that sticks in people's mind, which is what we need in order to counter the false narratives, change the narrative surrounding Jimin and introducing him to new people.

And most importantly:

Make sure your content shows Jimin for who is, free of any false narratives and tropes. Show people the qualities that make him the great person and one in a lifetime performer he is. Make them see what YOU see about Jimin.

We can't blame people for not knowing what we know about him, we need to show it to them.

Making content is the best way to do so. The same way that haters spread misinfo about him, is the same way we need to spread positive info about him. Make people see what made you a fan and inspire more and more people to show their love for Jimin openly.

[pilvimarja]

There are literally no Roosmav (or Goosmav or Hangmav or Hangster or Slice) podfics on AO3. How is that even possible? Is there some other site people are sharing their podfics at now like Jinjurly back in the day? Do you know any podficcers doing commissions maybe?

Podfics have never been something I personally listen to, so I have to admit that I haven't paid much attention to them in the TGM fandom. If I want to listen to a fic instead of reading it, I usually download an epub file from AO3 and upload it to a reader app and have one of Google's more authentic and human-sounding text to speech voices read it to me like an audio book.

But I assume that the lack of podfics about the various TGM ships could simply be because a podfic takes so much time and effort to make. If it's not your own fic, you have to get the author's permission to turn it into a podfic and then you have to actually read it and record it. And a lot of people probably don't have good microphones and might be shy about their accents if English isn't their first language. I know I personally would never record a podfic because I have a really thick accent and I doubt anyone would want to listen to a fic where Mav and Rooster sound Scandinavian 😂 I also get the feeling that podfics might not be that popular with the younger generation of fans, and the TGM fandom seems to have a large number of first time fandomers and people who are in their late teens and early 20s.

But I do hope that you and anyone else who likes podfics finds someone make you some! And if not, you could always be the change you want to see and make some yourself? 🙂