Bash file to speak a file out loud on OS X, with options for volume, voice, and interactive reading.

speakfile.sh

#! /bin/bash

if (( $# == 1 )) && [ "$1" == "?" ]
then
	say -v ?
	echo ""
	echo "Voices should be specified in quotes if 2+ words."
	exit 0
fi

if (( $# == 4 )) && [ "$4" == "-i" ]
then
	osascript -e "set Volume $2"
	cat "$1" | say -v "$3" -i
elif (( $# == 3 ))
then
	osascript -e "set Volume $2"
	cat "$1" | say -v "$3"
elif (( $# == 2 ))
then
	osascript -e "set Volume $2"
	cat "$1" | say
elif (( $# == 1 ))
then
	cat "$1" | say
else
	echo "Usage: speakfile [? | [filename] [volume 1-10] [voice] [-i]]"
	echo "       For a list of voices: speakfile ?"
fi

For a good time, download Moby Dick and copy it to moby.txt and run this: ./speakfile moby.txt 2.5 Daniel. Enjoy! 😄

Another fun thing is to put the files all in a user's folder on another computer in the office, then you ssh into their computer as them and then run that script. It will make the computer randomly start talking, and hilarity will surely ensue.