> I tried mailing you at your old address, which was not listening. Yup. Sorry about that. Actually I think my old address still receives mail, but I just don't check it anymore. It just got way too big to keep up with. I also like the fact that gmail automatically archives everything as I receive it so I never lose anything. My biggest mistake with the old address was subscribing to way too many lists and not being able to send unsubscribe messages to some of them because they blacklist my server. Get this: they think I'm a spammer just because my ISP changes my IP address a couple of times a year. <frown> Well, so far I have been able to keep up with this box pretty well and hopefully I won't be changing it. I will definitely be giving your little program a try, and I'm glad eSpeak can be configured as the default. Just curious though as to why flite is still the default now that eSpeak works, especially since eSpeak is now the default synthesizer at least in Ubuntu. In fact, in Ubuntu, eSpeak, AFAIK, is installed automatically, at least it installs automatically if I use the screen reader option when booting. However flite isn't installed by default and must be obtained through Universe. Of course most of the other helper programs aren't installed by default in Ubuntu either, so this isn't a criticism or rant, it's simply an acute curiosity. <smile> Ahead warp factor 1, Lorenzo