Megan's Cuckoo
The History
One Saturday morning in 1996, I was sitting in Wisconsin Rapids'
only McDonalds restaurant coding away on my Macintosh PowerBook
5300c. I spent a lot of Saturday mornings this way. Often I'd take
my daughters, Gwen and
Megan along. We would have breakfast, then they would be off harrassing
each other in the larger-than-life "gerbil tubes"
that are ever present in every McDonalds playland.
That particular Saturday, Megan came tearing back in to ask me
if she could have a twist cone. I said sure, but first she'd have
to say "cuckoo" into the microphone on my PowerBook.
She got her cone.
I spent all of 5 minutes in SoundEdit 16, cleaning up and fine
tuning "Megan's Cuckoo," the file we present
here. Megan's Cuckoo is a short, 12k download, and as an added
bonus, I've included "Marc's Beep," an unassuming
system error or alert beep that is mostly harmless (my apologies
to Douglas Adams–may he rest in peace.)
Download
Now Megan has a simple goal... to have every Macintosh computer
on the planet announce the hour with her impish "cuckoo."
Download Megan's Cuckoo and add some fun to your Macintosh!
MeganCuckoo.hqx is a 13k Macintosh binhex compressed
file.
Megan's Cuckoo and Marc's Beep are freeware.
Pass then along to all your friends.
Install them on every Mac you can!
Installing Megan's Cuckoo
After downloading the file, open it with Aladdin's Stuffit Expander. This will produce a folder containing
two Macintosh System Sound Files: Megan's Cuckoo and Marc's Beep.
Quit any programs that are are running, other than the Finder. You can't install sounds unless you do.
Drag the two sound files onto the System Folder on your startup disk. They will be harmlessly placed inside
your System file.
Next, open up the Date & Time Control Panel (found in the Control Panels folder in your System
Folder).
Select Clock Options... as This is where the Chime Settings are made:
Under Select Chimes, pick Megan's Cuckoo - If you don't see that as a selection option, then
go back and try dragging the Megan's Cuckoo sound file onto your System Folder again.
Next check the box by Chime on the hour - I strongly
suggest that you refrain from the tempting "...number
of times as current hour" because you would quickly
find Megan to be as annoying as her sister does. Once on the
hour is plenty, trust me!
That's all there is to it, and Megan thanks you!
Uninstalling Sound Files
Although sound files, like Megan's Cuckoo, are small and inoffensive, at some point you may wish to remove
one or two from your System file. Here are the details.
- Open your System Folder and double-click on your System file. The System file will
open as a window revealing all the keyboard layouts and sounds that are installed on your system.
- You can remove a sound by simply dragging it from the System file to the Trash.
- If you simply want to move it out of the System file, drag it somewhere else.
- To copy it from the System file, hold down the OPTION key as you drag the sound file.
Copyright and Fair Use
Megan's Cuckoo is freeware, copyright © 1997
by Megan Elise Wolfgram.
If you want to include either Megan's Cuckoo, or Marc's
Beep sounds, alone or in any collection
that may be sold through any commercial channels, or distributed
for more than the cost of the media, please contact me for permission.
Page Errata
Not that I'm counting, but Megan's Cuckoo page had been accessed
almost 120,000
times during the 5-1/2 years we counted (November,
1997 through May 2003.)
The control panel graphics are from Mac OS 8.1 if I recall correctly, although they are pretty similar from
System 7 through 9.2.2.
There are no plans to get this clock-based sound working in Mac
OS X. iTunes opens both of these sounds, but I haven't gone
further than that. If you discover a way to have Megan Cuckooing
hourly
under
Mac
OS X, please let Megan know. I'm thinking of a cron launched AppleScript
and if I ever get time to pull it off I'll update this page.
— Marc
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