Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 0 down vote favorite

I did a class at a university - RMIT. Their network required a complex set up, which their tech support did for me. I also set up Locomatic to switch locations when I went home and used my home network.

Every now and then, when I join my home network, my laptop says in a synthesised voice 'welcome to rmit'

Locomatic is now disabled, and I have deleted all the RMIT network and location details.

I've called rmit tech support but they claim to have no idea whats going on. I've given up on RMIT tech support being part of a solution.

Any suggestions where I could look to solve this?

I have growl installed, the only other non apple sys prefs are mysql, flip4mac and Tex distribution. It could be a script using the say command, but as the voice is quiet and happens unexpectedly, I've never managed to listed to it carefully enough to confirm it is one of the apple voices and not an audio file.

share|improve this question
1  
You should ask rmit tech support that they send you what they did on your computer (the exact step-by-step) and post it here. – Loïc Wolff May 18 '11 at 9:48
1  
There has to be a script that's executing a "say" command. – Martín Marconcini May 18 '11 at 11:16

2 Answers

up vote 0 down vote accepted

Do you have Growl installed? Any other non-Apple System Preferences? It would help to know if there is anything different about your setup when you get the "voice from the past".

share|improve this answer
yes I have growl installed – compound eye May 18 '11 at 12:25
In that case I'd suggest selecting the Growl preference, the Applications from the tab row. Then check each Application listed to see if it uses 'Display Option' 'Speech'. Start with 'hardwaregrowler' or similar. – Steve Savery May 19 '11 at 21:33
yep it was via growl, there was a program 'marco polo' i didn't even know i had installed using growl to indicate it was switching locations. – compound eye May 20 '11 at 15:07
Marco Polo is an app that monitors any changes in your connected devices/network/location and can execute various things based on user defined criteria. So I suspect they installed Marco Polo and had it change some settings when you joined the RMIT network. – Ben Sep 9 '11 at 3:07
up vote 1 down vote

Something is running a process when you connect to your home network. You said "Locomatic is now disabled" - have you actually uninstalled it? Probably worth a try. Here's the Manual.

You might also lay a trap for say by temporarily renaming /usr/bin/say to sayx, writing a wrapper script in /usr/bin called say that calls sayx and passes its arguments to it, but which doesn't exit when sayx returns. The next time your system speaks up, you can look at the process list with ps -f or Activity Monitor and trace through the Parent Process IDs to find out who launched what, leading to the announcement. In fact, I'd probably do this first to make sure I know about everything that might need cleaning up.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.