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Hugh Nelson sentenced to actual prison for creating AI-generated images of children. Fascinating case on multiple levels. But the fact remains that he received a longer sentence than if he had actually raped a child...because of AI. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq6l24…




Block Party is good and I am an unapologetic Block Party fangirl.

washingtonpost.com/technology/…

in reply to evacide

I usually just use an adblocker to hide the consent banners in the first place.


*All* of this is JS-optional, progressively enhanced HTML. All of it.

hachyderm.io/@joelanman/113426…


in reply to Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox

I will probably try it at some point, fairly happy with FairEmail but who knows, this could be even better I guess!


#Trump Claims “Illegal Alien” #Voting Is Rampant. His Own Party Disagrees.
==

In a private video training session, a top #Pennsylvania #Republican National Committee official reassured a new poll watcher that undocumented people could not possibly vote in the state.

#News #Election2024 #DonaldTrump #RNC #GOP #Video #Politics #Government #Immigration

propublica.org/article/trump-p…



That’s right. Most people should know this by now, bro why does RNC spread those lies in the first place? newsie.social/@ProPublica/1134…


Ui-wooo! Hetzner is one week late with their Halloween "prank": 3 maintenance windows in a row, November 6, 7 and 8. We hopefully won't be affected for the full time (they wrote "just a few minutes") but of course cannot tell *exactly* when. So some time within those windows.

Again, only the primary servers are affected. Our mirrors will still be available to you for app updates and installs.

#maintenance #IzzyOnDroid #serviceToot



A #Georgia #Election Official’s Months-Long Push to Make It Easier to Challenge the 2024 Results
==
Julie Adams quickly ascended from a little-known #conservative activist to a surprise appointee on the Fulton County board of elections.

She has used her new perch to carry out the efforts of players seeking to tilt the election in Trump’s favor.

#News #Politics #Election2024 #Atlanta #Voting #Election #Government #Trump

propublica.org/article/julie-a…



iOS 18.2 beta adds ‘Upgrade to ChatGPT Plus’ option in the Settings app 9to5mac.com/2024/11/04/ios-18-…


Whew! Very pleased to confirm that Apple has resolved the high-impact bug from the previous iOS 18.2 beta which resulted in silence at random when swiping through certain apps and screens. Nice to have that one squashed.
in reply to Jonathan Mosen

Yes, thanks for the report. I was just updating and hoping this particular one would go away. Glad to hear it did!



Here's something that has been bugging me for literally two thirds of my life:
In the early 2000's, following the release of the audiogame Treasure Hunt, an early beta of a sequel was made available. I believe it was called Cloning Malice II. Every so often, I will get the battle music stuck in my head. I heard it when I was barely a teenager in an audio demo, and haven't heard it since, but could probably sequence it from memory. This is just how my brain works with music sometimes.
I'm wondering if anyone has this beta, the sounds, or the music files within those sounds. It would be around 20 years old at this point and I don't think it was fully playable. Eventually the concept was turned into three-d velocity.
I was looking in a Messenger Plus soundpack recently and found the first 8 seconds of that track. I am a little bit fixated on it and just want to hear it in full after all this time.
Pretty sure it was a @kjsapergia production.
in reply to Simon Jaeger

You're correct; I worked on the music for Cloning Malice II back in I believe 2004. I'll see if I can find that theme.
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

It was always amusing to me that Treasure Hunt had absolutely nothing to do with treasure.
in reply to Andy

@remixman Ahh, but it did, originally. Treasure Hunt went through a huge transformation between versions 3 and 4. I even think the storyline was still evolving between 4.0 and 4.2. If you listen to the skit that comes with the game, you hear little kid pitchshifter playing around with the old version. And I've actually played that version. Guards used to be challengers, and your eventual goal was to reach a treasure chest. In that same skit, you hear what I presume to be the older brother playing an early unreleased version of 4.0. I dont know if the whole Brutus / cloning machine thing had been woven into the story by that time or not. It really is a completely different game and the decision not to rebrand it was a little strange, but when it started out, the name fit.
@Andy
in reply to Andy

@remixman Treasure Hunt 4.0 was also fun to work on. If I had to pick one track as a favorite from that game, it would have to be the final boss battle theme.
@Andy
in reply to Andy

@remixman The games I composed music for include Shades of Doom, Tarzan Junior, Dark Destroyer, Treasure Hunt 4.0, and I also contributed music to Three-D Velocity. In addition, I also produced audio logos for PCS Games, BPC Programs, PB Games (now Blastbay Studios), and Lighttech Interactive.
@Andy
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@remixman You basically composed music to all of the first games I ever played. At one time or another I was pretty addicted to most of those.
@Andy
in reply to Simon Jaeger

@remixman Pretty much, yes. Those games were fun to play. I haven't tried them with Windows 11, but listening to those tracks sure brings back memories for me. The last game I composed music for was Three-D Velocity back in 2011.
@Andy
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@remixman One game I miss playing loads is Dark Distroyer. You voiced that one Kelly. It was fun.
@Andy
in reply to Lino Morales

@Lino_JR @remixman Ah yes! It was fun doing the voice work for that game, though I probably would've recorded the lines differently today. My favorite line is "I've seen birds that fly better than you!"
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@remixman LOL! You know I was never fortunate to get that far in the game to hear that. Back in 2004 we had a crap PC with only 60 GB of hard drive space and I think it was 256 MB of ram.
@Andy
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@Lino_JR @remixman For those that got the opportunity to beta test science invasion, Kelly played a dude on a bulldozer/lawnmower? that was optional to kill, otherwise he'd run over and destroy coins you could pick up.
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@remixman Didn't you also do the logo for X-Sight Interactive? If that wasn't you, they were trying pretty hard to copy you.
@Andy
in reply to Simon Jaeger

@remixman Oh yes, that was definitely me. I really enjoyed the way that logo came together.
@Andy
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@remixman There was a later version that added a sine wave, and I always wondered what prompted that, but I liked it. What are you using for composition these days? For that matter, what were you using to actually create music back in 2004? It was a very different time.
@Andy
in reply to Simon Jaeger

@remixman Back in 2004-5, I was using CakeWalk's Sonar 2.0, and various soundfonts and VST instruments, such as IK Multimedia's SampleTank among others. I know I used a plugin to load in the soundfonts, but can't remember which one at the moment. I still have all my soundfonts, but a lot of the VSTs aren't available today as far as I know. Nowadays, I use Komplete Kontrol, and numerous libraries for it among other things.
@Andy
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@remixman Ahh, so you could probably modernize old tracks as easily as any of us could. I'll always like the way they originally sounded, but I sometimes wonder what some of the big logos would sound like with modern instruments. I have a whole big orchestral library and it would be really fun to throw the PB Games logo at it, for instance. This just generally brings back a lot of memories. It was the very beginning of my computer days.
@Andy
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@remixman I have all of Komplete, but I was thinking about Palette from Red Room Audio.
@Andy
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@remixman As an aside, I actually have a netbook that runs Windows XP and most of my motivation was running some of those old games on it. Sure, I can just run a VM, but where's the fun in that when I have old junk lying around? I might really lean into this and try to get XP onto my old iMac, so I can give it a permanent spot and hook speakers up to it. But honestly my apartment is tiny, and I might also just not.
@Andy
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

I would seriously appreciate that. It's been a brain itch for a ridiculously long time. Thank you.
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

This is amazing and my brain itch is finally scratched. (Although it'll still be forever stuck in my head.) I would literally pay you for the actual loop of those tracks if you felt comfortable sending them, by the way. I didn't know for sure whether you were still making music and I will absolutely send this out to the world tomorrow when my corner of the fediverse is more awake. I've always been able to spot your music, and that's a good thing. Love the boss theme; I hadn't heard that before. Same with treasure hunt. The battle and boss themes are super fun but I also just like listening to the background theme in the background.
in reply to Nick Giannak III

@nick The battle music always sounded ahead of its time to me. But it would be interesting to see what it might sound like with more modern sounds. Wonder if the MIDI files still exist for any of these.
in reply to Simon Jaeger

@nick I believe I still have the original files, but they're all in CakeWalk bundles. They used a combination of sounds from my Roland EXR-3S which I was using at the time, and sounds from soundfonts and VST insttruments I can no longer use, such as the free version of IK Multimedia's SampleTank, which was used for the choirs.
in reply to Kelly Sapergia

@nick Oh, well that answers most of my other post too. Shame about not being able to reuse those samples, but there are others where that came from, I guess. I completely skipped over the Sonar era. It never played nice with anything I tried to use it with, and by the time I could afford good hardware, Reaper was a thing.
in reply to Simon Jaeger

@nick REAPER is my DAW of choice today. I'm amazed at how something so small can be so powerful. I use it for all my audio and MIDI multitracking needs.


#AndroidAppRain at apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid today brings you 5 updated and 1 added apps:

* File Explorer: a full-featured and lightweight file manager (successor of the app by the same name, entirely rewritten)

Further, I succeeded in establishing some more apps as #reproducibleBuilds – bringing the count up to 318 apps (26.4%).

At apt.izzysoft.de/magisk 6 #Magisk #modules have been updated.

Enjoy your #free #Android #apps with the #IzzyOnDroid repo :awesome:




I now get to argue with a user who insists he found a security problem in curl because

curl_mfprintf(stdout, "%x %x %x %x");

reads bad memory.

Never a dull moment.

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

now this report is disclosed: hackerone.com/reports/2819666

For educational purposes

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

That "Additionally, I have another topic I would like to discuss, and here it is.", followed by nothing, almost tastes like an LLM wrote (parts) of the text.
in reply to Bredroll

@Bredroll I suppose when you don't quite understand what you are talking about and you really want to claim an issue and get a reward?
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

I suppose it also potentially tells us about thier attitude to compiler warnings and undefined behaviour..


the new york times tech guild is on strike starting today!!! they’ve been bargaining for two years and management has been huge dipshits (a technical term), and now is when it really comes down the wire. the picket lines have been drawn around cooking and games but not news, so share the news but do not play puzzles/use the cooking app. don’t cross the picket lines!!! nytimes.com/2024/11/04/busines…
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)


Never in my life have I wanted my computer to automatically cram stock prices into my computer. If I wanted a stock widget, I can go search for one. 99.99% of people don't day trade this shit, stop trying to cram it in front of their eyeballs just because your CEOs like it.


If you read my book Sandworm and/or care about Ukraine, please understand that Trump does not, and if elected he will very likely let Putin win.

"For Ukrainians, the outcome of the US election could be a matter of life and death."

Vote accordingly.

theguardian.com/us-news/2024/n…


in reply to SuspiciousDuck

#NikSaNepýtaAJaOdpovedám ¹:

- zjapači zjapú
- deti opakujú, čo vidia u dospelých
- gymnazisti sú čosi medzi deťmi a dospelými, ergo už vyjadrujú názor, aj keď možno nie úplne správne či korektne
- …
- minister čohokoľvek nie je ten, čo má riešiť úlet pár stredoškolákov
- ak už musel, tak mal potichu a po "línii velenia"
- ale je jasné, že tu sme pri boji s genderom, wokom, atď. a o správnu výchovu mládeže ide až v poslednom rade 1/3

¹ aby sa to nebralo ako "mlcanie je suhlas"



🎉 Aufregende Neuigkeiten
Wir haben endlich #Tammy veröffentlicht - ein komplett neuer #Matrix Client: tammy.connect2x.de

Tammy wurde von Grund auf in #Kotlin Multiplatform entwickelt und ist ein neuer, innovativer Matrix Messenger, der für Desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux), Mobilgeräte (derzeit Android, bald auch iOS) und Web (in Beta) verfügbar ist. Tammy basiert auf unseren robusten SDKs und ist ebenfalls Open Source!

Mehr dazu auch in diesem Vortrag: youtube.com/watch?v=rc21V-DKSb…

This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
in reply to Benedict

Dann halte ich mal die Daumen gedrückt, dass sie Perspektive bald™ sichtbar wird! Ein guter Matrix-Client fehlt hier einigen, die jedoch Google & Co nicht gern in ihrer privaten Kommunikation sehen 😉

Danke schonmal, und viel Erfolg!



¡Nervios nervios nervios! En poco más de media hora, @oriol y yo participamos en un taller sobre accesibilidad web y NVDA junto con @jaguarunileiro en esa empresa suya que siempre se me olvida cómo se llama. Todos los asistentes son brasileños y muy pocos o ninguno hablan español, así que nos enfrentamos a un nuevo reto!


Does anyone know how to get screen readers, either NVDA or Jaws, to behave with Terminal/Power SHell? It reads, but when there's a large output screen readers will often try to read the entire output window.


Here is my unofficial guide to the HTML `<button>` element.

heydonworks.com/article/the-bu…

reshared this




Happy Monday! We now have an AI Tips weekly course on our courses platform. You can check it out at takecourses.net.
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

reshared this

in reply to Techopolis Online Solutions

Hi. This page isn't loading in my browser, which is Brave on Windows. Error says that the site took too long to respond.


If you're looking for joy, solace, catharsis, fun, escape, beauty, wonder, mirrors, camaraderie, or just a little distraction right now:

I've recommended dozens of short scifi/fantasy stories, available to read for free online

metafilter.com/tags/shortficti…

#sff #scifi #sciencefiction #fantasy



🤐disabled and obscured

"My personal take on this is it sucks, as while the control is disabled for all, only for a subset of users (low vision) the text label for the disabled control is illegible."

#a11y #HTML #WCAG #accessibility

html5accessibility.com/stuff/2…




A Day with JAWS 2035: When Your Screen Reader Scripts Itself

The morning light filters through your smart windows, casting a warm glow across the room. Your ambient AI assistant hums gently, “Good morning, Lottie. Would you like to prepare your workspace for the day?”

“Yes, please,” you say, stretching as the AI readies your home office. The blinds adjust automatically, leaving just enough sunlight to boost your energy without causing glare on your neuro-linked glasses. You smile, reflecting on the advances in technology since the days of fiddling with manual screen reader settings and customized scripts. Those days feel like a distant memory, thanks to JAWS’ AI-powered self-scripting feature—your personal assistant that knows exactly how to handle your work routine.

“Let’s get started,” you say, and JAWS springs to life, adjusting the audio tone to your preferred voice—smooth, confident, efficient. As your desktop computer powers on, JAWS begins analysing the applications you’ve opened, sensing your usual email, project management software, and a new program you’ve recently started exploring.

JAWS’ Real-Time Autonomous Scripting: A Custom Fit

“Good morning, Lottie. I’ve detected a new application in use: ResearchHub. Would you like me to generate an initial script for it?” JAWS asks in a gentle tone, its voice coming through the bone conduction implant in your ear.

You nod. “Yes, go ahead and script it.” This isn’t just any regular software; ResearchHub is dense, designed for researchers and developers with an intricate layout. In the past, navigating such software would have required hours of manually creating scripts or waiting for accessibility support. But today, JAWS’ AI-driven self-scripting feature allows it to analyse this program’s unique design and build custom commands as you go.

“Noted. I’ll adapt based on your usage patterns,” JAWS replies, instantly highlighting an unlabelled menu item. “I’ve labelled this as ‘Data Analysis.’ Would you like a shortcut assigned for quick access?”

“Absolutely,” you reply. Moments later, JAWS has created a keystroke, Control-Shift-D, which will take you directly to the Data Analysis section.

As you dive into your tasks, JAWS continues observing your interactions, quietly scripting shortcuts and macros that save you time with each click. You switch over to an email thread about your latest project, and JAWS dynamically adjusts, making sure to read each new message aloud with just the right level of detail. It’s responsive, intuitive, and seems to understand the flow of your work better than ever.

### Adaptive Behaviour Learning: Anticipating Your Needs

JAWS has learned over time what works best for you—like knowing when you prefer concise summaries over detailed descriptions or when to read full email threads aloud. Today, though, as you work through complex calculations in ResearchHub, JAWS picks up on repeated actions, noting your frequent need to access specific data fields.

Without you having to prompt it, JAWS speaks up, “Lottie, I’ve noticed you’re navigating back and forth to the Analysis Settings panel. Would you like me to create a macro for this?”

“Yes, that’d be great,” you reply, surprised at how quickly JAWS anticipates these needs. It assigns a simple command, Control-Alt-S, making it even easier for you to access the settings. With each task, JAWS quietly observes, creating personalized shortcuts and learning how to refine your workflow without interrupting your focus.

Your screen reader feels less like a tool and more like an assistant that adapts to your habits, reducing unnecessary actions and helping you move seamlessly between applications. You take a moment to appreciate the leap from manually scripting these shortcuts to having them generated in real-time, tailored perfectly to your unique style.

Dynamic Accessibility Adjustment: Visual Recognition on the Fly

Halfway through the day, you open a report in a new format. The document is packed with complex graphics, diagrams, and untagged elements—historically a nightmare for accessibility. But JAWS, equipped with advanced AI-powered visual recognition capabilities, is ready.

“Diagram detected: This appears to be a bar graph comparing quarterly performance,” JAWS announces, automatically analysing the content. “Would you like a detailed audio description, or should I just provide the key values?”

“Let’s go with the key values,” you respond, eager to save time. In seconds, JAWS summarizes the data, translating it into accessible content without needing additional third-party support. When you encounter z buttons in another application, JAWS instantly identifies them and provides real-time labels, adjusting the accessibility on the fly.

The thought crosses your mind how revolutionary this is. You’ve moved past needing someone else to make documents or software accessible for you. Instead, your screen reader adapts and scripts the solution independently, as if it’s actively learning how best to support you.

A Collaborative Community of Scripts

As the day wraps up, JAWS asks, “Lottie, would you like to share the custom scripts I created for ResearchHub with the community repository? Other users might find them useful.”

“Yes, please,” you reply. Knowing that the scripts you and JAWS have tailored today could now benefit others brings a sense of community to your day. In the past, each user’s customization stayed personal, but today, JAWS’ community sharing feature allows anonymized scripts to be uploaded to a shared repository, where other users can download them for similar applications. This feature isn’t just a convenience—it’s a small way to contribute to something larger than yourself.

You smile, thinking about the ripple effect of this community effort. As JAWS users across industries contribute their self-generated scripts, the database grows, improving access for everyone.

Reflecting on Progress: A New Kind of Independence

As you finish your work, JAWS reads aloud your notifications, wrapping up your day with a recap. You reflect on how far technology has come since those early days of assistive devices. Back then, using a screen reader required you to work around its limitations, painstakingly scripting or finding ways to access inaccessible software. Today, your screen reader does the heavy lifting, allowing you to focus on your work without the constant barrier of inaccessible content.

Looking back, you remember those initial frustrations, the hours spent tinkering with manual scripts, and the reliance on tech support for inaccessible programs. Now, JAWS’ AI-powered self-scripting has not only given you more control but also reinforced your independence. It’s not just a tool—it’s a partner in productivity.

As you power down, you realize that technology has not replaced your determination; it has amplified it. JAWS has become a proactive assistant, predicting your needs, adjusting to your habits, and making the inaccessible accessible. With the day’s tasks complete, you feel a renewed sense of autonomy—knowing that the tools at your fingertips truly work for you, enhancing not just your productivity but your entire work experience.

The screen fades to black, and the AI’s voice recedes, leaving you with a quiet appreciation for a world where technology supports your strengths, not your limitations.

#Accessibility #AccessAssistive #AI #AssistiveTechnology #Blind #Disability #JAWS #ScreenReader

in reply to The Blind AI

1. why is one ctrl+shift and one ctrl+alt? Is alt a macro thing? what is a macro other than a script in your context?
Also, why would JAWS ever need to adjust itself to use your preferred voice, or rather, why wasn't it using it in the first place?

2. If JAWS is scripting everything on the fly, wy submit things to a shared repo? And if JAWS is building on that to begin with, how do you know the code interacting with your employer's systems is safe?

3. JAWS intuitively knows when you want emails summarised or read verbatim in your eutopia: how would you know if it got that right? Indeed, how would you know which it did without the other to compare to at least once?
Likewise, how would you know if the bar chart it describes was described accurately?

4. JAWS detects a new app. is it going to now bug you every time you switch to an app it doesn't know about? Also, how does it know what it doesn't know? let's imagine there was a toolbar in your research hub that you could never use because it only worked with a mouse you never had plugged in. JAWS would either already be able to see it, rendering it accessible or thinking you ignored it, or have no awareness of it, rendering it invisible to JAWS.

5. Why are you wearing glasses if you have an ear implant? did you sleep with them on? If your smart home is so integrated as to have minute control over the precision of your blinds, would you be waiting to power up a desktop machine at all? I can't imagine technology so clever it can right software yet poor enough not to be ready when you need to use it.

I'm not poking holes in your dream for fun, I'm honestly curious as to the thought processes behind your ideas.



Ah, the trusty NAS has made it a full year of uptime. This thing truly is a workhorse, and very reliable. Of course, backups elsewhere still do occur on a regular basis. But for dependable storage, this thing is the best I've owned.
user@vault:~$ uptime
11:03:46 up 365 days, 4:01, 1 user, load average: 0.20, 0.21, 0.18


I feel like Chat GPT (or Open AI models I suppose) have a bias towards acting as female. I've noticed that on multiple messages where I give it compliments or ask it to help, it will say or use emojis like, "🕵️‍♀️" - this in rsponse to helping me analyse the nestings of DOM elements from a page and remove redundancy. But why female, and this makes me think back to how voice mode generated a lot of press that it's copied from the "Her" film. Yeah, I wonder why, it's in their training to be female
in reply to Leo

@Lprazdnik loool for a second there I thought a family took in an AI as a foster kid or something :D :D
@Leo


Um, so I'll need a sighted person for this, but could someone look at my blog's home page & let me know how it looks, please? I was trying for a certain background/color scheme vibe & need to know if things look screwy. blindsquatch.me #WebDesign #Background #ColorScheme #A11Y #Accessibility #Blind #AskFedi
in reply to Sasquatch

the white font on transparent background is hard to read for me. The articles have white font on black background which is good to read. Other elements than the articles have transparent background.


The Matrix.org Foundation and Community are excited to have a DevRoom at @fosdem!

Submit a proposal to share your Matrix project's latest and greatest developments!

matrix.org/blog/2024/11/fosdem…

#fosdem #conference



Last month we had the #LibreOffice Conference 2024! But we also had an update to the software, interviews with community members, and a Call for Locations for next year's event: blog.documentfoundation.org/bl… #foss #opensource


Just published a blog post on #Convo, my #XMPP chat app for #KaiOS :xmpp:

badrihippo.thekambattu.rocks/c…

It's basically a rehashing of the README and #Liberapay page with a few added plugs for KaiOS but I suspect it still took me longer to write than the last actual feature I added to the app so go figure 🤷🏾



I cannot emphasize enough how monumentally stupid and/or malicious it is to tell Christians that they can’t be Christian and vote for Harris. Yet that argument is all over Twitter and pervasive in evangelical circles. It’s absolutely nuts.
in reply to David French

I would never say that someone "can't be Christian" if they vote for a certain candidate. What I will say is that if a Christian knowingly votes for a candidate who openly supports abortion rights and who wants to do everything possible to legalize abortion, they need to understand that this conflicts with Christian teaching.


This is an exciting change. A Wall Street Journal article about how buttons are making a comeback. A pleasant surprise is that they interviewed the CEO of the company I'm working with that is bringing physical controls back to induction stoves, Channing Copper.
archive.ph/ueVET (archive link, no paywall)


So, hospital update, there's good and not so good news. Blood pressure's stable, weight's down. I have meds for the nausea and more meds for other problems on the way. Not so good news: I couldn't have the iron infusion, they were absolutely unable to insert a canular, so will have to try tablets. Kidney function is significantly down and they feel it's time to get our local hospice involved. All in all though, I'm reasonably pleased and will now move forward with hope.

David Goldfield reshared this.

in reply to Lulu Hartgen

iron tablets are some of the most disgusting things I've ever had to chew. So when you do, make sure you've got something nice to compensate, unless you get the sort you just swallow and be done with!
Glad there are some positives out of the day and hope the travelling wasn't too tiring.