If anyone ever feels like researching some deep background regarding authoritarian and fascist developments ... i highly recommend a text from Étienne De La Boétie from the 16th century. It still captures something crucial, "voluntary servitude", that is often left out from leftist discourses because we prefer to not admit we are all susceptible to *voluntarily* succumb to authoritarians ... nonresistance.info/docs_pdf/Vo…
high recommend on this short and succicnt take on LLM/AI from Joseph de Weck, tracing longer paths back to Kant and his arguments for making up your own mind to obtain freedom, and Erich Fromm who highlighted delegating authority and responsibility to "others" is a major factor in growing fascism
Since the Enlightenment, we’ve been making our own decisions. But now AI may be about to change that, says Joseph de Weck, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute
Guten Morgen! Ein Update zum Knie: Es hat ein neues Pflaster. Die Stelle muss wohl noch länger heilen und ist sehr berührungsempfindlich. Ich werde das Knie heute also sehr schonen. Ein weiterer Spaziergang muss also noch etwas warten. Euch einen schönen zweiten Weihnachtstag!
I contacted customer support and made an appeal. They very quickly responded that I'm permanently suspended from the platform (and Stripe) because my *Mastodon* profile (@alice) associates me with @AltAfterDark.
So, that's that.
""" ... your account has been permanently deactivated due to a violation of the Terms of Use related to adult content. Please note that even if adult content is posted on other websites, it can still lead to account review and banning... """
I'll be looking for another way to accept tips (as it's kinda my lifeline); if you have any suggestions that *don't* involve platforms that'll ban me for posting some wholesome-ish adult content *on my own social media profile*, I'd live to hear them.
Watch BuyMeACoffee/Stripe send me a cease and desist for posting about them banning me.
Then watch Fedi Streisand Effect the shit out of that.
I'm sure they're already going to lose a (insignificant to them) chunk of money over this, because not only will they not be taking 10-20% of my tips, but whenever I call out a company here for being shitty, I get dozens of replies from folx canceling their accounts there.
My 92 year old aunt: You do the Leenux thing, right? You need to come over sometime and install it for me, because f#ck all I ain't gonna update to Windows 11.
Me: .... ?!#!?
I explain what the change-over entails and that I generally don't recommend it just because...
Aunt: No, f#ck that, f#ck capitalism, my laptop is still fine, so come over and set me up with that Leenux thing.
Lately I have noticed that when you purchase a ticket you don’t get a static PDF/PNG anymore.
Increasingly often, you get a .pkpass file, which is supposed to be opened in wallet apps (like Google Wallet or any 3rd-party wallet app).
Since I don’t like to share information about the events I attend with strangers on the Internet, I have decided to take a closer look at these .pkpass files.
They are just zip files that contain a background image, an icon and a pass.json with the actual information about the ticket. Nothing that can’t be handled by a script rather than a 3rd-party 100 MB mobile app.
I have thus put together a simple #shell script that does exactly that.
Štědrý den je přeci jen tak trochu jiným dnem. Sváteční atmosféra, umocněná očekáváním večerní nadílky, se projevila i v rozhlasovém zpravodajství. Velký výlet do rozhlasového archivu a poslech štědrovečerních zpráv ze 60., 70. a 80.
Christmas Dash 1.1 is out. I cannot post the full changelog here as it is too long, but hopefully it solves some bugs that were being experienced. If not, I'll keep looking.
I just released Christmas Dash 1.0.1 for Linux. I'll be releasing the Windows version in a minute here, but this one is a test build. It adds a speech interrupt setting, as that is a very important setting for Linux users. Please tell me if it works (works for me but that's because I'm using WSL), and if it doesn't, reach out.
it works. The only 2 problems I had were it is unable to post the score unable to get ssl sertificate and it didn't seem to play the sound when popularity reached 100%. Game play itself is fine though.
Small update, I only ever had the end sound not play once, but the inability to post scores is constant. Maybe for the end of game sound I hit a button and skipped it, so may have totally been my fault. I figured I should let yuou know so you don't try to hunt down a bug that doesn't exist, or only exists with the user lol.
So just tested it out in WSL. Strangely enough, I'm not experiencing this weird so-called upload score bug, I managed to upload just fine. With a terrible score mind you, since it was for testing purposes, but definitely works. Perhaps I must have fixed something without knowing, or it's Python being Python as usual. I'll keep looking into it, but for now I'll push what I have.
I love the game. Later I will write article for slovak blindrevue magazine with some audiotutorial. BTW would it be hard to implement some localization? I believe that it is not so much phrases. I tryed to donate but Paypal is comfusing me at this time, interesting that i cant pay with my revolut card and it forces me use paypal where i dont have money at this time.
Softwarových klávesnic pro mobily existuje několik, ale drtivá většina uživatelů používá ty přednastavené výrobcem. Takové klávesnice jsou sice kvalitní a d ...
Zatím vypadá dobře. Zvykám si. AnySoftKeyboard jsem měl, díky možnostem customizace, vyladěnou. FUTO tolik možností (např. rozložení) nemá, ale ono to půjde. Hlavně, že neposílá data Google, Microsoftu atd. Navíc má některé vychytávky, které jsou fajn. @archos
@archos Já jsem zrovna klávesnici řešila před pár dny. Zkoušela jsem i zmíněnou AsK, ale nakonec jsem zůstala u své Heliboard klávesnice. Pro mě nejlepší 👍 @brabitom @infoekcz
for the last two years, i celebrated New Year's Eve by watching a movie and timing it so their explosive climax happened at the stroke of midnight. first it was the Death Star in Star Wars, then it was Agent Smith in The Matrix. what should i watch this year?
my five steps to getting out of bed in the morning:
1. pretend you do not hear the alarm. 2. verbally deny that it is time to get up. hit snooze. 3. negotiate five more minutes with the nearest person or deity. 4. express intense anger in your words and tone to demand that it not be morning. 5. accept it with a big sigh and stand up.
Here's the christmas question of the day. Do you believe that the 12 days of christmas compounds or just lists the things you get as a reminder? Watched some christmas movie I had never heard of with Eddie murphy in it called Candy Cane Lane where this dude signs a contract with an elf gone bad (think sell your soul to the devil). Elf tells him that he needs the five golden rings or he'll turn into an ornament but gets him on a technicality by saying nope, you really need 40 rings because 5 golden rings appears 8 times in the song. Sneaky. So. Does it compound? or no. Thoughts?
@arfy Yeah she got him on that technicality. he was like I have five golden rings. then suddenly there's 12 partridges and everybody starts scrambling to figure out why. Sneaky.
Last week, I threw together Syntherceptor, a SAPI5 synthesiser which speaks using NVDA. This is useful for apps like Komplete Kontrol, Surge, etc. which use SAPI5 but you'd prefer the speech output to happen using your NVDA synthesiser and settings. This also prevents voices from speaking over each other, allows you to interrupt speech with a key press, etc. There is an existing project called NVDASapi which already does this, but we can't seem to identify or contact its developer, it isn't open source, it doesn't interrupt speech when the app requests it and it's a bit tricky to install. That said, Syntherceptor is very early in development, so you may wish to tread carefully. If it crashes, it'll probably crash the app you're using, so save your work regularly, though I haven't seen that happen yet. syntherceptor.jantrid.net/
Sorry to ask, but how am I supposed to uninstall this cleanly? Uninstalling says: "An error occurred while trying to uninstall Syntherceptor. It may have already been uninstalled." I'm trying to use it with a game (Code 7), and it just slows everything down. Here's a snippet of audio with keypresses registered through Filter Keys.
@twynn Are you uninstalling using add/remove programs? I haven't seen that error. Odd. As for the lag, that suggests to me that the game isn't requesting speech interruption for each new string it sends. Does it behave correctly in that respect if you use it with another SAPI5 synth? That is, does it interrupt speech if you move quickly?
Yes, but through Settings says that "This app can’t run on your PC[.] To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher." I don't know what you're asking re interrupt, but here's the same thing with a different synthesizer.
@twynn Hmm. So I guess the game doesn't interrupt SAPI the way Syntherceptor expects. This is a bit tricky to get right because SAPI doesn't have a clear way to interrupt speech, surprisingly enough, and different apps do different things.
Hmm. But pressing CTRL does interrupt with both a real synthesizer as well as Syntherceptor, with NVDA's sleep mode on. Does that mean silencing speech is working?
Right, but if I have sleep mode on, use another program to send speech through the NVDA controller, i.e., TWBlue, and press Control to stop speech, NVDA continues to speak.
@twynn I'm about to push another build which just cancels before each utterance, but that will mean it can't queue multiple utterances without interruption. I'm not sure if that is a show stopper or not.
@twynn Nope, this is surprisingly hard to get right in a reliable way. New build is up - make sure to refresh the site. Should also fix the uninstaller.
Ah, that does fix the slow arrowing issue, however the first utterance of "MAIN MENU .. USE THE UP AND DOWN ARROWS TO CHOOSE OPTIONS AND THE RETURN KEY TO SELECT IT .. CURRENTLY SELECTED" is being skipped, however I can see it in the speech history.
No no, I am used to playing this game with a different synth than the one I normally use, but it was the first thing I thought of that used SAPI as output. Yes, uninstalling indeed works. Thanks for your efforts for sure!
First build: Speaks the first utterance but the second one stays completely silent (I don't even see it in the speech log). Second build: If there is more than one utterance queued, there's a second or so pause between each. For both builds, arrowing is just as fast as the other.
@twynn I didn't expect the result with the first build. Hmm. As for the second, I assume the first utterance is 2 seconds or less? And when arrowing (with sleep mode on), does it interrupt correctly? For that matter, I forgot to ask you whether interrupt worked with the very first build, even though it was very sluggish.
Huh, for the second build, I think it's possible it depends on what engine I'm using, as it seems fine with eSpeak except I am now seeing `<prosodyrate="200%">` and `</prosodyrate>` before and after each utterance. Let me restart both NVDA and game and try again before I answer your other question.
I don't think the utterance is less than two seconds, but I am bad at measurements. If the speech rate is slow enough though, it speaks without delay. Here's a recording of eSpeak NG set to 25 boost. I don't know how to interrupt with the very first build because arrowing is slow, but IIRC pressing Control in-game did work to silence.
@twynn Ah interesting, so the very first build didn't let you interrupt at all then. Sounds like the latest build is best - interrupts okay - but still not great for queued utterances due to the lag. Is that about right?
I think that's my understanding of things, yes. Let me try pr1-10 again though, as I possibly didn't restart both screen reader and game after install.
Hmm, maybe during the firs test, I interrupted before the second utterance was sent to NVDA, either by arrowing or pressing Control in-game, so it wouldn't have registered in the speech log. That's my only theory, though I don't know how factual that is.
@twynn Okay. Thanks for all your efforts. That gives me some data to work with, though I confess I'm still not sure what the solution will ultimately be.
@twynn I'm also fighting what I think is an NVDA bug here where it's supposed to have a way to indicate when an utterance has finished speaking, but sometimes, that just seems to hang forever instead. I need to look more into that as well.
If it's the NVDA SAPI I'm thinking of, the dev is a good friend. I can contact him if that helps. Thanks for developing it, it will be useful for some trickier and older games and possibly tons of legacy software too. What would happen if one tried to generate speech with it through, say, Balabolka or other software for saving speech output to audio files?
With today being Christmas, here is your annual reminder to be nice to newbies in your spaces.
There is going to be a very sudden influx of people who are just getting into the spaces you occupy because they got a gift that acts as their gateway into that activity. Maybe you're into photography and someone just bought them their first ever camera body, or you're into music and someone bought them their first guitar, or you're an audiophile and someone bought them their first really nice headphones, or you're big into TTRPGs and someone just bought them their first ever core rulebook.
Whatever the specific activity and gift, these people are going to have no idea what they're doing, they're going to ask a lot of obvious questions, they're going to make a lot of rookie mistakes, and there's going to be a lot of them.
I cannot stress this enough: BE NICE TO THEM.
Few things will ruin someone's enjoyment of something faster than trying to join its community and getting such a rude first impression that their conclusion is "People who like this are kind of assholes. I don't think I want to do this if it's going to involve getting yelled at." Craigslist and eBay and FB Marketplace will be filled with mint condition gifts being resold to attest to this in the coming months.
You were there at the very first step once. Be the person for them that you wish you had back then. (Or if you were lucky enough, the person you did have who fostered your love of it!) Make this something they'll love just as much as you do, not something they'll want to sell and get away from as soon as possible.
Be the reason this Christmas starts a lifelong passion for them, not the reason they decide to abandon something that they would've loved because people made them feel bad for needing a helping hand.
Can you imagine if the billionaire tech bros were spending all their energy developing solutions to clean the planet and distribute resources better instead of incessantly enshittifying our lives and trying to devaluate labour?
What a different world that would be. I wish them all a Ghosts-of-Christmas experience.
This is our third Christmas as a couple, our second Christmas in Yukon, and our first Christmas as mr. and mrs. Erven. Merry Christmas to all. @alyssa6595
The 2024 Annual Hope Valley Carol sing, submitted to us by @jcast, is already in progress, immediately followed by the Lessons and Carols service @coasterfreak88 submitted.
@Friendica Support i really wish there was another option for having a dark theme in #Friendica. i would like having a multi-shade black / charcoal page, with lavender / violet accents, but so far have not found a way to achieve it (note, for many years i used to use the #Stylus AddOn, with which i created numerous custom themes for many sites, but a year ago i disabled it & others as part of my desire to begin minimising all non-essential AO attack surfaces). Though in many ways using #DarkReader for Friendica is quite good, overall i tend to eschew it being on for this site, coz it hides that handy temporary shading highlight of posts in a thread for which a Notification was received.
The small number of current dark themes offer me a rather unappealing colour choice.
The custom theme option initially excited me, til i realised, afaict, it is based on the Light theme, with no Dark theme option, so that all the dialogue boxes & dropdown menus remain eye-piercingly bright white, that hurts my eyes. The least-worst i could conjure was
but as mentioned, too much blinding white remains.
inevitably then, i keep returning to the so-called Black theme, but it is... quite boring. the entire page is simply all a single "shiny" black tone, with my chosen accent relieving the monotony. compare this to the so-called Dark themes, to see the difference; they use different shades of the base colour, which is more visually appealing, creating a "panelled" effect.
@Droppie [opensoc] is this your own instance do you have access to all the files if so go to view themes and open up the style CSS for the theme you're using and look for all the colors are and change them through the code it takes a lot of trial and error to get it quite right then save it as a new theme in a new folder move everything else to that folder along with that style then enable it in admin go back to your settings select your new theme and you should have what you want again it takes a bunch of trial and error and a little bit of time to go through it and do it I had done that a couple of times ended up going back to White but I've made all my icons green anyways if it's your own instance you can copy the style sheet like I said copy the entire thing over to a new folder under a new name or rename the current style is style x and your new one is the regular style
@Droppie [opensoc] Because I wasn't satisfied with the color theme, I created a GNOME variant. If theming weren't so complicated, I'd like to create a theme from scratch that's more dynamic for the end user.
Bluesky suspending antifascist researchers for sharing publicly available information about literal nazis.
Should be no surprise considering bsky constantly protects nazis, the far right, and all flavors of bigotry at the expense of Palestinians and trans women.
Fortunately, their information already spread so far and wide that at least half of the Blood Tribe nazis lost their jobs following the mass doxx. Chris Pohlhaus, leader of BT, estimated financial losses at over $2 million lol. Happy holidays!
This is a repository of apps to be used with your F-Droid client. Applications in this repository are official binaries built by the original application developers, taken from their resp. repositories (mostly Github, GitLab, Codeberg).
I suspect far too many of us are trapped in cycles of escape that consume all our time, attention, and energy rather than the things we would like to create.
I'm hooked on watching hours of YouTube videos, and I justify it by clinging to the positive that is that it feeds my 'random number generator' and allows my brain to do a lot of thinking in the background.
But I have all sorts of projects that I'd like to develop and work on that I never seem to have the time or energy for.
I talk myself out of blocking time for things because my attention might be called away or I will spend the next 82 hours working on it because of hyper-focus.
I'm personally averse to routine, and that's something I'm working to change, or at least do in moderation.
Then, I feel overwhelmed and reload the YouTube tab, and queue up another video.
Usually when Christmas is over, I instantly cut the Christmas music with a click. This has been the case for years. This year, what I will do instead is disable it, re-enable the normal music, then let the Christmas music empty itself from the queue. This way, rather than closing out with a bang, we slowly return to normality. Hopefully this keeps the spirit going for a bit longer, without an abrupt ending.
During the year’s busiest season of charitable giving, donors may wonder whether the nonprofits they are considering donating to are going to be good stewards of their money.
As I write this, I'm still waiting for a present from my Mum, which won't arrive today as no snail mail is delivered on Christmas Day, but I am definitely happy with the gifts I have opened so far, namely two chocolate oranges, my favourite British sweet treat.
There's a video of someone enjoying with family or possibly friends that needs deleting in the WhatsApp group FYI, and you're god damn right it is a Christmas film.
Today I learned why Sonata #TTS created a framework to run AI voices outside of #NVDA. First, NVDA doesn't come with all of the #Python standard libraries. Second, there's no good way of updating dependencies in a bundled addon. Third, NVDA really, really hates it if you include several hundred dependencies in your addon. Anyway, here's kitten TTS, the other synthesizer I wanted to try with NVDA. Unfortunately, the model doesn't support streaming output, so even though it's actually faster than Supertonic, it feels slower when used with NVDA. Also, it takes several minutes to install, makes NVDA startup 30 seconds slower, and freezes the change synthesizer dialogue for about 45 seconds when you open it. It does miss words less frequently, though, and pronounces text better. The ultimate result of my two-day investigation is that even the highly optimized open-source AI imbedded models are not yet ready for screen reader use. Some tree-shaking could fix some of these issues, but it still won't allow for streaming, so it's not worth it. I'd really like to know what Microsoft and Narrator are doing to get the natural voices so snappy. github.com/fastfinge/kittentts-nvda/#screenreader
![Reddit post from r/shittymoviedetails: In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Kevin meets [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in the [REDACTED] of the [REDACTED] [REDACTED]. This is [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED].
Attached is a photo of [REDACTED] [REDACTED] guiding Kevin McCalister to go [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in the [REDACTED] [REDACTED].](https://fedi.ml/photo/preview/640/741495 "Reddit post from r/shittymoviedetails: In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Kevin meets [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in the [REDACTED] of the [REDACTED] [REDACTED]. This is [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED].
Attached is a photo of [REDACTED] [REDACTED] guiding Kevin McCalister to go [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in the [REDACTED] [REDACTED].")
Scott
in reply to Drew Mochak • • •Winter blue tardis
in reply to Drew Mochak • • •