Fedex are liars. Shall ask the chatbot why?
#HappyNewYear China, but it's not Chinese New Year, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia-Bali, Brunei Darussalam, Australia- Perth, and most of Mongolia.
RimWorld videos are now in one nice playlist. Also Part 3 drops today for non-members. youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdv…
As 2025 comes to a close, we’re proud to reflect on a remarkable year for the GNOME community, one defined by innovation, global collaboration, and meaningful contributions from around the world.
# Major Software Milestone:
Our releases represent six months of dedicated work by our vibrant community.
I tried to enable the #GNOME screen reader (aka orca) to test the #accessibility of some application.
I have little experience with screen readers, but the GNOME experience after enabling the screen reader appears to be super bad. I can barely understand the voice. The speech synthesis is horrible, I have heard better in the 90s.
Is this the expected state of free software screen readers? How can I get something usable?
Wel yeeeah, Linux is by far not the best thing to test something for accessibility. I mean, if you want something to be accessible for the blind, the vast majority of us blindies use Windows and smartphones.
@menelion it really sounds like that you need to use commercial systems if you have to rely on a screen reader. In all honesty I had expected the situation to be better in the free software world. Not necessarily great, but at least somewhat usable.
As it stands out of the box you are basically lost. At best you need someone with vision and a lot of Linux administration experience to set something workable up for you. At least that's the impression I got.
André Polykanine reshared this.
that's it. Nice to talk to you because you are asking adequate questions and take adequate outcomes. Unfortunately, most of the FOSS developers are like… "You need accessibility? Fix it on your own". If you have some time, read this article. This man, the author, is very knowledgeable and he's also on Mastodon @fireborn: fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…
@menelion Thanks for the nice words. The article was very interesting. It even seems things have gotten worse in some areas.
To be honest, I can understand how especially screen reader accessibility is rather difficult for developers not currently affected by accessibility issues.
I have some experience with it from years ago, but not much. But I try to learn and improve.
Yes, and I'm sincere because you are one of the very small amount of people who talk to me like this. I even once heard things like "Let's first ditch Windows, and then make Linux accessible". They simply don't understand that for us screen reader accessibility is the same as a display and a mouse for everyone else. If you want to improve something, ask Aaron, he's far more knowledgeable in Linux world than me (I'm a Windows-and-SSH-to-Linux guy). Also, there is Orca mailing list (I don't know the address but you might google for it). There you can find Joanmarie Diggs, an absolute gem of development, the main person who is behind Orca and continues the fight for years and years. Everyone will be grateful if people like you help her.
@tragivictoria @fireborn I sincerely apologize to all of you who really make change to accessibility. I'm just super tired about this ending year's pressure. so often I heard "ditch GAFAM!!! Right now!!11!!" and faced hostility or indeference when I was telling this is *impossible* for us, even if I wanted to do it.
@menelion The only reason we have any accessibility at all is because Sun invested in it for their Solaris decades ago. Sadly corpos arent eager to invest in this.
@tragivictoria Absolutely! And that's why Joanmarie is there. I mean, now it's her own initiative, it seems, but initially she was hired.
@menelion This year it was revolutionary for me to discover "Piper" voices that can be used with Orca (instead of the default espeak voice): mastodon.social/@nekohayo/1150…
Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo) (@nekohayo@mastodon.social)
Attached: 1 video @joojmachine@ursal.zone Oh my god, Pied JUST WORKS! I can't believe my ears! :psyduck: I just installed Pied's flatpak package, let it install Piper, then downloaded the best English voice I could find ("Lessac", the basis for mos…Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo) (Mastodon)
This entry was edited (2 hours ago)
@nekohayo To be honest, those are also kinda meh, compared with what is available for other platforms.
For me, going from espeak's voice to the Pied "Lessac" voice for Orca, was like going from Earth to Mars. Sure I guess if you compare to what proprietary speech synthesis systems do nowadays it would be like going from Mars to Phobos, but that's a much smaller difference than Earth to Mars…
Let's do the math. Experts estimate it takes 10,000 #AI queries to match the energy of one single car trip across town.
I don't have a car. I don't drive. So, until you stop driving to the store, maybe don't lecture a #Blind woman about the 'environmental cost' of having a family photo or a cat picture described to her. My #Accessibility tool costs the planet less energy in a year than your car does in a week.
I don't have a car. I don't drive. So, until you stop driving to the store, maybe don't lecture a #Blind woman about the 'environmental cost' of having a family photo or a cat picture described to her. My #Accessibility tool costs the planet less energy in a year than your car does in a week.
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Question to screen reader users, just because I'm curious:
If I write using the occasional homophone, perhaps to make a pun, is that something that is completely lost to you, unless something clues you in to the fact that there might be spelling shenanigans going on?
For example, if I had posted the other day, "I can't wait to see Santa's slay!", would you just have assumed that that last word was "sleigh", and never noticed that it was "slay"? #accessibility #ScreenReaders
It depends, different users would give you different answers. I have a Braille display and often use a specific TTS that would make it different for me. So I personally have no difficulties.
#Blind #Linux #Accessibility / #a11y folks, I need a #ScreenReader #accessible #email client that supports calendar and contacts integration with #Outlook and #GoogleWorkspace. Thunderbird is out because I cannot find reliable instructions on connecting it to my Outlook contacts. Anyone who suggests that I should either switch back to Windows or use my phone for email will be playfully booped over the head with a pool noodle. Kidding. Seriously though, recommendations welcome. Thanks. #BlindMasto #BlindMastodon #BlindFedi #MailClient #EmailClient
On this last day of the year, I want to congratulate France for its termination of the ARENH law 🥳
This law, in full "Accès régulé à l'électricité nucléaire historique" or "Regulated access to historic nuclear electricity" was a law that was introduced in 2010 by the then French government under president Sarkozy, that ostensibly aimed to introduce an "energy market" in France.
It worked like this: EDF was forced to make available 100 TWh annually to third party companies that could buy this for a mere 4 cents per kWh. These companies then sold it for "market prices" to consumers. You'd be correct to think that this was a massive forced subsidy by EDF to create its own competition.
To add insult to injury EDF was then forced to buy back the energy that these companies couldn't sell, 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴.
Over the period that this law was in effect, from July 2011 to today, EDF accrued tens of billions of debt. Now that this law is expiring EDF can finally raise their prices, from 4 to 7 cents per kWh, and start investing again in new nuclear builds and pay off that debt.
It is perhaps hard to ascertain the intent of the lawmakers back in 2010, but this type of law would be ideal if you wanted to kill the nuclear sector, which almost succeeded!
Fortunately, this nightmare is now over and we now live in a world where the French value their nuclear assets and are set to expand it by building up to 14 more large reactors in the coming years.
Adieu ARENH 👋
More info on this law:
cre.fr/electricite/marche-de-g…
Accès régulé à l'électricité nucléaire historique (ARENH)
Le dispositif de l’accès régulé à l’électricité nucléaire historique (ARENH) a été instauré par la loi n° 2010-1488 du 7 décembre 2010 portant nouvelle organisation du marché de l’électricité (dite loi « NOME »).CRE
#HappyNewYear ... sorry, I meant to say Happy No Year. This timezone no longer exists. Forget I mentioned it. It was North Korea for a while there.
There's a new duplicity release that fixes some major regressions in password handling. I'm not really sure how I've unofficially become the person keeping it up to date in Tumbleweed, but I should get on it.
#HappyNewYear Eucla- Western Australia. Please also enjoy your odd timezone.
The whole point of society - all of this - is so that we are all enriched together, that collectively our lives should be better. We invented farms so folks wouldn’t starve.
But a couple thousand years ago a few assholes decided that personal enrichment is the most important thing. For the most part, we’re still going along with that bullshit.
The only way we survive is if we move back to shared enrichment. This coming year, think carefully about how you’re spending your money and labor.
This entry was edited (3 days ago)
#microsoft just sent me an email telling me an alert in Microsoft Defender needed my attention.
The alert was that my pc is fine, but that I'm able to protect 4 more devices.
I have a question ... DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO GET HACKED? Don't throw false positives at users like that, the f*** is wrong with you? 
#adpocalypse
I just noticed Deque changed its logo from the combined ‘D’ and ‘Q’ letterform (visually representing the pronunciation) to the ‘AI’ anus (or “AInus”) of the big LLM purveyors.
I bet this was for Deque’s 100% WCAG ‘AI’ coverage, which must be getting released today to honor its March promise.
More context for why I cite the bungholes of ‘AI’ grifters:
velvetshark.com/ai-company-log…
velvetshark.com/ai-company-log…
Why do AI company logos look like buttholes?
A humorous exploration of the uncanny resemblance between AI company logos and human anatomy. Discover why circular, gradient-based designs dominate the AI industry, and what this design convergence tells us about branding in tech.Radek Sienkiewicz (VelvetShark)
Happy New Year's eve! I am off until Monday so can read and just relax.
My nail tech rescheduled my appointment and I got my nails done last night instead of this Saturday which makes me happy. My nails have a magnetic polish undercoat of blue with a little pattern and a blue sparkle overlay. They are very festive.
Tonight we'll go out for an early dinner of Thai food and then I'll just read until I get tired. Maybe I'll make it til midnight, maybe I won't! Smile.
My nail tech rescheduled my appointment and I got my nails done last night instead of this Saturday which makes me happy. My nails have a magnetic polish undercoat of blue with a little pattern and a blue sparkle overlay. They are very festive.
Tonight we'll go out for an early dinner of Thai food and then I'll just read until I get tired. Maybe I'll make it til midnight, maybe I won't! Smile.
Sounds like it should be a nice evening. Thai food is always good. There's a Thai food truck a couple blocks from me, but it seems it's only open Friday and Saturday evenings right now. Maybe I'll order Chinese. Anyway, happy new year!
And caneandable is a nice name for a server!
And caneandable is a nice name for a server!
@MikeGorse Hi. chinese food is a good alternative. Yeah. I think the server name is fun. Anyway, happy New Year!
Some friends who live down the street from me asked if I'd install Pi-hole on their network after seeing how flawlessly it works here. So, earlier this week, I brought a Raspberry Pi over to their place that i'd configured here. I assigned a static IP address once it was on their network, and it was off to the races. The most difficult part is working with ISP-supplied equipment and the limitations therein. Lots of fun manual configuration of DNS and the like.
I might make this a weekend project. I have a pi here doing nothing. I'll need to make sure it won't negatively effect anything. If I remember correctly, this may cause our network extenders to no longer function.
I can already hear some fireworks through my street microphones in the distance. If nothing goes wrong, I might be able to actually share the stream for a while so you can listen to some fireworks at 12 AM German time. Not sure yet though. Need to setup my reverse proxi.
#HappyNewYear Japan- Tokyo, South Korea, Palau, Indonesia- Jayapura, East Timor.
As the year is closing by, I thought I will donate to the FOSS projects I'm using regularly. I chose 10 non-commercial projects to which I donated 10$ (or 10€) each, here is the list with a brief explanation:
- @Mastodon
- @openstreetmap
- Obtanium (github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium) - manage apps on GrapheneOS
- @freshrss - self-hosted RSS feed aggregator
- Read You (github.com/ReadYouApp/ReadYou) - RSS reader for Android
- Finamp (github.com/jmshrv/finamp/), @chaphasilor specifically - amazing Android client for Jellyfin media library
- Aegis (github.com/beemdevelopment/aeg…) - 2FA auth app for Android
- RethinkDNS (github.com/celzero/rethink-app) - intelligent DNS manager, VPN and Firewall for Android
- Syncthing (github.com/syncthing) - file synchronization app
- ntfy (github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy) - push notifications service I can self-host
Additionally I sent 10€ to @oscloud. I don't use their services regularly, but I like what they do (and enjoyed this years @openalt_konference streaming through @vhsky).
Thank to all working on #FOSS and making this world a better place!
GitHub - ImranR98/Obtainium: Get Android app updates straight from the source.
Get Android app updates straight from the source. Contribute to ImranR98/Obtainium development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
As I sit here listening to the coffee percolating it occurs to me that it’s already 2026 in #Australia and other places across the International Date Line. Happy #NewYear to everyone no matter where you are. May 2026 be a better year than 2025, which in many ways isn’t really a high bar to get over.
A long December, and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.
Anyway, happy new year! Hopefully, next year will be better for you.
Going to FOSDEM? Matrix enthusiast? There will be plenty of opportunity to see us!
Between the Decentralised Comm Devroom, our booth, and our hackathon, we will be here in full force!
Reminder that if you start #doctorwho The End of Time Part One tonight at exactly 11:38:41 PM, the Master will shout “Dinnertime!” at midnight
Happy New Year Mastodon!
Pues para terminar bien el año con una muy buena noticia: ya tenemos disponible en la App Store para iPhone mi última aplicación para leer libros: Vox libri apps.apple.com/us/app/vox-libr…
Vox libri App - App Store
Download Vox libri by Jonatan Chacon Barbero on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more games like Vox libri.App Store
reshared this
i'm sick and tired of things changing that I normally wouldn't care about. I don't wanna hear anything new about a ball drop or whatever, or my friends changing their plans last minute, or me not being able to do such and such or go wherever all the sudden even though I've planned for it to happen for a long period of time, I just want stuff to go as planned for five minutes I'm begging and pleading at this point I wanna finish my holiday break off at a good note and things aren't looking so good
#HappyNewYear Australia- Darwin, Alice Springs.
The Technological Genius reshared this.
my mom is helping me with my social media for my dj business advertising or whatever and I told her that I would prefer not to have an Instagram page because I don't agree with Instagram. we wanted to put emphasis on the fact that I'm blind so we can add some value for people hiring me and Instagram is a purely visual app and so I feel like it would be kind of counterproductive. so do you think that that's reasonable? because she told me that that's how I would get more advertising, and she knows what's best, and I need to expand outreach, but then again it's also my business that I'm running and I do not like Instagram as a platform
I think Instagram is kinda the Mastodon or Elten for Gen Z. It's difficult to describe, but yeah I think that a lot music-related stuff is also going on there, like artists connecting with their fans, posting stuff to their story, etc. People will probably check it more frequently or rather, specifically see your content if they follow you through the story rather than you know, dumb scrolling on TikTok or shorts. So I think for something like that IG might actually be useful, but I dislike Meta personally and have no account anymore. But there's the question whether you wanna stand with your values or try to gain attention. Since you guys use Meta anyway I guess go for it. I know several blind people using IG.
Last day of the year.
Am I the only one literally doing nothing on new Year’s Eve? like even considering just sleeping through like usual. The typical person spends this with their family, friends, or whatever sort of group, but honestly I'm not that kind of family person, my parents are going to friends but I don't see myself sitting around and eating for hours so well. Guess wasting my time nerding around in front of this computer, and recording some fireworks later. You know I'm actually bored of my own words at this point, I'm really not trying to make this sound like self-compassion all the time, but well, what can I say. It is how it is. I'm stuck in a weird state between hoping for 26, and not wanting to be naive and knowing stuff will probably stay the same.
This entry was edited (6 hours ago)
It's just another night. I don't do alcohol, am not big on people past a few who I already see daily, and like a quiet life. With respect, the only thing I would disagree with you on is that it's a bad thing. I'm sure many people love different ways of celebrating, and that's absolutely great, I'm all in favor of celebration/joy/pleasure. I hope everyone who enjoys partying does it for days and remembers it for decades. I'm overjoyed to see people happy doing that sort of thing. It just doesn't make me particularly happy to do it myself.
There's no point in going to bed in London because of the fireworks so I am staying up and will ring in the new year with some other bell ringers.
FLOSS #MaintainerLife public service advisory:
If you're filing a potential bug upstream in #GNOME, particularly on rapidly-improving apps like GNOME Calendar, please test the latest version, unmodified by third-parties. #Flatpak helps.
Don't come at me with a 4-years-old version cowboy-patched against our will by #Linux distros like Mint; I will send you downstream, like this: gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-c…
#FreeSoftware #OpenSource #QA #bugreporting #LinuxMint #Debian #Ubuntu #LTS #GNOMECalendar
Problems showing CalDAV event series with a modification with THISANDFUTURE set (#1526) · Issues · GNOME / gnome-calendar · GitLab
Affected version: 41.2 on Linux Mint 22 (Wilma) Bug summary A calendar event with...GitLab
don't forget about gitlab.com/linuxmint/pins/mint…
cc @linuxmint
Remove/replace links pointing to GNOME Calendar, and update branding (#1) · Issues · Linux Mint / pins / mint / gnome-calendar · GitLab
Being one of the core developers of GNOME Calendar, we do not support any of the versions provided and held back by Linux Mint. We would really appreciate...GitLab
#HappyNewYear Guam; Australia- Brisbane; Northern Mariana Islands.
@Piciok Schön, gell? Ich hab nun auch ein experimentelles MIDI Import Feature eingebaut. Muss ich in der ReadMe noch dokumentieren. Du hast ja vielleicht noch Files mit mono Nokia Töne liegen. Ich empfehle, mit zum Beispiel Quick Windows Sequenzer das Material vorzuschneiden und zu quantisieren.
@Piciok Wunder dich nicht: wenn du die Sequenzen mit der CPS abspielst, verschluckt die manchmal sehr kurze Töne. Wenn du den Code Plug dann aber aufs Gerät spielst, gibt dieses korrekt wieder.
Sensitive content
I'm searching for my boykisser pride flag that I forgot to remove on day 4. In the morning of day 5 it was already gone, and unfortunately L&F doesn't have it. It is marked with my name (bluemedia) and I would be thankful if it found its way back to me!
Boosts welcome 
Kennt sich hier jemand mit GitHub Repositories aus? Ich habe eine Readme Datei für mein Projekt hochgeladen, bei welcher allerdings alle mit Markup formatierten Überschriften nicht angezeigt werden, lediglich die Steuerzeichen werden dem Text vorangestellt und die Formatierung nicht umgewandelt. Was mache ich denn da falsch? github.com/DO9RE/OpenGD77Melod…
GitHub - DO9RE/OpenGD77Melody
Contribute to DO9RE/OpenGD77Melody development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
Ne, kein Blödsinn, das passiert.
Auf der Wikipediaseite kann man lesen, dass die Slashes Escape- Zeichen sind, die die Formatierung aufheben.
Auf der Wikipediaseite kann man lesen, dass die Slashes Escape- Zeichen sind, die die Formatierung aufheben.
I don't watch Linus Tech Tips. I'm not subscribed to their channel. I have, however, watched enough of their videos that the algorithm still sends me notifications about new videos.
Recently, there was something about a $2000 gaming PC. My first cynical thought was that it's just a short where Linus holds up a RAM stick, and it cuts to black.
do pätnásteho vyradíme na voľnobeh necháme sa viesť
UNIFI, 3 hours ago, jt: WiFi Impersonation Detected , U6 Mesh detected a third-party AP broadcasting UniFi Wireless on channel 153 with a signal strength of 39.
Hey, fool, that's another UniFi access point. Come on, you should know better than that. It's on the same controller and everything. Figure out your crap!
The main reason I'm probably not going to get it at the moment is my primary use case would be to use it at my parents place and they use the same SSID as me. I probably need to migrate myself to a new SSID over here as it is more difficult for them to change.
GNOME
in reply to GNOME • • •48 “Bengaluru”
We started 2025 with the release of 48 in march:
• Notification stacking: notifications from the same app are grouped into stacks, each of which can be expanded to reveal individual messages
GNOME
in reply to GNOME • • •• 48 includes a number of notable performance improvements. The most significant of these is the introduction of dynamic triple buffering.
• Image Viewer introduces a new image editing feature, which allows cropping, rotating and flipping images.
• The debut of Digital Wellbeing features: Screen Time Usage, Screen Limits and Break Reminders.
GNOME
in reply to GNOME • • •49 “Brescia”
This September, we officially shipped 49. Highlights include:
• A modern Video Player (Showtime) replacing the legacy Totem, designed for a sleek and distraction-free media experience
• Papers as the new default Document Viewer with enhanced usability across formats
GNOME
in reply to GNOME • • •• Redesigned and more accessible core apps like Calendar and Web with improved performance and features
• Expanded remote desktop capabilities, richer HDR wallpapers, and meaningful workflow improvements across the desktop environment
GNOME 49 is now rolling out across major distributions and will continue powering desktops into 2026.
GNOME
in reply to GNOME • • •# Community at the Heart
We also hosted and participated in key events this year that strengthened our global ties:
• GNOME Asia Summit 2025 in Tokyo, Japan: celebrating community growth and knowledge sharing across Asia.
• GUADEC 2025 in Brescia, Italy: our flagship annual conference that brought together contributors, maintainers, students, and partners from across the globe.
GNOME
in reply to GNOME • • •• GNOME LATAM 2025 Aguascalientes, Mexico: our LATAM community organised their annual conference. A space dedicated to collaboration, learning and discussion of Open Source in LATAM.
These gatherings fueled collaboration, nurtured new contributors, and helped shape the roadmap for future GNOME releases and initiatives.
GNOME
in reply to GNOME • • •# Thank You to Our Global Community
None of this progress would be possible without our contributors, volunteers, organizers, and users, including developers, designers, translators, mentors, and advocates.
Your passion and commitment to free software continue to drive GNOME forward.
Here’s to an even more innovative and inclusive 2026!
#GNOME #OpenSource #Community #GNOME49 #GUADEC2025 #GNOMEAsia #GNOMELatam #YearInReview