mastodon - Link to source

Today being World #Braille Day, I acknowledge that to most, it's a series of random-seeming dots on elevators or ATM's. To me, and other #blind people, it's the gateway to literacy, education, and success.

My parents made me learn it and print simultaneously, suspecting my usable vision wouldn't last forever. They were right.

But thanks to Braille, I'm functionally literte, and I attribute much of my life's personal and professional success to this dotted code.

#blind #braille

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source
Introducing Whack A Braille! A new Blind-first and a11y-first audio-based game aimed at increasing typing skills and #Braille literacy. Multiple game and input modes, fun sounds, and you earn tickets with each round that you can use to get silly prizes when you cash out at the Prize Counter! Practice your Perkins typing with the home-row setting and your grade 2 symbols and word signs. I'm still iterating, but enjoy this initial release. Go whack some moles! marconius.com/fun/whackABraill…

Whack a Braille!

Whack a Braille is a braille-first arcade game where fast fingers, sharp ears, and solid braille skills win tickets and prizes.
marconius.com
#braille

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

What the EU fails to achieve, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain and Uruguay are succeeding in doing.

This evening, they issued a statement condemning the aggression against #Venezuela as contrary to international law and warning against ‘leading’ the country in order to exploit its resources.

Full text:

Statement from Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay regarding the events in Venezuela

Presidency of the Government - 4.1.2026

The Governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay, in light of the gravity of the events that have occurred in Venezuela and reaffirming their adherence to the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, jointly express the following positions:

1. We express our deep concern and rejection of the military actions carried out unilaterally on Venezuelan territory, which contravene fundamental principles of international law, particularly the prohibition of the use and threat of force, and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. These actions constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and endanger the civilian population.

2. We reiterate that the situation in Venezuela must be resolved exclusively through peaceful means, through dialogue, negotiation, and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people in all its expressions, without external interference and in accordance with international law. We reaffirm that only an inclusive political process, led by Venezuelans, can lead to a democratic, sustainable solution that respects human dignity.

3. We reaffirm the character of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, built on mutual respect, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and non-intervention, and we call for regional unity, beyond political differences, in the face of any action that jeopardizes regional stability. Likewise, we urge the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Member States of the relevant multilateral mechanisms to use their good offices to contribute to the de-escalation of tensions and the preservation of regional peace.

4. We express our concern regarding any attempt at government control, administration or external appropriation of natural or strategic resources, which is incompatible with international law and threatens the political, economic and social stability of the region.

The signatory countries:
Brazil,
Chile
, Colombia
, Spain
, Mexico
, Uruguay

Source: lamoncloa.gob.es/serviciosdepr…


Comunicado de España, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, México y Uruguay frente a los hechos ocurridos en Venezuela

domingo, 4 de enero de 2026. La Moncloa. 04/01/2026. Comunicado de España, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, México y Uruguay frente a los hechos ocurridos en Venezuela [Prensa/Actualidad/Presidencia del Gobierno]
www.lamoncloa.gob.es
#Venezuela
Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

Sina Bahram

@PinkSnowFlake I will say, we need those disfluencies, though. Things like uhm, urr, etc. are language/region defining and are necessary for actual natural sounding speech. It's just that they are currently done super-badly. But let's be fair, 10X better than even 3 years ago, so it's getting there. I remember the first time I heard a TTS smile. IBM did a demo of the sentence, "These cookies are delicious!". This was over a decade ago. It's geting there.
in reply to victor tsaran

mastodon - Link to source

Sina Bahram

@PinkSnowFlake Totally agree. Although, what really bothres me is the downward sweeping tone/mumble that happens ocasionally. That really makes the OpenAI Soul voice in particular sound drunk. The best I've heard is either ChatterBox or VibeVoice, but even those are just so not just there yet. Fingers crossed that 2026 will yield a proper open source TTS with emotional queues.

mastodon - Link to source
kink, connected sextoys, nerds stuff, nerds stuffed

Sensitive content

mastodon - Link to source

Today 4th January is World Braille Day

Braille is often thought of as being outdated & not used because there's technology instead, however, I personally know people who still use it.

They use tech, but there's cases where braille gives autonomy & confidence faster & easier than with tech.

Last year Spain made it mandatory for accessible labels on products, braille and/or QR codes, especially on products where it's needed for safety, integrity & quality of life.

foodiesonmenorca.com/en/blog/b…


Braille must be incorporated into the labelling of products and consumer goods braille labelling

www.foodiesonmenorca.com

mastodon - Link to source

Sensitive content

mastodon - Link to source

Liebes #Fediverse,

genug von #Zoom und #MSTeams?

Zum ersten #DiDay 2026 möchte ich zum Austausch über offene #Videokonferenz-Tools einladen!

🗓️ 04.01.2026
🕔 17:00–18:00 MEZ
📍meet.opentalk.eu/room/e05f049b…

Ich stelle einen #OpenTalk-Raum zur Verfügung und möchte damit gleichzeitig einen Stresstest machen (bis zu 200 Teilnehmer:innen gehen rein, daher teilt und boostet, so viel ihr könnt)! Ihr braucht nur einen Browser – und Zeit.

#39c3 #dutgemacht #ididit #digitalesouveranitat #opensource

OpenTalk

OpenTalk, a friendly video chat
meet.opentalk.eu
#opensource #fediverse #zoom #msteams #videokonferenz #digitalesouveranitat #opentalk #ididit #dutgemacht #39c3 #diday
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Happy Birthday to #InstantMessaging and #RealTimeCommunication with #XMPP!

Emerged from the #Jabber #community in 1999 and originally designed to provide an open and #decentralised alternative to #ICQ and #MSN, XMPP evolved to an independent alternative for todays #chat apps.
#rtc #whatsapp #signal

The XMPP logo with celebration and crown emoji
#xmpp #signal #whatsapp #Jabber #chat #community #decentralised #rtc #instantmessaging #icq #msn #realtimecommunication

mastodon - Link to source

#Catima 2.41.3 is out

github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Andro…

This builds on the hotfix in 2.41.2 to also fix .pkpass files explicitly stating ISO-8859-1 as format.

It also forcibly sets the barcode format of all existing cards to ISO-8859-1 on upgrade. This used to be the only format supported in Catima, so this reverts any sudden barcode changes.

We may need another bugfix release to get this all right. If you understand UTF-8, *please* join in in github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Andro….


2.41(.1) breaks Deutschlandticket Aztec code

STR Scan your source pkpass/website with https://zügli.app/ to verify the D-Ticket works. Import pkpass file. Click save without changing the binary data shown there. Scan it from Catima with https...
rugk (GitHub)
#catima
in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

Those of you who use the #Deutschlandticket are likely affected in 2.41.0 - 2.41.2. And scanning a Deutschlandticket with your camera or from a PDF file (not using a .pkpass file) will likely not work correctly.

The current workaround for both cases is to manually set the "Barcode encoding" field in the card setting to "ISO-8859-1".

Not currently sure how to fix scanning Deutschlandtickets with the camera without breaking the issue 2.41.0 was meant to fix by adding barcode encoding support :(

#Deutschlandticket
in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

I decided to just quickly release 2.41.4 and disable the automatic barcode encoding detection for now. Breaking Deutschlandticket is definitely one of the worst things that could have happened and I don't want people to get stranded in Germany.

github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Andro…

I've asked @IzzyOnDroid and linsui (from @fdroidorg) to get this release out more quickly if possible: github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Andro…

Coming soon to an app store near you.

#IzzyOnDroid #FDroid #GitHub #GooglePlay


2.41.4 · CatimaLoyalty Android · Discussion #2942

Disable automatic barcode encoding detection for now (breaks too many cards) This discussion was created from the release 2.41.4.
GitHub
#fdroid #github #googleplay #izzyondroid @F-Droid @IzzyOnDroid ✅
in reply to 🍐Penglix🍐

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

Yes, from 2.41.0 - 2.41.3 Deutschlandticket is fully unusable based on the information I have. This includes Deutschlandtickets added to Catima before 2.41.0

In 2.41.4 both pkpass and scanned with camera Deutschlandtickets should work again as they did in 2.40.X and existing tickets will be fixed on installing the update with no user intervention needed.

Edit: 2.41.3 should deal with the pkpass correctly already, but 2.41.4 will fix also non-pkpass

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Saludos, estimados fediversenses:
Me asomo por quienes me habéis mencionado.
Primero, toda mi gratitud por vuestros mensajes y por el tiempo de preguntarse cómo lo estaba pasando.
En este momento estoy bien, dentro de la coyuntura que vive el país. Mi cercanía de zona militar y Fuerte Tiuna nos afectó de manera indirecta: un minuto antes del sobrevuelo se fue el servicio eléctrico. La interrupción nos dejó sin servicios básicos durante 31h.
En mi zona residencial se vive una calma singular. No hemos observado violencia. la información oficial que disponemos es la activación de un Estado de Conmoción Externa.
Hoy recibimos ayuda de mi compi de grado; mi núcleo lo constituye mi hermana y dos personas de la tercera edad con demencia que no pueden quedarse sin supervisión.
Somos docentes universitarias, nuestro salario mensual no supera los $10 (ya no tengo el empleo2), así pues, buscamos formas de resolver las necesidades más fundamentales y este amigo que es como mi hermano, nos ayudó para que mi hermana no saliera sola a las calles hoy.
Hay mucha desinformación y rumores, no voy a entrar en eso. Tampoco voy a hablar de política.
Mi resumen es que hemos vivido en casa 31 h muy difíciles; da igual cuanta narrativa use, no alcanzaréis a comprenderlo y estoy muy agotada para engancharme en explicaciones innecesarias. todavía tengo que evaluar (dependiendo de mis glucemias) si la insulina que pude comprar (gracias a la ayuda de amigos del extranjero) no se fastidió por la falla en la refrigeración.
Si os interesa mi experiencia, solo os puedo decir que no hay nada más duro que la incertidumbre y el miedo. En este momento hay que tener serenidad, paciencia y cautela. Evitar rumores y conclusiones precipitadas.

iceshrimp.net - Link to source
So one of the problems with automated #translation based on #AI is that it's in this weird, awkward place now where it's not good enough to seem native, but it is good enough not to be immediately obvious. I had forgotten I set my browser to automatically translate pages in several languages to English for me. Then I clicked on a #fanfic, read the first couple chapters, and was getting really annoyed why one character kept changing Gender's, and the name of a location wasn't consistent from chapter to chapter. Turns out the author was writing in #Spanish, I hadn't noticed the language tag, and when I clicked the browser just automatically translated without clearly telling me. Thank goodness I realized, just in time, before I posted a comment on her work pointing out the issues with writing quality and offering editing help! Yikes! That doesn't mean that I'm against Machine Translation or even think it's a bad thing. But as it gets better and better, and starts living in this awkward uncanny valley, we really need to carefully rethink user interfaces. Maybe disable all form inputs until the user clicks "I'm aware this was translated" somewhere? I had the comment all written, folks; I was that close to posting. Maybe put "translated from" in some obvious place like the title bar? I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that we need to be putting way more thought into it.
#AI #translation #spanish #fanfic
in reply to 🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦

mastodon - Link to source

Pitermach

The latest version of Mona can auto translate posts using Apple's on device translation models, and for me that feature was worth upgrading alone even if that doesn't yet do every language I want so I still need to do some manual translation. Anyway in that case it does clearly indicate when a post was auto translated. I suspect the browser does too on the screen but screen readers don't announce this. That could definitely be improved.
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Estoy viendo en Filmin una peli catalana con subtítulos en castellano. Pues bien, las canciones no están subtituladas.

Y me gustaría leer esos subtítulos (en español o en catalán), para hacerme una idea de lo que cantan.

Y quizá a un sordo que viera la peli también le interesaría.

¿Por qué es tan poco accesible el cine de este país?

#Accesibilidad
#filmin

#accesibilidad #filmin

mastodon - Link to source

I miss my old iOS lock screen that used to predictably show the time, date, any unread notifications, and that was it.

Sometimes it still does that(albeit with the date before the time), while at other times showing the full Notification Centre or a set of "media suggestions" and I haven't personally grasped exactly when it's likely to do what.

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source

On November 20th, women stop being paid compared to men.

This is the point in the year when,
on average,
women effectively work for free.

The gender pay gap is now 11.3%,
up from 10.7% last year.

It’s a stark reminder that while progress has been made,
gender pay inequality persists
- and may be higher than we thought.

fawcettsociety.org.uk/Pages/Ca…

Current projects

The Fawcett Society is the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights. Stand with us, join us today.
The Fawcett Society
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Ich bin aus Karlsruhe, neuhier und schaue mich noch um. Ich vermisse ehrlicherweise die Album-Funktion von Facebook, denn ich fotografiere gerne Kleinigkeiten hier und da. Meine vegan und häkeln Bubbles von Instagram suche ich hier auch noch 🔍 ☺️
#Fotografie
#Photography
#DIY
#häkeln
#vegan
#neuhier
#karlsruhe
Kran in schwarz-weiss
Pyramide auf dem Marktplatz, dahinter fährt eine Tram vorbei
Gottesauer Schloss
Staatstheater mit Banner: die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar
#diy #neuhier #photography #Vegan #fotografie #karlsruhe #hakeln
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Hi all, just wanted to note that the download links for the recent streams are now working properly! For the most part I'm still recovering from over 12 hours live after not streaming in years haha and thus it'll still be a couple days before some of the as yet unreleased things demoed on the streams start coming to fruition, but I'll still be doing a few things in the mean time here and there such as fixing these download links and hopefully soon slashing away at this audio chopping monster in Redspot a little.
in reply to TheFriedChip

mastodon - Link to source

Sam Tupy

@flyingpenguinMwauthzyx Currently I only tend to use mastodon and even then I don't appear very much other than for announcements and to check on messages, I've found that limiting my social media exposure can be a very good thing for me indeed. That being said especially as I release more products, I am preparing to probably return to the forum to some small degree as well.
@TheFriedChip

mastodon - Link to source
@amir Hi, please where can I find documentation on how to add words to an Eloquence dictionary? In particular, I want to correct the pronounciation of a few numbers such as 12 and 19 in Brazilian Portuguese. I need to know what file should I add the corrections to, e.g. main or root, and how to do it so that the correct pronounciation is used inside strings such as 12:14 but not when within bigger numbers such as 3124.
@Amir
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Amir

Hi. Unfortunately, there is no formal public documentation for writing Eloquence dictionary rules. What we know about them mostly comes from community reverse-engineering, existing dictionary files, and long-time practical use.
Regarding root versus main, the root dictionary is still language-specific, not global across all languages, so using something like pt_BR.root.dic is perfectly fine for Portuguese-only fixes. main is usually preferred for general word corrections, but for numbers and symbols the root dictionary is commonly used and works just as well.
Eloquence dictionaries rely on simple string matching rather than regexes or numeric logic, so there is no built-in way to express conditions like “only match 12 when it’s not part of a larger number”. Because of that, you can’t truly distinguish between 12 and 3124 in a single rule.
That’s basically the limit of what Eloquence dictionaries can do here, and some numeric cases simply can’t be handled cleanly at the dictionary level.
⇧