mastodon - Link to source

My (public) weekly emails celebrate three years today. The fact that almost 500 subscribers willingly want my nerdy details every week fascinates me. I love you. 💚

daniel.haxx.se/blog/2023/01/10…


My weekly report on email

Starting this week, you can subscribe to my weekly report and receive it as an email. This is the brief weekly summary of my past week that I have been writing and making available for over a year already.
daniel.haxx.se
This entry was edited (6 days ago)
in reply to Seedy!

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@cubic nah, they're definitely the same variant/ voices. It's a bit more static when I go back to the original crappier softvoice driver, but setting pitch to 4 on the new one makes the voice have the same tone and tambor. So not sure. Those variants are internally stored. Of course it's easy to make any voice clip if you manually mess with the NVDA exposed controls, they are mostly there for fun or customizing a variant - but some settings don't match with the variant you chose so then it can't apply properly. So, not much else to do, this is probably as good as it'll get, which is to say, better than the prior NVDA driver.
@Seedy!
in reply to Seedy!

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@cubic oof. well I made a 2025.3.6 version of the driver at htttps://eurpod.com/softvoice-2025.nvda-addon. It's weird because for me, robot and martian sound actually robot and monotone.
Quick “is it fixed?” test you can run in NVDA
1. Set pitch to something obvious (ex: 9) while on Male.
2. Switch to a custom personality (Martian/robotic/etc).
3. Speak a sentence.
It should not keep the high pitch because we reapply that variant's own pitch there.
@Seedy!

gotosocial - Link to source

En Leonieke, wat doe je dan eigenlijk met al die borduren die je de afgelopen jaren hebt gemaakt?

Eh, ja, die zitten (al dan niet netjes) opgerold in diverse theedoeken.
Bij sommige borduren heb ik een ontvanger in mijn hoofd, maar bij anderen? Ik vond ze leuk om te maken, maar na een paar jaar is het wel duidelijk dat ik er verder niets mee doe.

Dus ... in de aanbieding, gratis te ontvangen, incl. verzending binnen Nederland, de volgende borduren (niet allemaal gesigneerd/gedateerd, want ja, beetje lui). :embroiviki:

1/n

#LeoniekeBorduurt #borduren #PointDeCroix #CrossStitch #embroidery #FiberArts #LTA26

#embroidery #crossstitch #fiberarts #leoniekeborduurt #borduren #pointdecroix #lta26
in reply to daughter of lilith

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

@marta Android's lifecycle management basically recreates the entire activity ("app screen") when a device gets rotated because the "screen size changes".

It's 100% on me. It's much easier to prevent now, but it's very old legacy code so needs a rewrite. However as solo dev of a hobby project I have to pick priorities and make sure it stays fun so I can keep going so I just haven't gotten to it.

Part of me just hopes someone else comes along and fixes this code for me so I don't have to 🙈

@daughter of lilith

mastodon - Link to source

In the USA, in most states, you can get a restricted driver's license at age 16.
Anyone who is born today, and is qualified to get such a license, is three years younger than the original iPhone.

Quite frankly, it scares me that there will be people driving who were not even a thought of a thought when the first iPhone was announced, possibly with older siblings who also were not around at the time the iPhone was released, who might be in their first or second year of college by now, but here we are.

This entry was edited (6 days ago)
in reply to Jeffrey D. Stark

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@jstark Sometimes though change happens because people did work on the inside. When Microsoft decided to add MSAA (Microsoft Active accessibility) to Windows, it wasn't because there was a lawsuit, but we had people like Kelly Ford and others working inside to make change happen. Wouldn't call that one fear-based, although perhaps pressures by orgs did help that come along, since people were so concerned about transitioning from DOS to Windows. But I definitely know that that one wasn't lawsuit, but in 1997, primarily due to pressure from disability advocates and government agencies. @yatil
@Eric Eggert @Jeffrey D. Stark
in reply to Tuta

mastodon - Link to source

Tuta

Hi there, new accounts can get disabled if they are marked as possible mass signups and need manual approval. As a private email service, we do not ask for phone numbers or any other personal information so we must be very strict with this which can lead to the fact that real users get locked out. If this is the case, please contact our support at hello@tutao.de, and we'll be happy to look into this and approve the account.
in reply to Tuta

mastodon - Link to source

egg_shapped_egg

oh, my bad. I thought that fediverse accounts, and content was accessible across multiple instances 🤷

Your reply is fair and has been mentioned by the OP too. It also is the point of the discussion

I have a paid account with you so I feel like it won't be an issue for me. It's just sad if new users are discouraged from using Tutanota based off one users experience who got flagged as spam

mastodon - Link to source

I went to trans swimming last night and it was amazing.

Trans swimming happens weekly in two public swimming pools in London, one in South London, one in North East London. Each sets aside a pool for trans and gender diverse swimmers, we get our own changing room, and we have 90 minutes allocated in the evening where the pool is exclusively ours.

It is amazing.

I've been multiple times, but seeing the joy on every face to swim regardless of top surgery scars, bulging bikini bottoms, or even topless (pre surgery mascs and early HRT femmes).

But no one cares about the bodies... This is what makes it amazing. People just swim, splash, do handstands, snog, do lengths... It's just this really amazing safe space.

I can't describe how big a deal it is to feel this safe, and to have this space, and to do an activity that has such fear associated to it (trans person in a public pool and changing rooms).

If there's trans swimming near you, go swim! If you're near or in London, join us! If you're in London DM me for the WhatsApp group details for trans and gender diverse swimming.

This entry was edited (6 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Friends, this is the coolest thing I have ever seen and you should see it too. A guitar amp labelled entirely in braille. #accessibility #blind #blindness #braille
#Accessibility #blind #blindness #braille
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

The #blog post "A year of work on the ALPM project" has been released:

devblog.archlinux.page/2026/a-…

#ArchLinux #OpenPGP #RustLang #SovereignTechFund #STF #VOA #devblog


A year of work on the ALPM project

An overview of the work done on the ALPM project in 2024 and 2025.
Arch Linux Dev Blog
#blog #openpgp #archlinux #RustLang #SovereignTechFund #stf #devblog #VOA
This entry was edited (5 days ago)

Peter Vágner reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

New year new #introduction!
My name is Ana! I’m an #artist with a #ComputerScience background working on a #GraphicNovel about #Latvians during #WWII.

I post a lot about #BlackMetal (my fav genre), #FountainPens and #journaling (my fav hobby). I read a lot of #fiction and #nonfiction, play a variety of #VideoGames (#Rimworld, #Balatro, #Diablo4)

I’m also currently learning #ClassicalGuitar

Don’t be shy, say hi!!

A selfie of me smiling at the camera. I have jet black hair that is shoulder length and side swept, and I’m wearing black lipstick and a black t-shirt that has the logo for the band Antrisch
#introduction #videogames #fiction #computerscience #artist #fountainpens #WWII #nonfiction #rimworld #graphicnovel #Latvians #blackmetal #journaling #balatro #Diablo4 #classicalguitar
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

mastodon - Link to source

I've just open-sourced a native macOS @matrix client that I've been working on! github.com/viktorstrate/mactri…

It is built with #swiftui and #MatrixRustSDK

A screenshot of the app showing a three column layout with a list of rooms and spaces to the left, the main chat in the middle and details about the chat to the right.

GitHub - viktorstrate/mactrix: Native Matrix client for macOS

Native Matrix client for macOS . Contribute to viktorstrate/mactrix development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
#swiftui #matrixrustsdk @The Matrix.org Foundation

reshared this

in reply to Borris

mastodon - Link to source

Jayson Smith

Well here's a recording of a disk being formatted, from the perspective of leakage from the cassette output jack. As the drive is running, you hear a really low noise which is almost certainly derived from the motor, then sounds an octave higher than they should be derived from the head being moved. Also since I assume what you're really hearing are the impulses controlling the stepper motor and not the actual head movement, you don't hear the loud buzz once it reaches track zero. Also at the end, once the format is complete, it goes to track 17 to write the Volume Table of Contents, then to track 2, then 1, then 0 to write DOS, but then I hit Ctrl+Reset to interrupt it before it can finish going back to track 17 to write the Hello program.

Borris reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
In my quest to keep all my possibilities open in the world where all of the operating systems seem to get worse in different ways in accessibility, usability and privacy, I decided to also set up my mac as secondary system, complementing my main Windows setup.
So last night, I nuked my mac drive and reinstalled macos. its definitely running way smoother than before, when it was running a setup from 2015, most likely riddled with gunk from the intel era. On boot, VoiceOver was stuttering, virtual machines failed to run properly and in general the m1 system wasn't as snappy as it should've been. The current goal is to set up parallels with windows 11, as we all know, VoiceOver can't be used seriously for many text processing or web tasks, things which I do a lot.
There are definitely oddities. Don't know if its because apple is vibecoding MacOs now, but for example, the option to disable function row and return it to f1 f2 f3, is only findable via the system settings search, nowhere in the settings itself. You will have to search for "function keys" which is when the option pops up in results.
And I am not envying first time macos users. I mean most of the time it fails to focus the setup screens properly, so you have to use the VO F1 command to find the window. A command I bet most first time users have no idea about.
I had to set up dropbox 5 times, because the first 4 times, dropbox decided to crash when a system permissions dialog showed up.
still, windows does equally stupid things, so its not like there's something better around.
This entry was edited (6 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source
I was today years old when I figured out that the Windows 9x SB16 OPL3 MIDI driver is tuned to 437.5 Hz. In the replica source code that is part of the user mode Windows OPL3 drivers, there are two notable constants in opl3midi.h. These are opl_samplerate = 50000.0 and opl_tune = 440.0. As the actual OPL3 sample rate is 49716 Hz, setting this value as a constant results in 440 Hz tuning. I gradually reduced the tuning constant by .5 until I got null tests with the original code to result in total silence.
in reply to Tamas G

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

new: SoftVoice NVDA Driver (softvoice-2025.nvda-addon) version 2025.3.3: Adds "use abreviations" checkbox.
Since SoftVoice itself does not have a way to toggle or control this, we hack around it by splitting all-capital letters to have spaces for the engine. It's a crude hack, not ellegant, but I'll call it for "it works."
eurpod.com/softvoice-2025.nvda…
This entry was edited (6 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source
SoftVoice (mostly) modernized for NVDA 2025 versions. The only pesky problem I can't get rid of is pauses during say-all, but "pause factor" does improve pauses mid-utterance, which is nice.
Pitch, variants all work. Slight speed boost with wrapper as we now capture Wave output ourselves and pipe to NVDA.
eurpod.com/softvoice-2025.nvda…
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

Andre Louis reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

Minnesota state says the FBI is blocking it from investigating the killing of Renee Good.

& while Vance said Good had aimed her car at the officer, "the NYT published a slow-motion analysis showing how her vehicle was turning away from the officer" when he shot her.

Mayor Jacob Frey said “Kristi Noem watched the videos & doesn’t want an impartial investigation, because she knows her narrative about domestic terrorism is bullshit.”

democracynow.org/2026/1/9/head…

#ICE #USPol #Europol #ReneeGood .


The Killing of Renee Good: Minnesota Officials Fear Cover-Up After FBI Halts Cooperation with State Investigators

Protests continue across the country over the killing of Renee Good, the mother of three shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Good was shot inside her car after she dropped her 6-year-old son off at school.
Democracy Now!
#uspol #ice #europol #reneegood

mastodon - Link to source
Motif folks, got a question about the John Mellos or however his name is spelled, motif editors. I have a Rack XS module and a 3I3 midi interface. I assume the module needs to be plugged in to an in and an out to take care of rreading data from the user banks so I can browse/play sounds. But I need one of those ins on the midi interface for my wind controller. Can the librarian or whatever program you use to browse/play sounds let you select more than 1 midi in?

mastodon - Link to source
I was registering for an account on my new health plan. one of the questions asked me what agency I worked for. I had to pull down a to find fmy agency and for some reason mine wasn't listed. Ice and CBP were listed though, and my body had a physical feeling of nausea when I read just their names. They are needed agencies, and in the past, I would still be proud to work near there little umbrella. Now, it sickens me that I work within the huge governmental system that includes them. I do good work for my customers, war fighters and those who support them who need assistive technology. I have pride in what I do. Maybe I should lean into my feelings that I do good for some and that I don't work for the tiny percent that do not help others or treat them like we are distant brothers and sisters. I pledged that I would protect and support the constitution, and that I would reject enemies and wrong both foreign and domestic. I am proud of that oath and what it means to me. Still sad we're where we are at these days, dealing with polarization, politicization at all levels, and untruths that tell us not to believe what oour eyes and ears are sensing. Deep down, I know that I do right in all that I do at work and at home. My integrity is core to what and who I am. That is all. Thank you for your attention to these matters.

mastodon - Link to source

#eduroam has been named one of the 13 Dutch brilliant breakthroughs by the Dutch Research Council (NWO)

Created in 2002 by Klaas Wierenga, eduroam started as a simple idea: make Wi-Fi secure, easy & free for students and researchers, wherever they go.

Today, eduroam connects people at almost 40,000 locations in 106 countries. In 2024 alone, it recorded over 8.4 billion authentications.

👏 Congrats to all its contributors from the R&E community for building a service with such global impact.

global map of eduroam hotspots
#eduroam

mastodon - Link to source

The scale of the unrest now gripping Iran is the largest since the demonstrations of 2009;

Some veteran Iran-watchers reckon the protests are the biggest since the overthrow of the shah in 1979.

What began as scattered demonstrations on December 28th
swelled over 12 days into crowds of many thousands by January 9th.

Protests that first flared in provincial towns and villages spilled into Iran’s biggest cities.

All 31 provinces have been affected.

Women, the middle-aged and middle class
—who until now had stayed on the sidelines
—joined the young and jobless men.

economist.com/middle-east-and-…

mastodon - Link to source

Hot take: good riddance. I dislike the middle click thing. Trips me up all the time as someone who accidentally clicks it when scrolling.

I think the right move is to make this (undoubtedly useful to some) behavior opt-in, not opt-out.

A lot of the gripes I see are just people being mad because GNOME makes choices they don't like. I don't understand why people write like this about GNOME, if you don't like it don't use it, your emotions make you look petty, etc etc.

theregister.com/2026/01/07/gno…


GNOME dev gives fans of Linux's middle-click paste the middle finger

Opinion: Proposal targets long-standing behavior as 'an X11ism'
Liam Proven (The Register)
in reply to Veronica Explains

mastodon - Link to source

Nix Inch Nails🐀

This is unfortunately expected from Liam Proven, same guy who gave us an "amazing" article lying that KDE/GNOME/Wayland developers, as a whole, do not care about accessibility, whos whole output to the Linux community has been shitty ignorant article after shitty ignorant article

He is, in the nicest way possible, a hack writer and one of those "anti-DEI" assholes, But what do I know, im just one of those evil GNOME devs making linux evil and woke for my own profit

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Nix Inch Nails🐀

mastodon - Link to source

TheEvilSkeleton 🇮🇳 🏳️‍⚧️

@zoeyTheWitch don't forget about the blatant ageism

> As we have said before, we suspect this disconnect between younger, keener developers who don't know or care about late 20th century user interface standards or accessibility concerns, but who strongly want to junk what they perceive as legacy baggage, are behind the moves to deprecate and remove X11

theregister.com/2025/06/10/xli…

@vkc


Forked-off Xlibre tells Wayland display protocol to DEI in a fire

Updated: Project to modernize the X.org X11 server seems to actively court controversy
Liam Proven (The Register)
@Veronica Explains @Nix Inch Nails🐀
⇧