mastodon - Link to source

RE: hachyderm.io/@BenjaminHCCarr/1…

Für alle die sich Fragen ob wir es hier nicht etwas mit dem Datenschutz übertreiben.

Die #ICE in den USA nutzt eine App von #Palantir um Leute zum deportieren zu lokalisieren.

Die Daten dafür kommen u.a. aus dem Gesundheitsministerium.

Polizeiliche Überwachung mit #Palantir wurde für BW eingeführt und soll in Deutschland für weitere Bundesländer eingeführt werden.

(Edit/Nachtrag:)
Bericht dazu bei Netzpolitik: netzpolitik.org/2026/us-einwan…


US-Einwanderungsbehörde: Mit Palantir und Paragon auf Migrantenjagd

Die US-Einwanderungsbehörde ICE nutzt für ihre Massenfestnahmen zunehmend digitale Überwachungstechnologie. Ein berüchtigter Konzern liefert dafür das
netzpolitik.org
#palantir #ice
This entry was edited (14 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Nice, just made my first app with Claude Code, a swift UI app reminiscent of Babble from back in the day. You can type in text, select a language and a voice installed on the system, speak the text, export audio as .wav, and change volume, pitch, and speed. Only took me about 10 to 15 minutes to build. Very impressed. If anyone wants this I'm happy to upload the code and Apple Silicon binaries to Github.

mastodon - Link to source

Today on AppAddict - Tailscale: The Best Free App Most Mac Power Users Aren’t Using - Someone asked me to name the best free app available to Mac users in 2026. I didn’t hesitate before choosing Tailscale.

Tailscale is a VPN, but not in the usual sense. It’s a private, encrypted, identity-based network where your devices recognize each other no matter where they are. It uses... - appaddict.app/post/ailscale-th… - #Mac #macOS #Apple #AppAddict

The Tailscale App on my home computer

Tailscale: The Best Free App Most Mac Power Users Aren’t Using

Someone asked me to name the best free app available to Mac users in 2026. I didn’t hesitate before choosing Tailscale. Tailscale is a VPN, but not in the usual sense.
appaddict.app
#apple #MACOS #mac #appaddict

mastodon - Link to source

You’re not depressed, you just need:

- 8 hours of circadian rhythm appropriate sleep

- a diet that prioritizes protein

- aerobic and anaerobic exercise 3-5X a week

- electrolytes, creatine, methylated multi, caffeine and magnesium

- family/friends who love you

- 10 million dollars

#Humour #Sarcasm

#sarcasm #humour
This entry was edited (1 month ago)

mastodon - Link to source

I looked at the new Yamaha MGX series digital mixers. Not that I'm in need of an audio mixing console (I'm not these days), but they're new, and I wanted to see what they're all about. Looked pretty good, until "oh yeah, by the way, it has a 4.3 inch touch screen."
Yep, that's how you make me instantly uninterested in your product.

I have decided that if I ever can set up my studio again, I will just mix everything in the box, and then get a decent analog mixer for use with analog synths and outboard effects... but who am I kidding? That probably won't actually happen before I lose what hearing I still have left. Fun to think about though.

This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source

GNOME 50.alpha is released

Officially X11 free.

discourse.gnome.org/t/gnome-50…

#linux #gnome #wayland

Screenshot of GNOME 50.alpha built with GNOME tour open.

GNOME 50.alpha released

Hello, GNOME 50.alpha is now available. This is the first unstable release leading to the 50 series. Review the list of updated modules and changes. Use the official BuildStream project snapshot to compile GNOME 50.alpha.
GNOME Discourse
#linux #gnome #Wayland

mastodon - Link to source

Pete Hoesktra, everyone — #PuttingTheAssInAmbassador yet again. This guy cannot be declared *persona non grata* soon enough.

#CanPoli #USPoli #ElbowsUp #Never51

ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/we…


‘We do not need Canada,’ says U.S. Ambassador during Montreal visit

The U.S. ambassador to Canada, Peter Hoekstra, repeated during his stop in Montreal on Wednesday, President Donald Trump's claim that the United States doesn't need Canada.
CTVNewsMontreal.ca Staff (CTVNews)
#canpoli #uspoli #elbowsup #puttingtheassinambassador #never51
in reply to Hubert Figuière

mastodon - Link to source

Hubert Figuière

Relevant (not by me):

I Can Say Goodbye To Star Trek Because Star Trek Raised Me

aftermath.site/star-trek-skyda…


I Can Say Goodbye To Star Trek Because Star Trek Raised Me

Star Trek instilled in me many of the same values that are taught in houses of worship across the world, but in my faith, there is no God to judge or punish me—I learned how to rely on my own moral compass and inner strength.
Dylan Roth (Aftermath)

mastodon - Link to source
I really miss using a MacBook Air. My 2020 MacBook Air is not able to upgrade to Tahoe. I feel like it is really showing its age. I am interested as to how much better voiceover would perform on a new MacBook using the latest operating system. I usually mostly use it for work. I use the Messages app a lot because I text members of my team. I find that Google Chrome actually works better than Safari for most things that I do on the MacBook. Right now, I am bringing my windows computer back-and-forth from home to work. It works, but I don’t like the form factor of my PC as much as I did the MacBook Air. I don’t have the money to spend on it right now, but I am wondering if I should start saving and see what’s out there by the time the money comes in. If I had a nice new computer, and if VoiceOver was in better shape, I would love using the Mack.

mastodon - Link to source

“…the answer to so many of the issues that are raised isn’t just switching to a new streaming app. The point is to encourage people to be more active participants in local music communities and DIY cultural production, and to support independent music media, buy music directly from artists, and reject the idea that it’s a one-click solution.”

hearingthings.co/liz-pelly-on-…

#Spotify #Streaming #Music


Liz Pelly on the Impact of Her Anti-Spotify Book ‘Mood Machine’ and Where We Go From Here

“The point is to encourage people to reject the idea that it’s a one-click solution.”
Ryan Dombal (Hearing Things)
#music #spotify #streaming
in reply to Reilly Spitzfaden (they/them)

mastodon - Link to source

miki

People want to be able to click play and just listen to music. People want the ability to click a genre and listen to music in that genre, without having to actively choose what they listen to (kind of like what radio used to do in the old days, but without the useless banter, annoying commercials and the news, which they can get in other places). We can't change what people want. We can try giving it to them in a way that respects artists more. I think many people would pay 2x for their streaming service if they knew that the extra money was coming straight to artists, just as some people pay extra for vegan or locally-sourced or whatever. Trying to shift consumer behavior is futile, the market has spoken.

mastodon - Link to source
In a weird roundabout way, NOAA Weather Radio used Eloquence for its TTS from 2003 to 2016.
I've been playing with the recently discovered SAPI 5 version of Speechify, and it's basically a concatenative version of Eloquence. The speech rules and pronunciations are quite similar, and some of the files include references to the Delta programming language which Eloquence was originally written in.
in reply to Noah T. Carver 👨🏼‍🦯🇺🇦

mastodon - Link to source

Mohamed Al-Hajamy 💾

@NoahCarver Largely, yes. Though tags begin with \! instead of ` and some of them are modified from the originals, for example ts3, the radio pronunciation command, becoming tsR, the overall speech tag system is quite similar to Eloquence's, and it also accepts the same phonemes.
@NoahCarver
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@clv1 haha sadly it's not just "applying Espeak's pronunciations" - it's literarly writing the shape, openness, sustainance, ETC for each sound from scratch. Even if ESpeak gives us how it says something, the actual sound-wave generation still takes place by the IPA tokenizer, so ipa.py feeds the frames to the wave player to synthesize based on those formant variables. As such it's possible to go into data.py and modify yourself if you look up the exact symbol for that sound in the table, but it's a lot of tweaking work because there's about 15-20 parameters per sound and right now about 140 sounds mapped.
@Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

RE: stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/1…

Both Wikipedia and Drupal began on 15 January 2001. What an amazing day for the open web.

Stefan Bohacek

2026-01-15 14:07:05

mastodon - Link to source

"Today is also about helping others make sense of this moment by reminding the world of what we already know: that Wikipedia is the backbone of information online, and that humans are at the center of it."

diff.wikimedia.org/2026/01/15/…

#wikipedia #wikipedia25



Wikimania 2026

Wikimania is the annual conference celebrating all the free knowledge projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation – Wikimedia Commons, MediaWiki, Meta-Wiki,Wikibooks, Wikidata, Wikinews, Wikipedia , […]\n
Diff

mastodon - Link to source
I gave Pocket TTS a shot. It's a local AI voice that claims to run well on the CPU, so it's faster to generate output and doesn't require a GPU. The main problem with it is the same as with so many voices these days, AI or otherwise: punctuation. Periods and commas sound the same, and question marks aren't always noticeable. Parenthetical phrases sound odd, and the double dash isn't handled at all. I love seeing this field continue to move forward, but I have yet to meet an AI voice I like.

mastodon - Link to source
**UPDATE-very grateful that volunteer has been procured!
I'm looking for someone in #Canada (preferably #Alberta ) who would be willing to receive (by mail) TWO different Apple 6.08 800k boot disks to see if you can boot your Mac Plus or SE from them. They simply get immediately ejected on my Mac Plus and this would help me troubleshoot the drive (which i've recently replaced). I will of course pay for shipping both ways. I live in Canmore, Alberta #retrocomputing
Picture of two 800k boot floppies for Mac OS 6.0.8 ... one blue, one cream coloured
#canada #retrocomputing #Alberta
This entry was edited (2 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source
I’m having a bad ear day today. It happens to me sometimes, I get a day or three where one ear is basically useless.
I am very thankful for Braille, because I proofed an important report using speech to the best of my current ability, and it all sounded fine and the spell checker reported no errors. But when I did a final check with Braille, I found I had written “paradigm shit” instead of “paradigm shift”. Oops, that would have been more than mildly embarrassing if I’d sent that off.
⇧