mastodon - Link to source

Why Poilievre and Carney Are Silent on Grok’s Child Sexual Abuse

thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026/01/15/…

The former is just in his cesspool, running is con. The latter is just an hypocrite coward elite that would have no problem with Internet legislation when they can't enforce the basics.

#cdnpoli


Why Poilievre and Carney Are Silent on Grok’s Child Sexual Abuse | The Tyee

The Liberals are afraid of Trump. The Conservatives fear their base.
Eric Van Rythoven (The Tyee)
#cdnpoli

mastodon - Link to source
I think people are going to like this SAPI engine. Although be prepared for 17 times 4 voices added to your list? What's that. Uh, math. 68. So 68 voices at once? Yeah. We use a tokenizer though to create voices, so they're only made for the languages you have. I suppose someone could remove all language files from their pack and just have the languages they care about, then your voice list will shrink. That's the idea. Dynamic tokenization, what a concept. We read it and only expose the voices available not a predetermined list of languages.
in reply to Noel Romey

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@ner Oooh. Yeah, the frontend doesn't expose any synthesize functions yet, mainly because that creates a direct-dependency on LibEspeak to be compiled into the DLL - that's when we get more into GPLV2 VS V3 scuffles. Ugh. This way I can link Espeak outside the DLL alongside it, just use the SAPI wrapper to delegate the communication between both rather than my frontend having a synthesize method. For now it's our best shot if we want the language flexibility of modern Espeak's IPA tokenization, sadly. But it's not a bad alternative.
@Noel Romey

hometown - Link to source

CALL TO ACTION on January 23, 2026

Minneapolis Labor Unions are calling for a full #GeneralStrike. No school, No work, No shopping. Those of us outside Minnesota, stand with the unions by not shopping.

“The Minnesota labor movement is united against the violent ICE occupation of our beloved cities .. Workers are essential for our communities to function. Since the ICE campaign of terror began, both immigrant and non-immigrant workers have feared for their safety when going to work, being at work, and coming home from work.

Working people, our schools our communities are under attack. Union members
are being detained commuting to and from work, tearing apart families. Parents are
being forced to stay home, students held out of school, fearing for their lives, all while
the employer class remains silent. Our labor federations are encouraging everyone to
participate on January 23rd.”

minneapolisunions.org/system/f…

#generalstrike

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

Walter Francis White was a Black man born to two Black parents, but he had blonde hair and blue eyes. (This is genetically possible without any extramarital affairs; it's just rare.)

He used his white passing appearance to pose as a white journalist and learn the truth about lynchings in the South. He investigated 41 lynchings and 8 race riots at enormous risk to his life. His documentation then helped the NAACP lobby for anti-lynching legislation.

abhmuseum.org/walter-white/


Walter White: The Forgotten Hero of Civil Rights - America's Black Holocaust Museum

In the story of America's fight for civil rights, certain names ring out: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Thurgood Marshall. Yet, many figures who laid the essential groundwork for their work remain less known.
America's Black Holocaust Museum
in reply to Scary Austin

mastodon - Link to source

Scary Austin

...completely defenseless, just like domestic abusers do, and we know these are the same kind of men.

They're scared of being watched, they're so scared of lawyers they shut up a lawyer yesterday by threatening to detain two other people as well as her client if she didn't shut up. (She was rightly saying the kidnapping they were doing was illegal.) She had to shut up at that time but her client will have his day in court. We initiated community support.

They are SCARED scared. They act...

in reply to Scary Austin

mastodon - Link to source

Scary Austin

...tough away from cameras but not when the cameras are going. Not when there's a crowd. Not when there's even one VIP, such as Bishop Pham of San Diego, who showed up to immigration court and made the ICE agents scatter like cockroaches.

The movement makes real difference in the here and now and will make a real difference when we punish these people.

Walter F White realized he had power as one Black man in the US in the heyday of the Klan.

We have real power if we use it.

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

Almost everyone has heard of @dgar
And most of you will know by now that he's also released a song or two.

He shouts out a few his songs - such as "Always Monday On The Moon" and "Space Pop" - but my favourite is always missed.

So I'll shout it out instead - it's "Digital Busker"
youtube.com/watch?v=MjqgzpSDbY…


Digital Busker

Provided to YouTube by Repost NetworkDigital Busker · DgarDigital Busker℗ DgarReleased on: 2021-11-12Auto-generated by YouTube.
YouTube
@Dgar

mastodon - Link to source

WE CAN EITHER HAVE A LIVEABLE PLANET OR BILLIONAIRES. WE CAN’T HAVE BOTH.

The findings of @oxfaminternational’s latest report, released just days ago, are honestly terrifying and infuriating.

This is not accidental. It is the result of an economic system that protects extreme wealth, fuels corporate pollution, and puts profits before people.

It’s time to FLIP THE SCRIPT. Tax extreme wealth. Make polluters pay. Ban private jets and superyachts. Put lives before profits.

The richest 1% have blown through their fair share of carbon emissions for 2026 in just 10 days. Source: Oxfam. In the image, billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are shown jumping with enthusiasm and holding wads of money, against a backdrop of superyachts and private jets and burning forests.

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source
I just used Chrome and gemini to describe a few sample pages of a graphic novel from wandering inn so I could understand and enjoy the series. All I can say is wow! I can say that though clunky, I had to go to the next page and reactivate gemini, it would work and I think I could spend money on this book and still enjoy it even though "The last tide" is a graphic novel. Amazing!

mastodon - Link to source

RE: mastodon.nl/@bert_hubert/11591…

Translated: All ATMs from all big dutch banks rely on Amazon AWS. So if there's a disruption with the US and you think to yourself "hey, I'm gonna pay with cash", you won't be able to get cash.


Bert Hubert NL 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@bert_hubert@mastodon.nl)

Attached: 1 image Alle geldautomaten van alle grote Nederlandse banken draaien exclusief op Amazon Web Services. Dus als er verstoring is met Amerika en je denkt, dan betaal ik wel cash, kom je niet aan cash.
Bert Hubert NL 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦 (Mastodon.nl door Stichting Activityclub)

mastodon - Link to source

When talking about DRAM please don't use the term "shortage", call it what it is: price manipulation.

Shortages are when things you want to buy cannot be bought anywhere, but DDR5 memory kits are widely available. There's hundreds of different types in stock at online retailers. I've yet to see a kit that is actually out of stock. This is the tech industry attempt at keeping high margins at a time when computer sales were already predicted to be declining. Don't fall for it. It's a scam.

mastodon - Link to source
hmm, should I really give Claud a try? not sure. Wondering if it could do better with scouting out language phoneme rules and Klatt synthesis in general. GPT's good but pro mode irritated me for taking sometimes 60 minutes to respond, no joke. So I'm a bit done with GPT pro for now. I probably wouldn't get the highest-tear Claud plan but it's tempting to give one of them a try.
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to 🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@fastfinge yeah, it's being better at coding, I've even done it where I gave GPT some task and then had Gemini refine it because it can think of nuances like performance and memory safety GPT doesn't, so it's tuned better. 2.5 Pro days sucked balls but now with Gemini 3 it's really getting good at not making rooky mistakes.
@🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦

mastodon - Link to source

As John Naughton warns (in parallel to many warnings here too), we are way too dependent on US technologies , although as he observes:

'Unwinding this dependency will be very difficult. But it has to be done'!

In this the Tangerine Tyrant's actions (alongside those of the TechBroligarchy) have been indicative of the trouble we could be in.

Up until now we have been too inattentive to the trap into which we have willingly walked.

#technology #politics

observer.co.uk/news/columnists…

Over several decades, we Europeans constructed a way of living that is totally dependent on technologies run by corporations that describe themselves as “global” but are all, in fact, American. It’s as if, having abolished feudalism, we reintroduced it in the cloud; we diligently tilled our data, while Silicon Valley collected the rent. And for a long time, although we might have had occasional qualms, it seemed like a manageable deal. After all, the US was an ally that – as Winston Churchill allegedly said – could always be relied on to do the right thing, after it had exhausted all the alternatives.

The UK is wedded to US tech. Time for a divorce

Ofcom’s investigation into X is not just a regulatory issue. It will define our future relationship with America
John Naughton (The Observer)
#technology #politics
in reply to Emeritus Prof Christopher May

mastodon - Link to source

ImmigrationIsNotACrime

It's mind-boggling that the UK would give a massive defence contract to a US company when Trump is threatening to invade Greenland. Especially a company like Palantir which is run by a guy who thinks women shouldn't be allowed to vote and is very close to Trump.

The only way this makes sense is if you regard it as deliberate. Filter out what Starmer has said on the issue and look at his actions and who he is linked with. It feels like the UK leadership are either OK with US military dominance or resigned to it. For them, the UK military is simply an extension of the US military. The more compliant the more favours and jobs these politicians will win from US big tech and Washington.

politico.eu/article/palantir-l…


Palantir lands biggest ever UK defense deal

The £240 million contract with the Ministry of Defence has renewed a debate about Britain’s dependence on American technology.
Joseph Bambridge (POLITICO)

mastodon - Link to source

They are going to put ads into ChatGPT, apparently.

They should go ahead and put all the ads in there. Just load that thing up with ads. Go on. Do it.

Force ads into all the gen AI stuff too. Involuntary product placements. Unavoidable Coke cans in your expertly prompted masterpiece. At least one verse of your Suno banger singing about New Persil Automatic.

Popups for the latest mobile game in your vibe-coded app.

Go on, capitalism. Do it. You know you want to.

in reply to x0

mastodon - Link to source

x0

You should probably emit diphthong phonemes, unless eSpeak actually doesn't, and serialize those internally aas glide ends to the formant synth yeah? Or does IPA not have diphthongs as individual symbols. In U.S> English at least I think some of the diphthongs differ from the vowels used to compose them.
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to Borris

mastodon - Link to source

Borris

Near the end of when I was doing live stuff, I got a Behringer audio interface with 8 inputs and 10 outputs, all balanced TRS, which I used a couple of I/O pairs in combination with the on-board 32 in, 18 out interface on my mixer, mostly for mundaine stuff like taking phone calls and auxiliary audio patching, leaving the board to stream the high quality stuff since it didn't have to get converted back to analog internally. Now none of that stuff matters to me anymore, really.
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to Borris

mastodon - Link to source

JamminJerry

I didn't even do that. I just baught the eighth inch to two RCA wire, and then the adaptor for the eighth inch side to make it fit into a chordless, and hooked it into the board, and ran with it. no no resisters, or anything between the chordless and the mixer. I don't think it sounded too bad. I did turn the volume down on the chordless though because it distorted all to hell if I didn't, and then controled the volume threw the board.

mastodon - Link to source
I made my first 2 #FT8 contacts today thanks to a new accessible companion app built to work in conjunction with #WSJTX and the #JAWS and #NVDA screen readers. We're making huge progress toward a solution we can provide to the entire #blind #AmateurRadio community. #HamRadio
#blind #hamradio #amateurradio #nvda #jaws #ft8 #wsjtx

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mastodon - Link to source

Natálie Kocábová: Tenhle rozhovor jste neměli číst

Já neříkám, že vždycky hned vím, jak to je. O to nejde. Jde o to, že se tomu v Čechách nevěnujeme dost. A pád Ameriky je něco tak bezprecedentního, že vlastně nechápu, jak to, že já jsem ten největší alarmista. A u toho se mě lidé ptají na moje mentální zdraví. To je fakt úlet. Stojíme na prahu zničení demokratického způsobu vládnutí a já mám být alarmista?

pepikhipik.com/2026/01/17/nata…


Natálie Kocábová: Tenhle rozhovor jste neměli číst

Já neříkám, že vždycky hned vím, jak to je. O to nejde. Jde o to, že se tomu v Čechách nevěnujeme dost. A pád Ameriky je něco tak bezprecedentního, že vlastně nechápu, jak to, že já jsem ten největ…
Podcast & blog by Pepik Hipik & Knižní kočka

mastodon - Link to source
Someone asked me how a blind person can do phoneme editing without a spectrogram. That's valid. The next version of the phoneme editor will let you preview the sound in real-time as you edit it. That is, while changing the value, it will play for you the new one you set. This will allow for realtime changes and tuning. Eventually, I will add an option to synthesize through an AI service, but that will be long long down the road. For now, just hearing the new sound will allow people to have a better workflow.

mastodon - Link to source
Well, eurpod.com/synths/nvSpeechPlay… updated with Language pack data. I will be doing less frequent updates (maybe 1-2 per day at most) to allow for people to work with the language files and have time to do so. Now, languages like Bulgarian, Romanian have specific letter rules. Hungarian actually is starting to sound like a native speaker talking. This is a solid language pack change, and we fixed the British "broad" to sound correct, too.
This entry was edited (2 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Für blinde bzw. sehgeschädigte Handball–Freunde:

mit Unterstützung der DKB gibt es für die Spiele der deutschen Mannschaft bei der #HandballEM eine #Audiodeskription (handball.net/dkb-audiodeskript…).

Die Seite selbst ist für mich mit Screenreader allerdings bisher leider nicht bedienbar.

Kurz vor Spielbeginn waren die Streams dann aber auch in der (gut barrierefreien) Raydio-App und auch in der mycrocast-App zu finden…

Sportliche Grüße!
#blind #Barrierefreiheit #Inklusion #Handball #DHB

DKB Audiodeskription

Der Service der DKB sorgt für mehr Barrierefreiheit im Sport Ab sofort können alle Länderspiele der A-Nationalmannschaften über den kostenlosen Webplayer verfolgt werden. Die Übertragung beginnt jeweils 10 Minuten vor dem Spiel.
www.handball.net
#blind #inklusion #barrierefreiheit #Handball #handballem #audiodeskription #dhb
This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to Dennis

mastodon - Link to source

HeikoD

@WestphalDenn: ja, ein solches Konzept für lokale Sportübertragungen vor Ort gibt es von dem Anbieter wohl auch.

Aber den Stream mit #Audiodeskription für die deutschen Spiele hatten sie jetzt auch in ihren beiden Apps.

Aber wirklich immer erst 10-15 min vor Spielbeginn – vorher sieht man das ggf. noch nicht…

#Handball #EM #Inklusion #DHB

#inklusion #Handball #audiodeskription #dhb #em @Dennis

mastodon - Link to source
New Audio Player. I want to introduce you to an audio player which is new to me for both Windows and Mac. It is called the Flux Entertainment Centre.
This is a highly accessible application. I've been listening to our station Team-FM with it this morning and it is very stable and reliable.
Global shortcut keys are available and it even has variable speed and pitch playback. The only thing which is missing is the ability to determine elapsed and remaining time in hours, minutes and seconds. For many people like me that is an essential requirement. I must know an elapsed time quickly. Apart from that, it's excellent.
You do not need me to spell out its features because you can read about it here.
ims-productions.com/flux/

Flux

Flux Do you stream a lot of content on your computer but are tired of dealing with clunky and constantly changing web interfaces? If so, Flux was made for you. Flux brings your audio and media experie
IMS Productions
in reply to Quin

mastodon - Link to source

Steffen

Yes, but with reservations. I would do it as long as it's a one-time payment and there's no online account and/or online activation. I'm always concerned that the developers will eventually lose interest in such projects and shut down the activation servers. The software would then become useless. That's why I don't like the concept of e.g. TweeseCake, even though it's currently free.
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