A woman will head to court in March after the City of Burlington fined her for letting her garden grow wild. Similar cases have cropped up in other cities, raising the question of where our priorities lie thenarwhal.ca/opinion-burlingt…
The City of Burlington is taking a woman to court for unpaid fines after letting her garden grow wild. Similar cases have cropped up elsewhere, to the detriment of the environment
A random question for blind people mainly, but really for anyone comfortable. What is your mental landscape like? What I mean by that is how do you picture things? Visual imagery? More sensory based? Nothing at all? Something else? I'm curious because even though I'm blind my mental landscape is very visual, I think in pictures, maps, recreations of places/objects/ETC in my head in a very visual way, which from what I've heard doesn't seem that common in the blind community. But maybe I'm wrong, I'd be really curious on thoughts here if you all are comfortable.
I'm the same, but I wonder if it's because when I was a baby I could apparently see a bit, honestly not sure but I think that might have something to do with it.
@ZBennoui I was thinking that too a bit, I had some sight when I was a baby, most of it in the first 3 or 4 months. So I wonder if that had some influence into my current very vivid mental landscape.
Buried on page 300 of the government’s omnibus budget implementation bill is an extremely troubling clause regarding corporate power in Canada—one that allows all cabinet ministers to exempt any individual or corporation from any federal Canadian law…
Something I'd really like to see from @fosdem - a graph of which social media addresses speakers have on their profile / presentations over the years. Last year it was still quite disappointing that the number of people with Mastodon on their slides was quite low. Maybe something for the stats session at the end? #FOSDEM #fosdem2026
I'm currently exploring options for local LLMs to be integrated into Home Assistant. Does anyone here got experiences with this already? Like, did you try running a Raspi5 with one of the AI hats? What were your results? Do you have any other affordable local AI systems running with Home Assistant, which models work best for you? #homeassistant #ai #raspberrypi #ollama #smarthome
I've just seen YouTube videos about it but I think what the guy did was a bit beyond the scope. He basically made an entire voice assistant which was somehow connected throughh/with HA. And I think it didn't run on something like the Pi. But I'm very interested in what you're trying to do so feel free to keep us updated.
@jonathan859 Nope, that is basically what happens in the end. You need a part that processes speech to text, interprets it, acts on it and generates either text output that then again is output via TTS, or voice directly. Technically all of that can happen locally, but you can off-load it into cloud services like OpenAI too. I'd like to run as much as possible locally, or on hardware controlled by me. If push comes to shove, i'll be getting a VGPU server I guess.
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@jonathan859 You can integrate a model with toolcall, but I think the risk of hallucination can be pretty costly. For example, if you asks to turn off all the lights, it might shut off all the smart plugs including router. If you ask who's at the door, it might open the door, etc. Also you can only run tiny tiny llms on Pi, and it will be pretty useless at toolcalls.
No but following. I also think I may consider running a self-hosted model on the cloud, but on my own server. What are you looking to do? For me it's doorbell footage which is going to take a reasonably accurate and fast model.
@Jage Thinking about the same, but renting a VGPU server would be way more expensive than buying even 1 graphics card now, at least in the long run. That is why i'm asking if people got experiences already. I don't need to interpret live video, I don't think images either. Mostly just text to control entities and such, at least for now. But having a bit of GPU power in reserve won't be bad either.
Ya good point I could just build a desktop, and that would give me another excuse to do it. and for you with text that's way easier. Sorry I haven't gone further down the road yet.
@Jage Nah, you don't need to be sorry for anything lol. We'll figure it out eventually. Its just an experiment after all, i'm not willing to go full in on it, don't think that is really necessary for tasks like these.
It is but also if prices aren't going to come down for 3 years I may just have to do this now before shit gets even crazier. Actually, I may have an extra 32GB stick or at least 16 from a recent laptop, probably at least DDR4 so that could be something, though I know 5 is ideal.
@Jage Laptop will be SODIMM and not DDR4, so you'll have to hope for a proper adapter solution instead of the self-build ones that are coming up on DIY shops right now.
Dear Lord, I ask you, seriously, when does this nonsense finally stop? Please! What comes next? "AI"-powered Coffeemakers, "AI"-Hairbrushes, "AI"-Toilets? Please, oh please my Lord, the pain is unbearable, please let this bubble burst, I beg You!
"Code is a liability (not an asset). Tech bosses don't understand this. They think AI is great because it produces 10,000 times more code than a programmer, but that just means it's producing 10,000 times more liabilities.
#Code is a #liability. Code’s capabilities are #assets. The goal of a tech shop is to have code whose capabilities generate more revenue than the costs associated with keeping that code running.
…that's the thing: any nontrivial code has to interact with the outside world, and the outside world isn't static, it's dynamic. The outside world busts through the assumptions made by software authors all the time and every time it does, the software needs to be fixed." @pluralistic
The rapid response networks people organize to defend their communities have undergone a whirlwind evolution to keep up with ever-shifting ICE tactics.
Ok nice, just found the tool that's going to replace my quickly copy/paste link from PC to phone thing. NTFY. If I needed I could even make a script or something for it, though the web interface will be completely fine. I can then just open the notification on my phone, click on it and have it in the clipboard right away. Even more straightforward than roaming around on WhatsApp first, completely own infrastructure with a tool I use anyway.
@draeand Yup, I already use it for stuff like Kopia backup notifications, unified push for Pachli and stuff but I enjoy the way it evolves and how you can always find new usecases for it. So simple yet so powerful. Also hosting your own server is quite nice once you've figured out how to add a user and what you should or should not change in the config.
@draeand Hmm, makes sense. Well I only got started with it a while ago so it wasn't that critical, but yeah if you use it much/care about privacy a lot (not sure about how and what and when it encrypts) it would be a nice thing for sure.
Sonic onslaught makes its 2026 return! @nick and Christel are back with their usual mix of good vibes and great metal, featuring their reaction to the latest song from Charlotte Wessels and the obsession.
I'm feeling sad, maybe I should make a version of NVSpeechPlayer that self-destructs and switches back to the person's last synthesizer after 5 minutes, then deletes its dll so it can't be run no more. Sigh. The new phoneme table sucks, the old one was better, that's the end of that, the story of Speechplayer ends here. At least, that's how I'm feeling this morning and why no updates for awhile.
Aw, don't be feeling like that. Speech synthesis is a complicated thing to work on, but also super rewarding when it works. For what it's worth I think you've done a great job in making it support many languages, even if it isn't perfect.
@fireborn part of what I'm fighting a bit I feel like is ESpeak being the phonemizer, I mean it's a great engine for supporting a lot of languages, but then you have to work around some of its rules for speech and things like hyphen marks or if ESpeak itself already had issues with a particular sound. And things like Canadian English, even though it's there in support, enever a chance of it working well because ESpeak is just horrible at the IPA. But a larger rewrite with a different phonemizer and Lexicon set could drop already supported languages and complicate things, so sticking with ESpeak made the most sense architecturally until all the sounds in the phoneme table are correct, then perhaps a rebuild with another Open-source phonemizer isn't the worst.
@alexchapman @fireborn The most promising is github.com/rhasspy/gruut - it supports many languages, although still not quite the set supported by Espeak, although I'd have to see how hard adding language support is for those not in their set that we have. It would support speech tags for words like wind outside vs wind up. Eloquence has this so NVSpeechPlayer needs to as well, but without a better phonemizer like that one it ain't happening, so I've been looking at it.
On Monday I am recording another Coffee with Developers episode with Daniel Stenberg about curl and the AI slop they have to fight at the moment. What would you want me to ask him?
Whether you hate him with a leftest passion, or you were a fan of him, Charly Kurk spoke the truth when he said this. Men always desire what they can't have. This was ment especially in the context of relations with females. And guess what? I feel it again in the hardest possible way right now. But nobody asked. Nobody cares. Nobody would understand my other struggles already starting with school. But yeah life is great, I got a fu ing roof above my head! Emotions? Nah let's hide them, we only wanna hear the positives! Wow I'm sick of it. Guess what, my father noticed it sadly. But I'm not gonna tell him anything in the slightest unless it's nesesary, school things might be something there. Dude has seriously been messing with my trust, using it as a weapon against me in the past, several times. Now he'll need to regain it. And if the rest of the world doesn't give a shit, guess let's put on the shield after hiding some more tears of exhaustion.
It's a bit wild to me how much AI and tools I use for work and home are converging. For example, I use ChatGPT and Codex in both places equally, of course at work more of the tools have AI built into them, but just to casually open the same thing on both feels jarring to me every time for some reason. Not like it should, technically Office was something you'd have on your home and work computers too, but it's the context: Even when you used an Office product at home, you used it to be productive and get something done, whereas AI can absolutely be that with the right use but also be an incredible time-waster you have endless chats with because by design it's made to hook you in. Not sure. There you go, a Tuesday morning. That feels like a Monday :D because we had it off here in the states. So now, no more NV Speech Player work for a bit. It's work work time.
Seriously you guys. I know exactly where ny cheerleader uniform is, and I've lost enough weight that it fits. DO NOT make me subject you to the sight of a 50 year old in a short pleated skirt waving pom-poms just to get you to vote for your favorite language.
Age verification laws are being introduced everywhere - including, Florida. 🔞🇺🇸
For Joseph, not knowing his own state had introduced age verification, was the final push he needed to take action and do something. So he started the Miami Tech Enthusiast Club @mtec
Don't miss this interview with him to find out why he started the club, its aims & goals, & why he chose Tuta Mail. 💪🔐
2025 was the year many people realized how at risk their digital privacy had become. For Joseph, it was the year to take action against this, and so he started the Miami Tech Enthusiast Club.
USA anektují ještě letos Grónsko. To bude mít za následek rozpad NATO a nejspíš nový obranný pakt bez USA. Současně celá Evropa vypoví smlouvy USA o umístění amerických vojenských základen, přestane se obchodovat mezi USA a Evropou. Díky některým evropským firmám, jako třeba ASML, bude mít USA velký problém. Budou si chtít technologii vymoct silou a začne válka USA proti Evropě.
Současně anexí Grónska potvrdí USA platnost ruské anexe Krymu a Rusko vtrhne po rozpadu NATO do Pobaltí a Polska, znovu zabere Kazachstán (ropa).
Současně anexí Grónska potvrdí USA čínský nárok na Tchaiwan a Čína tam vtrhne.
If you’re seeing this post, it means that my post went through and the server is up. if you see this later on today, it means that the server is back up and my post just got through. Have a good day everyone!
How do we know if it's now or later in the day? And what if it's later in the day, you only just now saw the post, but it sent now? Or when now was at the time? Not now now, but the then now. Yeah...
Web Design References: News and info about web design and development. The site advocates accessibility, usability, web standards and many related topics.
Look, you can't ask engineers not to ship new features, you have to give them something to live for. Ask mozilla to be the leader on pop-up blocking again.
Just imagine, the Nobel Peace Prize, whether directly or indirectly, is the kindling for starting a conflict historians will come to call World War III. You know there's only one person in the world with all of the self-centered, idiotic, stupidity and unadulterated narcisim, qualities, and power to do it. And its not like he's some maniacle tyrant who grabbed power, his citizenry gave it to him, legally, twice! Just all kinds of LOLZ, irony, and insanity one would come to expect in 2026.
Age verification laws are being introduced everywhere - including, Florida. 🔞🇺🇸
For Joseph, not knowing his own state had introduced age verification, was the final push he needed to take action and do something. So he started the Miami Tech Enthusiast Club @mtec
Don't miss this interview with him to find out why he started the club, its aims & goals, & why he chose Tuta Mail. 💪🔐
2025 was the year many people realized how at risk their digital privacy had become. For Joseph, it was the year to take action against this, and so he started the Miami Tech Enthusiast Club.
Für Golem habe ich über "Hype" nachgedacht und wie er uns durch seine "ALLES IST SUPER KRASS" Narration das Denken über Technologien und ihren Einsatz erschwert
(Original title: Das Wesen des (KI-)Hypes: Betäubungsmittel für den Verstand)
"Vibe coding" really is indistinguishable from playing a slot machine.
There's (for some) a degree of fun based on the hope of getting something valuable for a relatively small investment. When it won't work you just keep pulling the lever. At some point you surely will win, right?
Also with slot machines the bank always wins while slowly draining your resources.
The Chat of the Future Initiative has its first focus session today from 18:00 UTC! As chosen by the participants, the topics are User interface & User experience and new Community Events.
The XSF Communication Team is launching the ‘Chat of the Future Initiative’ to support the XMPP ecosystem through collaborative discussions, development, and improved public communication. This new initiative invites participants from all …
Ah well, the sighted and their emoji obsession. Did you know I don't need a sun in every message to understand you? Or that you can communicate your emotions by text and not by some chringe emoji that won't bring over what you're trying to to my screenreader anyway? We need a real life emoji blocker.
no. It's impossible to communicate without emoji. All communications before their invention was poor. The love poetry never communicated love, the scientific articles never communicated anything, novels were just shadows of their present selves...
At least make this blocker togglable. I don't want it, for example, I'm absolutely fine with emojis and use them myself. Of course, if there is like fifteen in the row, it's too much, but sighted people also complain about such style of communication.
@menelion I use them because I feel like sighted would think I'm emotionless if I don't. Like my message would be dry or something. Anyway I hope you don't use a sun in each of your messages. Or could you explain me why someone would say, tomorrow starts XY (colision emoji?) I think the only 3 emojis that I find useful are 👍, the red heart I don't have available to paste atm, and 💩.
No, I use far more. Like, hearts, thank you emoji, various food emojis, blushing faces, and so on, and so on. It makes the written speech more emotional, closer to oral speech, actually. No, not in every message, of course.
@JustinMac84 Because I don't need inflection. I want the text, that's the point of the message. Not to insert a sun or a colision or whatever you can spam on your frequently used emoji keyboard. Sighted can skip it, or ignore it, or yeah are bored of dry text but that's not my problem. What does a colision or a sun communicate to me? What is coliding? It's winter, no sun...
If I send you a weary face imoji for example, it is a lot more concise and elegant than expressing that feeling in the required number of words. It adds emphasis to text. Sometimes lack of inflection can be problematic and lead to misunderstanding so, with an imoji, things can be clarrified. Given that, if I send multiple consecutive imojis, speech should concatinate them, I'm not seeing that it takes up significantly more time.
@JustinMac84 Lol and here kicks the language barrier, I don't even know from the top of my head what a weary face is. Right so I searched, do you mean this? 😩 I mean why is it better though. In germany we literally have a word for that. Erschöpft, tired, overwealmed, you decide. See I'd rather take your description of the actual feelings rather than a dumb emoji. But well I guess that's where our opinions differ and that's also good, you don't always have to disagree. Just to clarify I'm not trying to go against you in anyway, it's just I really struggle to find a proper need/usecase for me and am annoyed by the constant usage of them by some people.
@JustinMac84 And I know it might be ridiculous to waste my time with complaining about it but otherwise, I think it's a valid discussion and I'm interested in hearing other peoples points.
@JustinMac84 Also, and it'll be difficult to describe this in english, but it's a similar situation to alttext, just a bit less significant. How would I know what a person is trying to say with an emoji that I can't perceive the same way sighted/the sender does? For example, recently in a Teams call we we're supposed to do the impression of a certain emoji someone would send into the chat, in this case, it was "Ermahnendes Gesicht", which, acording to AI, translates to shushing face. So in english I find this description to be more understandable than in german, but still, what is a shushing face? I didn't know, well shit. Turns out a face that has a finger over their lips to, idk, imply silence, make someone shut up? It's just useless. I can't, get them on the same level, same for gifs and stickers and all that crap.
@JustinMac84 I had this several times now, sighted sent me emojis they interpreted completely different than whoever decided what my screenreader should say when it finds this random bunch of unicode clutter. When I read out what the emoji was read out as to me, they were like, what, that is totaly not what this is etc. Well then, I rather just drop them completely.
Given that sighted people are going to continue to use them no matter what, might you not consider it a bit of linguistic expansion to learn how and why people use them? I struggled with the face with tears of joy imoji for a long while, but you can infer its meaning given enough context.
Zach Bennoui
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