mastodon - Link to source
In the face of Trump’s threats, Britain’s best path is clearer than ever: hurry back to Europe
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

In the face of Trump’s threats, Britain’s best path is clearer than ever: hurry back to Europe

Labour must urgently seek new roles and alliances, while also enhancing the UK’s own military capabilities, says Stella Creasy, MP and chair of the Labour Movement for Europe
Stella Creasy (The Guardian)

mastodon - Link to source

WARNING: Ring doorbell cameras now partering with #ICE

DO NOT USE!

As a general rule, if you use any kind of doorbell cameras they need to be offline, connected only to your own internal monitor that must never be bridged to any part of the Internet.

Ring however takes this problem to another level, actively sharing data not only with cops but also with ICE

#Ring #Boycott

Ring doorbell cameras now talk to ICE
If you have a Ring doorbell camera, ICE thanks you for helping them take hostages
#boycott #ring #ice

mastodon - Link to source

Among many pieces of evidence about inequity cited in the latest report from Oxfam on extreme wealth & inequality is this:

Billionaires are 4,000 times more likely be holding a political office than 'ordinary' people...

yup, we are living in a system ruled by and working for the 3,000 billionaires in the world!

#inequality #politics #poverty

for more see:

oxfam.org/en/research/resistin…


Resisting the Rule of the Rich | Oxfam International

Oxfam International
#politics #inequality #poverty

mastodon - Link to source

This is one of the coldest nights ever. Living in open area between the damaged walls makes the situation worser

I'm just thinking about how this suffering might end? We literally suffer in every single detail in our life. In the food, water, shelter, education, health. Literally everything!

Every morning we just think of how we'll end the day peacefully. We don't have big dreams. We just need a normal life

If you would like to help my family please donate and share

chuffed.org/project/121561-urg…


Urgent help for Ahmed's family

"I’m tired, Mama. I’m thinking of the hours that I'll spend tomorrow in the water line." – says 9 year old Ahmed to his mother before going to sleep.
Chuffed
in reply to Zach Bennoui

mastodon - Link to source

Matthew

i tried to think of an analogy

maybe like if you opened apps using physical buttons, each one designed a certain way. you get used to the feel of it. the shape, texture, etc. maybe even enjoy it aesthetically

then it is randomly changed. it is disconcerting. some people struggle more with that change

but also, maybe the new button feels 'off' in some way. you don't like the texture, or it has a shape you just don't enjoy as much

i don't know if that helps but best i could think of

mastodon - Link to source
I have another great tip here for those who receive emails or documents that contain tables with rows and columns. I just discovered that if for example you receive a daily spam report from your email provider that is set up in rows and columns. if using Jaws, when you enter the table by arrowing down, use alt control and left and right arrows to navigate each cell and using alt control up and down arrows moves down one cell or row and reads it. My daily spam reports can sometimes be 50 pages long and using the above navigation commands really cut my reading time in half. Wanted to share this with everyone here.
in reply to Scott Rutkowski

mastodon - Link to source

Scott Rutkowski

In addition to my previous post, I have found on an iPhone if you enter a table within an email or any table, you can use your rotor by rotating with two fingers either clockwise or anticlockwise until you hear Rose and then you can flick left and right to move between each cell and flicking up and down will read that particular column and move you from row to row. This is also very useful and I had no idea that this even existed on the iPhone even though I have been using the iPhone for years using VoiceOver. I have not needed this function until now so wanted to share this knowledge with others here.

mastodon - Link to source

Tusky 32 with support for displaying quotes is in beta 🥳

To try out beta version:
- get the app from our repo EDIT sorry, it's not there yet: codeberg.org/tusky/Tusky/relea…
- or enroll into Beta via Play Store: play.google.com/store/apps/det…
- via F-Droid (eventually) gush.taks.garden/note/372daaca…


Tusky 32.0 beta 1 - tusky/Tusky

### New features and other improvements - Timelines (everything that displays posts) has been completely rewritten with Jetpack Compose https://codeberg.org/tusky/Tusky/issues/5272 - Support for displaying quote posts https://codeberg.
Codeberg.org
This entry was edited (20 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Here's a cool podcast about MineCraft accessibility, breaking down how it works. #audio limitlessbb.podbean.com/e/epis…

Episode 224 - Making Minecraft Accessible | Limitless: Blind Beginnings Podcast

In this episode Shawn dives into the world of Minecraft with co‑hosts Kaia, Russell, and Clement to explore how a game that seems ultra-visual can actually be surprisingly accessible (and even educational) for blind and low vision players.
limitlessbb.podbean.com
#audio

mastodon - Link to source

The princess left a note behind, explaining why she ran away.

"She disagrees with what she was taught," the queen said.

"Embroidery and such?" chuckled the king. "Classic."

"It's not needle-work she objects to. She likes that. She rejects the nobility of the nobility, and our right to rule."

#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

#microfiction #tootfic #smallstories
This entry was edited (21 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Curious about using Google’s NotebookLM with JAWS? This archived webinar shows how to use your own documents to get summaries, outlines, and answers, all in a keyboard-friendly way. Learn how to create a notebook, add sources, ask questions, filter results, and build reports.

Access the archive here: freedomscientific.com/webinars…

#JAWS #FreedomScientificTraining #AITraining

Opening slide for the Research Reimagined: Mastering Google’s NotebookLM with JAWS webinar. Presented by: Rachel and Elizabeth. Archive Available Now!

Research Reimagined: Mastering Google’s NotebookLM with JAWS – Freedom Scientific

www.freedomscientific.com
#jaws #freedomscientifictraining #AITraining

mastodon - Link to source

How to block Bluesky from Mastodon:

1. Go to the profile page of the account @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy
2. Click ⋯
3. Click "Block Domain" to stop seeing Bluesky accounts
4. Click "Block" to prevent your own account being bridged to Bluesky

You may need to copy-paste @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy into the search box on your server to make the profile appear.

If you can't find the account @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy, your server is probably already blocking the Bluesky bridge.

#FediTips #Bluesky

#FediTips #bluesky
in reply to stu

mastodon - Link to source

Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox

You can, though there is really minimal functions. Just a login but no ability to load, read, or send email yet! You can find the link in a recent blogpost (blog.thunderbird.net/2025/12/t…) but we'll let everyone know when we're more ready for testing!

Thunderbird 2025 Review: Building Stronger for the Future - The Thunderbird Blog

No year-end judging of your music or video habits here. Just what Thunderbird donors, contributors, and team members made possible in 2025!
Monica Ayhens-Madon (The Thunderbird Blog)

mastodon - Link to source

I never applied for an amateur radio license because I didn't like the idea of appearing on an official list of "skilled" people. Until now that was a theoretical fear. One I wasn't even sure if it was warranted or just me being overly cautious.

In Belarus things escalated quickly. Radio amateurs - usually recognized as men of goodwill - have been declared enemies of the state and publicly shamed and indicted for high treason.

steanlab.medium.com/mayday-389…

mastodon - Link to source

"You can't see the eyes of the demon, until him come callin'."

All shot using real figures, lighting, smoke and miniature sets. I digitally illustrated the lights on the gun for added effect.

#predator #miniatures #scifi #photography #visualart #actionfigurephotography #miniaturephotography #creativephotography #photographicartwork #toyphotography #movies #cinematography #cinema

Predator aims its sniper weapon outside a window of an abandoned building. An orange glow comes from outside and shines through the window
#photography #movies #scifi #cinema #miniatures #visualart #cinematography #toyphotography #predator #actionfigurephotography #miniaturephotography #creativephotography #photographicartwork

mastodon - Link to source
Haha. All 10 of these. And I think I'm going to start calling it "3D printed code" sounds way cooler than "vibe coding" LOL.
10 things I learned from burning myself out with AI coding agents
arstechnica.com/information-te…
(although, 50 projects in a month? Holy hell, not even I could do that.)

10 things I learned from burning myself out with AI coding agents

Opinion: As software power tools, AI agents may make people busier than ever before.
Benj Edwards (Ars Technica)

mastodon - Link to source

We may have to stop selling our CBD products in November because Republicans and the booze lobby snuck a hemp ban into the law last year.

So let's have some fun until then.
milkbarn.farm/pages/loophole


About The Loophole

Our farm may have to stop selling our hemp products in November, a casualty in a war between booze sellers and delta-9 drink companies that we weren’t even in.
Milk Barn Farm

mastodon - Link to source
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…

Ontario cities police gardens and ignore biodiversity | The Narwhal

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
Elaine Anselmi (The Narwhal)

mastodon - Link to source
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.

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

I've noticed there seems to be two main types of Linux distributions:

1) Aside from security updates this is going to take a LONG time to get new packages. Updated version of Wine or MESA drivers? See you in six months!

2) EVERY package the second it releases! Hope you don't mind KDE breaking something every couple of months!

I'm wondering if there's any distributions that are similar to the second one but on like a one-month delay, to filter out problematic updates?

#Linux

#linux

mastodon - Link to source

Bill C-15 would allow corporations to be exempt from most Canadian laws

policyalternatives.ca/news-res…

All you need is to bribe one minister.

#cdnpoli


Bill C-15 would allow corporations to be exempt from most Canadian laws | CCPA

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…
Silas Xuereb (CCPA)
#cdnpoli
This entry was edited (23 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source
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
#fosdem #fosdem2026 @FOSDEM

mastodon - Link to source
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
#homeassistant #AI #raspberrypi #smarthome #ollama

Jonathan reshared this.

in reply to Jage

mastodon - Link to source

Toni Barth

@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.
@Jage

mastodon - Link to source

"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

pca.st/episode/ff6c7462-2117-4…


Code is a liability (not an asset)

Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world's most powerful podcast player.
Pocket Casts
#code #liability #Assets @Cory Doctorow

mastodon - Link to source
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.

mastodon - Link to source
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.
in reply to aaron

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@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.
@aaron
in reply to Alex Chapman

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@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.

GitHub - rhasspy/gruut: A tokenizer, text cleaner, and phonemizer for many human languages.

A tokenizer, text cleaner, and phonemizer for many human languages. - rhasspy/gruut
GitHub
@aaron @Alex Chapman
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