mastodon - Link to source

NVSpeech Player with phoneme editor and NVDA Addon, Speech Dispatcher module version 2.5 is out!
The focus this time: more control over voice quality.

New in DSP Version 5:
The engine now has 12 voicing tone parameters for shaping the overall voice character, plus 5 new per-frame parameters for things like creaky voice, breathiness, jitter, shimmer, and glottal sharpness. That last one is key for getting that crisp Eloquence-like attack some users prefer.
For NVDA users, this means 10 real-time sliders in voice settings instead of 4. Dial in your preferred sound without editing config files.
The Windows phoneme editor has a new Voice Quality section with full access to all the new parameters. Useful for anyone tuning phonemes or building voice profiles.
Linux users get an updated renderer with command-line flags for every new parameter. Speech Dispatcher configs are included. Voice profiles from phonemes.yaml now work across platforms.
While no change yet for Danish support, the foundation is now here for it in the future.
github.com/tgeczy/NVSpeechPlay…
github.com/tgeczy/NVSpeechPlay…
github.com/tgeczy/NVSpeechPlay…

mastodon - Link to source
Sunday.
made the daughter happy by buying another accessible card game for the collection.
It's a Mille Bornes knockoff but was very reasonably priced.
64ouncebraille.com/products/10…
an unboxed card game called 1000 yards. There are 2 stacks of playing cards visible with Braile on them and the box has print, Braille, and a QR code visible.

1000 Yards (Full Game)

[This game contains braille already on the cards and no additional setup is needed] In 1000 Yards the kids compete to be the first one to go 1000 yards.  Kids use skates, skateboards, bikes, scooters and more to make it.
64 Ounce Braille

mastodon - Link to source

Pain of an unemployed person:

• You wake up late, but still feel tired
• Every day feels the same
• You apply for jobs daily, no replies
• Money feels tight all the time
• You feel guilty even while resting
• Confidence slowly goes down
• You start doubting yourself
• Skills are there, opportunity is not
• Nights are full of overthinking
• You feel stuck and helpless
• You are trying, but no one sees it

Being unemployed is not laziness.
It’s mental pressure no one understands 😔.

mastodon - Link to source
On my way back from my parents' to Vienna and I was driving through the Czech Republic. In tribute to that fact, have my first NVDA Composer thing - Jozin z Bazin by Ivan Mladek, because we all need some more songs about swamp monsters called Joseph, or something... Could be better but given that it took most of the 4-hour ride to put it together, I don't think it's bad. Haven't found the special Nokia mode with the wav exports yet which could have saved it. Shall we call this #Composituary?

#composituary

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

A wave of manic energy in December had me put together a long deck called "HarfBuzz at 20! " , celebrating 20 years of HarfBuzz. 🎂

I designed the deck to be presented at the #WebEnginesHackfest later this year. Then reality hit that I cannot present this deck in any sane amount of time.

Inspired by all the great presentations coming out of #FOSDEM today, I decided that instead of tossing the deck out, I just put it out here to be read by the curious. I will present a highly condensed version at the hackfest in June.

Let me know what you think. 🙏

docs.google.com/presentation/d…


HarfBuzz at 20!

HarfBuzz at 20! all you ever wanted to know about HarfBuzz and then some behdad a slide deck to skim through—January 2026
Google Docs
#fosdem #webengineshackfest

mastodon - Link to source

"But Wikipedia cannot survive by refusing to change. Ostrom’s Nobel prize-winning research reminds us that the communities that govern shared resources often grow conservative over time.

"For anyone who cares about the future of reliable information online, Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary is not just a celebration. It is an urgent warning about what happens when the institutions we depend on cannot adapt to the people they are meant to serve."

spectrum.ieee.org/wikipedia-at…


Wikipedia Faces a Generational Disconnect Crisis

Wikipedia's 25th anniversary sparks a debate: Can it adapt to the needs of Gen Z and beyond?
Dariusz Jemielniak (IEEE Spectrum)

mastodon - Link to source

#XMPP @ #FOSDEM 2026

Thanks to all organisers, supporters and visitors for the great experience at our XMPP #Realtime Lounge and at the venue overall!

We end the day with this lovely creation from Angela (piscimisty) ❤

#jabber #chat #opensource #messaging #federation #Brussels #Belgium #europe

A self-made, hand-drawn (aquarell) folded letter with a mermaid holding the XMPP logo out of the water. Its adressed to XMPP Devs of the XSF.
Unfolding the letter shows a hand-drawn (aquarell) mermaid and the logos of multiple XMPP chat apps such as Conversations, Dino and Snikket. The text admires the work of the quote "best messaging protocol" and sends regards from Angela to Ge0rG, a long-term comunity and the disroot.org admins.
#xmpp #opensource #Jabber #federation #fosdem #chat #europe #messaging #belgium #realtime #brussels

Nicoco reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

#XMPP @ #FOSDEM

Impressions from the XMPP talks in the #Decentralised #Communication room:

Engineering XMPP #Federation: Building #Messaging, Voice & Social Features Across #Independent Projects - Jérôme Sautret & Timothée Jaussoin
@ejabberd @movim

#chat #jabber #interoperability #opensource

Jérôme Sautret concluding at FOSDEM on the power of open standards.
Jérôme Sautret & Timothée Jaussoin presenting at FOSDEM on engineering XMPP federation.
Jérôme Sautret presenting at FOSDEM on case study: seamless voice & video ejabberd
Jérôme Sautret & Timothée Jaussoin presenting at FOSDEM on case study: seamless voice & video Movim
#xmpp #opensource #Jabber #federation #fosdem #chat #interoperability #communication #independent #decentralised #messaging @ejabberd @Movim
This entry was edited (22 hours ago)

Nicoco reshared this.

in reply to XSF: XMPP Standards Foundation

mastodon - Link to source

XSF: XMPP Standards Foundation

#XMPP @ #FOSDEM

Impressions from the XMPP talks in the #Decentralised #Communication room:

Building a #Decentralized Social Network on XMPP - Timothée Jaussoin
@movim

#chat #jabber #interoperability #opensource #federation #opensource #Brussel #europe

#xmpp #opensource #Jabber #federation #fosdem #chat #interoperability #decentralized #communication #europe #decentralised #Brussel @Movim
This entry was edited (22 hours ago)
in reply to XSF: XMPP Standards Foundation

mastodon - Link to source

Piotr Gaczkowski

Im talking about Jogger. It was Jabber + Blogger. Each user had a blog that they could interact with through XMPP.

You could post using XMPP or you could comment using XMPP, you got XMPP notifications and so on.

I think it had all the features of a social network. And, more importantly, there is still a community of ex-Jogger users active even here.

mastodon - Link to source

This week I learned, from a blind acquaintance here, that when we write in ALL CAPS in alt text, their screenreader reads it all out, *one letter at a time*.

Totally defeating the point of alt text making things accessible, right?
Needless to say, I've stopped.

Well, LOL remains LOL, of course!
#TIL #accessibility #blind #deafblind

#Accessibility #blind #til #deafblind
This entry was edited (22 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Some really great reads for January. I had no idea Dennis E. Taylor's standalones were so good!
Not to mention a new Peter Cawdron and a couple of interesting fanfics.

Subscribers have had it already but here it is for the rest of you. :)
#bookstodon
buttondown.com/SeansShelf/arch…


Reading Roundup: January 2026

publish_date: 2026-02-01T06:00:00Z slug: reading-roundup-january-2026 status: scheduled subject: "Reading Roundup: January 2026" Reading Roundup: January...
Sean Randall (Sean's Shelf)
#bookstodon

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You can tell if someone is a computering supergenius if their solution to a difficult problem looks like nothing.

Lisp is six functions. Forth is 200 bytes. Unix is just tiny programs and text files. The original web is just a hacked SMTP server sending SGML files. And yet, it does *that*.

The huge, complex stuff--Windows, Java, the modern web--is all the work of mediocre thinkers with big budgets and too little time.

This entry was edited (1 day ago)

reshared this

pleroma - Link to source

I tried to build this small python tool on FreeBSD that uses the new uv thing but I couldn't figure out how to work uv

They really need to work on their UX

All I know is that it kept complaining that there wasn't any Python 3.13 but I couldn't get it to download or install one (into a virtual env I assume). Now I am aware that they probably don't have precompiled versions for FreeBSD, but it doesn't even seem to have an option to download the source and compile it by itself. So if that's the case, this tool is pretty worthless if you want to use it with a custom python version or on an unsupported platform?

Is that really how this thing works? Bizarro

It was easier to just hack it to work with my own venv and regular pip, build my own requirements.txt etc

mastodon - Link to source
The mathematical relationship IS the sound. When we made a "clean" table with quadratic closure, we literally encoded sharpness ≈ 2 into it. The synth doesn't care if that curve comes from:
• pow(1-t, 2.0) computed live
• A lookup table with those same values
Same curve = same harmonics = same sound.
The sample rate scaling insight:
At higher sample rates, you need MORE harmonics to fill the spectrum. Lower sharpness = fewer harmonics = sounds "breathy" because there's less energy up high. That's why LF master scales sharpness UP with sample rate - to maintain consistent harmonic richness.
The downside to a fixed glottal table is that you would need a different glottal table for each sample rate, if you wanted to keep the smoothness alive. By making one single Glottal table, we are effectively baking in a sharpness 2.0 into all sample rates.
This entry was edited (23 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source
I do wonder if folks liked it when the voice was smoother at 16000/22050 or 44100, or when it now has more sharpness. The sharpness is actually what Eloquence also has, when you think about it. It's voice isn't smoother. So now, with the recent SpeechPlayer, it's a bit like how the original sharpness was with it, when before we changed to the new Cosign waveform. It made 11025 sound very similar to 16000 and 22050 which is why I changed it. I didn't get any revolts, or like, "eww, where's the smoothness?" if anything one person told me that the voice sounds more "whole" at 44100. So I'm very conflicted on this, and I suspect people have their own preference. But now I am closer to understanding what gives Eloquence that classic Eloquence sharpness, they too probably also use an LF-type waveform.
many blind users who grew up on DECtalk/Eloquence found the softer voices harder to understand at speed, not easier. The softer voice can make consonants stick out more and not sound like it's part of the voice's bandwidth itself.

mastodon - Link to source
UKPol/Economics

Sensitive content

mastodon - Link to source
I think I'm going to add a new "patrick" voice to Speech Player though, modeled after the other parameters, like F3 multipliers, extracted from the voice. It's not all lost. It's just that Glottal shape mostly impacts smoothness, hollowness, and ringyness of the voice or whether it's metallic or not. Badly tuned glottal tables get you a mess, well tuned ones should sound closer to what the synth used to sound like in the first place.

mastodon - Link to source

Is your Mastodon timeline too empty or too full? Are you seeing too much of one thing while missing important posts? Is your timeline overwhelmed by someone who shares too many posts?

These and lots more timeline problems are solved in the "How to customise your Mastodon timeline" guide:

➡️ fedi.tips/does-mastodon-and-th…

#FediTips #Mastodon


Does Mastodon and the Fediverse use algorithms? How do I customise what’s in my timeline if there’s no algorithm? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse
fedi.tips
#Mastodon #FediTips

mastodon - Link to source
So, huge thanks to @BorrisInABox for sitting down and making silly sounds for like 25 minutes for me. This is a recording of SpeechPlayer using his Glottl tables. Notice how much better it came out compared to my own, no sharpness, no boxy sound. It's a perfect glottal source. But also, this tells me that the math-derived LF glottal source with tunable sharpness could get us almost this same voice, although there's a richness in the bass harmonics I can't quite explain, so the real-source Glottal tables still do a better job at making it sound a bit more natural.

@Borris

mastodon - Link to source

RE: mastodon.social/@islamjamal/11…

I appeal to you again on humanitarian grounds 💔
Any help, no matter how small, will contribute to easing my father's pain and speeding up his recovery. Please be a reason for his healing 🙏
chuffed.org/project/154105-isl…
#freepalestine #fuckisrael #genocide #savegaza #savegazachildren #Gaza #palestine #gazaverified #gazagenocide #GazaMutualAid #MutualAidRequest #StandWithGaza #GazaNeedsHelp
#education #europe #Resistenza


IslamJamal (@islamjamal@mastodon.social)

Attached: 1 image My father was hospitalized due to a severe drop in blood sugar, and my heart aches for him. We are going through a difficult time and need your support to secure his treatment and medications.
IslamJamal (Mastodon)
#education #palestine #europe #MutualAidRequest #genocide #Gaza #freepalestine #StandwithGaza #gazagenocide #gazaverified #savegaza #gazamutualaid #fuckisrael #SaveGazaChildren #gazaneedshelp #resistenza

mastodon - Link to source
It snew. It has snown. The ground is snawn upon. ❄️❄️ This ties a record for the fourth heaviest snowfall we've gotten here. The tie for this happened in 1880. I think a couple people in the neighborhood are trying to repurpose leafblowers as snowblowers. I have no idea if that'll work or not but even if it does and they can get their cars out, the roads are not magically clear of snow.
in reply to GambaJo

mastodon - Link to source

IzzyOnDroid ✅

Yes, it seems the entire server is unreachable currently. We've reached out to our provider to take a look and bring it up again.

Meanwhile, please use one of our mirrors, they're both up and fine. You can watch monitor.izzysoft.de/ to see when our main server is back.

#IzzyOnDroid #serviceToot

IzzyOnDroid

Welcome to the official IzzyOnDroid Status Page. This page contains an overview of the status of various IzzyOnDroid services and the official mirrors. If
monitor.izzysoft.de
#serviceToot #izzyondroid

mastodon - Link to source

Le PIB par habitant est un indicateur totalement dépassé

Si par malheur demain au volant de ma voiture j'écrasais accidentellement 2 enfants, alors j'améliorerais le PIB par habitant de la France :
- les réparations de ma voiture iraient accroître le numérateur
- les 2 décès diminueraient le dénominateur

Il est grand temps de passer à des indicateurs plus pertinents pour mesurer la "richesse" d'un pays.

lejournal.info/article/la-spir…


France : PIB par habitant en baisse, le risque de relégation

France : le décrochage économique impose un redressement. Investissement, école, déficits : pourquoi 2027 ne pourra l’ignorer. Analyse.
Lejournal.info
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