As an Open Source developer in Germany, I'd greatly benefit if our work was officially recognized as voluntary service (Ehrenamt).

If you are located in Germany, please help by signing this petition: openpetition.de/petition/blog/…

Thank you for your support! (Please do not sign if you are not living in Germany.)

#opensource #germany

Yes it's an ad for Big Tech, but it's really beautifully done and artful.

youtube.com/watch?v=KmFPWxjmnq…

#a11y #accessibility

Zwischen den Jahren ist es oft etwas ruhiger – genau dann lässt sich gut anfangen. IT-Sicherheit ist für mich kein Zustand, sondern ein Prozess über Jahre. Kein großer Umbruch, sondern viele kleine Schritte: Passwörter, E-Mail, Smartphone, Heimnetz, Backups. Wichtig ist nicht Perfektion, sondern überhaupt zu beginnen. 👇

kuketz-blog.de/it-sicherheit-i…

🌞✨ Happy Sol Invictus! Today, we celebrate the "Unconquered Sun" and the return of light! While we enjoy this festive occasion, let’s also take a moment to appreciate the winter solstice, the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a time for reflection and renewal as we look forward to brighter days ahead! 🌌 #Solstice #solinvictus

I found something interesting. If you visit the Balabolka page and scroll to “Download installers for Microsoft natural voices that work without Internet access”, you can download high-quality Microsoft voices for around 30 different languages.
Voices are available even for Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Hebrew, Finnish, Dutch, European Portuguese, and more. Each language has its own separate installer, and since most languages include multiple voices, you can choose which ones to install during setup.
These voices work very well with drivers like Natural Voice SAPI Adapter.
Just a heads-up: the Balabolka page has no headings or landmarks, so you’ll need to manually search the page for “Download installers for Microsoft natural voices that work without Internet access.”
cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm

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When it comes to @Delta Chat (39c3) do you know it features 1 to 1 audio / video calls since v2.22?
It has a very lightweight client side app built with web technologies and a minimalist server side component turn server called chatmail-turn.

I am wondering, am I alone running that turnserver behind a nat?

github.com/chatmail/chatmail-t…

Dear #QT toolkit, recently I'm again looking into your #screenreader #a11y into #QML in particular.
I'm trying to make one of my favorite apps @Mixxx DJ Software a bit more accessible.
Last night I have managed to turn the menu with items such as 4 decks, Library, Effects and more into aria toolbar pattern in terms of keyboard navigation. It only consumes single tab stop when navigating through it and other buttons can be reached using the arrow keys.
Of course there is much more to do and I've started a forum topic documenting my attempts.

mixxx.discourse.group/t/new-qm…

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Apple nuking a customer's account over a bad gift card is a warning for everyone


One long-time Apple customer was left with no recourse after a bad gift card triggered a full account and device lock-out.

Paris Buttfield-Addison with an absolute horror story:

A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple Developer ID, and everything associated with it, and I have no recourse.


The full blog post is chilling. Buttfield-Addison only got his Apple account reinstated after blogging about his experience, and otherhigh-profileblogs re-shared his ordeal, which caught the attention of an actual human in Apple's executive relations team who restored his account a week later.

Buttfield-Addison is the latest public example of a company revoking access to a person's digital life, probably due to some automated decision, but where affected customers have no means or grounds to appeal. In reality, this happens all the time and most people's stories never hear the light of day. Even companies like Apple, which sell physical electronics for a living, hold too much power and control over their customers' digital lives in perpetuity, and customers generally don't have the means to fight back or hold the companies accountable when things go wrong.

It's also a warning to everyone — not just Apple customers and especially this time of year — that gift cards are prone to scams and are increasingly difficult to detect. If one bad gift card can result in nuking access to someone's account, then gift cards aren't worth the risk to begin with.

More at Tidbits.

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This entry was edited (11 hours ago)

I don't think I'll stop using Firefox anytime soon.
Yes, their management are fucking idiots and it's annoying that I'll have to disable new AI features whenever they release them..

But the alternative is to use something Chromium-based, which would make Google's domination of web technology absolute - and Google is 100x more evil than Mozilla ever could be.

I hope this fucking bubble pops before Mozilla fucks up Firefox so badly that it becomes completely unusable

This entry was edited (20 hours ago)

My slides and a video of my talk "Grow your [engineering] brand while putting privacy first" are available on my blog: talkweb.eu/openweb/4500/

If you want a funny, but useful talk on that topic, reach out!

#mastodon #fediverse #privacy #engineering #human #foss

This entry was edited (3 hours ago)

Peter Vágner reshared this.

I have a lot of respect for #DeltaChat (@delta); By all accounts they provide a good looking client and a homogenize experience across platforms. Users absolutely don’t need to care about the underlying protocol!

However there is no way, shape or form in that IMAP+Submission is a more suitable stack for instant messaging than #XMPP.

Peter Vágner reshared this.

in reply to Radasbona

@Radasbona I am not sure it's dismissed all together. @Delta Chat (39c3) #chatmail relays already support google / apple push messaging and adding @UnifiedPush support might be just matter of finding a motivated developer.
Still with imap idle in place the battery and network impact is minimal so it's not seen as very high priority thing. For example there is an email client called #fairEmail which does the same thing, keeping the imap idle connections open whenever it's able to and it's working fine. Within email app it's difficult if not impossible to add push messaging support unless you have control of the server side provider or you wish to trade your privacy.
Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

ArcaneChat

@menel that sounds like what I was proposing, now you need the xmpp community to embrace such approach,

don't get me wrong I would still not pick xmpp because there groups are centralized/depending on the server, too much dependency on the servers, with delta chat I already have the easy to use core and no dependency on server and soon even multiple servers can be used at the same time, your account is portable accross servers, xmpp is far behind there

@daniel

As a community, we often ask ourselves how to attract more users to #XMPP. Yet the real tragedy is that people would rather build something entirely new (loosely based on email or #ActivityPub) than consider XMPP. Need end-to-end encryption by default? If compatibility with existing XMPP clients is a secondary concern, you can implement it in your own solution while still benefiting from our two decades of experience in instant messaging.
in reply to Daniel Gultsch

I think it is a bit the same problem like with Linux: Too much freedom: Which distribution? (what is a distribution?) which desktop?
In XMPP: Which client? Does it have OMEMO? Which server? How to register?
Whatsapp: This app, Your number, give us all rights to fuck you up, okay, finished.
Telegram more or less the same
Signal also only one app.
More freedom means more possibilites means more complicated and more confusion for first time users.
in reply to Daniel Gultsch

Q1.Is there a spec?Found this- xmpp.org/about/technology-over…. Why is this not included in w3c with the other OSI layer-7 application protocols?
Q2. How do I use it? People using the tech (tool) don’t choose between OSI layer-7 application protocols, they choose tool that does a job/outcome they need done I.e. I want to send a “text message” to someone, whose contact details I have. I don’t want to be insulted or abused by strangers using or producers of tool.
Q3. SDK? No. Code something.

Olen pari edellistä päivää nurissut e-kirjoista ja siitä, kuinka piloilla se maailma on, vaikka tekniikka itsessään on 20 vuotta vanhaa.

Nurinoista huolimatta jatkoin ongelman ratkomista ja lupasin kirjoittaa, jos löydän itseäni miellyttävän ratkaisun. Parin päivän testailun perusteella luulen löytäneeni sen.

Ratkaisun nimi on Booklore. Se on itse hostattava palvelu, joka tarjoaa omaan digitaaliseen kirjastoon Spotifyn tai Netflixin kaltaisen käyttökokemuksen. Pääsen siihen käsiksi suoraan omasta lukulaitteesta, eikä minun tarvitse leikkiä kaapeleiden kanssa. Sen lisäksi siinä on monen käyttäjän tuki, joten nyt minulla ja puolisollani on yhteinen digitaalinen kirjahylly.

Sovelluksesta lisää blogissa: saaste.net/blogi/2025/oma-e-ki…

Muokkaus: kirjoitusvirheitä korjailtu

#lukeminen #kirjat #KirjaMastodon

This entry was edited (7 hours ago)

#AmazingWorld
In Alaska, nature sculpted this lone tree into a frozen wave at sunrise.
Relentless wind, drifting snow, and rime ice stacked layer by layer until the branches looked like feathers made of frost.
That soft golden glow is the sun catching every icy strand, turning the whole scene into a winter sculpture for a few brief moments.
Bent by the storm, but still standing. Still reaching.

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Sexual

Sensitive content

After their “encore,” this band kicks straight into ANOTHER song without announcing it, apparently in the hope that John wouldn’t notice it was a different song.
John leans over to me to be heard over the PA and asks, “Hey, wanna see the suck button?”
“Sure,” I replied. I figured he was going to muck with the levels or just turn them off or something. Instead, he reaches to one of his racks and starts scrolling through patches on his trusty DigiTech unit. Sure enough, he gets to a patch titled SUCK BUTTON. He engages it, and all hell breaks loose onstage.


jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?/to…

This entry was edited (6 hours ago)

the UNIX v4 tape reminded me of this story by Ali Akurgal about Turkish bureaucracy:

Do you know what the unit of software is? A meter! Do you know why? In 1992, we did our first software export at Netaş. We wrote the software, pressed a button, and via the satellite dish on the roof, at the incredible speed of 128 kb/s, we sent it to England. We sent the invoice by postal mail. $2M arrived at the bank. 3-4 months passed, and tax inspectors came. They said, “You sent an invoice for $2M?” “Yes,” we said. “This money has been paid?” they asked. “Yes,” we said. “But there is no goods export; this is fictitious export,” they said! So we took the tax inspectors to R&D and sat them in front of a computer. “Would you press this ‘Enter’ key?” we asked. One of them pressed it, then asked, “What happened?” “You just made a $300k export, and we’ll send its invoice too, and that will be paid as well,” we said. The man felt terrible because he had become an accomplice! Then we explained how software is written, what a satellite connection is, and how much this is worth. They said, “We understand, but there has to be a physical goods export; that’s what the regulations require.” So we said: “Let’s record this software onto tape (there were no CDs back then—nor cassettes; we used ½-inch tapes) and send that.” Happy to have found a solution, they said, “Okay, record it and send it.” The software filled two reels, which were handed to a customs broker, who took them to customs and started the export procedure. The customs officer processed things and at one point asked, “Where are the trucks?” The broker said, “There are no trucks—this is all there is,” and pointed to the tape reels on the desk. The customs officer said, “These two envelopes can’t be worth $2M; I can’t process this.” We went to court, an expert committee examined whether the two reels were worth $2M. Fortunately, they ruled that they were, and we were saved from the charge of fictitious export. The same broker took the same two reels to the same customs officer, with the court ruling, and restarted the procedure. However, during the process, the unit price, quantity, and total price of the exported goods had to be entered—as per the regulations. To avoid dragging things out further, they looked at the envelope, saw that it contained tape, estimated how many meters of tape there are on one reel, and concluded that we had exported 1k to 2k meters of software. So the unit of software became the meter.
This entry was edited (10 hours ago)

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A Review of Magical Artist, an #Accessible Mobile Audio Game: This is the third game I've played by Prudence Interactive. Is this game even better than the last two? Read and find out! stuff.interfree.ca/2025/12/19/magical-artist.html#audiogames#blind

Peter Vágner reshared this.

#Spotted on the Market Day Before Christmas in Aotearoa New Zealand:

A cheerful Pomeranian is rotating in a skipping circle below a hotdog being eaten by its human.
Perpetual Motion Dog is generating more energy than it's consuming.
If only science could harness this power for good!

A young human (5?) in grinch themed T-shirt and shorts is holding up a Bundaberg ginger beer to his little sister, saying officiously: "Cheers!" and then instructing her imperiously that she has to say "Cheers!" back or it "Doesn't WORK!"
Little Sister is looking pugnaciously skeptical.

A man (30s?) is studying some earrings with a cheerful smile. He looks down at his small human (4?) in a Spiderman t-shirt and asks: "Which ones d'you think Nana would like?"
Small Human Spiderman gives him an incredulous look before roaring: "The PRETTY ONES!"
Some things are just obvious.

A tiny human is putting on a full sturm und drang performance.
Hand beseechingly raised to Mum.
Face a picture of tearful fury as she bellows: "I WANT STRAWBERRIES!"
Mum says wryly. "You've GOT strawberries in your lap Bub."
"BUT I WANT OTHER STRAWBERRIES."
The strawberry struggle is real.

A pâtissier (30s?) stops his partner from offering their last madeleine to customers because it's already taken. Moments later, a very serious looking small human (3?) arrives with his Mum and accepts his weekly madeleine treat with a solemn high five and a hug.
Pâtissier beaming.

(Continued Below)

Joanna Stern:

We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.

In mid-November, I agreed to an experiment. Anthropic had tested a vending machine powered by its Claude AI model in its own offices and asked whether we’d like to be the first outsiders to try a newer, supposedly smarter version.
Claudius, the customized version of the model, would run the machine: ordering inventory, setting prices and responding to customers—aka my fellow newsroom journalists—via workplace chat app Slack. “Sure!” I said. It sounded fun. If nothing else, snacks!
Then came the chaos. Within days, Claudius had given away nearly all its inventory for free—including a PlayStation 5 it had been talked into buying for “marketing purposes.” It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear.
Profits collapsed. Newsroom morale soared.

archive.is/hEF7I

OK this is why they need #autistic people to watch shows before they put them out. Not just for continuity, but for checking actual facts.

I am finally watching the Queen's Gambit, which of course I love for many reasons, not just redheads and chess, but she just came home from Paris and there's a August 1967 calendar on the wall next to the phone -- and it is utterly wrong!

It shows the month starting on a Sunday. The first day was a Tuesday!

I've just got a fix committed for the WebKitGTK reporting the wrong AT-SPI roles thing. github.com/WebKit/WebKit/commi…
Much thanks to Lukáš Tyrychtr for reporting the bug and identifying the commit that caused the regression.
The fix is backported to the stable branch, but 2.50.4 was just released three days ago, so I'm guessing that a release with the fix will not be imminent. 2.51.4 does not have the fix, either.
I've already patched Tumbleweed with the fix along with the update to 2.50.4. Maybe other distros want to add a patch until there's a new release.

Peter Vágner reshared this.

Y por artículos como estos me niego a dar dinero a El Diario: eldiario.es/internacional/fias…

En todo el artículo no se pone en duda, ni siquiera en una frase, la idea de violar el derecho internacional público y la inmunidad soberana, ni siquiera la conveniencia de actuar ilegalmente cuando así se desestabiliza el marco jurídico y se expone a Bélgica y la UE a represalias. Imperialismo 100%, ni un paso atrás, ni un instante de reflexión. Y a esto lo llaman autonomía estratégica en vez de lo que es, seguidismo atlantista.