mastodon - Link to source

Trump lifts more sanctions on Putin:

This time companies delivering equipment to Putin’s war machine get taken off the US sanctions list.

You read that right: In the oval office sits a president who wants to help companies delivering equipment to the Russian military.

I truly hope the American people stop the Russian collaborator at the midterm elections in 2026.

euromaidanpress.com/2025/12/19…


US quietly removes sanctions from firms accused of supplying Russia's military - Euromaidan Press

Treasury dropped sanctions on Cyprus, Dubai, Turkish, and Finnish firms tied to Russian military supplies - without explanation.
Benjamin Murdoch (Euromaidan Press)
This entry was edited (22 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source

OSCloud je komunitní, open-source a bez reklam.
Běží díky lidem, kteří chtějí svobodné a soukromí respektující služby.

🎄 Vánoce jsou dobrá chvíle zastavit se a podpořit projekty, které dávají smysl.
👉 Pokud vám OSCloud dává smysl, zvažte finanční podporu.
Pomůžete udržet infrastrukturu a rozvoj služeb pro všechny.
oscloud.cz/co-to-bude-stat/
#oscloud #opensource

Co to bude stát – OSCLOUD – opensource komunita sobě

oscloud.cz
#opensource #oscloud
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

reshared this

in reply to Andre Louis

mastodon - Link to source

Amir

Actually no. The latest Windows 11 dev release only provides these two US English HD voices. But this seems to be the beginning, like the previous high-quality voices. Microsoft may well extend this so-called HD upgrade to other voices in the near future. At this time we just have access to these two offline HD voices, and even these haven't been released to the official channel. The rest are not HD though they are high-quality.
@JamminJerry
@JamminJerry
in reply to Borris

mastodon - Link to source

Timothy Wynn

@BorrisInABox You can open the installer and uncheck "Enable Microsoft Edge online voices" to get rid of the online voices. The Close button applies any settings, so no need to uninstall and reinstall. You should have at least silent spots where NVDA expects Andrew and Ava, even if the voice data was extracted to the wrong location. Is this not the case for you? You can also press Alt+DownArrow to open the list of voices without actually changing them. @FreakyFwoof @JamminJerry @amir
@Andre Louis @JamminJerry @Borris @Amir
in reply to Andre Louis

mastodon - Link to source

Amir

Well, this can be extended even further if you are into experiments - LOL!
There's a newer, non-official installer of NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter with Microsoft.CognitiveServices.Speech updated to 1.46.0. Download from Google Drive - link at the end.
Delete old versions of NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter and install the new one. Now Ava and Andrew become more HD-like.
And now you can switch between HD and regular voice versions by editing the EnableHDVoice=yes (EnableHDVoice=no) parameter in the 1033.INI file in the voice folder.
drive.google.com/drive/folders…

AndrewHD and AvaHD – Disk Google

Google Drive
in reply to Amir

mastodon - Link to source

JamminJerry

you ask, and I shall deliver. this took me several times to record though. one time I didn't have the right button pushed on the mixer. another time I had more than just the NVDA channel in the recording. one time I didn't have any channels selected, so it was just a silent file, but after several attempts, here you go. I personally think there should be a bit more of a pause at the between paragraphs, but that is just me.

hometown - Link to source
canpoli, ontpoli, complaining lol

Sensitive content

mastodon - Link to source

In the first draft of the Black Mirror episode for this scenario, a Waymo exec has a medical crisis and the ambulance can't get there on time because the streets are choked with Waymos.

In the final script, Waymo invites PG&E employees to their blowout holiday party, with free Waymo pickups. Most of the staff is in those Waymos when the power goes out; they're stuck all over the city, unable to solve the problem.

The episode is called "Vendor Lock-In"
sfba.social/@fadersolo/1157553…

Scott McDowell

2025-12-21 03:10:03

mastodon - Link to source

SF’s is having a massive power outage. We ended up having to drive across SF to find a laundromat to dry our soaking wet laundry. Here’s my two observations: every third block is a traffic jam caused by a confused Waymo that doesn’t know how to handle these intersections with no power. Why are the Waymo’s even allowed to drive right now?

Also, considering how much of our city’s budget goes to the cops, why aren’t any of them directing traffic? I mean, it’s not like SFPD is busy solving crime…

#SanFrancisco #Waymo #AI #Doom edit: I’m adding #WayMogeddon


mastodon - Link to source

SF’s is having a massive power outage. We ended up having to drive across SF to find a laundromat to dry our soaking wet laundry. Here’s my two observations: every third block is a traffic jam caused by a confused Waymo that doesn’t know how to handle these intersections with no power. Why are the Waymo’s even allowed to drive right now?

Also, considering how much of our city’s budget goes to the cops, why aren’t any of them directing traffic? I mean, it’s not like SFPD is busy solving crime…

#SanFrancisco #Waymo #AI #Doom edit: I’m adding #WayMogeddon

#AI #sanfrancisco #Doom #waymo #waymogeddon
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source
I’m offline enjoying a social media break, but just in case you missed it, this really resonated with a lot of people. The Colonization of Confidence., Sightless Scribbles sightlessscribbles.com/the-col… #AI #AISlop #AIHype #LLM #Blog #Blogging #Writing #Author

The Colonization of Confidence., Sightless Scribbles

A fabulously gay blind author.
sightlessscribbles.com
#blog #AI #writing #blogging #author #llm #AIhype #aislop

mastodon - Link to source

When the lights go out in San Francisco
Where do the Waymos go
To continue their incessant beeping and honking
Circling aimlessly to and fro

How do the tech bros survive their life
With no ChatGPT to consult
How do they even feed themselves
Without delivery drivers to insult?

What happens to all the data centers
When the generators run out of fuel
Does the Internet just shut down
Who will the oligarchs rule?

Maybe we should just keep the lights out
And all go early to bed
Since if we keep the powering the AI machines
We may all end up, dead.

#random #poem (human)

#poem #random

mastodon - Link to source

Long discussion on the orange website about the NIST's Boulder NTP site being down. Not a lot of people with practical experience in the topic.

NTP is designed to function as a tree model, rooted in "stratum 0" NTP servers with direct time references. Actual clients are expected to interact with lower-stratum servers that themselves synchronize to higher-stratum servers. Generally any NTP server with a GPS time reference is considered suitable for stratum 0, and the vast, vast majority of real-world NTP/PTP deployments are ultimately working off of one or more GPS references. GPS operates from the Naval Observatory clock via a few different layers of indirection, each of which has its own high-precision oscillators to allow plenty of holdover. Purpose-built stratum 0 servers, used e.g. in data centers, have their own precision reference oscillators for holdover should the GPS lock be lost. Basically any real problem in this space would probably evolve pretty slowly.

The NIST NTP servers have always suffered from high load, to the extent that they've sometimes been unresponsive in the past. Synchronizing devices directly to these NTP servers is a bad practice, discouraged by the NIST and now mostly gone from default configs. That limits the impact of an outage a lot. The authenticated service is intended to help with the load-related reliability issues but presumably its users are sophisticated enough that their stratum-1 will be fine. Most clients are interacting with lower-stratum NTP servers operated by, for example, ntppool.org. These track multiple stratum-0 references and will be fine with the loss of one of the NIST sites.

There are probably still a bunch of stupid clients that try NIST Boulder NTP servers exclusively (I know some old network appliances shipped like this by default), and they might be a little driftier than usual for a while, but I wouldn't expect any of these to be important as they were pretty much already misconfigured.

Big picture, the NTP system is very big and very distributed and the NIST Boulder site has no real significance beyond name recognition---the same name recognition that made it a poor choice for most purposes.

This entry was edited (2 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source

This is how I feel about Firefox too. There's no alternative. No, really, Librewolf is Firefox, who exactly do you think you're sticking it to? And Vivaldi is a proprietary browser built on Google's engine, you're sticking it to nobody but yourself. Oh, you're switching to Servo? Not this decade you're not.

Mozilla CEOs have always been incompetent, but there's no other alternative outside of the direct control of people who are many orders of magnitude worse. We support Firefox or we lose the web.
mastodon.gamedev.place/users/D…

Daniel Gibson

2025-12-19 17:07:17

mastodon - Link to source

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


mastodon - Link to source

Hey #Mastodon people, the #blogging hashtag is pretty cool because I get to see blog posts from folks I would otherwise not meet. Can you recommend any other hashtags where people share their essays or fiction?

PS: I don't really want a hashtag where people share their thoughts about writing and such. I am inundated with those lol. I want actual pieces so I can find new folks to read ✌️

#Mastodon #blogging

mastodon - Link to source
This is a very generous offer and I feel that others will enjoy this as well. @pneumasolutions social.pneumasolutions.com/@pn…

Pneuma Solutions (@pneumasolutions@pneumasolutions.com)

Happy Holidays from Pneuma Solutions! Have some completely free #remoteIncidentManager usage on us! From now through January 2nd, we're inviting you to try the full run of Remote Incident Manager's capabilities free of charge! Download RIM today and …
Pneuma Solutions
@Pneuma Solutions

mastodon - Link to source
Windows tablet users that use NVDA, is there a a way that isn't convoluted to get it to behave in a way that makes sense? e.g. Swiping up, down, left, right for arrows, left and right swipes with 2 fingers for shift tab and tab, double tap to activate whatever keyboard focus is on, etc. Object nav seems silly when this would work considerably better.

mastodon - Link to source

Don't want AI in web browser? Alternatives having not (or will not) put in AI:

librewolf.net
floorp.app
zen-browser.app
vivaldi.com
alohabrowser.com (Android)
waterfox.com
mullvad.net/en/browser
dillo-browser.org
falkon.org
wolvic.org/en (XR)
torproject.org (privacy)

Upcoming new:

github.com/LadybirdBrowser/lad…
github.com/servo/servo
gitlab.com/verso-browser

#browsers #noAI #Linux #desktop #mobile


GitHub - LadybirdBrowser/ladybird: Truly independent web browser

Truly independent web browser. Contribute to LadybirdBrowser/ladybird development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
#linux #mobile #browsers #desktop #noAI
in reply to Linux ✅

mastodon - Link to source

Linux ✅

a statement from Vivaldi team:

"Today, as other browsers race to build AI that controls how you experience the web, we are making a clear promise:

We’re taking a stand, choosing humans over hype, and we will not turn the joy of exploring into inactive spectatorship. Without exploration, the web becomes far less interesting."

vivaldi.com/blog/keep-explorin…


Vivaldi takes a stand: keep browsing human | Vivaldi Browser

Browsing should push you to explore, chase ideas, and make your own decisions. It should light up your brain. Vivaldi is taking a stand. We choose humans over…
Jon von Tetzchner (Vivaldi Technologies)

gotosocial - Link to source

Come to terms with this: you are owned. You are a slave. I am a slave. We're all slaves. Our owners are the ones whose names appear in newspapers, and on our ballots, and on our receipts.

Understand that you are bought and sold, and your wishes are as relevant to public policy as my cats' opinions on free software.

Only when you begin to understand this (and that I am not joking in any way at all, I am 100% deadly serious about this) will you grasp how fucked we all are, and will be, until we either die or fix it.

Which do you want?

⇧