I just tried out the new Supertonic TTS for 64-bit NVDA, and I was more impressed with it than I thought. It is a local neural TTS, with as of right now, 10 voices that are English only, , (five female, five male, four American and one British per gender), and my favorite is F3. What I find impressive is that when the speech quality control value is at its lowest, it still sounds decent, though due to the nature of neural TTS engines, just like Sonata, the longer the paragraph, the longer the delay.

HarfBuzz 12.3.0 is out, faster than ever:

- AAT shaping: 12% faster, LucidaGrande benchmark.
- OpenType shaping: 20% faster, NotoNastaliqUrdu benchmark.
- Drawing mega variable-fonts: 30% faster, GoogleSansFlex benchmark.
- Drawing VARC fonts: 5% faster, varc-hanzi benchmark.

github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/r…

Modular étude. Four random minor pentatonic sequences from Clank Chaos, one pinging the VCFQ filter fed into the Sarajewo BBD delay (low), and three into the oscillators of Three Body, tuned an octave apart in free mode, with modest FM and PM cross-modulation dialed in. Mixed and fed through the Desmodus Versio for reverb.
in reply to Joseph King

@jdking92 @MariahL Steps:

Before doing all of this, make sure that you uninstall whatsapp that you installed from microsoft store.
First download this zip file:
drive.google.com/uc?id=12Z3kjH…

Enable developer mode in windows.
Extract the wa folder from inside the zip file you downloaded to c:\.
Open powershell and enter this command.
Add-AppxPackage -Register "C:\WA\AppxManifest.xml"

in reply to Martin

@mcourcel @munchkinbear @MariahL @FreakyFwoof So here's a question. Are you guys using the app with Web wrapper that uses edge, or are you using yuour browser of choice, such as Chrome, and going to web.whatsapp.com . I've been told it's about the same. And I know Edge is based on Chromium, but it feels different to me than Chrome.
in reply to Nicki

@nycki96 @munchkinbear @mcourcel @MariahL @FreakyFwoof There are, (checks notes): 9 instances of the new Whatsapp in my task manager, the web version in Chrome doesn't run any better, yes this and everything else that uses the Edge wrapper is a resource hog, and no there isn't a hacky way to get the old release back. We're stuck with the new one.
in reply to Amanda Carson

@acarson @nycki96 @mcourcel @MariahL @FreakyFwoof hahahha their isn't? *checks notes, hits paste* Before doing all of this, make sure that you uninstall whatsapp that you installed from microsoft store.
First download this zip file:
drive.google.com/uc?id=12Z3kjH…

Enable developer mode in windows.
Extract the wa folder from inside the zip file you downloaded to c:\.
Open powershell and enter this command.
Add-AppxPackage -Register "C:\WA\AppxManifest.xml"

in reply to Munchkinbear

@munchkinbear @nycki96 @mcourcel @MariahL @FreakyFwoof OK I stand corrected, but, who's providing this file, and why are you adding keys to your registry from an xml file you can't verify? Do you even know what keys you're adding? I mean I'm not going to tell you what risks to take with your system, but major potential to tank the whole thing just to avoid a shitty interface. This kind of stuff is how you get yourself into trouble.
in reply to Amanda Carson

@acarson @munchkinbear @mcourcel @MariahL @FreakyFwoof Yeah I'm not doing it because who knows how long it will even work. Meta is eventually going to stop supporting that app, if they haven't already, and eventually, updates to the system and the Web interface will happen to make that app unuseable. Really, you're just prolonging the inevitable by doing this.
in reply to Aryan

@Aryan @munchkinbear @nycki96 @mcourcel @MariahL @FreakyFwoof Sure, if you understand how to read XML. My point is that getting yourself into this sort of posture where you download software at random, make changes to your operating system that do things like change the type of updates you'll receive, and register keys you're not familiar with, all to avoid using an interface that, however bad it may be, is going to be forced on you for all sorts of apps. is pretty risky. And I'm saying this as someone who has absolutely bailed Shane out of messes he has gotten himself into by pressing buttons to see what happens instead of taking any sort of methodical approach.
in reply to Amanda Carson

@acarson @munchkinbear @nycki96 @mcourcel @MariahL @FreakyFwoof well i meen you are correct, but we arn't just using randum files here.
i myself extracted the whatsapp appxbundle, then extracted the spisific x64 file appx package from it, then modified it, then packaged it in to a zip file.
people can examin all they want, and they really should when downloading things.

Was muss sich eurer Meinung nach im nächsten Jahr unbedingt jemand von uns anschauen? Welche Themen gehen bei uns und anderswo viel zu sehr unter? Was habt ihr euch schon immer gefragt?

Wenn ihr eure Fragen und Ideen teilen wollt: In den Kommentaren, per Mail oder in den nächsten Tagen bei einer Mate auf dem #39C3 netzpolitik.org/2025/kw-52-die…

#39c3

REAPER Made Easy's end of year wrap up starts at 3PM Eastern, 8PM UK
We've got a boat load of your productions cued up, an awesome spread of work done throughout 2025 to listen to! Starting at the top of the hour sharp.
TeamTalk details are at reaperteacher.com.
YouTube stream is here:
youtube.com/live/O3hz2uYfhIw?f…

See ya soon,

scott/Jen

Today, I redeemed a virtual gift card from my credit card rewards from the year, and donated the sum to:

- Wikipedia @wikipedia
- The GNOME Foundation @gnome
- The Internet Archive @internetarchive
- Servo @servo
- KDE @kde

I currently support #Drupal on a monthly basis

I'm also planning on supporting @elementary on a recurring basis in the new year

If you have a little bit of money at the end of the year, please consider supporting FOSS projects you use or appreciate! This is how we empower the next generation of open computing.

#giving #donations #FOSS

This entry was edited (2 days ago)

Windows 11 Version 25H2 has a Major accessibility issue!
We need to spread the word because This is something that will effect blind people!
Send this video to Everyone you know!
youtube.com/watch?v=nGUuQSA_7n…

@Gianni@tweesecake.social @FrancisCole @mckensie @Winelectronic101 Dude, you just used AI to create that yourself, because no way in hell did you just come up with that yourself. And you, telling people they can't use AI models? Hypocrite! Oh, and they don't have to solve that if they don't want to. And you can't force them to. By the way, if I really, really wanted to, I could pull up ChatGPT right now and answer that problem. And since, of course, you stupidly didn't put the text version of that problem, it's gonna be hard for me to transcribe that speech. Which is exactly why I'm not gonna even try. Because you know why? It's also irrelevant and it just wastes people's time!
in reply to Timothy Wynn

If you wanted, you can just use the deprecated Windows Mail, except just as an NNTP client:
eightforums.com/threads/how-to…

I paused, out of breath. The Void had taken all my frustrated screaming and absorbed it.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "You must have heard all this before, countless times."

'only you,' said the Void, 'scream your frustration like you do'

I took a deep breath to resume, then smiled.

"Thanks."

#microFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

Vorgestern bei der Arbeit:

Pat (wirkt, als ob er ein Problem mit Frauen hat) bittet mich, eine Tablette zu teilen. Die wäre so hart, wir hätten ja extra einen Zerteiler dafür.
Nehme die Tablette, zerteile sie mit der Hand, gebe sie zurück.
Erst erstaunter, dann böser Blick.

Tja, manche Egos zerbricht man mit 4 Fingern🤷‍♀️

Did you know? Every year, the Supreme Court’s nine justices fill out a form that discloses their financial connections to companies and people.

Our database allows you to search for organizations and people that have paid them, reimbursed them for travel and given them gifts.
projects.propublica.org/suprem…

#Journalism #SCOTUS #Law #Ethics #Transparency #Research #Data

The entire premise of a "top 40" radio station is so strange.

What do they primarily play? Songs people listen to a lot. What songs do people listen to a lot? Songs that get played on the radio frequently.

I suppose the feedback loop isnt as bad now that younger folks tend to use means other than radio to discover new music.