mastodon - Link to source

I suggest you support Standard Ebooks 📚

“Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of … copyright restrictions, and free of cost.” ⚖️

See what’s free to read on January 1 👇
standardebooks.org/blog/public…

Please boost 🙏

#StandardEbooks #PublicDomain #PublicDomainDay #Copyright #Ebooks #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #Python

CC @standardebooks

Various electronic devices showing the same ebook on the screen.
#FreeSoftware #opensource #copyright #python #publicdomain #eBooks #standardebooks #publicdomainday @Standard Ebooks

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source
Happy 75th birthday to The Archers, the longest running radio drama in the world. Its famous theme tune is one of my earliest memories. When I was very young, it used to come on the radio every week day afternoon, and Mum would listen to it.
Then I got hooked, and started listening to the Omnibus edition on Radio New Zealand’s National Programme when I was five or six.
I did that without fail, every Thursday night, until 1982, when Radio New Zealand announced that due to the increased cost of the programme imposed on it by the BBC Transcription Service, Radio New Zealand wasn’t going to carry it anymore. This resulted in my first governmental advocacy effort. As a 13-year-old, I wrote for the first time to a Government Minister, pleading with him to do something about this travesty. It was pretty exciting in my working class family to come home one day and find a letter from the Minister of Broadcasting, Ian Shearer, waiting for me in the mailbox. But it was only to thank me for writing and to tell me that he didn’t have the power to interfere with Radio New Zealand’s operational matters. It was the first time, but far from the last time, that I witnessed governmental buck passing up close. My teenage self thought that he could surely just pass a law to stop this or something. I got to know him in my later work, and you can be sure I reminded him of this moment.
Finally the big day came, I still remember the date, 30 September, 1982. Rather than a typical cliffhanger, the episode ended with a special ending for New Zealand listeners, who were never to be invited to Ambridge again.
Eventually, I was let into a fanatical little club of blind people that were receiving The Archers on cassette from a very kind woman in the UK who recorded it every week. It was like being reunited with family I hadn’t seen for a while.
Finally, the Internet made it easy for me to visit Ambridge every day except Saturdays, and that’s still the case.
The Archers is a brilliant show. The fact that it has run so long allows stories to develop in real time, sometimes they can take decades to run their course.
Some people ask me how on earth you start listening to a show that has run so long, and I tell them that the best approach is to treat it like you are moving to Ambridge yourself, the village in which the characters live. When you move somewhere new, it takes a while to get to know everyone, but you eventually start to work out who’s who.
You can subscribe to The Archers via two podcasts. One gives you the 12 minute episode every day other than Saturdays, the other one gives it to you in one big weekly episode each Sunday, that’s called the Omnibus version.
If you would like to catch up, here’s a quick summary, somewhat tongue in cheek, of the story so far.
theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…
#TheArchers

Brawls, blackmail and Judi Dench: 75 staggering moments from 75 years of The Archers

From Jill’s flung flapjack to Nigel’s tragic fall, the Great Flood, Helen’s acquittal and a priceless cameo from Dame Judi, here’s an anniversary feast of epic Ambridge moments
Felicity Cloake (The Guardian)
#thearchers

mastodon - Link to source
Obloha v roce 2026: výjimečné zatmění Slunce, polární záře i velký vánoční úplněk
magazin.aktualne.cz/obloha-v-r…

Obloha v roce 2026: výjimečné zatmění Slunce, polární záře i velký vánoční úplněk

Rok 2026 nabídne příležitostným pozorovatelům i zapáleným lovcům nebeských jevů zajímavou podívanou. Na obloze se vystřídají meteorické roje, dechberoucí planetární seskupení, noční svítící oblaka i vzácné zákryty.
Šárka Nádeníčková (Aktuálně.cz)

mastodon - Link to source
Člověk chvíli vyrazí u nás na kolo a hned tohle 🤷
Já to nebyl ☝️
denik.cz/regiony/cheb-chebsko-…

Lidé na Chebsku pocítili otřesy. Nejsilnější měl sílu třetího stupně

Na západě Čech se opět zachvěla země. Podle aplikace SeisLok Geofyzikálního ústavu AV ČR měl zatím nejsilnější otřes sílu 3,03 magnituda, dosáhl tedy na třetí stupeň Richterovy stupnice. Otřesů se projevilo několik, doprovázelo je typické hučení.
Petr Przeczek (Deník.cz)

mastodon - Link to source

New Accessible Book and Document Reading app to try. This was posted by the developer on an email list I am on. Please pass it on... Hello everybody,

I’d like to share my new iPhone and iPad app I’ve just released: Vox Libri.

App Store link:
apps.apple.com/us/app/vox-libr…

Vox Libri is built to help people read books and documents in a flexible, personalized, and fully accessible way. It is designed to work well with VoiceOver and braille displays, and to support different reading preferences: on-screen reading, braille reading, or high-quality text-to-speech.

The interface is available in English and Spanish, and you can use any device-supported language for voices.

Key features include:
• High-quality text-to-speech for natural read-aloud.
• A braille reading mode compatible with braille displays.
• A highly customizable reading screen (font, size, colors, spacing, themes).
• Support for common formats: TXT, PDF, DOCX, RTF, HTML, Markdown, and EPUB.
• Accessible navigation through chapters, headings, pages, bookmarks, and sections.
• Hands-free reading using headphone controls.
• On-device AI translation, summarization, and simplification when supported by the device.

I am working in versions for MacOS and WatchOS…

If you try Vox Libri, I would sincerely appreciate any feedback from BlindApple users—especially around accessibility, braille workflows, navigation, and overall reading comfort.

Thank you and regards
Jonathan Chacón

#New #Accessible #Book #Document #Reader #Blind


Vox libri App - App Store

Download Vox libri by Jonatan Chacon Barbero on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more games like Vox libri.
App Store
#accessible #book #blind #new #document #reader

mastodon - Link to source
Damit können wir aushelfen. Dabei sind. DJ Maulwurf und Marius, Fanny und Anja aus Deutschland, und Zuzia und Gregor aus Polen. mastodon.world/@Philsan/115819… mastodon.world/@Philsan/115819… @Ohrfunk troet.cafe/@Ohrfunk/1158191048…

Atari Scene News (@Philsan@mastodon.world)

A compilation of #AtariST computers tunes by Lotek Style, that Torsten ‘mOdmate’ Keltsch would have liked https://youtu.be/THrDkvzLi5A #atari #demoscene #chiptunes
Atari Scene News (Mastodon)
@ohrfunk.de
in reply to johann

mastodon - Link to source

Andrew Hodgson

I've had a couple of times on my instance where a user I am trying to follow is showing as me requesting to follow them. I've fixed it by unfollowing them on my side and then waiting for a while for whatever cleanup to happen then following them again. Have you tried following the user by going to their page and choosing the follow button and going through that process?

mastodon - Link to source
I'm still trying to get through more of the Wandering Inn. So when the author released a truly large chapter and said they were taking a month break, I rejoiced. Because maybe I can get closer to caught up. I'm still way ahead of the audio and want to read that at some point, but some day I hope I can catch the chapters as they are released. So my resolution is to read a chapter or two of this thing a day, and maybe in a few months or ten, I'll have caught up. I'm on 8.59 now, audio is probably about 80 chapters behind me. I sincely hope that the author doesn't switch to AI narration or something before she gets to book 60 of this thing. I estimate, if all audio were published now, it'd take 60 to 80 books, countless hours, and I'm all inn.
in reply to Noel Romey

gotosocial - Link to source

johann

Man, I am caught up on all the chapters, but I miss so much details, when looking at the subredit, for example, people talking about things I don't even remember reading.
I think it’s because it just registers in my brain differently, or something, like tts vs the actual human naration.
But yeah it’s crazy the end of year chapter is almost the same length as the first Harry Potter book lol.

mastodon - Link to source

It's the death day for MacUpdater. It was a great service, going to really miss it.

corecode.io/macupdater/

Going to have to switch to a terminal-based updater. Some combiantion of homebrew and topgrade, probably.

github.com/topgrade-rs/topgrad…


GitHub - topgrade-rs/topgrade: Upgrade all the things

Upgrade all the things. Contribute to topgrade-rs/topgrade development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub

mastodon - Link to source

Happy New Year from HKC Radio!

A word about content today. The Digital Domain Online Radio Show will air its annual New Year's Day special tonight at 7 PM EST. It does feature some Christmas leftovers, which is why our Christmas replays are running still. For those who simply do not wish to Christmas anymore, @nick really sympathizes.

The replays will quietly end during the show and regular automation will resume.

@Nick Giannak III
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Them: Can you confirm you have no more than 15 personal electronic devices in your carry on?

Me: (excitedly infodumping) Well, it really depends what you consider to be a device. Many of these computers themselves contain multiple smaller computers. Consider these microSD cards (waves a small anti-static bag around), each of which has a tiny ARM processor - designed by a trans person from the BBC Micro team, if I might go off at a tangent for a moment. Or the battery controller chip on the LiPo pouch protection circuit, which significantly reduces the probability of a thermal excursion. And let's face it, nobody wants a spicy pillow in their lap at 30,000 feet-

Them: Just say yes. (Pleadingly) Just yes. That's all I'm asking. I'm begging you.

#39c3 #AuDHD

Photo showing a number of personal electronic devices including a Bluetooth Thinkpad keyboard, a couple of laptops adorned with Chaos-adjacent stickers, a Tanmatsu, a DECT phone (no base station, awww), a Mysterious Clamshell Device, some headphones, a BangleJS watch, a Pimoroni Tufty running a CO2 monitoring app, a FOSSAsia name badge showing the word "Don't" and a little tub full of the smaller personal electronic devices....
#AuDHD #39c3
This entry was edited (2 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Just interested in peoples attitudes to AI
Please boost

  • love it love it love it (1%, 9 votes)
  • makes everything in my life easier (2%, 14 votes)
  • the speed its being developed is worrying (28%, 199 votes)
  • needs regulating in public hands (50%, 355 votes)
  • I wasnt asked if I wanted it (60%, 424 votes)
  • its dumbing down the world (72%, 509 votes)
  • huge energy cost is adding to climate breakdown (84%, 593 votes)
700 voters. Poll end: in 3 weeks

glitchsoc - Link to source
the soviet anthem is blaring in the streets.... a halal cart guy has just murdered a hot dog cart guy in cold blood for selling pork... landlords are being sent to the rikers island gulag, and everyone who was in rikers before is being freed if they say the shahada. wall street is ablaze and the stock market has been replaced by a mosque. every screen in times square bears an image of mayor mamdani with joseph stalin sucking his cock. what have we done

mastodon - Link to source

This year at #39C3, it felt that the congres was bursting at the seams. Nearly all of the assemblies I know complained about having less room and less tables then requested. The infrastructure review posted numbers e.g. about ~20% more DECT-phone calls, more internet usage then ever, ....

And, by chance, I consulted the wikipedia page about CCC:de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Co… , which also lists the (approximate) number of visitors: 16K this year and only 14.5K last year. Time to go to #leipzig again?


jährliches Hackertreffen

Autoren der Wikimedia-Projekte (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)
#leipzig #39c3

akkoma - Link to source

Thinking back to last year I remembered the us-east-1 outage, how it affected Signal and how some of the users freaked out that they have to rely on US hyperscalers.

Wouldn't it be useful if @signalapp (and maybe similar providers) published their infra requirements with little crosses and ticks, so alternative providers could aim for "good enough for Signal" service levels?

Related articles by @bert_hubert :

berthub.eu/articles/posts/the-…


The (European) cloud ladder: from virtual server to MS 365 - Bert Hubert's writings

We have extensive discussions about our enormous dependence on American clouds, but what exactly are we talking about? And is Europe equally dependent on all types of cloud? This article is aimed at policy makers, but it may also provide some clarity…
Bert Hubert's writings
@Signal @bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Today, Bulgaria adopts the euro as its official currency. 💶

A new currency, a stronger bond with Europe.

Travel, work, and business will become easier and more connected.

With Schengen now fully in place, this means more freedom, more opportunities, and a shared future.

Progress is not a dream. It is a choice. And Bulgaria has chosen it.

Let's keep moving forward together. 🇪🇺🇧🇬

An image features two coins, one with a map of Europe and the denomination '1 EURO', and the other (representing the other side of the coin) depicting a religious figure holding a cross. The coins are connected by a ribbon with the colours of the Bulgarian flag, set against a backdrop of Sofia cityscape with mountains in the distance. At the top, it says 'WELCOME TO THE EURO BULGARIA!'"
in reply to European Commission

mastodon - Link to source

Professeur Carré

Welcome to Bulgaria.

But why the official communicate is only in english ?

ec.europa.eu/commission/pressc…


Bulgaria joins euro area from 1 January

On 1 January 2026, Bulgaria will adopt the euro as its currency, marking an important milestone for the country, for the history of the euro, and for the EU as a whole.
European Commission - European Commission

mastodon - Link to source

Just a reminder that you really should #BoycottFigma.

The fact they slurp all your designs into their slop machines by default, and you have to go opt-out if you don't like them stealing your creative work…**all in a product which literally exists to aid creators**…makes me nauseous.

There are other design apps you can use! Really, there are!

#boycottfigma

mastodon - Link to source

DI-Day im #c3d2

Der @c3d2 lädt zu mehr digitaler Unabhängigkeit ein und wir kommen mit vorbei.

Ihr habt Fragen zu freien Messengern wie #Matrix oder #XMPP, #Linux, dem #Fediverse oder anderen #OpenSource-Themen? Dann kommt gern am Sonntag den 4. Januar ab 14:00 Uhr in die Räume des c3d2, Riesaer Str. 32, #Dresden.

#DIDay #DIDayHelpdesk #DIDAySprechstunde

Zwei Personen im Grünen an einem Laptop. Das Bild ist in Graustufen gehalten. Die Gesichter der Menschen sind jedoch mit in grün gefärbten Katzenköpfen überdeckt. Rechts im Bild ist eine ebenfalls grün gefärbte Katze. In großen Buchstaben steht vorn im Bild: "DI-Day".
#xmpp #linux #matrix #opensource #fediverse #dresden #diday #c3d2 #didayhelpdesk #didaysprechstunde @Chaos Computer Club Dresden
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source
My early morning thought: I must be the only blind person who isn’t a musician, an internet radio DJ, or a YouTuber/streamer of video games. Okay, I know I’m not, and this is a generalization, but there are definitely a lot of these people. Oh, and I forgot ham radio operators and vapers!
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Some AntennaPod contributors plan to join the FOSDEM conference in Brussels. Who would be interested in grabbing some drinks together? forum.antennapod.org/t/antenna…

AntennaPod @ FOSDEM

Hi everyone, some AntennaPod contributors plan to join the FOSDEM conference in Brussels from the 31th of January to the 1st of February. It would be nice to meet up and maybe even grab some drinks together.
AntennaPod Forum

mastodon - Link to source

Tak snad ten ohňostroj stál za to 🤷‍♂️
#darwinawards

novinky.cz/clanek/krimi-muz-v-…


Muž v Budějovicích odpaloval zakázanou pyrotechniku. Utrhla mu obě ruce

Vážné zranění utrpěl zhruba třicetiletý muž v Českých Budějovicích, když během silvestrovské noci odpaloval zakázanou pyrotechniku. Ta mu explodovala v rukou a amputovala obě končetiny v zápěstí. Policisté případ řeší jako nedovolené ozbrojování.
Klára Mrázová (Novinky)
#darwinawards
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