mastodon - Link to source

No, I am not going to do a search for the great Gatsby fanfiction, but, for some reason, that just came to mine. I mean, it is public domain, has been for a while, so it most likely exists in bulk. There is probably a huge, closet club of the great Gatsby fanfiction writers out there Just having a great old time fulfilling their Myrtle fantasies, but I will never know. Why am I even thinking about this?

Also, fun fact: that book is why I failed English in the 11th grade. I just didn't care about it, didn't do any of the assigned stuff on it, subsequently failed the class. YAY!

This entry was edited (7 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Anyone happen to know how to get SoX on a Synology DS1815+? I have a bunch of things I want to automate on a schedule that needs it specifically. I could mount the filesystem and do all that on another host, but really don't want to do it that way. I might be able to do what I want with ffmpeg, which is installed, but would rather use SoX if I can.
This entry was edited (8 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source

I was apparently arrested at age 20 for committing arson, killing 8 out of 10 people in a building. It was ruled self-defense, as I was escaping a horrible situation.

I was apparently traumatized by this whole deal, and had to live in a group home, where I met a girl who also murdered in self-defense.

Things were going well.

Just as we were really starting to get to know each other, I woke up, and the dog was frantically barking about something, so I guess I'll never know how things turned out.

#WeirdDream

#weirddream
This entry was edited (10 hours ago)
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@clv1 hm, this is where the lengthenedScale setting can help you, the default is very short but you can change it for portuguese if it is helpful for that language to be something like 1.14. Try that first too. You can add this rule to the PT language file, rules don't require a restart of NVDA, just a restart of the engine (so switch synthesizers, switch back, rule applies.) So in Pt.YAML inside packs\lang for the add-on:
# --- Portuguese "-ião" glide length ---
# In words like "avião" / "religião" eSpeak emits ...iˈɐ̃ʊ̃.
# The /i/ here behaves like a glide into the nasal diphthong, but it can sound too short
# in our timing model. Add a length mark so the engine gives it a little more time.
- from: "iˈɐ̃ʊ̃"
to: "iːˈɐ̃ʊ̃"
@Cleverson
in reply to Tamas G

mastodon - Link to source

Cleverson

@Tamasg Thanks a lot. It appears the best compromise is around 2.44 for scale lenght. Also, I tried adding your mapping suggestion in the phoneme editor, but it wasn't accepted, perhaps because there is more than one key for the To field. And speaking of nasal diphthongs, I'm not quite pleased with ã and õ. Tomorrow I'm gonna try cloning and modifying them.
This entry was edited (9 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Gosh, with all these tools we should already be so fsafe beyond safety's own limits. Why do we then need ICE and all these oso-called law enforcement agencies? I mean just put a guy in a cowboy hat and boots, show them how to use Tangles, and the rest of us can go party. What's wrong with this formula? @TexasObserver texasobserver.social/@TexasObs…

Texas Observer

2026-01-18 20:00:09

mastodon - Link to source

Thanks to a software program called "Tangles," #police—sheriffs, Texas state cops, and even #ICE—can follow the location of your smartphone without a warrant.

Yet, we know little about how it has been used. Here's what our investigation revealed: texasobserver.org/texas-police…

#privacy #tech #surveillance #Texas #politics #USpol #news



Texas Police Invested Millions in a Shadowy Phone-Tracking Software. They Won’t Say How They’ve Used It.

One sheriff who leads an anti-smuggling task force says the software helps “develop leads to eventually obtain probable cause.” Civil liberties experts say its use violates constitutional rights.
Francesca D’Annunzio (The Texas Observer)

@Texas Observer

mastodon - Link to source
Amazing news! NVSP Phoneme Editor V4 is here, and it brings much needed improvements.
For starters, we directly consume libespeak.dll, thanks to learnings from our SAPI5 wrapper. No more running Espeak in another process this way, but still side-loading the DLL into the process. The .exe is included so as to keep the distribution of Espeak intact.
This also allows us to get correct IPA mappings just like the NVDA driver gets, so letters should not be dropped during speech. Check it out! Wow!
Also, the spin controls can now use page up and page-down for movement by increments of 50. This should allow wider mapping but finer if you arrow. Wait, spin control? That's right, hitting "edit" on a phoneme will let you increment it using the arrow keys, or type in the value. Why not be flexible!
We solved an issue with loading: no matter where you unzip this, it will load both the DLL and Espeak NG folders, locating Espeak-NG.exe in it. There's still a bit of a bug here because we don't check for libespeak.dll but the executable, but this is a minor one for the next version to fix. If you point it at a dll, it will also load the packs if it exists in the same folder, which also means less hitting "open" and "set" everywhere.
Enjoy! eurpod.com/synths/NVSPPhonemeE…
And yes, I tested this with at least 4 KB of text thrown at it at once in the text-box, it didn't crash. I'm sure there's a limit, but still, impressive it only took like 7 seconds to generate the speech.
This entry was edited (12 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Thanks to a software program called "Tangles," #police—sheriffs, Texas state cops, and even #ICE—can follow the location of your smartphone without a warrant.

Yet, we know little about how it has been used. Here's what our investigation revealed: texasobserver.org/texas-police…

#privacy #tech #surveillance #Texas #politics #USpol #news


Texas Police Invested Millions in a Shadowy Phone-Tracking Software. They Won’t Say How They’ve Used It.

One sheriff who leads an anti-smuggling task force says the software helps “develop leads to eventually obtain probable cause.” Civil liberties experts say its use violates constitutional rights.
Francesca D’Annunzio (The Texas Observer)
#privacy #politics #News #tech #uspol #surveillance #police #texas #ice

mastodon - Link to source

One thing that's tough for people who just join the Fediverse, like most of the folks on #theforkiverse , is that there are self-appointed experts who reply to their public posts saying that "the Fediverse" doesn't like that kind of content.

This is untrue. They don't speak for all of us. Nobody does. You can't spell "Fediverse" without "diverse"; for good or ill, there are different viewpoints on almost any topic found here.

#theforkiverse

mastodon - Link to source

I'm helping an elderly person with a patient portal, and wow, there are about 4 different problems ranging from unclear instructions to pages that don't work well when the phone is zoomed in enough for an older person to actually read the text.

Plus, the iPhone keeps popping up unhelpful gunk.

This person isn't particularly afraid of technology either, but they literally can't do it.

I now think every web developer should be forced to walk through their processes with an 85-year-old.

in reply to Mignon Fogarty

mastodon - Link to source

André Polykanine

*Round of applause, some cheerful whistles and yelling can be heard* Welcome to the club of people needing accessibility! We struggle with such things every single day. I mean, "we" as in "blind people" even more, but still 😊 On a more serious point, try reporting the issues to the dev. As you are in the US, your strong words to mention are ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), Section 508 and WCAG.

mastodon - Link to source

Appeasement didn't work with Hitler.

Appeasement didn't work with Putin.

Appeasement isn't working with Trump.

When will Europe learn this most basic lesson about how to deal with imperialist bullies?

politico.eu/article/hit-back-d…


Hit back at Trump? Europe mulls unthinkable options as Greenland threats ramp up tensions

Senior politicians want the EU to deploy its trade bazooka against the United States over Trump’s Greenland claims. Capitals aren’t so sure.
Nicholas Vinocur (POLITICO)

mastodon - Link to source
Accessibility is not an excuse. For some backstory: I was at lunch with my parents when they told me I could do classes online but would most likely have to pay for it to which I said, "I would have to do some checking to make sure the platform was accessible." My dad then said one of the worst things anyone could ever say, family or not. "Oh, there's always an excuse." Accessibility. is. not. an excuse. It might seem like it to someone who might not have to think about something like that, but this attitude is disgusting. Accessibility comes in many forms, and having to think about whether something is going to be accessible or not is so goddamn tiring and I don't like that thought being the first thing I say, but also, that's a reality I have to accept. Again I'll say, accessibility, no matter what form you're thinking about is no excuse. After this interaction, I'm left with -1 spoons and a desire to do nothing else for the day.

mastodon - Link to source
Sometimes you just have to jump in, yes not everything might be the best decision to make, but honestly getting a Raspberry Pi and not waiting for the perfect moment to start selfhosting when, I had better hardware, or more money, or better internet, or lived in my own home etc, was one of my best decisions 2025. I love beeing able to spin up seriously useful docker containers in seconds, and only today, I added Beszel and linkding to the list of useful tools amongst gitea, audiobookshelf, joplin. Not only does it safe money (to host a joplin server instead of paying for joplin cloud, for example) it's fun, it's satesfying, it takes almost no resources. Just had to say it again, this is good.
This entry was edited (14 hours ago)

hometown - Link to source

Anybody have ideas about where to host a podcast (low traffic)?

One thousand years ago, I started a thing on a podcast service that got acquired by Spotify. The podcast is served from Spotify today. I’d like to change that.

I did figure out a story for hosting the podcast feed directly from my Ghost dot org site, but it’s a bit too fiddly for me to want to take that on right now, especially with a back catalog of episodes I’d want to keep online (ideally without migrating each item manually).

mastodon - Link to source
Hello everyone and welcome to the official #FastSM Mastodon account. Automated release announcements as well as tips and tricks and support will be posted here. I hope you enjoy FastSM! You can find the GitHub repo here: github.com/masonasons/FastSM

GitHub - masonasons/FastSM: A fast, accessible social media client supporting Mastodon and Bluesky

A fast, accessible social media client supporting Mastodon and Bluesky - masonasons/FastSM
GitHub
#fastsm

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

RE: mastodon.social/@NouranKhaledG…

If you are still thinking of us, please donate and share to help my family overcome this tough time

chuffed.org/project/121561-urg…

Nouran 🍉

2026-01-14 19:11:22

mastodon - Link to source

I'm a human being. I have dreams. But the genocide changed my dreams. In the past I had big dreams. But now all my dreams are to live a normal life.

What normal life means for me?

A normal life is to sleep peacefully in the night. To have a home where my family gathers. To eat healthy food and drink clean water. To meet friends in the university. That's it! Unfortunately these basics became big dreams

Please donate to help my family overcome this tough time

chuffed.org/project/121561-urg…



Urgent help for Ahmed's family

"I’m tired, Mama. I’m thinking of the hours that I'll spend tomorrow in the water line." – says 9 year old Ahmed to his mother before going to sleep.
Chuffed

mastodon - Link to source

I'm a human being. I have dreams. But the genocide changed my dreams. In the past I had big dreams. But now all my dreams are to live a normal life.

What normal life means for me?

A normal life is to sleep peacefully in the night. To have a home where my family gathers. To eat healthy food and drink clean water. To meet friends in the university. That's it! Unfortunately these basics became big dreams

Please donate to help my family overcome this tough time

chuffed.org/project/121561-urg…


Urgent help for Ahmed's family

"I’m tired, Mama. I’m thinking of the hours that I'll spend tomorrow in the water line." – says 9 year old Ahmed to his mother before going to sleep.
Chuffed
⇧