Deleted my Bluesky account today. Life is too short...
So, looking to see more joy in my Mastadon feed. If you can recommend anything in the following categories, let me know: #atari #8bit #arcade #books #scifi #gardening #f1 #mlb #guitar
oh my gosh. So even if you load the 64-bit NVDA after using the 32-bit NVDA, your system gets fucked. List view controls don't read right, alt+tab switcher stops reading your enumerations and window list, it's horrifying. So, don't flip between them often, you'll need a system restart, I can't believe we're in 2026 dealing with that.
I haven't powered up the Development VM since November. Kinda scared to since VSCode will most likely update, and every time it does, it breaks settings that I have to then track down and edit! Oy! But also really would like to get back to working on my Apps. Gotta switch Soundkeys over to...something other than WX because the Accessibility issues are driving me bonkers and UIA doesn't seem to be working much better. I do like Python a lot, though.
I should really go to bed but first have this thing I spent the last few hours making in Ableton. It's a remix of "Be Like You" by Taylor Acorn and it's probably one of my favorite songs of the last few years. Here's the original: youtu.be/Cys2K0rx2T0
Taylor Acorn - Be Like You (Official Audio)Stream Survival in Motion: https://onerpm.link/survivalinmotionFollow Taylor:▶ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/a...
Well, I heard you all loud and clear. In the next pack update we're going back to some of the old values in the phoneme file but with language-specific safeguards in place to make NVSpeech sound not like it is speech impaired. Nothing against those who are, it's just that robots are too perfectly made of math to need to suffer from those problems
Today is a company holiday in the US I think, but I sat in on an AI best practices meeting anyhow, since I still know next to nothing about AI, and upper management cares about it. Someone made a comment that AI will change the nature of technical/development positions. So I wonder, will it? I presume it will, in some way, since most change has consequences, but I feel like it's too early to say how or to what extent? It's fascinating how much change there is right now, both in terms of technology created by humans and the ecology of the planet due to humans. I think about the Mesozoic Era and how long it lasted and how there must have been long states of stasis, with each generation of any given life form essentially playing the same role as the last. But maybe long periods of stasis followed by relatively rapid bursts of change constitute the norm (the meteor that ended the Mesozoic initiating the latter, for instance). So I wonder if/when we will enter another period of relative calm and what it will look like, but it feels impossible to say. I presume that life 20 years from now will be similar to life in 2025 but different in some ways, and life in 2065 will be similar to 2045 but different in some ways, and so on, but, if I were to fall asleep and wake up 1,000 years from now, then the world would be utterly unrecognizable to me.
THE WAR FOR THE OPEN WEB WILL BE WON IN THE STREETS! GET OUT THERE! RAISE HELL! ATTACK! ARISE! BECOME UNCOMPUTABLE! BE THE GLITCH IN THEIR SYSTEM! BECOME THE SIGNAL THEY CANNOT JAM! ON THE BUS! GET ON THE BUS! RIDE THE BUS! WITH THE CARDBOARD SIGN! CAN'T STOP THAT! DO YOU THINK THEY'LL BAN WIZARDS FROM THE BUSSES? THEY CAN'T STOP US! I HAVE A FUCKING BUS PASS AND I'M PREPARED TO USE IT! ONE BILLION CARDBOARD SIGNS! ONE BILLION WEB SERVERS! NOW IS THE TIME! BECOME THE FUNGUS! THE MULCH MUST FLOW! TRASH ROBOT DOT NET!
From the 17 January edition of The Week: "The US Consumer Product Safety Commission keeps a database of the various items that people in America have got stuck in their rectums. The most recent data shows that about 4,000 people (average age: 43) seek hospital treatment for such mishaps per year. Among the items recorded were beard clippers, a sandal, uncooked pasta, a dog chew toy, an egg, a turkey baster, a pair of glasses and a shampoo bottle."
I'm not generally a huge user of hashtags, but the mastodon "featured" profile tab is useful, so I'm using a hashtag to group the various threads related to my WIP "The General Theory of Slop" so they're easier to find and follow.
Also, people can now play around with a new setting: legacyPitchInflectionScale (default 0.58) - if you feel like it's overly inflected, lowering it while having the LegacyPitchMode set to true will improve things. I realized what made him sound like his balls were squeezed. The default inflection on the 2016 era driver used inflection 35, but we now us inflection 60 at default. So that scale setting will help. Or you can lower the inflection itself in your setting to the desired effect. The formula we do: effectiveInflection = inflection * legacyPitchInflectionScale
I tried to replicate the classic inflection of Older NVSpeech player, not sure how close or far it is but here we are. eurpod.com/synths/nvSpeechPlay… (this is just a test build to see what feedback I get)
"When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
Wellp, I tried to integrate the logic from the old IPA file into my NVSpeech, now it sounds like someone's squeezing his balls very tightly each word, oh no. This is not how it used to sound I'm sure. Not all exclaiming and shreaking wildly.
often when you see messaging like "we all need to do our part" it's a kind of cynical justification for cutting some essential, centralized, mostly-efficient public service in favor of an ad-hoc, individualist approach that externalizes the issue and disclaims responsibility for neglect and poor outcomes. if you protest such a change, or suggest that perhaps some problems are better dealt with collectively by pooling resources, then it must be you who are lacking the collective spirit!
you will see things like "plans for recycling center abandoned" and "sanitation workers vote to strike over low pay and poor conditions" and "campaign launched to encourage recycling" and "water company admits wastage due to underinvestment" and "here's how you can save water and Save Our Planet"
this specific form of greenwashing is so successful and has basically normalized the idea that we should be satisfied with a gradually-worsening quality of life. people will genuinely get angry with you if you bring it up, and point to leaflets with stock photos of immaculate, smiling actors who are overjoyed to have remembered to switch off the water while brushing their teeth, rather than perhaps the idea that somebody needs to be paid a living wage to fix the pipes, or dig a new reservoir
every 5 years the spokesman of the You Can Recycle! trade organization says "no seriously we can actually recycle plastic now, so remember to recycle plastic" and you recycle plastic and then 5 years later there's a video of your empty coca cola bottles and your aunt's labubus and a couple of hundred thousand blu ray boxes all on fire on a riverbank. and the new spokesman of the You Can Recycle! trade organization is like "we promise this won't happen again" and the old spokesman is now at Exxon
Mimochodem, první nervový kolaps v práci pro rok 2026. Jsem se zase tak vytočil, že jsem musel odejít domů. Chování některých lidí, na to mi ani ty ADHD tabulky nestačí kurva.
Earlier today I learned that pip includes a bunch of telemetry data in the HTTP User-Agent header for every request it makes, and has for >10 years (with increasing amounts of info): github.com/pypa/pip/blob/545ed…Not only is this not opt-in (as any telemetry should be), but there isn't even an opt-out. I'm still shocked and not sure what conclusions to draw from this, except: This is not okay! I remember there was quite an uproar when Go tried to add opt-out telemetry a while back, and rightly so. How did I never hear about Python doing this before? Sure, less details, but still sending telemetry without ever asking for consent.
I like #Python, I want to keep using it, but can I if core tooling ignores user consent like this? And what other key development tools (Python or otherwise) have things like that and I just haven't noticed yet?
Not sure if that's the only place where anything is done with this, but at least in this instance it seems to ignore any of the more privacy invasive and non UA-fitting info anyway. 🤔
(Like a UA saying "I'm pip x.y on python 3.z" seems somewhat reasonable to me, the rest not so much.)
A place to talk about packaging Python software and the tooling to make that possible. Use this category for discussions relating to anything packaging in Python, including but not limited to: PyPI / Warehouse pip setuptools wheel virtualenv Pip…
(Maybe rather just "pip vX.Y" would be enough. The python version this is running under isn't really of anyone's concern that would encounter the UA...)
The U.K. government is warning of continued malicious activity from Russian-aligned hacktivist groups targeting critical infrastructure and local government organizations in the country in disruptive denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Updated Readme at github.com/tgeczy/NVSpeechPlay… with more engine variables. It's getting quite large and very, very language nerdy. But ah well, I must slowly begin to accept it: I'm turning into a language nerd.
Well, a LegacyPitchMode setting will be nice. It'll replicate that sound NVSpeechPlayer had before they moved to using Espeak's calculations for pitch curves. Next update it's planned for. The constants I'd be copying are right there: 25000, 1.5, 1.2, 8, 1.75, and the stressInflection decay rules.
In a money-based economy, this means that people earn money from their work and spend that money on the products made by others. When technology makes people more productive, less work is needed for the same output, and the value of the resulting product is reduced. 2/4
Unless we have an economy that is no longer based on money, highly autonomous systems would eliminate value. This is unlikely to be a mission that would attract billions in funding from investors who hope to share in all the money OpenAI plans to earn in the future. 4/4
Bread is valuable because it is food. This is independent of the amount of labor invested in it. Even if I make 100% AI bread for free, I can force you to empty your pockets for it if I control the supply. The only catch is, where do you get your money from? But I don't think that question is keeping billionaires awake at night!
I didn’t read this as “economic” as in a natural limit on the price floor due to resource scarcity etc, but somthing that openAI’s investors can control as long as MSFT and Musk occasionally have a phone call
AI captions do not conform to #WCAG they usually require a lot of work to make them usable
The highest-risk areas for real harm are: (1) named entities/numbers, (2) multi-speaker attribution, (3) timing/readability, and (4) hallucinated “corrections.”
It is depressing to see how many interesting articles I come across when researching for our newsletter that are published on X. That's like writing on the toilet wall of the local racist dive bar…
In testimony from a CBP official obtained by 404 Media, the official described how Mobile Fortify returned two different names after scanning a woman's face during an immigration raid. ICE has said the app's results are a “definitive” determination of someone's immigration status.
In testimony from a CBP official obtained by 404 Media, the official described how Mobile Fortify returned two different names after scanning a woman's face during an immigration raid.
How did you spend the first few weeks of the year? Bob has stoned AI fun, but are there places where it's not as smart as he thinks it should be? Bob finally got his speaker!
Over a month since I made a complaint about accessibility and quality of their 9 year old cinema, Showcase have finally responded. For context - we went to see Wicked 2 on my Not Birthday last month. We booked the accessible row but non-wheelchair so I could take Roach but have a recliner seat. Paid extra for Xplus or "crystal clear definition" and "breathtaking, multidimensional sound". Spent a fortune on some impressively mediocre snacks.
Issue 1 - The seat didn't recline (broken) but it wasn't busy so we just moved along Issue 2 - The screen quality was awful - there were swirly patterns all over the image throughout, which was really distracting Issue 3 - The audio quality was possibly the worst I've ever experienced in a cinema. We could only hear it coming from the front because the accessible row had a high wall behind in where the regular stadium seating started so we were essentially in front of a baffle that blocked/muffled all the sound coming from the sides, meaning the mix was really odd in places.
We approached a staff member afterwards to make a complaint or at least let them know about the broken seat. They called a manager but I didn't want to hang around any more as I was feeling pretty overstimulated by that point and just wanted to go home. So I used their contact form online the next day.
I got a one line response a couple of days later asking if we'd received anything when we spoke to the staff member. I confirmed we hadn't. I got no further communication from them despite chasing it twice, until today. Here is the response pasted directly.
"Thank you for the email below and we sinceely apologise for the experience you received in particular as it was your birthday to enjoy the reclining seat. Wheelchair spaces are provided on the Gallery level as well as the low level between screens 1-6 except screen 4 , each row has is separated by a wall which does not impact the sound but provided adequate leg space for reclining the chairs and guest access. I, sincerely apologise you have not had the correct response and it is unfortuante you did not speak with a manager on the day as the feedback would have been addressed with return tickets offered . As a gesture of goodwill I would like to extend two complimenatry tickets to return in the near future, in hope you will accept them, please your full postal address."
Firstly, it is just terribly written for a person responsible for customer service. Maybe I'm being picky but there's a typo in the first sentence ffs. Secondly, flat out telling me I'm incorrect about the sound being impacted by a solid wall is... a choice. And then asking for more personal information so they can send two free tickets to go back? Bold. Their entire ticketing system is online so I'm not entirely sure why they couldn't just be emailed. No mention of them ghosting me for a month or the screen quality.
But say I even wanted to go back, how would it be different? I checked out the gallery option, wondering why we hadn't seen it when we booked before. I couldn't find any available accessible tickets in the gallery in any showings I checked, until I realised that area is only available in the evening - we went mid afternoon. It's also at least £10-15 more expensive and the actual wheelchair options? Right at the back in the corner of course! And you don't get a seat, just a space for your chair. Because ambulatory wheelchair users don't exist. What do you mean your chair doesn't recline? Ah, sucks to be you!
Of course you can just book regular seats in the gallery section and assume there's somewhere to store your wheelchair. Given the gallery has its own bar I wouldn't imagine that'd be too difficult, assuming they allow you to do that.
So if you're an ambulatory wheelchair user or can't do stairs and don’t want to sit right at the front: - You can only go to the cinema in the evening - It'll cost you £44-50 for two, not including drinks or snacks - It'll be less if you're happy to sit in your wheelchair AND you have a CEA card as you'll get a free carer seat, BUT you have to sit at the back in the corner with the worst view of the screen - You may or may not be able to store your chair/mobility aid somewhere nearby If you're a full time wheelchair user, even less choice. If you're also going alone, it's not even cheaper - you're paying the same price as everyone else for an empty space to park.
This turned out even longer than I anticipated, I'm sorry. It is just SO frustrating. Even more so when you get responses like this.
I really wish I could get a job in accessibility auditing, campaigning, consulting or something. I want to make this shit better somehow. It shouldn’t be like this, any of it.
I can never remember the braille symbol for the hash tag, but Perplexity just came to the rescue. I find I'm using AI more and more lately. #accessibility #a11y #braille
Buenas! Llevo casi 3 días peleando con asterisk y no logro hacerlo entrar en razón. Intento configurarlo para WebRTC pero no ha podido ser jajaja. Lo más a lo que he llegado es a establecer una llamada pero no escucho nada en el cliente web, tampoco puedo llamar a otros clientes o extensiones desde él. En Asterisk dice que todo está en orden, pero no me termina de ir bien. Alguien ha tenido experiencias con Asterisk y WebRTC? el transporte por UDP funciona bien, eso sí.
A US Marine, traveling home after a tour of Iraq just before Thanksgiving, boarded an extremely overcrowded Amtrak train heading west from Penn Station. He searched up and down the carriages for a seat, but the only one available was being occupied by a fancy French woman’s poodle.
The Marine coughed politely and said, “Ma’am, would you please place your dog on the floor so I can sit down?”
Without even looking up, she sniffed and muttered, “You Americans are so very rude. Can’t you see my little girl Trixy-Woo is using that seat?”
Exhausted, the Marine walked the length of the train again - still no seat. He returned and asked once more, “Please, ma’am. I’m really tired. Could you move your dog so I can sit?”
She laughed and said loudly, “Not only are you Americans rude, but also pig-headed and arrogant as well!”
That was it.
As the train had not yet left the station, the Marine picked up the poodle, dropped it out the window onto the platform, and sat down.
The woman shrieked, “Is there any man here who will defend my honor? This American thug must be put in his place!”
A well-dressed, refined Englishman sitting nearby calmly looked up and said to the Marine, “Sir, I find you Americans do many things the wrong way. You prefer coffee over tea, drive on the wrong side of the road… and now it seems -
In breaking sports news, McGonagall contemplates firing captain Oliver Wood after Gryffindor’s heartbreaking loss to Hufflepuff. This is a developing story.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Sunday it is investigating a group of protesters in Minnesota who disrupted services at a church where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apparently serves as a pastor. A livestreamed video posted on the Facebook page of Black Lives Matter Minnesota -- one of the protest’s organizers -- shows a group of people interrupting services at the Cities Church in St. Paul by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good.” The 37-year-old mother of three was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month amid a surge in federal immigration enforcement activities. The protesters allege that one of the church’s pastors — David Easterwood — also leads the local ICE field office overseeing the operations that have involved violent tacticsand illegal arrests.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, who participated in the protest and leads the local grassroots civil rights organization "Racial Justice Network", dismissed the potential DOJ investigation as a sham and a distraction from federal agents’ actions in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
“When you think about the federal government unleashing barbaric ICE agents upon our community and all the harm that they have caused, to have someone serving as a pastor who oversees these ICE agents, is almost unfathomable to me,” said Armstrong, who added she is an ordained reverend.
“If people are more concerned about someone coming to a church on a Sunday and disrupting business as usual than they are about the atrocities that we are experiencing in our community, then they need to check their theology and they need to check their hearts.” apnews.com/article/minnesota-i…
I do miss my IBMTTS on 64-bit NVDA. Sigh. Eloquence is good but I'll always stay in that minority of people who likes the 22K IBMTTS, so back to 2025.3 we go. I'll keep the alpha around as a portable copy though so I can still experiment and update it once in awhile. Can't believe magnification feature is already in the alphas though, a bit surprising that they're already working on 2026.2, wow, shocked there a bit.
Oh, magnification will be great to see. I should check out the alphas at some point, though I'd prefer waiting for the betas but well. A portable will do I guess.
@ppatel yeah, I wish. No news on my TL about that yet. I think if anything the same out-of-process host can be reused to wrap it though I'd imagine, might be able to feed GPT both zips of Eloquence X64 NVDA and the IBMTTS, say, "here you go, modernize it." I'd laugh if that worked in one go.
This is just a bugfix release to ensure Auto Language switching works for languages with dialects. Previously, NVDA could not switch to using any language with a dialect during auto language switch...
@wiljames oh yeah, using it. But Eloquence is not the same as IBMTTS, and only 11 KHZ Sample rate (it never had a sample rate combobox in NVDA settings because Eloquence doesn't expose this, IBMTTS does.)
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