mastodon - Link to source
I told GPT Pro mode that zombies ate the GitHub servers and it needs to rebuild me an entirely new set of phonemes in phonemes.yaml because I've lost all copies and only have the language packs. I told it that if this doesn't get done in the next hour, the zombies will come for the language pack files and eat them too. Let's see what comes of it while we reply to Slack messages.
This entry was edited (20 hours ago)

pleroma - Link to source

So I left for the weekend to visit family, came back -- avoided contact with sick people the whole time -- only to find my wife was sick with a cold and she didn't tell me and now I have it

Just pisses me off because I've been able to go a couple years without getting anything and now this. It always ruins my week. I can't get shit done because it's a constant nuisance disrupting my concentration

pleroma - Link to source

People who are coming to the #FOSDEM this week-end : please do not forget to wear a facial mask to protect yourself and others. Flu this year is pretty agressive and the orange code for respiratory infections has been raised by the Risk Management Group.

#retoot can save lives.

#brussels #respiratoryInfections #covid #flu #mask

#fosdem #covid #brussels #retoot #flu #mask #respiratoryinfections
This entry was edited (23 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source

RIP Gladys Mae West, the Pioneering Black Mathematician Who Helped Lay the Foundation for GPS

openculture.com/2026/01/rip-gl…

RIP Gladys Mae West, the Pioneering Black Mathematician Who Helped Lay the Foundation for GPS

Gladys Mae West was born in rural Virginia in 1930, grew up working on a tobacco farm, and died earlier this month a celebrated mathematician whose work made possible the GPS technology most of us use each and every day.
Colin Marshall (Openculture.com)

mastodon - Link to source
FYI, I reviewed my account on dragonscave again: @jonathan859@dragonscave.space, this is not an advertisement, but as I'm feeling rather emotional again I'm shifting the kind of personal ranting posts and also other stuff that's not my typical tech timeline to there. Also to filter who sees what, in terms of post privacy etc. I'll probably share more occasional stuff like music I like or other stuff I don't wanna spam to uninterested people as well. Looking forward to nice interactions.
This won't change a whole lot for this account over all.
@Jonathan Inactive

mastodon - Link to source

Habe beim "Entrümpeln" noch einige DVD´s und Blu-ray´s gefunden, die ich gegen Übernahme der Portokosten abgeben möchte. Wer mag darf gerne eine kleine Spende dazulegen, aber das bleibt euch überlassen.

Die DVD´s und Blu-ray´s werden als ein Paket abgegeben. Der Aufwand ist mir zu hoch sie pro Stück zu versenden.

Ein Boost wäre nett, Danke !

#verschenken #dvd #bluray #boost

Diverse DVD´s und Blu-ray´s
Diverse DVD´s und Blu-ray´s
Diverse DVD´s und Blu-ray´s
Diverse DVD´s und Blu-ray´s
#boost #verschenken #dvd #bluray
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source
In 2026, it'd be nice if we could scrap euphemistic terms like 'special needs' 'Additional needs' 'different abilities' 'very special kids' or anything 'inspo-p0rnish such as 'Autism is a superpower!'. Instead, use the words 'Disabled' 'Disability' ... it's not an offensive term. In fact, many disabled people find these sugarcoated terms actually offensive. And let Autistic and other neurodivergent people decide if they have exceptional powers, or are disabled by societal structures. Or both at once.
Thanks :) 🙏💪 ❤ #disability #neurodivergence #ableism
#Disability #ableism #neurodivergence

gotosocial - Link to source

So what is development like for the BTSpeak?

Are you limited to making apps that only work with desktop mode, or can you do things that also integrate with the non-desktop experience? (Not up on my BTSpeak terminology so maybe there's a better description for "non-desktop-mode experience" but hopefully what I mean is clear)

What is development like? I know there are Python tutorials but is it limited to Python? Or can you build a TUI-style app and adapt it to work with specific keycodes/conventions?

Are there any developer docs?

I've had an idea for something that would likely be great for the BTSpeak and other notetakers for a while now, and my assumption is that the BTSpeak is probably the most open/easy to develop for. If that's correct, I'm curious what that process looks like.

mastodon - Link to source

On this day, forty years ago: 28 January 1986.

I was working on my astronomy PhD in the terminal room at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.

Someone came in & told us the awful news. After so many launches & astronauts, we’d grown blasé & didn’t pay much attention anymore.

That changed in 73 seconds on that cold day & we learned again that space is hard.

I still remember their names:

Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnick, & McNair.

Ad astra, STS-51L Challenger crew ✨

#space

An official NASA photo of the seven astronauts of the STS-51L Challenger space shuttle mission. They are all smiling, in light blue flight suits with crash helmet style protective headgear, seen against a reddish backdrop with a US flag. Three are seated with the other four standing behind.
#space
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Most hashtags are pretty obvious, you just put # in front of a topic. For example if a post is about coffee it might have the tag #Coffee

However, many popular hashtags have difficult-to-guess names, so I've started a list to help people discover them:

➡️ fedi.tips/fun-and-useful-hasht…

Copy-paste a hashtag into the search box in Mastodon if you want to browse or follow it.

If you have suggestions for non-obvious hashtags that should be added to the list, let me know in the replies 🙂

#FediTips


Fun and useful hashtags to follow on Mastodon and the wider Fediverse | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse
fedi.tips
#FediTips #coffee

mastodon - Link to source

If you would like to help financially support the development of a new Wayland compositor for Xfce, you can do so by contributing funds via our #OpenCollective accounts.

For US contributions:
opencollective.com/xfce

For EU contributions:
opencollective.com/xfce-eu

These contributions will help pay for the funding of longtime Xfce core developer Brian Tarricone to create xfwl4, a brand-new Wayland compositor for Xfce.

Thank you for your support!

#Xfce #Wayland #Rust #FOSS #Linux


Xfce - Open Collective

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.
opencollective.com
#linux #foss #rust #opencollective #Wayland #xfce

gotosocial - Link to source

From the Slint email list:

Dear all.

I am very sad to inform everyone that our friend Didier died last week.

Early 2015, I asked on the slackware list if brltty could be added in the
installer ; Didier answered promptly that he could do it on
slint. Afterwards, he worked hard so that slint became as accessible as
possible for visually impaired people.

You all know that all these years, he tried and succeeded to answer as
quickly as possible to our issues and questions.

He will be irreplaceable.

friendica - Link to source

@Friendica Support

There is a fork of Mastodon available, called "Glitch Edition", that has some special features implemented. My new instance at social.defocn42.net is running this fork.

I came upon an interesting error when trying to connect to the instance. Adding the user "m1rk0@social.defcon42.net" failed because of an unknown network. Then i tried it the other way around from the Mastodon instance and could follow myself on Friendica. The connection is now mutual and the Mastodon instance is recognized as "glitchsoc".

Are there known issues with glitchsoc and Friendica? It's weird, that the connection can be established only from one side and is working normally afterwards.

@Friendica Support

mastodon - Link to source

Looks like the UK does not have our back:

"Keir Starmer rejected his Canadian counterpart’s call for mid-sized countries to band together in the face of unpredictable global powers — and insisted his “common sense” British approach will do just fine."

Like I said, we'll find out who our friends are.
politico.eu/article/keir-starm…


Starmer to Carney: No new world order please, we’re British

U.K. leader says he’s ‘a British pragmatist applying common sense’ after Canadian counterpart called for mid-sized countries to team up in the era of Trump.
Dan Bloom (POLITICO)

mastodon - Link to source

#CSS `@custom-media` available behind a flag in Firefox Nightly

Lovely syntax, just lovely.
nerdy.dev/custom-media

@custom-media --motionOK (prefers-reduced-motion: no-preference); @media (--motionOK) { transition: transform .3s ease; }

Custom Media · January 23, 2026

@custom-media working behind a flag in Firefox Nightly! @custom-media --motionOK (prefers-reduced-motion: no-preference); @media (--motionOK) { transition: transform .3s ease; } Lovely syntax.
Adam Argyle (nerdy.dev)
#css

mastodon - Link to source
Hahahaha. What if I asked an AI to rewrite the SpeechPlayer repo to work on Linux. Good dear God. I bet it would be a disaster full of bugs. I'm tempted though, just make it a new branch first and go from there. Also building a speech-dispatcher module for you Linux nerds. Really, really don't know how that will go. Now that's vibe coding to the max, I have zero familiarity with Linux argtypes and such when avoiding Windows headers. Like, zilch.
in reply to Matt Campbell

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@matt oooh yeah, but that's even a bigger refactor, moving away from C++ to it, but it's also a less mess for cross-compiling. I also have no idea if there's a different UI toolkit I'd need to use for things like the phoneme tool, as it's written in basic win32 for now, something I had familiarity with from college and high school days, but also like, locks me into C++ for it pretty bad, so a cross-platform UI solution would be needed before it got too many more dialogs and settings. I could have used Python / WX, but then of course you're including all the precompiled Python runtime and can't make it as lean.
@Matt Campbell
in reply to Matt Campbell

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@matt I think I could do the Rust migration in layers. First, get Linux cross-compiled for the frontend and player, maybe editor, + speech dispatcher module that's simple. Then it can be re-written so the SpeechPlayer and Frontend go Rust first, then the other parts. UI development feels like the worst place to start learning how Rust is. Rust has a very different mental model (ownership, borrowing, lifetimes).
@Matt Campbell

mastodon - Link to source
NV Speech Sapi does not have an official distributed release and probably will not until it breaks out of ESpeak's phonemizer. Sorry y'all. But because we link against libespeak, it's technically a big no-no to even have it around. Perhaps that could be an experimental project, to rebuild NVSpeech Sapi with Gruut, but damn, a 700 megabyte SAPI engine? people would cry.
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@clv1 hmm. this is where the new settings might help you.
Mess with these settings and see if they can help in your YAML:
settings:
# Smooth big formant jumps at boundaries (good for word-initial L+vowel clicks)
trajectoryLimit:
enabled: true
applyTo: [cf2, cf3]
maxHzPerMs:
cf2: 16
cf3: 20
windowMs: 30
applyAcrossWordBoundary: true

# Give /l/ a soft onglide (reduces the “snap” at the start of a word)
liquidDynamics:
enabled: true
lateralOnglide:
f1Delta: -50
f2Delta: 200
durationPct: 0.35

@Cleverson
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@clv1 hmm. Try to lower: semivowelOffglideScale by a bit to see if that improves it. If it’s inside one word (like beira, loiro, ouro), start with semivowelOffglideScale. A tiny "syllable break" can happen when a semivowel is followed by a vowel, or a liquid/tap/trill, and this setting shortens the semivowel only in that pattern.
If it happens across NVDA “chunks” (label/role/value stitching), then it’s a seam, not a glide problem. In that case flip segmentBoundarySkipVowelToLiquid so the engine doesn’t insert the segment-boundary gap when a chunk ends with a vowel/semivowel and the next begins with a liquid/tap/trill.
And even when timing is right, /r/ can feel like a hard wall unless it has motion, so enabling liquid dynamics (rhotic F3 dip) often makes the landing smoother.
@Cleverson
in reply to Andrew Nesbitt

mastodon - Link to source

IzzyOnDroid ✅

for forges, you might wish to add @Codeberg (Germany, EU). Not sure where Sourcehut sits (is it NL, @sir ?)

So there ARE alternatives. And as already pointed out in another comment by @jens , Forgejo/Gitea can be self-hosted as well. And at least for Forgejo, Federation is upcoming IIRC, to take another hurdle (separate registrations) from self-hosted installs.

But yeah, that list reads horrible, re "sovereignty" 😢

@Jens Finkhäuser @Codeberg @sir

mastodon - Link to source
Now it's really work time. Off to meetings while I tune phonemes in the background with my tools and AI. Tools are what make the world of difference. If you don't have them, you don't have your foundation to stand on. Tools that can give you data, look at the patterns in different ways, see if they can be stress tested in other contexts, ETC. What would we ever do without darn tools.

mastodon - Link to source
Another phoneme editor fix: If phoneme's fields, like _isSemivowel are not defined for the given phoneme, allow you to add it by choosing it in the list and setting a value for it. This will make adding new state-variables to phonemes easier. Remember: Flags like _isSemiVowel, _isVoiced, _isStop, are for the engine to know how to treat the sound, not for the sound itself to change. These don't influence Klatt params as much as sound timing, and which rules get applied to that phoneme token when it's used.
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