Skip to main content





Starlink enters National Radio Quiet Zone—but reportedly cut off access for some
Starlink offered to 99.5% of zone, but locals say Roam product was disabled.
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…


Videos from #MatrixConf, usable implementations of Matrix 2.0, a new Matrix Client called Tammy and lots of changes in Fractal! This and more happened this week in #Matrix!

Come check it out at matrix.org/blog/2024/11/01/thi… 🎉

in reply to The Matrix.org Foundation

is a FOSS, decentralized, privacy focused project.

Any chance of getting the videos mirrored somewhere that matches, like #Peertube?

I suggest Conf.tube unless you want to run your own instance.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)


💟 1 year ago today I joined TetraLogical, the best group of #accessibility practioners I could ever wish to work with.

If you need practical, expert advice, you know where to get it 🖖🏽

tetralogical.com/services/



Methamphetamine is not a recommended PC component, but Australian police detected 220 pounds of it hidden inside boxes of PC cases that came in from Malaysia. pcmag.com/news/diy-drug-smuggl…


It's 1214 days since I filed a React Native bug because an external keyboard user on Android cannot get focus into a text input field so can't fill in forms. No-one cares. Except people with access needs, of course. github.com/facebook/react-nati…


"Who preserves what happens on the internet?" Listen as
@brewsterkahle talks with Mary Louise Kelly of All Things Considered about the cyberattacks against the Internet Archive.

▶️ npr.org/2024/10/29/nx-s1-51624…



Whenever a random number texts you the word "Hello" with no context or anything... They've never texted you before or anything like that. you're either about to get scammed, or you're about to meet your extremely rich Nigerian uncle. Which means that you're probably about to get scammed.


I wonder how much it would cost to make a custom bit of hardware to emulate Braille Screen Input on windows?
I'm thinking a little touchscreen with an ESP32 in a box with a battery that BLE's to my laptop.


Speaking of soup, one time I was named ‘soup di di’ by the kids I worked with in India. They said they had never been met anyone who drank as much soup as me. Even in rural India I was like ‘I need a hot and sour soup, one by two’ at every meal


Does anyone know of an AI image editor that takes an image, then a text prompt of what the user wants to do and returns the manipulated image? Really need a way to edit vacation pictures.
in reply to aaron

Apparently, the image playground in iOS 18.2, and supposedy something on the pixels?


Took the ol' train to a meeting this morning and got to do the funniest thing ever: blow the train whistle at a car stopped in the bike lane


spider photo
She wrapped her prey and is probably saving it for dinner.
This entry was edited (1 week ago)


Checking into the United Kingdom's version of Comedy Central and noticing they're playing Parks & Rec. Loved that show, but just as with many American shows played over the pond, I notice how much Leslie's voice is pitch shifted up. This made me ponder: Do people in the UK think that shows in the US are too lower-pitched for them? Is it really that they watch old shows from the US at a higher pitch?
Side-note: This is another reason I avoid UK-based audio-described content. No thanks pitch shift
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Tamas G

I suspect the majority of people wouldn't notice, but I certainly found it off-putting the first time I watched something from the US that I was already familiar with from the UK. This isn't an issue for streaming services, though, so hopefully will go away over time.
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes yeah, part of me figured cross-syndication would stop this from happening - I'm aware the pitch shift problem is more of a relic from the NTSC and region conversion days, where the timing of the track got slightly altered. When converting from NTSC to PAL, the frame rate changes from 29.97 to 25 frames per second, which results in a slight increase in pitch. So even though Blu-rays can technically handle both formats, the studio's mastering can still impact it.
in reply to Tamas G

I imagine they do. Hooray for framerate differences between PAL and NTSC. I'm kind of surprised that's still an issue these days.



Received the braille sense 6. Have it for 5 weeks. Will write up a script this weekend and record my braile/sense player TTS demo next week. Audio only but it'll still go up on Youtube. From what I understand, to factory reset a braille sense, you just do the normal android reset, right? Any special buttons to hold down ETC? Manual of course says to of course contact tech support.


Racism is systemic in Québec.

FYI It took the police 9 days to decide taking the time to boil water and throw it at a child is a crime...

AND NOW, she's out on bail. Must be nice to be white and pure laine, eh.

cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/wo… #polQC #QCpoli #assnat #CAQASTROPHE



Biweekly is a terrible word.

-- Would you know if “biweekly” means twice a week or twice a month in this email?

#translation

Edit: Guys, the whole point is that it can mean both :P

merriam-webster.com/dictionary…

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Stéphanie Pageau

You guys should follow French on this and do biweekly for twice a week and bimonthly for twice a month.

And every two weeks, for every two weeks.

(this is a joke)

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Stéphanie Pageau

en vrai, je vous soumets que le mot anglais « biweekly » est bien plus bizarre et bien plus problématique que le mot français « quatre-vingts », que nous anglos semblons trouver étrange 😂


"Can't see this email?" Nope, blind. "View it online." Nope, still blind. Silly little conversation I have with myself when opening email newsletters.

reshared this



The new version of Wagtail, v6.3, has been released.
How many release announcements kick off with a strong commitment to accessibility like this one?

"We're just a little obsessed with accessibility around here. Between our accessibility checker feature, the accessibility workshops we've hosted, the accessibility statistics we shout about, and the dedicated Accessibility page we have here on Wagtail.org, you may have noticed that. So, ..."

💙 @wagtail
wagtail.org/blog/wagtail-63/

This entry was edited (1 week ago)


Happy Friday! We celebrated by releasing Wagtail 6.3! ✨

This is our latest LTS release, so we packed a lot of great features into this one. Have a look. 👀

wagtail.org/blog/wagtail-63/

#Wagtail #Django



An AI-generated ad left thousands of Dubliners waiting for a Halloween parade that never came engadget.com/ai/an-ai-generate…


Intel’s future laptops will have memory sticks again theverge.com/2024/11/1/2428551…


Ich bin am schreiben meiner Predigt über Mt 5,13 das Salz dieser Erde. Was verbindet ihr mit dem Begriff Salz?
in reply to Simon Pipe 🔘

@doulos@kirche.socialMan muss vorsichtig damit würzen. Wenn der Kipppunkt überschritten ist's verdorben 😉


печально мне что-то..

мир захватить что-ли...

in reply to mnnwvn [21+]

Да захвати уже! :) Но чур оставь мне блат писать в ДМ с личными просьбами, патамушта я тебя раньше, до захвата мира, читал, вот!


Homebrew on this 2014 Mac Mini has 120 packages to upgrade. Since there is no official support for 12 anymore, this means that most things need to be built from source.

After 12 hours, around 30 packages have been upgraded, including Bash, GCC, LibreSSL, PHP, etc. This is what I call PureBrew.

In case this ever reaches whoever is building Mac binaries for Homebrew, I'd like to express my appreciation for all your work.



If you have a student with dyslexia, one way to help them with the tests is to give them an audio version of the test.

It takes no more than 10 minutes to set up the audio aspect of the test.

You can just record yourself reading the questions and make sure they can listen to the audio during the exam.

Since our exams are open book and computer based, this is quite easy to accomplish.



It is not “revolutionary” to break things. Everything is breaking. That’s the problem.

If you want a revolution, fix something.

reshared this



Quantum computers are here — but why do we need them and what will they be used for? livescience.com/technology/com…


Google employees pressure costumed execs at all-hands meeting for clarity on cost cuts cnbc.com/2024/11/01/google-emp…


Open Source Bites Back as China’s Military Makes Full Use of Meta's Llama 2 AI Model gizmodo.com/open-source-bites-…


Sorry folks, no Thunderbird live streaming today.
Got swamped with some important 2025 document planning and other priorities so I'm forced to postpone it.
See you next week!



Along with flash floods, we're also dealing with flash droughts — a new term for me.

"Where has all the rain gone? Bone-dry October strikes much of US"
phys.org/news/2024-10-bone-dry…

h/t @primonatura
#drought #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming



Oh thank god I have a reason to stop being nice to the fucking Walmart greeter.

“Facial Recognition That Tracks Suspicious Friendliness Is Coming to a Store Near You”
gizmodo.com/facial-recognition…

(This is clearly me making a joke — I don’t go to Walmart; I have to harass the greeter at their home.)



Dnes je to ako cez sezónu až na to že nás je o čašníka menej.


Have you voted yet?

#Vote #Election #Election2024 #Poll

  • 📬 Yes! (Mail in ballot) (54%, 28 votes)
  • 🗳️ Yes! (Early voting) (27%, 14 votes)
  • 🇺🇸 Not yet - going on Election Day (15%, 8 votes)
  • 😕 I’m not sure I’m voting (0%, 0 votes)
  • 😡 I am not voting (2%, 1 vote)
51 voters. Poll end: 1 week ago

in reply to Hubert Figuière

@hub Hahaha another option that needs to be added!

I envy you not having to go through this process. 🇨🇦

in reply to Tyler McGee

@hub with US having such a big impact on our lives, I don't feel it that way at least. I'd be willing to walk for miles to vote in this election, if I could
in reply to Zeeshan Ali Khan 🇺🇦

@zeenix @hub That’s a fair point. Sometimes I feel bad that the rest of the world has to be so involved in our drama.
in reply to Tyler McGee

@zeenix when the US sneeze, Canada catches a cold.

Also we regularly get fucked over with "free trade" (it's only free for the kleptoligarchs)



Apparently Github copiloted the notification mail.... I get HTML entities in plain text now.


here's an example of a recent event that ChatGPT Search can now help with, the launch of Fantastical for Windows. When I asked for info about this and whether it was accessible to blind people using Windows screen readers, it says:

Fantastical, a highly regarded calendar application previously exclusive to Apple devices, has expanded its reach by launching a Windows version on October 29, 2024. This development allows users to experience Fantastical’s intuitive design and robust features on Windows PCs.

The Windows version mirrors the functionality of its Mac counterpart, offering:

• Natural Language Event Creation: Users can create events by typing phrases like “Lunch with Tim Cook on Tuesday at Caffè Macs on Apple’s campus,” and the app will automatically parse the details to set up the event accordingly.
• Calendar Sets: This feature enables users to group specific calendars together, allowing for easy toggling between different sets based on context, such as work or personal schedules.
• Multiple Calendar Views: Fantastical provides various views, including Day, Week, Month, Quarter, and Year, to accommodate different planning needs.
• Task Integration: The app supports task management through integration with services like Google Tasks, Microsoft 365 Tasks, and Todoist, enabling users to manage their to-do lists alongside their calendar events.
• Conference Call Detection: Fantastical automatically detects conference call links in calendar invites and creates a join button in the event list, facilitating quick access to virtual meetings.

Existing users with a Flexibits Premium subscription can access the Windows version at no additional cost, ensuring a seamless experience across devices. The subscription, priced at $4.75 per month when billed annually, unlocks all premium features across platforms.

While the current release is not optimized for Arm-native devices, Flexibits has indicated that an Arm version is in development.

This expansion to Windows marks a significant milestone for Fantastical, broadening its user base and providing a cohesive calendaring experience for individuals operating across multiple platforms.

As of now, there is limited information available regarding the accessibility of Fantastical for Windows for blind users utilizing screen readers. The official announcement and documentation do not provide specific details about compatibility with screen readers such as Narrator, NVDA, or JAWS.

Given the importance of accessibility in software applications, it’s advisable to directly contact Flexibits, the developer of Fantastical, to inquire about the current state of screen reader support and any planned accessibility enhancements. This approach will provide the most accurate and up-to-date information regarding the application’s usability with screen readers.

in reply to Jonathan Mosen

Far too much information. The question wasn’t "what is fantastical and is it accessible?" The answer should have simply been "The developer of Fantastical has not provided accessibility information as part of its Windows application release announcement."
in reply to aaron

@fireborn As you can read in my original post, I asked about the launch, as well as accessibility. It took the two points in order and could not have answered the accessibility question any differently because there is no information on the web about accessibility, so it was completely accurate.