mastodon - Link to source

This is wonderful. Sorry it’s an IG link, you might need a computer to view.

instagram.com/reel/DSxpimSCRok…

NOEL DEYZEL 🇿🇦 on Instagram: "I had a “survival” year in 2016, sometimes we need these years to teach us the lessons we need to grow and flourish🙏🏼 . Next year can be different, uplift yourself and nurture your circumstances so you can be better 🙌🏼❤️ . I

550K likes, 4,190 comments - noeldeyzel_bodybuilder on December 27, 2025: "I had a “survival” year in 2016, sometimes we need these years to teach us the lessons we need to grow and flourish🙏🏼 .
Instagram

mastodon - Link to source
Anyone know whether the Debian standard live CD (without any desktop environment), has a way to enable Speakup? I don't really need or want a desktop environment on my live CD, though I recognize that on modern hardware there isn't really a disadvantage to having one. There's also a Mate live CD so if all else fails I can just customize that.
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Simon Jaeger

@clv1 Waiting on the image to actually copy now, but looking at the cfg files, I notice there is an option to start the installer with speech but I don't see an option to start the live environment with speech. The live environment includes the installer and it's possible that if I just go to a blank TTY, that *will* be the live environment. We'll find out soon.
@Cleverson
in reply to Simon Jaeger

mastodon - Link to source

Cleverson

I recall asking last year on a mailing list about this. Someone said that the graphical installer inside the desktop isn't accessible with orca, or at least not friendly. The only option for now is a text mode installer with Speakup, but it's outside the desktop. In any case, it you want to start the desktop, Orca should work well, just press the classical key alt+win+s to start orca.
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Simon Jaeger

@clv1 Yeah, the installer speaks, but the installer isn't the live environment. Switching to a spare TTY will just give me Busybox. I was hoping I could start up the live environment and make it talk without having to use the huge Gnome/Mate editions. But it looks like Espeakup isn't even part of the default packages, so I'd either need to modify the environment, use it over SSH (which is extra fun on a laptop with no ethernet jack), or give up and use Mate. Oh well.
@Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source
There seems to be a problem or something with FastSM where when I'm reading the notifications buffer, posts don't fully read. They stop at the middle of sentences and when I click the view function to view the post in full, its blank. This is an interesting bug.
in reply to Nicks World

glitchsoc - Link to source

André Polykanine

I suggest you to mention @Bri as the main developer. Bri, the original message was: "There seems to be a problem or something with FastSM where when I'm reading the notifications buffer, posts don't fully read. They stop at the middle of sentences and when I click the view function to view the post in full, its blank. This is an interesting bug."
@Bri🥰

mastodon - Link to source

We are once again about to enter the new loop of trump's "facilitating peace talks" between Ukraine and russia.

We are at the step:

blame Ukraine.

Next step:

force Ukraine into a sketchy deal, written by russians.

Followed by:

fail and say it's all russia's fault;
someone visits russia and gets a blowjob by pootin;
blame Ukraine.

#ukraine

reuters.com/world/europe/trump…

#Ukraine

mastodon - Link to source

I'm still amazed that, as a blind person, I'm typing this on Linux, with an Android phone in my pocket, and not really having any major issues with either.

#linux #foss #tech #accessibility #blind #android

#Accessibility #android #linux #foss #blind #tech

glitchsoc - Link to source
I'm loving this song at the minute.
Loggins & Messina - House at Pooh Corner.
Heard it years ago by a duo called Makena and thought they had wrote it. No it's a Kenny Loggins song.
youtube.com/watch?v=fbt0Ik_LL2…
#NowPlaying

House at Pooh Corner

Provided to YouTube by ColumbiaHouse at Pooh Corner · Loggins & MessinaSittin' In℗ Originally released 1971. All rights reserved by Columbia Records, a divis...
YouTube
#nowplaying
This entry was edited (Thursday, January 15, 2026, 2:08 PM)

ActivityPub - Link to source
Rekapitulace roku 2025
Pustil jsem se do menší rekapitulace roku 2025 na mém blogu. Masakr návštěvnosti z vyhledávačů, který pozorují jiné weby, na svém blogu zatím nepozoruji, naopak vyhledávače jako zdroj čtenářů rostly. Jak na tom byly ostatní zdroje a jaké byly nejčtenější články?
#blog #rekapitulace #statistikyblog.eischmann.cz/2026/01/15/r…(reakce na tento příspěvek se může zobrazit jako komentář pod článkem)

Rekapitulace roku 2025

Sesivany's blog
#blog #rekapitulace #statistiky
in reply to Sesivany's blog

mastodon - Link to source

Martin Wenisch

Pekna cisla. S tim AI vyhledavanim (hlavne google ai overview). Nemas tam nejake necekane navstevy na rootu webu?

My jsme meli dost zasadni "incident", kde nas AI overview dalo do medailonku Asher Rotha, ale ne jeho url, ale nasi homepage. Tak se tisice jeho fanousku proklikavali na join.unreleased.art a my vubec netusili, co s tim delat. (neudelali jsme s tim nic)

sharkey - Link to source

#Camper ist ein gemeinwohlorientiertes Tool zur Organisation und Durchführung von Barcamps - ohne KI.

Gerade wollte ich darauf verweisen und stelle fest, dass die Finanzierung wohl ausgelaufen ist.

Kennt jemand den Stand der Dinge?
Wäre nicht schön, wenn es nicht weiter betrieben und weiter entwickelt würde.

barcamps.eu/
#OpenSource #Barcamp #FOSS #selbstbestimmtDigital

Camper - Barcamp Tools

barcamps.eu
#foss #opensource #barcamp #selbstbestimmtdigital #camper

mastodon - Link to source

Keen on losing money? Go #AI

#Cory #Doctorov @pluralistic says sorry:

"No one has ever lost as much money as the AI companies.

There is no way to operate one of Nvidia's big AI-optimized GPUs without losing money. The owners of these GPUs who have lost the least money are the ones who rushed into buying GPUs without ensuring they'd have electricity to power them, and have been forced to leave their GPUs to age in warehouses. "

pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/not…

#ThereIsNoAI #slop

Pluralistic: Sorry, eh (13 Jan 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net
#AI #Slop #cory #doctorov #thereisnoai @Cory Doctorow

mastodon - Link to source

Kritik an der Nutzung eines Altbots ist Fundamentalopposition und man rede damit die Mühen der Inklusion schlecht.

Oh man.

Ich würde mich echt freuen, wenn mehr Menschen darüber nachdenken würden, dass technokratische Implementationen im seltensten Fall die Problemstellung lösen.

Die Ausgabe eines Altbots ist für blinde Menschen nicht überprüfbar. KI-generierte Texte sind idR nicht hinreichend. Den Altbot Text kann man dann weder löschen noch korrigieren. Der Text ist im Reply versteckt (manchmal nicht mal im ersten Reply) und in der Timeline nicht sichtbar.

Dazu kommt, dass für Blinde die Navigation mit Screenreader erheblich aufwendiger ist, als für uns Sehende.

Schreibt eine Bildbeschreibung in das Bild. Bitte.

#Altbot #Bildbeschreibung #AltText

#AltText #bildbeschreibung #altbot

mastodon - Link to source

what do you wish someone had told you about the Git command line interface when you started using Git for the first time? Especially curious about what you wish you'd known if you ended up choosing to use a IDE/GUI interface to Git.

(mostly interested in replies from people who started using Git in the last 5-10 years)

iceshrimp.net - Link to source
I've only played a couple of minutes, but Usurper Reloaded looks really #accessible and like loads of fun. With all kinds of content for an alpha 0.1. I never played the original BBS #game, so I don't know how it compares. Run the .bat file to get the console version: github.com/binary-knight/usurper-reloaded/

GitHub - binary-knight/usurper-reloaded

Contribute to binary-knight/usurper-reloaded development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
#accessible #game

mastodon - Link to source
Y'all I'm still working on language stuff for it so just be patient please. It'll come together, I promise. I just can't dedicate a lot of time to it during work, obviously. So probably in maybe 3-4 hours I expect bigger changes but until then we just gotta be happy with this imperfect alpha-stage version and that we even have NV Speech Player back in the first place :D

mastodon - Link to source

Was having a problem with #openBSD -current where @thunderbird would cause the system to slow down before crashing the UI completely. I would have to SSH in from another box and reboot and this would take a while.

Seems that problem is now fixed. I’ve had Thunderbird running for two days with no issues.

Although - whenever I think I’m out of the woods….

Having said all this I still prefer #foss to being locked in with no privacy and having my data sold and being used to train LLM’s.

#foss #OpenBSD @Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox
in reply to Jez Caudle

mastodon - Link to source

Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox

We're glad things are going better, but sorry that things were sluggish for a bit! A good tool to have when this happens is profiling performance, and we've got a useful article here. Hopefully this doesn't happen again, though! support.mozilla.org/kb/profili…

Profiling Thunderbird Performance | Thunderbird Help

How to create a Thunderbird performance profile to find causes of high CPU load or slowness.
support.mozilla.org

mastodon - Link to source

Happy #WikipediaDay, and congratulations to @wikipedia on their 25th anniversary! What a milestone!

wikimediafoundation.org/wikipe…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedi…

#wikipedia #Wikipedia25Years

Celebrate Wikipedia’s 25th Birthday – Wikimedia Foundation

Celebrate Wikipedia’s 25th birthday and the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who make the backbone of knowledge on the internet what it is today.
Wikimedia Foundation
#wikipedia #wikipediaday #wikipedia25years @Wikipedia
in reply to Stefan Bohacek

mastodon - Link to source

Stefan Bohacek

It's hard to overstate the impact and the importance of a project like Wikipedia. I know not everyone can afford to donate, but I'd like to encourage folks to at least consider contributing their time and become Wikipedia editors.

There are some great initiatives worth looking into, such as wikimediafoundation.org/what-w….

#wikipedia

Wikipedia Needs More Women – Wikimedia Foundation

Wikipedia needs more women is our call for people like you to edit women’s stories, histories, and contexts onto Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation
#wikipedia
in reply to Stefan Bohacek

mastodon - Link to source

Stefan Bohacek

"Today is also about helping others make sense of this moment by reminding the world of what we already know: that Wikipedia is the backbone of information online, and that humans are at the center of it."

diff.wikimedia.org/2026/01/15/…

#wikipedia #wikipedia25

Wikimania 2026

Wikimania is the annual conference celebrating all the free knowledge projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation – Wikimedia Commons, MediaWiki, Meta-Wiki,Wikibooks, Wikidata, Wikinews, Wikipedia , […]\n
Diff
#wikipedia #wikipedia25

mastodon - Link to source

There is a petition on the UK Parliament website to legally recognise nonbinary as a gender – which would include an X marker on UK passports for nonbinary people.

The deadline to sign is March 2026 and at the time of writing only 213 people have signed.

Let's show them the power of the Fediverse. At 100,000 signatures, the petition will be debated in Parliament.

Sign 👇

petition.parliament.uk/petitio…

#NonBinary #Enby #Trans #Transgender #Queer #LGBTQ #LGBT #UK #UKMastodon #Fediverse

Petition: Legally recognise non-binary as a gender

Non-binary isn’t a legally recognised gender in the UK. We urge the Government to legally recognise non-binary as a gender and people who identify as non-binary in the UK. This proposal would include an X marker on UK passports for non-binary people.
Petitions - UK Government and Parliament
#fediverse #uk #lgbt #transgender #trans #queer #LGBTQ #nonbinary #enby #ukmastodon
This entry was edited (Thursday, January 15, 2026, 3:06 PM)

mastodon - Link to source
Updated: NVSpeech Player adds languages: English (US), Hungarian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, UK English. Please use this link for a non-cached copy since Chrome doesn't check timestamps of a downloaded file like a good browser should. Languages are rough, working on correcting a few things here and there. eurpod.com/nvSpeechPlayer-2025…

Zach Bennoui reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

#Forgejo 14.0.0 was just released!

Issues search now has inline filters. Web file editor was replaced with CodeMirror. CSRF protection is now stateless. Forgejo actions gained new features and better trust management. Foreign keys are now supported to ensure database consistency.

Check out the blog post at forgejo.org/2026-01-release-v1…

#forgejorelease

Forgejo v14.0 is available

forgejo.org
#forgejo #forgejorelease

mastodon - Link to source
My morning dose of supreme irony. Just came across a trailer for a video game called Blind Touch, which I thought sounded like one of the many accessible audio games out there, so I clicked. Nope, not that. Just a game where sighted people simulate being blind. Don’t know how that works because you have to see to play the game. But the trailer had no video description so I had to ask my sighted wife what was going on.

reshared this

in reply to Sy Hoekstra

glitchsoc - Link to source

Pitermach

@FreakyFwoof If you want to see what the actual game is about, Jessy Anderson did a video on it. He's a visually impaired game accessibility consultant who also considers accessibility for totally blind gamers in his videos. Haven't watched the whole video but it sounds like this game tries, but has issues. youtube.com/watch?v=Z-baSDu6et…

Demo Time - Blind Touch

This is a fascinating game about a person becoming newly blind. It uses both visuals and audio to represent blindness, and has some very unique aspects to t...
YouTube
@Andre Louis

mastodon - Link to source
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.

This iconic photograph captures the massive ash cloud from the catastrophic 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.....

The photo was taken on May 18, 1980, by Richard Lasher, a Boeing employee who was on his way to ride his dirt bike near Spirit Lake. As the ash cloud rapidly approached, Lasher was forced to abandon his red Ford Pinto and escape on his motorcycle.

The eruption was a lateral blast, considered the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history.

#archaeohistories

#archaeohistories

mastodon - Link to source

This is important to me. The Freedom Pass should be available to pensioners on all modes of transport in the UK.

I signed the petition:

c.org/QzMqHsHZ67

Stop restricting Freedom Pass travel in London

Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?
Philip Clayton (Change.org)

mastodon - Link to source
It's always a challenge to take a deep breath and do not respond at all to people who reply with "answers" to questions that were already answered in the post. Mantra: do not engage, there is nothing there; do not engage, there is nothing there

mastodon - Link to source
I'm sorry y'all. Our TTS engine will be frozen at 2007 pronounciation of Espeak. If we want true, true decoupled multilingual support. I wonder if it's worth maintaining two "flavors" of the driver, one which just uses existing Espeak phoneme data as built into NVDA's Espeak, and another that lets it live standalone to be useed for compiling and other projects. The fact is, this engine cannot become "free" until the phoneme data can live independently within it.
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@clv1 Brazilian Portuguese added. Please test, it's not great. I'm still changing some vowels and letter combinations that are wrong. However: If you can paste certain letter forms that are not getting spoken in your language because we're still missing symbols for how those fit together, we can add them. eurpod.com/nvSpeechPlayer-2025…
@Cleverson
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@clv1 yeah, for now it's still using NVDA's built-in espeak to get the latest phoneme map, but it's clear that we need to actually create rules for how those phonemes actually get pronounced. So even if Espeak is passing a set of phonemes or a representation of a language phoneme rule, if our IPA.py and data.py don't map it up correctly the engine still won't know how to pronounce those phonemes or where to place the actual stresses on parts of it. I think in that way this has been an interesting learning experience, just how it's not about throwing a bunch of phonemes at an engine and saying "here you go now speak them" but you also have to teach it of their meaning. Once we get the Espeak mapping from the current set correct we can look at using the older 2007-era phoneme tables. Those will have issues so that's when I think I'll need more help from the community for some languages where things changed post-2007 Espeak for. Hungarian is not really one of these, it's stayed quite the same since it launched, but I do know they've improved some languages in phoneme representation too.
@Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

RE: mastodon.social/@bagder/115893…

This is should be a wider discussion in the security industry. Sustainability!

It’s important to realize that for (small) open source projects, even reports of real security issues with real impact are significant workloads.
They need to be reviewed, understood, fixes designed.

And those fixes may have further effects like compatibility breakage or redesigns.
If done correctly this is a lot of work, work that those developers usually do unpaid. If they have the time.

Bug bounties may increase the amount of code review and hopefully increase the security of a project due to the amount of eyes on it, but they need to be in sync with the needed resources for the project to review and act on those reports.

What if a bug bounty program paid both the finder and the open source project for fixing an issue?

daniel:// stenberg://

2026-01-14 10:56:32

mastodon - Link to source

It's about sustainability too. #curl is a small project. We cannot spend multiple hours every day arguing with people who want money for having found what is perhaps a bug - but often is not even that.

It drains us. It drowns us.

Onward and upward!


mastodon - Link to source
The Strategy: Find the source code for eSpeak 1.26 or earlier.. Hey, can anyone find the sourcecode for ESpeak 1.26 or earlier for me? Huge thanks. aha. sourceforge.net/projects/espea…

eSpeak: speech synthesis - Browse /espeak/espeak-1.26 at SourceForge.net

Text to Speech engine for English and many other languages. Compact size with clear but artificial pronunciation. Available as a command-line…
SourceForge
This entry was edited (Thursday, January 15, 2026, 1:48 PM)

mastodon - Link to source
Ah yes. The good old GPLv2 vs. GPLv3 Conflict. So. If I copy these tables into my project so my engine can function, my project is almost certainly a derivative work of eSpeak. But, Under GPLv3, the "work as a whole" must be licensed under GPLv3. If your project is locked to GPLv2, you cannot fulfill this requirement. The original eSpeak (by Jonathan Duddington) was licensed under GPLv2 up until version 1.24. So it may be possible to use phonemes from it instead.

mastodon - Link to source

You know how it is; you put things off for a day and before you know it it's a hundred years later.

— The Doctor, in “Arc of Infinity”

#DoctorWho #quote #quotation

#doctorwho #quote #quotation

mastodon - Link to source
The driver itself is working fine. So that's the good news. We get speech, we get firing indexes, we have all the weird knobs exposed in your voice dialog settings too. So like, yes. As far as a working, solid driver, I actually think that part was the easiest. The hardest is actually modernizing it a bit to support more languages and eventually, very much later on in the game, not rely on Espeak for phoneme data directly. I don't know what license though Espeak has: Are we able to pull phoneme tables from it directly with just attribution, or must the entire Espeak sourcecode be included? This will be good to verify.

mastodon - Link to source
yep. Original NVSpeech Player was also british. For this to even support US English, it needs to have proper IPA mapping and data.py to include how the letters actually get sounded out from those phoonemes Espeak is injecting for us. So first task: Rewrite data.py and IPA.py for NVSpeech Player to have better multilingual support in the first place.
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