mastodon - Link to source

If you know me, you'll know that I'm not a friend of AI - but like the original Luddites I am not against the technology per se, but the use of it to drive an exploitative societal development.

@pluralistic has put it more eloquently than I ever could. So, read this:

theguardian.com/us-news/ng-int…


AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage

AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots
Cory Doctorow (The Guardian)
@Cory Doctorow

mastodon - Link to source
Sigh. Since we added a new setting, have eurpod.com/synths/nvSpeechPlay… - especially if you speak Portuguese, it might help. Or maybe it'll screw things up so bad your language won't sound the same. Who knows. Unlucky 13. Guess I wasn't supersticious enough to skip it. Ah well.
it ever sounds like there’s “no diphthong,” it’s usually because the boundary gap or timing makes the two parts separate, or the glide is too quiet. We just added a setting to skip boundary gaps for vowel-to-vowel transitions, which is basically the diphthong smoother. Dedicated diphthong phonemes are optional and mostly for extra fine control. To use this for your language, toggle segmentBoundarySkipVowelToVowel: true (also default) or false. This should give folks even more control over gaps, and you can mess around with the others in default.yaml for a given language to see if they help change prosody.
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Paperback version 0.7.0 is out, with a huge changelog!
* Added table support for HTML and XHTML-based documents! Navigate between tables using T and Shift+T, and press Enter to view one in a webview.
* Added a basic web rendering feature! Press Ctrl+Shift+V to open the current section of your document in a web-based renderer, useful for content like complex formatting or code samples.
* Added a Russian translation, thanks Ruslan Gulmagomedov!
* Added a Clear All button to the All Documents dialog.
* The update checker now displays release notes when a new version is available.
* Updated Serbian translation.
* Updated Bosnian translation.
* Fixed restoring the window from the system tray.
* Fixed Yes/No button translations in confirmation dialogs.
* Fixed loading configs when running as administrator.
* Fixed comment handling in XML and HTML documents.
* Fixed TOC parsing in Epub 2 books.
* Fixed navigating to the next item with the same letter in the table of contents.
* Fixed the find dialog not hiding properly when using the next/previous buttons.
* Fixed epub TOCs occasionally throwing you to the wrong item.
* Fixed various whitespace handling issues in XML, HTML, and pre tags.
* Fixed off-by-one error in link navigation.
* Fixed some books having trailing whitespace on their lines.
* Fixed various parser issues.
* Bookmark-related menu items are now properly disabled when no document is open.
* The elements list is now properly disabled when no document is open.
* Improved list handling in various document formats.
* Improved the translation workflow for contributors.
* Many internal refactors, moving the majority of the application’s business logic from C++ to Rust for improved performance and maintainability.
Download: paperback.dev/downloads/
Sponsor on GitHub: github.com/sponsors/trypsynth
Donate to development through PayPal: paypal.me/tygillespie05
Enjoy!

Sponsor @trypsynth on GitHub Sponsors

Fully blind software developer who loves making their own tools to solve problems. Primarily known for Paperback, an accessible and lightning fast ebook/document reader.
GitHub

mastodon - Link to source

The ⚙️ FOSDEM 2026 Schedule ⚙️ app for Android is now available:

🛒 f-droid.org/packages/info.meta…
🛒 play.google.com/store/apps/det…

🆕 Search filters
🆕 New session cards design
🆕 Edge-to-edge support
🆕 New settings options

#fahrplan #fosdem #fosdem2026 #opensource @fosdem @fosdempgday @fosdembsd

Screenshots of the FOSDEM 2026 Schedule for Android phones + tablets. Available via F-Droid and Google Play. Incl. c3-nav.

FOSDEM 2026 Schedule | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Conference program app for the FOSDEM conference
f-droid.org
#opensource #fosdem #fahrplan #fosdem2026 @FOSDEM @fosdembsd @FOSDEM PGDay

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
I work as an audiobook quality controller. My employer uses ClickUp to manage tasks. Unfortunately, the web interface is unintuitive and inaccessible. It contains unnamed elements, menus that expand in all kinds of ways, and similar issues. I wrote to their developers, but even after years nothing has been fixed. Fortunately, ClickUp has an open API. So I used vibecoding and now I have my own minimalist HTML application that displays my tasks, start and end dates, comments, and attachments, and allows me to post comments. I still can’t change task statuses yet—we’ll see if I manage to solve that with the help of GPT. Of course, this is not how a blind person should function in an ideal world, but it is still a way we can help ourselves. That said, I still need a server where my PHP scripts run; it could probably be done with Python as well, but PHP seemed simpler to me since it’s already running on my server. BTW it would be ideal if Clickup api documentation is one simple document which I can throw to gpt but it seems that chatgpt already know how to use it.

Peter Vágner reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

the whole ai-bro shtick about "ai democritizes art/programming/writing/etc" seemed always so bs to me, but i couldn't put it into words, but i think i now know how.

ai didn't democritize any of these things. People did. The internet did. if all these things weren't democritized and freely available on the internet before, there wouldn't have been any training data available in the first place.

the one single amazing thing that today's day and age brought us is, that you can learn anything at any time for free at your own pace.

like, you can just sit down, and learn sketching, drawing, programming, writing, basics in electronics, pcb design, singing, instruments, whatever your heart desires and apply and practice these skills. fuck, most devs on fedi are self taught.

the most human thing there is is learning and creativity. the least human thing there is is trying to automate that away.

(not to mention said tech failing at it miserably)

reshared this

glitchsoc - Link to source

Current AI Downsides:

> Stole all creative, intellectual works from everyone ever

> Eats so much power that they need tons of nuclear plants yesterday

> Eats up so much electricity that everybody else is priced out

> Eats up so much GPU & DRAM that everyone else is priced out

> Devours jobs like Ghibli's No-face

> Falsely identifies people as criminals who aren't

> Hallucinates legal briefs in your court case

> Destroys the validity of all video evidence in all courts everywhere

> Facetracks children playing at the park

> Generates infinite piles of dogshit spaghetti code that can't be read or revised

> Can't count to 100, doesn't know how many r's are in Strawberry

> Deep-fakes Martin Luther King Jr. stealing fried chicken, Studio Ghibli child porn

> Produces ugly, smeary, unappealing fake video that nobody likes.

Added: Consumes water at a rate that will desertify our entire planet.

Added: Completely destroys college education, both in terms of cheating and inability to read/write

Added: Makes all art suspected as fake, all art stealable and reguritated.

Added: Allows world leaders to fake their health, presence, & speaking capacity.

Added: Not even a Language Model.

Added: Fake/bullshit content and rampant chatbotting means the Internet is now mostly dead.

Added: AI warfare is inept and kills innocent/misidentified people. AI security bots are in the works for your home town.

Added: Allows for extortion, sextortion, scamming at a level never seen before.

Current AI upsides:

> Sam Altman is rich, I guess, idk.

This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source

An important PSA for people who are active on #Bluesky and who, upon hearing that the ICE account was officially verified, are saying: "I will just block it."

Blocking on Bluesky is NOT PRIVATE: it's very easy to see who is blocking any account by visiting sites that list that information.

I took a screenshot from clearsky.app, listing all the accounts that are blocking ICE (I pixelated avatars and usernames for privacy purposes).

The safest bet is to mute (that info is private) 😫

a screenshot of the site ClearSky updating in real time the Bluesky accounts that are blocking ICE. The page reads "U.S. immigration and customs enforcement" blocked by 72233 (accounts) with the date of the block... some seconds ago

ClearSky

ClearSky - Bringing information closer to you
clearsky.app
#bluesky

mastodon - Link to source

This post by Bruce Schneier contains so many thoughtful soundbites:

> The question is not simply whether copyright law applies to AI. It is why the law appears to operate so differently depending on who is doing the extracting and for what purpose.

> Like the early internet, AI is often described as a democratizing force. But also like the internet, AI’s current trajectory suggests something closer to consolidation.

schneier.com/blog/archives/202…

AI and the Corporate Capture of Knowledge - Schneier on Security

More than a decade after Aaron Swartz’s death, the United States is still living inside the contradiction that destroyed him. Swartz believed that knowledge, especially publicly funded knowledge, should be freely accessible.
Bruce Schneier (Schneier on Security)
in reply to Jamie Gaskins

mastodon - Link to source

miki

I like looking at this through the concept of "enjoyment", which was originally developed in Japan I believe.

From that point of view, copyright only applies to a work when it is used for "enjoyment", for its intended purpose. If the work is primarily entertainment, it applies when the consumer is using it to entertain themselves. If the work is educative, it applies when the consumer is using it to learn something. It does not apply when the work is used for a purpose completely unrelated to its creation, such as testing a CD player on an unusual CD, demonstrating the performance of a speaker system, training a language model to classify customer complaints etc.

(This isn't a legal perspective, not even quite in Japan I believe, but it's useful lens through which we can look at the world and which people can use to decide on policy).

mastodon - Link to source
I'm wasting water and energy, on having GPT compare the SpeechPlayer code from Espeak's integration to the one standalone. What makes it sound different? What makes me prefer the standalone Speechplayer to the one inside Espeak? Why why why. I still don't know, but I've been trying both side by side and comparing. And despite mine having any language over-articulations right now (perhaps "combobox could be less open-mouthed), I still prefer it. Why? Why? Why! It's the same DSP. I checked the code, same 9 files. Same wave generator concept. So what changed.
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to x0

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@x0 yeah, the analysis between the DSP layers didn't reveal it. It's the same core logic exactly, so for sure moving to Espeak's built-in IPA tokenizer rather than creating our own did it, that's really interesting. Somehow Espeak driving it really changed things versus us just reimplementing the Python tokenizer in C++ to use the same logic as the earlier standalone code always has.
@x0

mastodon - Link to source

TL;DR Most EV batteries will last longer than the cars they’re in. Battery degradation is at better (meaning: lower) rates than expected. Slow charging is better. Drive EV and don’t worry about your battery.

„Our 2025 analysis of over 22,700 electric vehicles, covering 21 different vehicle models, confirms that overall, modern EV batteries are robust and built to last beyond a typical vehicle’s service life.“

geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-hea…

#GoodNews #EV #Battery

Key Insights Average degradation rate: The average annual electric vehicle degradation rate is 2.3%. Power: High-power DC fast charging (>100kW) is the single largest stressor, leading to degradation rates up to twice that of the low power charging group (3.0% vs 1.5% per year). Climate: Hot climates impose a penalty on battery life, with vehicles operating in hot conditions degrading 0.4% faster per year than those in mild climates. Utilization: The increase in degradation from high daily use is a measurable but worthwhile trade-off for the gains in fleet productivity and ROI. State of charge (SOC): For most EV use, there's no need to worry about avoiding fully charging or emptying the battery. Degradation only speeds up when vehicles spend over 80% of their total time at or near-full or nearly empty charge levels.
#ev #goodnews #battery
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source

PQ leader says Legault's resignation further evidence of need for independent Quebec

cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/qu…

tl;dr: the leader of the PQ is full MAGA. He believe in Santa Claus. He believe that in the US dictatorship Quebec and it's francofascism would be safe. Remember MAGA implies hating anyone speaking something other than English.

#cdnpoli #qcpoli

#cdnpoli #qcpoli
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Why Poilievre and Carney Are Silent on Grok’s Child Sexual Abuse

thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026/01/15/…

The former is just in his cesspool, running is con. The latter is just an hypocrite coward elite that would have no problem with Internet legislation when they can't enforce the basics.

#cdnpoli


Why Poilievre and Carney Are Silent on Grok’s Child Sexual Abuse | The Tyee

The Liberals are afraid of Trump. The Conservatives fear their base.
Eric Van Rythoven (The Tyee)
#cdnpoli

mastodon - Link to source
I think people are going to like this SAPI engine. Although be prepared for 17 times 4 voices added to your list? What's that. Uh, math. 68. So 68 voices at once? Yeah. We use a tokenizer though to create voices, so they're only made for the languages you have. I suppose someone could remove all language files from their pack and just have the languages they care about, then your voice list will shrink. That's the idea. Dynamic tokenization, what a concept. We read it and only expose the voices available not a predetermined list of languages.
in reply to Noel Romey

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@ner Oooh. Yeah, the frontend doesn't expose any synthesize functions yet, mainly because that creates a direct-dependency on LibEspeak to be compiled into the DLL - that's when we get more into GPLV2 VS V3 scuffles. Ugh. This way I can link Espeak outside the DLL alongside it, just use the SAPI wrapper to delegate the communication between both rather than my frontend having a synthesize method. For now it's our best shot if we want the language flexibility of modern Espeak's IPA tokenization, sadly. But it's not a bad alternative.
@Noel Romey

hometown - Link to source

CALL TO ACTION on January 23, 2026

Minneapolis Labor Unions are calling for a full #GeneralStrike. No school, No work, No shopping. Those of us outside Minnesota, stand with the unions by not shopping.

“The Minnesota labor movement is united against the violent ICE occupation of our beloved cities .. Workers are essential for our communities to function. Since the ICE campaign of terror began, both immigrant and non-immigrant workers have feared for their safety when going to work, being at work, and coming home from work.

Working people, our schools our communities are under attack. Union members
are being detained commuting to and from work, tearing apart families. Parents are
being forced to stay home, students held out of school, fearing for their lives, all while
the employer class remains silent. Our labor federations are encouraging everyone to
participate on January 23rd.”

minneapolisunions.org/system/f…

#generalstrike

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

Walter Francis White was a Black man born to two Black parents, but he had blonde hair and blue eyes. (This is genetically possible without any extramarital affairs; it's just rare.)

He used his white passing appearance to pose as a white journalist and learn the truth about lynchings in the South. He investigated 41 lynchings and 8 race riots at enormous risk to his life. His documentation then helped the NAACP lobby for anti-lynching legislation.

abhmuseum.org/walter-white/


Walter White: The Forgotten Hero of Civil Rights - America's Black Holocaust Museum

In the story of America's fight for civil rights, certain names ring out: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Thurgood Marshall. Yet, many figures who laid the essential groundwork for their work remain less known.
America's Black Holocaust Museum
in reply to Scary Austin

mastodon - Link to source

Scary Austin

...completely defenseless, just like domestic abusers do, and we know these are the same kind of men.

They're scared of being watched, they're so scared of lawyers they shut up a lawyer yesterday by threatening to detain two other people as well as her client if she didn't shut up. (She was rightly saying the kidnapping they were doing was illegal.) She had to shut up at that time but her client will have his day in court. We initiated community support.

They are SCARED scared. They act...

in reply to Scary Austin

mastodon - Link to source

Scary Austin

...tough away from cameras but not when the cameras are going. Not when there's a crowd. Not when there's even one VIP, such as Bishop Pham of San Diego, who showed up to immigration court and made the ICE agents scatter like cockroaches.

The movement makes real difference in the here and now and will make a real difference when we punish these people.

Walter F White realized he had power as one Black man in the US in the heyday of the Klan.

We have real power if we use it.

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

Almost everyone has heard of @dgar
And most of you will know by now that he's also released a song or two.

He shouts out a few his songs - such as "Always Monday On The Moon" and "Space Pop" - but my favourite is always missed.

So I'll shout it out instead - it's "Digital Busker"
youtube.com/watch?v=MjqgzpSDbY…


Digital Busker

Provided to YouTube by Repost NetworkDigital Busker · DgarDigital Busker℗ DgarReleased on: 2021-11-12Auto-generated by YouTube.
YouTube
@Dgar

mastodon - Link to source

WE CAN EITHER HAVE A LIVEABLE PLANET OR BILLIONAIRES. WE CAN’T HAVE BOTH.

The findings of @oxfaminternational’s latest report, released just days ago, are honestly terrifying and infuriating.

This is not accidental. It is the result of an economic system that protects extreme wealth, fuels corporate pollution, and puts profits before people.

It’s time to FLIP THE SCRIPT. Tax extreme wealth. Make polluters pay. Ban private jets and superyachts. Put lives before profits.

The richest 1% have blown through their fair share of carbon emissions for 2026 in just 10 days. Source: Oxfam. In the image, billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are shown jumping with enthusiasm and holding wads of money, against a backdrop of superyachts and private jets and burning forests.

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source
I just used Chrome and gemini to describe a few sample pages of a graphic novel from wandering inn so I could understand and enjoy the series. All I can say is wow! I can say that though clunky, I had to go to the next page and reactivate gemini, it would work and I think I could spend money on this book and still enjoy it even though "The last tide" is a graphic novel. Amazing!

mastodon - Link to source

RE: mastodon.nl/@bert_hubert/11591…

Translated: All ATMs from all big dutch banks rely on Amazon AWS. So if there's a disruption with the US and you think to yourself "hey, I'm gonna pay with cash", you won't be able to get cash.


Bert Hubert NL 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@bert_hubert@mastodon.nl)

Attached: 1 image Alle geldautomaten van alle grote Nederlandse banken draaien exclusief op Amazon Web Services. Dus als er verstoring is met Amerika en je denkt, dan betaal ik wel cash, kom je niet aan cash.
Bert Hubert NL 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦 (Mastodon.nl door Stichting Activityclub)
⇧