mastodon - Link to source

RE: wandering.shop/@cstross/115967…

It's worse than that. Mandatory, authoritatively checked age verification is a short, slippery slope directly to mandatory, authoritatively checked internet access. This isn't hyperbole. Gating VPN access is just a short stop in between.

Charlie Stross

2026-01-27 12:19:30

mastodon - Link to source

RE: social.vivaldi.net/@LonM/11596…

UK PEOPLE: this is REALLY IMPORTANT. If the government bans under-16s from using VPNs, then logically they must intend to REQUIRE AGE VERIFICATION FOR ALL VPN USE. Which will affect adults too!

*Your* privacy and right to anonymous web browsing is at risk!


LonM (@LonM@vivaldi.net)

@gamingonlinux@mastodon.social You might be interested in giving this petition opposing the motion a signal boost: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/754408
LonM (Vivaldi Social)

mastodon - Link to source

Question for #blind and partially sighted folk on the fediverse:

If you go to a museum or gallery, do you prefer braille or do you instead use a text to speech app?

(Or both, or something else)

I've got a bit of money to refurbish a small UK museum space with better provisions for Deaf and Blind folk, so I'm keen to know what will be the most useful.

Please Note: This is a question specifically for blind and partially sighted Fedi users, rather than fully sighted folk.

#blind

reshared this

in reply to DarkSheep Arts

mastodon - Link to source

Scott

Linking to an accessible companion guide on a site might be a better shout than braille. That would be easier to produce, easier to update, definitely cheaper to maintain and most importantly, it places the choice of how to consume that with each person who wants to read it. EG, I'm totally blind here, learned braille so young that I can't even remember not knowing it, but there are boatloads of blind/VI folk who lose sight later in life and never get that opportunity. IMO audio is a really nice to have extra if you can get it done within budget, but deafblind folk get the soggy end of the stick so often, I reckon I'd try to offset that a bit by commissioning a good writer over a sound designer if I were in your shoes.

BTW I live in London and my partner bloody loves a museum/exhibit. Would be happy to come and poke around ideas in progress. Holler whenever you've got something if that might help.

mastodon - Link to source

Captchas are getting so much harder!

Or maybe I'm a robot and just don't know it.

I just failed in creating an account somewhere because I failed the captcha THREE times.

It was some kind of wiring diagram where I had to match the wires on the left to the wires on the right like some kind of water pipeline game. And I had to do it 5 times (and then 6 and 7 times on the retries).

mastodon - Link to source
so after a lot of work, thanks to a few people, here are some links of interest, some of you may want these, others, may not. note, that I was not responsible for creating the contents contained in these archives, I'm just the host of the archives. Hey, you might even like these as test files for speedtests, lol! Firstly, here's the original main menu early years 7 zip file, covering 2000 to 2008, raw from the ACBRadio FTP server, curtisy of @sclower. file size: 5.51GB. downloads.shaned.net/MainMenu_… Next, curtisy of @gallagher123123 is a zip file where he reorganized, into one folder, per year, this same collection from 2000 to 2008. It looks like he also combined show segments into one file per show. file size: 24.5GB. Why it's almost 4 times the size of the previous file, I don't know, lol! downloads.shaned.net/MainMenu2… Next, curtisy of files provided by @Bri we have a main menu archive, organized into a folder for each year, and one file per show, for 2009 to 2015. File size: 18.5GB downloads.shaned.net/MainMenu2… and finally, you want everything from both zip files in one massive zip file, covering 2000-2015? Of course you do! note: this does not include the contents of the 7zip package. File size: 43.1GB downloads.shaned.net/MainMenu2… I hope these archives are of interest, to someone. note these links are perminant, and will not change. Enjoy!
@Cullen Gallagher @Steve @Bri🥰

mastodon - Link to source
From Clawdbot to Moltbot: How a C&D, Crypto Scammers, and 10 Seconds of Chaos Took Down the Internet's Hottest AI Project
dev.to/sivarampg/from-clawdbot…

From Clawdbot to Moltbot: How a C&D, Crypto Scammers, and 10 Seconds of Chaos Took Down the Internet's Hottest AI Project

The 72-Hour Unraveling of Open Source's Fastest-Growing Star Three days ago, Clawdbot was...
Sivaram (DEV Community)

gotosocial - Link to source

I wish I wasn't so irrationally irritated with the folks who pick out my github username from gods know where and ping me in random issues or pull requests for random "Fix this!" or "Merge that!" reasons.

It's often not even my own project. Used to happen with Godot for a while, at a point when I hadn't merged any PRs in like 5-6 years. Often I don't even have merge rights on the project.

It's wrong, sure, but idiots gonna idiot whether or not my blood pressure spikes about it.

Just seems so entitled, though. "Hey random person! Do my thing now!" Fuck off.

mastodon - Link to source

For These Women, Grok's Sexualized Images Are Personal

rollingstone.com/culture/cultu…

But our ( :caflag: ) Minister of Chatbots say there is nothing they can do.
Apple and Google can't remove the app from their appstore because it is allowed to break the policies in place. (that would leave the website, but the point stands)
VISA and Mastercard still accept the payments because they have a double standard in censorship. One is about puritanistm, the other one is about allowing to break the law.


For These Women, Grok's Sexualized Images Are Personal

Elon Musk’s AI image generator has been used to create non-consensual intimate images on X. Meet some of the women affected by it.
Ella Chakarian (Rolling Stone)

mastodon - Link to source
We’ll be out in force at @fosdem '26 at the end of this week, with eight talks on a wide variety of topics—the latest on @servo, GStreamer work, graphics stacks, MathML interop, WebAssembly runtimes, handing out Servo stickers, and more! #FOSDEM2026 igalia.com/2026/01/26/Igalia-a…

Igalia at FOSDEM ’26 | Igalia

Igalia is an open source consultancy specialised in the development of innovative projects and solutions.
Igalia
#fosdem2026 @FOSDEM @Servo
This entry was edited (2 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source

RE: social.vivaldi.net/@LonM/11596…

UK PEOPLE: this is REALLY IMPORTANT. If the government bans under-16s from using VPNs, then logically they must intend to REQUIRE AGE VERIFICATION FOR ALL VPN USE. Which will affect adults too!

*Your* privacy and right to anonymous web browsing is at risk!

LonM (@LonM@vivaldi.net)

@gamingonlinux@mastodon.social You might be interested in giving this petition opposing the motion a signal boost: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/754408
LonM (Vivaldi Social)

reshared this

in reply to David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)

mastodon - Link to source

Fonant

The government has to discover that there is an illegal VPN being used in the first place.

It is quite possible for millions of VPNs to be made available to UK children, hosted all over the world. Perhaps hosted by children, sharing the small monthly server costs. Quite secret, extremely difficult to find.

The proposed law could only ever hope to apply to a few big VPN companies. Which just moves the VPN usage by children underground, where other dangers lurk.

mastodon - Link to source

I've read this quote multiple times, over the years:

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: there must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

It turns out it's from a comment on a blog post moaning about liberals: crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/l…

The rest of the comment is a lot more interesting than the pithy quote, because it cuts through a lot of the usual noise in leftist discourse.

The travesty of liberalism — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org
in reply to Goemon Ishikawa

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@GoemonIshikawa would be very curious. Is this a data containing CF1 to CF6 values (and Parallel formants too) or just like, here's the frequency and sound for a specific IPA symbol? Either way, some kind of file, even if it's JSON or text works, it doesn't have to be the same format as my current data is but I can pull useful info out of it both manually and probably AI to see how it helps.
@Goemon Ishikawa
in reply to Goemon Ishikawa

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@GoemonIshikawa Lol, or an application that just lets you load / choose which wrapper, and engine, then you could have a Speak / convert to wav window the universally covered a bunch of these old synths. Haha. How fun of an idea but totally illegal too. Well, making the app itself is totally legal, because it's just reusing wrappers that talk to the engines which makes that a bit ironic. What's more in a gray area are the wrappers themselves, since they technically do link against comercial products, but I'm not worried with how extinct the companies behind those synths are these days.
@Goemon Ishikawa

mastodon - Link to source

In our journey to #DigitalSovereignty, here's where we are:

- Domain registration: TransIP and Prolocation 🇳🇱
- Email, calendar, collaborative writing, and more: mailbox.org 🇩🇪
- Document store: Tresorit 🇨🇭
- Critical infra hosting: Hetzner 🇩🇪
- Discourse hosting: Communiteq 🇳🇱
- Security: 1Password.eu 🇨🇦/🇪🇺 and Yubico 🇸🇪

Next up: GitHub —> Codeberg 🇩🇪

To-do: Slack —> Zulip, Matrix, Mattermost?

#OpenSource #DNS #BGP

#opensource #dns #digitalsovereignty #bgp

mastodon - Link to source
Wondering. Ice and border patrol don't wear uniforms / show their faces apparently because of doxing. Why do police show their faces, have badges with their names on them, etc., and don't worry about doxing? Is it mostly that police actually being reasonable people? I just figure that Ice might be respected more if they acted human. Did Ice have badges in the past? I know masking is new. Doesn't make sense at all.

mastodon - Link to source

Les pubs vont arriver dans Whatsapp cette année en Europe.

Il est temps de passer à la version Premium qui:
- n’a pas de pub
- n’a pas d’IA intégrée obligatoire
- ne vous espionne pas et ne récolte pas vos données
- améliore grandement votre sécurité et votre vie privée.
- permet de discuter exclusivement avec les autres utilisateurs Premium.

Et le meilleur c’est que cette version Premium est pour le moment gratuite (le paiement est facultatif).

Alors installez-la !

Elle s’appelle : "Signal"

in reply to ploum

mastodon - Link to source

Nicoco

Les migrations de gens pas passionnés par l'informatique étant compliquées, je préfère éviter de recommander un silo duquel on devra encore s'échapper quand il se merdifiera, soit parce qu'il devra devenir rentable, soit pour se plier à la législation du pays qui l'héberge et se fascise à vitesse grand V. En plus, j'aime bien les trucs qu'on peut bidouiller et s'approprier, plutôt que ce qu'on me donne à utiliser sans possibilité de participer à sa gouvernance.
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to Nicoco

mastodon - Link to source

poulpomancien

je suppose que la seule raison qui fait que sur signal on est encore "tranquilles" c'est que, pour l'instant, ça reste petit (comparé aux whatsapp et compagnie) et du coup ça passe encore un peu sous les radars. Mais pour l'instant je vois pas mieux que ça. J'ai beau utiliser DeltaChat et Matrix dans des cercles d'initiés, je vois pas trop comment ça pourrait être étendu autant que signal aujourd'hui @ploum
@ploum
in reply to poulpomancien

mastodon - Link to source

Nicoco

je suis OK que c'est compliqué, mais je trouve justement intéressant de profiter d'occasions pour montrer que tout n'est pas "app", mais qu'il existe un truc qui peut être utilisé par plusieurs apps, proposé par plusieurs fournisseurs, et que tout marche ensemble, même si les couleurs sont différentes, bref parler d'interopérabilité et de déminitelisation de nos vies numériques. Je suis ambitieux je sais, mais j'aime pas le capitalisme c'est plus fort que moi !
in reply to tivasyk

mastodon - Link to source

Nicoco

@tivasyk Je suis d'une autre paroisse, mais deltachat ça m'excite déjà un peu plus que signal, oui. Décentralisation, protocole ouvert, pas d'hostilité aux clients alternatifs, autohebergeable, pas de nécessité d'avoir un smartphone avec OS mainstream... Je punk-valide, du haut de mon autorité de wannabe-punk (en fait je suis plutôt un quinoa-bobolchevique, mais c'est un secret ne me balance pas).
@tivasyk
in reply to Malte Kreutzfeldt

glitchsoc - Link to source

Andreas Bulling

Ich darf korrigieren: Die orchestrierte Kampagne und Verunglimpfung der Wärmepumpentechnologie, die Verzerrung der Historie und Inhalts des Gesetzentwurfs, persönliche Angriffe auf #habeck durch die #niemehrcducsu und #springer sowie das Durchstechen einer Vorabversion des Gesetzes durch die #fdp haben enorme Unsicherheit in den Markt gebracht.

Und ich darf ergänzen: Und die Inkompetenz und Fossil-Industrienähe von #gaskathie, die offensichtlich die Erneuerbaren ausbremsen will, bringt nun auch weiterhin Unsicherheit in den Markt.

Augenscheinlich ist sie jedoch glücklicherweise auch darin wenig erfolgreich. Es lebe die Inkompetenz!

#fdp #habeck #niemehrcducsu #springer #gaskathie
This entry was edited (2 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source

No TVL, to je fakt bizár.
Tahle Babišova čtyřletá schovávačka před spravedlností bude stát celou zemi ostudu, která ČR posune mezi země třetího světa

seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/domaci-…


„Naprosto neakceptovatelné.“ Petr Pavel obvinil ministra Macinku z vydírání

Prezident Petr Pavel na mimořádné tiskové konferenci obvinil ministra zahraničí Petra Macinku z vydírání.
Barbora Kučerová (Seznam Zprávy)

mastodon - Link to source

Equipment failure slows REM service between Bois-Franc and Côte-de-Liesse

montreal.citynews.ca/2026/01/2…

The heavy rail that was on that line, that was barely 25 year old when it was taken down, didn't have these issues


Equipment failure slows REM service between Bois-Franc and Côte-de-Liesse

REM service is running at reduced speed in both directions between the Bois-Franc and Côte-de-Liesse stations due to an equipment failure.
Jessica Barile (CityNews Montreal)

mastodon - Link to source
We'd like to invite you to our #BoF session at #FOSDEM It's on Saturday at 13.00 in room K4.401. This is a meet-and-greet for everyone who is part of, or interested in, the #NGIZero ecosystem. We'll bring drinks and snacks :).
Preceding us at 12.00 in the same room is the BoF about the Open Internet Stack calls from @EUCommission the follow-up programme to #NGI.
For these and many more NGI Zero related talks and events at FOSDEM see: nlnet.nl/events/20260131/FOSDE…

NLnet; Let's meet at FOSDEM 2026!

nlnet.nl
#fosdem #ngi #bof #ngizero @European Commission

mastodon - Link to source
hmm. I wonder if releasing on GitHub might be easier for folks, rather than Eurpod. I am considering doing this and keeping one file there. This might break my old posts, but GitHub releases are more trackable, the repo is frozen at that tag, ETC. There's just clear benefits to release them always as a pair (editor + Add-on) whenever I make a change. From here on out, I think that's going to happen.
This entry was edited (2 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Saw a reference to Paulo Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’ this morning, which was funny because just yesterday I was explaining to someone it’s where one of my key prioritizing heuristics comes from.

There’s a proverb in the book that goes something like “Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”

Of course, logically this makes no sense—everything that happened twice is a thing that also happened once.

But I take it to mean “Once something goes wrong twice, it’s time to pay attention.” Once could be a fluke. Twice means there’s something going on. The second time it happens is where the phase change from noise to signal begins.

This entry was edited (2 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source

I submitted a proposal for a lightning talk for #FOSDEM . It's about .... from street-level hack to open cultural production.

pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2026…

#openart #foss #creativecommons

./make art: A Creative Commons Theater Experiment FOSDEM 2026

It began as a small patch for a real-world bug: holes in the road. A few hackers chose action over complaints and the result was a Creative Commons theater play, performed in Sofia, Bulgaria.
pretalx.fosdem.org
#foss #fosdem #creativecommons #openart

mastodon - Link to source
Do you like nonsense?
Today, for the second time in my life, I have been asked to convert a "pirate" copy of an old (50y+) movie into the DCP format, for a cinephile club. Not because they do not want to pay the copyright holders, they actually did. But that did not give them access to any copy of the movie, they are on their own.
The previous time, the distributor would only send them a French-dubbed version, which was a no-no for them.
They are not even obscure unknown movies, but classics. 🤦‍♀️

mastodon - Link to source

Native Instruments GmbH is in preliminary insolvency.

Not remotely what you want to see. Will keep tabs on this one in a tough time. Details:

cdm.link/ni-insolvency/

Native Instruments logo against a blue background, NI abstract logo on the left.

Native Instruments GmbH is in preliminary insolvency - CDM Create Digital Music

According to insolvency documents, Berlin-based Native Instruments GmbH (also parent to iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworx) is in preliminary insolvency proceedings.
Peter Kirn (CDM Create Digital Music)

reshared this

in reply to peter KIRN

mastodon - Link to source

Scarlet Phoenix Collective

@FreakyFwoof And whatever happens I hope to all hell their incredible work to keep their products accessible to everyone including their BVI (Blind and Visually Impaired) users remains. I hate insolvancies like this because there's no guarantee that the folks who get broken up will land in good hands for those of us who use products on the daily. :(
@Andre Louis
in reply to peter KIRN

mastodon - Link to source

Andre Louis

@the_spc Linked here. Thanks as always sir. universeodon.com/@FreakyFwoof/…

Andre Louis

2026-01-19 16:08:56

mastodon - Link to source

Native Instruments did a 14-minute video on the accessibility features of their MK3 keyboards, barely enough time to even cover what the thing does, let alone the keyboard functions, not to mention it wasn't done by a blind user, the target audience.
I wasn't a fan, so I made my own video and I *still* didn't get through everything to do with it.
Anyway, here's a more than three times longer video at 48 minutes instead.

#InspiredBySound - Native Instruments Kontrol MK3 Accessibility Demonstration youtu.be/cMkm51Utijs

Audio download: onj.me/media/%23InspiredBySoun…



#InspiredBySound - Native Instruments Kontrol MK3 Accessibility Demonstration

In this video we take a tour of the Native Instruments Komplete MK3 keyboard.It's packed full of features and functions that were never accessible to blind u...
YouTube

@Scarlet Phoenix Collective
in reply to Andre Louis

mastodon - Link to source

peter KIRN

@FreakyFwoof @the_spc Here's the unusual situation: because *so much* is owed to creditors, the future of these products is really secured. You have to sell it to pay the debts, and the insolvency process makes that happen.

I'm happy to remind would-be future owners of how important accessibility is to that value proposition.

@Andre Louis @Scarlet Phoenix Collective

Andre Louis reshared this.

lemmy - Link to source

Uznesenie o brutálnych represiách proti demonštrantom v Iráne

V uznesení prijatom vo štvrtok poslanci Európskeho parlamentu vyjadrujú svoje rozhorčenie nad represiami a masovými vraždami, ktoré pácha iránsky režim na protestujúcich v Iráne.

Parlament bezpodmienečne požaduje, aby iránske orgány pod vedením Alího Chameneího okamžite ukončili násilie voči pokojným demonštrantom, zastavili všetky popravy a zastavili vraždenie a represie voči civilistom. V plnej solidarite s iránskym ľudom a jeho odvážnym a legitímnym protestným hnutím dôrazne odsudzuje rozsiahle, úmyselné a neprimerané použitie sily bezpečnostnými silami.

V uznesení poslanci vyjadrujú znepokojenie nad tým, že vražda tisícov protestujúcich signalizuje znepokojujúci posun v potláčaní disentu iránskym režimom od odstrašovania k strategickej eliminácii. Poslanci požadujú okamžité a bezpodmienečné prepustenie všetkých protestujúcich, obhajcov ľudských práv a novinárov, ktorí sú v súčasnosti zadržiavaní.

Parlament vyzýva Radu, aby bezodkladne pristúpila k úplnému označeniu Zboru islamských revolučných gárd vrátane milícií Basídž a síl Kuds za teroristické organizácie. Požaduje rozšírenie a prísne presadzovanie reštriktívnych opatrení EÚ vrátane zmrazenia aktív a zákazu vydávania víz, víta nedávne sankcie USA a vyzýva na rýchle kroky EÚ proti všetkým úradníkom a subjektom zodpovedným za represie.

Parlament nakoniec zdôrazňuje, že akákoľvek normalizácia vzťahov s Iránom môže nasledovať len po bezpodmienečnom prepustení politických väzňov a skutočnom pokroku smerom k demokracii a právnemu štátu, pričom víta rozhodnutie svojej predsedníčky Roberty Metsolovej zakázať zástupcom iránskeho režimu vstup do priestorov Európskeho parlamentu a vyzýva členské štáty, aby nasledovali tento príklad.

#slovakia
⇧