Jeden smutný příběh o vyhaslém mladém životě, nespravedlivém rozhodnutí soudu a negativních aspektech černého trhu, kdy člověk koupí něco, co nechtěl a dozví se o tom až ve chvíli, kdy už je pozdě - respekt.cz/kontext/tri-kamarad…

Internationalise The Fediverse
shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/inter…

We live in the future now. It is OK to use Unicode everywhere.

It seems bizarre to me that modern Internet services sometimes "forget" that there's a world outside the Anglosphere. Some people have the temerity to speak foreign languages! And some of those languages have accents on their letters!! Even worse, some don't use English letters at all!!!

A decade ago, I was miffed that GitHub only supported some ASCII characters in its project names. There's no technical reason why your repo can't be called "ഹലോ വേൾഡ്".

Similarly, I'm frustrated that Mastodon (the largest ActivityPub service) doesn't allow Unicode usernames and has resisted efforts to change.

So I built a small ActivityPub server which publishes content from an Actor called @你好@i18n.viii.fi - it is only a demo account, but it works!

Some ActivityPub clients report that they are able to follow it and receive messages from it. Others - like Mastodon - simply can't see anything from it. Take a look at the replies on Mastodon to see which services work. You can also see some of its posts on the Fediverse.

What Does The Fox Spec Say?


The ActivityPub specification says:

Building an international base of users is important in a federated network.
Internationalization


I can't find anything in the specifications which limits what languages a username can be written in. But there are a few clues scattered about.

The user's @ name is defined by preferredUsername which is:

A short username which may be used to refer to the actor, with no uniqueness guarantees.
4.1 Actor objects


There's nothing in there about what scripts it can contain. However, later on, the spec says:

Properties containing natural language values, such as name, preferredUsername, or summary, make use of natural language support defined in ActivityStreams.
4. Actors


So it is expected that a preferred username could be written in multiple scripts. Which implies that the default need not be limited to A-Z0-9.

The ActivityStreams specification talks about language mapping.

Finally, the ActivityPub specification has some examples on non-Latin text in names.

So, I think that it is acceptable for usernames to be written in a variety of non-Latin scripts.

But What About...?


There are usually a few objections to "Unicode Everywhere" zealots like me. I'd like to forestall any arguments.

What about homograph attacks?


Well, what about them? ASCII has plenty of similar looking characters. I doubt most people would notice when a capital i is replaced by a lower L - and vice-versa. Similarly the kerning issue of an r and n looking like an m is well known. Are mixed language homographs more dangerous? I don't think so.

What if people make names that can't be typed?


Well, what if they do? Maybe not being found by people who can't type your language is a feature, not a bug. But, anyway, clients can let users search for other people, or copy and paste their names.

What about weird "Zalgo" text?


It is up to a client to decide how they want to render text input. The "problems" of strange Unicode combinations are well known. This is not a hard computer-science problem.

What about bi-directional text?


The spec makes clear this is allowed.

Do people even want a username in their own script?


I have no evidence for this. But I bet you'd get pretty frustrated if you had to switch keyboard just to type your own name, wouldn't you? In any case, why can't I have a username of @😉

What's Next?


If you build ActivityPub software, give some thought to the billions of people who don't have names which easily fit into ASCII.

If your software can see @你好@i18n.viii.fi and its posts, please let me know.

shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/inter…

#ActivityPub #fediverse #i18n #mastodon #unicode

modulux reshared this.

I have updated my #Tampermonkey script #netflix caption reader! Now, it not only reads subtitles, but you can press CTRL shift e to read the video title (movie/episode) or Ctrl shift r to read the remaining time. github.com/ogomez92/netflixCap…

im getting really tired... -w-

summary of today:

someone on a Japanese hacker forum decided it was a good idea to spam the entire Fediverse because they wanted to cancel a minor that DDoSed a Discord bot which apparently made them lost millions (what?)

A Discord bot. I can't make this shit up man.

The real culprit seems to be someone who goes by mumei in the ctkpaarr.org forums, whose first post was literally a threat to ap12, that if they don't delete their "Kuroneko Server" Discord bot, they will spam every blog, forum and SNS and cancel him.

This shit is ridiculous.

The ap12 account from mastodon-japan was actually fake, and this dude impersonated a minor to get all of the Fediverse (us) to bully him.

The forum admins didn't even stop this. Why? lulz apparently. #fediblockmeta#fediadmins#fediadmin#mastoadmin#mastoadmins#spam#cybercrime#cybersec#infosec#drama#discord

The next beta version of #Signal will be version 7.0.0.
There's a good reason for the round number. This will be the first version where usernames and phone number privacy are available outside of the staging environment.
From this version on, you'll be able to talk to people on Signal without revealing your phone number, and also, you may use Signal without revealing to people who have your number saved that you do.
This is huge.
github.com/signalapp/Signal-An…

#Privacy #FOSS #OpenSource #PNP

in reply to Štěpán Škorpil

@stepan Mohu nabídnout velmi zábavné vlákno community.spotify.com/t5/Andro… :) Plné nápadů jako "restartujte router"

So, Envision is doing this survey. It says to choose my country. I can't type U N to search ahead to United States. I can't hit the End key to move any nearer to it. So I closed the tab. I do *not* have time for AT companies that can't test any outgoing communications, or media, or surveys, or whatever, for accessibility.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

#Envision #accessibility

"Embark on a journey through time: the transformative landscape of mobile assistive technology for the blind before the iPhone era - the roots of innovation that paved the way for the accessibility features we cherish today #AssistiveTech #DigitalInc charli.info/2024/02/16/embark-…

I am very sad to pass on the news that assistive technology pioneer David Holladay passed away yesterday. This is a tragic loss both for his family, the blindness community and the assistive technology field. I'm just so sorry. Please pray for his family and for the repose of his soul. This is a great loss. His contributions to our community were immense. I wish I could do something.
groups.io/g/tech-vi/topic/anno…

Obsessed with these 💜

Plum Stripes Brick Stitch Fringe Beaded Earrings--
cvkvlv.com/products/plum-strip…

#Cvkvlv #CvkvlvBeadwork #Mvskoke #Native #Indigenous #NativeAmerican #Beadwork #Jewelry #Earrings #Handmade #IndigenousCreatives

This article is fucking amazing. It lays out _exactly_ how to do database changes, codebase changes, and feature flag deployment strategies step by step with code examples in order to practice continuous deployment without downtime or breaking anything.

I've wanted to write this article for years and never got around to it. Now I don't have to!

(Looks like they have a book on continuous deployment coming out soon. I might have to get this for my teams 👀 )

oooops.dev/2021/07/30/survivin…

Apple's attempt to knife PWAs in the EU will have worldwide implications if allowed to stand. Not knowing if Push Notifications will be available or data will be lost will drive developers back to native, pushishing investments in the web worldwide, even if the change is only "real" in the EU.

This is as bad as it sounds. If you want to fight back, join @owa in supplying information to regulators about what it will mean for users and developers:

open-web-advocacy.org/apple-at…

Someone very sweet, a total stranger, wrote:

"I wanted to send you a short thank you. Early in my college career, I found your article on how to learn math and physics. As a child I experienced educational neglect and knew very little about math or science, or even how to study it! I was lost before I even started."

"I have lived by your quote, 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴, but couldn't remember where I had read it! I recently found it in my journal from my 1st week of college! Most amazingly, this approach works for every single subject!"

It's interesting to see someone who firmly latched onto that principle and profited from it. I know a bunch of math grad students who are really good in other ways but still don't impose that discipline. They trip up all the time. It's great to have intuitions that go beyond what you can prove, but it's bad to mistake those for certainty.

My article on how to learn math and physics is here:

math.ucr.edu/home/baez/books.h…

I should update it. For example, my advice on courses still seems good, but there are a lot more online courses now.

This entry was edited (1 year ago)

Sharing for a friend. Please boost/repost!

Parent or teacher interested in a Covid safe school?! Centered in disability justice. One is forming in MA/RI, location TBD. Email for more info or with questions!

@disability @mcas
@chronicillness
@disabilityjustice
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#Covid #MaskUp #LongCovid #Education #disability #justice #school #k12

in reply to JustME

Thanks for picking this up! I'm not directly affected myself (long out of school, and no school-age children etc). But *if I were*, this would have caused frustration to me. And I could name others feeling the same, maybe not daring to "complain" – so I thought to mention it. Especially Jitsi and BBB are freely accessible (I have good experiences with both, BBB even with 150+ people in the meeting). But I cannot participate, sorry – my task list already is too long 🙈
in reply to JustME

Depending on your needs, e.g. CryptPad could be an option. Many different "providers" worldwide, so you can pick an instance you find trustworthy. See eg. cryptpad.org/ (at the end of the page you can also find a link to a list of public instances).

More than just docs. Also sheets, forms, presentations, whiteboards…

BBC to remember Steve Wright with special programmes radiotoday.co.uk/2024/02/bbc-t…
in reply to Troed Sångberg

@troed Dendrite is being developed best effort atm; youtu.be/s5BrVVf0B1I?t=316 gives some context. It’s not deliberately falling behind Synapse, but there’s severely limited bandwidth.