Registration for #LAS2024 is still OPEN! Don’t forget to register to join us on October 4-5 in Monterrey, Mexico or online: conf.linuxappsummit.org/event/…
Wrote up some notes on trying out Aider, a neat open source Python terminal tool for working with codebases on disk via a variety of LLMs simonwillison.net/2024/Jul/31/…
Aider is an impressive open source local coding chat assistant terminal application, developed by Paul Gauthier (founding CTO of [Inktomi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inktomi) back in [1996-2000](https://www.linkedin.
The goal of this PR is to remove the rustls stanza in tests/data/DISABLED that skips some tests.
That involves supporting CRLs -- we've had upstream support for a little while, but needs some plumb...
Here’s a demo of all five phenomenal new US English Siri voices, reading the article I posted to the Living Blindfully website today. We start with voice one, and work our way through in sequence to voice five.
Some of these are very natural sounding and pleasant to the ear. But I still have this big problem with this. If I want an audiobook, I'll go find an audiobook. I want the data from my computer screen provided to me quickly and efficiently. I could never process anything read by Siri at over 700 words per minute, which is the standard I now get from Eloquence. part of that is my own 28 or so year relationship with the synthesizer, but part of it is the very fact that it is quite robotic. I wouldn't call it monotone, because there is variation in how it speaks: but it is predictable and responsive and that matters to me.
I wonder how this came about? Did the designers of early engines aim for naturalness but fall short due to the limits of memory and processing and technique of the time, and that become our norm? Or did they design with speed and the idea of understanding at high speeds, even though the market for something like that is way smaller than, say, a voice for a GPS in-car navigation system.
I wonder if a bit like hearing aids, computer voice designers are aiming at the newbies not the expert users. One of my blind colleagues who'd lost his sight age 30 (and was then in his mid-60s) said he never processed the computer voice as well as a human and ran his JAWS fairly slow. We knew to talk to him and not just reply on email-updates as he'd struggle to process/remember it. I can imagine different voices/speeds for different purposes e.g. leisure vs work.
@NatalyaD it's a fascinating consequence of history. My worry, I suppose, is that the voices that are understandable at higher rates are less used now than they were, wich potentially leads to slower performance in the workplace for your younger text-to-speech users. I guess medically, there's also been a decline in the number of people who are totally blind, so how far those curves cancel each other out would be interesting. From personal observation, I know that the ratio of teens I taught between 2014-2024 who used more natural versus artificial-sounding voices grew year on year. So to did the number of additional disabilities alongside blindness, though, making a direct comparison difficult. Braille reading with any fluency also fell sharply, as did the general academic standard.
I work with disabled students at an English university. Many of my students are in the bottom 10% socio-economic group, so haven't had good support. I find it fascinating which assistive tech they do and don't use and how that's changed in 15yrs.
It's always been a challenge to persuade and support students to use screenreading vs residual vision, even when vision is slow, painful and just doesn't let them manage uni at a reasonable pace or standard.
@cachondo I also blame the students' previous education, often they had limited VI specific support and just got a Teaching Assistant and iPad rather than expert training and encouragement to independence. It's a shock to come to uni and we don't (even tho we should) fund regular support workers cos government cut the funding citing assistive tech does it all now. Which is fine until the studes don't have access to tech in time to train thoroughly alongside a degree programme.
@NatalyaD I was shocked because we were getting students into college with nothing but notetakers. They could write a document and reply to emails on them, but the web access was sorely lacking and any research, online collaboration or anything of that sort was impossible.
I find a lot of our VI students struggle with email and organisational skills. Many can't read deeply or fast enough to keep up. Many say "but I'm blind, I can't work that well/fast" cos aspirations are low and they haven't seen what a well trained and competent blind person can achieve with the right support and skills development. They don't get role modelling.
@NatalyaD @cachondo Mentoring is essential. Here in New Zealand, we are processing a harrowing Royal Commission into Abuse in Care. There’s no doubt that sending blind kids away to boarding schools isn’t the answer. Education needs to be resourced properly at the mainstream level. But we’re missing a very important facet of that education if opportunities aren’t offered for blind kids to get together, and to be mentored by role models.
@NatalyaD I am mentoring my third young person across a second charity in the UK from this summer. Not counting the tens of teens I was fortunate to have as students, many of whom used me as far more than a technology teaching tool. I miss that very much.
@cachondo I think we need to find ways to pay blind people to mentor others as well as volunteer options. I know so many who would like to do it but struggle to afford to. I think by living as blindful life is also vital, reminding bloody sighted people to stop having such low aspirations for blind people too!
@cachondo @NatalyaD Note takers are doing incredible damage. People aren’t going to get anywhere without good Windows and JAWS skills. Windows is the operating system used in most workplaces, and JAWS gives the most flexibility in terms of configuring proprietary applications for use by a blind person. I hope the Optima will help with this, but it is taking a frustratingly long time.
@cachondo @NatalyaD Given the long-standing push to use less expensive mainstream products, I'm surprised that students make it all the way to college having used nothing but a note-taker. I wonder why that happens.
@matt @NatalyaD in the UK, notetakers are sold at elementary school as a catch-all to replace a mechanical brailler and do some of what a phone, tablet or computer can do. Before the child's old enough to advocate for themself, that's often become embedded, usually to their detriment.
@cachondo @matt Can I just clarify terms here? Does notetaker mean something like the BrailleNote or all-in-one tech machine or something else?
I also know the term used for a human notetaker which is one of the few things still funded by government for disabled uni students who are deaf or blind and are useful for high density uni info sometimes.
@NatalyaD @matt sorry, I'm using notetaker to mean a braille one, yes. basically a device underpowered to get everything done you can at a regular computer but with a physical size more compact for the classroom.
@cachondo @matt Thanks for clarifying, I realised it had a dual meaning.
I can absolutely see the value of notetaker devices but they are expensive and as you say not decently powered or especially good value for money.
Most of my students just want to use iPads or iPhones for everything, and part of that is lack of awareness/belief in the power of anything else. iThings are great but they aren't a whole solution for uni or employment level work.
@NatalyaD @cachondo This is exactly one of the reasons why I do the Living Blindfully podcast. So often, blindness, and the tools associated with it, are seen as negative and inferior. I’m proud to be blind. We have a strong culture and history and Living Blindfully seeks to help us celebrate it and embrace it. It is sad that some low vision people will take ten minutes to struggle through an email that would take them 30 seconds to read with speech, all because the sighted way is seen as the “normal way”. I encourage people to think of their efficiency, how much energy they have at the end of the day, and to accept that blind techniques are alternative techniques. They’re not inferior, they’re equally valid and just alternatives.
@cachondo I'm deaf so I read the transcript of your podcast and find it really interesting to see the different topics and reviews. I always like to see disabled-people's own voices on stuff that affects them so I can share that with my students where relevant.
I recognise changing from visual-processing to auditory is challenging and some people always struggle with the modality. What I see is students finding it initially so hard while also trying to start a new course that /1
@cachondo they get overwhelmed. I think we need to carve out time somewhere for skills development and ensure that is provided with plenty of trainers and supporters who can cheerlead, support and guide users where needed.
I often try to share 'success stories' not just Mr Top CEO, but people like Lucy Edwards a young UK activist who talks about how she learned to use a screenreader, gradually speeding up and that it was a longish process both practically and emotionally. /2
@cachondo I am also interested in some of the US Summer Schools for blindness skills I've heard about. Haben Girma writes about one, and I have UK friends who managed to get funding to go for weeks or months and how much that productively developed their skills. I'd like to see multiple opportunities in life for people to go, with funded work breaks and so on.
Talking to my blinded colleague was always interesting cos he described UK charities like RNIB and Guide Dogs as being historically very patronising. At one Guide Dog training week in the 90s, he wasn't permitted to make himself hot drinks because it was deemed unsafe. I wonder how much of UK stuff at least is still pervaded with fear of sighted people overriding blind people's opportunities for independence and confidence to take risks.
@NatalyaD well this year at our local college, blind teens aged 17-19 weren't allowed to have access to kettles for a time due to safety reasons. Progress is ... slow.
@cachondo I shall have to redact my swearing, cos that's atrocious.
Infantilising and it's no wonder they come to my uni age 18-19 and can't do basic adulting. Some setups have young blind folk moving from no-kettles into their own flat months later and we wonder why they can't function cos we've not given them a gradual learning curve to life skills and how to make choices to maximise capacity and energy.
I'm sure we'd heatedly agree on many of these things.
@lordjeff Shaming is totally the wrong way to look at it. If there is a different way that works for a particular individual and it works, that's fine. It's when it doesn't work, but those who are decisionmakers overwrite that individuals freedom of choice, ignore their voice and end up reducing their options for progression and power into adulthood when I have a problem. I am not saying that nobody should ever use a Braillenote, of course not. I am saying that nobody should be expected to be able to use one to perform the range of tasks expected of someone in a high-level career in the vast majority of workplaces, though, because that's technically impossible for the devices. When a young person is not given the opporttunity to explore all their options, when parents and educators are sold alleged panaceas and stop looking for solutions is when bright, articulate kids are failed by the system. That, I am ashamed of.
@cachondo and i think the discussion needs to be different between adults and kids as each is in a different place. I agree people should be given the ability to explore. Heck, I manage an organisation where that is the very premise. However; I have seen both sides of the camp when it comes to techniques... Each trying to argue how their approach is and how the other should be using their approach as it is better.
@cachondo As someone who sits on the edge of both camps and who's vision has changed over the years I think I can say my lived experience says ech has merit. I fought the school system to teach braille to my daughter rather than just large print. My mother a braille user and my father was an audio user. I have sat across all the different techniques and pick the right 1 for each situation
@cachondo @NatalyaD If I could get one thing changed with my TTS on android is google splitting the speech recognition off from the TTS engine and providing more compact versions of the voices, I love US English 6 as it's super clear at high speed, but it still suffers from the entire speech recognition and synthesis engine getting itself bogged down at random because of how it functions.
The Voder was the worlds first voice electronic synthesizer. In 1939 Homer Dudley working at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey began to ...
Most of the research behind these incredible models is open. Even folks at Apple share their findings. Building on this research, I'm developing free and high-quality TTS models using open-source speech datasets. I already created the cross platform speech engine called "Sonata", and currently training some English voices for it. Here's a sample of the very first training run. github.com/mush42/optispeech/
Software mívá chyby, tak to prostě je. Je ale třeba před nimi nezavírat oči a postavit se k nim čelem.
Minulý týden vyšla najevo chyba v aplikaci eDoklady. Nic sice přímo nezpůsobila, být tam ale rozhodně neměla. Tým DIA začal obratem pracovat na nápravě a všera, po méně než týdnu, vyšla opravená verze aplikace (1.5.0). Tak to má být!
Děkuji Honzovi Cibulkovi že chybu objevil a také všem, kteří se zasloužili o její rychlou nápravu. @jancibulka @honza
I'm Daniel Stenberg, maintainer and lead developer in the curl project. I stream curl related stuff. Release presentations, curl development and related topics.
I finally started to fill data in to #OpenStreetMap. At first I just looked at how several features are already tagged, then slowly started to correct wrong data and then add missing details. I use #StreetComplete app to add details on walk travels, #OsmAnd app to add POIs and of course the iD web editor for larger edits. I am especially impressed by the iD editor. It's so helpfull with clever use of autocomplete and linking to #OSM wiki... The best reward is 3D view becoming more realistic...
@schenklklopfer On OSM Wiki there are two 3D renderers worth metioning: 🗺️ demo.f4map.com/ That's the map in the image. I use it more because it refreshes data more often. But it's proprietary. 🗺️ streets.gl/ That should be open source and some details look there better. But they refresh very sporadically.
Good to see another person contributing. One thing that bit me a couple times when learning OSM was realizing that just because it was on the map doesn't mean it was correct or the best way of doing it. I recommend double checking against the wiki if you're not sure.
Id does do a great job for the basic tags.
JOSM is the standard for even more advanced edits.
@jhaluska True. I already found several tags that were used against wiki recommendations. What I mainly meant by learning from existing map data is discovering tags expressing the feature you want to add.
Pekny! Koukam, ze pouzivas matrix i jabber, pokud bys chtel nekdy poradit ohledne tagovani/mapovani mame nejen na techto protokolech propojenej chat viz openstreetmap.cz/git/mahdi1234…
Did you know that you can use the StreetComplete things or stores overlay to add POIs? This saves you having to switch. For even more options, there's also SCEE! github.com/Helium314/SCEE A more advanced version of StreetComplete where you can edit the raw tags of an object for example and plenty of more quests.
Ty vole ale... main/power button v zapnutom stave nejde, ide keď ich zapnúť. Displej robí také divné veci že je občas celý biely a svieti, potom sa po ňom objavujú také biele svetlé pruhy, po chvíli to prejde. Pri nabíjaní sa občas reštartujú (naposledy sa to nestalo). Displej akoby sa posunul o 0.5mm dole a hore je taká čmuha.
Možno je to tým že sa snimi sprchujem a že som snimi xy krát o niečo treskol.
Storm Dragon pushed changes to the testing branch of the linux-game-manager project Attempt to place things not controlled by package managers in ~/.local/games.
Vision Ireland welcomes the announcement by the Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys TD, regarding the opening of the application process for t ...
The article unfortunately leaves out most of the points we made in the thread.
GrapheneOS supports hardware-based attestation and it's entirely possible for Google to allow it as part of the Play Integrity API. They choose to ban using GrapheneOS.
Play Integrity API has no minimum security patch level and nearly all these apps use weak software-based checks that are easily bypassed by attackers. The hardware-based checks rely on trusting every key distributed to every certified Android device, which are often leaked.
Hardware-based attestation can be used for security purposes such as verifying device integrity with a pinning-based approach without the weakness of being vulnerable to leaked keys from the whole Android ecosystem since specific per-app keys in the secure element can be pinned.
Play Integrity API is claimed to be based on devices complying with the Compatibility Test Suite and Compatibility Definition Document. We have irrefutable proof that the majority of certified Android devices do not comply with the CTS/CDD. Play Integrity API is based on lies.
Essentially every non-Pixel device has important CTS failures not caused by CTS bugs. OEMs are cheating to obtain certification. Google claims GrapheneOS can't be permitted because we don't have a certification where they freely allow cheating and don't ban non-compliant devices.
Since Play Integrity doesn't even have a minimum security patch level, it permits a device with multiple years of missing patches. Hardware attestation was required on all devices launched with Android 8 or later, but they don't enforce it to permit non-compliant devices.
The reality is that the Play Integrity API permits devices from companies partnered with Google with privileged Google Play integration when they're running the stock OS. It's easy to bypass, but they'll make changes to block it being done at scale long term such as if we did it.
It does not matter if these devices have years of missing security patches. It doesn't matter if the companies skipped or improperly implemented mandatory security features despite that being required by CDD compliance. Failing even very important CTS tests doesn't matter either.
Google can either permit GrapheneOS in the Play Integrity API in the near future via the approach documented at grapheneos.org/articles/attest… or we'll be taking legal action against them and their partners. We've started the process of talking to regulators and they're interested.
We're not going to give Google veto power over what we're allowed to do in GrapheneOS. We comply with CTS and CDD except when it limits our ability to provide our users with privacy and security. Google wants to be in charge of which privacy/security features can be added. Nope.
NVDA 2024.3 Beta 5 is now available for download and testing! Read the full details and download from nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-3b… Changes from Beta 4: - Fixed bug editing links in text editors in Mozilla Firefox - Fixed crash in Chrome when exiting NVDA or closing Chrome windows - Fixed bug in resetting config to factory defaults - Updates to translations #NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Accessibility
Beta5 of NVDA 2024.3 is now available for download and testing. For anyone who is interested in trying out what the next version of NVDA has to offer before it is officially released, we welcome yo…
So it turns out Pink News's CEO has told staff to "be careful" hiring neurodivergent people because they'd use their disabilities to excuse poor performance and be hard to get rid of due to employment law. Solution: don't support this ableist rag.
Is there any chance we can encourage you to trend #NVIDIA when that's the company you mean, please? I know what their NASDAQ handle is, but #NVDA is much more widely known as the name of the screen reader we make and the #NVDA hashtag is very widely used for the screen reader. It will save both our communities polluting each other's feeds. If you'd like to find out more about the screen reader, our website is nvaccess.org/ - Thank you!
We’re excited to announce Donna Posont as winner of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award presented at #NFB24. She said, “It’s not about the birds, it’s about sharing with blind people and helping them gain the confidence they need to travel the trails of life.”
Read more about the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards on our website: nfb.org/bolotin
@JonathanMosen Hi, I've just read your interview with Vicky, very impressive what those smart glasses can do. Here in Brazil, I'm probably able to buy one, but I'm not sure I'll find resellers who let me test a model extensively. One question I'd like asked to users like her is, are Envision able to accurately read the screens of musical instruments like keyboards such as those by Yamaha and Roland, including all of its menus and tabs, so I could program it as fast as a sighted person?
@clv0 the problem you’ll have is that every time you change an option, it is likely to speak the whole screen again. So it won’t be nearly as fast as a sighted person can do it, but you may be able to do it if you’re really stuck.
Important thread by @jasonhickel about the inequality of the distribution of labour, the disproportionate extraction of value from the global south that facilitates the Imperial Mode of Living in the North.
Hickel is one of the leading scholars behind the #degrowth movement and his work is often enlightening.
@jasonhickel: In this new paper we calculate the unequal exchange of labour between the global North and global South. The results are quite staggering. You'll want to look at this... 🧵 nature.com/articles/s4146… Fi...…
To celebrate the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, discover four creative museum experiences that enhance accessibility for all visitors search.app/62GsDCyVMNhdiAoFA
@matt I have done a whole deployment (to azure, natch) with it before and it was pretty good. The ability to build my *own* abstractions that could share infra with the codebase being deployed was a lot more valuable than ready-built high level stuff, to me at least
Next Generation Internet (NGI) funding hasenabled substantial development of F-Droid - with the support of NGI grantsvia NLnet, F-Droid is now better at prot...
Inspired by someone's TweeseCake sessions getting fried a few weeks ago, I just threw together this little tool to help back up and restore TweeseCake session data. It runs inside a terminal and has no progress bars because I can't code, but hey, it works. Also, TweeseCake in portable mode isn't supported for now, only installed TweeseCake. seediffusion.cc/programs/Twees…
This is a photo from a fun evening we had together last year. I am grateful for the joy we shared and it feels incomprehensible that we will never share joy again.
My dear friend Mel Chua is, as of this year, Dr. Mel Chua, as they have now deposited the doctoral dissertation that they successfully defended several years ago. Yay Dr.
I got several questions on what's new with Version 7 of the Ray-ban Meta Smart glasses. The URL of the release notes follows: These features and improvements will become available starting the week of July 31, 2024.
Respond without 'Hey Meta' Now you can make another request to your glasses after the first one without needing to say ‘Hey Meta’ again. Your glasses and mic will stay on and listen for a brief period after each request is complete. This feature will be on by default but you can turn it off from the Settings menu in the Meta View app.
Stay on track with the games in Paris Get real-time info on the Paris Olympics, including medal counts, event times, results and athlete bios. You can also ask questions about your favorite athletes and games from past events. For example, ask “Hey Meta, which country is leading the gold medal in gymnastics?”
Improved Apple Music search We are adding a setting to make it easier to recognize previously unrecognized tracks and enhance your Apple Music experience. To turn this on, go to Settings in the Meta View app, select Apple Music and turn on Improved Music Search.
Share photos to your Instagram Story hands-free The feature is now supported in French and Italian in addition to English. Your glasses can capture and share photos completely hands-free to your Instagram Story. From the Meta View app, go to Settings, then tap Communication and connect your Instagram account. To share, say “Hey Meta, share a photo to my Instagram Story” or “Hey Meta, share my last photo to Instagram.”
Share to Facebook Stories from Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses You can share photos you capture with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses to Facebook Stories. To share to Facebook Stories, make sure you’ve turned on voice interactions and connected your Facebook profile to the Meta View app.
Improvements Bug fixes and performance improvements.
Early Access program These features and improvements are available in the Early Access program.
Skip saying “look and” when you make a request to Meta AI Early Access users can now say “Hey Meta” and ask Meta AI about what they see without saying “look and.”
Wondering what's new with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses? Check out our release notes to learn about the latest new features and enhancements we've made to your smart glasses experience.
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Unknown parent • • •Tady je kolem 30, ale na střeše to praží to je hnus. Naštěstí už mám hotovo.