Some good thoughts from Mike Blumenkrantz on the latest debates happening in and around the Wayland project, strongly recommend a read: supergoodcode.com/My-Wayland-Y… #linux #wayland
Ever wondered why semiconductors are called "digital oil"? 🤔💻 Dive into the world of chips and discover how they're shaping our future! #Semiconductors #TechInvestment #TSMC #NVDA🚀
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!
I read that the official Mastodon instance of the Swiss government will be closing down.
They say there are few active users, low engagement, and minimal interaction, which seems quite plausible. Additionally, they claim that "on platforms like X or Instagram, the Federal Council and the Federal Administration have many more followers." I believe that too, of course.
However, I do not agree with their decision. I think a government shouldn’t be overly concerned about follower counts and interactions, but rather about providing free, autonomous communication that is independent of third-party companies. In my view, a government shouldn’t operate like a business focused on "numbers."
Still, I appreciate their experiment - many governments, like the Italian one, haven’t even tried.
Regarding costs and management effort: an instance with 5 users and 3,500 followers (numbers provided by them) can run on a VPS for €3 a month and doesn't require heavy moderation. The cost for them is nearly zero. Yet, the freedom of information and discussion, especially for a Neutral Country, should always be a priority.
I believe that maintaining control over one’s information channels is crucial, especially in today's world. But, I fear that decision-makers only consider the numbers, which often favor the flashiest - but worse - solutions.
Encouraging citizens to use closed platforms is, in my opinion, a wrong choice.
Thanks to the Swiss government for at least giving it a shot.
The cost isn't 0, as the risk is potentially unbounded.
Imagine if somebody hacks into the VPS, waits for a Twitter outage, and posts a message from a top government official that Zurich is under imminent nuclear attack from Russia, then conveniently forwards the link to that official government instance to all the media.
@miki I would argue that hacking into the (correctly set up, maintained and updated) VPS is harder than hacking into Twitter
One can also employ better protection against such vulnerabilities: move official accounts to another instance and lock the login page behind the firewall, allowing only connections from inside their office network. This is a trivial task.
The application deadline for the GNOME Foundation’s Executive Director role has been extended to October 15! We encourage every qualified applicant to apply, even if you don’t meet every requirement.
@vick21 This one is definitely an outlier, and Florida hasn't been polled regularly because it was assumed a safe red state. However, and this is a HUGE X factor, the Dems have a large ground operation and the GOP is _just starting_ its own. If the Dems think they can push turnout there, and does candidate rallies, that could really catch the GOP off-guard.
I certainly hope that the same said company will finally figures out how to flip images for better OCR rather than expecting a blind user to do it for them. How much of an AI does this need? LOL finance.yahoo.com/news/metas-r…
Or provide a more intelligent answer to the request such as "hey Meta, look and analyze this receipt!", to which Meta AI replies: "this appears to be a receipt with rows and columns, possibly listing some items that you purchased... Etc, etc..." O really? :)
Be My Eyes and Meta Announce Accessibility Partnership: Be My Eyes to provide “Call a Volunteer” on Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, unlocking hands-free accessibility for blind and low vision people for the first time groups.io/g/tech-vi/message/78…
I wonder if this means that we will be able to have Be My AI describe photos from FB directly. That way I don't have to download each picture I want to "see?"
Big news! We’re partnering with Meta to bring hands-free accessibility to the blind & low-vision community through our Call a Volunteer feature on Ray Ban Meta smart glasses! Coming soon in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland & Australia!
With all that’s mentioned in the article, plus Be My Eyes integrated directly, I think any blind person who may have been on the fence re these glasses may need to climb off it. Meta updates Ray-Ban smart glasses with real-time AI video, reminders, and QR code scanning
Long overdue, but Meta is releasing a camera passthrough API for Quest developers early next year theverge.com/2024/9/25/2425023… Still anticipating numerous hoops and restrictions though... #AR/#VR
I’m super excited about this blogpost. The approach is so counterintuitive, and yet the results are so much better than anything else that we’ve tried for memory safety. We finally understand why.
With zero-overhead bindings to V8 APIs, memory safety through Rust’s ownership model, and great docs, it’s battle-hardened and production-ready. From here on, Rusty V8 will follow Chrome versions for predictable upgrades.
Our end-to-end encryption engine rPGP just got a big update, fully supporting OpenPGP "cryptorefresh" RFC9850 ... Many thanks to @hko and dignifiedquire for fearlessly pushing ahead in the security machine room ... Please give them a 💜 and also @NGIZero who funded it ! fosstodon.org/@hko/11319894759…
This release brings rather complete support for the excellent new OpenPGP RFC 9580 (also known as "crypto refresh", or "v6")
RFC 9580 standardizes modern cryptographic mechanisms for OpenPGP: AEAD-based encryption, Argon2, and SHA2 fingerprints for the new OpenPGP v6 key format (v4 keys use SHA1).
The percentage of Android vulnerabilities caused by memory safety issues has dropped from 76% in 2019 to only 24% in 2024, representing a massive decrease of over 68% in five years.
Mona 6.8 is now available on iPhone and iPad on App Store, including new features and optimizations for iOS and iPadOS 18. geo.itunes.apple.com/app/id165…
- The default app icon now has a new look when Dark Mode is on - "Controls" for composing a post and opening a tab on the in-app tab bar - You can customizes your "Controls" with a custom title, subtitle or icon - New shortcut action for opening a tab on the in-app tab bar - Varies shortcut actions can now be configured to use the "Default Account"
Mona 6.8.1 is now available on iPhone and iPad on the App Store, fixing an issue that caused blank controls on the Control Center. geo.itunes.apple.com/app/id165…
Mona 6.8.3 is now available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The app now shows a privacy notice on the post composer when composing mention-only or follower-only posts. Additionally, an enhanced checking process has been implemented prior to uploading pictures or videos to Mastodon to ensure GPS information is stripped. getmona.app
Mona 6.8.4 is now available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This update improves the app performance when you have a lot of mute items, and fixes a crash relating to HDR photo processing. getmona.app
Have you already been notified that on MacOS, when opening a thread, profile etc. in the side bar, VoiceOver no longer seems to tell users that focus has shifted to the new panel. Visually, it happens, e.g. if there are multiple items, up and down arrows do change focus inside the new panel, but initial focus after pressing enter on a post no longer speaks the new focus after it transitioned visually. This has been the case since MacOS Sequoia.
NV Access
in reply to The Global Citizen • • •