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Spent some time today working on a little website to provide information about a bit of vintage computing history from my childhood, including a video demo (using emulation). I'm talking about Diversi-Tune, an early MIDI music program for the Apple IIGS, written by the late, great Bill Basham. divtune.com/ The website also briefly notes his later rewrite of Diversi-Tune for early-2000s Windows and web browsers, which he hosted at this domain. That version's harder to preserve.

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in reply to Matt Campbell

Yes, I said "the late, great Bill Basham". Sadly, he passed away in 2021. I asked his brother Mike for permission before I bought the domain, which expired and was put up for sale by GoDaddy. Mike Basham appreciates what I'm doing with this website.
in reply to Matt Campbell

I'm aware that, as I post this, the Internet Archive is still not fully back online, meaning that my link to the Apple IIGS version doesn't work. (I actually started working on the website a couple months ago.) I don't think the Apple IIGS disk image I happen to have is pristine. I could see if I can find a pristine disk image somewhere else and then host a copy. But hopefully the Internet Archive will be fully operational again soon.
in reply to Matt Campbell

I decided to self-host the video. I encoded it in both WebM and MP4 versions. (I did ask the Claude 3.5 Sonnet LLM to generate FFmpeg commands for me, but I reviewed and modified them.) Being low-resolution screen capture, the video compressed very well. I'd appreciate it if fully sighted folks can let me know if my encodings of the video have noticeable artifacts. I also uploaded a lossless version to YouTube. Of course, it's possible that YouTube's own encodings could add artifacts.
in reply to Matt Campbell

OK, now I've possibly spent too much time on this little side project. I decided to re-do the demo video. First, I decided I should emulate a ROM version 01 Apple IIGS rather than ROM version 3, since the former is what my family actually owned and what I used as a child. Then I decided to capture the video from MAME in its original aspect ratio, which looks wrong on modern displays because the Apple IIGS didn't have square pixels, and then scale it with FFmpeg.
in reply to Matt Campbell

And finally, about those FFmpeg commands, I decided to basically throw out the ones I had the Claude LLM generate for me, and instead try to build up my own by reading FFmpeg documentation. I originally justified using Claude on the grounds that FFmpeg has so many options that they're daunting for a non-expert. But in fact, FFmpeg has very good documentation, which I now reference on my detailed page about the video and how I made it: divtune.com/apple2gs_demo/

Peter Vágner reshared this.

in reply to Matt Campbell

I suppose the whole process, and my own mind, is still contaminated because I initially used an LLM. I can think of the following things that remain from my usage of Claude:

- The use of FFV1 as a lossless video codec. Presumably I would have found that in the FFmpeg documentation if I had really looked.
- The pixel format conversion to yuv420p to fix compatibility problems. Claude gave me that one for the MP4 version, and then I also applied it to WebM.
- The use of 256 Kbps for AAC.

in reply to Matt Campbell

Now, I have to mention that this program wasn't and isn't accessible to fully blind people. The documentation for Textalker GS, the one screen reader I'm aware of for the Apple IIGS, specifically mentioned Diversi-Tune as a program that could not be made accessible with that screen reader. This was a downside of Diversi-Tune's focus on efficiency, accessing the hardware directly rather than using even the primitive GUI toolkit (literally called the Toolbox) that the Apple IIGS offered.

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Que porra é essa, caralho?! 😡 Estão removendo árvores para dar visibilidades aos anúncios outdoor
oglobo.globo.com/google/amp/ri…
This entry was edited (3 months ago)
in reply to Sofia ☭🇧🇷☭

There's some sort of weird anti-tree conspiracy happening in Rio, and apparently at least part of it is to do with giving more visibility to advertising billboards. Although I swear I've seen trees removed in places without billboards...but then again, it's hard to tell, because sometimes street trees do have to be removed for legitimate reasons


Amos Miller of Glidance released a new amazing video showing the capability of Glide, the mobility tool that he has created. If you have not seen this new video, and by the way it is described, then I highly encourage you to check it out... youtube.com/watch?v=Xq8ofapGxX…

#Blind #Mobility #AmosMiller #Glidance #Glide #Accessible




It’s time for these leaders to actually lead, clearing a path that leads beyond X and towards social media environments like Bluesky and Mastodon — platforms that at least gesture in the direction of user safety and protection of the vulnerable.


Hell. YES.

inquirer.com/opinion/commentar…



Exclusive: Trump ground game in key states flagged as potentially fake - The Guardian apple.news/Aqni_xkcAQUSpkmYHMd…


GrapheneOS and android 15 beta upgrade. Pixel8 on the big screen, unbeatable. I probably won't think about a linux phone, at least not for a while, because now I have a notebook in my pocket, without google and most FOSS apps. Tidal from the phone looks good on the big screen, all other apps work too. #GrapheneOS #pixel8 #bigscreen #nextlevel #degoogle
This entry was edited (3 months ago)


New weekend challenge moto:

#SystemCrafters (@daviwil) rule 42: "To maximize your learning opportunities, do stupid things [in your computer] that force you to dig yourself out of a hole". 🤓

Source: youtube.com/live/TjMTNSdhUvk?t…



Создатель онлайн-библиотеки Flibusta Stiver: серверы оплачены, сайт поддерживается и работает в стабильном режиме habr.com/p/851838/
#flibusta #stiver


Cestou z práce na jedno zasloužené. A teď nechci volant do pondělí vidět
in reply to Archos

@archos
Já tam mám zítra tak na 30 minut nějaký update informací na webu České školy a pustím na dálku nějaký extra backup databází na můj soukromý NAS. Jinak mám v plánu jen knížku, kafe a gauč/postel


Tak jsem propadl další závislosti :blobcatpat: Medieval Dynasty, mě opravdu hodně chytlo a nemohu se od toho odtrhnout :blobcatgamer: Lovit, těžit, stavět vesnici. Je to vcelku náročné a všechno chce dost času, ale to budování je uspokojující :blobcatcoffee: #MedievalDynasty
in reply to Archos

@archos Vypadá to dobře, hraje se to dobře, není to náročné na PC, nemá to žádné problémy s funkčností. Jen by to mohlo mít větší textury na zem a cesty, dabingu je tam hodně poskromnu a chce to si pročíst dost nápověd, aby člověk pochopil mechaniku práce a výroby obyvatel :blobcatbook:


Introduction To ELF In Linux: A Simple Guide To Executable Files lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_l…


hullcaster - terminal-based podcast manager lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_l…


Comparison of Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 accessibleandroid.com/comparis…

Khronos reshared this.



TOMRA R2: a machine capable of receiving 100 empty containers per minute. 👍🏻
#statiegeld



This morning we went to see an exhibition by the wonderful Margot from watercolorpatterns (watercolourpatterns.com/), and it's just insane the precision, dedication and just sheer amount of care and detail she puts into every single one of her watercolors.

And it's all just this wonderfully enthusiastic lady doing everything herself!

Give her a hand if you have the chance, she's wonderful





VOTE EARLY THIS WEEKEND

Good morning. If you live in a state where you can vote early or vote by mail, why not vote this weekend?

Check your state: cbsnews.com/news/map-early-vot…

Voting early is the best thing you can do to help Harris. It establishes a winning narrative which undermines polling manipulation by biased GOP pollsters. It also motivates our team and demoralizes them. Right now, with more than 10 million votes already banked, Dems are up by >1.5 million votes.

VOTE!

@KamalaHarrisWin



Tim Walz is not "redefining masculinity." Tim Walz is redefining *white masculinity*.

Trump does not have a big lead with men voters. Trump has an *absolutely massive lead* with *white men voters*.

70% of the NFL is Black. 90% of those Black men vote Dem. More Black men than white women think the environment is important. Black men support masking to prevent the spread of Covid. Black men are more likely to support women's reproductive rights. Etc, etc.

usatoday.com/story/news/politi…

1/N

in reply to mekka okereke

The reason this view is so discordant is that so many people's view of Black men is based on gangsta rap - base, aggressive, violent.

Which is funny since, as I learned from a post of yours from many months ago, gangsta rap is more popular among white people than it is among Black people.

in reply to David Njoku

@davidnjoku it took me a while but entirely I finally clued into how media portrays black men. Once you start seeing it, it's perversive.

How they show a mug shot if one is available by default. White guy criminals get yearbook photos. words like thug get used a lot. White guys get discussions of their lost future, black guys get only discussions of the crime.

Someone benefits if we're all afraid of black men. It's bullshit. And a lot so called liberals buy into it too.



Are you still using social media platforms? What's your reason?

For Google and Facebook users here's how you can better protect yourself!

Step 1: Stop Facebook collecting SO much data 👉 tuta.com/blog/what-does-facebo…

Step 2: Reduce how much Google knows about you 👉 tuta.com/blog/what-does-google…

in reply to Tuta

interesting that you write this on social media 😜
it's kind of ironic


Uff ufff, tak vítej zpět mamutovo.cz


pixelfed.cz je opět online, postupně se obnovují další aplikace. Ještě jednou se omlouvám za tak dlouhý výpadek.
in reply to Miroslav Suchý

Mělo by to být v pořádku. Byla i změna DNS. Maximálně bude chvíli problém s federací.
This entry was edited (3 months ago)

in reply to Zach Bennoui

@ZBennoui Started during Covid, never left. Was there last night. Still rehearse with a band there, and we've got gigs coming up next year in-person, as we did this year and last as well.
in reply to Andre Louis

I used to post tracks on an online jamming platform called Wikiloops. You upload a track, you playing piano for example, then someone downloads that and adds their parts, ETC. Was really fun and looking to get back on there again. wikiloops.com
This entry was edited (3 months ago)



KUnifiedPush: KDE's efficient way of delivering notifications to your apps

KUnifiedPush, KDE's client library for the UnifiedPush protocol, has reached version 1.0.0. KUnifiedPush provides a way to deliver notifications instantly to multiple apps on your devices even if the apps are not running.

Ideal for social media, weather and instant messaging apps, it will also contribute to improving the battery life on your mobile devices.

blogs.kde.org/2024/10/19/kunif…

@kde@lemmy.kde.social

@KDE
This entry was edited (3 months ago)


On this day in 2006, 18 years ago, I started offering the Mozilla CA cert bundle as a PEM file for everyone to use. The service is still running, uninterrupted, ever since.

Because I think we need it.

curl.se/docs/caextract.html



Today is **fifteen years** since I posted about the "null-prefix domino" - common problems in TLS server certificate verification functions in many projects, including #curl

daniel.haxx.se/blog/2009/10/19…

#curl
This entry was edited (3 months ago)


Oyes, ¿recordáis cuando medio internet daba la matraca sobre como "estar sentado es el nuevo fumar" y como nos vendían los "standing decks" como la gran revolución en el mundo de la salud laboral y casi una obligación si no querías morir de un infarto en tu silla de trabajo?

Pues acaba de salir un estudio al respecto y adivinad qué: no solo no reducen la mortalidad sino que aumentan el riesgo de varices y trombosis venosa profunda.

👉 academic.oup.com/ije/article/5…

This entry was edited (3 months ago)


Oh look, a setup video for your shiny new AOL Optimized PC. Wow ... I never even knew there was such a thing back in the day but here's the video nevertheless: youtube.com/watch?v=GLZqC3Mbj5…


Loving this new era of indie blogs splitting off from their corpo bastards and forming their own coops:

404media.co/
aftermath.site/
defector.com/

Even more listed at the end of Hearing Things’ about page:
hearingthings.co/about/



Google's Extension-Killing Manifest V3 Rollout Is Stepping Up, and It's Time to Jump Ship lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_l…


Speaking of #MyAdoredDaughter this morning... I don't know if I ever posted this photo.

This is ... my daughter? This is how she looks like, exactly - a beautiful, young person with long legs, and wonderful hair. And she keeps telling me "OMG, we look so alike, we could be twins..."

#Trans #Enby #NonBinary #TransJoy #EnbyJoy #NonBinaryJoy #Selfie

...

... but no, this is not a photo of her, this is a selfie of me reflected in a window. When I saw myself reflected in that window, I had to take a selfie and send it to her and she was absolutely amazed at how similar we look now, really, like twins, everything, the form, hair, posture, arms, legs, ... only her face is slightly different (and way younger, obviously 🥰

in reply to Marco Zehe

@Marco TBH, she resembles my wife more than her mother (my wife isn't her mom), but she looks more or less exactly like me. So the photo above could really be me or her, if I didn't tell you who that person is on the photo and you'd see us next to each other, you couldn't tell who that was.

But, and that's the fun part, whenever she is visiting us and we three, her, my wife and me, go out for a walk, people are 100% sure she is our daughter, because she has nearly nothing from her biological mom, but some really interesting similarities with my wife.

In my own case, I have half-half, i.e. about half of me resembles my father, and half my biological mother (as far as I can remember, and I have one single photo of her).

in reply to imdat celeste [witchzard]

Oh I understand! Sorry for my premature assumption that your wife was your daughter’s biological mother. :-) Then, it is even more interesting that you three look so alike.


Lets try that again. If you haven't tried it yet, the Google Notebook LLM is quite interesting. It can take any notes, documents, manuals, etc., and create an AI-generated podcast-style output. For example, I ran last month's AppleVis Newsletter for September through this service. It's pretty long to listen to, but I was amazed by what it produced. :)


The National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts is pleased to announce the availability of scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic year. Please spread the word widely!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…


I’ve always lived on the west coast so when east coast friends told me years ago that Market Street in most cities is named for slave markets I’d be like “what?! but every town has one!” and they’d say “yep”

Anyway, this sign is 100’ from Louisville’s Market St


in reply to Adrianna Tan

that's exactly the emulsion/developer I used to use 20 years ago so this... grain... is giving me major nostalgia. Love your photos!


When you’re queer, you’re so far out of the gender binary that instead of His & Hers you have, Poop & Anxiety socks

#LGBTQ #Socks

This entry was edited (3 months ago)


Internet CEO Matt Internet says that the Internet is not good enough for building the Internet with: reuters.com/technology/amazon-… #AWS #RTO
#aws #rto