Top Tech Tidbits, Access Information News and AI-Weekly Transition From Email Client To Web Browser To Better Serve The Needs of Readers All Over The World - AT-Newswire groups.io/g/tech-vi/message/86…
Seems that floss.social has marked the #antifa hashtag as forbidden fruit on their instance. It's not the first weird thing I hear about that instance.
UPDATE: Also #noAfD, the hashtag used in Germany to oppose the far-right AfD party.
I was on the instance for several years and IMHO they are overdoing moderation. But this doesn't fit in their long term stance. Hopefully just a mistake.
For any of my Finnish speaking followers, I recently uploaded a copy of Mikropuhe version 5.1 that was part of a massive BTSync folder that contained 80 or so GB of text to speech voices. datajake.braillescreen.net/tts… If anyone has a CD of this lying around, I would like to get an official ISO image of the disk to replace this 7z archive.
I know I am late to the party, but I am just now getting into Remote Incident Manager (RIM) by @pneumasolutions. So far, I am only testing with myself, from one Mac to another, but I am finding it a very cool solution. With RIM, a blind person can assist another person, regardless of that person also being blind and needing a screen reader, or not. I plan to use it to log into my home computer from the road occasionally, but also have purchased the weekend add-on so I can help others if the need arises. I can see how RIM can be a great training tool also.
@cachondo Not currently, and I'm not sure if it's actually possible to do fully transparent keyboard input, complete with the usual screen reader modifiers, on iOS.
I just want to be able to use my phone to control my windows machine the way I could another windows machine. I might just have to buy a cheap stick, I suppose. i wonder what sort of battery life to price-point ratio I could get. I want a dumb terminal, really.
@Jonathan @Sean Randall @Marco Zehe If you would be okaish only transmitting sound and video instead of accessibility events, perhaps you can make some use of #rustdesk. I had some luck controlling a windows machine running NVDA from linux with it. There is no way to accessibly switch fullscreen rustdesk window into windowed mode, so I've moved it into another desktop workspace so I can easily switch back and forth within controlled and controlling machine. On Android it implements accessibility service for hooking keys but I haven't played with it on android.
Ich weiß, ich bin spät dran damit, aber ich probiere gerade ein Tool namens Remote Incident Manager (RIM) aus, mit dem auch Blinde plattformübergreifend (Mac und Windows) jemand anderem technische Hilfe leisten können, egal ob die Person einen Screenreader braucht oder nicht. Bisher teste ich natürlich nur mit mir selbst von einem Mac zum anderen, aber das ist schon ziemlich cool. Und ja, ist speziell auf Blinde zugeschnitten, weil andere Lösungen nicht gut funktionieren. getrim.app
Ever wonder how we help keep millions of users safe while delivering thousands of apps and their updates?
We’ve written up a bit about the journey an app takes behind the scenes from its source code all the way to running on your device—with all of the safety nets along the way. 🔒
Mastodon has announced it will add quote posts to the platform, and some more news.
The News
Mastodon has announced it is adding quote posts to the platform, a long-awaited feature. Mastodon got a grant by NLnet in 2024 to add quote posts, and they are now sharing an update on their work. Mastodon is adding a variety of features to quote posts, such as giving people the ability to opt out of being quote posted. They will publish the technical work to support quote posts as Fediverse Enhancement Proposals, and Mastodon is currently in the process of writing these proposals. The organisation does not say when quote posts will be added, only noting that it ‘will still take more time to develop.’
For a long time, Mastodon had not implemented quote posts because CEO Eugen Rochko saw them as bad. His main concern is that quote posts lead to ‘dunking’ and toxic behaviour. Dunking refers to the behaviour where people use quote posts to ‘dunk’ on other people’s post, often with the intent that this mocking will lead to their followers to also mock and harass the original poster. Dunking was a visible part of Twitter’s culture, and in popular belief dunking and toxicity became linked together. Research showed a more complicated picture. Hilda Bastian analysed over 30 studies on quote tweeting, and concludes: “There’s conflicting evidence on whether QTs [quote Tweets] increase or decrease incivility, and whatever effect there is, it doesn’t seem to be major.“
In 2023 Mastodon changed their opinion, and first started saying that the organisation was open to implementing quote posts. Still, toxic behaviour via dunking continued to be a main concern. This is visible in the accompanying design research that Mastodon has done in their work on quote posts. Mastodon’s view seems to be that quote posts are toxic at it’s core, saying that “the team started out with a shared view that Quote Posts can be misused.”
Mastodon takes a technical approach to dealing to the purported problem of toxicity of quote posts, and the blog posts lists three features to mitigate it: people can choose if their posts are able to be quoted, people get notified if they are quoted, and there will be the ability to withdraw your post from the quoted context. Bluesky also has these features for quote posts, and they’re generally received well. What I find missing here is a take by Mastodon on the effect of these features on Bluesky. Mastodon sees quote posts as being dangerous, and that is why they will implement some features to mitigate the risk. But do they think that quote posts are being used well on Bluesky? Is Bluesky’s behaviour and culture around quote posts something that Mastodon is striving towards? I’m not clear to me what Mastodon’s answer is here.
Mastodon’s design research also says that they will display quotes in a different way to ‘steer away from dunk culture”‘, a feature not mentioned in Mastodon’s announcement blog post. Mastodon is planning to display a quote post by first showing the quote, and showing the reply below it. This is similar to how Tumblr does quote posts. But it differs from how all other platforms that interoperate with Mastodon display quote posts: fediverse native platforms like Misskey, Akkoma and Streams, as well as connected networks like Bluesky and Threads, all display quote posts by showing the reply at the top, and the quoted post below.
Mastodon’s position is that quote posts are a risky feature invite misuse, and thus need a variety of safety features. But Mastodon is not an isolated platform, it is connected to various other platforms that all have their own ideas about quote posts. If displaying quote posts Tumblr-style (quote above, comment below) is preferred over displaying them Twitter-style (comment above, quote below), what is the expectation on how other platforms should interact with Mastodon quotes? Is Misskey expected to display Mastodon’s quote post differently? Meanwhile, Mastodon is planning to display quotes that originate from Misskey not in the way that Misskey does (Twitter-style), but in their own manner (Tumblr-style), saying that it has “very little impact on the semantics”.
I find these statements hard to square: on the one hand, Mastodon says it how quote posts are displayed has little impact on the semantics of a post, but at the same time it is assumed to have enough of an impact in that it can reduce “dunking culture”. But if the manner a quote post is displayed can impact people’s behaviour, it automatically follows that the manner a quote post is displayed impacts its semantics, as otherwise there would be no impact on people’s behaviour either. But if the semantics of a post are altered by using a different display method for quote posts, than it means that Mastodon is taking an active decision to alter the semantics of posts made on other networks like Misskey and Bluesky.
Mastodon’s choice to use a different way of displaying quote posts than the other platforms in their network opens up a new interesting avenue for federated diplomacy. We’ve seen both ways of displaying quote posts be successful, the way posts are quoted is a significant part of how conversations flow on Tumblr. But what is new here is Mastodon is part of a federated network, and that means that their decisions impact other players, and their decisions have impact on Mastodon as well. This interaction between different display types of quote posts is something we have not really seen before, leading to some interesting new types of negotiations: how Mastodon expect Misskey to display Mastodon quote posts on Misskey? How does Threads feel about having their quote posts being displayed differently on Mastodon? What is the expected behaviour of Bridgy Fed, the bridge that connects Bluesky with Mastodon? All those questions are still open, and I’m curious what the answer will turn out to be.
Tumblr is still planning to join the fediverse. I reported this recently, and now TechCrunch got a followup and a confirmation from Automattic, saying that ‘Automattic declined to share a time frame as to when the migration would be complete, given its scale, but a rep for the company called the progress so far “exciting.”’
The Social Web Foundation (SWF) has announced they are now a formal member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C tends to favour institutional membership, but the W3C Social Community Group that concerns itself with ActivityPub is open to everyone. The SWF is working on various improvements to ActivityPub, such as adding end-to-end encryption and supporting data portability.
Event Federation is a WordPress plugin that extends the ActivityPub support plugin for WordPress by adding support for WordPress events. The plugin is now officially released as a 1.0 version.
Hexbear is a controversial Lemmy server that let domain expire. The Hexbear domain is now for sale, and an avid bidding war has driven up the price for the domain to over 2300 dollar at time of writing.
ForgeFed is an ActivityPub extension that adds federation support to software forges such as Forgejo. It has gotten a new NLnet grant, with the project now focusing on user research and documentation.
A few weeks ago, Fedidb removed fediverse platfrom GoToSocial from the database after refusing to honor robots.txt, and the GoToSocial developer spoofed data as retaliation. Fedidb developer Daniel Supernault later decided to properly add support for robots.txt, but stopped crawling for the entire fediverse in the meantime while it was implemented. Supernault now confirms that Fedidb honors robots.txt and has added GoToSocial back to the data set.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne has set up their own Mastodon server for all community members, including students.
Meanwhile, I don't like it at all. Now admittedly I don't know if I don't like it because I'm not notified of it when it happens about my content, whether I don't like it because of the non-standard use at the moment, I have to click a link to read the original post, or if I don't like it on a fundamental level because I agree about the potential toxic nature of quote-posting in-general. Of course on twitter (when it was a useful platform) it was possible to be quoted and see the result. Here, it isn't unless you use some specific clients, but due to the non-standard nature of this, not every client. That, I have a problem with.
Daniel shows off the plumbing, related scripts and how to keep the #curl RELEASE-NOTES file in sync during development so that it is ready and in good shape at release time.
Daniel shows off the plumbing, related scripts and how to keep the curl RELEASE-NOTES file in sync during development so that it is ready and in good shape a...
World's largest on-the-nose metaphor the 990-ft long abandoned ocean liner SS United States is being towed to its final resting place at the bottom of the ocean off the Florida coast after decades languishing at a port in Philadelphia.
Gaining access to photograph the SS United States in Philadelphia took years. It remains one of the most unique and significant abandoned sites I've visited. By Matthew Christopher of Abandoned America.
☁️ Vítejte na OSCloud! OSCloud je komunitní server pro všechny, kdo hledají jednoduché a funkční online řešení. 📢 Co nabízíme? 🔹 Hosting a správu open-source aplikací – bezpečné a soukromé alternativy ke komerčním službám. 🔹 Od e-mailu, přes kancelářské aplikace a bezpečnostní prvky, až po snadno spravovaný webhosting. V následujících dnech vám postupně představíme dostupné aplikace a jejich možnosti. Sledujte nás a objevte svět bezpečného cloudu!
@LibreOffice is the best! I'd love to donate. Am I correct that if I donate, the money goes to the Open Document Foundation which is seated in Germany? I can't donate to organisations from the USA, so double checking to make sure.
@gmc Cheers! It's "The Document Foundation" (registered in Berlin). For donating from the US, click the box "additional information for US residents" on libreoffice.org/donate/ 😊
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"Auf der Suche nach der zukünftigen Stadt“ – #Wege in die #Zukunft der #Blinden- und #Sehbehindertenseelsorge.
Herzliche #Einladung zur
6. #DeBeSS-Fachtagung von Freitag, den 28. Februar, bis Sonntag, den 02.
I'm Daniel Stenberg, maintainer and lead developer in the curl project. I stream curl related stuff. Release presentations, curl development and related topics.
NLnet Labs celebrates twenty-five years as an independent, non-profit foundation working on #opensource and #openstandards. Our mission remains to make the core of the Internet a better, safer place by developing open-source software, through applied research and by promoting and contributing to open standards. Have you been along for the ride as a user of our #DNS or #routing software, worked with us on #IETF standardisation, applied research or policy advocacy? Share your story!
Very interesting article which says (simplifying BROADLY) that the swing to fascism is because The Rich are pissed at all the welfare state stuff that was implemented during early COVID -- that *worked*! The workers got the idea that this was good! Poverty dropped! Suicide dropped! There were massive protests (George Floyd) because people had *time*. That, of course, Would Not Do.
I don’t judge Mitch McConnell for his choice of political party.
I judge him for his greed, racism, and hunger for power.
I judge him for causing irreparable damage to the Supreme Court, and not voting to convict Donald Trump.
So will others.
So, a quick question for others in the blind community: Do you use ReddIt at all? I'm wondering if it's worth my time to create an account over there or not. Feel free to vote on this quick & dirty poll if you wish, and add any additional thoughts if desired. #A11Y #Accessibility #Blind #Poll #ReddIt
@Gregarious Hello, If you are looking for #reddit, try exploring @Lemmy and consider registering at rblind.com or any other friendly instance and then make some fun.
But it is still Black History Month and I’m still a Black trans in need
And I’m going to be stuck in the US for the foreseeable future as my partner and I can’t really flee bc of a ton of reasons that’s none of your business, imo
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Thanks again for y’all’s help so far during my birthday month so far, I’m still hunting for a chair that can support my weight and won’t cause my sciatica to flare up.
The Global Voice brings together an international team of broadcasters, producers and radio journalists to present for you a wide range of entertaining and informative programs.
As a developer, I rely on Markdown daily. But as an accessibility advocate, I saw a major issue—most Markdown preview extensions weren’t fully accessible. Many blind developers and writers struggled to use them effectively. I knew there had to be a better way. So, I built one. Markdown Live Preview is a VS Code extension that lets you preview Markdown in your browser with auto-reload functionality. It provides a simple, seamless, and fully accessible solution for everyone. (1/4)
I’m a Scottish independent DIY musician on tour in Canada. 🏴🇨🇦 Can you help me get the word out about my shows? I’m trying my hardest sell as many of them out as possible. It’s hard right now. If you like Scottish folk music, or know friends who might like my music. Please SHARE!
Hey Fedi, I am a 28-year-old, #actuallyautistic, #adhd, trans woman and Full-Stack Software Engineer in need of remote work
I have professional experience with TypeScript, React, Python, Java, Rust, Nix, and more, plus I'm always eager to dive into a language or framework I've never used before and can ramp quickly
I am based in the US Central Timezone, but am flexible regarding hours
If you or your employer are hiring, I'd love to hear about it! If not, please boost for reach as that also helps
Jamie Pauls
in reply to David Goldfield • • •David Goldfield
in reply to Jamie Pauls • • •