In April, we in the #LibreOffice community attended events in-person (giving away cool merchandise!). We also gave talks online, and announced the location of 2025's conference: blog.documentfoundation.org/bl… #foss #OpenSource
Here’s our summary of updates, events and activities in the LibreOffice project in the last four weeks – click the links to learn more… We started the month by posting a video from Document Freedom Day celebrations with the Nepalese LibreOffice commu…
Featuring - The NVDA 2025.1 Beta - What’s New in 2025.1 - Updated NVDA Expert Certification 2025 - Gene Empowers New Zealand - Changes for Developers - NVDA Add-ons and API Breaking Changes
I just wanted to let you know that this post is not showing up on the nvaccess.org/news page. I like to check that page for an overview of recent happenings at NV Access and I just wanted to let you know about this. Thanks!
And in News: nvaccess.org/news/ (the "latest news" shows the release info, but below that in "recent news", "In-Process 30th April 2025" is the newest item. Unless you are looking somewhere else?
"Microsoft CEO says up to 30% of the company’s code was written by AI."
It can't be 30% by plain math. Just replacing 30% of existing code with new code takes (many) years, and then we include all produced code. If they ONLY used AI to write all code for the last few years, and they wrote it at a high pace, it could *perhaps* be done.
We all know that AI can't write code that good. But sure "up to 30%" could also mean "2%".
@emmadavidson my experience with AI code is similar to that: you can get a lot of suggestions, but you need to filter out the crap and cherry-pick the goodies to be productive. It's very much like having a super-eager junior dev throwing out ideas and code non-stop.
My thought was that it’s all code, and that it includes tons (perhaps a majority) of things like old boilerplate generated from templates and stuff like that.
So… a company that wants you to buy subscriptions to their AI powered tools is over exaggerating the benefits of their AI powered tools? I’m shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that there’s cheating going on…!
Considering that the "AI" cut&paste machine was mostly trained on software copyrighted by other people, including GPL and similar licenses, we are one judge who doesn't believe in the imaginary "AI exemption" away from Microsoft having to cease and desist distributing any such software, with their own CEO confessing to breaking copyright law.
If I understood another company's metric correctly it goes like this: If code has been suggested and a portion of the code made it into the source tree, it counts. But if it's 30% of the code checked in has been "touched" by AI code completion, it'd also be hilariously low for a good product.
I wonder if they count rejected merges from half-working slop bots...
Although my experiences with MSTeams, O365 and SharePoint are so degrading in the last couple of months (not that Teams was any good even before) that I'm open to believe that they actually accept that garbage without much thinking just so they can market it that way
talking to a friend at a different company who works under the Microsoft umbrella, they definitely are pushing hard on the LLM stuff - forcing devs to self-report telemetry on LLM-plugin usage.
Hello, if you care about Servo, the alternative web browser engine that was originally slated to be the next gen Firefox but now is a donation-supported project under the Linux Foundation, you should know of this week's Developments.
Specifically Servo announced a plan to, as of June, start allowing Servo code to be written by "Github Copilot":
Servo’s Technical Steering Committee is looking for feedback regarding our policy for contributions made with generative AI. The current policy, adopted in June 2024, is documented in the Servo boo...
There has been a public comment period on this plan, with public comment so far overwhelmingly negative. I'm not sure how this response will impact the plan; the announcement said enactment was "subject to a review of your feedback", whatever that means.
Personally I think the plan is a horrible idea on both technical and moral grounds, and would end Servo's current frontrunner status as the best candidate for a browser that truly represents the open web and respects the needs of its own users.
Please do not respond to this thread to talk about Ladybird. This is a personal request from me. Just… please. Don't make me have a conversation about Ladybird today. Some other time
This question, both eerie and thought-provoking, provided the core of @bagder 's talk during the @foss_north conference. The Academy Chair's presentation reflected on the progress made with open source, where we are now, and what lies in the future of open source.
it makes me really curious how they measure this. I seriously doubt this number and consider it just AI sales talk. They have too strong incentive to blow up the number.
@maswan I would expect just about every MS dev to have AI enabled as they are probably more or less forced to, and probably are being measured on that metric.
@bagder Ah, maybe I should read the actual quote instead of just the top bullet points too: "I'd say maybe 20%, 30% of the code that is inside of our repos today and some of our projects are probably all written by software," which is both a firmer statement on all code in repository and not just this year's code. But also includes any kind of software generated code.
Assuming of course that it is anything but a wild guess for marketing purposes.
@bagder Some years ago I was at a company where the middle management had promised their boss 100,000 views of their latest product teaser video. The solution was to have it autoplay on most of the site's popular pages. Instant success (as long as you count views as "the video started"). Since then I've had a hard time trusting success numbers from people with a vested interest. A year or so later that whole Facebook pivot to video thing was exposed as an inflated fraud too.
In this special CRA Mondays episode, Olle E. Johansson joins the ORC Working Group to discuss the urgent need for a resilient, globally coordinated vulnerab...
I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped | US immigration | The Guardian theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m…
My family is fleeing the country. We are not doing this in a panic; this is an orderly retreat from an unwinnable situation. We are slowly but surely packing up and emptying out our house.
On May 1st, a massive coalition of immigrant rights and pro-democracy organizations is staging a rally and march for immigrant and worker rights, led by the Consejo de Resistencia en Defensa del Inmigrante. They are expecting hundreds of thousands of marchers.
If you are in #Chicago and you want to stop Trump's agenda, you should join it. They will be marching from Union Park at 11 A.M.
Talking about a positive way that AI helps me with alt texts while working on a blog... 🤖
I know people hate AI for many reasons, and I do get it... But... I'm trying to write a blog post where I share images with album covers, titles and other info, and I have to say...
The way the AI made the elaborate alt texts for the images, it saved me loads of spoons and energy and time and frustration... If I had better hands, better concentration, less distraction, more spoons..
Sure, I would have tried to create the lists myself. But this... It helped me so much.
I'm not lazy, I have some (invincible) disabilities. But I will want my blogs to be inclusive/accessible to all... So, lately, I've been trying to make my posts "better" by adding more alt texts with my images.
And even though the AI helps a lot, it's still quite some work to get the text to the images and all that.... But, because the alt texts take less spoons, I can work on my blog better. So that's a win.
And hey, I still write my own blog texts 😉 although my usage of the English language, I guess I may seem as silly as a ChatGPT text at times. 😂
I know there are many downsides to AI. I don't need to discuss them... Hey I don't have the spoons for that! But I try to live economical, and I do know my footprint increases with AI. But when your disability is made less restricted when AI can help with complicated alt texts...
Please don't think badly of me for using it. I want my posts to be accessible to all that may be interested in them. And I hope that, by trying my best this way, that my posts become more open for everyone to enjoy (or to quickly skip, my topics won't be enjoyable by everyone I guess 😉).
Fankoos 🫶🏻 for not judging me. And I'll keep doing my best to make my images more inclusive to everyone.
- - - - -
I'll share one of the images that I am using in my new blog, and I'll add the elaborate alt text AI made for me here, as it's too big for the text box with the image itself:
A screenshot of a music streaming application displaying the "Top aller tijden" (Top of all time) albums in the "Albums" category. The interface is dark-themed with a grid of album covers, their ranking, number of streams, and an average rating.
Top Albums List:
Room Service – 3,297 streams, 11.5 rating
Cover: Roxette's "Room Service" album featuring Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle in a red-toned design.
Have A Nice Day – 1,344 streams, 4.8 rating
Cover: Roxette's "Have A Nice Day" album, featuring a bright yellow and pink aesthetic with Marie smiling.
Mind Control – 1,319 streams, 4.4 rating
Cover: Mono Mind’s "Mind Control" with a futuristic band aesthetic.
Don't Bore Us - Get to the Chorus! – 289 streams, 1.32 rating
Cover: Roxette’s greatest hits compilation.
The green highlight under "Albums" indicates that this tab is selected. The layout is structured, and the user interface includes options for sorting by "Nummers" (Songs), "Artiesten" (Artists), and "Genres." The share icon is visible in the top right corner.
I downloaded a scientific paper of great interest to me. It is of typical length, about 15 pages in the PDF. I opened it in Acrobat, and got this message highlighted at the top of the page next to an AI sparkle icon: "This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary." I cannot put into words how much this enrages me. First, this is not a long document. Have you met documents? Second, and more important, telling someone to not read a thing they want to read??! Fuck you, Adobe.
Not something I anticipated, but we have a lot of positive words to say about Nintendo this week.00:00 - Intro01:12 - Atomfall07:00 - South of Midnight23:05 ...
I've made a modified Acapela TTS NVDA add-on that has all the British and US English voices included. Here's the direct link to the file: galaxy4productions.com/resourc… I tried to see if I could also get it to work with the NVDA 2025 alpha but had no luck with that.
Students, staff, and campus visitors who are blind or have low vision now receive complimentary access to Aira’s visual interpreting service while on campus. Whether navigating buildings, accessing learning environments, or completing digital tasks, Aira connects users to professional Visual Interpreters who provide real-time visual information — enhancing autonomy and inclusion.
🔗 Learn more about the University of Bristol's Access Options:
Technology can be used to support many areas of your learning including making resources easier to read and more accessible, or using software to compile ideas and information.
Below are some tools that you can use to support your learning.
Post a solid black square image with detailed alt text describing what would have been there. Everyone will "see" the same way screen reader users see the post! This powerful exercise demonstrates why accessible content matters.
How To Participate:
Choose a meaningful image based on the daily theme
Replace it with a plain black square in your post
Write a vivid, detailed description as the alt text
Not sure how to write good descriptions? We've created a comprehensive alt text guide at micr0.dev/alttext with examples, tips, and even an interactive quality checker!
You can also DM me the original image, and I'll help generate alt text you can use! (Make sure you are following me first! Mastodon blocks 'unsolicited' DMs!)
Example: Instead of "My cat" try "My orange tabby cat Whiskers lounging in a sunbeam on the windowsill, looking sleepy with half-closed eyes"
Daily Themes:
Monday: Nature & Outdoors
Tuesday: Pets & Animal Friends
Wednesday: Art & Creativity
Thursday: Food & Cuisine
Friday: Places & Spaces
Saturday: People & Portraits
Sunday: Wild Card (anything you choose!)
Duration
The challenge runs for one full week! Join in on any or all of the daily themes.
Community Showcase
I'll be boosting exceptional examples throughout the week and featuring creative descriptions. Your participation helps inspire others!
Supporting the Mission
If you find value in this challenge and want to support Altbot's continued development and accessibility work, you can contribute to the project at ko-fi.com/micr0byte. All funds go directly toward server costs, development, and expanding our accessibility initiatives. However, awareness and participation are the most important contributions!
Why This Matters
Every day, blind and low-vision people experience the Fediverse entirely through alt text. This challenge helps everyone understand why detailed image descriptions are so important first hand. Awareness is important!
The challenge begins today! Who's ready to make the Fediverse more accessible while trying something new? Make sure to tag three friends who you think should join in!
In what would likely be a major scandal under any other administration, but feels a bit like a "well duh" moment after the first 100 days of the Trumpenreich's fascist rule, recent polling indicates that a majority of American voters now support impeaching President Trump a third time.
Majority of US Voters Support Third Trump Impeachment: Poll
"Specifically, a polling memo published Friday by ASO Communications and Research Collaborative shows that just a few months into Trump's return to the White House, 52% of likely voters across the ideological spectrum somewhat or strongly support impeaching him—including 84% of Democrats, 55% of Independents, and even 20% of his fellow Republicans."
While I don't believe there's any amount of polling that will make the Trump regime surrender, and I remain doubtful a fascist GOP is likely to risk reprisal from Trump's hardcore nazi base in the party to impeach Der Leader, I still think it's pretty relevant that experiencing the reality of Trump's authoritarianism in action is driving a majority of Americans to desire his removal from office.
Much of Trump's presumed authority to install himself as a dictator comes from the regime's invocation of a popular mandate to transform America into a white ethnostate, as well as a complicit media's refusal to address a clear lack of that mandate while they focus on "will he or won't he" coverage of Trump's obviously fascist activities. As more and more evidence comes in that the regime's Christian Nationalist agenda is in fact not popular, and Americans do not believe Trump has the authority to enact it, it's going to become harder and harder for both the regime and collaborators in the mainstream establishment to keep pretending there might be a veneer of legality or popular support behind all the government's nazi bullshit.
In the end, I'm pretty sure there's no way to topple the Trump regime that doesn't involve putting millions of people in the street to actively disrupt the police state and make it impossible for the collaborator class to profit from all that fascism. By that same measure however, I don't think Americans are going to rise up and stop their fascist government until they're completely sure there are no easier options for ending Trump's reign of tyranny and they believe the majority of people in this country are ready to rise up with them. In my opinion, polls like this one help shatter the fascists' false projection of invincibility, and bring us closer to that uprising; and as such that makes these numbers a welcome sight for my exhausted eyes at least.
"It's up to Congress to do their job, defend the Constitution, and impeach and remove Donald Trump from office for his grave abuses of power," said Free Speech for People's campaign director.
Uli Behringer of Behringer sits down with Mitch and others to discuss his upbringing, creating Behringer, and his journey along the way. Shop Behringer’s wi...
Former National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, who abruptly left his NIH research lab in February, fears aggressive downsizing could impact Americans' health.
Hi guys, For the people who play call the fate, please join my guild, it's called Blayze, also, for the people who want to begin playing the game, my invite code is acct.web.appshubforvisuallyimp…
Provided to YouTube by NettwerkI'm Scared · Rosie DarlingRoomful Of People℗ Not Your Darling LLC under exclusive license to Nettwerk Music Group Inc.Released...
Actually, elevating Karina Gould should be the second thing PM Carney does.
The first should be taking affirmative, high profile public steps to protect our information spaces from corporate America, like requiring all government social media accounts to post from the government's brand new Mastodon instance (allowing mirrors to other platforms).
Otherwise, if Zuck, Musk & others can do as they please with our communications, Carney won't be PM for very long.
One of the first things I hope PM Carney does is find a way to elevate Karina Gould.
#CdnPoli
https://www.thespec.com/politics/federal-elections/who-won-burlington/article_a3828803-204e-5dcb-9ec6-38ea544a2dcc.html
The fact that the Conservatives increased their vote share and seats—while offering almost nothing of substance to the vast majority of Canadians thanks to deep pockets & microtargeted influence campaigns—should be alarming to all, and cannot go unchecked between now and the next election.
Just ask any non-millionaire Conservative voter to explain their vote without mentioning Trudeau, and requiring them to specify their new tax rate if they mention tax cuts.
(KFOR) — A woman says her family’s fresh start in Oklahoma turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops and life savings – even though they were not the suspects the agents were looking for. kfor.com/news/local/were-citiz…
Finished planning for the upcoming bike trip, thanks to @bikerouter - works nicely also for Japan! Doing this for the third year now. The planning with bikerouter improved. Distributing the routes to the 2 Android phone I'll use also works, via #syncthing, and then loading in OSMand.
Single routes of 130/31/44/117km.
Annoyingly, the company provided iphone which I'll use as backup: due to missing syncthing on ios, I'm like a cave man attaching the routes to a mail which I open on the phone..
I would not want to plan longer routes on the small mobile or tablet screen, and I need to share the routes between devices, the web interface is really great for that. I also need to fine tune the settings: using my daily work commute to calibrate, I learned that I need to set "bikerpower" to 45 so the overall trip time fits me.
My contribution to #AILiteracyDay is to suggest that you pre-order my forthcoming book (THE AI CON; w/ @alex We help you spot and deconstruct the hype, to better empower you to refuse janky, exploitative systems. Reviews & pre-order links at
EFF advocates for privacy and free speech online for everyone. That's why we're celebrating equity and accessibility with our new braille sticker: shop.eff.org/products/lady-jus…
This 3x6 embossed tactile braille sticker is a celebration of equity and accessibility, because justice should be for everyone. At EFF, we’re working toward a future where that principle holds true in every space, including the digital world.
We prioritize games based on both the volume of requests for a particular game, and the order we receive the request in.
If you'd like to request a game be made available on AbleToPlay, please let us know on Discord!
Just tested out the latest version of a very nifty little tool that helps us to browse our presets in Komplete Kontrol. It works really well on my system, is fully accessible and features a simple to use interface. Why not try it out? Windows: nightly.link/Timtam/kk-browser… Mac OS: nightly.link/Timtam/kk-browser… Thanks to @ToniBarth for making it.
Are you a sound effects enthusiast, just like me? Do you like sounds of really high quality and maybe even want to save some money on said sounds? SoundMorph, one of my most favourite SFX creators, currently got a deal on their webpage, buy one of their libraries and get a second one for free. Just follow my link, put two in your cart, tada! Plus, my link will also save you some cash on the one library you have to pay for. soundmorph.com?bg_ref=0RGG7Ffu…
SoundMorph is the leading creator of state-of-the-art sound libraries and software, with a focus on computer-based audio production for sound designers and musicians.
I do understand if you don't want to spend some money right now though, don't worry, SoundMorph got a surprise for you anyway. Follow this link to grab a pack of 100 free sounds, free to download, royalty-free to use. Enjoy: soundmorphs.wetransfer.com/dow…
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Apropos Wandel ... Die nächste Etappe steht an – mehr Selbstständigkeit für die Kleinen! Alfi macht nach seiner Pause den ersten Ausflug in den Hof.
Kara Goldfinch
in reply to NV Access • • •NV Access
in reply to Kara Goldfinch • • •Brandon Tyson
in reply to NV Access • • •NV Access
in reply to Brandon Tyson • • •@BTyson It's coming up in the blog section: nvaccess.org/category/in-proce…
And in News: nvaccess.org/news/ (the "latest news" shows the release info, but below that in "recent news", "In-Process 30th April 2025" is the newest item. Unless you are looking somewhere else?
In-Process – NV Access
NV AccessBrandon Tyson
in reply to NV Access • • •