About a year and a half ago, I bought a cheap rechargeable electric screw driver on Amazon, which I really don't like much, mostly because it's switch is one of those round ones near the shaft. Give me a trigger, or a rocker switch, or... just about anything else.
Anyway, I only just discovered last night that it has a button that beeps when pressed. I assume it's maybe a light. Can't se itt, don't know.
Two questions, though: 1. Why bother beeping at all? 2. Why is this beep so sad?
Scientists have reached a stunning milestone by using artificial intelligence to invent a brand new material that is as strong as carbon steel but lighter than foam. Developed by teams at the University of Toronto and Caltech, this next-gen material was not found through trial and error, but entirely imagined by AI. The breakthrough offers a glimpse into a future where machine intelligence doesn't just enhance human ideas, it creates its own.
The research team trained their AI models on how different microstructures behave under extreme stress. Then, without human interference, the AI generated completely new lattice patterns optimized for maximum strength and minimal weight. Once 3D printed, these nanolattices were tested in the real world and outperformed anything previously known boasting up to five times the strength of titanium, yet remaining ultra lightweight. This solves a major challenge in material science: making something that’s both tough and flexible without being brittle.
Applications for this discovery are vast. Swapping out titanium in aircraft could save up to 80 liters of fuel per kilogram annually, according to the research. The material’s potential impact spans aerospace, automotive, architecture, and beyond. With production scaling on the horizon, this AI-designed innovation might redefine how we build the world around us, stronger, lighter, and smarter than ever before. Sources: PMID 39846271, PMCID PMC11983246
YouTube recommended this video to me the other day, and I absolutely love it, an orchestrion playing a Big Band music roll. It's incredible what these mechanical instruments can do! youtube.com/watch?v=h_Nd1Qo0YD…
Big Band music lovers - this one's for you!I was asked to post a video of the entire big band roll. I have to admit it's a great roll - the songs are beautif...
Changes in Beta 4: - Fixed retrieving some text in object navigation / review cursor - Added a warning before installing or updating NVDA on the controlled end of an NVDA Remote Access connection. - Removed changes to trusted certificate handling which caused problems with NVDA Remote Access & some add-ons. - Updates to translations.
Hello, please add built -in functionality to a program that will allow you to check the already added key combinations. When I add a new combination of keys, the program does not allow me to understand that this combination of keys already exists.
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. The quick reference guide (generated from the user guide) is a handy reference of keystrokes, however there are several issues: It may...
I am writing to inquire about a feature for the NVDA screen reader. Currently, NVDA has a speech dictionary. Would it be possible to add the functionality to mark specific letters within a word to indicate the proper pronunciation, specifically for emphasis or stress (i.e., to denote the stressed syllable)?
@kingoffire You can use the dictionary to "correct" how a synthesizer reads a particular word, is that what you mean?
There will always be issues such as the difference between "live" in "We are broadcasting live" and "I want to live while I am young". That could be something an AI pronunciation add-on could address in future, but otherwise, we wouldn't want to start asking document authors to change how they write the word in each context.
Please add a way to mark stress in NVDA’s speech dictionary, so users can specify which letter in a word should be stressed for correct pronunciation. Many speech programs already support this with a simple symbol or system—no neural tools are needed, just a marking like '+', as seen in other TTS engines. Thanks!
@kingoffire You asked this question yesterday - mastodon.ml/@kingoffire/114902… - And I did reply to that post. Beyond creating a dictionary entry to change how a particular word is read, there really isn't a way I can think of. If you are using eSpeak-NG, and notice an issue consistently, you could create an issue for them, or submit a fix: github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng…
I am writing to inquire about a feature for the NVDA screen reader. Currently, NVDA has a speech dictionary. Would it be possible to add the functionality to mark specific letters within a word to indicate the proper pronunciation, specifically for emphasis or stress (i.e., to denote the stressed syllable)?
How do you stop NVDA from saying "This Page Link" on pages all the time, even though the link it is saying that before announcing is on the same page? Example: I'm on a site called WatZatSong (song identification site I go on frequently). NVDA is saying "Link, link, link" before every link, as it should, but some links it says "This page link" before announcing the link, instead of just "link". It is really annoying and has actually led to me doing things I didn't want to quite a few times because the announcement has thrown me off. How do you stop that from happening? Or is there no way to stop it?
@randomuser Press NVDA+control+d to open NVDA's document formatting settings, tab to "Link Destination" and press spacebar to uncheck then enter to close (be sure to save your settings with NVDA+control+c).
Thank you. I don't have link destination in my document formatting settings, but I do have "link". Am I doing something wrong or am I missing something?
So, are you no longer on Google Groups or is this just an alias for the Google Groups email? I will say that one thing that I like about Groups.io is that a subscriber can set a group to only email you the first message in each thread or topic, except for those which you reply to or which you manually choose to follow. Does your group support this capability?
I must admit I'm still finding my way around Google Groups features (We've had groups on Google Groups for years, such as our API announcement list, but as that was a smaller, announce only list, these questions hadn't come up). I know there are several "digest" modes (digest is 1 email per day for every 25 message & archive is 1 for every 150 messages). Not sure if you can get just the first in each topic.
I’m trying to raise just $6,300 this month to make software that reduces ewaste, empowers disabled folks, protects your privacy, and always asks for your consent
A man who openly identified as a “fascist” during a debate Mehdi Hasan has raised over $18K after claiming he was fired for expressing his political beliefs.
Ozzy Osborne died today at the age of 76. His farewell concert a few weeks ago was the highest-grossing charity concert of all time, raising more than $200 million. stereogum.com/2315456/ozzy-osb…
More than two dozen retired senior US military officers and 22 former US ambassadors are among those telling a federal court that dismantling VOA is “unlawful and unwise,” as it helped achieve important foreign policy goals and confirmed America’s role as a beacon of democracy and freedom. #SaveVOA
everything i draw and make here is fediverse-exclusive-in-the-public-domain. If you enjoy my content or have some other use for it, consider supporting my work.
Hmm. Character navigation via left/right arrow keys in edit boxes with NVDA, e.g., Windows 10's Notepad, seems noticeably faster if a screen is present, even if it's something like [Virtual Display Driver][1]. Is there a valid reason behind that, @NVAccess, or am I falsely conflating a coincidence?
Add virtual monitors to your windows 10/11 device! Works with VR, OBS, Sunshine, and/or any desktop sharing software. - VirtualDrivers/Virtual-Display-Driver
Do you mean it's faster if you have a physical screen (or virtual screen driver? I haven't tried one of those) connected to your PC? Do you know if there is an NVDA issue for it?
Two thoughts: 1. When no screen is connected, what does Windows think the display resolution is? You can check in Settings. 2. I wonder if graphics acceleration gets disabled when no screen is connected on that system. Not really sure how to check that, but that could slow down all sorts of things.
I have a weird problem in REAPER where performance is slower if the window is maximised. I suspect it's a performance problem with NVDA's GDI hooks, but I haven't confirmed that. It's very annoying. But I don't think modern Notepad uses GDI, so that shouldn't be an issue there. Also, the screen resolution should be lower when no screen is connected, so I doubt that's it.
Modern notepad is WinUI, isn't it? It's predecessor, UWP, behaved strangely in all kinds of ways if there was no screen connected, most noticeably just plain not disappearing controls when they should have disappeared. Slowing down edit navigation is a new one, though.
Well now I can't seem to reproduce it anymore, or not to the point where I actually notice. Ugh. I could have sworn that Settings didn't have any display resolution when my lid is closed, but looking now, it actually shows as 1920 × 1080. Never mind, then. And while I have no idea what Notepad generation it is, it's the one where the menu bar still exists. @x0 @jcsteh
@jcsteh On a somewhat related note: @midzi and I have most likely found a bug where the menu bar of Electron apps, in this case Lossless Cut, won't open, most likely because a screen is not connected. Everything works as expected with Narrator. We'll have to investigate it first so no Github issue yet.
Mastodon parle français aussi, je suppose. Alors, se trouve-t-il ici un(e) collegue pour moi ? Nous cherchons un(e) alternant(e) pour un poste technicien(ne) support #informatique. A #Strasbourg centre, présentiel.
Si / quand j'aurai mon mot à dire sur le recrutement, j’aimerais avoir un(e) collègue débrouillard, proactif(ve) et avec la tête sur les épaules. Après, s’il y a une vraie volonté, c’est un poste qui offre de réelles opportunités d'apprentissage et des projets divers. Ce n'est pas du hotline et pas que du support, mais faut quand même d'être capable de communiquer. (Je parle par l'expérience. Le poste pourrait éventuellement convenir à une alternance niveau bac+2, mais comme dit, l’envie de bosser, de découvrir et d’évoluer...)
Alors, que faut-il connaître ? AD, les bases des produits Microsoft (serveurs, O365) (oh oui...), qq connaissances des réseaux, une idée de Powershell pourrait être utile. Pas complètement étranger(e) aux systèmes Unix/Linux.
Cyclistes bienvenues, Au boulot à vélo, on le prend très sérieusement.
“Public Broadcasting, the FCC, and Why I Turned Down the FCC Chairman’s Award for Advancement in Accessibility (by Larry Goldberg)” lflegal.com/2025/07/larry-gold…
A Behind the Scenes Look at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. I loved the part about all the stuff the artists leave behind: “Chappell Roan’s wig is actually sitting on Cypress Hill’s skull.” kottke.org/25/07/a-behind-the-…
Godspeed Ozzy Osbourne, may you rest in peace! I grew up listening to your songs. The world is less cool now that you're not around. Say hi to Randy and Lemmy.
Black Sabbath Planet Caravan(C) 1970 Warner Brothers Music-words and music by Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, and Bill Ward-LyricsWe sailed through...
Zitat aus dem Tuta-Blog: „#Tuta hingegen stach durch seine Bescheidenheit und seinen Fokus auf echten Datenschutz hervor. Es hat nicht nur darüber geredet, sondern diesen auch gelebt. Das ist es, was mich überzeugt hat.“
Tolga Yenici war früher ein normaler Nutzer von Tech-Produkten, aber jetzt ist er auf dem Weg, sich für private, quelloffene Tools wie Tuta Mail zu entscheiden. Wir haben uns mit ihm zusammengesetzt, um herauszufinden, warum.
@cachondo Thank you for being a long time JAWS user. We wanted to create a training series to celebrate features that had a huge impact at the time of their release. This training series is also designed to help ones who are new to using JAWS, some of whom were not even born yet in 2002, learn about all the features available in JAWS. Maybe you know someone new to using a screen reader that may benefit from this training?
wanna give a huge shout-out to Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky for gifting us some absolutely stunning colour photographs from Russia in the 1910s.
YEAH YOU READ THAT RIGHT. he took three photographs of each subject, through coloured filters, and then projected the images again through the filters and superimposed them.
and thus, we have colour photography of early 20th century Russia. and it's beautiful.
#RIP "Heavy metal star Ozzy Osbourne has died, just weeks after reuniting with his Black Sabbath bandmates and performing a huge farewell concert for fans."
Black Sabbath filmed a music video for "Paranoid" in Belgium 1970Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BlackSabbathInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/BlackSabba...
Britská metalová hvězda a frontman skupiny Black Sabbath Ozzy Osbourne zemřel ve věku 76 let. V úterý večer to uvedla britská BBC s odvoláním na rodinu.
@analog_ashley and I LOVED Andor, and I'm psyched to be sitting on a Comic-Con panel about it this very week -- if you're at Comic-Con you can catch our panel about Andor and Resistance on July 24th at noon and if not, you can dive deep into the psychology of dissenters and coalitions with this episode!
SHOW NOTES Dominic Packer’s Normative Conflict Model of Dissent is described in this paper as well as his other work: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088868307309606 Cat also mentions Mina Cikara’s work on coalitional cognition....
Sergey has been of great help for my minor stumblings of trying to write #ObjC #GTK bindings for #ObjFW. He's got formidable knowledge und deep insight into #GObject especially and Cxx languages in general.
Welcome to GUADEC 2025 GUADEC is the GNOME community’s largest conference, bringing together hundreds of users, contributors, community members, and enthusiastic supporters for a week of talks and workshops.
Алёшка
in reply to NV Access • • •NV Access
in reply to Алёшка • • •@kingoffire This is a good suggestion. We do have an issue requesting this here: github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issue…
As well as one specifically for add-ons (if you have two with conflicting keystrokes): github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issue…
And this issue requesting the ability to generate a list of gestures on the fly: github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issue…
Add function to generate current list of input gestures
Qchristensen (GitHub)Алёшка
in reply to NV Access • • •Hello,
I am writing to inquire about a feature for the NVDA screen reader. Currently, NVDA has a speech dictionary. Would it be possible to add the functionality to mark specific letters within a word to indicate the proper pronunciation, specifically for emphasis or stress (i.e., to denote the stressed syllable)?
Thank you.
NV Access
in reply to Алёшка • • •@kingoffire You can use the dictionary to "correct" how a synthesizer reads a particular word, is that what you mean?
There will always be issues such as the difference between "live" in "We are broadcasting live" and "I want to live while I am young". That could be something an AI pronunciation add-on could address in future, but otherwise, we wouldn't want to start asking document authors to change how they write the word in each context.
I'm not sure I understood your question?
Алёшка
in reply to NV Access • • •NV Access
in reply to Алёшка • • •@kingoffire You asked this question yesterday - mastodon.ml/@kingoffire/114902… - And I did reply to that post. Beyond creating a dictionary entry to change how a particular word is read, there really isn't a way I can think of. If you are using eSpeak-NG, and notice an issue consistently, you could create an issue for them, or submit a fix: github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng…
espeak-ng/espeak-ng
GitHubАлёшка
2025-07-23 12:40:20
Squish
in reply to NV Access • • •NV Access
in reply to Squish • • •@randomuser Press NVDA+control+d to open NVDA's document formatting settings, tab to "Link Destination" and press spacebar to uncheck then enter to close (be sure to save your settings with NVDA+control+c).
This was something new we added in NVDA 2025.1.
Squish
in reply to NV Access • • •NV Access
in reply to Squish • • •Squish
in reply to NV Access • • •