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Back-to-school seasoning may be winding down, but Thunderbird is seeing where we make the grade (and don’t) with accessibility. Learn about our recent a11y study and find how to help us make Thunderbird accessible to everyone!

#Thunderbird #Accessibility #OpenSource

blog.thunderbird.net/2025/09/v…


VIDEO: Thunderbird Accessibility Study

In our latest Office Hours, we're covering what's in (and out) of our latest Extended Support Release, Thunderbird 140.0 ESR "Eclipse"!
Monica Ayhens-Madon (The Thunderbird Blog)
#Accessibility #opensource #thunderbird
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reshared this

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Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox

@ppatel This study was done with experienced screen reader users who were new to Thunderbird. This study is a part of our ongoing efforts to make our products more accessible, and we'd always love to have more feedback from existing Thunderbird users who use assistive tech like screen readers at our UX mailing list: thunderbird.topicbox.com/group…

Topicbox

thunderbird.topicbox.com
@Pratik Patel

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Florida is ending vaccine mandates. What do Canadian travellers need to know?
Before you get to the linked article, where CBC News gives you their ideas on what Canadian travellers should know, here's what I say they should know and do, or rather not do.
If you value your health, and have an ounce of intelligence, just don't. Travel to Florida, that is.
cbc.ca/news/health/florida-vac… #cbc #topstories #news #canada
#News #canada #cbc #topstories
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Adam MacLeod

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Adam MacLeod

The vaccine-denying idiots and elimination supporters may feel free to rain shit down on this thread, and even unfollow. That's really okay, I promise. But know this. We live in a world of society, not a world of solo. Vaccine mandates aren't about any one person's life or choices or supposed freedom or autonomy, its about keeping an entire society safe. It goes beyond just you. And for the group of people who are most vulnerable, children, think about them, before you put your faith in some idiots trying to win political points. Health sciences exist for a reason, and these mandates were put in place many years ago, across many major diseases for damn good reasons, and based on very real, tragic experiences, and lots, and lots, and lots of death.
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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Have you ever thought about the phrase "earn a living"? About how messed up it is? The idea you need to "earn" your life and place in the world?

(I hadn't considered the dizzying toxicity of this phrase until it came up on We Can Do Hard Things - Abby Wambach's podcast that has absolutely nothing to do with soccer.)

The feeling behind the phrase "earn a living" - the idea that you have to do in order to be - is everywhere in our society. Including in open source.

relational-tech.com/blog/being…


On Being and Doing in Open Source

For over a decade, I've been working to help open source newcomers make their first contribution. But what if just being there was contribution enough? And what if the pressure to contribute isn't just a barrier to newcomers, but to maintainers who a…
Relational Tech
in reply to Shauna GM

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Shauna GM

Open source contributors are not the only one who struggle under this pressure: open source maintainers have it even worse.

Unlike new contributors, who struggle to find things they can do, maintainers are often overwhelmed by things to do. But, though the reason they cannot do the tasks is different, it's the same fundamental problem.

Both the contributor and maintainer feel the pressure to do what they cannot do, rather than getting to simply be.

in reply to Shauna GM

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Shauna GM

The new contributor feels like a failure and leaves the project. The maintainer feels like a failure, and burns out.

Even worse, this can become a self-reinforcing cycle. The maintainer blames themselves for not finding ways to help newcomers contribute. They didn't do enough to help the newcomer do things. The newcomer feels like even more of a burden to the maintainer. See how overwhelmed the maintainer seems? Maybe they'd be better off leaving.

But it doesn't have to be like this.

mastodon - Link to source

There was an interesting discussion in the SFWA discord and a tangential topic was men and reading.

So I’m curious. Men, of any age. Are you a reader?
I broke it down into
Avid - More than 20 books a year
Sometimes - Less than 20 a year
Don’t read - Self explanatory I hope.

Please share far and wide. 100% not scientific and feel free to reply with genres and any other color commentary you like in the replies.

#bookstodon @bookstodon #reading @reading

  • Avid Reader (49%, 495 votes)
  • Read sometimes (43%, 435 votes)
  • Don’t really read (6%, 61 votes)
991 voters. Poll end: 6 days ago

#reading #bookstodon @bookstodon group @reading

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I just tried VibeVoice on my local machine, and it’s pretty interesting. I fed three 15 second audio clips with three different voices which you can hear little snippets in the beginning, along with a podcast transcript generated from ChatGPT, and got this AI slop. It’s just a one shot run with no editing. The quality isn’t quite at NotebookLM’s level, but it’s still pretty cool to see open-source TTS can achieve this locally. #TTS #VibeVoice @ZBennoui github.com/microsoft/VibeVoice

#tts #vibevoice @Zach Bennoui

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Over the past ~2 months, we've opened hundreds of PRs, upstreaming #IzzyOnDroid metadata to the corresponding apps' repositories using Fastlane structures (gitlab.com/IzzyOnDroid/repo/-/…). Most of them have been merged already, about 100 are still open.

* if you received such PR and haven't merged it yet, please merge!
* if you didn't receive such PR for your app(s) hosted with us, please let us know!

Once all is settled, our consolidated metadata can finally be made public in a git repo :awesome:


Fastlane · Wiki · IzzyOnDroid / repo · GitLab

The F-Droid compatible repo at https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/
GitLab
#izzyondroid

Sylvia reshared this.

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Any #Rockbox users looked at the Innioasis Y1 yet?
The port is still being tinkered with, but it's a much cheaper option than a refurbed iPod classic.
Obviously as a blind person you get no real text-to-speech output in files, but you do get a decent battery, USB-C, bluetooth and perhaps eventually wifi, a supposedly solid DAC and all the other benefits of Rockbox for a $50 USD device.
Yes, it's a cheap Chinese plastic thing, but ... well. I have fallen into ponds with technology aboard.
The Innioasis Mp3 player, which is a bit like an iPod knockoff with a jog wheel on the front.
#rockbox

mastodon - Link to source
Police officers admit they feel ashamed enforcing Palestine Action ban novaramedia.com/2025/09/04/pol… #UKPol #PalestineAction

Police Officers Admit They Feel ‘Ashamed’ Enforcing ‘Mad’ Palestine Action Ban

Exclusive: An officer described feeling ‘sick’ when they arrested a disabled man for holding a cardboard sign, as the Police Federation issues a stark warning of burnout among cops enforcing the Palestine Action ban. Harriet Williamson reports.
Novara Media
#ukpol #PalestineAction

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Canada desperately needs to decouple from a self-inflicted dying empire.

The world is moving in one direction (EVs, PV energy and other clean energy) and the old is doubling down on Coal and Oil and protecting ICE vehicle manufacturers while gutting research and science programs.

**Stop protecting dying industries and read the financial and economic tea leaves neoliberals.**

Why, is Canada as a country lowering our standards and ambitions to appease an administration who is clearly not interested in leading the world anymore where the money and technology is obviously pointing.

We're not even talking about the moral and climate change aspects, so it's something even the most money motivated people can understand.

Rant over and we will now resume normal programming 😁

mastodon - Link to source
What's up with NVDA's start and end markers? I know they're unreliable for large blocks of text, but I just tried to use them for about 20 lines of PHP in VSCode and they failed. I marked the start, moved to the end, hit nvda-f10, and was told "no start marker set". Do they not work in VSCode at all? I always have trouble with this feature, so often forget about it. It feels like each time I remember and try it, it doesn't work right.
in reply to Andre Louis

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Alex Hall

@FreakyFwoof @cachondo Oh, I thought it was for anywhere, so you don't have to try to navigate while holding shift. For instance, mark the start, use a search, or jump to matching brace, or some other movement command, then mark the end. I actually didn't realize it was usable with the review cursor. This will make copying text out of terminal windows easier.
@Sean Randall @Andre Louis
in reply to Alex Hall

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Sean Randall

@FreakyFwoof that's literally all I use it for.

In terms of using it where there's an actual cursor, though, you'd assume there's some sort of selection feature in your editor *MS word has extend selection with f8, for example).
VSCode has an expand selection thing, alt+shift+right? I don't quite remember sorry.
Never understood why you can't give go to line a range in these editors

@Andre Louis
in reply to Alex Hall

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Nikola Jović

@FreakyFwoof @cachondo While start/end markers are indeed for the review cursor, by default, the review cursor is configured to follow the system caret, so the scenario of setting a start marker, moving with arrows across some text, and then selecting or copying it should absolutely be possible, unless you turned this following off with NVDA+6.
@Sean Randall @Andre Louis

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My Google Pixel 9 Pro just got an update to Material Expressive, and it makes the dynamic colors in #Conversations_im way too intense for my taste.
Remember that you can turn off 'Colorful chat bubbles' in the interface settings.

I don't know - at this point, the 'primary and secondary surface' theme colors maybe aren't meant for things like chat bubbles anymore. Anyway, the setting to turn them off is already there. Or go back to the default (non-dynamic) theme.

#conversations_im

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🚨 BREAKING: Google just got fined €325M for breaking privacy laws.

Let's celebrate this BIG WIN for #privacy 🔒

👉 tuta.com/blog/gmail-ads-annoyi…

But know this: You don't need ad-blockers to get an ad-free email. 😉

#France #Google #Gmail #Tuta

Gmail logo vs Tuta Mail logo 1. Google tracks you. We don't. 2. Google knows you inside out. We don't. 3. Google in the US versus us in Germany. a Google's profit maximization versus our passion for privacy.

Gmail ads are not just annoying: Google is now facing a record fine in France! | Tuta

Google may have violated your privacy and is now facing the consequences: a 525 million euro fine.
Tuta
#google #privacy #GMail #france #tuta
in reply to Tuta

mastodon - Link to source

Mario

WOW. So is this money actually reaching users's pockets whose privacy has been illegally breached? Don't think so.

I am afraid this is another legal bribing scenario. Hey Google, we received a complaint that you were illegally collecting data without user's consent. Ohh we are sorry EU. You can sue us and we pay you 325 million. Deal? Deal.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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Whenever you think @mozilla could not get lost any further, Hiob has got news for you:

#Firefox „now lets you access Microsoft #Copilot from the sidebar”

🤡🗑️🔥

ghacks.net/2025/09/05/firefox-…

#AIslop #AIcraze


Firefox Nightly now lets you access Microsoft Copilot from the sidebar - gHacks Tech News

Mozilla is testing a new feature in Firefox Nightly, which adds Microsoft Copilot to the sidebar. Cue the pitchforks! ADVERTISEMENT That gecko's up to something. Firefox already has 4 chatbots: Anthropic Claude, […]
Ashwin (Ghacks Technology News)
#firefox #copilot #aislop #aicraze @Mozilla

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🚀 Just published: Collabora Online @CollaboraOffice — Open-source document editing suite for secure collaboration

Powerful online document editor with Microsoft Office compatibility. Integrate into your infrastructure or use trusted hosting partners for secure team collaboration.

openalternative.co/collabora-o…


Collabora Online: Open Source Alternative to Google Sheets, Microsoft 365 and Google Docs

OpenAlternative
@Collabora Office

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"Uh, do I really need to install this app to order food?"

"Yes. And also we'll need access to your contacts, location 24/7, your photos, microphone, and possibly your soul."

"…I just wanted a pizza."

"Cool. In exchange, here’s 6 push notifications a day, and targeted ads for gym memberships (because you're eating too much pizza)."

Let's look at App Tracking, why it's bad & how you can turn it off 👉 tuta.com/blog/app-tracking

#AppTracking #BigTech

Text: Why app tracking is bad & how to disable it. Turn it off. Hand holding a phone with the app icons of LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram, Outlook, Amazon, TikTok and Gmail.

App tracking: Why it's bad and how to stop it. | Tuta

Shops are following Google's and Facebook's example with their own tracking apps so we must say: "No, I'm not installing your app to order food!"
Tuta
#bigtech #apptracking

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I've had Fedora as my main operating system for 4 years and couldn't be happier!

I only use Windows at work out of necessity, but at home it's 100% free software. LibreOffice has completely replaced Microsoft's Office suite, and honestly, I don't miss it at all.

Who else here made this transition? What was your experience like?

#Fedora #Linux #OpenSource #LibreOffice #FreeSoftware

#FreeSoftware #linux #opensource #libreoffice #fedora

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For any #FirstContact fans, #PeterCawdron has put his next book up for preorder toward the end of October.

I'm going through a difficult patch and not reading much at the moment, but we're looking at nearly 6 weeks away. Hopefully things will have improved by then. My daughter's due to be on a school trip, my Son is due to be a few weeks old, and my job is due to be paused. SO I might get there around about the right time.
#Bookstodon

Bbook cover for "The Oracle" by Peter Cawdron, highlighted as an "International Best-Selling Author". At the top, the author's name is in white, modern font. Below this, an illustration of a flying saucer or UFO is suspended in a star-filled space backdrop. The middle of the image transitions into a colorful, abstract terrain that resembles the surface of a planet, with vibrant hues of orange, blue, and hints of purple. The terrain's texture is smooth, with wispy, tendril-like shapes extending across it. The title text "THE ORACLE" is in bold, white block letters. The letter "O" in "Oracle" is not completely filled, giving it a stylized appearance. Below the title, the subtitle "FIRST CONTACT" is in a smaller, white font.
#bookstodon #firstcontact #petercawdron

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Friday.

The iron tripped our home electric supply this morning. I reset, came down to the office, unplugged the mesh wifi repeater thing because it struggles to reconnect without the stupid app, then turned on the hard drive I use for batch processing multigig videos, then got distracted by a phone call.

Next, the hard drive goes green on my dashboard. It's etherneted into the unplugged extender.

Please send help.

⇧