mastodon - Link to source
For anyone interested in more C++ code, tgeczy/Brailab-wrapper is now up, just before work I pushed it to my GitHub.
github.com/tgeczy/Brailab-wrap…
Hey @erion, do you know if it's safe to share the tts.dll (compiled of course) with a release of the driver in the wrapper repo, or licensing prevents this?

GitHub - tgeczy/Brailab-wrapper: A DLL wrapper for the Hungarian Brailab Speech synthesizer.

A DLL wrapper for the Hungarian Brailab Speech synthesizer. - tgeczy/Brailab-wrapper
GitHub
@Erion
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Erion

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

wow, I can't believe they would prioritize the trashy Vocalizer synthesizer over something home-grown like Brailab. That to me is shameful. Vocalizer, made by non-Hungarian speakers who have zero knowledge as to the nuances of our language. I even got Multivox 4 working on Windows 11, now I'm so, so tempted to publish instructions and a recompiled setup binary for Multivox just to throw it in their face, you have no idea.
in reply to Tamas G

gotosocial - Link to source

Erion

You should, if you ask me. I totally agree.

This is kind of a grey area, because the addon would have been free, so it's up to you.

BMEITT is actually working on AI versions of Profivox, but of course they don't make it available to those who would really need it and when they do, they make exclusive deals, see Jaws. Trust me, we have tried far beyond what was possible to implement a good Hungarian synth for NVDA, even going as far as doing our own, partnering with Cereproc and Meridian One, constant refusals from BMEITT, and of course a lot of business dinners, etc. The state of Hungarian TTS is quite bad right now.

in reply to Erion

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

so I might not remove it from Eurpod, but I won't upload it into the Wrapper repo just quite yet to distribute it together. That may be going a bit too far. And I totally feel that with Hungarian TTS. I'm still using the cracked version of Profivox 5 here with my NVDA, even though it has horrible pauses during say-all. I remember you all looked into the cost of making our own and it was well over 100000EUR which is insane, not even I could pay that if I saved my income for 15 years. Ha.
I installed Hungarian JAWS the other day. I didn't see Profivox listed, but I could manually add it. Looks like they default it to Vocalizer Mariska, which is horrible. Am I wrong in this? I don't understand how Hungarian blind people are putting up with this day to day if that's true, even old problems with things like double-S are still in it.
in reply to Tamas G

gotosocial - Link to source

Erion

You tell me, at least on Windows there are choices, Apple makes you suffer lol. I can't even list what's wrong with it honestly, there are just countless issues popping up every day.

I think the price of making a good synth wouldn't be as huge today, at least if you create a model. Training costs and around 40 hours of data should produce reasonably good results with Piper for example. Maybe around 10K or less would cover it.

in reply to Erion

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

Hírmondó was built by Axelero (the [origo] / Matáv-era ISP brand) together with a Hungarian company called Speech Technology Kft.. Hungarian company registry / business-info listings show “SPEECH TECHNOLOGY Kft.” marked as “v.a.” (végelszámolás alatt = under voluntary liquidation). So what happened to them? Is that engine even purchasable today? Or is all hope for any SDK gone for it.
in reply to Erion

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

I found the demo yes! Sadly it's a demo though for sure, the SAPI voice is non-functional. Hmm. It's odd because LowLevel.dll and the other engine files have the same version but are clearly different in size, so the DLL behaviors and compiling changed. Having a working SAPI5 voice of that Miklos would be the easiest, but I'm somehow doubtful it's easy to have the engine expose the proper path for voice utterance.
in reply to Tamas G

gotosocial - Link to source

Winter blue tardis

Tbf, vocalizer sucks. Our situation here isn't any better, we have neural engine stuff, but there are starting to be NVDA issues with it, and only the union of old retired blindies can redistribute the stuff. The project is no longer paid, so imagine what will happen in two or three years, and the neural voices suck. Goodbye, old speechlab too. Now if someone cracked that for me on android, I'd be happy. I never said that. But trying to stare for five minutes into the screen while it screams licence retrieval failed in different rates while I try to change the synth ain't fun. I like old stuff. The only good thing about the Hungarian vocalizer voice at least on apple is its name. :D It sucks, short letter a long letter a, is very fun to hear while you type. We need better synths for everything, for every language etc.
in reply to Winter blue tardis

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@tardis Speaklab? Interesting. I wonder what the Bulgarian equivalent to our Profivox would be Honestly they're the best, but of course it's comercial, very much tied to only getting distributed by the organization that sells JAWS in Hungary, not to mention their DEX program that's a learning tool. So, Profivox is very locked down even though it's a great voice. We had WinTalker, I still have it working, ha. That one did kind of suck.
@Winter blue tardis
in reply to Tamas G

gotosocial - Link to source

Winter blue tardis

Yeah, I tried profivox on a version of jaws and the assholes never updated it, so imagine little me was frustrated... All the me were frustrated collectively, and I glared at the screen, for a long while. I have the one you did by uh, was it braillelab? I don't remember, it's cool, but my hearing sucks so I can't understand him, poor old guy. Giggles. Yeah, speechlab was, still is a sapi voice, the last nvda changes made it rate boost, but the android version was nastily plugged off the playstore, and there's a licence checker I wish someone would remove, Tyler did disassemble the DLL to increase speed, but we no longer need that because it works. Tehnically, I can't even download the neural voices because the link is broken, and they want my identification number, plus names, plus disability documents, and only then can they actually send that. Lots of crap. And last time when we tried to become members of the union after moving, they said we have to pay, and there were two months, so mom politely told them to fuck off, and then they wonder why they have no young members. LOL.
in reply to Tamas G

gotosocial - Link to source

Winter blue tardis

I have speechlab, if you want to make it speak broken English to you. I can send. It's old, so I am not sure if they even have copyrights, because CD distribution. Funny is they used the same crap of building for the neural engines, so that makes me think it's the same company or people who build the new ones. I mean, they are not bad, just, not for daily use. They are good if I sit down on a sofa, bother with an android phone, and read a book with a cup of tea, or hot chocolate, or something like that. You'll just have to give something that says "message me here!" because I am not sending files on here I don't think there's a way to. Haha. I also don't have dropbox and I am not a cool person. ;`

mastodon - Link to source

If you work somewhere that still communicates via X, this week is a good one to petition comms folks to stop using it

(generates thousands of sexually abusive images per hour while its owner laughs, FT calls it a “deepfake porn site” ft.com/content/ad94db4c-95a0-4…).


Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter

A look inside Elon Musk’s big tent
Bryce Elder (Financial Times)
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Dan Fixes Coin-Ops

mastodon - Link to source

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops

Fedi meta

Sensitive content

mastodon - Link to source
We're an AI first company. Our mission is to streamline your experience and let you turn ideas into execution at the speed of thought. To join our team make PDFs out of your cv and cover letter, upload the PDFs, then retype all the text in the PDFs into more textboxes. Copy/paste is disabled. A question that is illegal to ask is mandatory. <>[]{},%#$ characters forbidden. Accents forbidden. The back button breaks everything. You have been logged out for inactivity. Click here to restart.

mastodon - Link to source

In my opinion, lack of accessibility is the main *real* argument against the widespread adoption of Free and Open Source Software.

I reckon, if, especially European, governments and institutions really are serious about digital sovereignty, they should invest serious money (I'm talking billions with "B") into that area.

#a11y #FOSS #DigitalSovereignty #EU

#a11y #foss #EU #digitalsovereignty
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reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

Clippy is back! The movement of 2025 to protest against AI, Big Tech, and data abuse continues. 🎉

While the original Clippy was skinny and normal, the new “Clippy” shared by Microsoft on X is bloated - just like Microsoft's bloated AI tools.

Check out why people use Clippy as their profile pics: tuta.com/blog/clippy-movement-…

Tweet by Microsoft on X titled, 'How it started vs how it went' with a picture of a cookie in the shape of Clippy before and after being baked.

Clippy – the movement of 2025 to protest against AI, Big Tech, and data abuse. | Tuta

Clippy profile pics started spreading mid of 2025, kicked off by YouTuber Louis Rossmann. The iconic Microsoft Office helper stands for not invading user rights to help out.
Tuta
in reply to Tuta

mastodon - Link to source

Vick

Thought the sentiment about Clippy is understandable, doesn't it actually represent exactly what Microsoft is doing now? Though no data collection was involved twenty years ago, people (at least in my surroundings) remember it to be not useful and its inevitable presence - non-consensual, what is exactly what they are recreating now, just on a whole another scale of invasion into private space and workflows

mastodon - Link to source

Update zu meinen weg, #wegvongoogle

Ich habe noch mehr #Google APPs gefunden,
selbst der dämliche Wecker war von Google aber ich sollte nun alles mögliche gelöscht/deaktiviert haben. Dafür habe ich viele gute #opensource APPs gefunden. Meist ähnliche oder identisch zu ihren Google equivalent, meistens bieten die Open source Varianten sogar mehr features. Ich hab jetzt vpn, DNS sever mit firewall, APP blocker & nutze #ArcaneChat
Fazit: umstieg auf #F-droid / Open Source lohnt sich.
#smartphone

#google #opensource #smartphone #f #arcanechat #wegvongoogle
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Po přečtení článku @sesivany zkouším AdGuard Home.

root.cz/clanky/adguard-home-be…

Předně bych chtěl říct, že nějaký takovýhle tool je must have do každé domácí sítě. Používám už dlouho Pi.Hole, takže mě občas překvapí, jak jiný je internet u nás doma v porovnání třeba s internetem u mého táty.

Nám Pi.Hole odfiltruje cca 20 % dotazů. Ale v době, kdy děti jely Android hry, tak to bylo klidně 60-70 %.

AdGuard jsem se ale rozhodl zkusit, protože Pi.Hole má takové ubastlené uživatelské rozhraní, tak mě zajímá, jestli bych si třeba nějak nepomohl.


AdGuard Home: bezpečnější procházení webu a rodičovská kontrola

Blokátor reklamy dnes považuji za jeden ze základních prvků internetové bezpečnosti. Rozšíření v prohlížečích dnes nestačí. Platí to obzvlášť pro mobily, kde může zobrazovat reklamy a šmírovat prakticky každá aplikace.
Jiří Eischmann (Internet Info, s.r.o.)
@Jiří Eischmann

Archos reshared this.

in reply to Michal Janda

mastodon - Link to source

Jiří Eischmann

@MichalJanda @electricCZ Jenže to by člověk nemohl používat ani Linux, protože linuxový kernel se vyvíjí pod hlavičkou americké The Linux Foundation a Linus ho taky řídí z USA. Já to beru tak, že když je to software z otevřeným zdrojovým kódem pod dohledem mezinárodní komunity, který si provozuju sám, tak mě původ zase tolik neznervózňuje.
@Michal Janda @Václav Pašek

mastodon - Link to source

RE: mastodon.gamedev.place/@djlink…

Alors que Discord semble se préparer à entrer en bourse, ça semble le bon moment pour commencer à prévoir la sortie du silo fermé dans lequel votre communauté se trouve. #Emmerdification

En alternative qui vous conviendra peut-être, Framasoft propose framateam.org (mais d'autres options existent, avec leurs avantages et leurs inconvénients, comme @element / @matrix).

alternativeto.net/software/dis…

Framateam

framateam.org

David Amador

2026-01-07 10:33:38

mastodon - Link to source

Start considering moving your communities out of Discord now. Don’t wait for the enshittiffication to arrive, the clock is ticking. No one will listen to me, but let’s talk again later. reuters.com/business/chat-plat…
Chat platform Discord files confidentially for US IPO, Bloomberg News reports

#emmerdification @The Matrix.org Foundation @Element
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Framasoft

mastodon - Link to source

neox

Et pourquoi pas #XMPP ?

Loin d'être seulement un protocole, c'est une communauté fédérée qui propose une alternative en phase avec la protection de la vie privée (salons semi-anonymes, facilement auto-hébergeable avec #snikket), la sobriété énergétique (serveurs très peu consommateurs, repose sur des connexions TLS idle), et très compatible avec les idées du logiciel libre (normes gérées par une fondation au fonctionnement démocratique @xmpp, logiciels et clients majeurs entièrement libres).

Pour choisir son client : xmpp.org/software/?category=cl…

Pour choisir son fournisseur de serveur :
providers.xmpp.net/


XMPP Software | XMPP - The universal messaging standard

In this section you’ll find information about XMPP Software, including clients, servers, libraries, and more. An XMPP client is any software or application that enables you to connect to an XMPP for instant messaging with other people over the …
xmpp.org
#xmpp #snikket @XSF: XMPP Standards Foundation

mastodon - Link to source

Movim will be at the @fosdem 2026 in Brussels ✨
This year we will also have a conference! 😽

📢 Movim: Building a Decentralized Social Network on XMPP
📍 Room: AW1.126
📅 Day: Sunday 1st of February
🕛 Start: 13:45

In this conference we'll discuss the technical challenges of building a rich web frontend on top of XMPP, showcase the exciting features recently added to the project, and introduce the upcoming planned ones.

Don't forget to save the date in your agenda! ☺️

fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event…

(We'll also introduce our new project mascots, stay tuned 😁!)

#xmpp #fosdem #fosdem2026 #conference

A banner that show the FOSDEM logo with the Movim mascots

FOSDEM 2026 - Movim: Building a Decentralized Social Network on XMPP

fosdem.org
#xmpp #fosdem #conference #fosdem2026 @FOSDEM
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

glitchsoc - Link to source

What happened to Renee Nicole Good is not an anomaly or a rare phenomenon.

The only unusual factor is that she was white.

A Black man named Keith Porter was shot & killed by ICE on New Year’s Eve.

Marimar Martinez was shot five times by an ICE officer in Chicago who went on to brag about leaving seven holes in her body. She survived but has a hole in her arm forever.

Silverio Villegas González was shot dead in Franklin Park Illinois when he panicked and tried to run.

Then there’s the more than 30 people who’ve died in the camps.

No accountability. No punishment.

Keep speaking out. Let’s make sure this officer is held responsible.

#abolishice #ice #uspol #minneapolis #fascism #immigration #reneenicolegood

#uspol #immigration #fascism #ice #abolishice #minneapolis #reneenicolegood

mastodon - Link to source
Tonight I’m thinking about #emigration and how tempting it feels. Right now, at this moment, there’s nothing I’d like better than to just up and leave from this country that has turned into a complete and utter hellscape for any of us who still hold onto even a shred of our humanity. I’ve heard people posit that it’s relatively easy to leave, but I beg to differ. First, not only am I a person with a disability, I’m also married to another person with a disability, and I already know many countries take a rather dim view of people with disabilities popping up. Public charge, anyone? It doesn’t matter that I have guaranteed income, and Sarah is employed. So emigrating is pretty much a nonstarter. I even looked into #Canada a while ago, since I am second generation (my grandfather emigrated from Quebec), but that doesn’t give me any special perks. So, as long as I’m stuck here, I’ll just continue annoying people with my periodic shitposts.
#canada #emigration
in reply to Kevin LaRose, Antifa Member

mastodon - Link to source

Mike Gorse

I feel like it would take a lot of planning. I don't think it would be particularly easy, either, but I haven't really tried to look into it, so other people might know things that I don't. It would probably be somewhat easier for someone who can retire and doesn't need to worry too much about generating income, and of course the cost of living is lower in some places, and every country will have its own rules. I was reading an article about Thailand (I think) having the equivalent of assisted living facilities targeted at expats from places like the US. I was reading a post from someone trying to emigrate (I don't know what his reasons were), but his employer wasn't being supportive, so he would eventually need to find another job. I don't think I would leave, personally. Aside from the disability-related reasons you mention, I would need to figure out where to go and take the time to learn the logistics of trying to establish residency somewhere else. It would be a longer trip to visit my family, and I'd need to learn a new place and likely a new language. I'm not nearly as eager to uproot myself as I might've been when I was younger and had more energy. Sometimes I phantasize about living in a village near the ocean on an island in the south Pacific (and I know that that's oddly specific--sometimes I wonder if I had a past life like that and I'm sub-consciously remembering it, but no way to know), but it's not something that I'm likely to actually try to do.

mastodon - Link to source
but, essentially, the music is emitted from the music, through bone conduction is emitted from the stick, but does not start playing until one has the sucker at the back of the mouth, so when one bites on it, the song vibrates through the jawbones.. But once the sucker has been eaten, the music stops. I guess one can keep the stick. not sure if anything else could be done with it after that. Sounds kind of wasteful if not.

mastodon - Link to source

The EU is working on what is in essence a new Open Source strategy for Europe, and the call for evidence is now open. This is our cue to provide feedback and input to the strategy!

If you are involved in the Open Source community in any way, if you benefit (or could benefit) in any way from Open Source, or if you're simply interested in questions about digital sovereignty, please visit ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-r… for details on how to contribute.

#FOSS #opensource

European Commission - Have your say

European Commission - Have your say
#foss #opensource

mastodon - Link to source
Krásné dobré ráno zmrzlí mastodonti! 🙋‍♀️🐈🐶
Záměrně píšu zmrzlí a ne zamrzlí. V tom by byl obrovský rozdíl. A už vůbec namrzlí....Ale to zase odbočuju někam jinam na tenký led.....šmarja zase špatně....no prostě máme tady -14 a já mám po venčení asi z mozku ledovou kostku. 😂 Sira Artura už druhý den necháváme doma. Chodí se venčit stejně, jako Jeho Lordstvo. A já dneska budu v práci úplně sama! Heeeeč! Jenom teda budu muset kontrolovat skleníky, protože zlobí vytápění a já bych popřípadě musela znovu nahazovat kotel. A zítra mám volno, protože s Dcerou národa jedeme k doktorovi. Její zdravotní problémy přetrvávají a pořád nikdo neví, co jí je. Čeká nás vyšetření na gastru.
Na vás dneska určitě někde čeká nějaké příjemné překvapení, tak si dnešní den pořádně užijte! 😊
#dobre_rano
#dobréRáno
#dobre_rano #dobrerano

mastodon - Link to source

Another day, another reply guy telling blind people to pay or "lower your expectations" to use free and open source apps😩
Weird how many of those there are, on this website especially! vmst.io/@RyanFrancis/115854200…

Ryan F

2026-01-07 14:06:45

mastodon - Link to source

@jonathan859 you're throwing cash at the big apps by giving them unlimited access to your data to sell, while these free apps don't sell data, don't have ads, and don't have a revenue stream at all.

You're expecting devs to just "magic" a fully featured app to compete with mega corporations for nothing.

Either drop your expectations a little and show some gratitude or pay them.


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in reply to PepperTheVixen ΘΔ

mastodon - Link to source

NV Access

Hey sorry, I've been away from my desk since about when you posted this question! Since you didn't get any answers that I see, I'm not sure if you're still experienceing this, but yes, Microsoft been making changes, not all for the better, in VSCode lately. Reporting the line & column number are currently working as expected for us, but alternate releases seem to fix, then re-break it. Best suggestion is to complain to Microsoft's Disability Answer Desk: microsoft.com/en-au/accessibil…

Disability Answer Desk Support | Microsoft Accessibility

Explore the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk today. Our accessibility answer desk feature provides support for all of our assistive technologies.
Microsoft

bridgy-fed - Link to source

Dell admits consumers don’t care about AI PCs. Dell is now shifting it focus this year away from being "all about the AI PC," because consumers aren't interested. A surprisingly honest admission from one of Microsoft's biggest PC partners. Details 👇 www.theverge.com/news/857723/...

Dell admits consumers don’t ca...


Dell admits consumers don’t care about AI PCs

Dell is now shifting it focus this year away from being ‘all about the AI PC.’
Tom Warren (The Verge)
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