Threema is being bought by private equity. This usually means terrible news for users and employees as every last penny is squeezed out of the company. Maybe #Threema is the one exception to this well-documented pattern. Probably not.
Ich arbeite schon sehr lange bei #Threema und sehe, dass hier gerade eine Panikwelle durchzieht, man die App jetzt plötzlich boykottiert, weil Threema verkauft wird. Vielleicht darf ich das mal einordnen:
Ich habe viele Jahre mit den drei Gründern zusammen an Threema gearbeitet. Ich habe den Verkauf an Afinum 2020 miterlebt und später den Rückzug der Gründer in 2024. Derzeit wird Threema an Comitis verkauft - auch ein Private Equity Unternehmen, genau wie Afinum damals. Wenn's also nur um den Verkauf geht, gibt es erstmal eigentlich keinen Grund zur Panik.
Aber: Es ist eine Änderung. Auf jeden Fall gilt es, das kritisch zu betrachten und zu beobachten. Auf jeden Fall sollte laut geschrien werden, sobald Enshittification stattfindet! Bitte, macht das! Und ich wäre mit Sicherheit unter den ersten Personen, die aus Protest gehen würden, sollte Threema mal die eigenen Werte aufgeben.
Aber warum diese Aufregung jetzt, weil Threema gerade von Private Equity A an Private Equity B verkauft? Das verstehe ich nicht.
I am very proud to share that I have been awarded the IP Prize by the Swedish Network Users Society (SNUS). The motivation, which is long and detailed covers over 30 years of my work with Open Standards, Open Networks and now cyber security. From PC/TCP to Asterisk and Kamailio to the current work.
Specify which documentation you found a problem with plz stop publishing NAs / infos to hacktivity on hackerone it clogs hacktivity for people wanting to read good disclosures The problem plz stop ...
and of course some of the people I ridicule, ban and expose in these reports come back to me all up in arms about them being completely innocent and they did not know and now I have ruined their professional lives because their cool hacker aliases are now tainted.
huh??? Doesn't curl policy explicitly mention that the use of AI must be disclosed? Is it not entirely their own fault that they always miss this part?
How many credible reports from that source? If the ratio is too bad, I would consider to simply ignore reports from trash sources. Not worth the effort.
Hello everyone! After nearly a year, a new version of TWBlue is out! I haven't migrated the project account yet, so I'll be posting updates here for now. Let's hope for an active year! New features: • Server announcement buffer • Post editing & scheduling • Improved widget visualization • Reading of quoted posts Release notes: github.com/MCV-Software/TWBlue… You can also auto-update directly from the app.
Changelog
In this version, we have focused on expanding content management capabilities within Mastodon. It is now possible to edit sent posts and schedule them for future publication. Additionally...
Went on a TV talk show with my wife, to talk about accessibility and inclusive design. Definitely mentioned various assistive technologies along the way. So far, I'm already receiving emails with mp3 files in them, because "this makes it more interesting for you not to listen to the robotic voice all the time." Maybe I should've explained bit better than screen readers allow me to read emails ca 700 words per minute, and skip over rambling texts...
Explaining a screen reader is not a software to turn text documents into mp3's has become a fixed part of any 101 introduction to the subject I do since a professor asked me this exact question. Somehow it doesn't seem to be necessary wherever I preach these days. Are those actual voice messages from the senders or TTS/AI generated ones?
@Piciok This reminds me of the conversation I had with the director of my Regional Examination Commission, basically the organization which handles the day-to-day of running the government-mandated final exams (think GCSEs / A-Levels) here.
She didn't understand the difference between an audio CD and a CD ROM with a PDF (or Word) file on it that a screen reader would read. She also thought that a screen reader is a program that connects me over video call to a real person who reads text from paper documents that I place in front of my camera.
This was the only time in my life where I wanted to take the phone and throw it at the wall.
This was during my middle school days, my high school fortunately managed to shield me from all this madness.
The commission for that particular region is... well... known for being utterly incompetent, obstreperous, objecting to basically everything as a matter of principle, and generally being a pain in the ass for anybody who is unfortunate enough to live in their jurisdiction.
@miki A related story: there was a national project coordinated among a couple of schools for the blind in Poland which, to cut long story short, was aiming at preparing us for the FCE Cambridge examination. The commission in our city objected against us taking the reading comprehension part on our computers as the use of text-to-speech would turn it into listening comprehension. Ehhh...
@Piciok Which makes me wonder whether blind schools in other countries teach that. I've never heard of it being taught here. Most English textbooks don't even use the English punctuation signs.
@miki Definitely a problem at mine. I was the one campaigning for it being taught and ended up figuring basics by myself when I had a bit of spare time and trying to explain what I knew to my teachers.
@miki @Piciok I genuinely cannot understand this. As in, it's so, so weird to me that those in charge of examines and such for education don't even understand the most basic disability and assistive technology concepts. Like, your in charge of examines for education. So, your presumably a part of your equivalent of the department of education. And you don't know what a screen reader is? Really?
@draeand @Piciok We basically don't use computers in schools here, so that's probably why. This stuff almost never comes up.
By law, if you have the requisite documents, you're automtically entitled to a braille copy of the exam. Your school just files the required paperwork and that gets done as a matter of course. Anything else requires going through an administrative process and explicit approval. Usually, "the student is using this in class and so that's the workflow they're accustomed to" is a good enough reason to get approved, but you still need to go through the non-standard process.
That's kind of nice. I remember hearing about people attaching small voice files to their emails by way of a signature on some Polish mailing lists. This was pre Messengers generally offering voice messages era. Gives a touch of personality to an otherwise cold medium that is text.
Now that NVDA RC exists I'm even more tempted to pick up a Mini PC to be a little always on machine for, something, either with Windows as main OS and then VMWare for VMs or Proxmox as main OS and a Windows VM. Would be nice to connect to that rather than having to keep your more or less gaming PC on all the time which consumes to much power for what it actually does. Then I could use the Pi as Pi Hole backup, and could already mess with Home Assistant always available local AI like Ollama and possibly use the Pi as little local voice assistant. Would I need the power? No. I'm running like 6 or 7, haha, docker containers, which don't consume nearly anything that would make the Pi struggle, but well, as I said, Proxmox/HAOS, Windows VM and local AI would probably work better on something stronger. And the question is do I do it now, or do I wait, years until the prices might get better again.
If you can go with Proxmox as main OS with a Windows VM. Proxmox can run containers natively, plus it gives you some real world experience running a virtualisation stack.
@andrew Yeah, that's the main plan. I hope using Windows in a Proxmox VM is doable? If not, well also fine. Just thinking about which Mini PC really at this point. And if the timing is good...
FedEx handed a package of mine over to a "trusted third-party vendor" for last-mile delivery. This afternoon, a driver for said vendor sent me a WhatsApp message and photo without a description:
Driver: "I've left your package at <local business name> for you to pick up."
Me: "I can't do that, please bring it to the house."
Them: "You can pick it up after five."
Me: "No, I can't. I paid for home delivery, not a drop off at a different place. I'm busy and also blind, and that isn't convenient."
Another report from MN from a friend of a friend, a US Citizen:
I am a US citizen from Minneapolis. Yesterday, while doing legal observation, ICE stopped their cars to harass my friend and me. They sprayed pepper spray into the vent of our vehicle. We held our hands in the air and told them we were not obstructing, that the car was in park and they were free to drive forward and away. There was no active immigration raid. They returned to their cars, and drove forward a bit, then decided to stop again. They surrounded us, smashed the windows of our car, opened the doors (they were unlocked), ripped my friend and I out of the car and arrested us on charges of obstruction. I was put in an unmarked SUV, separated from my friend. As I was put in the back seat an ICE agent tore the whistle off my neck and said “I’ll be taking this, I might need it later.” My phone was knocked out of my hand while being arrested. As we drove away I asked the driver and the passenger if they wouldn’t mind buckling my seatbelt, as they were driving erratically. I was ignored. I asked them if I could have the handcuffs loosened, as I was losing circulation, and was told no. At one point the passenger realized his own driver's license was in the backseat next to mine, and tried to surreptitiously grab it without me seeing it. We were taken to the Whipple federal building, where I saw dozens of brown people being processed in an unheated garage. I was frisked, told of my charges, and saw buses and vans being prepped. I later learned that these were being filled with detainees and driven to the airport for deportation. As we were led in, I noticed that the building was very busy. I got the impression that one of the 2 agents bringing me around was being trained. At multiple points throughout my stay, government agents were unable to open doors, not sure where they were meant to be going, and overall confused and overwhelmed. They couldn’t figure out how to use the building phones, or complained about a lack of cell service preventing them from checking the internet or making calls. The people in the cells were extremely scared. We heard people screaming "let me out!", crying, wailing and terrified screams. There were cells with as many as 8 people. I have no way of knowing how long they have been there, if they were allowed any contact with the outside world, or if they were being brought food or water. Most people were staring at the ground with almost no energy. I was not allowed to talk to anyone imprisoned. I distinctly remember seeing a desperate woman. She was staring at the ground with her head in her hands crying, hopeless, while her friend or family member sat on a bathroom seat observed by 3 men. My friend and I were put in an area for "USCs," which we eventually learned meant US citizens, separated by gender. We were imprisoned for 8 hours, during which my friend was never allowed a phone call. I was allowed to call my wife and tell her where I was. During my interview with Special Agent William and Special Agent Garcia, they asked me to empty my pockets. When I pulled out gloves, Agent William said those were meant to be taken when I was processed, and complained about having to fill out the form again. He frisked me once more, where he found glass in my pocket from when our car window was shattered. He filled out the form listing my personal items again, but put the wrong date. I was read my rights, I pleaded the fifth and was led back to my cell. Food, water, and bathroom breaks were extremely difficult to acquire. I would ask over the intercom provided in the cell for a bathroom break, be told someone was on their way, then ask again 20 minutes later, be told someone was on their way, wait another 20 minutes, etc. Eventually they either turned off the intercom or it stopped working, because no one would respond. I could get water and bathroom breaks by pounding on the glass when someone happened to walk by and beg them directly. Hours would go by without anyone checking on us. I am vegan and the only food they offered were turkey sandwiches, fruit snacks with gelatin, and granola bars with honey. I eventually ate a granola bar out of hunger. I was in the cell alone for between 1 and 2 hours, then another man was put into my cell, whose shirt was ripped open from his arrest, and an injured toe, who was carried aggressively into an unmarked car during his arrest. After about 4-5 hours, another man was brought in who had a cut on his head from his arrest. He told me he was tackled by 4 or 5 agents during his arrest. At no point was he offered medical assistance. Later I was told that a lawyer was here to see me, and I was able to speak with him in a visitation room. The special agent told me that the door could not be closed all the way, so it was cracked during my interaction with my lawyer. I got the impression that they were not used to having lawyers present, and were trying to follow procedure as best they could. I asked an agent if the other detainees were allowed lawyers and was not answered. At one point, 3 men from the department of Homeland Security Investigations brought me into a cell. They insinuated that they could help me out. After inquiring several times what exactly they meant they finally told me that they could offer undocumented family members of mine legal protection if I have any (I don’t), or money, in exchange for giving them the names of protest organizers, or undocumented persons. I was shocked, and told them no. Finally, after hours of detention, I was told to follow an agent. At no point was I told whether or not I was being charged, or where I was going, but I was led out of the building. I asked if I could use a phone to call my wife to pick me up, and was told I could not. After pleading for several minutes eventually Special Agent William let me use his phone to call my wife. As I was escorted off the property by government agents, I was told to turn right. I was escorted to the protest area, where 5 minutes later, tear gas was deployed and I was struck by a paint ball gun. I was not protesting, I was simply being released without charges after an 8 hour detention. I was on the other side of the street, as instructed by the agents that released me and the agents shouting orders over a bullhorn. A passerby who was tear gassed was panicking and having an asthma attack, so I helped her find a medic to get her an inhaler. I used a stranger's phone to co-ordinate pickup, and was picked up by my wife. During my detention I knew that I was being released. I knew that as a citizen of the United States I have legal protection. The hundred or so other people being detained had no such protection. At this time I don’t need your help, it is the families that are being separated, abused, terrorized, harassed and killed that need your help. If this is happening to me, an American citizen born in the United States, then what is happening to the people in here that have no one calling lawyers on their behalf? That have no constitutional rights to due process? What is happening to the people that they will never be released to see their families, go to their jobs, or walk through their city ever again?
Please take care of yourselves, your family, and your community. I am safe and healthy, if you feel compelled to help, please offer your help to the Immigrant Defense Network at immigrantdefensenetwork.org/. If you know someone detained by ICE, call or text CAIR-MN at 612-206-3360 for 24/7 legal intake.”
Základem celého fungování je online portál DrukArmy. Do něj zástupci ukrajinských jednotek zadávají své potřeby – od drobných součástek pro drony přes zdravotnické pomůcky až po konektory na Starlink.
alright, let's move it to a new post then hey @delta @arcanechat why did y'all choose to use email as the transmission protocol for your custom delta chat protocol, as opposed to, say, xmpp?
arcanechat is just a chatmail client so ArcaneChat didn't choose any protocol
for the chatmail core it was mainly because simply more people have email accounts than people with xmpp accounts, you still can configure delta chat with gmail and write to your grandfather that refuses to install "all that crazy new apps" and prefer to just receive emails
fun fact: since imap/smtp are pretty solid and simple protocols, they are easy to implement and often even come in the standard library of some programming languages
this means programs like apt.izzysoft.de/packages/com.j… can be created, this app is basically a local fake email server with it you can use delta chat to chat over a p2p protocol on yggdrasil, it could be modified to use xmpp as protocol and you will get delta chat over xmpp
yee, that was the original proposition deltachat made when i first heard of it but I don't know many grandpas who would refuse "all those crazy new apps" but would accept email. maybe a cultural thing. my grandpa just likes telephone calls.
issue for me is that deltachat needs its own configured email setup to work as intended (fast msg time, very light spam filtering, light rate limits, etc); its so bad to use deltachat on a "standard" / "normal" email server that they have to issue a PSA to not use those
I think xmpp is a way better protocol to use as the transmission for deltachat, for a number of reasons that i'll put in the post below
Love (/s) how Anubis makes link previews completely useless. Oh, this link goes to "Making sure you're not a bot!". The other link goes to "Making sure you're not a bot!". That third link? Believe it or not, "Making sure you're not a bot!".
Musím říct, že přesun ráno do práce byl dost "zážitek", naštěstí mám v těle stejný počet kostí jako při odchodu z domu, ale klouže to! (hned jak jsem vylel z bytu jsem se málem natáhl)
Klildnou cestu, všem nám přeji, ať to brzy odtaje.
That was just an anniversary. February 8 of this year, I'll have had a broadband connection for 26 years. How exciting. I mean, I only had dial-up for less than 3 years before that.
@Bri I have an ogg file that was also encoded on the same day, so... I dunno. Maybe it's a transcode? No idea what's in that archive. Don't have it, don't want it.
First time elected to the HoC, it seems that despite his incompetence, but his former art dealer, the PM rewarded with a cabinet position. A posiiton about something he has absolutely no clue and all the possibilities to be bribed.
'... just eight months into the job, Solomon faces what he himself recognizes is the use of artificial intelligence for violence against women and children, and yet he utterly refuses to do anything about it.'
Do we really think that a Canadian government that can't find the moral clarity to act against a child abuse platform will resist a multi-pronged American assault on Canadian sovereignty?
'... just eight months into the job, Solomon faces what he himself recognizes is the use of artificial intelligence for violence against women and children, and yet he utterly refuses to do anything about it.'
Do we really think that a Canadian government that can't find the moral clarity to act against a child abuse platform will resist a multi-pronged American assault on Canadian sovereignty?
I'm listening to a BBC World Service news bulletin that mentions Donald Trump threatening to reduce John Kelly's pension in response to John Kelly participating in a video telling soldiers that they don't need to follow illegal orders. I can only imagine what listeners outside of the US are thinking.
Is there an Android calendar app that has nice widgets and is like at least 10% the quality of Apple's calendar app while also not having ads?
This is like one of the weakest points of the Android ecosystem. The mail, calendar, and contacts ecosystem outside of Google/Gmail are complete garbage
thats one of the things ive started disliking android for more and more (dependence on google) there really needs to be a third option for my calendar I use Etar likely not as useful as apples but open source and no ads
@noahnah yeah if we are going to take degoogling seriously we need real, good open source phone apps. The basic PIM suite has not changed much in 25 years, we just forgot to keep making free software versions for all platforms ... 😑
The world needs to stop calling it artificial intelligence, FFS.
There is nothing artificial about computer programming, and the intelligence of the programmers is debatable, if they're running around promoting this AI shite.
Both KDE and GNOME provide a user experience that's so vastly superior to Windows and macOS that the tech media doesn't know what to do or say anymore. They're still holding on to their stale, early 2000s narratives about desktop Linux, incapable of adjusting their preconceived notions to the reality of today.
The reality that both Windows and macOS have become unusable trashfires while KDE and GNOME left them in the dust years ago and continue to improve by leaps and bounds every year just does not compute for these people.
A group of top fashion influencers once praised the "European craftsmanship" of a $600 pair of pumps, only to realize minutes later they were actually holding a $20 pair of shoes from the discount rack at Payless.
In 2018, Payless was tired of being the place you only went to because your mom made you, so they decided to run a sociological experiment on the fashion elite.
They took over a former Armani store in a luxury mall in Santa Monica, stocked it with their standard $20 boots and sneakers, and rebranded the entire shop as "Palessi", named after the amazing designer Bruno Palessi, who didn't actually exist.
They invited social media influencers and fashion experts to the grand opening, serving champagne and treating it like a high-end Italian launch and the trap worked a little too well.
Guests were interviewed holding cheap synthetic sneakers, saying things like, "I would pay $400 or $500 for these," and describing the look as "sophisticated" and "classy."
One influencer spent $640 on a pair of boots that retailed for $30. In just a few hours, the store sold $3,000 worth of inventory at a markup of 1,800%.
Once the sales were finalized, the organizers revealed the truth: the "Palessi" logo was fake, and they were standing inside a Payless commercial.
Did you switch the battery type in the recorder? I'm using these rechargeable lithium batteries lately, on both the H2E and H5 Studio. They do pretty well. Can get you a link later if you want.
@BorrisInABox I did switch it to the nicad setting, and I barely had these batteries in here for a week, and it is already sayihng they are low, and I know they are not as the charger for these batteries gbeeps when they are done. they are junk!
Thing about NiMH batteries is they run at 1.2V, so even at best, they are always underpowering a bit. These rechargeable lithiums I got are 1.5V, like regular alcaline batteries. The charger doesn't beep. It's just a case with 8 battery slots and a USB C port with some lights.
@BorrisInABox is this the one you have? I am trying to do a search on my own, and going on what you said, I found this
Rechargeable AA Batteries Lithium with Charger,8 pack 1.5V 3000mWh Double A Battery Rechargeable,Long Lasting Pilas Recargables Lithium ion AA Battery with Charging Storage Box
@BorrisInABox I do have one good question though. in part of the detailed description, it says not to use over 3A, I assume 3amps, but most of the USB hubs I have I bet are more than that, but if I don't use something that is 3A I won't get fast charging, like if I used my computer to charge them. can you help unconfuse my brain? wouldn't my USB hubs only send what the charger wanted?
@BorrisInABox well one of the things I have is a 10 port USB charging hub. two ports are 65 wats three are 30 wats, and the other 5, the USB A ports are 20 wats. do you think it might be safe on there? meaning would the hub only give what the charger wants?
@BorrisInABox well here is hoping it doesn't start a fire of some sort, as that would totally suck! I assume they are not precharged? that is no big deal at all, as a lot of batteries out there aren't.
@BorrisInABox and that is fine with me. I did notice some of the batteries out there even said lithium/NIMH, not just lithium. is that some sort of hybrid or something?
@BorrisInABox Nah, nothin like the good ol' lead acid ones, the ones you add water to but can be shipped as an accepted hazardous material provided you pack the thing with vermiculite, and hope the shipping dock workers remember to read the "This side up" label is followed. Now those are mint upon my lips, spice that'll wake you up real fast as it eats its way down your digestion tract. Your welcome.
@BorrisInABox @ner I wanted to make sure the batteries, and charger I ordered would come either today, or friday. I wanted to avoid receiving them on thursday. it says it will be here today, so here is hoping. I had 14 minutes to order it, and I did.
@BorrisInABox I just got my batteries, and charger a little while ago. do you know how long aprox they take to charge? I did notice only the lid gets warm, and not the sides. I also think the port is in a very strange spot. on the left side of the lid, and not the body.
@BorrisInABox also, I am guessing the answer is no, but can you leave the batteries in the case until you need them? I wouldn't think you could do that as they would be connected with the lid closed, and I would think that could cause them to leak, or something. now maybe you can if you leave the lid open, so that the positive isn't touching the spot in the lid on the case.
trying to help this FreeBSD user in China get their microphone working on a Dell Latitude 3510 which has a Realtek ALC236.
I found instructions on how to debug this in a FreeBSD bug report, but it's guessing game which bits you have to twiddle to get it to work.
By that I mean, you can "reprogram" pins for snd_hda devices (because they have very reprogrammable/reconfigurable input/output devices) using specific values in /boot/device.hints
anyway, I had a loose grasp on what the debug output means and what to look for so I pasted it into Claude and explained what I was doing and it broke down exactly what all the output means and suggested 3 different options that could get 2 different inputs working correctly as a microphone. It's always possible the hardware is lying or at least mislabeled the audio jacks though, that's why there's 3 different options.
If one of these works I'm going to laugh my ass off as it's yet another case of "AI is bad, except it debugged something that nobody has been able to fix for almost 6 years now." And then the kernel can just be patched with these same values and it will work automatically for everyone in the future.
If you could just paste the output for any Realtek ALC chip and get working values that would make it a LOT easier for kernel devs to support this spaghetti hardware. We really can't expect the devs to have access to every goddamn laptop model in existence. It's just too much to ask.
Baudouin Feildel
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •Marco Arts
in reply to Daniel Gultsch • • •