mastodon - Link to source
Okay, so rant of the day: I think it's great that people develop apps and such to make things work better, IE mastodon, bluesky, etc, but for the love of it all, can't there be a place to actully find them without having to use the someone who knows someone who know someone else so you might, maybe, they'll consider, giving you the link? I mean, I got the mastodon one today with no problem, (thankfully I knew the right people), but now I'm googling a telegram one five ways to Sunday and getting nothing. I get that we as people who are blind are a small population, but damn, that doesn't mean we should have to play virtual hide and seek every time something new comes out.

mastodon - Link to source

Google: "We found that this gambling ad doesn't violate our policies against gambling ads, but you can personalise your ad experience to block the kinds of ads you don't want."

Me: "So, can I block gambling ads?"

Google: "No, we don't allow gambling ads so a toggle to block gambling ads doesn't make sense. What are you talking about?"

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

ohhhh crying in the libraryyyyyyyy

A student in their final semester who has been checking out a laptop from us every week their whole time here just came up to return, not renew, one because they could finally afford their own and they wrote up a testimonial to talk about the positive impact it had for them.

There is a lot, way too much, bullshit at my institution, but these little moments where we get to really see what the library can do for a person is what keeps me in the fight.

mastodon - Link to source
Wow, this looks amazing and is something I've wanted for a very long time. Doubt it's accessible, but you never know. tonalic.com/#video-1-1 @chikim

Tonalic — a musician by your side

Tonalic adapts real studio performances from world-class musicians to your song’s chords, tempo and groove. No AI, no loops, no MIDI. Just living, musical performances powered by Celemony’s Tonalic Engine and always royalty-free.
www.tonalic.com
@Chi Kim

mastodon - Link to source
😲 Boris Cherny, a lead engineer and creator of Claude Code at Anthropic: "In the last thirty days, 100% of my contributions to Claude Code were written by Claude Code." "I landed 259 PRs -- 497 commits, 40k lines added, 38k lines removed. Every single line was written by Claude Code + Opus 4.5."
#LLM #AI #ML
youtu.be/0zdLr7xiOFw?si=WRF03V…
x.com/bcherny/status/200488782…

Claude Code is Now Writing Claude Code

XAI accelerates the compute arms race with a third MacroHarder facility targeting nearly two gigawatts of training power and hundreds of thousands of GPUs. O...
YouTube
#AI #ML #llm

mastodon - Link to source
🤔 Nvidia released Music Flamingo model for music Q&A for genres, instrumentation, tempo, key, chords, lyric transcription, cultural context, etc. I wonder whether they are laying the groundwork to train their own music generation model. Music Flamingo could be an easy way to produce a huge labeled dataset. #LLM #AI #MusicGen musicflamingo-nv-umd.github.io…

Music Flamingo

musicflamingo-nv-umd.github.io
#AI #llm #musicgen

mastodon - Link to source
Schwuler "Tagesthemen"-Chef geht zu Axel Springer
Als ich die Überschrift gelesen habe, dachte ich zuerst es geht um den Herrn, dessen Namen man nicht nennen darf, weil man dann gleich mit Anzeigen überzogen wird :mastolol: queer.de/detail.php?article_id… #ARD #ÖRR #Tagesschau #Tagesthemen #gay #queer #lgbtQ

Schwuler "Tagesthemen"-Chef geht zu Axel Springer

Der bisherige Leiter der ARD-"Tagesthemen", Helge Fuhst, wechselt zum Medienkonzern Axel Springer. (Kunst & Kultur - Medien)
queer.de
#queer #LGBTQ #gay #ard #tagesschau #tagesthemen #orr

mastodon - Link to source

So this is really bad. I know. But y'all I feel better these days than I have in years. Why? Because LLM's not only make me feel like I'm doing things and making things, but they actually do make things. Slowly yes, with lots of answering questions and guiding it, but it really helps.

So now I have Emacs with Emacspeak on my Android phone, working on an MUD client, got accessible Lemuroid so I can get TalkBack descriptions of games, about every thing I could ever want besides some Braille stuff. And when I get tired of all the Emacs stuff, I'll try and rangle BRLTTY into accepting Contracted Braille input and try and get a Braille Access-like mode going. And then see if I can get BRLTTY to work as well in Termux as it does in Linux. Like no joke, LLM's have opened this up to being a possibility for me.

Now I get it. These are just nice-to-have things. But shoot y'all, it's freaking fun!

#accessibility #blind #ai

#Accessibility #blind #AI
in reply to Devin Prater :blind:

mastodon - Link to source

Tech Singer

I disagree that these are "nice to have things". They're important, we only don't think so because we, blind people in general, have been in such a serious mess and have been living in a constant battle to get the basics. These things are actually very important, and I say that as one who has never used Emacs and wouldn't know a MUD client if it came up and said hello. Because there has been so little done for blind users, and because every step has been like pulling teeth, and because of the constant low quality we're subjected to, we think if we have the basics, that's enough. It isn't. Tech is supposed to let us do things we couldn't do before. The opinions of others on how valuable those things are is of no importance or interest. Of course, I include my own opinion in that. If you find these things improve your life, then they are absolutely vital and there's no reason whatsoever to think they're unimportant/frivolous. This is one of the advantages of LLMs. I don't see many, but I do see this, the fact that they will get some work done without huge expense when that work simply wouldn't be done otherwise is a wonderful surprise. You feel better because you're rational. The life of a blind person consists, very often, in smashing one's head against walls. Now that smashing is both less painful and actually achieving results. Also, you're not using your head on the wall. Isn't feeling great about that the most reasonable thing anyone can do?
This entry was edited (22 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source

In November 2026, a historic milestone awaits humanity's Voyager 1. The legendary probe will reach the "one light-day" mark, meaning it will be so distant that communication requires a 48-hour round trip!

🧵 1/3

#Voyager1 #Voyager #Science #Astronomy #Physics #Space #DeepSpace #Nature #Astrodon #NASA

Image featuring a silhouette of the Voyager 1 spacecraft set against a vibrant, nebulous space background. At the bottom center, there is bold text that says, "It’s official. NASA confirms Voyager 1 will reach one light-day from Earth in 2026."
#science #nature #astronomy #space #nasa #Astrodon #physics #voyager #voyager1 #deepspace

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source
Spotify subscribers -- prepare for a price hike, as the company has announced another increase for users in the U.S., Estonia, and Latvia driving the cost notably above Apple Music.
appleinsider.com/articles/26/0…

Spotify Premium jumps to $12.99/mo, $2 more expensive than Apple Music

Spotify subscribers — prepare for a price hike, as the company has announced another increase for users in the U.S., Estonia, and Latvia driving the cost notably above Apple Music.
Amber Neely (AppleInsider)

gotosocial - Link to source

The latest episode of 99% Invisible is pretty good, but had a moment near the end that I found super valuable. (30: minute mark)

They discussed the value of being senior and reaching out to younger folk in the field to give them support.
Going from "I don't know how to do this" to "My way is how to do this" to finally "There's a million ways to do this, just do it better than I did" is one of the most rewarding things. You never know the kind of impact that you will make, particularly if you were successful.

Identify the folk that will move the folk forward and do what you can to support them.

Exit Interview With Michael Bierut - 99% Invisible

Come see Roman as he hosts a conversation with The Memory Palace‘s Nate DiMeo on Thursday, January 22, 2026 (7pm PT) at KQED in San Francisco. Get your tickets! Michael Bierut is one of the best known designers in America.
99% Invisible

mastodon - Link to source

⚔️ Der Deutsche Presserat hat sein schärfstes Schwert gezogen: Für ihre falsche „Skandal“-Story über angebliche Geheimverträge zwischen EU-Kommission und NGOs erteilte er der WELT eine Rüge. Diese muss sie nun auf der Seite des Artikels veröffentlichen – was bisher nicht geschieht.

🔎 Bei dem Artikel handele es sich um eine „gravierende Irreführung der Leserschaft und einen schweren Verstoß gegen die journalistische Sorgfaltspflicht“, urteilt der Presserat. Das ist ein äußerst wichtiges Signal, auch für alle anderen Medien!

📣 DIE Welt muss die Rüge jetzt dort veröffentlichen, wo auch die gerügten Artikel stehen. Aber bisher hat sie das nicht getan, auch unsere Emails beantwortet sie nicht. Damit darf sie nicht durchkommen. Für ihre Verletzung des Pressekodex sollte sie zumindest gerade stehen.

🔁 Helft uns, den Post zu verbreiten und Druck zu machen, damit DIE WELT die Rüge auch öffentlich macht!

lobbycontrol.de/aus-der-lobbyw…


Presserat-Rüge: Irreführende Berichterstattung der WELT über NGOs | LobbyControl

Der Deutsche Presserat hat die Springer-Zeitung DIE WELT für ihre Berichterstattung über Nichtregierungsorganisationen (NGOs) gerügt. Damit reagierte er auf eine Beschwerde von uns.
Christina Deckwirth (LobbyControl)

mastodon - Link to source

Announcing The Linux Command Line Seventh Internet Edition and Third Print Edition

Good News Everyone!

I have just released the Seventh Internet Edition of my book. Along with the Internet Edition release we're just a few days from the general availability of the new print edition which is based on the aforementioned Internet Edition.

See all the details here: linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php

#Linux #Books

A photo of yours truly opening a box of newly printed copies of my book fresh from No Starch Press.
A copy of of my book sitting happily on a table

Linux Command Line Books by William Shotts

linuxcommand.org
#linux #books

reshared this

in reply to William Shotts

pleroma - Link to source

Jason J.G. White

I read chapters of an earlier edition to decide whether I could recommend it to aspiring members of the Linux community. I've been enthusiastically recommending it since then. I also notice that this edition is a tagged PDF file, which will make it more accessible to readers who use screen readers (e.g., people who are blind or who have low vision).
You can find out whether a PDF file is tagged by running the pdfinfo command.

mastodon - Link to source

Gajim 2.4.2 has been released! 🎉

Installing Gajim on :apple_inc: macOS is now only a single click away. This release brings a simplified macOS setup, easier sharing for files 🗃️ and support for link previews 🔗.

Thank you for all your contributions ❤️ Let us know what you think!

Support Gajim's development: liberapay.com/Gajim

#gajim #xmpp #chat

gajim.org/posts/2026-01-15-gaj…


Gajim 2.4.2

What’s New Gajim Setup for macOS Installing Gajim on macOS was possible for a while now, but it was inconvenient and difficult for most users.
gajim.org
#xmpp #chat #gajim

Nicoco reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

Managed to catch a gnome-shell message "cannot reopen /dev/dri/card0: device busy" when plugging a USB-C dongle for an external monitor. So I logged out, and restarted my session *after* plugging in the dongle - surely it won't need to fuck with the device then? - and it started working.

(This is a dongle for an external monitor that I had never managed to make work. Apparently all I needed was to plug it in before starting my session.)

(Why was GDM happy with plugging in the middle...?)

mastodon - Link to source
So all I can do is experiment. I’m refining the settings for ɜ, ɚ, and ɝ. For ɜ, I’ll set cf1 to 530, cf2 to 1350, and cf3 at 2400. For ɚ, I'll use cf1=500, cf2=1350, and cf3 at 1700, with pf settings to match. For ɝ, I'll use cf3 at 1600, with similar pf settings. I'll keep 'r' for the tap/trill, and we'll see where it comes out when I get to it. Probably nowhere. But this is how a speech engine like this comes together. :D (LOL I asked GPT to convert the sounds into their IPA notations on this post)
This entry was edited (23 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source
Fun fact! There isn't a fixed number for IPA representations because the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system with about 107 core symbols for sounds, plus numerous diacritics (around 31) and suprasegmental marks (around 17), allowing for countless combinations to represent sounds across all human languages, creating unique "strings" for each word or utterance, and what NV Speech Player needs to do is map these in languages to how they actually sound out by the voice in terms of frequencies. So yes, quite a task. That's why it may not come together for awhile and I'm focusing on responding to Jira tickets at work :D

Zach Bennoui reshared this.

pleroma - Link to source

~2 years grinding working on an app, and now you can vibe code it in like a week

amazing what we've done with technology now. Sure we're going to have to spend time sifting the turds from the gold, but there will be more gold than ever
RT: mastodon.social/users/dansup/s…

dansup (@dansup@mastodon.social)

I spent 7 years working on @PixelFed@pixelfed.social almost daily, and I've wanted to build an app ever since. I'm a PHP/JS dev though, and thought it was impossible. So I forked a react-native pixelfed client in 2023 and slowly learned.
Mastodon

mastodon - Link to source

Love to see the age range for this shite... I bet most of these people are under 40 and NOT raised properly...

Incidents include passengers accused of inappropriate touching, instigating fights, uttering threats, sneaking onto flights, refusing to sit during landing/takeoff, consuming their own alcohol, vaping cannabis, and a wide range of “intoxicated and unruly” behaviour... ctvnews.ca/canada/article/inde…

#aircanada #westjet #porterairlines #airtravel #cdnpoli #polcan #cdntranspo #transpocan


Indecent exposure on flight among 114 disruptive passenger reports filed in Canada in 2025

From assaulting flight attendants to smoking onboard and even indecent exposure, Canada’s transportation authorities logged more than 100 reports of disruptive air passengers in 2025.
Daniel Otis (CTVNews)
#cdnpoli #polcan #aircanada #cdntranspo #westjet #porterairlines #airtravel #transpocan

mastodon - Link to source

This is wonderful. Sorry it’s an IG link, you might need a computer to view.

instagram.com/reel/DSxpimSCRok…


NOEL DEYZEL 🇿🇦 on Instagram: "I had a “survival” year in 2016, sometimes we need these years to teach us the lessons we need to grow and flourish🙏🏼 . Next year can be different, uplift yourself and nurture your circumstances so you can be better 🙌🏼❤️ . I

550K likes, 4,190 comments - noeldeyzel_bodybuilder on December 27, 2025: "I had a “survival” year in 2016, sometimes we need these years to teach us the lessons we need to grow and flourish🙏🏼 .
Instagram
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Simon Jaeger

@clv1 Waiting on the image to actually copy now, but looking at the cfg files, I notice there is an option to start the installer with speech but I don't see an option to start the live environment with speech. The live environment includes the installer and it's possible that if I just go to a blank TTY, that *will* be the live environment. We'll find out soon.
@Cleverson
in reply to Simon Jaeger

mastodon - Link to source

Cleverson

I recall asking last year on a mailing list about this. Someone said that the graphical installer inside the desktop isn't accessible with orca, or at least not friendly. The only option for now is a text mode installer with Speakup, but it's outside the desktop. In any case, it you want to start the desktop, Orca should work well, just press the classical key alt+win+s to start orca.
in reply to Cleverson

mastodon - Link to source

Simon Jaeger

@clv1 Yeah, the installer speaks, but the installer isn't the live environment. Switching to a spare TTY will just give me Busybox. I was hoping I could start up the live environment and make it talk without having to use the huge Gnome/Mate editions. But it looks like Espeakup isn't even part of the default packages, so I'd either need to modify the environment, use it over SSH (which is extra fun on a laptop with no ethernet jack), or give up and use Mate. Oh well.
@Cleverson
⇧