Just tried #FastPlay. Wow, just wow! I'd like some more enhancements, but it seems to be very, very decent. At least, for a nitpicky guy like me who basically doesn't like anything except for Winamp and 1by1, FastPlay is definitely a thing to keep. Thanks so much @Bri! And special kudos for not using Python this time 😜 As every C++-based solution it's painful to build, but it's native which is a huge plus for me.
even then, I made it super easy to build. You must only do three things. Make sure visual c++ build tools is installed, run downloads-deps.bat and then build_new.bat
Oh yeah, right, you have a download script also! Anyway, thanks so much for global hotkeys and speaking of times, like remaining time is a must for me. Only a small thing: you probably need to implement a custom hotkey input, it doesn't recognize Windows. I.e.: try Add global hotkey, then Play/pause, then try to press Windows+F8. You'll get just F8, without the Windows modifier. Although I saw in code you process it correctly.
Thank you for such recommendation! I couldn't use the latest Winamp due to complexity of it's interface and that it didn't want to play m3u files I switched to VLC but I am not satisfied with it so I would happily choose something else.
Thanks to the people who boosted my posts yesterday concerning the FastPlay audio app. A lot can happen in 24 hours so I have updated the two posts which I will now boost. I will then leave it for a couple of weeks to see if anything else transpires as I will not keep updating them.
Today I would like to introduce you to another audio player for Windows. As I understand it, the developer originally wrote this for his own use but has decided to share it. I am very glad that is the case. The player is called FastPlay, so if you've been paying attention as to what is going on, you will know that this comes from the same developer as the social media client Fast-SM, which many of us are now using. That tells us two things: the app is going to be excellent and suggestions are very much considered.
This is a very small, lightweight, audio player. That means it is designed to be a small file size to download. That is important. I downloaded an app recently which contained approximately 5000 files comprising 500 MB which was absolutely crazy for the job at hand. This is just over 2 MB in size. In order to describe some of its features, I can do no better than quote from the Readme file. Fastplay is a very lightweight, simple, yet powerful and flexible media player for Windows. It is designed to be accessible, minimalistic, yet powerful, all at the same time. It is also very small, and fast and responsive. Note! Fastplay is not designed to be a replacement for a complete media player. Rather, it's designed to be a small, lightweight media player that you can either use seriously or for fun! It has a vast list of effects including an EQ, reverb, echo, tempo/pitch, stereo width, and more, which you can adjust in realtime. End of quote. I think that may have been the case when that statement was written, but it has evolved into including some very nice options indeed, such as: Completely configurable Global hotkeys. The ability to have the screen-reader speak events through keystrokes, such as elapsed time, remaining time etc, Control+Shift+E and Control+Shift+R. Load all files in folder when pressing Enter. You are able to set default file types. All of these are achieved through the Options dialog and there is an extraordinary amount of configuration in there. Bookmarking of playback position in files. A Radio menu currently allowing you to add stations if you have the URL. Searching for stations using various sources is also available. RadioBrowser is a very good starting point. The ability to record the output from stations. This is a nice one. Some of us have used Tapin Radio for this previously. But the accessibility of that over the years has been somewhat questionable. Of course FastPlay is completely accessible. Not only that, but you can schedule recordings too. It is possible to search for (and subscribe to) podcasts using Apple's iTunes directory. The vast majority of podcasts can be found there. The facility to add specific URL's pointing to podcast feeds can also be added. There are many more features which you can explore and customise through the options, activated with Control+Comma. End of Part 1.
FastPlay Part 2. If you do not wish to have the track title and artist displayed in the window title, this can be disabled, again in Options. However, you can press numbers 1 through to 0, above the letter keys, to cause the screen-reader to recite playing characteristics. For example when listening to an internet stream, press number 1 for the song title and artist. Add the Shift key to any of those numbers to display the information in an edit field for checking spelling or copying to the clipboard.
One interesting concept is the Virtual Sliders. You can configure which options appear as part of the sliders through Options, Effects. The concept is that you press the left and right bracket keys to move between the effects, then use up and down arrow keys to adjust the focused effect. For example, if Tempo was enabled, a good option to adjust for listening to talking books or podcasts, you would select this with right bracket and adjust with the up and down arrow keys.
This app has only been available for a few days but like Fast-SM shows an enormous amount of promise. If you've been using other players and experienced navigational difficulties especially, it is worth serious consideration. Take a look at Options, Control+Comma, as a starting point because there is so much configuration you can do. I've already extensively customised it myself. You can obtain FastPlay at: github.com/masonasons/FastPlay…
@bebop All of these consider the freedom of the individual to be far more important than any consequences for society in general.
In the case of the FSF / EFF, it's the freedom to run an entirely custom software stack on any device of the user's choosing. This is something relatively few people care about, just as relatively few people care about concealed carry. However, locking devices down is important for scam prevention and to prevent "evil maid" attacks, and most people want that a lot more.
To my neighbours, how can you use 2 drills at the same time for several days over weeks. Get your shit done how many holes do you wanna drill, we can fucking hear it.
Not entirely related thread, but one problem I see after looking at Conversations again recently is that it is difficult to get in contact for new users. There is a QR code scanner button at the top, which is good, but getting your own QR code to show is hidden behind 3-dot-menu -> Manage accounts -> Account details -> Share -> Show QR code.
The other part of onboarding is creating an account, can also be improved but is otherwise ok compared to adding contacts.
The last menu "Invite to server" what exactly should be (I have no spare phone to test)?
Is there something in common with the Great Invitations recently added by @zeank to Ejabberd?
Because the generated xmpp URI by this menu looks similar like if I create invite from the command line.
Also, my IBR are disabled and no one can send great invites except me from the command line. So in my configuration this menu should not work (as I expected)?
Yes, the 'Invite to server' triggers the "Great Invitations" aka Easy Invites. Prosody and Snikket have that and since recently ejabberd as well.
This is exactly for small, family and friends deployments that don’t have open registrations.
I’m not exactly sure how the access control looks like on ejabberd. Maybe only the admin can trigger easy invites. I guess theoretically there are also deployments possible where all users could trigger them.
I need to get a proper YT proxy front-end going (I might install my own Invidious, but we'll see) I am slowly switching EU-based services where possible, but it's not a requirement.
oh my. 5 hours of debugging and updating and trial and error later, and I discover that the version of libvips fwoof.space's server was using was somehow not built with png support among other things. Needless to say, videos and images (both uploading and viewing) now work again, after months. If an image or video doesn't play for you, give it time. I have a task running in the background that's grabbing 93551 remote images/videos and is going to take the next 5 hours, but after that we should be good!
Почему Конституция 1993 года оказалась удобной для построения «вертикали власти» — и была ли траектория к авторитаризму заложена в её тексте? На примерах Ек...
И еще одно интересно. "Традиционные ценности" там хорошо описаны. Это в целом странное явление. В области техники примитивизм очевидно невыгоден, экскаватор лучше лопаты. Примитивизм же в области социальных конструкций люди почему-то ценят и провозглашают, являясь своеобразными социальными луддитами. Хотя провести параллель не сложно.
Да, в смысле примитивизма, именно примитивность анархизма или прочих измов для меня всегда является первым признаком того, что это не лучшее решение сложных социальных проблем. Решение должно быть осмысленно сложным, это один из признаков его зрелости и работоспособности, хоть и туманный.
I want a MAGA hat!!! It's clearly my purpose. Same colors, same presentation. But . . . . . MAKE ACCESSIBILITY GLOBALLY AVAILABLE Or, better, MORE ACCESSIBILITY GLOBALLY AVAILABLE.
@MewProjects FastPlay: Sorry if this is already a thing or there's a good reason why it's not, but any possibility of an option so that, when recording an Internet stream, it can save disk space by recording the raw stream as received rather than the resulting decoded audio?
Aha so it basically does an audio capture of itself? Makes sense. In other words, recording happens at the output stage, when everything's been processed.
small grammar/rewrite wording issue in the PR section: "I believe for PRs we have better much means to sort out the weed with automatic means, since we have tools, tests and scanners to verify such contributions."
Oh, actually related: the IBB HackerOne listing still lists curl, should this be removed from the IBB listings as well? hackerone.com/ibb/policy_scope…
Charging people money in an International context is complicated and a maintenance burden.
I think if it does come to this, you might consider requiring a small donation to a charity? This would dramatically reduce the hassle on all sides, and do something good as a bonus.
of course not, but I guess someone could spin it like "they now have incentive to publish buggy code", right? Anyway, that wasn't the point of the post and I didn't want to insinuate any bad intentions, sorry. I'll remove that part.
I'm on the security report triage team for CPython, pip, urllib3, Requests, and a handful of other open source projects.
I'm also in a trusted position such that I get "tagged in" to other open sou...
Maybe submitting a repot should cost something? The people that are confident about their findings would get the reward that easily pays for that. For the slop that's just too expensive.
Lets talk batteries for a moment. I kinda like that everything got built-in batteries that can be charged via USB (preferably USB-C) nowadays, but then again, batteries die and most of them cannot be replaced easily. I thus do like to have battery-powered devices with rechargeable batteries that can easily be replaced whenever necessary. However, just a few of the battery types do have rechargeable options. 1/X
I currently require the following kinds of batteries in my flat:
AA, AAA, LR44, 4LR44, CR2032, 9V block, CR2025.
Of those, only AA, AAA and the 9V blocks got rechargeable options. I do get that batteries got different sizes and voltages, depending on what is required, but I feel like we could have been able to just decide on fewer battery types and size options. That is all.
Oh and, just give me replaceable and rechargeable batteries in devices, and I won't have to buy batteries anymore. Thx.
So trying Gemini Cli again since it's been a few months. Seems they are leaning into skills and helpers which could be nice to have. I know others already do this as well. Nice to have easy access to common workflows though.
Another execution of an American citizen. A regime that has no strategy but to lash out. The struggle against Trumpist authoritarianism is only going to get bloodier.
My new piece. And for this one, I allowed myself to write angry:
Alex Pretti was a 37-year-old white man. A U.S. citizen. By those metrics, he was part of the demographic that is least vulnerable to the Trumpist assault. But as long as MAGA is in control of the levers of state power, anyone can quickly become a target.
Here is the clearest encapsulation of Trumpism as a political project: Redraw the lines of who belongs, who is part of the “Volk.” If they decide you are not, you have forfeited not only your rights and protections as a citizen, but also your humanity, your very right to live.
As a default, we should assume the government will keep escalating – not as part of a grand masterplan, but because they have no other strategy and nowhere else to go. MAGA has no coherent idea of how to get from where we are now to consolidated autocracy.
I finally mounted my wireless ZigBee-based IR sender in my livingroom yesterday to send IR commands to TV and soundbar, since my TV is half-smart, as in it can be turned off via ethernet when its on, but it cannot be turned on when its off and needs IR for that (dunno, its weird). Anyway, I was also able to bridge the accessibility gap of the Unfolded Circle Remote 3 with the help of Home Assistant, since the integration can launch every activity on the remote. #smarthome #homeassistant
That gives me a universal remote with activities for everything around the flat, an alexa integration which bridges the touch-screen accessibility gap since I can tell it to turn whichever activity on, physical buttons on the remote mapped to whichever activity is currently running, and some smart automations which e.g. link the on/off state of the soundbar to the state of the TV. Kinda neat. The Remote sometimes seems to lose connection to the WiFi, but an update will hopefully fix that later.
Was kotzen mich meine Berufskollegen regelmäßig an. "Noch nie hat der deutsche Staat so viel #Kindergeld ausgezahlt wie 2025", schreibt Zeit Online über einen Anstieg um 800 Mio. auf 55 Mrd.. Das sind weniger als 1,5% bei einer Inflation von 2,2%, also effektiv ein gesunkener Wert. Einordnung bitte! Als Lautsprecher für interessengeleitete Pressemitteilungen braucht man uns Journalisten wirklich nicht.
@felixule Clippy EM 272 Mics attached to my window, with a cheap 3.5mm cable leading inside to a Raspberry Pi streaming to icecast. I don't have a proper recording setup yet, initially wanted to vibe code something but faced some bugs, so that was just a manual recording.
What a nice condition to start of the week, apparently we have 12cm snow outside, so I'm doing home office, great. I'm serious that's really making stuff more chill.
@Bri Using the newest FastPlay GitHub build, volume changes aren't announced, neither can I switch the sliders with the brackets anymore. Can we also get the abillity to replay a file with space when it has stopped?
Nevím jestli je to psáno "sarkasticky" ... U nás celou noc pršelo a opravdu HODNĚ, nahoře se to tak nějak udrželo, ale dole je v 6h ráno +5°C a zmizelo tak 60% sněhu.
Wellp, I tried to fix "google" "poodle" and "fable" and "able" to sound good, as well as "good" and "book", but probably will need more tuning. Just too tired to tune it, but the rules are there for those who are now wanting to and don't like how they sound. eurpod.com/synths/nvSpeechPlay… I went back all the way to the 2025-v3 add-on to compare it too, and aside from "player" having that "ay" sound now in the newer version, things sound quite identical. Words like same, faded too. None of these will contaminate other languages as phonetic variations are mapped for each language too. I also had people point out how pause mode short and long were not nuanced enough. Well, now they really are, but I made sure to not make "short" very different, it's mostly "long" that's longer now. I'm sure now people will say "short is too long!" but it was melding words together in some languages being that short, so now it's at a reasonable length, "short" is about the pauses that Eloquence has when pauses is set to "shorten all pauses" and "long" is when you have it on "do not shorten." At least, that was more of the approximation used.
Canadians, time to #BoycottPattison. Jim Pattison, BC grocer billionaire, owns a US warehouse that will soon be an ICE facility. Let’s crank up the boycott pressure on Pattison and organize for a real #wealthtax on these ghouls. This is a stark reminder of how the billionaire class aids and abets fascist forces.
Join Liam and Alyssa as they stay out of the cold. Oklahoma City is receiving some crazy bad weather, but they are safe inside. Liam discusses his trip to Seattle, and both Liam and Alyssa then do …
Just so exhausted. Feel like I ran a marathon again. 7 Am work meeting tomorrow. I'll likely work on more Speech Player things, but maybe can't until after work since it's a packed day with meetings until 10 AM and then I'm sure all the Slacks and everything else after. As much as it's easy to make it a full-time project, it wouldn't pay the bills.
High school students using AI to write college application essays that are then graded by AI from admissions departments is a great example of how AI usage devalues systems while people can accurately point to “productivity gains” from using AI.
Bri🥰
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