mastodon - Link to source
The speechPlayer.dll now exports additional functions for real-time control of the voice source characteristics. These allow callers to adjust the "voicing tone" — the spectral shape and character of the glottal pulse — without modifying individual frames.
• speechPlayer_setVoicingTone(handle, VoicingTone*) — Apply a new voicing tone configuration.
• speechPlayer_getVoicingTone(handle, VoicingTone*) — Retrieve the current voicing tone settings.
• speechPlayer_hasVoicingToneSupport(handle) — Check if the DLL supports voicing tone control (for backward compatibility).
VoicingTone struct:
voicingPeakPos
double
0.85–0.95
Glottal pulse peak position. Lower values create a more pressed/tense voice quality; higher values
voicedPreEmphA
double
0.0–0.97
Pre-emphasis filter coefficient. Higher values boost high frequencies before formant filtering.
voicedPreEmphMix
double
0.0–1.0
Mix between original and pre-emphasized signal. 0.0 = no pre-emphasis, 1.0 = full pre-emphasis.
highShelfGainDb
-12 to +12
High-shelf EQ gain in dB. Positive values brighten the output; negative values darken it.
highShelfFcHz
double
500–8000
High-shelf corner frequency in Hz. Controls where the shelf boost/cut begins.
highShelfQ
double
0.3–2.0
High-shelf Q factor. Higher values create a more resonant shelf transition.
voicedTiltDbPerOct
double
-24 to +24
Spectral tilt in dB/octave. Negative values create a brighter sound (less natural roll-off); positive values create a darker, more muffled sound.

mastodon - Link to source

We just tried out our collaborative text-editor Reflection on a smartphone using @postmarketOS and are a bit blown away by how cool that was. All it took was to install it via the Flathub store.

#localfirst #p2p #postmarketos

Home screen of Reflection text-editor app with the text "Take Notes, Together" and two buttons "New Document" and "Join Document" running on a Fairphone 5 with PostmarketOS installed
App Icon of Reflection on the home screen, next to some other apps
#postmarketos #p2p #localfirst @postmarketOS

mastodon - Link to source

Is software ever done? When I started writing this I assumed the answer was yes, but by the time I finished, I'm not sure anything is ever done (not just software)

opensourcesecurity.io/2026/01-…

#opensource #EOL


Is software ever done?

I posted a graph on LinkedIn. It showed that of the 10 million open source projects tracked by ecosyste.ms, more than half haven’t been updated in two years.
Josh Bressers (Open Source Security)
#opensource #eol

mastodon - Link to source
NVSpeech Player with phoneme editor and NVDA Addon version 1.8.5 Update from this link, or the updater in the add-on. I must run to work stuff. No more speechplayer until the evening.
This release adds proper tilt control to the NVDA driver.
No changes to phoneme editor, no time before work. Only changes to the speech player exports, and the driver, and packs to improve the R sound.
github.com/tgeczy/NVSpeechPlay…
in reply to Tamas G

mastodon - Link to source

Amir

This is the first time I'm using this add-on with NVDA as one of its voices. I like the 44100 Hz sample rate! However, at least in this release I'm noticing that with the US English default voice, the k sound actually sounds like the t sound, either individually or as part of words. For instance, comma sounds like taama, and combo sounds like taambo. Any chance of improving this?
in reply to Amir

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

@amir I could have done the upsample trick with Audioop in the driver, it might sound a bit cleaner but also create aliasing (unless we upsampled the 16000 hZ version to it, maybe slightly better.) So in true reality with these formant synths upsampling is always cleaner, but telling the engine to sample at a frequency results in more burstyness and voice character becomes more "whispery" as well.
@Amir
in reply to Tamas G

mastodon - Link to source

Jonathan

Yo, so I've finally checked this out, and wanna say great work on this man. It really has potential, happy to see there is also german in the languages, I'm still trying to think of good words to describe whhat I'd love to be improved with the voices, but let me try around with it a bit more first. Well done, don't burn yourself out or down talk your work. If you need a break, take it, noone wwill judge you. But nice progress.

mastodon - Link to source

"We actually hired a guy to do Community Outreach but he just keeps disingenuously wanging on about making the dick-hammering opt-in"

mastodon.social/@TheZeldaZone/…

Zelda 🎀 (@TheZeldaZone@mastodon.social)

"Hello, We're Firefox, The Only Browser That Hasn't Hit Itself In The Dick With A Hammer. For years now, folks use us because of our un-hammered dick. Now, you may be wondering why today we've brought this hammer and pulled out our dick.
Zelda 🎀 (Mastodon)
in reply to Matt

mastodon - Link to source

Magneto was right

RE: drwebdomain.blog/2026/01/28/mo…

@mattw @cstross @TheZeldaZone

They have 1.4 billion dollars to drop on some AI bullshit

mastodon.me.uk/@drweb2@drwebdo…

THEY. DON'T. NEED. MY. MONEY.

Or yours


Mozilla building an AI ‘rebel alliance’ to take on OpenAI, Anthropic – CNBC

Mark Surman, president of Mozilla Foundation, speaks at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival in New York City, U.S., May 22, 2024. Andrew Kelly | Reuters Tech Mozilla is building…
DrWeb's Domain
@Charlie Stross @Matt @Zelda 🎀

mastodon - Link to source

#XMPP Summit

The current topics are "Account Recovery", "Passwordless Authentication" and "Mentions".

The XMPP Summit:
xmpp.org/2025/11/xmpp-summit-2…

Meet us at #FOSDEM 2026, too!

#jabber #chat #opensource #messaging #federation #Brussels, #Belgium #opensource #rtc

The XMPP Logo

XMPP Summit 28 | XMPP - The universal messaging standard

The XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) is exited to announce the 28th XMPP Summit taking place in Brussels, Belgium next year - just before FOSDEM 2026. The XSF invites everyone interested in development of the XMPP protocol to attend, and discuss all …
xmpp.org
#xmpp #opensource #Jabber #federation #fosdem #chat #messaging #belgium #brussels #rtc

mastodon - Link to source
Wow! This powerful new Bruce Springsteen song just released all about the horrific events in Minneapolis, definitely worth listening to. It already has over 1.7 million views and it's only been up for 12 hours! Wow! youtu.be/wWKSoxG1K7w?si=o_EWrO…

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

Lyrics:Through the winter’s ice and coldDown Nicollet AvenueA city aflame fought fire and ice‘Neath an occupier’s bootsKing Trump’s private army from the DHS...
YouTube

mastodon - Link to source

RE: mastodon.thenewoil.org/@thenew…

Next up will be a VPN ban. Many tech-y people will see that and think “lol yeah well that’s not going to stop *me* from using a VPN”

A VPN ban isn’t really meant stop you from using one. It means when they catch you doing so, they’ll use the fact you’re using this harmless technology itself as a *pretense* to lock you up without needing to do any “hard work” (i.e. an investigator’s job) like actually confirming whether you committed a real crime.

Don’t think you won’t be impacted just because you know how to outsmart an ISP filter! This is not a plan to protect children or stop you from consuming adult media. It is a ploy to eventually eliminate ALL freedom of expression and free access to information in the UK.

And the same goes for Chat Control and encrypted messengers, btw

#UKpol #VPNban #PornHub #ChatControl #Privacy #FreeSpeech #SocialMedia

The New Oil (@thenewoil@mastodon.thenewoil.org)

Many #UK Users Soon Won't Be Able to Access #Pornhub https://www.404media.co/uk-pornhub-blocked-age-verification-vpn/ #nsfw #porn #privacy #OnlineSafetyAct #AgeVerification #IdentityVerification
The New Oil (Mastodon)
#privacy #socialmedia #freespeech #chatcontrol #ukpol #pornhub #vpnban
This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to Jonah Aragon

mastodon - Link to source

Jonah Aragon

I think some are still missing the point. I’m not saying they’re going to lock up every single person who uses a VPN or watches porn.

Your government’s strategy is to make “crimes” like this as common and easy to commit as possible.

This way, if you ever do something completely legal which they *actually* don’t like, *which can be completely unrelated to VPNs or bypassing age verification,* they can pull up your internet history and easily prosecute you.

Organize a legitimate protest, and the government’s swift response will be to label you a child sex offender because they found you using evil VPN technology.

This is how free speech dies, not from a law that says “free speech is dead now,” but from draconian, authoritarian laws like this that give the government “plausible” reasons to go after anyone, which can’t easily be fought against.

This has always been the playbook to target innocents. In the USA, drug possession laws being created as a pretense for cops to raid and dismantle minority communities, for example. And now this is coming to the digital realm.

reshared this

lemmy - Link to source

Posilnená spolupráca za účelom zriadenia pôžičky Ukrajine

Európsky parlament schválil kľúčové rozhodnutie, ktoré umožňuje posilnenú spoluprácu medzi 24 členskými štátmi EÚ pri vytvorení finančného nástroja, a teda pôžičky pre Ukrajinu vo výške až 90 miliárd eur na roky 2026-2027. Do tejto iniciatívy sa Slovensko nepripojilo.

Už v predchádzajúci deň sa Európsky parlament dohodol na použití naliehavého legislatívneho postupu (urgent procedure) pri balíku opatrení týkajúcich sa finančnej pomoci Ukrajine. Tento postup má výrazne urýchliť schvaľovanie pôžičky, ktorú Ukrajina potrebuje na krytie rozpočtových potrieb aj obranných výdavkov. Posilnená spolupráca je mechanizmus zakotvený v zmluvách EÚ, ktorý umožňuje skupine členských štátov postupovať spoločne v prípade, že sa nepodarí dosiahnuť jednomyseľnú dohodu všetkých 27 krajín. Základným princípom tohto nástroja je, že finančnú zodpovednosť nesú len zapojené štáty.

V prípade tejto pôžičky sa ukázalo, že Česko, Maďarsko a Slovensko nesúhlasia so zapojením do finančného nástroja. Aby nedošlo k zablokovaniu celej iniciatívy, zvyšných 24 členských štátov sa rozhodlo využiť práve mechanizmus posilnenej spolupráce.

Celková suma až 90 miliárd eur je rozdelená podľa účelu použitia. Približne 30 miliárd eur má smerovať na rozpočtovú podporu, ktorá má stabilizovať verejné financie Ukrajiny a pomôcť pokryť rozpočtový deficit. Zvyšných približne 60 miliárd eur je určených na posilnenie obranných kapacít Ukrajiny. Financie majú umožniť rozsiahle investície do obranného priemyslu a jeho postupnú integráciu do európskej obrannej priemyselnej základne. Kľúčovou novinkou tejto pôžičky je spôsob jej splácania. Ide o tzv. limited recourse loan, teda pôžičku, ktorú má Ukrajina splácať až v momente, keď získa od Ruska reparácie za škody spôsobené vojnou.

#slovakia

mastodon - Link to source

#XMPP Summit

Listen in to our next topic "Encrypted profile/vCard".

The XMPP Summit:
xmpp.org/2025/11/xmpp-summit-2…

Meet us at #FOSDEM 2026, too!

#jabber #chat #opensource #messaging #federation #Brussels, #Belgium #opensource #rtc

The XMPP Logo

XMPP Summit 28 | XMPP - The universal messaging standard

The XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) is exited to announce the 28th XMPP Summit taking place in Brussels, Belgium next year - just before FOSDEM 2026. The XSF invites everyone interested in development of the XMPP protocol to attend, and discuss all …
xmpp.org
#xmpp #opensource #Jabber #federation #fosdem #chat #messaging #belgium #brussels #rtc

mastodon - Link to source

Rachel Gilmore has found 9 Canadian companies profiting off ICE contracts, -- all but one of whom also have contracts with the Canadian government ... so our taxes at work for ICE. #cdnpoli

For those who decline to visit substack:
Garda, Hootsuite, JSI Telecom, Roshel, Thomson Reuters, Jim Pattison, Magnet Forensics, Icor Technology, and CGI Inc.
Only Roshel doesn't have a Canada gov contract.
Note ATCO Frontec is not one of them.
rachelgilmore.substack.com/p/a…


A list of Canadian companies profiting off of ICE and Trump's violent mass deportation regime

Watch now | Several Canadian companies appear to be pocketing profits as this horrific agenda rolls out.
Rachel Gilmore (Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore)
#cdnpoli
This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to bassistance

mastodon - Link to source

bassistance

My much more negative stance makes me not want to interact with any AI, not so much because it has its flaws, but because the whole ideology and practical effects are fundamentally bad. For once, I don’t want my freedom as a programmer to be enclosed by Microsoft and Google, becoming completely dependent on subscriptions to their tools. That’s a direction they’re going for. I think we need to actively fight this and not just wait for it to fail in some way.

2/n

mastodon - Link to source

#XMPP Summit

After a break with many interesting discussions we are now at "Pinned messages".

The XMPP Summit:
xmpp.org/2025/11/xmpp-summit-2…

Meet us at #FOSDEM 2026, too!

#jabber #chat #opensource #messaging #federation #Brussels, #Belgium #opensource #rtc

The XMPP Logo

XMPP Summit 28 | XMPP - The universal messaging standard

The XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) is exited to announce the 28th XMPP Summit taking place in Brussels, Belgium next year - just before FOSDEM 2026. The XSF invites everyone interested in development of the XMPP protocol to attend, and discuss all …
xmpp.org
#xmpp #opensource #Jabber #federation #fosdem #chat #messaging #belgium #brussels #rtc

mastodon - Link to source

Indonesia’s Communications and Digital Ministry opened a job vacancy and invited the public to apply by dropping their resumes and other required documents into a publicly accessible Google Drive. Turns out you can access and download all of the documents submitted by everyone who applied.

Someone pointed it out in an Instagram video which went viral and soon after he’s had multiple and sustained phishing and hacking attempts of his social media and email accounts.

reshared this

in reply to SuspiciousDuck

mastodon - Link to source

DonBahno 👨🏻‍💻🥦🍀🇪🇺🏴‍☠️

Dřív se tomu říkala lehká mozková dysfunkce a to bylo dost stigmatizující. Ten člověk v očích druhých byl hned vadnej, v nepořádku. Dneska může říct, že má ADHD, i když stále jsou lidé, co to nepřijmou a nerespektujou. Ti lidé nejsou špatní, jen jejich mozek funguje jinak. Dokonce to má i své výhody - třeba hyperfocus. Ale spousta věcí tě prostě nebaví a máš tendenci odkládat věci, který se ti nechtěj dělat.

mastodon - Link to source

Learn about all the cool projects #GNOME contributors have been working on by watching some talks at #FOSDEM!

Here is a list for Saturday:

WebRTC support in #WebKitGTK and WPEWebKit with #GStreamer: Current status and plans fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event…

Funding Lessons Learned Panel fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event…

Machine Learning in GStreamer: Frameworks, Tensors, and Analytics fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event…

Running #GNOMEOS on mobile phones fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event…


FOSDEM 2026 - Running GNOME OS on mobile phones

fosdem.org
#gnome #fosdem #gnomeos #gstreamer #WebKitGTK

mastodon - Link to source
• Negative tilt (bright) → fades toward derivative (has the highs to boost)
• Zero/positive tilt (warm/dark) → stays on flow (warm body)
Cleaner gain structure:
• srcDeriv = dFlow * radiationDerivGain (derivative gets gain)
• Flow stays as-is (no extra gain needed)
Simpler mixing: Just (1.0 - radiationMix) * flow + (radiationMix * srcDeriv)
This makes more sense because:
• At Tilt 0: Pure flow = warm, full body ✓
• At Tilt -10 (bright): Mix toward derivative, then high-shelf boost = sparkly highs ✓
• At Tilt +10 (dark): Pure flow + low-pass = warm darkening without mud ✓

wordpress - Link to source

Are there any open APIs left?

shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/are-t…
One of the dreams of Web 2.0 was that website would speak unto website. An "Application Programming Interface" (API) would give programmatic access to structured data, allowing services to seamlessly integrate content from each other. Users would be able to quickly grab data from multiple sources and use them for their own purposes. No registration or API keys, no tedious EULAs or meetings. Just pure synergy!

Is that dream dead? If so, what killed it?

A decade ago, I posted a plea looking for Easy APIs Without Authentication with a follow up post two years later. I wanted some resources that students could use with minimal fuss. Are any of the APIs from 10 years ago still alive?

Alive


These ones are still around:


Dead


These have shuffled off this mortal coil:

  • BBC Radio 1 - No.
  • Twitter URL statistics - LOLSOB No.
  • Star Wars API - No.
  • British National Bibliography - No. Dead due, I think to the British Library's cyber attack.
  • Football Data - gone.


API Key Required


These are still alive, but you either need to pay or register to use them:


What Happened?


Something something … enshittification … blah blah … zero interest rate phenomenon … yadda yadda our incredible journey …

But back in the land of rationality, I've had a lots of experiences running APIs and helping people who run them. The closure and lockdown of APIs usually comes down to one or more of the following.

APIs cost money to run. Yes, even the static ones have a non-zero cost. That's fine if you're prepared to endless subsidise them - but it is hard to justify if there's no return on investment. Anyway, who is using all this bandwidth? Which leads on to:

Lack of analytics. Yes, I know tracking is the devil, but it is hard to build a service if you don't know who is using it. Sure, you can see traffic, but you can't tell if it is useful to the end consumer, or what value you can share. There's no way to communicate with an anonymous consumer. Which, of course, takes us to the next barrier:

Communication is key. If you need to change your API, there's no way to tell users that a change is coming. That might be the announcement of a deprecation, an outage, or an enhancement. You can try smuggling error messages into your responses and hoping someone notices a failing service somewhere - but it's much easier to email everyone who has an API key. And you know what else keys are good for?

Stopping abuse. It'd be nice if everyone played nice online; but some people are raging arseholes. Being able to throttle bad actors (figuratively or literally) is a desirable feature. On a resource constrained service, you sometimes have to put rules in place.

Still, if you know of any good open APIs which don't require registration, and that you think will survive until 2036, please drop a link in the comments.
#api #coding


PokéAPI

An open RESTful API for Pokémon data
pokeapi.co
#coding #API

mastodon - Link to source

#XMPP Summit

Continuing after the lunch break with #XEP-0503: #Server-side #spaces. xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0503.h…

The XMPP Summit:
xmpp.org/2025/11/xmpp-summit-2…

Meet us at #FOSDEM 2026, too!

#jabber #chat #opensource #messaging #federation #Brussels, #Belgium #opensource

The XMPP Logo

XMPP Summit 28 | XMPP - The universal messaging standard

The XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) is exited to announce the 28th XMPP Summit taking place in Brussels, Belgium next year - just before FOSDEM 2026. The XSF invites everyone interested in development of the XMPP protocol to attend, and discuss all …
xmpp.org
#xmpp #opensource #Jabber #federation #server #fosdem #chat #xep #messaging #belgium #brussels #spaces

mastodon - Link to source

#Reading
Apparently, in the wider bookish community, there is this idea that listening to audiobooks doesn't count as reading. This idea is ableist af.
I mean, what about blind people?

And besides, what about people who can focus better and longer when listening (audio), instead of reading (visual)?

What about people who can better focus on listening to stories while doing something, for instance going for a walk, doing sports, crocheting, knitting, or arts and crafts?

#audiobooks #books

#books #reading #audiobooks

mastodon - Link to source
An interview with my friend, Erich Manser who is a blind runner.
I think I was able to ask about aspects of his running career that he didn't discuss in other interviews or podcasts.
evengrounds.com/erich-manser-o…

Erich Manser on the Resilience and Logistics of Blind Running - Even Grounds

I would like to introduce you to my friend, and previous colleague from IBM, Erich Manser who is a competitive blind runner. Over the years I enjoyed hearing about his adventures, and when it comes to sports, I got much inspiration from him.
Tom (Even Grounds)
in reply to Jonathan

mastodon - Link to source

Schabe

@jonathan859 #Alttext ist #komplex?!

Screenshot Tagesschauartikel "Ministerium will flexible Arbeitszeiten durchsetzen"

Darüber ausm HG überbelichtetes Bild mit Meer&Skiline hinter Fensterfront von der sich zentral perspektivisch eine lange Tafel mit Weingläsern in VG zieht; alles in harten Schatten unterbelichtet nur noch Konturen erkennbar; Person beugt sich beim Eindecken vornüber sodass Umriss (vermut. Zopf) und gerade Nase Batman ähneln.

media.troet.cafe/troet.cafe/me…

#AltText #komplex @Jonathan

mastodon - Link to source

A warm thank you to our sponsors Element and Famedly for enabling us to set up Hackathon tomorrow, in Brussels! Can't make it? We will livestream the results at 17:00 CET!

Element is sponsoring the video stream, and the dinner, while Famedly sponsors the lunch and drinks. Thanks to them both we can keep our community fed and refreshed to tackle the important challenges ahead of them!

matrix.org/blog/2025/12/fosdem…


Find us at FOSDEM

Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communications
Thib (matrix.org)

mastodon - Link to source
And this. I asked it if it could put a heading above its responses:
Output
Yes, I've just set that up for you. I used the messages.responsePrefix configuration to automatically prepend ## Output\n\n to all of my future responses.
The Gateway is restarting now to apply that change. From now on, every message I send should lead with that H2 header.

mastodon - Link to source

Digital Independence Day is coming up this Sunday - and we at Tuta are proud to be part of it!

Never heard about #DIDay? It comes from Germany 🇩🇪 🥨 but it's time to go global!

🎉➡️ tuta.com/blog/digital-independ…

DI.DAY poster: Cartoon of Jeff Bezos on a boat in a wedding suit with the text, 'Your data pays for weddings in Venice?'

For a free internet: Tuta Mail is a partner of Digital Independence Day | Tuta

Save Social, Tuta, and lots of other organizations are building a better web – and you can be part of the journey! The next Digital Independence Day is Sunday, February 1st.
Tuta
#diday

mastodon - Link to source

Tonight's the night to remember - let's honour and celebrate the individuals and communities that re-defined open source in Europe!

Who will be taking home the Special Recognition Awards, and the prestigious Prize for Excellence in Open Source?

@Amandine @nightrose @bagder @astornc
#EOSA26 #EOSAcademy

#eosacademy #eosa26 @daniel:// stenberg:// @Amandine @Lydia Pintscher @Astor Nummelin Carlberg
⇧