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Every year around this time, @MoonCat and I bring out this ridiculous clip of when I opened a champagne bottle back in 2011. It went everywhere, spectacularly!
Sharing this recording is just tradition at this point.
Please don't drink and listen.

Anyway, it's time for...

'Happy New Year from Andre and Kirsten Louis (AKA The puking champagne bottle)' youtu.be/SECSu6shNRk

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If you're looking for something new to do this year, I just posted the last edition of the audiogames.net monthly digest. I haven't posted about these here in a while though I probably really should, because there's a lot happening. This most recent one covers all blind friendly game releases I heard about both on the audiogames.net forum and off throughout December and even into the new year and boy there was a lot to cover. A lot of games got modded to be accessible, including both entries in the hand of fate series as well as the Phoenix Wright trilogy and that's just the tip of the iceberg. There's also rhythm games, some christmas vibes, a bunch of games for iOS and so much more. forum.audiogames.net/post/9424…

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in reply to Pitermach

Thanks for keeping these coming. FYI the GitHub link didn't work for Loco Motive mod, valid link is github.com/Lirin111/LocoMotive…
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Happy mew year! Ever wanted to NVDA Remote into a computer on your iOS device? But whoops, forgot your keyboard? Or have a keyboard? Either way, NVDARC has got you covered! NVDA Remote Controller is a new app for iOS and Mac (as soon as it finishes reviewing) that allows you to control computers over the NVDA Remote protocol. It also offers an onscreen keyboard, as well as page swiping gestures and magic tap, for sending keys with the touch screen. Useful for when you have things you want to do on the computer and are away from it. Try out an early version here! testflight.apple.com/join/edg8…

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RE: mastodon.n6.io/@graham/1157896…

Great presenter too! :)


I just found an interesting video segment on PBS about the old Eureka A4 Braille computer, featuring it singing, playing music, and more. youtube.com/watch?v=84C5SFRh81…

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Long: Brownie Mary

It was a Tuesday in 1981 when the San Francisco police kicked in the door.

Inside the small apartment, they expected to find a hardened criminal. They expected a drug kingpin. They expected resistance.

Instead, they found a 57-year-old waitress in an apron.

The air in the apartment smelled sweet, thick with chocolate and something earthier. On the kitchen counter, cooling on wire racks, were 54 dozen brownies.

The police officers began bagging the evidence. They confiscated nearly 18 pounds of marijuana. They handcuffed the woman, whose name was Mary Jane Rathbun.

She didn't look scared. She didn't look guilty.

She looked at the officers, smoothed her apron, and reportedly said, "I thought you guys were coming."

She was booked into the county jail. The headlines wrote themselves. A grandmother running a pot bakery. It seemed like a joke to the legal system, a quirky local news story about an older woman behaving badly.

But Mary wasn't baking for fun. And she certainly wasn't baking for profit.

To understand why Mary risked her freedom, you have to understand the silence of the early 1980s.

San Francisco was gripping the edge of a cliff. A mysterious illness was sweeping through the city, specifically targeting young men. Later, the world would know it as AIDS. But in those early days, it was just a death sentence that no one wanted to talk about.

Families were disowning their sons. Landlords were evicting tenants. Even doctors and nurses, paralyzed by the fear of the unknown, would sometimes leave food trays outside hospital doors, afraid to breathe the same air as their patients.

Men in their twenties were wasting away in sterile rooms, dying alone.

Mary knew what it felt like to lose a child.

Years earlier, in 1974, her daughter Peggy had been killed in a car accident. Peggy was only 22. The loss had hollowed Mary out, leaving a space in her heart that nothing seemed to fill.

When the judge sentenced Mary for that first arrest, he ordered her to perform 500 hours of community service. He likely thought the manual labor would teach her a lesson.

He sent her to the Shanti Project and San Francisco General Hospital.

It was a mistake that would change American history.

Mary walked into the AIDS wards when others were walking out. She didn't wear a hazmat suit. She didn't hold her breath. She saw rows of young men who looked like ghosts—skeletal, in pain, and terrified.

She saw "her kids."

She began mopping floors and changing sheets. But soon, she noticed something the doctors were missing. The harsh medications the men were taking caused violent nausea. They couldn't eat. They were starving to death as much as they were dying of the virus.

Mary knew a secret about the brownies she had been arrested for.

She knew they settled the stomach. She knew they brought back the appetite. She knew they could help a dying man sleep for a few hours without pain.

So, she made a choice.

She went back to her kitchen. She fired up the oven. She started mixing batter, not to sell, but to save.

Every morning, Mary would bake. She lived on a fixed income, surviving on Social Security checks that barely covered her rent. Yet, she spent nearly every dime on flour, sugar, and butter.

The most expensive ingredient—the cannabis—was donated. Local growers heard what she was doing. They began dropping off pounds of product at her door, free of charge.

She packed the brownies into a basket and took the bus to the hospital.

She walked room to room. She sat by the bedsides of men who hadn't seen their own mothers in years. She held their hands. She told them jokes. And she gave them brownies.

"Here, baby," she would say. "Eat this. It'll help."

And it did.

Nurses watched in amazement as patients who hadn't eaten in days began to ask for food. The constant retching stopped. The mood on the ward shifted from despair to a quiet sort of comfort.

Mary Jane Rathbun became "Brownie Mary."

For over a decade, this was her life. She baked roughly 600 brownies a day. She went through 50 pounds of flour a week. She became the mother to a generation of lost boys.

She washed their pajamas. She attended their funerals. She held them while they took their last breaths.

She did this while the government declared a "War on Drugs."

By the early 1990s, the political climate was hostile. Politicians were competing to see who could be "tougher" on crime. Mandatory minimum sentences were locking people away for decades.

In 1992, at the age of 70, Mary was arrested again.

This time, the stakes were lethal. She was charged with felonies. The district attorney looked at her rap sheet and saw a repeat offender. He threatened to send her to prison.

One prosecutor famously whispered to a colleague that he was going to "kick this old lady's ass."

They underestimated who they were dealing with.

They thought they were prosecuting a drug dealer. In reality, they were attacking the most beloved woman in San Francisco.

When the news broke that Brownie Mary was facing prison, the city erupted.

It wasn't just the activists who were angry. It was the doctors. It was the nurses. It was the parents who had watched Mary care for their dying sons when the government did nothing.

Mary turned her trial into a pulpit.

She arrived at court not as a defendant, but as a grandmother standing her ground. The media swarmed her. Reporters asked if she was afraid of prison. They asked if she would stop baking if they let her go.

Mary looked into the cameras, her voice gravelly and firm.

"If the narcs think I'm gonna stop baking brownies for my kids with AIDS," she said, "they can go fuck themselves in Macy's window."

The quote ran in newspapers across the country.

The court didn't stand a chance.

Testimony poured in. Doctors from San Francisco General Hospital wrote letters explaining that Mary’s brownies were medically necessary. Patients testified that she was an angel of mercy.

The charges were dropped.

Mary walked out of the courthouse a free woman. But she didn't go home to rest. She realized that her personal victory wasn't enough. As long as the law was broken, her "kids" were still in danger.

She needed to change the law.

August 25 was declared "Brownie Mary Day" by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. It was a nice gesture, but Mary wanted policy, not plaques.

She teamed up with fellow activist Dennis Peron. Together, they opened the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club—the first public dispensary in the United States. It was a safe haven where patients could get their medicine without fear of arrest.

But Mary wanted more. She wanted the state of California to acknowledge the truth.

She campaigned for Proposition 215. She traveled the state, despite her failing health. She spoke in her simple, direct way. She didn't talk about liberties or economics. She talked about compassion. She talked about pain.

She forced voters to look at the issue through the eyes of a grandmother.

In 1996, Proposition 215 passed. California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana.

It was a domino effect. Because one woman refused to let her "kids" suffer, the public perception of cannabis shifted. The Economist later noted that Mary was single-handedly responsible for changing the national conversation.

She never got rich.

She had always joked that if legalization ever happened, she would sell her recipe to Betty Crocker and buy a Victorian house for her patients to live in.

She never sold the recipe. She never bought the house.

Mary Jane Rathbun died in 1999, at the age of 77. She passed away in a nursing home, poor in money but rich in legacy.

Today, over 30 states have legalized medical marijuana. Millions of people use it to manage pain, seizures, and nausea.

Most of them have never heard of Mary.

They don't know that their legal prescription exists because a waitress in San Francisco decided that the law was wrong and her heart was right.

They don't know about the 600 brownies a day.

They don't know about the thousands of hospital visits.

Mary didn't set out to be a hero. She told the Chicago Tribune years before she died, "I didn't go into this thinking I would be a hero."

She was just a mother who had lost her daughter, trying to help boys who had lost their way.

She proved that authority doesn't always equal morality.

She proved that sometimes, the most patriotic thing a citizen can do is break a bad law.

Every August, a few people in San Francisco still celebrate Brownie Mary Day. But her true memorial isn't a date on a calendar.

It is found in every oncology ward where a patient finds relief. It is found in every dispensary door that opens without fear.

It is found in the simple, quiet courage of anyone who sees suffering and refuses to look away.

Mary taught us that you don't need a law degree to change the world. You don't need millions of dollars. You don't need political office.

Sometimes, all you need is a mixing bowl, an oven, and enough love to tell the world to get out of your way.

Sources: New York Times Obituary (1999), "Brownie Mary" Rathbun. San Francisco Chronicle Archives (1992, 1996). History.com, "The History of Medical Marijuana."

---

Source: Facebook/Wonders You've Unseen and Unread

facebook.com/permalink.php?sto…

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There is a CLI tool that lets you do common video and audio operations without having to remember complex ffmpeg syntax. There is no AI and no API calls, just old school pattern matching. It’s fast, works offline, and feels like video editing in plain English right from your CLI. For example, you can simply type:
```
ff convert my-file.mp4 to gif
```
And it will generate the ffmege command for you:
```
ffmpeg -i my-file.mp4 -vf fps=15,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos -loop 0 -y video_output.gif
```

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in reply to nixCraft 🐧

@Scott I made a bat file based on similar information a month or so ago that takes image as the first input, file as the second, and turns that video into <second file.mp4> as the output.
The contents of said batch file goes like this:

@ffmpeg -threads 3 -hwaccel auto -r 1 -loop 1 -i %1 -i %2 -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -x264opts opencl -vf scale=1280:720 -c:v libx264 -tune stillimage -c:a copy -shortest "%~dpn2.mp4"

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Our Sunday morning before church was very interesting! I am getting ready for church, when I hear this loud huge bang that sounds like a car crash. Shortly after, I hear what sounds like a man screaming. My daughter says, Daddy, there's a man trying to climb over the back fence. Quickly, I rushed everyone into the garage and lock the door. We call 911 to report what's going on. The dispatcher sends out four police officers they start combing our little community for the supposed man that is trying to climb over my back gate. Shortly afterwards, the head officer comes back and says it's not a man! There is a deer that has gotten its head hung in your fence. We are going to call animal control to see what we need to do next. At this point there are four officers standing in our back courtyard where the deer is stuck. All of a sudden, the deer breaks loose and runs a rampage around the courtyard totally scared out of its mind. The poor thing runs into the window but does no damage to itself or the window. It runs around the courtyard knocking over my fire pit, and my table and chairs. All of a sudden, it turns leaping over the back fence in which it was stuck at first. Then it leaps over the border fence around the back of my community and runs away leaving behind only a few splotches of blood. I sure hope the poor deer is OK. Needless to say, we've got a great story to tell this Christmas.

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Today I learned why Sonata #TTS created a framework to run AI voices outside of #NVDA. First, NVDA doesn't come with all of the #Python standard libraries. Second, there's no good way of updating dependencies in a bundled addon. Third, NVDA really, really hates it if you include several hundred dependencies in your addon. Anyway, here's kitten TTS, the other synthesizer I wanted to try with NVDA. Unfortunately, the model doesn't support streaming output, so even though it's actually faster than Supertonic, it feels slower when used with NVDA. Also, it takes several minutes to install, makes NVDA startup 30 seconds slower, and freezes the change synthesizer dialogue for about 45 seconds when you open it. It does miss words less frequently, though, and pronounces text better. The ultimate result of my two-day investigation is that even the highly optimized open-source AI imbedded models are not yet ready for screen reader use. Some tree-shaking could fix some of these issues, but it still won't allow for streaming, so it's not worth it. I'd really like to know what Microsoft and Narrator are doing to get the natural voices so snappy. github.com/fastfinge/kittentts-nvda/#screenreader

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Last week, I threw together Syntherceptor, a SAPI5 synthesiser which speaks using NVDA. This is useful for apps like Komplete Kontrol, Surge, etc. which use SAPI5 but you'd prefer the speech output to happen using your NVDA synthesiser and settings. This also prevents voices from speaking over each other, allows you to interrupt speech with a key press, etc. There is an existing project called NVDASapi which already does this, but we can't seem to identify or contact its developer, it isn't open source, it doesn't interrupt speech when the app requests it and it's a bit tricky to install. That said, Syntherceptor is very early in development, so you may wish to tread carefully. If it crashes, it'll probably crash the app you're using, so save your work regularly, though I haven't seen that happen yet. syntherceptor.jantrid.net/

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in reply to Billy

So just tested it out in WSL. Strangely enough, I'm not experiencing this weird so-called upload score bug, I managed to upload just fine. With a terrible score mind you, since it was for testing purposes, but definitely works. Perhaps I must have fixed something without knowing, or it's Python being Python as usual. I'll keep looking into it, but for now I'll push what I have.
in reply to tunmi13

@tunmi13 @Billy I don't know how the pygame packaging is working on linux the ssl folder is searched within SYSCONFDIR what is /etc by default so /etc/ssl on my system. Another bit of info I was able to find is that python's urlib.urlopen is supposed to use system included certificate store and that might differ between WSL and real linux. Python has a requests module which uses its included list of trusted certificates. So if it's you who is calling urlopen and not some other dependencies you might consider refactoring this bit to use requests and hope for the best.
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My 92 year old aunt: You do the Leenux thing, right? You need to come over sometime and install it for me, because f#ck all I ain't gonna update to Windows 11.

Me: .... ?!#!?

I explain what the change-over entails and that I generally don't recommend it just because...

Aunt: No, f#ck that, f#ck capitalism, my laptop is still fine, so come over and set me up with that Leenux thing.

#Linux #christmas

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A lot of people talk shit about #Firefox's performance, but today I needed to convert a 200mb html file (don't ask). I thought no fucking way would Firefox open it, and if it would, my screen reader would die on it. So I tried pandoc. Pandoc completely choked on it and proceeded to OOM. After a measure of despair, I tried Firefox. It opened the file just fine, and converted it to text. Fucking win.

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Anyone wanted to replace NVDA's synth beeps with a custom tone via a wav file? Well you're in luck, Custom Tones V1.0 just released!
github.com/alex-chap/NVDA-Cust…

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I’m happy to announce the 12th annual Holiday season Conversations giveaway. 🎄☃️

The federated instant messaging client is now available for free on Google Play until New Year’s Eve. 🧨🎆

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Enjoy #39C3.

play.google.com/store/apps/det…

#XMPP #Jabber #Conversations_im #DigitalSovereignty #Fediverse

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Important: admins of Conduit-derived homeservers (Conduit, Continuwuity, Grapevine and Tuwunel) should update immediately to address a critical bug in the federation implementation that is being actively exploited: github.com/continuwuity/contin…

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Happy Holidays from Pneuma Solutions! Have some completely free #remoteIncidentManager usage on us! From now through January 2nd, we're inviting you to try the full run of Remote Incident Manager's capabilities free of charge! Download RIM today and see for yourself how easy it is to provide fully #accessible remote support to friends, family or clients!
getrim.app

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in reply to tunmi13

I don't know what you mean by loopholes, but, I am thinking on it now. I already downloaded it, before I realised it's for windows. LOL. There would need to be additional things added to it, like apple's broken speech API, unless accessible output solves that, but I don't think so, or maybe it does, but it'd be fun on mac. Not sure how to compile it, but if you want, we can try. I am not a bad tardis, I follow instructions. Grins. Haha.
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Interested in creating your own synthesizer sounds, or maybe just learning about how that is done? Check out my How to Synth guide for practical, easy-to-follow info and lessons on the major synthesis methods used today!

etherdiver.com/how-to-synth-a-…

#synth #synthesizer #SynthProgramming #SoundDesign #HowToSynth

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Microsoft Ava (Natural HD) and Microsoft Andrew (Natural HD) can now be used offline with NVDA and JAWS, via the SAPI Adapter utility. The voices come from Windows 11 Insider builds.
You need to go the Google Drive page whose link will be provided at the end, and grab both voice packages and REG packages from there.
Unzip the voices into the C:\TTS folder (or edit the path in the reg files).
You should have the following folders:
C:\TTS\AndrewHD
C:\TTS\AvaHD
Add all the reg files from AvaHD_reg.zip and AndrewHD_reg.zip to the registry.
They are called HD for a reason. They sound amazingly natural, though not as perfectly lively as their online counterparts, and each voice is about 230MB. Ava offline doesn't breathe unlike its online counterpart either.
drive.google.com/drive/folders…

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Just helped someone on Be My Eyes, he was walking from his house to a shop about 10 minutes away.

Helped him navigate the streets and cross the road and so on. Luckily he lived in the UK so I knew what I was seeing 😅

He was wearing Meta’s AI glasses, which help him a lot but don’t currently describe things like lamp posts/scaffolding etc, which was where I was needed.

He made the call from the glasses also, and it was great that I could see what he could see also.

One of my favourite things is helping people on Be My Eyes 😍

Such a great app.

#blind #blindness

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I found something interesting. If you visit the Balabolka page and scroll to “Download installers for Microsoft natural voices that work without Internet access”, you can download high-quality Microsoft voices for around 30 different languages.
Voices are available even for Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Hebrew, Finnish, Dutch, European Portuguese, and more. Each language has its own separate installer, and since most languages include multiple voices, you can choose which ones to install during setup.
These voices work very well with drivers like Natural Voice SAPI Adapter.
Just a heads-up: the Balabolka page has no headings or landmarks, so you’ll need to manually search the page for “Download installers for Microsoft natural voices that work without Internet access.”
cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm

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When it comes to @Delta Chat (39c3) do you know it features 1 to 1 audio / video calls since v2.22?
It has a very lightweight client side app built with web technologies and a minimalist server side component turn server called chatmail-turn.

I am wondering, am I alone running that turnserver behind a nat?

github.com/chatmail/chatmail-t…

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Singing Speech Synthesis

Sensitive content

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I have a lot of respect for #DeltaChat (@delta); By all accounts they provide a good looking client and a homogenize experience across platforms. Users absolutely don’t need to care about the underlying protocol!

However there is no way, shape or form in that IMAP+Submission is a more suitable stack for instant messaging than #XMPP.

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in reply to Radasbona

@Radasbona I am not sure it's dismissed all together. @Delta Chat (39c3) #chatmail relays already support google / apple push messaging and adding @UnifiedPush support might be just matter of finding a motivated developer.
Still with imap idle in place the battery and network impact is minimal so it's not seen as very high priority thing. For example there is an email client called #fairEmail which does the same thing, keeping the imap idle connections open whenever it's able to and it's working fine. Within email app it's difficult if not impossible to add push messaging support unless you have control of the server side provider or you wish to trade your privacy.
in reply to Peter Vágner

imap idle unfortunately works very unreliably if you only use the app every 1-2 weeks.

I'm not a developer, but wouldn't that be the solution for the chatmail servers?
ietf.org/archive/id/draft-goug…

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My slides and a video of my talk "Grow your [engineering] brand while putting privacy first" are available on my blog: talkweb.eu/openweb/4500/

If you want a funny, but useful talk on that topic, reach out!

#mastodon #fediverse #privacy #engineering #human #foss

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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Dear #QT toolkit, recently I'm again looking into your #screenreader #a11y into #QML in particular.
I'm trying to make one of my favorite apps @Mixxx DJ Software a bit more accessible.
Last night I have managed to turn the menu with items such as 4 decks, Library, Effects and more into aria toolbar pattern in terms of keyboard navigation. It only consumes single tab stop when navigating through it and other buttons can be reached using the arrow keys.
Of course there is much more to do and I've started a forum topic documenting my attempts.

mixxx.discourse.group/t/new-qm…

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I've just got a fix committed for the WebKitGTK reporting the wrong AT-SPI roles thing. github.com/WebKit/WebKit/commi…
Much thanks to Lukáš Tyrychtr for reporting the bug and identifying the commit that caused the regression.
The fix is backported to the stable branch, but 2.50.4 was just released three days ago, so I'm guessing that a release with the fix will not be imminent. 2.51.4 does not have the fix, either.
I've already patched Tumbleweed with the fix along with the update to 2.50.4. Maybe other distros want to add a patch until there's a new release.

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in reply to Mike Gorse

@Mike Gorse @Nolan Darilek There are two flavors of @Delta Chat (39c3) . The default one is electron based and it's working fine. The experimental one built with tauri is somewhat lighter when it comes to resource usage but has #a11y issues as it uses webkit-gtk under the hood rather than chromium. So my guess is this will improve the general accessibility of tauri based apps on linux.
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A Review of Magical Artist, an #Accessible Mobile Audio Game: This is the third game I've played by Prudence Interactive. Is this game even better than the last two? Read and find out! stuff.interfree.ca/2025/12/19/magical-artist.html#audiogames#blind

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the UNIX v4 tape reminded me of this story by Ali Akurgal about Turkish bureaucracy:

Do you know what the unit of software is? A meter! Do you know why? In 1992, we did our first software export at Netaş. We wrote the software, pressed a button, and via the satellite dish on the roof, at the incredible speed of 128 kb/s, we sent it to England. We sent the invoice by postal mail. $2M arrived at the bank. 3-4 months passed, and tax inspectors came. They said, “You sent an invoice for $2M?” “Yes,” we said. “This money has been paid?” they asked. “Yes,” we said. “But there is no goods export; this is fictitious export,” they said! So we took the tax inspectors to R&D and sat them in front of a computer. “Would you press this ‘Enter’ key?” we asked. One of them pressed it, then asked, “What happened?” “You just made a $300k export, and we’ll send its invoice too, and that will be paid as well,” we said. The man felt terrible because he had become an accomplice! Then we explained how software is written, what a satellite connection is, and how much this is worth. They said, “We understand, but there has to be a physical goods export; that’s what the regulations require.” So we said: “Let’s record this software onto tape (there were no CDs back then—nor cassettes; we used ½-inch tapes) and send that.” Happy to have found a solution, they said, “Okay, record it and send it.” The software filled two reels, which were handed to a customs broker, who took them to customs and started the export procedure. The customs officer processed things and at one point asked, “Where are the trucks?” The broker said, “There are no trucks—this is all there is,” and pointed to the tape reels on the desk. The customs officer said, “These two envelopes can’t be worth $2M; I can’t process this.” We went to court, an expert committee examined whether the two reels were worth $2M. Fortunately, they ruled that they were, and we were saved from the charge of fictitious export. The same broker took the same two reels to the same customs officer, with the court ruling, and restarted the procedure. However, during the process, the unit price, quantity, and total price of the exported goods had to be entered—as per the regulations. To avoid dragging things out further, they looked at the envelope, saw that it contained tape, estimated how many meters of tape there are on one reel, and concluded that we had exported 1k to 2k meters of software. So the unit of software became the meter.
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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in reply to joomy

I once read a story about the people writing the software for the NASA Apollo missions. There was a functionary in charge of weight accounting, who came to them and asked how much the software would weigh.

They told him it weighted nothing, but the functionary had heard *that* one before and insisted—everything had to be accounted down to the last ounce. He demanded to see it.

They showed him a stack of punched cards, and he was triumphant. “You see,” he said smugly, “it doesn't weigh only ‘nothing’!”

“No, you misunderstand,” they replied. “The cards aren't going on the spacecraft. Only the holes.”

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FreeBSD has Wireguard support in the base OS, but it's not well documented how to use it. So here you go. Hopefully an example lands in the FreeBSD Handbook soon.

blog.feld.me/posts/2025/12/wir…

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In 1985, a blind man was arrested for drunken driving in Virginia. He apparently had another sighted person who was drunker than he was directing him by voice. upi.com/Archives/1985/04/17/Bl…

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GotaTun is a WireGuard® implementation written in Rust aimed at being fast, efficient and reliable. Now available to all Android users, we aim to ship it to the remaining platforms next year.

Read more here: mullvad.net/blog/announcing-go…

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