Hey guys, my friend has recently released a new song. It's in Ukrainian, but is really worth a listen, which I strongly recommend. It's available on all streaming services, but I'm going to post a YouTube link so everyone can listen. She wrote it for her boyfriend, and it's one of the most beautiful and emotionally genuin songs I've ever heard, no exaggeration, so I really want to share it with you, and hope you enjoy it too.

youtube.com/watch?v=xgQGbQb7ym…

If you see a domain name ending in .ai that means the island of Anguilla got some money, as it is the owner of this country domain.

”For each domain registration, Anguilla’s government gets anywhere from $140 to thousands of dollars from website names sold at auctions, according government data.”

In 2023 just over 20% of the government’s total revenue came from these registrations.

”[…] the government used the money to provide free health care for citizens 70 and older, and it has committed millions of dollars to finish building a school and a vocational training center. The government has also allocated funds to improve its airport; doubled its budget for sports activities, events and facilities; and increased the budget for citizens seeking medical treatment overseas.”

The island was hit hard by a hurricane in 2017 and tourism essentially disappeared during the covid pandemic. The .ai domain revenue has been a welcome injection into the economy.

Now you can’t say I never talk about AI in a positive light 😉

per.ax/angui

Firefox 130 is bringing a game-changing feature: automatic alt-text generation for images using a fully private on-device AI model! 🙌🏾

Initially available in the built-in PDF editor, our aim is to extend this to general browsing for screen reader users. hacks.mozilla.org/2024/05/expe…

Goodbye #Sonos 2005-2024. You provided me nearly 20 years of audio playback, but this latest update was the last straw...

1. Install PiCorePlayer on a Raspberry Pi connected to speakers, add a DAC/AMP board and/or WiFi dongle as needed:
picoreplayer.org/

2. Install LMS on a local server:
lyrion.org/getting-started/

3. Install Squeezer on your Android device(s):
play.google.com/store/apps/det…

4. Repeat Step 1 for Additional Rooms.

5. Play Your Tunes.

#OpenSource #HomeAudio #Upgrade #Sonos

Linux blind users, listen to this and let me know what you guess this actually is, and most importantly, what you think! I'm just gauging interest as this is still in its early infancy, and I was wondering if it was worth continuing. As you can infer, I'm already far enough to have a working yet incomplete prototype!

#linux #accessibility #blind

edit: still trying! please keep on boosting!

we're moving to #Prague! and we need some friends.
we're moving to #Czechia in September and we might be a bit lonely. so if you want to befriend a couple of quirky migrants, let me know!

I'm into #music, #FOSS, #linguistics, #DoctorWho, #TTRPG and #DropoutTV. oh, and I'm #trans.
my girlfriend likes #medicine, British television, #Disney, #Eurovision and #TrueCrime. "I am the bisexual stereotype".

@prague

#Praha #Prag #PleaseBoost

PipeWire 1.2 Can Stream To Snapcast Servers For Multi-Room Audio

Following the recent PipeWire 1.2 release candidate, a second release candidate is out today that also includes the ability to stream to Snapcast servers...
phoronix.com/news/PipeWire-1.2…

I've just pushed a bunch of #accessibility changes for screen readers to the main branch of FediThready. ( It makes long texts into post sized chunks)

I've run through it with #VoiceOver and it _seems_ ok. HOWEVER it all feels like it's "usable" instead of "good".

If there's a #a11y geek out there who uses screen readers regularly I would REALLY appreciate some suggestions on how to make this actually feel good for folks who rely on screen readers.

github.com/masukomi/fedithread…

ICQ is closing down. It was really at its height in 2000 and that is when we integrated ICQ into Opera. We made a small (5k) client and it worked really well.

AOL had purchased ICQ and they were concerned about MSN taking users from them by connecting to their service, so they stopped supporting 3rd party clients. We contacted them, to see if they would make an exception for us, but they did not.

They said that if we removed our 5k client, we could maybe discuss bundling their client, but it was bigger than Opera, so that was not going to happen.

#Windows #Computers #PC #ICQ #AOL #MSN #Vivaldi

Oh, cool somebody finally figured it out...

As you probably know, the Microsoft Security Center has an API that lets you query which AV is installed and whether it is up-to-date.

What is less well-known, is that it also has another, not publicly known API, that lets you tell it "I'm installing another AV now, please disable Defender". This is what all other AV products use. Microsoft has provided to them documentation of this API but under NDA.

Many years ago, I made a proof-of-concept - a small VBScript script that would use this API via WMI to "install" an imaginary AV, thus turning off Defender - but since it was based on information learned under NDA, I obviously couldn't make it public.

Now somebody has reverse-engineered the API from AVAST and has done pretty much the same (albeit a bit over-complicated) in C++:

github.com/es3n1n/no-defender

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the invention of the Braille code. The International Council on English Braille, which has a General Assembly every four years, met this time in Auckland, New Zealand.
I was profoundly honoured to be invited to deliver the keynote address to mark the 200th anniversary of the code that gave blind people literacy. The address is called “Safeguarding the Legacy, Investing the Inheritance”.

Whether you’re blind or not, whether you read Braille or not, if you’re interested in the cultural impact and the history of a system that gave an uneducated minority literacy, I hope you find this address informative. You can read the text, or listen to the audio.
It is of course presumptuous of me to think I might be remembered at all when my life is over. But if I am, I would like to hope that this address might be a reason. I put months of work into it, because Louis Braille is my hero. I do not have the words to truly convey the impact his work, his genius, has had on my life.

I hope you enjoy it, and I thank with deep appreciation ICEB for the opportunity to deliver it.
mosen.org/iceb2024

For those interested in computer virtualization, this may be of interest here. VMWare Pro, not just the player, is now free for personal use. This also holds true for VMWare Fusion on the Mac.

This blog has some details.

https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2024/05/vmware-workstation-pro-now-available-free-for-personal-use.html… (1/2)

Are you blind? Have you heard of the commandline, but don't know what it means or how to use it? I recorded a tutorial that shows how to use a popular commandline utility called YT-DLP to download the audio version of a video with a screenreader, and how you can apply this to other commandline applications. This will accomplish jobs more quickly and bypass inaccessible graphical user interfaces. I hope you find it helpful!

#a11y #accessibility #screenreader

New instance, new introduction. Hello, I am Adam from Ottawa Canada. I am a totally blind man, identifying as he/him.
My primary interests are technology and music. I was a former professional drummer, playing the bar stages of Ottawa and the ocasional out-of-town show.
I've always been rhythmical, annoying the heck out of my parents at the tendor age of four on up banging on pots, pans, spoons, and whatever else I could get my grubby little hands on.
I got my first drum kit when I was 12, back in 1999. I got a couple of upgrades over the years, and then switched to electronic kits in 2007 when I managed to save and purchase a Roland TD-12 kit with my own money. That was like buying a car for me, LOL.
I was professionally active from 2007 until 2019.
Some hearing issues with extended loudness causing anxiety and unease started my issues with playing live shows, and then COVID19 really finished that career.

I've been interested in technology from a young age as well, receiving my first electronic note taker for the blind, a Blazie Engineering Braille Lite in 1996 at the age of 9.
I then got my first computer in the summer of 1998, learned DOS, then eventually Windows 3.1, 95, and on up.
I've had many, many, many computers and other technological devices since those days, and I have done any serious compute work in Linux, where in I am mostly referring to running servers, hosting things, and distributed compute projects.
Professionally, I am currently a systems/server administrator, backend web developer, database administrator, and infrastructure administrator.
Other interests include animals, documentaries, listening to most kinds of music, having deep intellectual conversations, and pondering the meaning of life.
#Mastodon #Introduction #Ottawa #Canada #Blind #Music #Technology

Modernizing #accessibility for @gnome and desktop #Linux was the subject of a recent talk by Matt Campbell, long-time a11y advocate and developer of screen reading technologies across multiple OSes.

Watch the talk about GNOME leading an effort to design & prototype a new accessibility architecture:
youtube.com/watch?v=w9psDfEFf9…

#Suno? #Udio? Who needs those? #ElevenLabs has just blown my actual mind and I am here for it! Cannot wait to get access to this.
I have not been so excited by AI-based music until now.
Don't skip anything, just listen.
Pay attention to the extremely fast Rap section too. It's up there with the best of them.
You've never heard AI music like this, trust me.

youtube.com/watch?v=GpYd8hU_EV…