modulux

modulux, 8 days ago to random EN

Language use in international communities is interesting. At my international school, because most of us weren't native English speakers, some strange words came about, more so because some of them named things that were new to us. The funniest case to me was that weird magic kitchen appliance in the dayrooms (school for commmon rooms) where you put water, turned a switch, and it boiled. What else did we call it but waterboiler?

It took me ages to find out that this device has an actual name (electric kettle) and that a boiler is something completely different.

modulux, 10 days ago to random EN

If you're a sighted user and your first reaction to an accessibility feature is "nobody asked for this", maybe keep it to yourself. Almost certainly someone asked for this.

Yes, this is about Mozilla's alt-text generation. The level of thoughtless rage on that thread is overwhelming. Do better.

modulux, 12 days ago to books EN

Just finished #reading The Tyrant Baru Cormoran. So some thoughts, no spoilers:

It is as good as I was hoping. The structure involves a lot of jumping back and forth, but though it may not seem so at first, it is done for good reasons and not just to confuse the reader.
The book is a part of a series, and satisfying in that regard, solving a lot of loose threads, but leaving the ending open.
There is a lot of violence done to bodies, some of it disturbingly described. This is not a book for squeamish people.
Overall, while Traitor and Monster saw Baru confident and then lost, I'd argue Tyrant is about her finding herself again.
Very strongly recommend it.

modulux, 14 days ago to books EN

Still reading The Tyrant Baru Cormoran. This stuff is dense and rich, and takes time to digest. Also, only so much of certain types of body horror I can take in one go. So while I usually read a book in one or two days, this one's taking me a lot longer, started on the 20th and I'm about 4/5 done. Needless to say, I think it's a great book.

#Reading #fantasy #books

modulux, 16 days ago to random EN

Looks like #fedivision is a very small phenomenon in today's, much larger fedi, but you know what?

I don't care.

And you know why? Because...

En pelkää.
Minä olen mitä olen, minä se vain.
En pelkää.
Sinä olet mitä olet, ole paras versio itsestäs ain.

modulux, 19 days ago to random EN

My mind is weird. I don't remember more than a handful of my fellow students from Leeds University. However, I remember my static IP.

modulux, 20 days ago to random EN

I'm having a few thoughts on social norms. I'm used to IRC and Usenet, where a channel or group is understood to be an open forum and, when people make a statement, it is seen as normal for anyone else, acquainted or not, to respond to it, even tangentially.

But on more social-network-style graph-based communications where the flow is determined by a follow edge between nodes or something like it, a lot of people find it disturbing or invasive to have strangers pop into their mentions to rebut, add, or jump off from their point.

I think this causes a lot of friction and expectation mismatches. I don't think either norm is wrong, though it is useful if people make it clear which one they're expecting.

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm an IRC-type person. If I'm posting public or unlisted, I do not mind strangers to disagree with me, add their own twist, or give their own reaction. I will also respect the desire of graph people who don't want me to do that to them.

#fediculture @irc #cyber #SocialNetworking

modulux, 2 months ago to random EN

Very interesting article on the dangers of "audience capture" to influencers. Influence does not only go one way: the audience can feed back and change the sort of person the influencer becomes, not even consciously. https://www.gurwinder.blog/p/the-perils-of-audience-capture

modulux, 2 months ago to random EN

So, the backdoor on xz (and via some naughty linking, ssh) was caught because of a tiny discrepancy that lowered performance in some code. We're talking about 200ms.

This is the sort of thing you can detect on backend code because it has predictably high performance. However, there's so much slack and inefficiency on modern GUI applications that 200ms would get lost in the noise.

I guess my half-serious point is: performance can be a security issue too. Not directly, slow programs aren't insecure, but because it allows to hide naughty activity that becomes so much harder to audit.

modulux, 2 months ago to accessibility EN

I just updated my screen reader, #NVDA, to version 2024.1.

A few notes of interest:

All add-ons I consider essential work. Remote isn't updated yet but TeleNVDA is.
Unspoken, which I maintain, hasn't been updated but can be force enabled and works. Some time this week I'll issue a new release.
Of the non-essential add-ons that I'd like to have but haven't tried forcing, I'd highlight Instant Translate and Calibre.

I've also made a donation. I encourage others to contribute to NVDA, with code, translations, time or money, if their situation permits. NVDA doesn't update itself. It's not only my favourite screen reader, but it's essential to keep our needs in focus, maintain our independence, and avoid monopoly.

Thanks to NV Access for another release.

#NVDASR #a11y #accessibility

modulux, 2 months ago to random EN

Two things I ought to do over this break, if I can bring myself to it:

1. Move my email setup and old websites from my old dedi to the new one, and decommission the old dedi.
2. Work further on my bot for fedi games, which so far can only do rock paper scissors, and throwing dice. Working on the game of spoof.

Not sure I have the energy for either, but maybe I will get a few subtasks done at least.

modulux, 2 months ago to random EN

Still confused by async rust and what it guarantees and doesn't.

In a single-threaded runtime, are async functions pushing into a vector safe or can there be data races?

Does this change in multithreaded runtimes?

In sync rust, I know that if I try to do something naughty (holding multiple mutable references) the compiler will protect me. But I'm not quite sure if this holds for async code.

Need to read more docs.

modulux, 2 months ago to random EN

I ran out of sambal oelek.

Not easy to get here, so I guess I won't have any more until the summer, if I go to the UK.

modulux, 2 months ago to random EN

I asked this a while ago and got no answers.

Anyone playing #nomic in the fedi?

For those who are new to nomic, it's a sort of meta-game about making rules: https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10288408/Peter%20Suber%2C%20%20Nomic%20.html?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

modulux, 2 months ago to random EN

Mm, I always forget I have miso soup. Today I remembered and it was nice.

modulux, 3 months ago to rust EN

Hi there,

Been seeing that repo with claims that the memory safety guarantees in #rust can be easily circumvented without using unsafe, but I lack the time/energy to look into it in detail. Any rust user has a comment on it?

modulux, 3 months ago to random EN

Tempted to write a mid-fedi manifesto (I have affinities with both sides of that issue).

This is probably a sign I need to do more work and less fediscrolling.

modulux, 3 months ago to random EN

For people concerned about the opt-out bridges being considered, the project changed their mind and they will be opt-in. Specifically, the proposed idea is when someone from another network wants to follow you through the bridge, you would get a DM asking you to allow it, if you haven't otherwise opted in: https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/835#issuecomment-1942046208

I think that's broadly reasonable.

modulux, 4 months ago to random EN

Fedi, give me circles. I want to be able to have different subscription views so that I can audit followers to one stream and not the other, so I can post things only to be seen by the pre-approved followers I want.

I realise the solution to this is run alts.

Running alts is annoying for all kinds of reasons. Not the least of which, client support for changing alts on the same instance is often bad.

Give me circles.

modulux, 4 months ago to random EN

Alright... let's update GTS... Back in a sec.

modulux, 4 months ago to magASEAN EN

Whenever the #TootSEA community posts I get hungry. So unfair... 😋

modulux, 4 months ago to NoStupidQuestions EN

Maybe some of my followers can help me with this #question.

I remember reading about Chinese diaspora labour organisations, some sort of mutual aid society type thing, or proto-unions. However, though I remember they had a name, I forgot what it was and I'm finding it impossible to google for it. Anyone knows?

modulux, 4 months ago to random EN

Subtoot of the day. Yes, I couldn't help myself.

Complaining about blind complainers is being... get this... a blind complainer.

modulux, 4 months ago to random EN

An interesting thing reading The Dao of Muhammad is that it shows Chinese Muslims had a very unusual tendency for syncretism. I've read people writing about Buddhism before such as David Chapmann who attribute the monistic view that all religions contain the same wisdom to Western romantic ideas, and in the Thai case, the attempt to present Buddhism as acceptable to the protestant colonialists.

But in this book we have other sources of monistic syncretism. The most relevant is:

Mr. Lu says, “Sages appear in the Eastern Seas; they have the same mind, the same principle. Sages appear in the Western Seas; they have the same mind, the same principle. Accordingly, sages from the Southern and Northern Seas appear, [and] their minds and their principles are the same; even though they are very distant in time, they are not different.”

Not sure why I read this stuff. I guess because I'm curious and the world is an interesting place.

modulux, 4 months ago to ai EN

Another interesting #TTS #AI system. I need to look closer into it in order to see if it's a voice cloning approach or something else: https://github.com/yl4579/StyleTTS2