A couple of months ago a family friend had a very serious health issue and he couldn't move or speak much. So I put together a web app with a set of phrases, connected to a game controller, in a way that he could just select phrases from the list to communicate. Luckily this person got better quickly, and this app was no longer needed, but I decided to improve this experiment and publish it as an Open Source project.

So, this is VoxEase. It can be operated with a mouse, a touch screen, a computer keyboard, a game controller using a single hand, or you can set it to scan the list of phrases automatically so you only need to press one button to pick your phrase.
It only requires a modern browser and once downloaded it works offline.
It supports multiple languages and it can also be used by people with sight impairments (it works with screen readers).

Any suggestions on how to make it better are welcome!

Link: https://turisc.github.io/voxease/

#openSource

i've been reading a late-90s book about virtual worlds - some of them VRML-based, many custom 2d and 3d clients, and some MUSHes/MOOs/MUDs

i came across a scientific MUD i had never heard before, and i'm absolutely blown away by its goals and implementation: NAU Solar System Simulation/SolSys by prof Reed Riner at northern arizona university. it was online from 1990 until at least 2017 (and maybe longer?).

there is a little information out there on what SolSys was:

"The Solar System Simulation, originated at CONTACT VI in 1987, was developed into an intercollegiate curriculum at Northern Arizona University by Reed Riner, as an honors course in Anthropology and Engineering. Since 1990, it has included student teams from many colleges and universities around the globe.

The teams represent colonies in a simulated future human community in space. For example, Mars Colony is normally manned by NAU and the Cabrillo College team traditionally inhabits the L-5 Colony near Earth. (See L-5 artwork left by Joel Hagen.) Teams communicate via websites, Internet e-mail and a Multiple User Domain (MUD), a text-based, virtual reality program. Students are directed and encouraged by their local faculty advisors and by a board of professional consultants in the social and space sciences."

https://www.contact-conference.org/c03.html

seriously - a hardcore scientific MUD built around real-life anthropology and space exploration. and entire mud devoted to teaching players how to cooperate in order to accomplish goals together, instead of killing a bunch of shit. how fucking cool is that?

did anyone here play/use SolSys when it was still alive?

the urls went dead when prof reed passed away last year, and the university wiped his webspace

SolSys ran on a modified version of tinyMUD, focused largely on building and communicating. this is its last known homepage:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250328124317/https://www2.nau.edu/rdr/SolSys/

dr. riner's obit:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/azdailysun/name/reed-riner-obituary?id=58181563

#mud #moo #virtualWorld #mush

the overwhelming amount of powerless, dispirited and pessimistic grumbling on masto about today's technology is a daily reminder that people are equally capable of creating very beautiful, aspirational things using creative tools.

this is a 5 minute recording of Ceremony of Innocence, by peter gabriel's Real World Multimedia. you may recognize the style, because it's a playful re-imagining of Nick Bantock's Griffin & Sabine epistolary novel.

if you recognize the voiceovers, it's because they're by Isabella Rossellini, Ben Kingsley and Paul McGann.

it was built with macromedia director 30 years ago. this recording was done on a 2004 iMac G5.

we're equally capable of building beautiful things like this now.

where the danger lies, also the saving power grows

#multimedia #macromedia #retrogaming #hopepunk #macintosh #vintageApple

Quick, grab the horseshoe crab powerup

#gamedev #art #sciart #crab #animation #indie #mastoart #creativetoots #invertebrate #arthropod

Aunia Kahn, “Rooted In The Language of Gilded Cages"

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/02/aunia-kahn-mixed-media-portraits/

#art

Nobody speaks for "The Fediverse."

I keep seeing posts declaring what The Fediverse believes, wants, or demands, often with ALL CAPS and a wall of #hashtags. It often slides into outright gatekeeping.

The fediverse is decentralized by design. Its opinions are too.

#Fediverse