A swan on what looks like a collision course – taken as I was standing, apparently in a good spot for flying over, on a hill next to the lake it took off from. It was gaining altitude faster than it was closing the distance, so this didn't feel quite as perilous as it might appear!

#birding #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdsofmastodon #photography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #naturephotography

libei 1.0.0 is out! Finally!

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libinput/libei/-/releases/1.0.0

Almost 3 years of development (admittedly with pauses), libei merged from a "hey, let's wrap emulating input into a library" idea into what's basically a point-to-point transport layer for logical input events. With the pending XDG Desktop Portal and compositor changes we'll be able to emulate and capture input in Wayland environments. And do much more, probably, there's already interest for accessibility implementations.

libei 1.0.0 · libinput / libei · GitLab

libei 1.0.0 is now available. Note that there is one minor protocol change (ei_connection.sync) and one ABI (not API) change in libeis since the RC2 despite...

^GitLab

When making adaptive apps for GNOME, it's important that you don't think of smaller sizes as being a mobile mode. You still need to account for desktop users that simply want to use a smaller window - like if they're using a small laptop.

Be mindful that all your UI elements are still accessible with the pointer and via keyboard navigation.

OK so for those of you who are like me from the past and don’t listen to conferences, tech talks ETC but are actually interested in #programming I want to show you one feature of #Swift and/or #SwiftUI which actually blew my mind because of its simplicity. Before the #iOS 17 era you would do something like
```
class User: ObservableObject {
@Published var firstName = "Nuno"
@Published var lastName = "Mao"
}
//…

struct ContentView: View {
@StateObject var user = User()
var body: some View {
Text("I am \(user.firstName) \(user.lastName)")
}
}
```
Then, in subsequent views you could pass this class around by using `@ObservedObject` property wrapper so that all views could stay in sync and point to the same data. However now they made it to work like that:
```
@Observable
class User {
var firstName = "Nuno"
var lastName = "Mao"
private var eMailAddress = "nuno69a@gmail.com"
}
…
struct ContentView: View {
var user = User()
var body: some View {
Text("I am \(user.firstName) \(user.lastName)")
}
}
```
This code brings some interesting implications with it, the least of it being that we no longer need to mark our properties with the `@Published` property wrapper. Basically all publicly exposed properties are marked as `@Published` automatically without our further intervention. `private` properties stay untouched, like in the example above.
The problem starts when we want to make our data actually changable like so
```
TextField("Name", text: $user.firstName)
TextField("Last name", text: $user.lastName)
```
Funnily enough, it won’t actually work because “Cannot find '$user' in scope”. Or, maybe? They made it actually very clever, to minimize overhead of code generated at compile they they once again force us to use a property wrapper. One small change and our properties can be bound to stuff
```

struct ContentView: View {
@Bindable var user = User()
…
```
That’s all, stufff will now work as expected.
#programming #apple #iOS #macOS #WWDC

If people are so ready to return to the office then why do jobs keep lying about being remote?

🤔🤔🤔

This piece captures so much of my own thinking about generative AI in the context of my writing classes. I think there are productive ways of using the technology, but as a cognitive scientist, I’m very skeptical about the claims I’ve seen that eliminating “busywork” will open up space for students to do higher level work. To be clear, I do think that it could, perhaps most obviously for assignments that require writing but aren’t about learning to write.
1/

https://theconversation.com/how-chatgpt-robs-students-of-motivation-to-write-and-think-for-themselves-197875

How ChatGPT robs students of motivation to write and think for themselves

People who have used AI to help with writing report a loss of pride and ownership in what they produce.

^{The Conversation}

Transgender friends -- trying to find a swimsuit for my daughter. Advice, recommendations? She wants something feminine but fairly modest, and wears around a 3X.

Please boost, if you have the right audience.

In honor of #WWDC23 I updated this bug demonstrating Safari 16.5 on iOS and macOS breaks tables to unusable when CSS display properties are applied:
https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=257458

I have been tracking Apple’s ongoing failure to fix this #a11y bug for 5 years:
https://adrianroselli.com/2022/07/its-mid-2022-and-browsers-mostly-safari-still-break-accessibility-via-display-properties.html

#accessibility

It’s Mid-2022 and Browsers (Mostly Safari) Still Break Accessibility via Display Properties

It was late 2020 when I last tested how browsers use CSS display properties to break the semantics of elements.

^{Adrian Roselli}

So, I've been working on this report on commercial self-generated CSAM for a few months. This is an area that is not very well studied, and also poorly handled by many platforms. While Instagram is the focal point of the report, this affects a very wide swath of the tech industry, from payment services to e-commerce to social networking tools. Since some news sites are attributing every conclusion they've drawn to "the researchers", please read the actual report:

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:jd797tp7663/20230606-sio-sg-csam-report.pdf

#WiPQuote

With grim determination, Earth threw up a bubble, wrapping all of them in as tight a shield as she could manage. She anchored it in the ground, reaching down to firm rock.

“Gennie, if you have any energy to spare, help hold that bubble, please.”

“Of course, Momma Earth.”

She could sense the girl’s smile, and somehow, that gave her hope.

Earth Splits, Pillars of the Empire Book 1
(Finally making progress!)

#WritingCommunity
#EpicFantasy

AXObserver is one of the worst APIs I’ve ever seen out of Apple.

1. There are no proper constructors on the class, so you have to call static methods (that aren’t even defined on the class) to create a new instance.
2. Said functions don’t return the object to you. You have to create the object, and then pass it as a pointer, checking the return value of the create function for error codes! What? This is Swift, not Objective-C, how about you get the hell away from me with your out pointers and error codes?
3. They’re required to be locked to a specific process. This means I can’t observe system-wide accessibility events without iterating through a list of visible processes and installing an observer for each and every one of them. This could be made more efficient by only doing it if it has foreground focus, but who in their right mind thought this was a good idea?

Someone please tell me there’s at least a better way to observe accessibility events system wide? Please? I can get past the unfriendly API, but not… that.