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#AudioMo Day 19 - Happy Juneteenth!
#AudioMo Day 19 - Happy Juneteenth!
The narrative of AI as an immaterial, harmless technology obscures its significant physical footprint. In reality, large language models demand immense computational power, driving up global data center electricity consumption and putting severe strain on water resources for cooling. Furthermore, the rapid obsolescence of specialized AI hardware contributes to a growing e-waste crisis.
Interview: How Israel hijacked Trump & lost the Middle East
"We're seeing here the decline, the fall & collapse of the American Empire."
"This idea that they're a superpower that can act at will is clearly wrong. This is an absolute strategic disaster for the US".
"The penetration of the pro-Israel lobby across all aspects of decision-making in Washington, the media space, the political space is so deep."
~Andeas Kreig
youtube.com/watch?v=D2eOep6IHn…
#USPol #EUPol #IranWar #news #IsraelLobby .
IRAN WAR: How Israel HIJACKED Trump & Lost the Middle East
Join the Future of Journalism ► https://www.patreon.com/DoubleDownNewsSupport DDN ► https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=TLXUE9P9GA9ZCDouble Down News (YouTube)
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🚨 Canadians overwhelmingly support stronger political #privacy protections. Transparency, accountability, and independent oversight shouldn’t be optional for federal political parties! ✍️ Sign and share: ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Pet…
🚨 How much more are ~92,000 #NEVADA ACA enrollees *really* paying this year due to Trump/GOP policies? Nearly 12,000 Nevadans have already been priced out of coverage entirely; the rest have seen their premiums jump 54% & out of pocket costs go up 29% in 1 year. acasignups.net/enrollee_cos...
How much more are ~92,000 NEVA...
How much more are ~92,000 NEVADA ACA enrollees *really* paying this year due to Trump/GOP policies?
IMPORTANT: See the original post in this series for an explanation of the methodology. Regular readers know that I've been obsessing over the massive increases in both gross as well as net premiums for ACA health insurance policy enrollees being caus…ACA Signups
Our community is helping us test the initial release of GrapheneOS based on Android 17. It's working very well for most people with very few issues. We've resolved the main regressions reported to us already. We'll start builds for a 2nd public release based on 17 later today after a few more fixes.
GrapheneOS version 2026061800 released
This is the initial release of GrapheneOS based on Android 17.
Due to an upstream Android 17 bug, updating to this release via ADB sideload to recovery from a previous release is unavailable. There will be no issues updating to it over-the-air and we'll provide instructions in our testing channels for early experimental testing prior to Alpha. We've added a workaround resolving updating via ADB sideload from this release to a future release. We're working on a resolution to updating via sideload from a previous release. If necessary, we could make a final release based on Android 16 QPR2 with the same workaround solely released for people who only update via sideloading.
Tags:
- 2026061800 (Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a, Pixel Tablet, Pixel Fold, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8a, Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel 9a, Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, Pixel 10 Pro Fold, Pixel 10a, emulator, generic, other targets)
Changes since the 2026061600 release:
- full 2026-06-05 Pixel security patch level (released with Android 17)
- rebased onto CP2A.260605.016 Android Open Source Project release (Android 17)
- revert in-process Opus codec sandboxed with LFI (Lightweight Fault Isolation) to dedicated sandboxed process in order to restore compatibility with hardware memory tagging and avoid likely holes in LFI
- Sandboxed Google Play compatibility layer: add stubs for BluetoothLeBroadcast methods
- Vanadium: update to version 149.0.7827.159.0
All of the Android 17 security patches from the current July 2026, August 2026, September 2026, October 2026, November 2026 and December 2026 Android Security Bulletins are included in the 2026061801 security preview release. List of additional fixed CVEs:
- Critical: CVE-2026-28591, CVE-2026-28604, CVE-2026-28639, CVE-2026-28662, CVE-2026-28666, CVE-2026-45515, CVE-2026-45531
- High: CVE-2025-22442, CVE-2025-48564, CVE-2025-48565, CVE-2025-48566, CVE-2026-28582, CVE-2026-28584, CVE-2026-28588, CVE-2026-28593, CVE-2026-28594, CVE-2026-28599, CVE-2026-28600, CVE-2026-28602, CVE-2026-28603, CVE-2026-28606, CVE-2026-28607, CVE-2026-28612, CVE-2026-28613, CVE-2026-28614, CVE-2026-28617, CVE-2026-28619, CVE-2026-28620, CVE-2026-28622, CVE-2026-28623, CVE-2026-28624, CVE-2026-28626, CVE-2026-28630, CVE-2026-28631, CVE-2026-28633, CVE-2026-28634, CVE-2026-28635, CVE-2026-28638, CVE-2026-28643, CVE-2026-28650, CVE-2026-28652, CVE-2026-28655, CVE-2026-28657, CVE-2026-28658, CVE-2026-28660, CVE-2026-28663, CVE-2026-28664, CVE-2026-28665, CVE-2026-28667, CVE-2026-28668, CVE-2026-28671, CVE-2026-45513, CVE-2026-45514, CVE-2026-45516, CVE-2026-45517, CVE-2026-45518, CVE-2026-45519, CVE-2026-45520, CVE-2026-45521, CVE-2026-45523, CVE-2026-45524, CVE-2026-45525, CVE-2026-45527, CVE-2026-45528, CVE-2026-45529, CVE-2026-49880
- Unclassified: CVE-2026-28653
For detailed information on security preview releases, see our post about it.
GrapheneOS security preview releases - GrapheneOS Discussion Forum
GrapheneOS discussion forumGrapheneOS Discussion Forum
I don't like Starmer. I want him to step down. But I don't think he should. His possible replacements are much worse and we've had utter chaos for a decade and a half. Perhaps we should let our leaders serve their term and think a bit more critically who we vote for next time.
GrapheneOS Based On AOSP 17 Progress and Upcoming Bug Fixes
We built an initial release of GrapheneOS based on Android 17 (2026061700) but aren't going to release it through our Alpha channel due to discovering a serious upstream bug. Android 17 broke support for sideloading updates via recovery unless the OS images are large enough to exhaust COW space.
The stock Pixel OS is drastically larger than GrapheneOS due to having a massive amount of additional bundled app code for Google Mobile Services, many other Google apps and various Pixel apps. It's always above the threshold triggering the fallback code path for sideloading OS updates in recovery.
Over-the-air updates from both older versions to Android 17 and Android 17 to Android 17 work fine. It's only sideloading impacted by this. We don't want to release an OS version with broken OS update sideloading so we've cancelled 2026061700 and are building 2026061800 with a workaround for it.
Our current workaround is to force enable the fallback code path triggered by large OS images. This will fix sideloading an Android 17 version of GrapheneOS to another Android 17 version of GrapheneOS. However, sideloading Android 17 updates to older versions won't work without a further workaround.
We've tried making a build with a randomly generated 1GiB file included to make GrapheneOS about as large as the stock Pixel OS which fully works around the issue. We're not actually going to do that but rather we'll use the workaround forcing the fallback path for now and we'll find a proper fix
Our workaround will provide working sideloading from our initial Android 17 release to a future release. However, it isn't currently possible to sideload from 16 QPR2. We could make an extra 16 QPR2 update for people who only sideload updates with the workaround to use until we make a proper fix.
Google didn't run into this because they add so much bloat to the OS for Google Mobile Services including Google Play services along with a bunch of other Google and Pixel apps. Pixel OS is a lot smaller than the OS on most Android devices but it's drastically larger than AOSP and even GrapheneOS.
GrapheneOS uses ahead-of-time compilation for Java/Kotlin code which greatly increases the size of the apps in the OS images. Despite this, it's still drastically smaller than the Pixel OS. It would be substantially larger if we bundled as much code as they do but instead it's the opposite...
GrapheneOS uses ahead-of-time compilation for Java/Kotlin code which greatly increases the size of the apps in the OS images. Despite this, it's still drastically smaller than the Pixel OS. It would be substantially larger if we bundled as much code as they do but instead it's the opposite...
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prueba 1 de audio
Coming up at 2 PM Eastern on server 2, the third Friday of the month means story time on The Cookie Jar. When we last left our two main characters, Morgan le Fay had made them master librarians and given them their new magical library cards. What will they do with them next? That's what everyone gets to find out this week. Sit back, relax, and get ready for adventure.
Teamtalk will also be available. Simply log into the station server and ask The Evil Chocolate Cookie for the channel password.
Teamtalk will also be available. Simply log into the station server and ask The Evil Chocolate Cookie for the channel password.
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#AudioMo Day 19 - June 2026
"Hello from Tokyo"
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This year marks the 20th #1984Simposium at George Orwells grave. You’re more than welcome to join us. 11 am on June 25 in the churchyard of All Saints' Church, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, OX14 4AG.
Bring a picnic. #AudioMo Day19
Having to grant approval even when one sets 'Full Access' is indeed tiresome.
Hanging out on here meet.oriolgomez.com/room/Seedy…
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I know promoting other podcasts isnt meant to be the done thing, but we at Double Tap feel quite the opposite! This is a truly excellent episode of the Access On podcast by @JonathanMosen. This is exactly what we need more of in our community. It’s vitally important to listen to this to fully grasp what the Braillenote Evolve is, and crucially, isn’t. Well done @AccessOn team! And if you aren’t subscribed to this you really should be! nfb.social/@AccessOn/116766753…
Episode 80 of Access On, is on. This week, HumanWare begins shipping the Windows-based BrailleNote Evolve. In this extended episode, we bring you the first independent, extensive review of the device.
Subscribe to Access On wherever you get podcasts, or download the audio of this week’s episode at:
pinecast.com/listen/f2d89618-3…
My boss has become an LLM proxy. A problem comes in -- a ticket, an internal report, whatever -- and he copy-and-pastes it into whichever model he's using this week, and then copy-and-pastes the result into Slack. I don't think he reads any of it.
big tech is still big tech regardless of continent.
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I just pushed the support for the rotation of the new #Wacom Art Pen 2 🖌️ in #GIMP. This will be available in @GIMP 3.4.
Maybe I will even decide to back port this feature to a 3.2 micro release so that artists 👨🎨 with such hardware won't have to wait for months. 🤷
Thanks to Wacom for sponsoring the styli.
I'm more and more feeling like I should move from Archlinux to Gentoo just because Archlinux does everything it can to remove debug symbols everywhere. It's completely absurd (the perf impact is negligible) and makes life impossible for developers.
Some packages take forever to compile each time you upgrade, but I'm still a fan of Gentoo's technical phylosophy.
@clv1 I remember my machine running all night to build updates when I was in university. But it was a long time ago, and I have a recent Intel CPU. My only concern would be the time to reinstall everything and have it working.
The last time I installed Gentoo was 2023, in an 8th gen Intel CPU. the slowest packages I recall were glibc and lvm. Unfortunately, you have to upgrade them often.
Si te infectas con tuberculosis por frecuentar estos sitios, bien infectado estás.
Alarma en la 'recta del amor' de Trapagarán; decenas de clientes de un prostíbulo en riesgo de tuberculosis que sufre una mujer
elmundo.es/pais-vasco/2026/06/…
Alarma en la 'recta del amor' de Trapagarán; decenas de clientes de un prostíbulo en riesgo de tuberculosis que sufre una mujer
Decenas de clientes de los clubes de alterne situados en Trapagarán (Bizkaia) se han puesto en contacto con sus centros de salud e, incluso, con hospitales vizcaínos ante la...Josean Izarra (El Mundo)
lo malo es que no pocos pueden llegar a infectar a sus adnegadas esposas, novias o amantes o lo que sean. Un treinta por ciento de la población masculina frecuenta estos lupanales. Un treinta por ciento, que no es poco.
Menos mal que ya cada uno tiene su móvil. Porque lo que procede en estos casos es llamar uno por uno a los posibles contactos para que se hagan la prueba, y se la tienen que hacer 2 veces. @jmdaweb
Parece ser que Facua ha tocado hueso y ya hay aviso legal en Ejpañola de timofonía. Por cierto: La tarifa Ejpaña, efectivamente es engañosa y un timo mientras que la Colón puede llevarles a la ruina si la descubre quien yo te diga. Dicho esto: Por qué contratar un intermediario si al final va a ser Movistar quien dé el servicio y mediante O2 tiene mejores tarifas?
a mí no me desagrada que se time a los fachas, que quieres que te diga. Aunque sea por parte de otros fachas.
Firefox incluye la posibilidad de traducir contenido fuera de línea. Para ello hace uso de modelos pequeños y rápidos. Esos modelos pequeños y rápidos han traducido tooltip como "la punta de la herramienta". No tengo nada más que agregar.
Juan CBS reshared this.
La integridad de una barra de pan comprada durante una de mis caminatas es inversamente proporcional a la distancia a cubrir hasta llegar a casa 🙇🏻
I got an email that told me that I've used 3/4 of my 5gb of free ICloud storage, if I remember correctly. It suggested that I could pay for more.
So I started looking to try to figure out where I'm using all of this storage. I'm actually using about 2/3 of my space, not 3/4. Most of that is going to back up my IPhone.
And I have 124mb of health data stored. Really? 124mb? I've never consciously enabled any kind of health tracking, and I thought that that was more of an Apple Watch thing. So I have no idea what kind of health data it is collecting and storing. I remember when I had a computer with a 20mb hard disk, and, before that, computers that had no hard disk at all. And now my phone has collected 124mb of mysterious "health data" for me and put it in the cloud, without my realizing it.
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dear economists, if all your economic markers say the economy is going great yet ordinary people keep saying the economy is the worst they've ever seen, maybe get some new economic indicators instead of scratching your head and wondering why the people are so "out of touch" with reality
#Economics ; justifying being known as the #DismalScience since 1849. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dism…
Every element of a Toby Carvery is disappointing. There are no nice options. It's a meal purely for people who value quantity over anything else.
when we were students, a Toby carvery was the only really solid meal we got and it holds a very fond place in my memory. Fine dining it is not, but you know what, not everything has to be.
I want to share a personal view on the discussions around banning social media for people under a certain age because I fear the voices of blind people and others who belong to communities that are not necessarily geographical are not being heard.
One of my favorite podcasts is called Feel Better, Live More. Many of these episodes are incredibly long. I mean mate! You may have thought that Living Blindfully was long, but some of these are even longer! The host, Rangan Chatterjee, lives in the UK. Lately he has been campaigning, successfully it seems, for an Australia-style social media ban.
I’ve never met him, but through his podcast, I have grown to like him. I don’t always agree with everything he says or thinks, but I do wish more of us could accept that even though we don’t think the same, that doesn’t always make the person with a different view a bad person.
So, I wrote the following to him in an email. I put a lot of me into this email, and I thought long and hard about sharing it here, but it does offer a different perspective, and I’m a long way away from the suicidal teenager I once was. So, here it is.
Hi Rangan
I would first like to thank you sincerely for your podcast. There is so much about it for which I am grateful. In an era where taking a superficial approach to all kinds of issues is common, I am grateful for the depth with which you discuss the issues on which you choose to focus.
As an audio geek, I also love the production values. It’s exceptionally well produced. I will keep listening.
I have also found your books to be excellent reading. You are making a difference in the world.
This email is a long one, but it is written from the heart. I have no idea if it will even get to you, but if not, perhaps I can consider it good therapy. 😊
About a year ago, I subscribed to the Friday Five, which I also enjoy on the whole. I have noted with increasing discomfort your campaigning for a social media ban for those under 16 in the UK, where I do not live. While it was a theoretical discussion, it was easy to shrug it off and say that diversity of opinion makes for an interesting world and it is good to test one’s own opinions by being exposed to alternative perspectives. But now that the UK Government is proceeding, and seeing the newsletter today describing this as “a big win for children”, I feel moved to write to share my story with you.
I am blind, grew up in New Zealand, and was head-hunted for a significant position in the United States, where I now live. I suppose by many people’s measurements of such things, I have been very successful. But I could just as easily have been dead by now and I have the early version of social media to thank for my survival.
As a teenager thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, I knew I had a gift for radio, and could even be heard on radio occasionally in the city I grew up in. Someone told me about an ad in the paper they’d seen for a broadcasting course run by professional broadcasters. I did what the ad said and sent them a demo tape, which I put a lot of work into. The head of the course called me, offering me a place on the course. He also told me the price tag, which was way beyond my abilities as a penniless student. On that basis, I declined. But to my astonishment, he called me back again. He said that my tape was so good that they would offer me the course for half price, because they were sure I would be going places in radio, and they wanted to be able to say that Jonathan Mosen had graduated from their course. So I said, cool! I’ll pay half price, and can I come in a little early as I want to get familiar with the equipment and put Braille labels on the media being used. And it was like someone had flipped an attitude switch. He asked me what I was talking about. I told him that I was blind, so I’d just make a couple of simple modifications and I’d be up and running. He said, “you’re wasting my time. There’s no point doing the course since a blind person could never have a future in radio.” There was only one factor that changed his perception of me from future radio star to waste of space and waste of time. My blindness. So, I never did the course. And a few years later, on a radio station at which we both worked, I became his boss.
But a lot happened between being denied entry to that course, and supervising the person responsible for the denial. The denial made it crystal clear to me that the problem with being blind wasn’t my blindness itself, the problem was what other people thought about it. Fortunately for me, at about this time, I used money I’d saved from an after school job to buy an item that is now considered a technological relic, called a dial-up modem, which I connected to another piece of ancient technology called the Keynote XL, a talking computer designed for blind people. I used it to connect to a service that preceded the mass adoption of the Internet called the CompuServe Information Service, which was based in the United States. CompuServe had online forums, one of which was the Disabilities forum containing a subsection devoted to blindness issues. It was through CompuServe in the 1980s that I first connected with the messages of transformation and truth about blindness coming from the National Federation of the Blind in the United States. Reading the Federation’s literature, and messages from people who were applying the Federation’s truth to their own lives, changed my life, and perhaps even saved my life. The Federation replaced my deep despondency and sense of hopelessness with hope. Where I felt overwhelm, I now felt determination, because I was connected with older blind role models who understood the issues I was having, and gave me strategies for confronting them constructively.
My connection with the Federation guided me and inspired me to turn what I originally saw as a career-threatening setback, being declined access to a broadcasting course merely because of my blindness, into a challenge to inform and educate.
Inspired by messages from Federationists about finding a career, I began calling a lot of radio DJs, just to get to know them, and that helped build my networks. Then I decided that the best way to prove I could have a career in radio was by starting my own temporary radio station. It took me a few years of trial and error to navigate the bureaucracy, but eventually, the Government granted me a temporary two-week license to run a radio station from the school for the blind. I was determined that the station, which we called Radio Enterprise and could be heard right throughout the city, would be run as a commercial venture, not a charitable one. We pounded the pavement and sold advertising, which covered the hiring of the professional broadcast equipment, and a massive AM transmitter mast which was temporarily erected in a field nearby.
I then wrote to every radio station executive and personality I could think of, asking them to tune in, and even come out and see us in action. Many did, and when it was time for me to seek a job in radio, I had great networks and it wasn’t difficult at all.
I credit the National Federation of the Blind for boosting my confidence and bringing out in me a dogged sense of tenacity, even though the organization was half a world away. And I would not have found it, and the people who changed the whole trajectory of my life, without the Internet.
Many blind people now go to their local schools. They are often isolated. They don’t often get to connect with blind young people like them to share struggles, tips and tricks. I worry deeply about the impact on communities of disabled people that are distinct but not geographical who will be dramatically affected by a social media ban.
Of course, many modern social media tools are no CompuServe. They serve content based on sophisticated algorithms designed to promote engagement, and disharmony promotes engagement. I completely agree with you about that fundamental concern. Where I disagree is that the blunt instrument of a ban for people based on age is the answer. First due to the points I have just made, but second, just because you’re over the age of 16, it doesn’t mean you are going to be able to cope with the consequences of these harmful algorithms. There are adults for whom the algorithms are causing significant mental health issues, and I am very concerned about that.
The answer in my view is to go after and regulate the algorithms, not ban people below a certain age.
I don’t think you are on Mastodon, but this, to me, shows what social media can be. An algorithm-free, open platform that no entity can ever own.
As I say, without being able to connect me with people who got me out of the depths of despair, I may not be here to write this to you.
I will keep listening, but I have felt a moral compunction to cancel my premium subscription, because I completely respect your right to campaign for those causes you care about, but I feel that this one will do blind people like me real harm, and I feel discomfort about contributing even in an indirect way to funding it.
Thanks once again, and if you have in fact read this and got all the way to the bottom, I appreciate that very much.
One of my favorite podcasts is called Feel Better, Live More. Many of these episodes are incredibly long. I mean mate! You may have thought that Living Blindfully was long, but some of these are even longer! The host, Rangan Chatterjee, lives in the UK. Lately he has been campaigning, successfully it seems, for an Australia-style social media ban.
I’ve never met him, but through his podcast, I have grown to like him. I don’t always agree with everything he says or thinks, but I do wish more of us could accept that even though we don’t think the same, that doesn’t always make the person with a different view a bad person.
So, I wrote the following to him in an email. I put a lot of me into this email, and I thought long and hard about sharing it here, but it does offer a different perspective, and I’m a long way away from the suicidal teenager I once was. So, here it is.
Hi Rangan
I would first like to thank you sincerely for your podcast. There is so much about it for which I am grateful. In an era where taking a superficial approach to all kinds of issues is common, I am grateful for the depth with which you discuss the issues on which you choose to focus.
As an audio geek, I also love the production values. It’s exceptionally well produced. I will keep listening.
I have also found your books to be excellent reading. You are making a difference in the world.
This email is a long one, but it is written from the heart. I have no idea if it will even get to you, but if not, perhaps I can consider it good therapy. 😊
About a year ago, I subscribed to the Friday Five, which I also enjoy on the whole. I have noted with increasing discomfort your campaigning for a social media ban for those under 16 in the UK, where I do not live. While it was a theoretical discussion, it was easy to shrug it off and say that diversity of opinion makes for an interesting world and it is good to test one’s own opinions by being exposed to alternative perspectives. But now that the UK Government is proceeding, and seeing the newsletter today describing this as “a big win for children”, I feel moved to write to share my story with you.
I am blind, grew up in New Zealand, and was head-hunted for a significant position in the United States, where I now live. I suppose by many people’s measurements of such things, I have been very successful. But I could just as easily have been dead by now and I have the early version of social media to thank for my survival.
As a teenager thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, I knew I had a gift for radio, and could even be heard on radio occasionally in the city I grew up in. Someone told me about an ad in the paper they’d seen for a broadcasting course run by professional broadcasters. I did what the ad said and sent them a demo tape, which I put a lot of work into. The head of the course called me, offering me a place on the course. He also told me the price tag, which was way beyond my abilities as a penniless student. On that basis, I declined. But to my astonishment, he called me back again. He said that my tape was so good that they would offer me the course for half price, because they were sure I would be going places in radio, and they wanted to be able to say that Jonathan Mosen had graduated from their course. So I said, cool! I’ll pay half price, and can I come in a little early as I want to get familiar with the equipment and put Braille labels on the media being used. And it was like someone had flipped an attitude switch. He asked me what I was talking about. I told him that I was blind, so I’d just make a couple of simple modifications and I’d be up and running. He said, “you’re wasting my time. There’s no point doing the course since a blind person could never have a future in radio.” There was only one factor that changed his perception of me from future radio star to waste of space and waste of time. My blindness. So, I never did the course. And a few years later, on a radio station at which we both worked, I became his boss.
But a lot happened between being denied entry to that course, and supervising the person responsible for the denial. The denial made it crystal clear to me that the problem with being blind wasn’t my blindness itself, the problem was what other people thought about it. Fortunately for me, at about this time, I used money I’d saved from an after school job to buy an item that is now considered a technological relic, called a dial-up modem, which I connected to another piece of ancient technology called the Keynote XL, a talking computer designed for blind people. I used it to connect to a service that preceded the mass adoption of the Internet called the CompuServe Information Service, which was based in the United States. CompuServe had online forums, one of which was the Disabilities forum containing a subsection devoted to blindness issues. It was through CompuServe in the 1980s that I first connected with the messages of transformation and truth about blindness coming from the National Federation of the Blind in the United States. Reading the Federation’s literature, and messages from people who were applying the Federation’s truth to their own lives, changed my life, and perhaps even saved my life. The Federation replaced my deep despondency and sense of hopelessness with hope. Where I felt overwhelm, I now felt determination, because I was connected with older blind role models who understood the issues I was having, and gave me strategies for confronting them constructively.
My connection with the Federation guided me and inspired me to turn what I originally saw as a career-threatening setback, being declined access to a broadcasting course merely because of my blindness, into a challenge to inform and educate.
Inspired by messages from Federationists about finding a career, I began calling a lot of radio DJs, just to get to know them, and that helped build my networks. Then I decided that the best way to prove I could have a career in radio was by starting my own temporary radio station. It took me a few years of trial and error to navigate the bureaucracy, but eventually, the Government granted me a temporary two-week license to run a radio station from the school for the blind. I was determined that the station, which we called Radio Enterprise and could be heard right throughout the city, would be run as a commercial venture, not a charitable one. We pounded the pavement and sold advertising, which covered the hiring of the professional broadcast equipment, and a massive AM transmitter mast which was temporarily erected in a field nearby.
I then wrote to every radio station executive and personality I could think of, asking them to tune in, and even come out and see us in action. Many did, and when it was time for me to seek a job in radio, I had great networks and it wasn’t difficult at all.
I credit the National Federation of the Blind for boosting my confidence and bringing out in me a dogged sense of tenacity, even though the organization was half a world away. And I would not have found it, and the people who changed the whole trajectory of my life, without the Internet.
Many blind people now go to their local schools. They are often isolated. They don’t often get to connect with blind young people like them to share struggles, tips and tricks. I worry deeply about the impact on communities of disabled people that are distinct but not geographical who will be dramatically affected by a social media ban.
Of course, many modern social media tools are no CompuServe. They serve content based on sophisticated algorithms designed to promote engagement, and disharmony promotes engagement. I completely agree with you about that fundamental concern. Where I disagree is that the blunt instrument of a ban for people based on age is the answer. First due to the points I have just made, but second, just because you’re over the age of 16, it doesn’t mean you are going to be able to cope with the consequences of these harmful algorithms. There are adults for whom the algorithms are causing significant mental health issues, and I am very concerned about that.
The answer in my view is to go after and regulate the algorithms, not ban people below a certain age.
I don’t think you are on Mastodon, but this, to me, shows what social media can be. An algorithm-free, open platform that no entity can ever own.
As I say, without being able to connect me with people who got me out of the depths of despair, I may not be here to write this to you.
I will keep listening, but I have felt a moral compunction to cancel my premium subscription, because I completely respect your right to campaign for those causes you care about, but I feel that this one will do blind people like me real harm, and I feel discomfort about contributing even in an indirect way to funding it.
Thanks once again, and if you have in fact read this and got all the way to the bottom, I appreciate that very much.
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Um zu beweisen, dass das Wasser sauber ist: Trump lässt JD Vance aus Reflecting Pool trinken der-postillon.com/2026/06/refl…
Um zu beweisen, dass das Wasser sauber ist: Trump lässt JD Vance aus Reflecting Pool trinken
Washington (dpo) - Das dürfte seine Kritiker verstummen lassen: Nachdem der Reflecting Pool in Washington nur wenige Wochen nach einer 16-Millionen-DoDer Postillon
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Thrilled to partner with Friedman Place, a nonprofit for blind adults! They shared that our tactile 3D restroom maps are "fantastic" and show how far they go to be welcoming and accommodating. Proud to support your community! #AccessibleDesign #TactileMaps
I listened to the Evolve review from @JonathanMosen. It was excellent. While I don't need one and would never spend all that money, I do love the idea of something the size of my old Apex that has braille always available but runs full Windows. How cool would it be to have Windows and braille in such a compact package I could wear it on my shoulder and use it at a moment's notice? But it wouldn't replace my iPhone or laptop, and $6,200 is a lot for a neat tertiary device.
Thanks Alex, I appreciate that very much.
I will also take this opportunity while I am writing about that episode to say that there was a lot of rigor behind its production and its conclusion.
For example, we sent an early version of it to HumanWare for their comment, particularly to correct any errors of fact. They found a couple which we corrected for the final version. We don’t always do this, but in this instance we felt it was the right thing to do.
I ran the key findings by several beta testers, who all agreed with them without any suggestions for corrections.
We also gave HumanWare a right of reply on the same episode.
One regret I have is that I did not push back at all on the comments made in that right of reply about ARM processors, which I believe to be factually incorrect. Any Microsoft Surface Pro will out-perform the BrailleNote Evolve, both in performance and massively in battery life. There are of course other potential challenges relating to going ARM and I was somewhat surprised that they were not mentioned.
Finally, the review did not say that the BrailleNote Evolve wouldn’t suit some use cases. In particular, it did say that if you are a JAWS user and you disable all the HumanWare things, you don’t mind a slower computer, you don’t need Terminal mode, and you can cope with the low battery life, then you may be very happy with it.
Thanks for listening and for the positive feedback. NFB CENA prides itself on evaluating technology without fear or favor, and we put an enormous amount of work and care into this one.
I will also take this opportunity while I am writing about that episode to say that there was a lot of rigor behind its production and its conclusion.
For example, we sent an early version of it to HumanWare for their comment, particularly to correct any errors of fact. They found a couple which we corrected for the final version. We don’t always do this, but in this instance we felt it was the right thing to do.
I ran the key findings by several beta testers, who all agreed with them without any suggestions for corrections.
We also gave HumanWare a right of reply on the same episode.
One regret I have is that I did not push back at all on the comments made in that right of reply about ARM processors, which I believe to be factually incorrect. Any Microsoft Surface Pro will out-perform the BrailleNote Evolve, both in performance and massively in battery life. There are of course other potential challenges relating to going ARM and I was somewhat surprised that they were not mentioned.
Finally, the review did not say that the BrailleNote Evolve wouldn’t suit some use cases. In particular, it did say that if you are a JAWS user and you disable all the HumanWare things, you don’t mind a slower computer, you don’t need Terminal mode, and you can cope with the low battery life, then you may be very happy with it.
Thanks for listening and for the positive feedback. NFB CENA prides itself on evaluating technology without fear or favor, and we put an enormous amount of work and care into this one.
I'll be at the #EnterShikari show in Berlin on Nov 7:
entershikari.com/events/2026-1…
Anyone else going? Anyone want to meet up there? :)
LOSE YOUR SELF TOUR 2026 at Columbiahalle, Berlin on 07 Nov 2026
Buy tickets for LOSE YOUR SELF TOUR 2026 at Columbiahalle, BerlinEnter Shikari
I can't believe how expensive blind products are, and I can't believe how accepting of that we all are. Let me pay 17 grand for a braille display. You know the funny thing? A sighted person can buy a decent car with that same money, even less if they're lucky. Make it make sense someone. Oh and lets not forget to mention that blind people have it rough finding work so yet another thing going against the idea that we somehow have 5g stored away for one single product that isn't worth a third of that price. I'll die on this hill. Screw all these companies for making their stuff more expensive than the lowest prices of very high luxury clothing sold by the big brands. Not cool.
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New members in the governing board, a new rust client, and a massive Element Call update.
That and more happened This Week in Matrix!
matrix.org/blog/2026/06/19/thi…
This Week in Matrix 2026-06-19
Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communicationsThib (matrix.org)
It really sucks when the AC breaks down in 90 degree weather.
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Instead of making benches inaccessible to the homeless, my city has installed normal benches alongside trashcans with a special shelf where you can place empty bottles, so those in need can pick them up and collect the bottle deposit (typically EUR 0.5).
The sign says "pass it on".
I love that. ♥️
This entry was edited (today, 2:45 PM)
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Grandes ideas de un desarrollador de complementos para NVDA: como la interfaz del programa no está traducida, voy a machacar todas las traducciones del complemento porque ahora se me ha metido en la cabeza que tiene que ser así. Más de 400 cadenas de texto, años de trabajo revisando que la terminología fuera adecuada, y ahora todo eso va a desaparecer con un gesto. Y hablo sólo de la parte que nos toca a los traductores en español, pero en otros idiomas ha sido parecido: github.com/ChrisDuffley/statio…
Release StationPlaylist 26.07 · ChrisDuffley/stationPlaylist
Hi all, StationPlaylist add-on 26.07 (2026 long-term support version) is now available. IMPORTANT: version 26.07.x is the last release series to support Studio 6.0x and NVDA 2025.3.3 (last 32-bit N...GitHub
Bien es verdad que este señor, cuyo nombre no voy a decir porque todavía lo aprecio, no ha agradecido mucho la labor de los traductores. De palabra montones de veces, pero de acciones lo justo: código preparado para traducirse y sincronización con los sistemas de traducción. A partir de ahí, lo he visto desplazar changelogs y documentos a Github sin preocuparse lo más mínimo por si las traducciones se perdían. Y efectivamente, se han perdido.
Y todo el trabajo?
Couctor, entiendo tu cabreo.
A mí me daría rabia, ya te lo digo.
Couctor, entiendo tu cabreo.
A mí me daría rabia, ya te lo digo.
años de usar una pantalla braille sin interruptor de encendido hacen que ahora que tengo una que hay que encender, me olvide dos de cada 3 veces de apagarla.
Why doesn't tolk publish a release binary?
@Rosalyn Its not a company. I suspect they used to ship DLL's but no longer do because the project isn't developed anymore, but that's just a guess. No big deal, found a workaround.
Crazypedia won't Comply 🧿
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