mastodon - Link to source
Wow...seems I won't be advertising for a PA on any more public platforms.
Both the ones recommended to me last week require me to pay.
One site requires a minimum budget of £50 for a job campaign. The other requires a starting layout of £140 to even search for potential applicants.
Honestly, it's not bad enough that I have to lay out £140 a month if I ever find a suitable candidate...even the advertising process is now encumbered with fees.
Bye bye to that lot methinks.

mastodon - Link to source
🔥 Osobní internet bez šmírování a korporací? Oscloud to dělá tichou, poctivou cestou.
Sledujte @oscloud – ukazují jednu appku za druhou. Dneska třeba SearxNG 👇
#decentralizace #oscloud
mamutovo.cz/@oscloud/114240682…

Oscloud (@oscloud@mamutovo.cz)

🔧 Z Oscloudu zas vytahuju jednu z těch nenápadných, ale užitečných aplikací – SearxNG. 🔍 https://searxng.cz Soukromý metavyhledávač bez reklam, profilování a šmírování. Spolehlivě běží už pěkně dlouho a pomáhá s hledáním každý den.
Mamutovo
#decentralizace #oscloud @Oscloud

mastodon - Link to source

In case this is useful to somebody:

Because of corporate collusion with law enforcement dating back to the 80s, all colour printers put tracking information on their printouts, whether you're printing a colour document or not, encoding information that ties printouts back to the specific printer used.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_…

In 2018, scholars at TU Dresden created a tool to re-anonymize color-printed documents by obscuring that data:

dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3206004…

The tool: github.com/dfd-tud/deda

GitHub - dfd-tud/deda

Contribute to dfd-tud/deda development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to 🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦

iceshrimp.net - Link to source

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦

Issue filed here: codeberg.org/Codeberg/Community/issues/1836

Error 1062 when migrating github repository

### Comment When trying to migrate a github repo, I get this error: "Error 1062 (23000): Duplicate entry '394640-' for key 'UQE_release_n'". The repository in question is: https://github.com/fastfinge/adispeak
Codeberg.org

iceshrimp.net - Link to source

Update: The developer has removed the ability to download Guide until the security issues mentioned in the linked thread are fixed.

Update: this product contains some code flaws that are concerning from a security perspective, beyond just giving control of your computer to an LLM. You might want to read this thread before installing the product: toot.cafe/@matt/114258349401221651

Update: I've exchanged some long emails with Andrew, the lead developer. He's open to dialogue, and moving the project in the right direction: well-scoped single tasks, more granular controls and permissions, etc. He doesn't strike me as an #AI maximalist can and should do everything all the time kind of guy. He's also investigating deeper screen reader interaction, to let AI just do the things we can't do that it's best at. I stand by my thoughts that the project isn't yet ready for prime time. But as someone else in the thread said, I don't think it should be written off entirely as yet another "AI will save us from inaccessibility" hype train. There is, in fact, something here if it gets polished and scoped a bit more.

Just tried guide for fun. It's supposed to be an app to use #AI to help #blind folks get things done. I asked "Where are the best liver and onions in Ottawa?" It:
1. Decided it needed to search the web.
2. Thought that the "stardew access" icon on my desktop was a kind of web browser, so clicked it.
3. Imagined an "accept cookies" dialogue it needed to accept.
4. Decided that didn't work, so looked for Google Chrome (I don't have chrome installed on that machine)
5. Finally opened edge from the start menu. By the way, it just...left Stardew open and running. Because apparently having Stardew Valley running in the background is a vital part of finding liver and onions in Ottawa.
6. Opened a random extension from my edge toolbar (goodlinks).
7. Clicked the address bar and loaded google.com, instead of just doing the search right from the address bar.
8. Got blocked because it couldn't sign into my Google account, even though it could have also searched from the Google homepage.

To be fair to AI, that was the kind of open-ended task AI is terrible at. If I had asked it to check an inaccessible checkbox, or read a screenshot, or something, I'm sure it would have been fine.

Anyway, I'm still better at using a computer than an AI. So is my 87 year old grandfather, for that matter. www.guideinteraction.com


Guide - AI assistant for people with low vision or blindness

With Guide, inaccessible doesn't have to mean undoable. Guide is a Windows AI assistant that helps people with low vision or blindness navigate the digital world.
Guide

Matt Campbell

2025-03-31 18:00:52

mastodon - Link to source

There's a new product that has been gaining some buzz in the blind community, a Windows app called Guide that uses AI to perform tasks on your computer. It's pitched as a way to get around web accessibility problems in particular. I won't link to the thing itself, because I don't want to give it that validation, but I'll link to a previous discussion thread about it: fed.interfree.ca/notes/a5wf4ys…

I've spent some time taking this app apart. The level of shoddy work here is deeply disgusting. 1/?


#blind #AI
This entry was edited (9 hours ago)

Tissman reshared this.

in reply to aburka 🫣

iceshrimp.net - Link to source

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦

We can hear exactly what it’s doing with our screen readers. And there is a stop hot key. I’m not concerned about safety. I’m more concerned about privacy, and correctly setting expectations. I work in tech, and I spend at least a couple of hours a day struggling with inaccessible apps and websites, and have to have a co-worker do certain tasks for me. Anything that can make this better is of interest to me. Sure, everyone should build accessible apps. But for the most part, nobody bothers. But I still have to work. However, solutions like this need to be strictly sandboxed to the app I actually need help with, not given access to the entire computer. Not only is this more secure, private, and safer, it also works better. The AI doesn’t need to get distracted by the fact that I have BBalatro installed, or that a windows notification popped up. Just give it the current window.Also, the examples for use need to be more like “Ask me to check a keyboard inaccessible checkbox for you” or “I can help you read an image without alt text”. The current examples are more like “Ask me to book a flight for you”. In its current form, AI can’t do that. The developer has strongly committed to fixing both of these things.
This entry was edited (1 day ago)

snac - Link to source

🎉️ Profanity 0.15.0 has been released 🎉️

Profanity is a console based XMPP client written in C using ncurses and libstrophe, inspired by Irssi


🙏️ 9 people contributed to this release.

✨️ Change default download location /url save $someurl will now download to ~/.local/share/profanity/downloads/from_jid/date/filename instead of ~/.local/share/profanity/downloads.
✨️ Introduce /redraw command
✨️ Handle alt+enter as newline char
✨️ ... and more ...

#Profanity #XMPP #ncurses

#xmpp #profanity #ncurses

mastodon - Link to source
It's fascinating how even within the #accessibility community, some people feel the need to bet on blatant apologism and chastise people for taking a contrary opinion to dev teams, responding to said opinions almost like they were personal attacks. The answer to user frustration is calling users stupid for not knowing how things work in dev teams and how dare they have unrealistic expectations born from being ignored for decades and finally hoping for a change.
Personally I think there's a place for both extremes, but watching people stuck in their own beliefs get mad at other people stuck in their own beliefs where this is concerned always seems ... interesting.
#Accessibility
in reply to Florian

mastodon - Link to source

Tamas G

I wonder if part of this comes from a bit of a different attitude towards what being accessible means, since some only see it from the compliance angle more whereas others try to inject usability alongside it and realize that compliance itself means jack shit if people can't use the thing. Then once developers get stuck in their views, they're just so, so hard to change, so stubborn developers seal the deal of disagreements
in reply to Tamas G

mastodon - Link to source

Florian

@Tamasg I find it particualrly interesting when, say, a designer pivots to UX design/advocacy but then uses the authority of having been a designer to basically take the position of "I was a designer, I know what designers are like and what they can do, you're stupid for expecting a designer to do more than the absolute minimum". To a point any progress is progress to be celebrated, of course it is, but nixing the target audience's frustration at how slow these things go, while convenient, is never a good idea I think
@Tamas G

mastodon - Link to source

For the next #Conversations_im release I’m refactoring how URIs are linked / made clickable. I’m adding a bunch of URI schemes like tel and mailto on top of the existing xmpp, http(s) and geo but removing support for "things that look like web URLs but aren’t actually URIs" (like 'example.com') to avoid some false positives.

Once the 2.18.0-beta comes out tomorrow or so let me know if you see things that isn’t matched and should be matched or vice versa.

A screenshot of a message bubble in #Conversations_im with the text: Hi. I'm refactoring how URIs are linked in Conversations. We now support more URI schemes like mailto:user@example.com and tel:+1-269-555-0107 and obviously maintain support for things like xmpp:conversations@conference.siacs.eu?join and https://example.com however we no longer link domains that aren't actual URIs like example.com to avoid some false positives. the mailto, the tel, the xmpp and the https links are underlined to signal that those are clickable links.
#conversations_im

mastodon - Link to source

Eleven years since the Facebook document "The Road To IPV6" that claimed #curl was "hostile" to it and I still feel offended. 😀

daniel.haxx.se/blog/2014/03/28…


curl and the road to IPv6

I'd like to comment Paul Saab's presentation from the other day at the World IPv6 Congress titled "The Road To IPv6 - Bumpy". Paul works for Facebook and in his talk he apparently mentioned curl (slide 24 of the PDF set).
daniel.haxx.se
#curl

mastodon - Link to source
For some reason, Mastodon pushed a #map of #capybara's in my face earlier today. It looked limited to only a few countries and was based on #GoogleMaps, so I quickly hacked together a small @MapComplete theme: mapcomplete.org/theme.html?z=1…
A map showing capybara

MapComplete - editable, thematic maps with OpenStreetMap

MapComplete is a platform to visualize OpenStreetMap on a specific topic and to easily contribute data back to it.
mapcomplete.org
#capybara #map #googlemaps @MapComplete

MapComplete reshared this.

in reply to Daniel Nordhoff-Vergien

mastodon - Link to source

AntennaPod

If something fails, an error message should be shown (either in Nextcloud or AntennaPod). You can export the full logs via Settings » Report bug » three dots in the top-right. If you create an issue (bug report), please describe what doesn't work exactly (the process may go wrong at many different steps, from entering your password to a specific episode state being synced on AntennaPod but not showing up in the gPodder sync app).

mastodon - Link to source

Facebook is notoriously bad when it comes to data collection. 🫣

If you're still on the platform, check out how much of your data it collects 👉 tuta.com/blog/what-does-facebo…

And if you've already ditched Facebook, what platforms are you using now? 🤔

Data that Facebook collects: Your name, email and phone number Your purchasing habits online and in stores Your political preferences Your device’s data Your current and past locations How you engage with content All your browsing data

All The Data Facebook Collects - And How To Stop This | Tuta

Want to know what data Facebook collects about you? In this guide we outline what data Facebook collects about its users and how they use it.
Tuta

glitchsoc - Link to source

OpenAI's move to allow generating "Ghibli stlye" images isn't just a cute PR stunt. It is an expression of dominance and the will to reject and refuse democratic values. It is a vulgar display of power.

tante.cc/2025/03/28/vulgar-dis…


Vulgar Display of Power

Hayao Miyasaki is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation studio known worldwide for their stunning, emotional, beautiful stories and movies. At the core of Studio Ghibli’s work is a deep engagement with questions of humanity.
tante (Smashing Frames)
This entry was edited (4 days ago)

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

It's no coincidence that alt-right people have taken up AI generated artwork so intensely. It allows bypassing all the ethics and care of typically left-leaning artists. To show the ability to wield aesthetics without the social values tied to those aesthetics is a power move.

This is well covered in "AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism" newsocialist.org.uk/transmissi…


AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism

It's embarrassing, destructive, and looks like shit: AI-generated art is the perfect aesthetic form for the far right.
New Socialist

mastodon - Link to source

📣Jami team is pleased to introduce the new version of Jami: Εἰρήνη.☮️

As you'll discover, this release brings remarkable advances from months of silent work, sure to delight loyal Jami users and newcomers after the announcement of Skype's shutdown.

We invite you to update and try the latest version of Jami! 🙇

👀 Want to know more about Εἰρήνη? Read our article : jami.net/eirene-to-make-new-us…

#Jami #opensource #P2P #App #PrivacyMatters

Εἰρήνη release announcement poster: an image of a peaceful stretch of water.

Εἰρήνη, to make new user onboarding simple and intuitive

☮️ Jami team is pleased to introduce the new version of Jami: Εἰρήνη.
jami (Jami)
#app #opensource #p2p #privacymatters #jami
in reply to Jami

mastodon - Link to source

Jami

@kinetix We're also resuming communication more actively, and we understand that our lack of updates may have caused frustration. Regarding the specific issues you mentioned:

The F-Droid download link issue has been resolved.
The repository mirroring has also been fixed.
Your bug report was submitted to the wrong repository, which is why it was removed. If you ever encounter issues again, please don’t hesitate to email us directly: we’d be happy to help.
2/3

@Kinetix
in reply to Jami

mastodon - Link to source

Jami

@kinetix

As a small team, we’re doing our best to meet the community’s needs while continuously improving Jami. It’s not always easy, which is why feedback like yours is so valuable. We hope you’ll give the latest updates another try.

This is the kind of community we’re striving to build: one where members, like you, understand the challenges of a platform like ours and help make it better.

Thanks again for reaching out!

@Kinetix

mastodon - Link to source
Trump versucht gerade, die komplette Macht an sich zu reißen. Viele US-Unternehmen helfen ihm dabei. Wenn du dagegen durch deinen Konsum protestieren möchtest, zeigen wir dir, wie du das am effektivsten machst. volksverpetzer.de/aktuelles/bo…

So boykottierst du am effektivsten Trump & seine Wegbereiter - Volksverpetzer

Trump versucht gerade, die komplette Macht an sich zu reißen. Viele US-Unternehmen helfen ihm dabei. So hilfst du nicht mit.
Philip Kreißel (Volksverpetzer)
in reply to Volksverpetzer

glitchsoc - Link to source

Christian Pietsch

Bitte bleibt auch Bluesky gegenüber kritisch. Die Firma gehört mehrheitlich Cryptobros, und die Technik geht auch immer mehr in Richtung Überwachungskapitalismus. Erst neulich haben sie eingeführt, dass alle Links in Bluesky-Posts auf einen Proxy umgeleitet werden – wie bei X. So können alle Klicks erfasst werden. In anderen Worten: Man kann in Bluesky-Posts nicht mehr direkt auf andere Websites verlinken.
in reply to anyMouse

mastodon - Link to source

Ondřej Caletka

@anymouse_404 I hope the software in invertors is not dependant on or remotely controllable by vendor's online services - which is unfortunately the case of most domestic PV plants as @bert_hubert wrote the other day.

berthub.eu/articles/posts/the-…


The gigantic and unregulated power plants in the cloud - Bert Hubert's writings

Recently a Dutch hacker was able to take control of 4 million solar panel installations (FTM (Dutch), Euractiv, Victor Gevers). And this wasn’t the first time something like this has happened either (PV Magazine).
Bert Hubert's writings
@anyMouse @bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦

glitchsoc - Link to source

When I started The Disabled Ginger I sent it to my friends and family … as most of us do.

I was proud that I was finally standing up for disability rights. That I was taking my pain and putting it on the page in an effort to help others. That I had found something that lit a spark inside me.

Unfortunately, many of my friends didn’t feel the same way.

My disabilities are invisible, and I had become very good at hiding them. Apparently that’s what people expected of me, as they didn’t like this “new” version of Kelly.

Almost none of my friends subscribed. What’s worse, many stopped talking to me. Or would only reply in brief texts.

It’s almost been a year since I launched, and my circle is noticeably smaller. Many people I thought I was close with haven’t reached out for nearly 6 months.

When you find your purpose and your passion, it’s an incredible feeling. Hopefully people support you.

Not everyone will. And that’s ok.

It’s painful seeing so many relationships fade away. It hurts knowing they don’t see the value in me now that I’m “officially” disabled.

As painful as it is, it’s also a perfect example of why I became an advocate. Ableism is a huge problem. Being disabled can be incredibly lonely. I wanted to give a voice to those who haven’t yet found theirs.

In the process I’ve met incredible people from all over the world who inspire me to keep going. Who give me a reason to write every day. Who remind me of the compassion, love and goodness that’s still out there.

Thank you to each and every one of you. I couldn’t do this alone.

My latest looks at the reasons we hide, and what would happen if we all decided to stop hiding and show the world the realities of chronic illness:

disabledginger.com/p/why-are-c…

#chronicillness #longcovid #mecfs #ableism #disability #disabilityrights #eugenics


Why Are Chronically Ill People Forced to Hide Their Pain?

And what would happen if we stopped hiding and showed the world the depths of our suffering?
Broadwaybabyto (The Disabled Ginger)
#Disability #LongCovid #chronicillness #disabilityrights #ableism #mecfs #eugenics
in reply to Broadwaybabyto

mastodon - Link to source

IzzyOnDroid ✅

Thanks for sharing this! It rang so many bells with me…

> This phenomenon is hard for the non-disabled to understand.

Too true. But as one of those I can say: they can learn to "accept" that (in the sense as to neither deny it nor to expect it to "go away" one day; in the sense as to accept their friends stage, as unsatisfying as it feels; in the sense as to try finding other ways to (hopefully) give at least some consolidation, to support them & not to give them up).

⇧