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Ya know, Earlier, I was asking myself, “How can I still love someone who did the things they did and said what they said? What’s wrong with me.” Upon thinking on it furter, what came to me was that if I stopped loving them despite their flaws and wrong doings, that would mean that my love had conditions, and it stopped me in my tracks. Love is such a powerful thing, it’s a gift, and it shouldn’t be taken for granted.
in reply to Silly Millie

Yes, love is love when it is unconditional. When it has conditions, it turns into conditional, and you start wondering about the conditions instead of appreciating love for love itself. Conditions break love, every kind of love.



Creating a Music Video as a totally blind producer drewsound.com/2024/11/10/creat…




Thanks to inspiration from @cachondo , I have produced my first braille word search.

A great way for me to engage the kids in braille too. #Braille

in reply to Tim Dixon

:) great to hear.
I do mine in an A4 ring-binder. The right-hand page is the search and the left-hand page lists the words. So effectively it's double-sided Braille with the words to find listed on the back of the previous search sheet.
I haven't tried making it smaller yet. I like A5 for carrying about so I might have a go at making a travel pack for my next vacation.








This is the line I see over and over again:

“While technology offers promising alternatives, it's essential to recognize the unique benefits that guide dogs provide beyond navigation, such as companionship and emotional support.”

If this is true, if these benefits are so unique, why do only 2% of blind and visually impaired people in the UK currently use a guide dog?

#Accessibility #AI #Blind #Disability #GDBA #Glide #Glidance #RNIB

in reply to The Blind AI

Fascinating discussion, as always.

I was a guide dog user for a decade or so. he was useful when my daughter was young. At first I carried her around because she was too young to walk, then too small to walk far. So in that regard, he took my concentration off the route somewhat and let me chat to her and be more of a passive part of the navigation process.
I learned to use a white cane and am incredibly confident, but the tactile awareness of your surroundings are far more limited with a cane, of course. I certainly feel that walking around in any sort of busier environment with my daughter aboard was easier, less stressful and more natural with the dog to keep us on the path and stop for problems.

After his death, naturally the number 1 question was whether I'd be getting another one.

We now live in a small village. there's a church and a post office, a social club and a few public houses. the nearest city or town is 10 to 12 minutes away by car or a little longer by bus. Getting to and from any of these local things is more than doable with a cane, and even if I were in the office more than a few times a month, it seemed to me that having a dog just to get me there and back was counterproductive. he'd have about 20 minutes of work a day. The free running, grooming, finding him a sitter for any holidays and general maintenance required for that level of practical intervention wasn't worth it, in my judgment. Sure, he'd been a part of the family for a long time and we would never have gotten rid of him, but to establish a whole new dog in very different circumstances wasn't part of the agenda. First and foremost to me a guide dog is a navigational aid, and you only get that in the right situation. For me, that's not here and now.



websites in 2024:

1) decline all cookies
2) decline notifications
3) disable JavaScript to bypass paywall
4) no videos, images and popups work now
5) finding the page completely useless and irrelevant
6) returning to play Doom 3

#humor

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)


Silent book club 📚. I love this so much


For you Harry Potter nuts, there's a LEGO themed advent calendar at Costco.


Jeez! Things get pretty quiet at 1 Eastern on Mastodon. Maybe I should talk about farts again.
in reply to Martin from Toronto

LOL, stop following only americans and Canadians, and things will be quite noisy, again. I promise! :D


there should be a class in school about the basics of proper eating, explaining why it's important to have a good balance of carbs, protein, electrolytes etc. like they do for sports.
this could enable kids eat proper before exam time.
#showerthoughts


Coming soon to #LibreOffice: instant previews of the "insert break" options. Find out more in our QA and development report for October: qa.blog.documentfoundation.org… #foss #OpenSource


Por cosas que he leído por aquí.

Primeramente recordar que la comunicación se realiza a través de herramientas convencionales. No existe una forma objetiva de comunicarse, pero tampoco cada cual puede inventarse la suya, porque está forma debe ser compartida, por lo menos entre el emisor y el receptor, y habitualmente compartida por una comunidad extensa. La convención en la comunicación exige que la forma de hacerla sea conocida y aceptada por la comunidad. En resumen, nadie individual, ni un grupo, por grande que sea, puede *exigir* una modificación de esa forma de transmisión. Y menos para adecuarla a su ideología.

La ideología política, que es también ideología social en tanto que la política es la forma en que regulamos las relaciones de los individuos en una sociedad, tampoco es objetiva. Dentro de unos ciertos límites que marca la propia función de la política: procurar una convivencia social estable (no he dicho justa, sino estable), no existe una política objetiva ni subjetiva. Como con la comunicación, nadie puede imponer individualmente a los demás su ideología (necesitará al menos de votantes o de militares que compartan su ideología), pero tampoco existe una forma objetiva determinable por métodos científicos de determinar una "ideología cierta".

Dónde quiero llegar? Pues a algo que ya he dicho muchas veces, que los humanos tenemos demasiada tirada a exigir que los demás hagan las cosas a nuestro modo, porque siempre estamos convencidos de que nuestra ideología no es como la de los demás, sino que la nuestra es la correcta o la mejor. Y señores, hay una palabra para cuando alguien intenta imponer su ideología a los demás, y está palabra es "totalitarismo" y esto vale para los que quieren obligar a los demás a cambiar en cualquier aspecto que no sea objetivo.

in reply to Xavier 𒊭𒁉𒂊

Por indagar un poco:

1. Que se entiende por exigir? Cual es la diferencia con persuadir?
2. Por qué "menos para adecuarla a su ideología"? Por qué la consideración ideológica es merecedora de menor respeto que cualquier otra, por ejemplo, estética?
3. Que significa imponer? Como se distingue de persuadir, convencer, impulsar?
4. Cual es el riesgo de esos mecanismos de "imposición"? En que medida se puede o debe equiparar la actuación política en si misma que requiere de la coordinación y el establecimiento de pautas de comportamiento con el totalitarismo? Es toda acción colectiva totalitaria, y si no, por qué se trae la palabra a colación?



I have now written to both Sky News and an MP about the widespread lies spread by news media and government about the events of #amsterdam

Lies? Yes - the evidence is there for us to see, if we look.

1. youtube.com/watch?v=clHlvgOPrW…

2. youtube.com/watch?v=pTFovHpft5…

Why should we be bothered? -- Because if we don't resist where do you think this will end?

#gaza #palestine #genocide

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)


If you haven't already talked to your friends who have lived under authoritarian regimes about how to get out/survive/resist/organize/rebel now would be a good time to start.


Včera večer som šiel do postele okolo pol desiatej a do jednej ráno sa dusil kašľom, v podstate sa dusím skoro stále ale včera v noci to bol děs. #dobréRáno Skúšam zostať doma ale neviem či sa mi to podarí...
in reply to SuspiciousDuck

Do piatku môžem byť doma! Okrem čaju nič nechcem... kašlem také šedo čierne malé guličky hlienu, sú aj tehlovej farby a keď ma dusí dlhšie tak aj krv ale iba trochu.
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)


Making blind accessible video games has been truly life changing, and it all started with making a game for a blind accessible game jam. I learned so much about accessibility, met wonderful people, was exposed to video games made in new and wonderful ways, and felt inspired in new ways to be creative. So that's why I help a yearly jam all about blind accessibility in video games, and I genuinely hope anyone reading this considers joining. itch.io/jam/games-for-blind-ga… #indiedev #Blind #gaming

reshared this



I followed this post to amazon.com an discovered that the website now offers new keyboard shortcuts, like option+shift+o for Orders, option+shift+c for cart, and others. Wow, that’s a welcome change. #accessibility mastodon.social/@appleinsider/…
in reply to victor tsaran

@technocounselor I’ve been seeing those links at the top of the Amazon website for a while now, and haven’t gotten around to looking at them. Thanks for the prompt to do so.
in reply to Kevin LaRose He/Him

@Thumper1964 @technocounselor I don’t go to Amazon’s website unless I really have to, but this time I did, I was rather surprised. It’s a sacred cow for Amazon, so no wonder the accessibility improvements have been so slow and rather sporadic.
Anyway, happy to see any improvement bit coming along our way!


Buenos días desde la Administración Pública.

A ver si no tengo que redactar más memorias de enmiendas hoy.

Y por desgracia leyendo la LEPGA (Ley 2/2015) para ver lo que me corresponde de un permiso que, me temo, tendré que pedir en breve.



Falls du dich schon einmal gefragt hast, welches bestimmte Aufnahmegerät, Audio Interface, Mikrofon, paar Kopfhörer oder Keyboard du benutzen sollst, und du zudem Sorgen hattest, das du ein teures Produkt eventuell nicht vollumfänglich nutzen können wirst, weil dir deine Sehbehinderung im Weg steht, dann ist eventuell meine Webseite etwas für dich. Dort gibt es eine Liste aller von mir handgeprüften Produkte, mit Begründung für die Empfehlung. toni-barth.online/de/gear/


NVDA 2024.4.1 has been released! This is a patch release to fix a bug when saving speech symbol dictionaries. Pressing the Close button in the Symbol Pronunciation dialog will now save the symbols dictionary and close the dialog.

Full info and download at: nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4-…

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #NewVersion #News #Update

Kelly Sapergia reshared this.

in reply to NV Access

Hi. What about us who are on the beta and RC channel? Perhaps it would be good if there was 2024.4.1 RC1 release before the official release so we would have the fix as well. Unless if there is a new upcoming beta soon so we will have the fix anyway.
in reply to Nikos Demetriou

@nikosdemetriou Our apologies, we realised that after pushing out the release. We are looking at whether we can make 2024.4.1 cound for both channels (which might mean having to download 2025.1 Beta 1 manually like it used to be). In any case, you CAN download the release from: nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-4-…


there is not one good billionaire.

none.

billionaires are the enemy.

make that the beginning of your daily affirmations.

thewrap.com/mark-cuban-deletes…

in reply to your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

A good billionaire would use $999,000,000 of every billion to make life better for those who have little or nothing. If you can’t live on a million dollars how do you expect people to live on $10,000?


Jedno malý-velký wtf po ránu 😂🙈.
Aaaanyways: jak správně čistit dětem zuby víme? Do kolika? A čím? A proč jsou mléčné zuby důležité? A proč NENÍ Okay nechávat v puse zub s kazem? Plak detektory znáte?
Nebo stále převládá mantra "staré školy", že jsou to zuby na zkoušku a vrtat netřeba?
Popravdě v případě dětí mě ta pro zubaře (i rodiče) pohodlná dogmata, která pak rozdělují "starou" a "novou" školu, deptaji ještě víc.
in reply to Gia, nebo Markéta

Ano, pravda i tato situace může nastat. No, není nic snazšího, než se na DH nejprve zeptat. 🙂 Ale chápu, když to prodávají v lékárně, nemůže to být špatné ....
in reply to brabitom

@brabitom a pak se nám ten problém zase komplikuje - ne každá DH je taková šťoura a zkrátka neví, doporučí, neptá se, nezjišťuje, neověřuje a BUM 😁
Žádný problém vztahující se ke zdraví nikdy nevidím jednoduše...



I just discovered that BritBox has 26 - yes 26 seasons of Doctor Who going back to when it first aired in 1963. There are 695 episodes. That is about 300 hours.

I have never watched the series.

This might be just what I need to get through the next couple of years.

#DoctorWho

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to Magenta Rocks

Those 26 seasons (First Doctor thru Seventh Doctor) are also on Tubi for free.

#DoctorWho

in reply to Dennis Howard

@dennishoward Also, Xumo Play, Amazon Prime Video and PlutoTV have a streaming #DoctorWho channel. However, I don't believe those channels offer the series on demand and the streams don't necessarily show episodes in order.


I’m shocked by how misinformed the men in my life are on abortion bans. Most of them support a woman’s right to choose - but they don’t understand that the bans put lives at risk. One said to me “I’m sure they don’t impact women who WANT to start a family”.

They do - and here’s why:

Abortion bans put lives at risk. When you criminalize abortion - you’re practically criminalizing pregnancy. It sounds harsh - but women have been arrested for having miscarriages. Doctors face jail time for intervening to save a woman’s life if she’s having pregnancy complications.

When a woman is having an early miscarriage - you can’t tell whether it happened naturally or was induced. The police should not be involved in making that call. Yet if they have ANY reason to suspect you wanted to end that pregnancy? You could be arrested.

Have an ectopic? An abruption? A fetus with lethal anomalies? Doctors are going to hesitate before intervening even IF your life is at risk. They have to consult the legal department, they have to fear for their licence and the possibility of jail time.

Pregnancy is NOT a health neutral state. Anything you can be at risk for - you’re higher risk for in pregnancy. When things go sideways - it can happen incredibly quickly. Waiting to intervene can and does cost the life of the mother AND the baby.

Doctors are also fleeing states with abortion bans - leaving women in those states with even less access to qualified care. They don’t want to practice somewhere that the government is going to dictate what happens to their patient. They don’t want to worry about criminal charges.

All of this adds up to bad news for women - many of who WANT children but will choose not to become pregnant in the face of these archaic and dangerous laws. It’s not “your body my choice”. It’s “my body my choice”. Until people realize that - we continue to be in danger.
#abortion #prochoice #abortionishealthcare #womenshealth #mybodymychoice #reproductivehealth



> XMPP: the forgotten gem of Instant Messaging

For the five thousandth time, NO, it is not. It sucks. The XEPs suck. The clients almost all universally suck except like *one* client on Android. The server hosting story is an overcomplicated mess.

GRETCHEN, STOP TRYING TO MAKE XMPP HAPPEN

in reply to feld

don’t forget the crypto!

On second thought, do forget it. Forget all about it.

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)



New TTS model found by @mush42 Only about 165M params. Samples sounded really good but have not tried myself yet. Github Repo: github.com/theodorblackbird/li… Samples: theodorblackbird.github.io/blo… @chikim
in reply to Chi Kim

Yep it is impressive indeed.
Used it in another project and it delivers great performance and it can be easily fine tuned on new data in few hours.
It uses Vocos as a decoder, so it is also very fast in decoding tokens back to audio.


The 'Woke Agenda' is actually just Human Rights. Every time someone says 'woke agenda', mentally substitute 'human rights' and the conversation will become clearer.

reshared this



The gall on these people.
Leveraging the power of the state to benefit crony capitalists and protect their private interests, in detriment of their competitors and the public at large, is one of the main features of Fascism, by the way.
Also, if they decide to act on this, the joke is on them, it's so incredibly stupid. Reconstruction contracts are usually absurdly lucrative [Halliburton in Iraq, Marshall Plan in Europe]. I suspect Vance will get quite a few phone calls from American corporations begging him not to say stupid shit like this. German companies will not only ramp up their production to meet demand (especially military industries) and extend their area of influence, a few German capitalists will become very wealthy because Vance decided to be a Putin puppet and wank on Peter Thiel's agenda (yes, this is Peter Thiel's game pulling the strings, Elon is a low-IQ, socially challenged buffoon who got lucky and hired good engineers who save his business every day, despite him).

independent.co.uk/news/world/a…