I have a weird NVDA problem and hoping someone can help. I have a work laptop. It is quite locked down, but NVDA does run on it. When I use chrome, many elements don't read. buttons don't always read with their labels. many times there are only a couple of words on one line. sometimes I can't click links. It's a fresh installation and I have turned off using screen mode in browse mode settings. I've never seen this behavior before and not entirely sure what to do. Edge doesn't seem to behave in quite the same way. Any ideas folks?
yes. try changing the web render setting in about:flags. change it to one of the Direxct-X backends. Sometimes this can help Chrome, in my experience, weirdly.
Wow.. This is timely, i finished @pluralistic 's book #enshitification yesterday and today this pops up on my masto feed. Pretty shameful. I'm not sure if there's really a chance it'll get taken down. so i'll use my comically long character limit for good here.
"I’m posting this from a library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA. I don’t care anymore. I put in my two weeks yesterday and honestly, I hope they sue me. I’ve been sitting on this for about eight months, just watching the code getting pushed to production, and I can’t sleep at night knowing I helped build this machine.
You guys always suspect the algorithms are rigged against you, but the reality is actually so much more depressing than the conspiracy theories. I’m a backend engineer. I sit in the weekly sprint planning meetings where Product Managers (PMs) discuss how to squeeze another 0.4% margin out of "human assets" (that’s literally what they call drivers in the database schemas). They talk about these people like they are resource nodes in a video game, not fathers and mothers trying to pay rent.
First off, the "Priority Delivery" is a total scam. It was pitched to us as a "psychological value add." Like I said in the title, when you pay that extra $2.99, it changes a boolean flag in the order JSON, but the dispatch logic literally ignores it. It does nothing to speed you up.
We actually ran an A/B test last year where we didn't speed up the priority orders, we just purposefully delayed non-priority orders by 5 to 10 minutes to make the Priority ones "feel" faster by comparison. Management loved the results. We generated millions in pure profit just by making the standard service worse, not by making the premium service better.
But the thing that actually makes me sick—and the main reason I’m quitting—is the "Desperation Score." We have a hidden metric for drivers that tracks how desperate they are for cash based on their acceptance behavior.
If a driver usually logs on at 10 PM and accepts every garbage $3 order instantly without hesitation, the algo tags them as "High Desperation." Once they are tagged, the system then deliberately stops showing them high-paying orders. The logic is: "Why pay this guy $15 for a run when we know he’s desperate enough to do it for $6?" We save the good tips for the "casual" drivers to hook them in and gamify their experience, while the full-timers get grinded into dust.
Then there is the "Benefit Fee." You’ve probably seen that $1.50 "Regulatory Response Fee" or "Driver Benefits Fee" that appeared on your bill after the recent labor laws passed. The wording is designed to make you feel like you're helping the worker.
In reality, that money goes straight to a corporate slush fund used to lobby against driver unions. We have a specific internal cost center for "Policy Defense," and that fee feeds directly into it. You are literally paying for the high-end lawyers that are fighting to keep your delivery guy homeless.
And regarding tips, we're essentially doing Tip Theft 2.0. We don't "steal" them legally anymore because we got sued for that. Instead, we use predictive modeling to dynamically lower the base pay.
If the algo predicts you are a "high tipper" and you’ll likely drop $10, it offers the driver a measly $2 base pay. If you tip $0, it offers them $8 base pay just to get the food moved. The result is that your generosity isn't rewarding the driver; it’s subsidizing us. You’re paying their wage so we don't have to." social.lansky.name/@hn50/11582…
A confession from a mainstream food delivery app engineer
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/confession/s/gbrh2zxeou
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46461578
this is absolutely infuriating. Especially the bit about using the cash due to go to delivery drivers being used to prevent them from unionising. I don't use these services. I won't use Amazon at all because of Bezos' union-busing activities. I wish people were able to come together to support each other but capitalism has everyone competing against everyone else for the crumbs that fall from bourgeois tables. This relentless assault on the working classes has to stop.
Just got my author copy so I can confirm that my piece "People of the Consortium of Worlds v. Rax, God of Misery" is published in the December/January issue of Analog. Possibly the best short story I've written so far.
Young man. Quick question. When installing Raspian or Debian even, when the install menu comse up there is an option for speech. How do you select it if speech isn't enabled? Is there a certain amount of arrow down and then Enter to do? Or is it even easier than that?@BorrisInABox
Basically, if you have a beeper, it beeps. Press S, then enter. The installer will pause for a while initially to allow you to do this. If you happen to have a braille display that BRLTTY likes connected to USB, you will automatically get braille output during the install process.
This is with stock Debian, by the way. I have not actually found a way without messing with stuff to get speech initially on a Raspbian install. I usually do that stuff over SSH. Rarely do I use it anything other than headless.
It's about 74 degrees where I am. It should be in the 80's later on (20-25 degrees above normal even for here). I'm sitting outside at a coffee shop, getting work done--oh, I mean scrolling Mastodon. Haha. I hope it's a good movie.
A game jam from 2026-01-31 to 2026-03-15 hosted by Ericbomb & Patricia. Welcome, Blind and Sighted Game Developers! Welcome to the fifth annual Games for Blind Gamers jam! The goal of this jam is to make games for blind pl...
At some point, I should try to figure out why Orca sometimes doesn't automatically switch to focus mode when i enter an edit field. (I feel like I should at least try to figure it out myself, rather than bothering Joanie with my issues.) I don't know whether to blame orca or if browsers (chromium at least, since that's where I most recently noticed it) aren't sending an event that Orca expects in some cases. But I start typing, and then Orca intercepts one of my keystrokes and thinks that I want to jump to the next header or the next table or whatever, and it's annoying.
Look, these extreme positions are completely unhelpful. Injecting bleach into your veins is obviously bad, but only a few people recommend that. And, yes, they're trying to sell bleach and are fully bought into the hype. But the other extreme, not consuming any bleach, is just as unhealthy. Bleach consumption is the future. You just need to do it in appropriate places, such as with a meal. I have one small glass of bleach with lunch and then a larger glass with dinner. I drink it, from a clear glass, so I can see exactly what I'm consuming. Obviously injecting it is a bad idea, but drinking bleach responsibly is good for you, as long as you know what you're doing. Of course, I'm an expert at drinking stuff, in the hands of an amateur it might cause problems. Don't be put off by all of the bleach refusers. They're just anti progress. Anyone who isn't getting experienced drinking bleach is going to be left behind. Just drink it responsibly.
Now, some people object to some of the process of manufacturing bleach. Yes, it does involve dumping toxic chemicals in rivers when you buy bleach from the big vendors. But that's why I use ethically sourced bleach, which comes from a factory in China where it has a certificate saying that it complied with all local environmental regulations. If you're worried about the ethical aspects of drinking bleach, always drink ethical bleach.
I've also recently heard people complain that people drinking and injecting bleach has driven up prices and hospitals can't afford to properly clean wards, leading to an increased infection rate. That's true today, but you're thinking in the short term. The increased demand for bleach means that the supply will increase and economies of scale will make bleach prices come down.
I would love to have a Volla phone someday! I am currently using a Pixel 3a XL, but with Ubuntu Touch on it, so it still takes me a while to completely degoogle.
Do you have any plans in the near future to develop a Tuta app for Ubuntu Touch too? It is not quite convenient because I need to use WayDroid to access my Tuta mail.
Beim Shiftphone wird einmal etwas seltsam zwischen "Du" und "Sie" gewechselt. Generell switch't der Bericht zwischen sachlicher Aussage und direkter Ansprache, was etwas ablenkt. Ansonsten gute Zusammenfassung.
great article! Is it not worth including the Jolla Sailfish (Linux) family of phones, namely the C2 and upcoming new device later this year? You can get android apps like yours installed via microg which send no details back to Google.
@pluralistic Found on Reddit: I’m a developer for a major food delivery app. The 'Priority Fee' and 'Driver Benefit Fee' go 100% to the company. The driver sees $0 of it.
#AI / #LLM propaganda is so insidiously effective even for laypeople.
I’ve had multiple conversations with family members who: don’t speak English, don’t own computers (only mobile phones), and barely spend time online.
I told them that I am no longer working with most tech company clients because I don’t like AI and don’t want to support it (“AI” here = gen AI, LLMs).
And yet these people all reacted the same way: concern, shock, and comments like “but this is inevitable”, “this is the future”, “you’ll have to accept it eventually”, “won’t refusing it ruin your career prospects?”
These are people who know nothing about technology. They usually wouldn’t even know what “AI” meant. And yet here they are, utterly convinced of AI company talking points.
I had a Tesco delivery this afternoon, the driver said, " I've got a couple of substitutions for you, here's your rosemary and haddock". I said, "this is neither the thyme or the plaice".
I was given an excellent new water filter bottle for Christmas, and I'm very happy about it, but it wants me to connect it to an app. I am not going to connect it to an app. It is a water filter bottle. Why on earth would you need an internet enabled water filter bottle. Aaargh.
Anxiety about writing "imperfect" Alt Text can result in less Alt Text, and honestly? That’s the only way to truly fail. Accessibility isn't mysticism. It isn't a manifesto. It’s just generosity and common sense. Don't let the fear of being unpoetic leave us in the dark. bad alt text > no alt text. imperfect description > silence. #a11y #Tech #Design #Fediverse #Accessibility #Blind
If you wouldn't say, "Here lies a visual representation of the duality of man and the crushing weight of capitalism" to your friend on the phone, don't put it in the Alt Text. Just tell me it’s a raccoon stealing a bagel. 🦝🥯 The Golden Rule: Describe the scene, not the vibe. We can figure out the meaning all by ourselves, thanks. #Accessibility #Blind #AltText #WritingTips #SocialMedia #Inclusion
Happy new year all! Today i come with new script to improve titler in Tunmi13 Radiology tools: This AutoHotkey v2 script is designed to improve automation for users of the “Radiology Tools” audio playback software, which does not expose the currently playing track to external applications. The script monitors the Radiology Tools window every 10 seconds and detects titles in the format, and automatically removes the prefix and closing suffix, leaving only the clean file name. It writes the processed value to a text file called NOWPLAYING.txt which is compatible with the “Now Playing” Winamp plugin This allows you to write to the same file if both players are used during broadcasting, so that other streaming software) can use it to show currently played track name to your listeners in the title bar. WARNING: The script creates the file in the folder where it is located. The output is written to a UTF‑8 text file and looks like: Now playing: Madonna - Secret tdprograms.ovh/pfiles/RToolsNo…
Tamas G
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