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The current Mozilla seems to believe that there is "good" advertising and "bad" advertising, and that furthermore there is "good" ad tracking/ad surveillance and "bad" ad tracking/ad surveillance, and all they have to do is do a lot of the "good" advertising and "good" surveillance and somehow this will cause there to be less of the "bad" advertising and surveillance. As if there is a limit on how much advertising it is possible to fit in the world.

mastodon.social/@sarahjamielew…

in reply to mcc

good point. I am mainly disappointed that management didn't read their own list archives—did Internet freedom people compromise with any of the other possible dystopia timelines?

Clipper Chip (US government) no, we have e2e encryption now

Codec patent cartel (huge IT companies) no, we have free media formats

DRM mandate "Fritz Chip" (US government + big media) no, we dodged this one too

Can't beat this stuff with compromises that leave supporters feeling creeped out

in reply to Don Marti

@dmarti About "free media formats" there a few things they botched, self inflicted.

1. EME to allow DRM. Not an uptick into the market share.
2. some initiative didn't work with Firefox without proprietary codec because one part of the company had to clue (won't give the name of the initiative)



I wonder if one has reverse engineered an Instax Link? It’s Bluetooth only. So you can’t even use it from the camera.


HOW DO I GET COOL ENOUGH TO GET IN THE STUPID BWI CLUB???


I’ve been sober for a few years, but I miss bars. Bars were a big part of my life for a long time. Maybe I just miss third places. Anyway, there aren’t many third places here that aren’t bars.

It’s different for every sober person, but I am personally ok being in bars and around real booze. I’m not at risk of going back. So I have a few bars that I like going to where I know they have enough NA options for me. It fills some kind of social hole for me.

in reply to Adrianna Tan

The worst part for me is that bieng the sober person around people drinking stops being fun at some point.

in reply to Hubert Figuière

We are the only one protecting ourselves
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I genuinely believe Mozilla thinks it's acting in the public interest by moving further into the ad-tech ecosystem, claiming that it's doing so in a privacy-protecting way.

But the history of ad-tech is that it swallows everything it touches.

Mozilla + ad-tech = ad-tech.

blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/im…

This entry was edited (1 month ago)


“People not masking is literally killing me… If I do die, this is what killed me, people not masking or believing Long COVID lowers your immunity…” Tinu Abayomi-Paul, writer, disability advocate, and person with Long COVID, dies at 52: thesicktimes.org/2024/10/04/ti… #LongCovid #Covid19 #CovidIsNotOver #MaskUp #YallMasking


how to write low-power software, it would seem

previously
- write fast software, so the CPU can finish quickly and sleep more
- minimize wakeups and heartbeats, so the CPU can stay asleep more
- don't touch the AVX-512 unit unless you really need it, so it can sleep more
- etc.

now:
- don't use AI. everything else is noise.



Whenever Mozilla does a dumb (which seems frequent lately), there's a bunch of people coming out of the woodwork to say Vivaldi is a great altenative.

In what universe is a proprietary shell on top of chromium an alternative? Am I missing something? Is Vivaldi paying people to say this?



If you're reading this, please #boost so I can get back to being federated with the #fediverse. Unfortunately, the data center I've been hosting with for years and years encountered some serious issues. I had to move suddenly, losing almost everything. I took the chance to change the software I use. But I've still lost all of my followers, all of my federation, etc! It's also taken down rblind.com, my passion project to get more #blind folks off #reddit. I'll be bringing that back over the coming days. In the meantime, hi! I'm a blind guy who uses the #NVDA#screenreader, loves #accessibility and works in the field, and reads tons of #fanfic, #litrpg, and #sciencefiction and #fantasy in my spare time. Nice to meet you!

reshared this

in reply to Samuel Proulx

If you're curious, the data center in question is Accuris Hosting (accuris.ca). They've been down for a week now, and have been radio silent to all customers. I've heard from there upstream that they're in a payment dispute and were disconnected, screwing everyone leasing IP's or bandwidth from them.
in reply to Samuel Proulx

I'm in the process of moving to #ServaRICA. They're in #Montreal, but still have excellent connectivity to #Ottawa. If you're wondering why I moved from one provider you've never heard of to another provider you've never heard of: I insist on hosting in #Canada, and I refuse to host with big teck like #Google or #Amazon. I don't know the guys at ServaRICA, but...they seem...fine I guess. Then again, I was thrilled with #accuris for years. So I dunno.
in reply to Samuel Proulx

Not arguing with your hosting choices, you know your situations best... But doesn't OVH have data centres in Canada?
in reply to modulux

They do. But they're not a Canadian company. I think they're in France? I want to both host in Canada, and do business with a company headquartered in Canada.
in reply to modulux

All the things I host are hobbies. If I was a business I'd honestly probably go with the Amazon or Microsoft clouds. But I'm not, so why not spend the couple hundred bucks a month I spend on hosting things to vote with my wallet, as they say. I want to see more small businesses, I want the Internet to be less centralized, and going with small Canadian companies for my hosting is a tiny, probably insignificant, way I can try to make more of that happen.
in reply to Samuel Proulx

Yay, I wouldn't like to host with certain companies either. I don't mind the local part as much, but I prefer to contract with people not doing dodgy stuff. So I am hosting with OVH but wouldn't like using MS or Amazon or Google. Then again, I guess you can say EU is local of a sort.
in reply to modulux

I mean, based on some of the reviews I've read of OVH, I'm not sure if they're any less dodgy than the bigger companies. Then again, I was with Accuris for years, a company that I now find out has been doing everything in its power to screw there upstream peers and violate their peering agreements. So maybe I'm not a good judge.
in reply to Samuel Proulx

Oh, their tech support is definitely pretty much "you have root, you fix it." And they did have a very unfortunate fire in a data centre a couple years ago I think. Overall they seem alright to me, they give what they promise.
in reply to modulux

Good to know! If I ever need a server outside of Canada, I'd probably pick them. I'd like to avoid doing business with an American hosting company as much as possible. So they'd be a good way to get a server in the US if I ever needed that.
in reply to Samuel Proulx

Welcome back! I had actually been on leave the last few days, and when I went to check out RBlind.com this morning it worked - so the migration you had planned must have worked there too :)


Omg. Sorry for screenshot from different site but... So much this.
in reply to Girl on the Net

Yes yes yes and yes!!! There are some people I accept this from. If we don’t have that kind of friendship, fuck off.


I wonder when Automattic will institute a RTO policy...


A mathematician uses first person plural in proofs to suggest to the reader that they are on a journey together. This is not dissimilar to Virgil guiding Dante through the Inferno.
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World Wide Web Foundation to close, as Berners-Lee shifts focus to Solid Protocol zdnet.com/home-and-office/netw… by
@sjvn

Can Sir Tim transform the Web to its golden age where individuals and not mega-corps set the tone with Solid Protocol? He certainly hopes so.

@sjvn



It's funny how things go. Lots of people report being unable to focus for long or constantly jumping from topit to topic. Someone posted a gutenberg link on Mastodon and I just caught myself 15% through a book. I sometimes feel like I have attention surplus, rather than deficit.

This is not necessarily a good thing. I can become really focused to the point of neglecting things like eating, sleeping, or urgent tasks that I don't want to be interrupted by.

in reply to modulux

nothing wrong with that! A good read is a good read.

I've not read that book though.

in reply to Neon (fandom)

I just can't help being curious about everything. It feels kind of weird at my age, but it's probably better than finding everything boring.


pregunta para expertos de NVDA. ¿cómo copio el valor del navegador de objetos actual?


qBittorrent: A Lightweight, Feature-Rich BitTorrent Client for Linux linuxtoday.com/blog/qbittorren…



A few parts on my Framework laptop crapped out and it finally needed to go into a repair shop for fixes and upgrades. Neatly, all the parts I needed were around $100, and the repair bill was ~$120, taking less than an hour to diagnose and fix.

Not that $220 is something everyone can afford, but I love that I got those repairs made quickly on a laptop, not exactly a form factor known for its fixability. I thought I'd regret abandoning the repairability of a desktop, but the fact that my Framework can be pulled apart, cleaned, and fixed makes it a much better option for me.



#FunFact: Meta has decided that our posting on them violating the GDPR would violate their "community standards" and deleted it several times on facebook.com..

reshared this



It's disappointing to see a desktop app that runs in the background described as lightweight, then find out that it's an Electron app. Yes, I also ship an Electron-based desktop app that runs in the background, but I do so grudgingly, and I, at least, don't claim that it's lightweight. But maybe I'm just turning into an old curmudgeon.
in reply to Matt Campbell

And I thought I was the only one who wanted to call bullshit every time I saw an Electron app want to claim it was lightweight.


Does anyone at mastodon have any accessibility contacts at PayPal?
Now that they are using hCaptcha I find myself locked out of both of my paypal accounts. Since their accessibility cooky doesn't want to work in any browser I'm going to probably have to use aira.
Or, has anyone had any luck using AI to beat this?
in reply to Doug

@Tamasg They use H captacha? I never had experienced it. Using paypal regualrly.


Hey British blind / partially sighted people of Mastodon from the UK who watch television, and I appreciate I'm now several layers deep as far as niche groups are concerned but anyway, what in your experience is the best configuration in terms of an accessible TV experience which also provides access to cable channels? I ask because trying to get audio description with the BBC, ITV, channel 4 etc apps is a pretty miserable experience and usually doesn't work with live programming anyway, so I want to avoid avoid avoid. I've heard good things about sky stream, very good things in fact, but no accessible Netflix / Amazon prime apparently, but I'm thinking this could be circumvented by having the box connected to a Samsung smart TV with its own built-in accessibility, which should in theory allow for seamless switching, but I'd like to hear your input. CC @fireborn @KaraLG84 @brian_hartgen @cachondo
in reply to Haily Merry

@stevenscott I'm glad if that's the case, but it should mean that if OFCOM put their foot down they've got even less of an excuse not to add the feature across platform.
in reply to Sean Randall

@stevenscott I can only assume given that literally nobody seems to provide live audio description on their mobile apps, there must be some sort of licencing restriction or something. I don't really see how you can take the time to let people access it on demand, but then just go, na, can't be bothered to implement it for live things, blind people don't know how to use clocks, they'll never be able to catch anything good at the right time anyway.


WTAF AI

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in reply to Andy Holmes

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If I ever make a band, I'll name it   just to annoy websites trying to write about it.

reshared this



I've been an AT trainer for a number of years, but some of my clients still shock the heck out of me! I was teaching a student how to use JAWS Picture smart. We were working with pictures of items on Amazon. I left him alone for five minutes to explore on his own. Well, explore he did. I came back and he was trying to use Picture Smart on a porn site! Ummm, if you want to do that at home, that's totally your business, but not something you should be doing during your AT training session!

Tamas G reshared this.

in reply to Jim D

I mean… finding the limits of the technology you’re being trained on is a good thing, no? If the trainer knows the limits, then they should tell the client? Why as blind people are we so prudish in general?



Writing my out of office message... UNTIL OCTOBER 28TH!!!!


I tried out the new Canvas with Chat GPT feature, it's really neat. I didn't think the code selecting and having GPT edit or explain something about it would work with a screen reader, but what you do is focus the multiline field with no label that pops up at the bottom of the page, and then you do text selection as normal. When you exit browse mode and move back into focus mode with #NVDASR you will be able to press an "ask GPT" button at the bottom of the page that appears. Quite nifty.
in reply to Tamas G

@pixelate Actually, you don't need to select text if you don't want to. You can directly ask the chat to explain a portion of the code and make the change, and that change will be reflected in the canvas instead of coming as a chat response.

Tamas G reshared this.



Die Staatsanwaltschaft erließ Strafbefehl wegen fahrlässiger Tötung gegen den Autofahrer, der #Natenom getötet hat.

:natenomblack: 🖤

Wichtiges Signal. Strafe mutet gering an. Täter legte trotzdem Einspruch ein.

Hoffentlich belebt es weiter die Debatte zur Sicherheit ALLER Verkehrsteilnehmenden. Hoffentlich auch die Forderung,den #Führerschein regelmäßig zu erneuern. Der Täter war 78.

Auch meine Mutti glaubte sich im hohen Alter fahrfit. Ein spektakulärer Unfall ging zum Glück glimpflich aus.

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in reply to Der böse Hexe Njähähä 🧙‍♀️🪄⚡️

Weil #Fahrtüchtigkeit nicht am #Alter hängen muss, sondern genauso an vielen anderen Faktoren, wäre es wichtig, dass alle #KFZ-Fahrende den #Führerschein regelmäßig erneuern müssten. Auch komplett gesunde junge Menschen verhalten sich im #Straßenverkehr oft nicht angemessen, während sie sich im Recht wähnen. Ganz oft werden Vorfahrtsregeln falsch eingeschätzt, was zu hochgefährlichen Situationen führt! Deshalb könnte die verpflichtende Auffrischung die Sicherheit aller signifikant erhöhen. #Auto
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lol. Matt Mullenweg told Automattic employees "if you don't like me, quit" and 159 (8%) did techcrunch.com/2024/10/04/159-…


Oh yeah and Firefox needs to be liberated from Mozilla. What a bad move.
(If the EU took some money they burn on blockchain experiments or dumb AI shit to fund a Firefox organization that would be a great use of my taxes!)
mastodon.social/@sarahjamielew…


Taxíkom domov chodím z niekoľkých dôvodov...
- šetrím čas
- nočný spoj trvá a nemám ho za rohom
- nočný spoj je grc niekedy
...ale mesačne naň miniem celkom značnú čiastku a už by som tomu chcel vyhnúť. Neviem ako.
This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Schmaker

@schmaker tiež ma to napadlo ale mám obavy z využitia a aj investície... na mol nie. Bicykel zvažujem tiež, plus by to bol pohyb navyše a na kolobežke nejazdím, trochu sa bojím o svoju bezpečnosť.
in reply to SuspiciousDuck

Jezdím obojí, zkusim ti to v rychlosti porovnat:

#eKoloběžka
- všude se vejdeš - převoz v kufru či busem je velkej benefit
- umí bejt kurevsky rychlá
- dopravíš se i když jsi línej
- byť se tolik nehejbeš, stále to znamená, že nesedíš v autě či buse
- v případě průseru se z koloběžky podstatně líp vystupuje, než z kola

#Kolo
- míň obratný, za to podstatně jistější v horších povětrnostních podmínkách
- když chceš, máš i nákladovej prostor
- podstatně víc pohybu (což může bejt výhoda i nevýhoda)
- u elektrokola si můžeš celkem volně vybírat mezi režimy "jsem úplně línej" a "chci jet na břišní puding"

Kolo mě baví, ale kdybych si z tohohle měl vybrat jedno, bude to koloběžka. Na koloběžce se totiž směle dopravíš i třeba nemocnej - to na kole úplně nechceš.

in reply to Schmaker

@schmaker vďaka za rozbor, uvidím. Neviem či sa mi bude chcieť šliapať na bicykli po 16h na nohách to je pravda..
in reply to Schmaker

@schmaker A jak koloběžka funguje v zimě? (sněhu/ledu/břečce /vodě? Ano, vím, globální oteplování, sníh&led už nebudou... Ale přece jen...😇)
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in reply to Stevez

keď nad tým premýšľam bike by mi vyhovoval asi viac. Už vidím akoby som sa z tej kolobežky pekne vytrel... a pri stave našich komunikácií to vraj nie je také pohodlné (taxikár spomínal).
This entry was edited (1 month ago)




What about HeyTel? Anyone remember that one? To me, it always sounded like people were in a large cavern when they sent messages on that thing.
in reply to Mendi Evans

Yeah, only thing I didn't like about that app is it only saved the last 10 or so messages of any conversation.


Does anyone remember the Roger app? I loved that voice messaging app!
in reply to Mendi Evans

Yeah that app rocked for the short time we were able to use it.


So, a conversation got me to thinking. I was looking at my voice message apps last night. I was wondering, who uses these any more? I know telegram and whatsapp get used, but what about the following? zello, voxer, signal
in reply to Mendi Evans

Most peoeple use it as a secure replacement for texting or phone calls.