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And here is the confirmation of what everybody knew about the WaPo refusing to endorse…

Bezos is in talks to buy the Space Division of Boeing.

jalopnik.com/boeing-might-be-q…

#space




wait, companies *pay* for confluence? holy shit. I thought it came with jira and most companies ended up using it by mistake


A vote for a third party this year is a vote for fascism.

A vote to punish Harris even though you know Trump is vastly worse is a vote for fascism.

Not voting is a vote for fascism.

This is the starkest choice in decades: democracy or fascism.

It truly is that simple.

This entry was edited (3 days ago)


“Both sides” is only meaningful when one of those sides isn’t literally nazis.


The only thing Jeff Bezos‘ editorial in the Washington Post convinced me is that we need a steep wealth tax and that the existence of billionaires is a public policy failure.


I asked Amazon's "AI", Rufus, to summarize my space opera novella "The Warrior Within" for me. Here's what it told me:

"The Warrior Within is a 1980 fantasy novel by Angus McIntyre. It follows the story of a young man named Aric who lives in a world where magic and technology coexist. Aric discovers he has the ability to tap into an ancient power called the "Warrior Within" which allows him to become a powerful warrior.”

(TWW was published in 2018. There is no one in it named Aric)

1/

#AI

#AI
in reply to Angus McIntyre

I confess, I like Rufus's flattering description of my writing. But the information it confidently trots out is utterly divorced from reality.

In fairness, Rufus did better when asked about less obscure books, and resisted my attempts to persuade it that “Anna Karenina" was a cozy murder mystery by Virginia Woolf.

But an AI that breaks down badly on edge cases is worse than useless.

4/

in reply to Angus McIntyre

I don't understand why you would deploy something that looks like an information retrieval tool, but simply invents things when it doesn't know the answer.

No one would design a database system that returned random data if a query failed to match any records. (Except perhaps in a specialized application such as a game).

The argument “but it gets it right MOST of the time" cuts no ice. That actually makes it WORSE, because it's harder to tell when the robot is fabricating answers.

5/



This issue of not having a quick VoiceOver volume adjustment in Watch OS 11.1 is crappy. I now need to tell Siri each time my desired level for a volume, as neither the rotor nor the two-finger-hold and swipe gestures work even though the value changes. What's even more frustrating about it is that in the prior beta of 11.1, the problem was not there, so clearly it regressed inbetween RC and final. How can a major functionality break like that make it into prod? Probably no tests written for it.
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Tamas G

You can also adjust system volume in Control Center which does work as expected. I fully agree though that this is a serious regression, and would urge everyone impacted by this to report this to Apple via the Feedback Assistant app on either macOS or iOS.
in reply to Robin Kipp

@robin_kipp ooooh I didn't think of the control center workaround, that's a bit more convenient in night-time situations for volume adjusting. I think that's the only reason it has higher impact, it sucks to have to muffle a loud watch when your partner is sleeping in bed for example and talking to Siri is less ideal then, too. In a loud environment though, using Siri might be quicker to do. So more cognative load to think through which to use when now.
in reply to Tamas G

You’re very welcome, glad I could help! Still not ideal though because both the 2-finger hold and swipe gesture as well as the rotor are quite a bit more convenient for us VO users. So yeah, if possibly you could spare 2 or 3 minutes to submit a report and post the feedback ID here that would really be awesome.
in reply to Robin Kipp

@robin_kipp hmm will have to look into it, no feedback assistant app for me on the public 18.1 build anymore? Always find it odd when it disappears, might only be limited to those who are opted into the beta builds.
in reply to Tamas G

So, let me show you a cool trick. This works on pretty much any version of macOS and iOS, even when you’re not on a beta seed.
Open Safari, and type this into the address bar:
applefeedback://
Hit Return and tada… The Feedback Assistant app will magically appear!
in reply to Robin Kipp

@robin_kipp I've started to think I'm the only one with two issues combined into one...

My rotor does nothing, at all, doesn't even reduce VO speech volume, and on top of that, the 100% volume is now insanely loud to the point where the tts is distorted. I have to use 70% or 80% to get what it was at before. I wish we could downgrade the watch.

in reply to Casey Reeves

@xogium @robin_kipp I did file it as feedback! I listed it as: FB15622642 (Voiceover volume change not possible via rotor or gesture in 11.1 (22R585)) - hopefully they'll solve it in one of the incremental releases, but yeah I noticed the speech having more distortion at 100 on the series 9 even, it's not as bad as, say, Code Factory's "optimize for volume" and then blasting volume at 100, but could notice it if listening for longer chunks of time.
in reply to Tamas G

@robin_kipp Yeah it's become either insanely louder for some reason, or they did something else that messed it up and makes it feel like they boosted the volume way too much.

Fun fact. Toying with the VO volume in the settings here also does nothing. What about on your side?

in reply to Casey Reeves

@xogium @robin_kipp oh interesting! It does work for me there, like if I go into Reed, then adjust volume for that specific voice there, it will lower that way for me. Maybe it's depending on which voice you have chosen, though.
in reply to Tamas G

@robin_kipp I meant in audio, not in speech. Sorry, I wasn't clear there. If you go into audio and toy with the global VO volume, nothing will happen.
in reply to Casey Reeves

@xogium @robin_kipp yeah, that one is for sure broken for me as well then, it probably changes the same variable as the rotorand two-finger hold+ swipe do. Crazy to think that between what we've all spoken of, there's like 6 ways to adjust volume on a watch :D
in reply to Tamas G

@xogium Thanks for filing this, much appreciated! Despite no longer working there I still have some contacts at Apple and will pass it along. No guarantees of course that this will get it fixed sooner but hopefully we can move things in the right direction.


I'm a published author - in Chinese. Four years ago now.

daniel.haxx.se/blog/2020/10/29…



Good morning folk and friends from far and near!

Today I wish you wisdom and clarity ✨



A person I know who is in the early stages of a career in accessibility is hoping to find a screen reader user with web development experience to mentor them for a while. They're a screen reader user themselves and they want to level-up their knowledge of HTML/CSS/JavaScript/ARIA in order to offer better recommendations when testing for accessibility. If this is you, or if you know someone it might be, drop me a DM? Thanks.

reshared this




I just updated to 18.1. Now Voice Dream reader won’t work for me. It won’t even turn on at all. Is anyone else having this issue?


The #curl project will publish another CVE next week. It is a one of those boring low severity kinds that will be a concern to about three users. But an issue nonetheless.

Stay tuned for the ridiculously detailed advisory coming on November 6. CVE-2024-9681

#curl
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

You too, you find most of these “apocalyptic-level vulnerability“ a little exaggerated, since they can be exploited only with direct physical access to the hardware, and only with a purposely written script that can exploit it only on 30th February when it’s Full Moon and during a total eclipse, at exactly 23:45:67,89 and for 3 nanoseconds?

Well, as you say: it’s still an issue…



Some stupid fuckmuffins egged the side of our house last night. Been thinking of putting a security camera out there for a while now, this might just have decided it.
in reply to Rui Batista

@ragb We have some old camera we got from amazon for very cheap called 'Cleverdog' gonna see if we can repurpose it. It accepts Micro SD cards, so we should just be able to stick one of those inside and leave it running.
in reply to Andre Louis

tbh, unless you want to do something with the recordings, SD-card should work. Im my mom’s place I managed to do some people detection to do push notifications but that’s for a different scenario


Leasey 9.1 is released. This supports JAWS version 2025 and earlier.
Anyone who has a license for version 9 can use this product.
Note: This is not an update so is not available via check for updates.
Please be sure you are installing the product you are licensed for.

If you are installing JAWS 2025 for the first time, please be sure to read the JAWS 2025 Setup Guide. Just go to any page on the web site and look for the term 2025.

For anyone who needs help installing JAWS 2025 and Leasey, please be sure you have Remote Incident Manager installed. Installing RIM is the only way you can be assisted.
Again, there is a link to RIM on every page of the web site, close to the top.
A day and time can then be arranged with you to install the software and check the computer is optimised for best performance.

Thank you to our loyal beta testers who have tested this version. This has not been the smoothest of processes.
In many ways, JAWS 2025 handles controls and environments very differently than any previous version which has been in place for many years, and a balance has had to be struck as to what we should fix through Leasey and elements which should be left alone.

Enjoy using the product!
After Christmas, the process of building Leasey version 10 will begin.
hartgen.org/leaseydemo

reshared this




❌ Congratulations!!!! You won 10 000💶!!!
❌ Mom, it's my new number. Can you send me some money? 🙏
❌ Urgent! To save your account from being hacked click on this link in the next 5 minutes...🔥

What could go wrong? 🤨

Ok, ok. You're on Mastodon. Chances are, you know how to protect yourself online...

But you might know a person or two who would click on the above. Gently point them to cybersecuritymonth.eu/

There are lots of learning materials adapted to those who know less than you. 😉



Si vas a la panadería y encuentras a las personas que trabajan allí más contentas de lo normal quizá sea porque les han actualizado un convenio que llevaba congelado desde el 2012. Subida de salario del 18% y 2 días ininterrumpidos de descanso.

#Panadería #Trabajo



Quick recap of the recent #LibreOffice Conference 2024! 😊 We now have the raw video from the rooms, so will start editing and uploading talks... peertube.opencloud.lu/w/gMTyjm…


We are very pleased that we can announce this a bit earlier than last year: There will be gyms - aka repurposed sports halls - for sleeping on #38C3 again.

They will be free for angels that already have worked.

Bring your own sleeping bag.

More details: events.ccc.de/2024/10/28/38c3-…

#38C3


Please, please, please stop using ARIA if you don't now what you're doing. Don't reinvent the wheel. HTML is pretty great.

First Rule of ARIA Use:
If you can use a native HTML element or attribute with the semantics and behavior you require already built in, instead of re-purposing an element and adding an ARIA role, state or property to make it accessible, then do so

w3.org/TR/using-aria/#firstrul…


in reply to wilhelm

When you (or someone else) helps us to make it happen! We're a volunteer-driven, community open source project – with very limited resources. So if you want more features, please give our community a hand: libreoffice.org/community/get-… – or consider funding a certified developer to implement the features you want: documentfoundation.org/gethelp… – That way, everyone benefits!


quitting in the terminal

reshared this



I want to do another Fediverse membership poll to see if we have many new members! Please boost! I've been on the Fediverse... #Poll #polls

  • about a week (0%, 1 vote)
  • a few months (3%, 10 votes)
  • about a year (9%, 28 votes)
  • more than a year (86%, 250 votes)
289 voters. Poll end: in 3 weeks



¿Resurgirá Podemos tras la pésima gestión de Mas Madrid y Sumar? En términos de votos, me refiero. Contestad con el cerebro, no con el corazón, plis.

  • Sí (22%, 2 votes)
  • No (77%, 7 votes)
  • Ni idea (0%, 0 votes)
9 voters. Poll end: in 4 days



I expect the kids ringing my door at halloween to not be surprised when they need to watch an ad first. 💁🏻‍♂️🎃


TIL: if you were a guest at the Parker House Hotel in 1912 or 1913 and ordered the dessert that originated there and which the hotel remains famous for, your Boston Cream Pie may have been made by…

Ho Chi Minh.

[He apparently worked as a pastry chef in the hotel kitchen while studying in Boston. The surviving evidence is scanty, as you might imagine, but not in dispute.]

[photo mine, taken this afternoon since I was coincidentally in the immediate neighbourhood]



Two students who discovered a novel proof of the Pythagorean theorem in 2022 have wowed the math community again with nine completely new solutions to the problem.

While still in high school, Ne'Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson from Louisiana used trigonometry to prove the 2,000-year-old Pythagorean theorem, which states that the sum of the squares of a right triangle's two shorter sides are equal to the square of the triangle's longest side (the hypotenuse).

Mathematicians had long thought that using trigonometry to prove the theorem was unworkable, given that the fundamental formulas for trigonometry are based on the assumption that the theorem is true.

Jackson and Johnson came up with their "impossible" proof in answer to a bonus question in a school math contest.
They presented their work at an American Mathematical Society meeting in 2023, but the proof hadn't been thoroughly scrutinized at that point.

Now, a new paper published Monday (Oct. 28) in the journal American Mathematical Monthly shows their solution held up to peer review.
Not only that, but the two students also outlined nine more proofs of the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry.
livescience.com/physics-mathem…



Just "released" the first usable version of #Convo, an #XMPP messaging app for #KaiOS and #JioPhone feature phones! :xmpp:

git.disroot.org/badrihippo/con…

I was hoping to release a more complete version as 1.0, but that's taking a while, and people are already starting to use it as it is (especially with the impending shuttering of #WhatsApp on KaiOS) so I decided to get this out right away 📦

I've also submitted to the #BananaStore, so hopefully it should be out there soon 🍌



A propósito de nada, voy a citar al gran timonel.

Mirar hacia otro lado en aras de la paz y la amistad cuando una persona claramente se ha desviado y abstenerse de la discusión fundada porque se trata de un viejo conocido, un paisano, un compañero de clase, un amigo cercano, un ser querido, un viejo colega o viejo subordinado. O tocar el tema de refilón en lugar de profundizar en él, para quedar bien. El resultado es que tanto la organización como el individuo resultan perjudicados. Éste es un tipo de liberalismo.
Hacer críticas irresponsables en privado en lugar de presentar activamente sugerencias a la organización. No decir nada a la gente a la cara sino chismear a sus espaldas, o no decir nada en una reunión pero chismear después. No mostrar consideración alguna por los principios de la vida colectiva sino seguir la propia inclinación. Este es un segundo tipo.
Dejarse llevar por la corriente en lo que no nos afecta personalmente; decir lo menos posible aun sabiendo perfectamente que algo está mal, actuar como persona de mundo y jugar sobre seguro buscando sólo eludir la responsabilidad. Este es un tercer tipo.
No seguir las órdenes sino dar prioridad a las propias opiniones. Exigir una consideración especial de la organización pero rechazar su disciplina. Este es un cuarto tipo.
Dedicarse a ataques personales, provocar rencillas, despechar el rencor personal o buscar venganza en lugar de entrar en debate y luchar contra puntos de vista incorrectos en aras de la unidad o el progreso o de hacer el trabajo correctamente. Este es un quinto tipo.
Escuchar opiniones incorrectas sin refutarlas e incluso escuchar comentarios contrarrevolucionarios sin denunciarlos, sino tomárselos con calma como si nada hubiera pasado. Este es un sexto tipo.
Estar entre las masas y no hacer propaganda y agitación, ni hablar en las reuniones, ni realizar estudios e investigaciones entre ellas, y en cambio ser indiferentes hacia ellas y no mostrar preocupación por su bienestar, olvidándose de que se es comunista y comportándose como un no comunista común y corriente. Este es un séptimo tipo.
Ver a alguien perjudicando los intereses de las masas y sin embargo no idignarse, ni disuadirle, ni detenerle, ni razonar con él, sino permitirle continuar. Este es un octavo tipo.
Trabajar a medio gas sin un plan o dirección definida; trabajar superficialmente y para salir del paso: "Mientras uno siga siendo monje, seguirá tocando la campana". Este es un noveno tipo.
Considerarse como si se hubiera prestado un gran servicio a la revolución, enorgullecerse de ser un veterano, desdeñar tareas menores siendo completamente incapaz de tareas importantes, ser descuidado en el trabajo y negligente en el estudio. Este es un décimo tipo.
Ser consciente de los propios errores y, sin embargo, no intentar corregirlos, adoptando una actitud liberal hacia uno mismo. Este es un undécimo tipo.


Vale, la caracterización de estos 11 puntos como tipos de liberalismo es discutible. Pero a las organizaciones les y nos iría mejor si siempre tuviéramos estos consejos del gran timonel a mano.

in reply to modulux

Claro, pero mucho cuidado con utilizar los mismos criterios para quienes tienen el poder y para quienes no lo tienen, que muchas veces es lo que se acaba haciendo
in reply to Ramón Corominas

Sí, yo aquí me refería más que nada a la responsabilidad de los cuadros en las organizaciones. Concretando: si es verdad que esto se sabía y nadie confrontó a cierta persona por afinidad personal o política, estamos ante el primer tipo de liberalismo, por ejemplo. Si había cuadros que lo sabían y no lo manifestaron a la organización, estamos ante el segundo tipo. Si hubo gente a la que se le dijo y escurrió el bulto, tercer tipo. Etc.



So, after electricity went out and I had a mini panic thinking that we had not payed our bill, it's back on. Also, how are people getting IPhone sixteens? I'm still on my ten because I can't afford it.
in reply to 🍂Melissa🌠

I save money, I work, I get iPhone 16. Also, I am not probably going to get that, but, that's the usual way, also, payments is the other variant. I consider those shady, and quick to get the interest rate up up up, so I don't do that. I have the money, I do it. I don't, I don't do it. also, I used to wonder how people bought new things when I was younger and did not have money. Well, turns out blind folks don't go out much, lot of them live with family, create drama, and still manage to buy the nicest tech because their parents do everything for them while they still can. I didn't even have money for the bils when I was younger. :D So that could tell you how I have lived for most of my life. But meh, I really don't like when people brag, and then it turns out they get their stuff on monthly payments to the mobile provider. LoL. also, phones end up being more expensive than when you'd buy them yourself from a store. Just my experience over here.


Hmm, so you know sometimes when you record a message or audio on your iPhone, voice over switches to the other speaker and turns itself down very much?
That happens to me often when I open the google app...
What could that tell us?
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to Jonathan

That this one is the fault of Google. Haha. Because it is designed to switch to the other speaker when you record a message.


Redesigned M4 Mac mini leaks: M4 Pro variant, up to 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 64GB RAM, front-facing ports like Mac Studio 9to5mac.com/2024/10/28/m4-mac-…



Me siento tentado de votar a la derecha. Al menos, aparte de ser unos hijos de puta, también lo parecen, que es casi tan importante como lo primero.
Yolanda Díaz no preguntó a Errejón por los abusos pese a tenerlo en su equipo de campaña

elmundo.es/espana/2024/10/28/6…

in reply to José Manuel Delicado

Nunca entenderé esas tentaciones. En particular, me puede decepcionar un partido y puedo dejar de querer votarlos, pero me abstendría antes que votar contra mis intereses y los de la clase trabajadora.


Buenos días desde la Administración Pública.

Esta semana tiene buena pinta. El tiempo no defraudó, y ayer el café lo tomamos al sol. A ver si hoy encontramos algún curruncho similar---el sitio de ayer está cerrado.

in reply to modulux

es muy malo el café de la cafetería interna? Conste que yo si podía también me iba fuera de la ONCE aunque el café de su cafetería era razonablemente bueno.
in reply to Juan CBS

El café de aquí no vale para tomar por el culo. Si llueve a cántaros y bajamos aquí, tomo té.
in reply to modulux

oye, pues el resto de servicios en su momento no estaban tan mal. Supongo que tenía suerte de que no me gustaba el café. Y de que si me gustase creo que teníamos una cafetera de cápsulas para nosotros, imagino que no es algo especialmente común.
in reply to Iván Novegil

Privilegio de gabinetero, jajaja. Pero es verdad que el resto de cosas no están mal. Las pulgas y la tortilla no las hacen mal, y los menús para la comida no son gran cosa pero son baratísimos. Eso sí, antes a partir del medio día ponían tapa y ahora ya no, hay que pedirla.
in reply to modulux

sí, es bastante posible, de hecho los menús siempre los cogíamos para llevar y comíamos todos en un office que teniamos. Se notaba que era un mundo bastante aparte del resto de la gente, para lo bueno y también para lo malo, porque todo el mundo se piraba a las 2 de la tarde y nosotros estábamos hasta las 6 y media o 7 por lo menos. Afortunadamente los becarios solo hacíamos la mitad de la jornada, a turnos, porque teníamos solo 25h semanales.
in reply to Iván Novegil

Por aquí los gabineteros, sobre todo desde el último cambio, tienen bastante mala fama de rascarse la barriga. Pero supongo que habrá de todo.


I finally set firefox as my main browser. Last time I used it with NVDA, it kept crashing and crashing and crashing. Let's see what happens this time. All I know is that I cannot use a browser that kneecaps my ability to block ads. The web becomes borderline unusable with ads, especially if you're blind and have to manually trudge through iframes and janky Js coughed up by an ad server one DOM element at a time.
#nvda #blind #ublockorigin #accessibility #firefox
in reply to Pepper The Vixen🏳️‍⚧️🦯

Do let us know how you go. I'm not aware of an issue (current or old) which constantly crashed firefox - if you do encounter anything like that, please do let us know!


It’s great to be Abel to finally use iPhone Mirroring feature in Mac OS 15.1. It’s kind of magical with VOiceOver until you have to hit the “back” button from inside the app. Still can’t figure out how this is done. Web views don’t seem to work yet either. #accessibility