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Wait... we're getting $200 from the government? Why am I eligible? I shouldn't be eligible. Omg I hate the Cons.

Some more charity money I guess... Damn it, our politicians are useless.

#Onpoli

in reply to Stéphanie Pageau

oh so it's even a lie. Given that the carbon tax when your provincial govt does nothing with it is actually credit for people given by the Federal Government. (my Govt does something with it so I don't see it)


PSA: I ferociously guard my senior developers' code review attention span. If you use "AI" / LLMs / ChatGPT / Copilot to submit Outreachy/GSoC project proposals or merge requests to one of my #FLOSS #opensource projects, I will quickly detect your bullshit, challenge you, and ban you.

This PSA, unfortunately, is brought to you by experience.

in reply to Jeff Fortin T.

yeah if somebody say they use one of these, I just stop wasting my time. (and close if that's my turf)


Hey all! Our son's boyfriend is working on a project to develop a compendium of Transmasc Comfort Characters from books, movies, TV, and video games.

He'd love it if you'd fill out this survey with your favorite characters! Whether their transmasc status is canon or not - if that character comforts you, please include them.

Please BOOST! :)

Edit: Fixed - you can now submit multiple characters!

s.surveyplanet.com/jovbb2xv

#TransMasc #Trans #TransJoy #TransSurvey #TransFic #TransStories

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What do people think of this response to ‘generate detailed Alt Text’ by Gemini:

Here is some detailed alt text for the image you provided:
Alt Text:
A large, menacing grey cat, reminiscent of a monster, stands on its hind legs with its front paws raised. It has glowing yellow eyes and a wide, toothy grin. The cat is surrounded by a fiery aura as it emits a powerful beam of energy from its mouth. The beam is directed towards the Empire State Building in New York City, which is engulfed in flames. The city skyline is visible in the background, with tall buildings and smoke rising from the destruction. The overall tone of the image is chaotic and destructive, evoking a sense of fear and awe.
Additional Notes:
• You may want to adjust the description of the cat's appearance based on its specific characteristics.
• If the image is part of a larger context (like a movie poster or book cover), you could add a brief reference to that context.
• The alt text should be concise and informative, providing a clear description of the image without being overly detailed.
Let me know if you have any other questions.

#Accessibility #AI #AIsoftheBlind #AltText #Blind #ComputerVision

in reply to Charlotte Joanne

I can't see the image myself, but where I was seeing this would matter.

The description is great as a longer form piece. But I can see a time not too far away when that's the standard way of having alt text on book covers or thumbnails in search results.

Then I go from just wanting "a monstrous cat shooting energy at the Empire State Building" to no alt text at all depending on where I am and what I'm doing.
That brief descriptor would suit me on a product page of a shop, for instance, but I'd find having that in my search results or list of products annoying enough, to say nothing of the hundred words you have there.

There is a mechanism in html for longer descriptions that is very rarely used. Perhaps it could be revived for this sort of thing.



In times like these, vis. US election, I like to remind myself of the sticking power of America. With something like this.
youtube.com/watch?v=nROK4cjQVX…
in reply to Sean Randall

Thanks for reminding me to look for new seasons of this. It's been a while.
in reply to Simon Jaeger (Procrastodon)

@simon it's a great show. I got to see him live at the theatre and it was tremendous. And of course he wrote Cabin Pressure.


I grew up with TNG era star Trek. The iconic sounds of the Enterprise D, Voyager, and DS9 "feel" like Trek to me.

I had a lovely dream as a child that one day, my computer would sound like their computers.
I imagined that the different background sounds used throughout the series would represent different apps (engineering for the windows control panel, for example), defaulting to that generic ship hum in every other app.
The swoosh of doors would match me alt+tabbing between apps in the way they herald a change of room on the show.
Text popping up would generate a computer chirp based on the text: Dialog titles with questions marks in them in particular, or perhaps progress indicators.
Certain keypresses would generate tones, again, perhaps app depending. You could extend that to focused controls, too.

the list of things I need to code when I have time is so long, I'll probably still be dreaming about this when I retire.

in reply to Sean Randall

Hmm, that sounds like a very nicely annoying NVDA add on. I especially remember the mic gain hiss dhrough out the episodes. Not sure if it was because of our channel broadcaster, or if TNG had been recorded badly.
in reply to Scary Martin

@mcourcel yes, I can see how it would irritate the heck out of many people.
It may well drive me mad if I ever made it.
in reply to Jay Pellis

@jpellis2008 I don't think I could sell it even were I so inclined, because of the copyright on the sounds.
Of course it's the sort of project people could very easily make sound packs for.
You might want a calm lake whilst reading your emails and some birdsong or something when on the web, for instance.
So it wouldn't need to be a Trek-based app specifically.
in reply to Jay Pellis

@jpellis2008 I'm not sure i'm cut out to supply software anymore.
I wrote an addon for Skype to list birthdays and received support requests for nearly 20 years, 15 of which after Skype had depricated the API feature.
I'm possibly too long in the tooth to keep up with modern software development practices.



✅ Hoy se ha aprobado, a iniciativa nuestra, una PNL para condenar la ofensiva israelí sobre Palestina 🇵🇸 , exigir el desmantelamiento de las colonias y apoyar al TIJ y CPI en los procesos por violaciones de DDHH a la población y presos políticos.

📌 Puedes ver el vídeo completo de la defensa de la propuesta por Enrique Santiago aquí

youtube.com/watch?v=RZZE5kxUCP…



Okay, where comes that myth from, especially in Germany, that alternative text should fit into one line of Braille (80 characters), otherwise it might not be accessible? As far as I can tell, Braille displays can navigate more than 80 characters in alternative texts and users don’t have a problem with it, right?

*sigh*

This entry was edited (1 day ago)

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in reply to Zivan - Childless Cat Guy

@zkrisher They do indeed. Some have keys at the front for this purpose too, so your fingers stay on the dots. whether you're a thumber or a fingerer is a complicated one to this day!
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @zkrisher I mean, that’s also my knowledge, but there are surprisingly plenty (mostly German) resources that want to constrain alternative text to 80 characters/cells to make it easier for Braille display users.

Anyway, thanks for confirming. 😃



✊🏼 Así ganó un pueblo a la expansión eólica: A Groba contra las multinacionales energéticas.

Por Raúl García Amoedo.
elsaltodiario.com/galicia/asi-…

in reply to El Salto Diario

Y presentáis la obstaculización de la transición energética como algo positivo?

fueron capaces de presentar 80 recursos administrativos, uno por cada parque eólico proyectado en Galicia. Actualmente, y gracias a su trabajo y el de muchas otras asociaciones, han conseguido la paralización cautelar de 59 proyectos.


Esto os parece la victoria de algo?

Pues a mi no.



There's a very weird but common misconception that people on disability benefits are somehow a "drain on the economy." But 100% of that money will be spent, on things like rent, mortgage, insurance, food, clothing, and so on. That's money that immediately goes to business owners and, if those business owners aren't hoarding wealth, will cycle through the rest of the economy.

Drains on the economy are where money stops moving, like, for example, when it reaches wealthy billionaires.

This entry was edited (1 day ago)

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in reply to Amy Dentata

there's also the other site here, where totally abled people somehow get hold of disability documents and then, it becomes an issue...
in reply to Мира🇧🇬🇭🇺

@tardis That's not an issue though, the amount of fraud is so small that most of the time going after it hard only makes things more difficult than those who do need it. Also mind your biz, who are you to determine who's able or not?
in reply to Nini

Not here.I say what I have seen. Just that. Remember, not all the world is the same, and want to believe it or not, the fraud is significant enough to cause issues and because of it we actually get denied benefits. Something so small and stupid like a fraud you call "small" is making it difficult for actually disabled people to get what they need in many parts of the world.
in reply to Nini

I'll also tell you exactly who I am. I'm a disabled person who's seen this fraud many many times. So, I do think I have the right to speak. :)
in reply to Мира🇧🇬🇭🇺

@tardis No you don't, no more than anyone else has the right to tell you you're a fraud because you'd hate to be told that even if they were disabled as well, right? They don't know your life, they aren't the ones living with your disability and you'd tell tell them to mind their own business, wouldn't you?
in reply to Nini

No, I would just be silent, because they don't know me, I don't know them, so no confrontation or conflict. But they can't me I am a fraud because one, pretty visible I am disabled and two, there are countries in this world where fraud is a wel-known tactic for completely healthy people to get benefits and squeeze money from the country. and we end up all suffering. Everyone. And mostly disabled people. Because you have to renew your document every year, like there is hope to fix your burned out retinas for example, or magically get legs, or magically start hearing. things that are irreversible and kind of untreatable by any modern medicine. And all that check every year, around here for example, is exactly because of the many frauds. I am just saying that it's not a small issue. the other issues are that, governments totally ignore disabled folks, and that we indeed don't get what we need or deserve, or it is super hard and very little. Like "just shut up and stay home, nobody cares" about you thing. But there is also the other thing, where in many parts of the world, disabled people are isolated because of the latter issue, and society doesn't see enough of us to know how to support us or do something. This is still the reality, even today.



bad-faith-times.ghost.io/trump…

> And we as a people, especially millennials and Gen X-ers prone to such intense nostalgia, must also reject the 80s, which I know you hate to hear, but that you must hear. It is essential in the fight against fascism.

I recognize that I've indulged in 80s nostalgia quite a bit in the past year or so, especially retreating into my childhood Apple II memories. No more. Time to live in the present.



Auf die #Erfahrungen und #Eindrücke von @Prediger_EF@kirche.social in der Anglikanischen #Kirche bin ich gespannt.

Heute Abend:
onlinekirche.ekmd.de/veranstal…
#FediKirche



Vypadá to, že se té objednávky u Alzy nedočkám ani dnes. Nevím ani, co si mám pod tím odůvodněním představit. Řidič zabloudil, ožral se, nebo to ztratil, nebo kombinace všeho? Naštěstí tu objednávku zas tak rychle nepotřebuju, klidně si ještě týden počkám, ale je to divné. Není to poprvé, co se tohle zpoždění u Alzy stalo, ale vždycky se to posunulo maximálně o den a pak už jsem si to mohl vyzvednout, navíc jsem dostal slevu na další nákup.


I keep waiting for people with that fashy "BDFL is the best form of government" take to understand the reason Democracy took off as a form of government is the madness of kings.
From: @ianb
mastodon.well.com/@ianb/113389…


Siri, show me what happens when a company purges dissenting voices and becomes a cult of personality.

theregister.com/2024/10/28/wor…




We want to support the journalists; so boycott Amazon and encourage Bezos to sell the Washington Post to someone who gives a shit.

Washington Post writers say don’t dump subscriptions over non-endorsement
theguardian.com/media/2024/oct…

#WashingtonPost #JeffBezos #WaPo #Journalism #FreePress #BoycottAmazon #EatTheBillionaires #USPol




kolegyňa z vedľajšej prevádzky dala výpoveď, nevie čo bude robiť ale vraj sa ide hľadať :kekw: #makemyday
This entry was edited (1 day ago)


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



Siri, show me what happens when a company purges dissenting voices and becomes a cult of personality.

theregister.com/2024/10/28/wor…



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 (2 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.
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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.

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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


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

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Hartgen Consultancy is closed between 11 and 18 November 2024.


❌ 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