Q&A with scientists Charley Kline and Bill Duvall, who sent the first Arpanet message in 1969, on what the internet has become, lessons from Arpanet, and more (Scott Nover/BBC)
bbc.com/future/article/2024102…
techmeme.com/241030/p8#a241030…
'We were just trying to get it to work': The failure that started the internet
On 29 October 1969, two scientists established a connection between computers some 350 miles away and started typing a message. Halfway through, it crashed.Scott Nover (BBC)
Hahahahaha! #WhatsApp survey question I just received asks:
'How visually appealing is WhatsApp’s design (that is, the way the app looks) to you?'
Dear Fedi, we need your help!
On Monday, the University of Utrecht announced that they would shut down six bachelor studies, including the 'bachelor of arts' ("BA") Celtic Languages and Culture.
Current students will be able to finish their study, but from 2026 on no new students are to be accepted.
This was shocking news to receive.
We will not go down without a fight, though! 
We started a petition to stop it! (see the end of the toot if you want to skip all about why it is bad to loose Celtic in Utrecht.)
The Celtic BA at Utrecht University is unique in the Netherlands, and rare worldwide. Moreover, being able to study Celtic here in the Netherlands, away from the political context you have when you study it in Ireland, for example, allows us to bring new insights, because we can see it all from a slightly different perspective, which is very valuable for the whole field of Celtic studies.
It should be no wonder then, that the department of Celtic studies at Utrecht University is internationally respected.
The Celtic department also delivers important contributions to the field of Celtic studies that are much-needed worldwide.
Therefore, it would be disastrous to lose this beautiful and culturally important bachelor, that celebrated its centenerary just last year!
Hence, I emplore you all to sign this petition to save Celtic!
chng.it/tBwmVpYqMF
It is also possible to write a letter or email wherein you write why it is so important to keep the Celtic bachelor, to the Rector Magnificus of Utrecht University, who has to vote together with the 'rectores' of all other Dutch universities about the dissolution of the Celtic bachelor.
If you decide to write a letter or email, the staff of the Celtic department would love to receive a copy.
Written letters can be directed to:
Professor dr. Henk Kummeling
Universiteit Utrecht
Bestuursgebouw
Heidelberglaan 8
3584 CS Utrecht
The Netherlands
Emails can be directed to:
h.kummeling@uu.nl
You can send the Celtic staff a copy by:
Adding their email address in the BCC, or emailing a scan of your letter:
keltischezomer@uu.nl
Alternatively, you can send a physical copy to @drnike, Aaron Griffith, or Natalia Petrovskaia, at
Trans 10
3512JK Utrecht
The Netherlands
There exists an example draft for letters, if you would like to see that, please ask me!
reshared this
BitLife - Accessible Android
One of the few, if not the only, Life Simulator app accessible to the blind and visually impaired. How will you live your life? Will you become famous? CommitAccessible Android
flat this morning, replace it with the spare tyre, and since I already put the supermarket bags in the car I start thinking of the route - whether to go to the store first or the tyre shop first - so I forget to make sure I have the fucking security lock nut with me - and so I eventually arrive to the tyre shop and discover I don't have it.
So I go back home, park the car, retrace my steps to see if the nut is somewhere on the street, but of course it is a lost cause. So I unload the groceries and have a quick lunch and in a few minutes I'll go to the tyre shop again and tell them to please break the goddamned security bolts and replace them because I'm that doofus that lost the nut.
Also, fuck cars.
@freedomscientific It's been a while since I've used Face in View but when I try to adjust Face in View settings from Settings Center using the default profile, it indicates
Only available when Freedom Scientific Kernel Camera driver is installed.
When I attempt to enable it from the layered keystrokes insert+space, F O JAWS announces
Unable to initialize any camera. Face in View will now close.
This is the case with JAWS 2025 and 2024.
What do I need to get Face in View working?
I couldn't find an article mentioning this in your knowledge base.
Only available when Freedom Scientific Kernel Camera driver is installed.
I'll continue to investigate but would welcome suggestions.
Terri Garr Stood Up To Gene Roddenberry's Sexism During Star Trek
The late, great Teri Garr put her foot down on Star Trek when creator Gene Roddenberry let his sexist tendencies get the best of him.Jeremy Smith (SlashFilm)
Received my yearly rejection from @Rustnationuk yesterday. This time I was sure my talk will get shortlisted since IMO it's a very interesting topic but I guess it's not as interesting as other submissions. 🤷♂️
Before you ask, my submission was titled "Profiler-drive optimizations: how I optimized away 94% CPU from zbus".
PSA
Thanks to the GNOME Infrastructure team's ongoing improvements, the GJS API Docs (gjs-docs.gnome.org) are being migrated to new infrastructure.
There may be some slight downtime, but it will be back up very shortly! Sorry for any inconvenience!
Fighting Fascism. #vote #DemocracyIsOnTheBallot
BREAKING
Former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Vice President Harris
#ArnoldSchwarzenegger #Trump #politics #electionday #elections2024
Is there a good source of free/paid generic HTML/CSS themes for tasks like apps/blogs that aren't tied to a given SSG/framework?
Specifically, if I as a blind person want to put together a decent-looking prototype for something in whatever framework I happen to be working with, I'd like to grab something with a simple set of pages/stylesheets and carve them up for whatever templating engine that framework uses. I know these sometimes exist for individual setups like Hugo, but it's harder to work backwards from a framework-specific theme to something more generic. Should also be friendly for editing by hand since the first thing I'll do is separate the layout from the content.
I think I'd prefer Bootstrap for CSS, or something a bit less semantically dense than Tailwind, which always sounds like alphabet soup to me.
Have you checked out simplecss.org/
I haven't used it yet, but my understanding is it tries to do as much as possible using just standard HTML elements, not classes.
Nolan Darilek reshared this.
My worst experiences with aggression on roads are from Prague.
So many companies implementing PassKey so wrong that it’s mind boggling. What’s so hard to just ask for PassKey and not use it as a second factor?
It is a secure token, it doesn’t really need entering username+password and PassKey. I’ve even seen PassKey + TOTP on top (PayPal).
I am almost wondering that it is not incompetence but the corporate minds want the PassKeys to go away by making them hard to use.
Exploring Samsung Galaxy AI's Live Translate: In-Call Translation Put to the Test - Accessible Android
This is the AI Era. Companies are racing to incorporate as many AI features as possible into their devices. While some features may seem like gimmicks, othersSalih Kunduz (Accessible Android)
Actually don't even get me started on "transandrophobia."
I have entire _rants_ about the latter part of that word.
Part two: some of the people who were responsible for popularizing the term originally were, uh.
Let's call them hellishly problematic and leave it at that?
Which is one thing, but then that legacy lives on in how the term gets used today.
Because, much like with MRAs, there are real things to talk about but I almost _never_ see the advocacy in those contexts. Rather it is almost always "time to talk about how trans women are terrible."
5/
Much like how MRAs could talk about, say, circumcision or toxic masculinity but they usually end up spending their energy going after women and/or feminists, usually when I see "transandrophobia" (or transmisandry) it is going to be followed by talking, not about the medical establishment going after trans men, it's going to be followed by talking about "bæddelism" (in this, the year 2024) or—at best—how trans women "get to be loud and proud but not us."
6/
Webinar, November 14 at 10am ET: User Centered Testing with User Journeys - TPGi
Join TPGi's Charlie Pike for a webinar about developing and harnessing user journeys to connect directly with users.Charlie Pike (TPGi)
MacOS 15.1 brings a nice handful of bug fixes to Apple’s audio system, which will benefit users of all of our products. See this post for full details, then update your Mac to 15.1.
weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2024/10…
Update to MacOS 15.1 for Helpful Audio Bug Fixes
We recommend updating your Mac to MacOS 15.1 as soon as you can.weblog.rogueamoeba.com
Webinar, November 12 at 12pm ET: Catching Up with ADA Title II Regulations for Web Content and Mobile App Accessibility - TPGi
Join TPGi's David Sloan for a webinar and learn more about ADA Title II and what it means for your organization.David Sloan (TPGi)
Apple Introduces Redesigned Mac Mini, Updates iMac and Mac Accessories | AppleVis
Apple this week updated several of its Mac product lines, as well as the Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad accessories. These Macs have been updated with variants of the M4 chip, the same chip that was introduced with the 2024 iPad Pro.applevis.com
Increasing Electronic Possibilities: Connectivity on the Monarch
Technology bridges the gap between access and learning. Without screen readers on computers, applications like Google Chrome and Microsoft Word...Devon Price (American Printing House)
I am told that this solution is currently only for low vision users at this time. I have not investigated this.
Delta introduces flight map for flyers with visual impairment: Travel Weekly travelweekly.com/Travel-News/A…
Host the LibreOffice Conference 2025! - The Document Foundation Blog
LibreOffice Conference 2024 (Luxembourg) group photo Once a year, the LibreOffice community gathers for a global community event: the LibreOffice Conference.Mike Saunders (The Document Foundation)
#Android #OpenSource
Thunderbird for Android 8.0 Takes Flight - The Thunderbird Blog
Thunderbird for Android takes flight today! Find out what's new in the first stable release, where to download it, and how to get started!Philipp Kewisch (The Thunderbird Blog)
phoronix covers my work on OpenPaX, a patch to restore userspace W^X and some other common sense functionality from PaX: phoronix.com/news/Edera-OpenPa…
this patch is the cornerstone of the new “alpine hardened” project, which is intended to produce a spin of alpine which is similar to the old grsecurity days of alpine.
OpenPaX Announced As "Open-Source Alternative To GrSecurity" With Free Kernel Patch
Enterprise security firm Edera today is announcing OpenPaX that they promoted in their advance press notice as a 'new open-source alternative to GrSecurity.www.phoronix.com
🔥 Release Time 🔥
📨 Quick Actions for Email Notifications
🎉 Calendar Updates to Celebrate Birthdays!
🎨 Tinted Colors on iOS
📱 Import vCard Contacts on Mobile
Check out all improvements: tuta.com/.../release-actions-n…
2. HR screening with the vampire
3. technical interview with the vampire
4. team interview with the vampire
5. Good evening vampire, unfortunately we're not able to extend you an offer at this time. We'd like to keep in contact and notify you of any available positions in the future
If you want to mug a software engineer, ask them if a static code analysis tool should consider `if time.time() > 0:` to be considered the same as `if True:`
Then, while they're writing a 40,000 word blog post on the topic, hit them on the head and take their wallet.
Hubert Figuière
in reply to Hubert Figuière • • •FWIW it has been a month and a half and Nissan still doesn't have the replacement bumper.
(my *brand new* car was rear ended in its parking spot, 20m DOWN from the kerb)
Thinking getting a Nissan?