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Some big news from me today.
Back in September, the National Federation of the Blind announced that they had begun working with me as a consultant on a range of projects. Some are public facing and you'll see those coming to fruition in the next little while. Others you may not know as much about, but are improving technology behind the scenes.
This week, the US Government has given me the right to live and work in the United States. That means I am now at liberty to say how proud I am to have accepted the role of Executive Director for Accessibility Excellence at the National Federation of the Blind. The position is based at the Jernigan Institute in Baltimore Maryland, so we have begun the huge task of preparing to relocate.
The nearly three months that I have been consulting for the NFB have been the happiest of my professional life. Members and staff have been so welcoming, and I feel like everything in my career has been leading up to using my skills in a way that can substantially improve the lives of blind people. The dedication and professionalism of the NFB team is unparalleled.
While obtaining an O1 US visa for people with extraordinary ability is tough due to the high bar that is set, it has also been a special process. I received seven references from well-known people in the blindness field in support of my visa application, and what they wrote was generous and touching. Think of it a bit like attending your own funeral without going through the hassle of actually dying. It taught me a lesson, that we often don't tell people how much we appreciate them while they are still around to hear it. I don't often stop to think about my legacy or anything grand like that, so seeing these very heart-warming references is something I will cherish.
The law firm I've been engaging with, Optimum Law, have been incredible and I can't recommend them enough if you need US immigration advice and you are in NZ.
Thanks to my four wonderful adult children and their significant others, who have been so encouraging and willing to spend weekends helping to whip the house into shape as I clear out priceless treasures, like old chargers I no longer have a device for.
And a very special thanks to my fellow adventurer, my wonderful wife Bonnie Mosen, who unreservedly supports me on this journey. Bonnie is making a positive difference in her own role at Wellington City Council, and the city will be the poorer for losing her.
Sure, it's a big deal to relocate, but I'll be among people who think about blindness the way I do, and who make good change every day. So actually, it feels like I'm coming home, and I look forward to building new friendships among my fellow blind change makers throughout the United States. Plus, home is wherever my beautiful Bonnie is.
So, see you later New Zealand. Be good, and always strive fervently to make New Zealand a place where disabled people can thrive.


Was mir an #Thüringen gefällt?

Der #Reparaturbonus!

Thüringen ist hier bundesweit Vorreiter. Auch wenn für dieses Jahr die Mittel ausgeschöpft sind, ist es gut, dass praktische #Nachhaltigkeit gefördert wird.

reparaturbonus-thueringen.de/
#Umwelt #Mitwelt #VerbrauchReduzieren #Ökologie #RepairCafe



Not sure if this is a disability aid or a thing to create more disabilities. #TrainFriday
in reply to Ondřej Caletka

Guess who has a 17 minute long layover at Bydgoszcz Glowna with two separate tickets?
#TrainFriday
in reply to Ondřej Caletka

You, foreigner, roaming in our country, shall not get the connection search results.

(I'm not sure if it's geoblocking but it's very plausible)
#TrainFriday #Polregio

in reply to Ondřej Caletka

The train actually arrived 13 minutes after scheduled departure and the layover was a bit compensated by the delay of the next train.
#TrainFriday
in reply to Ondřej Caletka

For an unknown reason, no journey planner offered me a more direct connection than this.
#TrainFriday
in reply to Ondřej Caletka

While standing still for more than 20 minutes and then moving with a speed of 20 km/h from signal to signal, one can see the energy transition of Poland. On the right, a natural gas mine is burning excess gas while on the left, windmills are producing renewable energy.
#TrainFriday
in reply to Ondřej Caletka

Czech railway people all know that the proper way of attaching the locomotive to the train is to put the chain link of the train on the hook of the locomotive. Somehow this does not seem to be the case abroad as this is already the second time I see the connection made the other way around.
#TrainFriday
in reply to Martin Děcký

@mdecky what I heard it relates to the fact that broken chain link on the locomotive is much more serious issue than broken chain link on a carriage. But it might be just an urban legend.
in reply to Ondřej Caletka

The other Frankfurt. There is no proper ticket office and everything that looks like a ticket office has a big sign saying what they don't do.
#TrainFriday


Dneska mám na oběd kus vepřového! 😆
in reply to ByCzech

Plány revanšistů zhatí naši vepři boubelatí!



Byznys pro Hospodářskou komoru? Čtyři poslanci propašovali do návrhu zákona správu exkluzivního seznamu čísel lidí
novinky.cz/clanek/ekonomika-by…
in reply to Archos

No to je mazec. To je tak blbe, ze se to urcite chyti...
in reply to Archos

a prodavat osobni udaje, ktere kdyz leaknou
tomu obchodnikovi, tak dostane flastra jako prase ....


youtube.com/watch?v=85cNRQo1m3…


Good morning all. The second book in the Cavenden series, The Cavenden Women, is good so far. I think we'll be finished with my second playthrough of XC3 today and hopefully next week I'll be able to play animal Crossing again, and yes, the goss will be back for those who asked for it. It's also Drew day today, and this will be the real test. Meds seem to be working so far but I haven't tried eating anything but the bland food I normally have to live on. Today Drew is going to do a roast chicken dinner, and if I can have a little of that without getting trouble I'll know the meds work. Here's hoping. Have a great day.
in reply to Lulu Hartgen

Aww, I hope stuff will work out for you. I am really exercising patience here until I can read this new book in a series I was reading before. It is awesome, and it made me look into things I wouldn't have considered before. I recommend it, if fantasy is ever your thing. :)


One of the things I love about Fedi is the community of neurodivergent people figuring out together how to be good humans, and explaining the methods to each other. I've spent my whole life doing this.
This entry was edited (6 hours ago)
in reply to Brain Pilgrim

Me too. Or, I try to. :) But yeah, nobody in my small, boring country wants to help or diagnose, either, so I am superstuck. Oops, that word now exists. I had to figure out things on my own, but I looked at your posts, and saw you had no luck either. and then we expect the world to be better... It can't be better if we, ourselves are not better first. We make it, the world what it is. Some compassion won't hurt people, either.
in reply to Мира🇧🇬🇭🇺

@tardis I would say you don't need a diagnosis, and I speak as someone who has one.

It helped me in the work world, but no more than a note from my doctor did, and I could have just gotten the note from my doctor.

I get more help from my fellow autistics online than I ever did from my official diagnosis.

Neurodivergent peoplestic know neurodivergence & it's different for everyone. That's who I listen to now.

in reply to Brain Pilgrim

That's true. I mean, my math teacher told me a few years ago, so. I didn't pay atention but it kinda hit at some point when I became more aware of these things. Like, awareness development. I am a good copycat, I just copy people and that's how I go by in the real world.
in reply to Brain Pilgrim

I wonder why I haven't talked to a lot of neurodivergent peoples. I don't really fit in or something with anyone. I am just good at being a loner. Haha.


Slow start this morning. New coffee beans, not very potent but deliciously creamy.
Struggling with energy, per usual. I know the medical people are on it, but the time feels long when you're waiting for these things.
in reply to Dave Taylor

@davetaylor2112 yeah, I could probably stand to eat more fruit but the rest is good. Thyroid problem, alas.
in reply to Sean Randall

Ah, well, good luck with that, and at least you're taking the positive action you can, rather than just sitting and waiting



good morning all, last day of the working week. Ah yes we made it. Hope everybody has a super day.
in reply to Derry Lawlor

Have a nice day! :) And yeah, Friday is good, means I can read the book I have postponing to read do to excitement, so have to keep my head in work and not in the book, hence the postpone till the weekend. I hope you have a nice wekend too. :)



#humans make me sad.

#CURL is my lovely gem, a masterpiece they ever created, but what do I see on their documentation pages? This:

CURLcode res = ...
if(!res) {
...

That's how they check for success, meow.

On, no. Meow! Meow! Meow!

And this does not discourage humans to write such posts

daniel.haxx.se/blog/2021/09/27…

where they say common failures are:
1. Skipping the documentation!
2. Failure to check return codes

meow ((((

#programming

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

@bagder pets have much limited mental resources, and they are wasted to translate !res to res == CURLE_OK

At a pet's glance the latter is shouting whereas !res means something is not in the way things should go, need to dig deeper and check what's wrong. With one-day memory retention capabilities it's much harder to memorize that simply means okay




Wow, it is already *nine* years since I attempted to write an RFC titled "TCP Tuning for HTTP" (it was later abandoned)

daniel.haxx.se/blog/2015/11/08…

The last published draft is still around here: datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/…



Hackers are stealing more info than ever. These 4 actions keep you safe pcworld.com/article/2472725/ha…


Windows 11 24H2 breaks popular Alt + Tab shortcut. Here’s what you can do pcworld.com/article/2514044/wi…

Kelly Sapergia reshared this.




Buenos días desde la Administración Pública.
Hoy no es mi día.


Timely reminder that holding the power button + volume up or down for a few seconds locks your iPhone AND disables FaceID.


8 security tips for small businesses malwarebytes.com/blog/podcast/…


Large eBay malvertising campaign leads to scams malwarebytes.com/blog/scams/20…

Tamas G reshared this.



Confused By Your Router? Grasp These Wi-Fi Basics Before Buying a New One cnet.com/home/internet/dont-be…


The 2024 AppleVis Community Survey: A Summary of the Results and Looking Ahead applevis.com/blog/2024-applevi…


For the users of the OneBlocker extension on iOS. How do I know the thing is actually working? I turned on every possible switch I could find, even turned on VPN support and all that, but I still see ads in Safari and other web views. What gives?
in reply to victor tsaran

@svenja You can test it on this page. But to be honest, for me only AdGuard works on Safari conveniently. All the other blockers to even reach 30% in the test. Adguard goes straight to 99% if you use one more list beyond the default

d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock…



I just looked in my “spam” folder in Gmail and must admit that found there quite a lot of interesting stuff. Also, a lot of emails that are far overdue for a response. I would even call them “obsolete”. :)
This entry was edited (9 hours ago)


1/2
Prokletí při rekonstrukci. Voda. Ano, voda. Ale ono je to asi fuk, jestli jde o komín, elektřinu nebo třeba plyn. U nás je to voda.

Začalo to sprchovým koutem. Řemeslník se na sprcháč těšil, ukazoval nám fotky snad všech koupelen, co kdy dělal. Nechali jsme mu klíče od domu i od kůlny, kde byla krabice se sprchovým koutem, ať si ho, až bude potřebovat, vyndá.

Je to sprchový kout bez vaničky – přímo na podlaze. První, co nás mělo varovat, byl sklon podlahy. Na těch 80 cm činí sklon 6 cm. Inu co, nevyznáme se, asi to tak má být.

Když už byla koupelna hotová, telefon. Mám problém, povídá. Vzal totiž za bernou minci, že jsme řekli, že sprchový kout je 80 x 80 cm a blbec si to nezměřil podle reality, byť klíče i sprcháč měl. Podlahu tedy připravil na 80 x 80, ale sprcháč má reálně 77 x 77. Dveře nešly dovřít, mezi nimi fuka asi 7 cm.

Odepsali jsme sprcháč, snad se nám podaří ho někdy někomu prodat. Je prakticky nový, sice byl namontovaný, ale nepoužitý. Rozebral ho a vrátil do bedny.

Instalatéři pak o týdny později zjistili, že jim tenhle šikula při přidělávání toho sprcháče provrtal měděné trubky ve zdi s vodou k topení. Ty trubky, které pár dní před tím sám zaházel a obložil. No super. Takže rozebrat kus koupelny a opravit to.

Jedeme dál. Firma zapomněla objednat sprchovou baterii. Po urgenci jsme ještě týden čekali, aby přišla... vanová baterie. Na to už fakt sere pes, čekat znova, potřebujeme se aspoň trochu vykoupat. Tak máme vanovou baterii.

Došlo na první koupání. Ten sklopenej prostor pro sprcháč na podlaze se rychle zaplnil vodou, která se roztekla po celé koupelně. Ano, tušíte správně, odpad neodtékal.

Volal jsem tedy instalatéry a reklamoval práci. Přijeli druhý den a z trubek vytáhli ucpávku z malty a silikonu, která se do potrubí kdo ví jak dostala. No, tvl, to už snad stačí, ne?

Ne.

#CestaZMěsta

in reply to Unterwasser

2/2
Zážitky s vodou pokračují v kuchyni. Dřez. dodali ho se sifonem, nicméně my máme dřezovou skříňku z IKEA, která má šuplíky, a tudíž potřebuje speciální mělký sifon. Ale dřez dodali se standardním sifonem. Objednal jsem ten správný a čekání jsme si zkrátili montáží dřezové baterie.

Sakra, ty hadičky nejdou přišroubovat! V balení byl jiný průměr závitů v baterii a jiný na hadičkách. Reklamace. Hadičky vyměnili.

Když jsem konečně přidělal hadičky, zjistil jsem, že jsou krátké. Takže opět do obchodu a koupit prodlužovací hadičky.

Když jsem konečně přidělal hadičky na roháčky, omylem jsem otevřel kohout pro myčku a trochu si opláchl zeď, skříňku a ksicht. Pustím tedy tu správnou vodu a... teplá teče, ale studená čůrá jak starej prostatik. Sakra.

Tak rozebírám. Profouknu hadičky – čisté. Vyzkouším s kýblem, zda teče voda z roháčků – teče. Ano, opět reklamace baterie.

Do toho konečně dorazil sifon, ale průměr odpadu neseděl na průměr odpadové trubky sifonu – opět do krámu a koupit redukci.

No, nebojte, už to končí. Voda konečně teče, odpad odpaduje, jen ten sprcháč jsme zatím stále nekoupili a sprchujeme se jen tak na dlažbě a stěrkou na okna pak vždycky stáhneme nacákanou vodu.

Doufám, že až se dnes vrátím domů, nebudeme vytopení díky nějaké píčovině, která se s vodou zase stala.

#CestaZMěsta

This entry was edited (9 hours ago)
in reply to Unterwasser

No docela síla u vás ta voda. Tak snad už budete mít klid.


Guten Morgen :coffeepot:
mit einem alten Foto einer der Katzentantenkatzen



Want to learn about how to use and run accessibility testing with NVDA?

Our friends at @intopia have an upcoming Public Training Course which kicks off on Tuesday 12th November.

The course involves 3 x 2 hour sessions over 3 weeks.

The course is very hands-on with activities throughout each session. Learn how to quickly setup & use NVDA for #A11y Testing, navigation, exploring graphics, elements, forms & more!

Full info & registration: lnkd.in/g9rZCJvN

#Training #Accessibility

reshared this




USPol

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in reply to 183231bcb

re: USPol
dear god the evil cynical part of me wants to hear what they have to say about us asexuals
in reply to Atapi.EXE

Acephobia

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CMake must be so amazing that you have to wrap it into a reinvented wheel, namely "just".


Spotted while visiting numerous hardware stores in small city Aotearoa New Zealand:

A large man (60s?) in a 90s Ford Laser with an I Love Samoa bumper sticker, belting out the words to The Bangles song Eternal Flame. Expression euphoric. Chill incarnate.

A man (30s?) ambling with a young human (9?).
Young human: I thought Mum said you were supposed to go to the paint aisle not look at tools!
Dad replies wryly: I thought you were too sick for school.
Young human is sheepish: I am!
Dad: Well, the tool aisle's on the way to the paint aisle.

A very pregnant woman asks a nearby browsing woman (70s?) if she knows of any low maintenance houseplants. The other woman laughs. Says: Remembering what it was like after my kids came, I'd say fake ones! But if you want alive ones, let's see what there is.

A golden retriever trying to mind control the operators of a sausage stand in front of a hardware store. Meanwhile its human is happily chatting, impervious to all sausage related emergencies. The patient doggy martyrdom is everything.

A man stopping in his tracks in the garden section: 18 bucks for a tomato plant!
His wife keeps walking, says: Could you say it any louder?
He looks incredulous: Yeah. 18 BUCKS FOR A TOMATO PLANT!
She looks at him exasperated and then bursts into laughter at his sucked lemon expression.

Any typos spotted in this post are questing for an odd sized screw to fix a broken garden tool. This is tiring work, so if you spot them please offer them a hotdog.



What I think is that Trudeau needs to shuffle his cabinet and get rid of the traitors. I still think people are sadly mistaken about Trudeau. Much of the criticism is propaganda and the R-wing premiers are part of the problem. These need to be voted out!


the New York Times Tech Guild is on strike and asking you not to play NYT games or access the NYT cooking section in the meantime

however they have made a Frogger clone about getting strikers across 8th Ave to the picket line that you can play instead

nytimesguild.org/tech/guild-bu…



do you think i know what im doing? dont think like that :D #aoe_mobile
This entry was edited (3 hours ago)


Wellp, now got rid of #telegram as well. It also claims to be more secure than it actually is at this point. And just another pointless/half inaccessible messenger with no good clients left.
in reply to Khronos

@khronos Yeah but it doesn't has files or voice messages anymore. Generally tc is kinda buggy and I'm looking forward to the rewrite.


uspoli, tech industry

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in reply to Rick Scott 🏳️‍⚧️

uspoli, tech industry

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