Webinar From APH: Mastering the Mantis Q40: Exploring New Updates and Essential Skills: Wednesday, December 4, 3:00 PM Eastern Time groups.io/g/tech-vi/message/82…
Remember that time an insane fascist was elected president and said he was going to put huge tariffs in Canada and then the Premiere of Quebec said he agreed with the insane fascist and bent over backwards to kneel down and kiss the ring?
Premier François Legault said he agrees with Donald Trump on immigration, but fears the devastating impact of the 25 per cent tariffs announced by the president-elect on Quebec exports.
‘The sound of traffic and a uniform sea of barley have been replaced by the most beautiful meadows, full of wildflowers, young saplings and the buzz of bees’
Je ne connais pas « l’Agence de mobilité durable de Montréal » mais j'avoue que ce projet de technosurveillance (agencemobilitedurable.ca/fr/ac…) comme introduction ... c'est pas fort.
Jay Hoffmann shares his motivations for his labour of love newsletter. He does it because he’s in awe of the web and believes in an open web. He encourages everyone to take action to help the open and free web.
Trump transition team signs MoU with the Biden White House and says it won't utilize taxpayer funding and won't use government buildings or technology provided by GSA as it "will operate as a self-sufficient organization."
"There's nothing special about Musk, Altman, or Zuckerberg. Accepting that requires you to also accept that the world itself is not one that rewards the remarkable, or the brilliant, or the truly incredible, but those who are able to take advantage of opportunities, which in turn leads to the horrible truth that those who often have the most opportunities are some of the most boring and privileged people alive."
You cannot make friends with the rock stars...if you're going to be a true journalist, you know, a rock journalist. First, you never get paid much, but you will get free records from the record company.
#Linux users who have some experience with #audio and #Pipewire, a friend wants to take audio from a mic/sound card input, run it through some plugins IE through LADSPA, then route it to an application like TeamTalk. How to achieve this? Asking for @tomecki
easiest way is probably to use Carla to host the LADSPA plugins and to route the audio (add a sink with e.g. `pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=mic-processed object.linger=1 media.class=Audio/Duplex`, route audio to it in Carla and select it as an input device in TeamTalk)
@Pitermach @Tomecki I think you can use an app called easy effects for this. It even has some usefull built-in effects and is really easy to work with. It's an accessible GTK4 based app and does not require using the terminal directly.
@pvagner Some time ago I tried to use it, but I had big problems. Now it worked. The problem I have at the moment is the lack of a good noise reduction. There is Speech Processor, but even with the reduction set to -1db it sounds bad. There is also a separate effect Noise Reduction, but instead of controls it only says "unavailable". Maybe it is not available on Arm?
We are looking for a Software/Firmware Engineer based in Taiwan to support software development across our product line. Our products are designed to be open and transparent, and that extends to how we think about firmware and software.
As a low vision / blind user, So, I'm looking to install Linux after a 10+ year hiatus - Any advice, distributions or other articles or list servs someone can point me to? BlindArch, seems dead #a11y #blind #linux
I would say Ubuntu in X11 mode would be your best bet, but check their documentation before making the leap to see if it fits your needs: help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-…
Sorry, accessibility is still one of Linux's weak points. It's known but it's taking a bit of a back seat until Wayland is fully rolled out and accessibility support is worked out on that side.
If you can, I would recommend sticking with Windows for now. For all of Microsoft's faults, their accessibility efforts are some of the best in the industry.
Pinging @pixelate and @esoteric_programmer because they have Linux solutions and links where someone, totally blind, can get started. I'm playing with Linux on a virtual machine and actually really like it! @the9thdude @JStark
ok so, it all depends on what you want to do with your computer, but in the meantime, here's a list of what you should try, take it in the order it's listed here, ranked by how advanced you should be with linux before trying it. General advice will follow after the list, but this list is important, so I'll write it here at the relative top
fedora mate or linux mint mate, those are equivalent here. A windows xp like interface, with a very familiar desktop for that kind of user. Also, very beginner friendly because of that, so you should start with that one
fedora workstation, with the gnome desktop. This has some accessibility issues here and there, but for the best part it's even easier to use than mate, because you got a graphical application store and stuff like that, which you may not get with fedora mate. This one is higher involvment than mate, so I recommend you try it only after a week or so working with mate. To get to the top bar in there, where you could open the settings and all that, you use ctrl+alt+tab
fedora kde or kde neon. This is what you use if you want a windows like experience, specifically windows 10. The start menu will feel quite familiar, so will a lot of apps, and so will the top pannel accessed with alt+windows+p. Settings are a bit lame, but that's a very solid, and modern looking, option. Wayland here also works better than gnome, because they implement a bunch of legacy features and stuff like that, it's also the most extensive and compatible with lots of things desktop to date, but it's also very advanced when it comes to customisations, so it should be tryed later perhaps
arch with any of the above. If you feel that your experience with the standard distros I mentioned above is slow and bloated, I recommend you use this. Talking arch isn't needed anymore and hasn't been for a long time, you grab an arch iso and boot it. Once it's booted, press down arrow and enter once, then you're in speaking mode, enjoy, all speakup commands aply. Arch now has an installer included in the iso, called archinstall, which makes life a lot easier if you're looking for that. Once you're booted into speech mode and connected to the internet, you go to highlight tracking in espeakup by pressing capslock+ctrl+8 afew times perhaps, then type archinstall and you're off to the races
Now, some general advice, I have no way of knowing how to make it more specific because I dk what you use your computer for
If you want to change audio profiles from time to time, or move apps between audio devices or sinks as they're called in the nomenclature, the app you're looking for is called pwvucontrol. If you want to route sounds from one app to one or more other apps, jack tooling comes in handy here, the most accessible one I know is called qjackctl. All of those can be found in the graphical application stores, their technical names are packages, though sometimes you might hear them refered to as flatpaks, think of those as the same thing.
If you need a graphical mastodon or go to social compatible client, tuba is a very good app. If you play audiogames, audiogame manager can do a lot of the difficult work, though note that that's not in your package stores, so you have to download it manually. Musescore is accessible, if you're using midi sequencers, and I'm working with a person to make a full DAW accessible for some time now, so stay tooned. I heard on the audiogames.net forum that there's a DAW which is already accessible for us on linux, but I forgot how it's called, so unfortunately that's how it is for now. As an email client, like on windows, thunderbirt works very well. Also, because of how it functions on linux, it doesn't block or crash the screenreader or whatever. If you need a reliable torrent client, fragments or transmission are very good options, though I recommend fragments because its ui is far less cluttered. For podcasts, in my opinion there's nothing better than gnome-podcasts, especially after I reached out to them and had the accessibility conversation with great success. If you want to watch youtube videos with privacy, I recommend pipeline, even if there are other apps out there, just search for youtube in your application store and you'll find lots of things. It can connect to peertube as well, which makes it even better for this kind of stuff If you want a whatsapp client, there are lots of them actually, I dk really what to tell you about those because I use whatsapp through a matrix bridge, however I heard whakarere is a good one, so perhaps try it. For telegram, I recommend either the official client, or one called paper-plane, although you'll have to type a command or so in the terminal, but you'll have to do that from time to time anyway, so yeah. It doesn't support calls yet from what I know, but it's still under active development. For matrix, I recommend fractal, although element is also a good option. For signal, flare is very good from what I heard. For virtualisation, another gnome app but that's what I got the most success with nowadays, I recommend gnome-boxes. Not the best accessibility wise, I have to get in contact with them and ask them about stuff, I said I would, but I forgot and didn't have much time lately, perhaps someone here can as well?
For more apps and app recommendations, gnome-circle has a lot of great apps, but also you can just ask on mastodon or dedicated linux communities and someone will point you towards an app that would suit your workflow. If that app has accessibility issues, well, you're in a position to start the accessibility conversation, which is a good thing actually!
Warning for electron users! in order for your apps to work, you have to type this command first: sudo echo ACCESSIBILITY_ENABLED=1 >>/etc/environment. I hate it, it's not required with recent enough chromium embeddings, probably likewise for very new electron versions, but meh, it's how it is I suppose because apps don't update their electron versions in like forever.
Speaking of, @WeirdWriter, I remember having an interesting discussion with you about linux, where I wrote a lot of stuff similar to this, but it was much more detailed in some respects. I didn't bookmark it though, but yeah, if you could find it, that info would be useful now, because I feel I'm forgetting something, however I dk what exactly. If people have more questions, I'm glad to answer them
thanks for all this information. I did linux heavily 30+ years ago and don't remember a lot from back then. Dabbled since losing my functional vision... 20 years ago... dabbling here and there every few years... Really just want a working easy linux distribution that I can run in vmware and pop in to play with it. Looking for smething that doesn't combust with updates or require a lot of maintenance.. The fact that the accessible coconut install worked great gave me hope until i went to do updates and barf....
don't use so called blindy distros. They only fragment the ecosystem, while reinforcing the myth that devs don't have to work on making the accessibility of their app better, because we'll make our own special distros which work in the same way gamers make slightly altered distros made for their kind of workload. Meanwhile, on this side of the pawnd, we have to use old, half accessible apps, not update whatsoever, and pretend it all works fine. All this tends to absolve people of responsibility, on both sides of the coin, living everyone kinda happy, but only on the surface, similar to AI companies and their relations to blind people, where even we hipe this kind of stuff because it does half of a good job badly, but good enough to give us some false confidence that we'll one day live equally in this ableist society, because of technology which shall make us whole again and stuff like that. The former is not quite as bad as the latter, but I hope you get the point either way. Any mainstream distro will certainly be better than anything built for us in this way, because we benefit from the work everyone else does in making this ecosystem awesome, while they benefit from us because we work together with them to make this place more inclusive and possibly even better than existing platforms. We can only do all of this imense work together, segregation is the problem, not the solution
Carefree because you're cared for! OS 8 brings a Secure Session that ensures apps respect your privacy and require your consent, a brand new Dock with productive multitasking and window management features, and empowers our diverse community through Inclusive Design. blog.elementary.io/os-8-availa…
On November 25, 2024, the FCC’s Media Bureau released a Public Notice seeking comment on a petition to amend section 79.2(b)(2)(ii) of the Commission’s rules, known as the “Audible Crawl” rule. The rule currently requires broadcasters to provide an aural representation of visual, non-textual emergency information, such as radar maps or other graphics, on a secondary audio stream. The petition, filed by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), would amend the rule to state that the requirement is met if a station provides aurally-accessible textual crawls that convey emergency information duplicative of or equivalent to the visual, non-textual information.
The FCC also seeks comment on the petition’s request for an 18-month extension to NAB’s existing waiver of the Audible Crawl rule, which is currently set to expire on November 26, 2024.
Interested parties may file comments by accessing the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System at fcc.gov/ecfs/filings. All filings must reference MB Docket No. 12-107. People with disabilities who need assistance to file comments online may request assistance by email to FCC504@fcc.gov.
For additional information, contact Diana Sokolow, Media Bureau, Policy Division, at (202) 418-0588 or Diana.Sokolow@fcc.gov. Individuals who use videophones and are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) may call the FCC’s ASL Consumer Support Line at (844) 432-2275 (videophone)
@mattmay You mean the campaign to encourage the decision or repeal it? I wish there was an easy way for people to boycot Wallmart but, alas, they know that for majority of Americans it's not a choice they can make.
The campaign to force the decision. That Robby Starbuck guy, or whatever.
He's cherrypicked already conservative companies (Lowe's, Tractor Supply, Jack Daniels) who don't really need arm-twisting to do what they wanted in the first place.
But yeah, middle America boycotting Walmart is like me boycotting Amazon from inside Seattle. Our entire local economy revolves around them so much that I support them more with property taxes than a Prime membership.
«We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone»
In what kind of world does that square with rolling back DEI initiatives? Cowards.
The joys of the Fediverse: A song written by one Fedizen in honor of another Fedizen, performed remotely in its individual parts by additional Fedizens, and mixed into this for your listening pleasure.
Attached: 1 image
Please enjoy the official Fedi Christmas Song for 2024, “I’m Staying Home This Christmas” by the @lplateplayers@a.gup.pe, now released for your earworming pleasure.
A free download from https://music.futzle.
Oh boy. We have an official definition for the word shitification. From Aussie Nicki: What does Macquarie Dictionary's 2024 Word of the Year 'enshittification' mean? - ABC News apple.news/A5PPDVqO6TsieDEhWsb…
The slides of my “Privacy-first architecture” talk at BarcelonaJS tonight.
1. You don’t need GDPR popup. Just move to cookie-less analytics. 2. Learn about local-first and consider using it for your next app. 3. Privacy issue is wider that privacy issue in US
Si no lo han hecho aún, acá la invitación a ver el magnífico #documental Tenochtitlan: ciudad viva, producido por la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística y dirigido por Luis Fernando Gallardo.
Compite en la Muestra de Antropología Audiovisual de Madrid en la categoría Premio del público. Pueden votar por ello en la liga siguiente: maamdocs.org/vota-tu-pelicula-…?
Dann könnte es sein, dass die Beschreibung nicht dem Basis-Attribut wheelchair_description sondern dem mit der Erweiterung der Sprache zugeordnet wurde, z.B. wheelchair_description:de Wie mir der Support mitteilte, arbeitet man aber daran, auch die Sprachdefiition zu berücksichtigen.
There is no doubt about how important describing images is for blind users. However, being able to hear descriptions of videos is equally important. Video
Today on the show Steven and Shaun discuss a range of tech topics including the rise in popularity of a pedestrian navigation app, a new AI assistant that’s just launched, and a major update to a popular QWERTY braille display.
I am now screaming into the void. I know this will probably be off by default and I never actually need to use it but the fact that almost everything talks and talks too much gets under my skin.
The network technology giant Cisco offers to turn Wi-Fi access points installed in offices and other buildings into a system that tracks the location of employees, customers, smartphones, laptops and other devices for a wide range of purposes #workersurveillance
My new case study published today explores behavioral monitoring and profiling in the workplace, with a focus on indoor location and desk occupancy tracking. It's part of a larger research project on employee surveillance.
A case study on technologies for behavioral monitoring and profiling using motion sensors and wireless networking infrastructure inside offices and other facilities
To illustrate wider practices, I examined Cisco's 'Spaces' system.
It allows organizations to leverage Cisco's wireless access points and other networking infrastructure to analyze how employees "move throughout their physical spaces" and track their behavior, location and movement patterns.
Employers can see the current location of each device in the building on a map, access data on past movements and search for devices in order to locate them.
Employees who carry these devices can be identified via device IDs and usernames.
The system can also use Bluetooth/BLE for location tracking.
The system provides reports that display aggregate information about people currently located in a building.
In addition, it can categorize people based on their movements and behavioral profiling, and makes it possible to single out and target individuals in several ways.
Cisco promotes a wide range of applications that affect both customers and employees.
Companies can use the system to track and profile customers, make decisions on buildings or staff deployment, or to implement indoor navigation, patient tracking or student attendance tracking at universities.
As employers, companies can use it for occupancy monitoring or meeting room management. They can view aggregate 'behavior metrics' on entry and exit times, or they can profile employees, send them notifications based on their movements and track internal campaigns that aim to change their behavior.
The system processes indoor location data on a massive scale and frequency.
Cisco claims that it has so far processed 24.7 trillion 'location data points' on almost 100,000 devices collected via 3.8 million Wi-Fi access points installed in offices and other buildings.
The fact that Cisco is able to provide these numbers raises the question about how the company processes the data for its own purposes.
I briefly address this question in section 3.2.6 of my case study, alongside Cisco's claims about privacy, data protection and 'GDPR compliance': crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/p…
A case study on technologies for behavioral monitoring and profiling using motion sensors and wireless networking infrastructure inside offices and other facilities
Something about starter packs that I think gets lost when they're discussed on Mastodon:
The power of starter packs is not in some centralised mega list of say "Black people in tech," curated by some central authority. The power is in a million tiny "Black techies I follow" lists curated by everyday users.
The losers that think being trans means being white and trans, hopped over from Mastodon to BlueSky, and put me on their "transmisogyny list."🤷🏿♂️
But Black trans people, and white trans people that aren't racist and can see Black people, put me in their starter packs.♥️
I don't want to be in community with the fashy white trans people that don't like Black trans people. I prefer the white trans people that like the Black and brown trans people.
ClearSky, the tool for inspecting blocks, list membership, etc, is built by a Black developer. 👍🏿
BlackSky, the tool and moderation community for Black ATProto users and apps, is built by a Black developer. 👍🏿
Black developers are building on Blue Sky.
Shout out to everyone who will read this, and instead of saying "How do we get them to build for Mastodon/Activity Pub?" Will froth at the mouth about fake federation and the inevitable corpo takeover.🤡
From my own experience with de-googled android, I haven't had any problems getting apps to run (except for in-app purchases), but you'd have to kiss Android Wallet, RCS messaging, and possibly Android Auto goodbye (depending on which FOSS Android OS you went with).
If those are non-starters for you, the only other option would be to use stock android with something like TrackerControl to block some of the google apps from the internet, but then you're routing everything through TC, and you're losing your one-and-only VPN slot to that, and dealing with a more cantankerous system... eh...
@fireborn Oh, I think you probably *do* practice what you preach, it's just the fact that life forces us into all kinds of compromises, and it's ultimately not a zero-sum game. ❤
I have the fairphone 3, and I run LineageOS on it, to be google-free. In my experience the fairphone is fine, but it's not an equivalent of a flagship android phone. I usually say that I pay a convenience fee for my principles (part of my reasons to choose fairphone is the ethical production). Coming from an iphone I would expect you to run in to some annoyances that may or may not be worth it to you. (Cont.)
The phones are certainly much cheaper than flagship android phones and you can run an open source OS on them. So if you want to get away from big tech the fairphone is a decent option, but that would require you to install another OS on your phone. It's not particularly hard but it it work. I would recommend calyxos.org/ but there are other good open source OS'es available for the fairphone 5. As for reparability: if the fairphone 3 is an indication repairing fairphones is great!
Bouleversée, Monique Proulx ne répond plus au téléphone. Des fraudeurs l’auraient escroquée de 6000 $ en enregistrant ses paroles à l’autre bout du fil. Le tout, à partir d’un simple « oui, allô ? ».
„Naši tradiční sbírku jsme se letos rozhodli plně věnovat na pomoc lidem v Súdánu, kteří si více než rok a půl procházejí utrpením, které si možná jen málokdo z nás umí představit. Cítíme, že se o této válce a humanitární krizi v médiích mluví jen málo a s vaší pomocí to chceme změnit.”
Hubert Figuière
in reply to D • • •