mastodon - Link to source
Super proud of #NewMexico for making free universal childcare a reality - first state to achieve this. sourcenm.com/2025/09/08/new-me…

New Mexico governor announces free universal child care • Source New Mexico

The state will begin writing rules to entirely remove the income eligibility threshold for a family to receive child care assistance.
Austin Fisher (Source NM)
#newmexico

reshared this

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There was a toot that went around a few years ago that I wish I had bookmarked. It said something like, and I'm badly paraphrasing from memory, "When you consider the usability of your software, think about what it will be like for an elderly person, like Margaret Hamilton, who worked on the software for the Apollo 11 guidance computer and would be dismayed at how modern applications require megabytes just to display a button." Does anyone know the one I'm talking about and have a link?
in reply to Matt Campbell

mastodon - Link to source

Matt Campbell

Found a three-hour oral history interview of #MargaretHamilton recorded by the Computer History Museum in 2017. Here's the part where she talks about the incident I mentioned from _Hackers_ chapter 5, and the MIT hackers in general. youtube.com/watch?v=6bVRytYSTE… The annotated transcript of the whole interview, unfortunately in PDF, is here: computerhistory.org/collection…

Oral History of Margaret Hamilton

Interviewed by David C. Brock on 2017-04-13 in Boston, MA X8164.2017© Computer History MuseumIn this oral history, Margaret Hamilton describes her life and c...
YouTube
#margarethamilton
This entry was edited (20 hours ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Sunday.

Daughter took an Uber to go 'out'. Out is a nebulous term to teens which has for ours generally meant the park and possibly to pick up something to eat with a friend.
She got stood up and ended up sat in the rain for 2 hours. There's been about 8mm of rainfall in the last hour alone, so she is not a happy child.

Meanwhile, 3 of our sets of wall outlets and 2 lightswitches had to be chased in yesterday so when the room is re-plastered they are all neat and tidy. More brick dust. More noise. The old dog flap was also bricked-up ready for the plasterers. Our patio doors used to be a window back in the mists of time, so we had to infill a great hole in the floor, too, before the new carpet can go in.

it's been a weekend of noisy, messy jobs, and that's before the chimney even starts coming down. Up again twice in the night with the Great Whale, so today's been a bit of a failure too as we're all exhausted.

mastodon - Link to source
ok y'all some are asking why I got XBOX and not Playstation considering TLOU and such. Here's the thing. On PS5, there's no developer mode. There's no tinkering. There's no sideloading apps, like how XBOX can sideload UWP ones. So if you want my reason, that's why. Sony are exclusivity brats to the core, and that bugs me so bad. Not that MS hasn't done that with some XBOX Studios titles, but still, like, Sony are worse. Nope. Also after those WH-1000XM6 headphones being made so cheaply do I really want another Sony product? Ugh I really am hating them sorry y'all.

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one of the (many) problems with telling people who've lost their careers in middle age to just retrain is that you can't live on an entry-level salary anymore. people in their 20s are supposed to have roommates and parent subsidies. you enter a new career in your 40s and you're expected to deal with all the financial obligations of middle age with a salary that doesn't even cover the rent.

gotosocial - Link to source

I really shouldn't subtoot, but... but...

Reading some AI criticism. I have my divergences with it, but that's neither here nor there.

But someone appealed to Searle. The substrate is magic Searle. The "it's implausible that a system may do something if I can't imagine it" Searle. The "computers do simulated addition" Searle.

Really?

It's fine to dislike AI (whether the entire research programme or the current incarnation that has taken it over by synecdoche) but because brains are made of meat and meat is magic? Seriously?

mastodon - Link to source
There's two new upgrades in the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra gen 2 that might be worth it to some: Lossless audio and a 30-hour gbattery with ANC, so a night's sleep or so added.
Lossless audio should mean that when you plug your bose into the USB-C port, they'll continue to work and show as a soundcard. In theory. Oh, and they're saying stronger ANC, until Sound Guys does something on them. (interesting read though: soundguys.com/bose-qc-ultra-2-…)
I forgot the only single advantage Bose comes with on their cans: Adjustable ANC levels. I don't know why neither Sonos nor Sony see this as a competitive advantage they're getting beat on. With Bose, I can make a "relax" profile which puts ANC at 5 or 6, leaving some sound in. Not so with my other ANC cans. ARGH.

Someone already bought the Bose QC Ultra 2 headphones by accident. Here's what we learned. - SoundGuys

Someone accidentally got the new Bose QC Ultra 2 headphones before launch and shared their first impressions, revealing key improvements.
Adam Birney (SoundGuys)
This entry was edited (21 hours ago)

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Sunday reading: The Right Wants a Reichstag Fire

I wrote about the murder of Charlie Kirk, political violence in the United States, and the Trumpists’ desire to find a pretext for purges and mass arrests.

This week’s piece:

thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/th…


The Right Wants a Reichstag Fire

The military patrolling in the streets, an assassination, and a movement longing for escalation. America is teetering on the brink
Thomas Zimmer (Democracy Americana)

mastodon - Link to source
have an XBOX series X now, what to do with it, throw it out the window and hear how loud of a thunk it makes? (Only saying this because of so few titles having accessibility.)
So far have 3 games:
Forza Motorsport premium.
As Dusk falls (of course)
MK1
But what else. Really am I stuck with just 3-4 games? I want arcade style ones, darn it.
This entry was edited (22 hours ago)
in reply to Tamas G

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Jack-Frostodon

<sarcasm>Yes. Believe it or not, Send me to Heaven, the runaway hit, smashing success, hit-it-out-of-the-park *literally* mobile classic has indeed made its way onto XBox. Making full use of its groundbreaking text-to-speech features to provide play-by-play commentary on its journey. Get a high enough trajectory, and you just might get a never-before-seen gamerscore bonus! Plus a personal repair appointment from Major Nelson.</sarcasm>
This entry was edited (22 hours ago)
in reply to Jack-Frostodon

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Tamas G

@jackf723 <sarcasm> oh yeah, if the console can still talk and hang out of the window as it hits the ground via a 10-foot HDMI cable, I might be able to do really well in that game! Lucky for me I see that it saves your game progress and achievements as soon as you get it, so even if it gets the last final scoring hit, it'll still show on my Gamer Profile which really does count for something. An XBOX just to unlock achievements there? Sign me up! </sarcasm>
@Jack-Frostodon

mastodon - Link to source

Deshalb nehme ich jedes Semester den Stress auf mich, mir mein #Semesterticket als Plastikkarte zu erkämpfen 🤷🏻‍♀️ (ok, nicht nur deshalb, aber auch).

rbb24.de/panorama/beitrag/2025…

Es ist wirklich ein Trauerspiel, was sich #BVG und #SBahn da erlauben. Aber ist in Zeiten von #Digitalisierungswahn ja nicht neues, dass #Digitalisierung (v.a. in Kombination mit #Digitalisierungszwang) meist nichts anderes heißt, als Arbeit und Verantwortung auf Nutzer_innen/Kund_innen/Patient_innen etc. abzuwälzen.
Und das "Argument" mit der unzumutbaren Ausweiskontrolle für Kontros ist an Lächerlichkeit kaum zu überbieten. Fast 2 Jahrzehnte lang wurden Semestertickets genau so kontrolliert, Papier/Plastikkarte + Lichtbildausweis.

Das alles ließe sich vermeiden (und unterm Strich vermutlich auch 'ne Menge Kosten und Folgekosten sparen), wenn wir den #ÖPNV endlich Schritt für Schritt zu einer kostenfreien echten Alternative aus- und umbauen würden, echte #Daseinsvorsorge halt.


Warum Kunden von BVG und S-Bahn ohne Handy-Empfang Strafen drohen können

Ein Student wird in der Berliner U-Bahn kontrolliert. Sein Handy hat keinen Empfang, deshalb zeigt er einen Screenshot seines Tickets, später auch das Ticket in der App. Trotzdem wird er bestraft - zurecht, sagt die BVG. Von Klaas-Wilhelm Brandenburg
www.rbb24.de
#Digitalisierung #ÖPNV #SBahn #semesterticket #bvg #digitalisierungswahn #digitalisierungszwang #daseinsvorsorge

mastodon - Link to source

An elderly couple was on a flight to Hawaii, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary—a golden getaway they'd dreamed of for years. Everything was smooth… until the captain's voice came over the intercom:

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have an emergency. All engines have failed. We’re making an emergency landing on a small island below. We should survive the landing—but there’s a chance we may never be found and could be stranded here indefinitely.”

With remarkable skill, the pilots guided the plane down safely onto a remote, deserted beach. Passengers disembarked, shaken but alive.

As the couple sat in the sand, catching their breath, the husband turned to his wife and asked quietly,
“Did you pay the car loan before we left?”

She shook her head. “No… I meant to, but I didn’t get around to it.”

“What about the credit card bill?”

“Oh no… I forgot that one too.”

“And the hospital bill from last month?”

Her eyes widened. “I didn’t pay that either!”

Without a word, he suddenly threw his arms around her, lifting her into the air with the kind of joy he hadn’t shown in decades.

She laughed in surprise. “What are you doing? We just crash-landed in the middle of nowhere!”

He beamed.
“I’m thrilled! If we owe all that money, trust me—they’ll definitely come looking for us.”

mastodon - Link to source
Надоела подписка на музыку. На ios нормального полностью оффлайнового плеера днём с огнём не сыщешь, поэтому захотелось обзавестить плеером. Нашёл относительно недорогой вариант - Snowsky Echo Mini. Конечно, предполагается прослушивание через проводные наушники, но я готов слушать через блюпуп. Хочется музыку, которая работает без интернета и чтобы не было "блин, этих песен на яндекс музыке нет, а спотифай недоступен"

mastodon - Link to source

New germinating idea: Accessibility Excellence. Now, I'm sure people like @JonathanMosen have made approximately 9001 podcast episodes about this, but in the wake of Google's own AI gallery app, which lets people use AI models offline on their phone including image description and audio transcription, released with no accessibility, I think we need to converge as a community on an idea of accessibility excellence. We need to dismiss ads of a company that seeks to prop us up to show how their stuff is accessible, even though there is clearly a systemic issue of inaccessibility in the company. Gemini on iOS is more accessible than Gemini on Android. TalkBack still doesn't have basic screen reader features like a pronunciation dictionary and support for all features on even older Braille displays like the Braille Edge. Google Play Books does not automatically scroll pages while reading a book, like Apple Books, Kindle, and many other book reading apps on iOS do. Even Kindle on Android does this, but Google's own app doesn't. Gmail on Android has no way to navigate between messages in a conversation or thread, while Apple's Mail app can, making reading threads of email on iOS fast and easy. There is no way on Android to have TalkBack suspend touch interaction in apps, so gamers still have to turn off the screen reader to play accessible games. Apple users haven't had to do that in years. Even though there are tags on the Play Store for apps accessible with TalkBack, the idea has fallen by the wayside like so many other accessibility ideas that Google forgot and Apple has just embarked upon with accessibility labels. These aren't vibes, or subjective feelings. Like I said in my most recent Accessible Android article, how can we expect small companies or indie developers to make their apps accessible, when we can't get Google to listen to us and take us seriously? We need to take each others' accessibility concerns seriously, especially for Braille. Many people who are blind use Android, yes. Many people like it. And that's okay. But it could, and should, be so much better. There should be competition between these company's accessibility departments, not a kind of sluggish, aimless ambling around in concentric circles by one while the other presses ahead. Yes, TalkBack's Gemini AI descriptions are great, and when I use my Android phone, it's a very attractive feature. Perhaps next year VoiceOver will get something like it.

We shouldn't give any of these huge corporations an inch of duct tape accessibility, because once it's done, they'll build upon that poor foundation, and the whole structure will be so much less effective than it needs to be. Accessibility should be solid, no matter what company does it. But if a screen reader comes with a device, and is made by the company that makes the OS, there's no excuse for rickety accessibility.

Ai Edge Gallery Accessibility Bug Report: github.com/google-ai-edge/gall…

Google's Pixel 10 Accessibility Article: store.google.com/intl/en/ideas…

#accessibility #blind #google #technology #tech #android


Accessibility Feedback for EdgeGallery Application

Hello, Thank you for this exciting work. However, I recently installed the EdgeGallery application, and my Talkback screen reader is unable to correctly recognize the application's functions. Even ...
inspector3535 (GitHub)
#Accessibility #android #google #blind #technology #tech @Jonathan Mosen

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As #ChatControl marches on, we already know what the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in a similar case against RUSSIA: "The Court concludes that in the present case the [..] obligation to decrypt end-to-end encrypted communications risks amounting to a requirement that providers of such services weaken the encryption mechanism for all users; it is accordingly not proportionate to the legitimate aims pursued". Yet we continue to try just that... For shame. hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-2…

HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights

The HUDOC database provides access to the case-law of the Court (Grand Chamber, Chamber and Committee judgments and decisions, communicated cases, advisory opinions and legal summaries from the Case-Law Information Note), the European Commission of H…
hudoc.echr.coe.int
#chatcontrol

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one of the worst ever "comprehensive security audits" ...

hackerone.com/reports/3337561


curl disclosed on HackerOne: Multiple Unsafe strcpy() Function...

## Summary: During a comprehensive security audit of the cURL codebase, multiple instances of unsafe strcpy() function usage were identified in critical code paths. These implementations violate...
HackerOne

daniel:// stenberg:// reshared this.

in reply to Peter Kos

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Paweł Masarczyk

For me it was usually down to family members or sighted friends telling me about something they came across by way of a funny story. I really loved these conversations as I could build on the description I've heard and continue with jokes of my own. I kept retelling the meme further to those who haven't seen it and was very enthusiastic about it - I think I was reliving the description I've heard, I guess the meme itself must have done half of the job, the other half being how I heard it, what tone of voice, expression etc. the story-teller used when relaying it to me. Later, circa 2014, one person in Poland set up a Facebook group where blind users could post memes they would like to have described and sighted volunteers described them. This was pretty successful for many years, eventually expanding to an all-purpose group where any photo or video could be described. Haven't heard of the group lately.

mastodon - Link to source
I understand quote posting is coming to Mastodon, and when the functionality arrives I will probably use it BUT I want to be clear to everyone that when I am quoting someone else's post I am not doing to dunk but simply because I want to make my comment more generally available. If I see people use my quote as an invitation to be shitty to the person I'm quoting, I'll likely block them for it. Please never be an asshole on my behalf. Thank you in advance for honoring my wishes.
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