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Carney promises 2026 will see huge economic growth that will absolutely not include you

thebeaverton.com/2026/01/carne…

Not even reading like satire.


Carney promises 2026 will see huge economic growth that will absolutely not include you - The Beaverton

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney has vowed that 2026 will see huge economic growth for Canada's GDP, manufacturing, and exports, none of which will redound to you in the slightest.
Ian MacIntyre (The Beaverton)

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Here's an idea: someone should produce a series of ebooks that teach how to use GNOME and popular applications (e.g. Firefox and LibreOffice) with Orca, in a systematic way with activities for each concept or task, then use the proceeds from sales of those ebooks to help fund development of Orca and the free desktop accessibility stack in general, as NV Access has done with NVDA and their training ebooks. I think there would be a market for that.

Federico Mena Quintero reshared this.

in reply to Matt Campbell

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miki

and I'd say:

1. Pair this with a blind-friendly distro that has everything configured (you'd need NFB/ACB support for this, as you probably need the metaphorical "company letterhead" to get secure boot certified).

2. Autotranslate into all the languages via LLMs. Sure, human translations are better than automatic translations, but automatic translations are better than nothing. Source: Not a native English speaker, I've actually relied on them back when Google Translate was borderline unusable.

3. Preferrably, pair this with scripts that can "walk through" the scenarios described in the book, making sure Orca output stays consistent as versions change. You could also this to automatically record multilingual walkthroughs, with human-written commentary between the steps.

in reply to miki

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miki

NVAccess basically ignores 80+% of the addressable market with their basic training materials. While NVDA itself is translatable (and actively translated), everything else, including their website, is pretty much as hostile to international visitors as you can get. This is pretty hypocritical, as the English-speaking countries are the ones where you're most likely to get either JAWS, government-sponsored AT training, or both.
in reply to miki

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Matt Campbell

I doubt we'd need a fully custom distro, with its own boot loader and unified kernel image that would need to be specially signed for Secure Boot. A stock boot loader and UKI from one of the major distros should be enough. For the rest of the distro, a Debian Pure Blend (debian.org/blends/) might be enough.

I really like the idea of using the training activities as regression tests.

Debian Pure Blends

www.debian.org

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Wow, so excited! My replacement Cadence arrived today. Tactile Engineering were kind enough to also include for us four hard-shell cases, so both Jess and myself get two of them, one for each Braille display unit. These cases are rectangular and pocketable, with a nice pocket for a charging cable on the inside, and a strap that you can secure over the display whilst it is in the case to keep it from moving around. Really like them, it'll really be useful for my international travels.
New display works perfect, no uncalibrated pins causing troubles on it.
This entry was edited (6 days ago)

mastodon - Link to source

I was asked by a family member why it was taking so long to paste something large into a new Microsoft Word document on their computer, I sarcastically replied it was because it takes a while to upload it all to the copilot AI nonense first. And then I realized accidentally I might be right...I disabled copilot in Word and it went back to being instant again

So that's cool that Microsoft seems uploading everything you paste into a new Word doc to their servers now.

reshared this

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“‘If a fire occurs in the cabin, if we land on water, don’t check on the immigrants. Just make sure that you and the guards and the people that work for the government get off," one flight attendant was told.

“It was as if the detainees’ lives were worthless,’” said another.

Revisit our #3 most-read story of 2025: propublica.org/article/inside-…

#ICE #Immigration #Deportation #Immigrants #Aviation #Journalism


Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Disaster Is “Only a Matter of Time”

Flight attendants for GlobalX, a private charter airline used in migrant deportations, say life on board wasn’t what they signed up for.
McKenzie Funk (ProPublica)
#journalism #aviation #immigration #immigrants #ice #deportation

reshared this

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How is the English word “detergent” pronounced where you live?

#poll #pronunciation #regionalism

  • / dɪˈtɜr gənt / a hard “g”; as in “get” (0%, 0 votes)
  • / dɪˈtɜr dʒənt / a softer “g”; like “jet” (100%, 14 votes)
  • Use both pronunciations (0%, 0 votes)
  • Neither — just call it soap (0%, 0 votes)
14 voters. Poll end: 5 days ago

#poll #pronunciation #Regionalism

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From Facebook: 🤣 Embarrassing Medical Exams – Doctor Stories You Can’t Make Up
1. The Wrong Cab

A man bursts into the ER shouting, “My wife’s having a baby in the cab!”

I grab my kit, dash outside, fling open a taxi door, lift the woman’s dress, and start pulling off her underwear.

That’s when I realize—there are six cabs lined up.

I was in the wrong one.

— Dr. Mark MacDonald
2. Big Breaths

During rounds, I place my stethoscope on an elderly woman’s chest.

“Big breaths,” I instruct.

She sighs and replies, “Yes… they used to be.”

— Dr. Richard Byrnes
3. The Internal Fart

I had to deliver the worst news: “I’m so sorry. Your husband has passed away from a massive myocardial infarction.”

Minutes later, I overhear her telling the family, “He died of a massive internal fart.”

— Dr. Susan Steinberg
4. The Patch Problem

At a check-up, a man complains about one of his medications.

“Which one?” I ask.

“The patch,” he says. “The nurse told me to put on a new one every six hours. Now I’m running out of places to stick it!”

I ask him to undress.

He has over fifty patches plastered on his body.

(Instructions now clearly say: remove old patch first.)

— Dr. Rebecca St. Clair
5. Bedridden?

While meeting a new elderly patient, I ask gently, “How long have you been bedridden?”

She looks puzzled and says, “Not since my husband died—about 20 years.”

— Dr. Steven Swanson
6. Kentucky Jelly

Checking on a patient one morning, I ask, “How’s breakfast?”

“Good,” he says, “except for the Kentucky Jelly. Can’t get used to the taste.”

Curious, I ask to see it. He hands me a foil packet of KY Jelly.

— Dr. Leonard Kransdorf
7. Keep Off the Grass

A punky young woman comes in with appendicitis—purple Mohawk, tattoos, piercings.

On the operating table, we discover green-dyed pubic hair and a tattoo above it that says: “Keep off the grass.”

After surgery, the surgeon couldn’t resist writing on the bandage: “Sorry… had to mow the lawn.”

— Anonymous RN
8. The Whistling Exam

As a young OB resident, I was embarrassed doing pelvic exams, so I developed a nervous habit—whistling.

One day, mid-exam, a patient bursts out laughing.

Blushing, I ask, “Sorry… did I tickle you?”

Through tears she gasps, “No, doctor… but the song you were whistling was ‘I Wish I Was an Oscar Mayer Wiener.’”

— Name withheld for obvious reasons
9. Baby’s First Visit

At a baby’s first check-up, I ask the mother if he’s breastfed or bottle-fed.

“Breastfed,” she says.

“Alright,” I reply. “Strip down to your waist.”

She complies. I carefully pinch, knead, and examine, then shake my head.

“No wonder this baby’s underweight—you don’t have any milk!”

She calmly replies, “I know. I’m his grandmother. But thanks for checking.”

😂
🔥

in reply to victor tsaran

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André Polykanine

@vick21 Yes, I also heard much positive about Iranians as people. BTW, if you don't know, I highly recommend you Farya Faraji on YouTube. He lives in Canada for a long time now and he makes lots of songs in different languages, but what I like about him especially is his epic talks where he tells about Oriental music from a native perspective, not from a Westerner's view. Absolutely must watch for someone interested in music theory.
@victor tsaran

glitchsoc - Link to source
#SelfHost week 0.
Phase 1:
in the end I've chosen hostinger. As a first approach. It has a very frustrating interface on adding records when referring to DNS, and even in state/province while registering domain's contact info.
They are combo boxes, detected as edit boxes through #accessibility equipments.
Now waiting for it to propagate dns on #YunoHost 's admin interface on a subdomain.
Installed yuno host via terminal, then even post-installation done via terminal: yunohost tools postinstall or whatever it was.
Had some trouble with letsencrypt in the end, but now they should be solved.
Phase 2 will be installing an app, I'll get to it as soon as everything's on track.
Even thinking of placing #WordPress English speaking blog there. Let's see.
#Accessibility #selfhost #wordpress #yunohost

mastodon - Link to source
I don't know why I've been seeing this pop up around me regularly lately, but I have. So apparently this needs to be said: it is never, *never* okay to pick and choose who you use the right pronouns, name, and terminology for. You are not allowed to use one person's preferred pronouns, but then refuse to use another's preferred name or pronouns. You are not allowed to make excuses as to why one person's chosen name is too hard, but another person's is not. You use the chosen name and pronouns of anyone and everyone around you. Nobody has any right to pick and choose whose identity is valid and whose is not. Just. Support. Everyone. Who. Is. Identifying. In. Good. Faith. And. Not. Harming. Anyone. Else. Fuck sake.

mastodon - Link to source

I've completed my studio setup/patching for my new album, which is already in progress. The piece de resistance is a Manley Core channel strip. It quickly helped make the best clean electric guitar sound I've ever gotten. (Audio proof via some noodling)

Elec gtr --> Manley Core bussed to Ursa Major Stargate --> MXR Layers pedal

Also interesting: there is ZERO buzz or hum from my guitar when it runs through the Manley. This is the best preamp I've ever owned.

#gearsquad #guitar #jamuary


#guitar #gearsquad #jamuary
This entry was edited (6 days ago)

iceshrimp.net - Link to source
PSA, elitism (especially in tech-/chaos spaces)

Sensitive content

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happy new year everyone! I hope everyone focuses on loving themselves instead of driving hard to fit in with those around you.
autostraddle.com/queer-resolut…

Queer Resolutions That Actually Don’t Suck

Being human is inherently chaotic, and being queer adds another layer of beautifully unpredictable flair. So lean into it.
Titeänyä Rodríguez (Autostraddle)
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