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Halloween logics

Excellence in child costuming, electrified Caltrain edition. (Bonus points for use of old CDs.)
A small child, wearing a cardboard box decorated as a new Caltrain engine. The child also has a small headpiece, connecting them to invisible electrical wires.

NO ONE HAS EVER BECOME POOR FROM GIVING.

Generative AI is coming to Google Maps, Google Earth, Waze
Conversational search and hazard reporting and more detailed maps, all thanks to AI.
arstechnica.com/cars/2024/10/g…

Generative AI is coming to Google Maps, Google Earth, Waze

Jonathan M. Gitlin (Ars Technica)
in reply to Ars Technica

Sandor
Sandor
• •
I think waze was “generative” enough in terms of routing without any AI help already. #lost #driving
#driving #lost

Good morning to you all. Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it. A very blessed Samhain to us who celebrate that one. If you celebrate neither, I hope you have a brilliant day. It's hard to believe that October is at its end for another year. May life be kind, may peace and serenity surround you. May you always remember that someone cares, you are not alone. It may feel that way at times but you are very muched loved and wanted. Have a grate time tonight no matter what you are doing.

Most adorable : the conductor had a printed sign "Tickets please" they hold in my sight in the silent area of the train rather than loudly asking for it. They said that'd be more comfortable for everyone than shouting and half of the people in the train were wearing headphones anyway.

I really, really like that idea and their commitment to just print these tiny signs.

in reply to Braid in trains - solidarity with

André Polykanine
André Polykanine
• •
Cool, but if you're blind or low vision, you're basically screwed. when a conductor does the old thing (i.e., speaking normally), I have time to slowly open my bag, grab my wallet, put my disability card and tickets, if needed, out of it, and be in time. If a seemingly random person comes to me in silence, I won't react.

#windows store important update. Greetings everyone. Just letting everyone know in the latest update to the microsoft store app on windows 11, they have changed where you now download store updates. You used to go to the library tab in the microsoft store app however, this has now changed so to check for app updates open the microsoft store app by searching for store on the start menu. Then tab over till you hear home. Then arrow down till you hear downloads and hit enter. Then tab till you hear get updates button. sometimes focus will not always land on this get updates button so if this happens, just shift tab back till you find this button. Hit the space bar on get updates and follow the instructions. I hope this helps. I was a little confused at first because I did not know this had changed.
#Windows

reshared this

A friend of mine, also blind and a very advanced user, tried to send me a Zoom meeting invitation with a Mac. Here's what happened:
1. Instead of a meeting at 4 pm the meeting was set to last from 8 PM previous day to 4 PM next day;
2. the appointment location contained only this: "[Name Redacted] is inviting you to a Zoom meeting.";
3. The appointment body was totally empty, so no Zoom link was available.
That's all you need to know about #Accessibility and usability of a Mac with #VoiceOver.
To prevent a holy war of devoted Mac fans, I am not telling you this is completely impossible. I'm just telling you that on Windows it's a breeze for a blind user and I even don't know how to achieve such messy results here.
#Accessibility #voiceover
This entry was edited (23 hours ago)
in reply to André Polykanine

Zachary Bennoui
Zachary Bennoui
• •
I've scheduled a bunch of Zoom meetings with Mac OS over the years, really wonder how this person went about it cause unless Zoom changed something recently it really shouldn’t be that hard with VO. I wonder if the crazy amount of hate VO on Mac gets is because of people coming from Windows expecting it to behave the same? Been using Mac OS for about 15 years at this point and just don’t have many of the problems I see a lot of people complaining about.
This entry was edited (23 hours ago)

Somehow I can no longer get my Braille display to talk to NVDA. I've no idea what I did, or if I pressed some random keystroke that disables it, in the same way you can turn off speech or something. Very confused.
in reply to Sean Randall

Andre Louis
Andre Louis
• •
@cachondo Orbit Reader 20+, and I fixed it by setting the tether mode to focus, not automatically. Maybe that breaks things. Must have lent on that key by mistake one day and didn't realise.
@Sean Randall
in reply to Andre Louis

Sean Randall
Sean Randall
• •
I like the orbit. Despite the high repair rates mine's never had a problem, and from a cold start it's the quickest braille device I've used for taking a note, despite being the cheapest.
in reply to Sean Randall

Scary Martin
Scary Martin
• •
@cachondo Do you find it noisy? Also, is it fast enough to be used as a braille display on your smart phone? I've always been curious of the Orbit.
@Sean Randall
in reply to Scary Martin

Sean Randall
Sean Randall
• •
@mcourcel
You can hear how loud it it is in contrast to speech here.

@Scary Martin
in reply to Sean Randall

Scary Martin
Scary Martin
• •
@cachondo Yeah, that's actually not that bad. Thanks for that.
@Sean Randall
in reply to Scary Martin

Sean Randall
Sean Randall
• •
@mcourcel I wouldn't want to read on it out loud in church, and 20 cells is a bit slow for fluent reading regardless of your display, really.
I should go record the canute for comparison purposes...
@Scary Martin
in reply to Sean Randall

Andre Louis
Andre Louis
• •
@cachondo @mcourcel Well, they do at least have a 40 these days and it refreshes at the same speed as the 20 doesn't it? Not slower.
@Scary Martin @Sean Randall
in reply to Sean Randall

Andrew Hodgson
Andrew Hodgson
• •
@cachondo @mcourcel Yeah for me I go with the larger number of cells because I am fairly slow at reading Braille to be honest.
@Scary Martin @Sean Randall
in reply to Sean Randall

Andrew Hodgson
Andrew Hodgson
• •
@cachondo Yeah unlike something like the Vario which uses Windows CE which takes just over a minute to start, and I think the Humanware devices use Android under the hood don't they? The Esys devices used to start up fairly snappy but I never used them as I wanted onboard translation.
@Sean Randall

TFW a discontinued digital camera is more expensive now used than its MSRP when released.

Back to the regular AMDgpu crash.

Die letzten Monate war es Social-Media-technisch hier eher ruhig, weil das Leben zu viel war. Ein enger Freund, mit dem ich seit 40 Jahren befreundet war, ist verstorben. Ich selbst hatte auch noch eine kleine OP. Dann die Arbeit und der ganze Rest. Hoffe, jetzt wird‘s mal wieder etwas aufgeräumter!

TekSavvy Fires Back at CRTC Over Internet Rates: This Isn’t Competition | iPhone in Canada

#cdnpoli

iphoneincanada.ca/2024/10/30/t…

TekSavvy Fires Back at CRTC Over Internet Rates: This Isn’t Competition • iPhone in Canada Blog

Independent internet service provider TekSavvy has expressed disappointment over the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's (CRTC) new interim wholesale fibre rates, stating they fall short of expectations.
Austin Blake (iPhone in Canada Blog)
#cdnpoli

Apple has announced its new MacBook Pro featuring the M4 family of chips and Apple Intelligence. The updated laptop promises improved performance and efficiency, along with new capabilities driven by Apple's custom silicon technology. The M4 MacBook Pro aims to provide users with a powerful and intelligent computing experience.

Link: apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/new…
Comments: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…


Apple’s new MacBook Pro features the incredibly powerful M4 family of chips and ushers in a new era with Apple Intelligence

Apple today unveiled the new MacBook Pro, powered by the M4 family of chips: M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max.
Apple

A case ruled that Google's terms of service do not eliminate a user's Fourth Amendment rights. The court found that Google is a government agent when collecting and analyzing data for the government.

Link: ww3.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions…
Comments: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…

Google's TOS doesn't eliminate a user's Fourth Amendment rights, judge rules [pdf] | Hacker News

news.ycombinator.com

"SimpleQA is a new question-answering system developed by OpenAI that can rapidly retrieve answers from a wide range of text sources. It uses a simple, efficient architecture and achieves high accuracy on various benchmarks, making it an effective tool for information retrieval."

Link: openai.com/index/introducing-s…
Comments: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…

SimpleQA | Hacker News

news.ycombinator.com

Neat book that will be on my bookshelf

Research Software Engineering :
A Guide to the Open Source Ecosystem

by Matthias Bannert

rse-book.github.io/

Research Software Engineering

rse-book.github.io

PSA Google Analytics is spyware.

How to make me really, really, really not interested in using GitHub.
"Latest changes" box on GitHub. The changes are: 1. GitHub Copilot Metrics API GA release now available 2. Github Copilot is now available in Windows Terminal 3. Web search in GitHub Copilot Chat now available for Copilot Individual 4. GitHub Copilot code review in Github.com (public preview)
in reply to Hubert Figuière

Dave Mac Farlane
Dave Mac Farlane
• •
But also on Windows! And with a chatbot! And with a new plagiarism-as-a-code-review service!

Aaagggh

Spending too long nursing my 7 year old MacBook Pro back to life

I’m all for maximising the life of tech. I’ll try to repair anything

But damn it’d be nice to earn enough money to be able to buy a new laptop when I need one

in reply to Jon Worth

Pietervdvn
Pietervdvn
• •
oxfam and some companies refurbish older devices. Pro-specs for a low price, and only a few years old.
in reply to Pietervdvn

Jon Worth
Jon Worth
• •
@pietervdvn Maybe. Either that or an entry level M4 Mac Mini I can just about afford.
@Pietervdvn

A look at VMware one year after Broadcom's acquisition: some customers say costs have risen 300%, Broadcom stopped selling perpetual VMware licenses, and more (Scharon Harding/Ars Technica)

arstechnica.com/information-te…
techmeme.com/241031/p23#a24103…


300 percent price hikes push disgruntled VMware customers toward Broadcom rivals

Ars Technica speaks with users and channel partners disgruntled by Broadcom’s changes.
Scharon Harding (Ars Technica)

#curl source code age

daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/10/31…

(what happened live here on mastodon converted into a blog post)


curl source code age

In every software project that has been around for a while there is of course newer code and older code.
daniel.haxx.se
#curl

The Linux Directory Structure, Explained lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_l…

The Linux Directory Structure, Explained

If you're coming from Windows, the Linux file system structure can seem particularly alien.
How-To Geek

CRTC Approves Google’s $100 Million Online News Act Exemption Deal
michaelgeist.ca/2024/10/crtc-a…

CRTC Approves Google’s $100 Million Online News Act Exemption Deal - Michael Geist

The government’s deeply flawed attempt to force tech platforms to pay Canadian news outlets for linking to news is nearing its payout.
Michael Geist

Accessibility Courses from Teach Access! teachaccess.org/accessibility-… "These free, self-paced courses for educators provide an introduction to disability and the principles of accessible design across various disciplines" #a11y #webdev #webdevelopment #webdesign #accessibility

Accessibility Courses – Teach Access

teachaccess.org
#a11y #Accessibility #webdev #webdesign #webdevelopment

Dropbox is laying off 20% of its staff | TechCrunch techcrunch.com/2024/10/30/drop…

Dropbox is laying off 20% of its staff | TechCrunch

Dropbox is laying off 20% of its staff as the cloud storage company undergoes what CEO Drew Houston calls a "transitional period."
Kyle Wiggers (TechCrunch)

USPol

Sensitive content

Why isn't anybody talking about this tactile graphics braille display? I mean, it's half the price of the other one. Still expensive, but mman! Introducing the Dotpad: floridareading.com/products/do…

Dot Pad | Innovative Tactile Graphics & Braille Display

Explore the Dot Pad, a revolutionary tactile graphics and Braille display for the visually impaired. Perfect for education and creativity!
Florida Vision Technology

My wife saw Christmas tree cakes at the store and bought me 3 boxes.

This is true love, folks!

in reply to Jcrabapple 💙

Мира🇧🇬🇭🇺
Мира🇧🇬🇭🇺
• •
Aww. This is adorable! I wish you many more moments like this one. Also a man's love goes through the stomach, say old people here. :D

shoutout to all the autistic ppl who got maliciously misunderstood as a kid and thought they could fix it by learning to speak with well-researched precision but ended up getting hated even more as a result because now people think you’re just using big words to try to show off

I need to find a new headset for my work. Mine is crapping out . What are some headsets out there with good a good microphone? I am not even looking for
in reply to Linda Coccovizzo

Мира🇧🇬🇭🇺
Мира🇧🇬🇭🇺
• •
Are you looking for a good headset with a good microphone, or a good headset with an average one? I am sorry I kind of did not get the last bit.

Narnia...

  • Anachronic order, starting with *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe* (43%, 7 votes)
  • Chronological order, starting with *The Magician's Nephew* (25%, 4 votes)
  • Inverted order, starting with *The Last Battle* (0%, 0 votes)
  • WTF is Narnia? (31%, 5 votes)
16 voters. Poll end: 17 hours ago

Can anyone here help me find the sign-up page for #Amazon prime? I really do like the convenience.
#amazon
in reply to Sean Randall

Nick's world
Nick's world
• •
@cachondo The problem for me that I see is that they charge separately for services. I just want the full amazon prime, I don't want to have to pay for things in different packages.
@Sean Randall
in reply to Nick's world

Sean Randall
Sean Randall
• •
well there are different packages, certainly in the UK. prime is your free delivery, some things to watch and listen to. prime music, Prime video, they're different things

good day all

Hello everyone!

I write my bachelor's thesis about Mastodon as an alternative social network and how its users perceive the platform.

I would be gratful if you would participate in my survey:
(The link is deactivated now)

It only takes 10-15 minutes and would help me a lot.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

In case you want to support me, you can repost the access link, which would also help me.

Thank you!

#MediaStudies #AlternativeMedia #Mastodon #Survey

#Mastodon #survey #mediastudies #alternativemedia
This entry was edited (6 hours ago)

reshared this

in reply to André Polykanine

Paula
Paula
• •
@menelion Thank you for your participation and your remarks. I do not mainly focus on the migration process in my thesis, but I'll keep your suggestions in mind.
@André Polykanine
in reply to Paula

André Polykanine
André Polykanine
• •
It's not about migration as such, it's more about marginalized groups, or, as I prefer the term more, discriminated minorities. When you-know-who bought Twitter, he eliminated the whole accessibility team and also especially prohibited using their API for building new third-party software clients for the network. That's why lots of blind and some sighted people instantly switched to Mastodon. I had my Mastodon account even before, but at the point where my third-party software of choice stopped working, I stopped using Twitter immediately.

New app added to the Accessible Android apps directory: note_x accessible accessibleandroid.com/app/note… #Android #App

note_x - Accessible Android

The app provides the ability to read text files smoothly with several features that readers need. Key Features include:
Accessible Android
#android #app

The Amazon Echo graveyard theverge.com/24271840/amazon-a…

The Amazon Echo graveyard

Amazon’s extensive Echo ecosystem helped bring its Alexa smart assistant into many homes, but not every Echo product was a success story.
Andrew Liszewski (The Verge)

reshared this

in reply to David Nason

Sean Randall
Sean Randall
• •
this is a fascinating article.
We still have a Flex and Connect here somewhere.

Fuck, and let me be absolutely clear about this, off

had quite a full-on day recording video for work yesterday.
Today I'm on the sofa, slack gently pinging in the background, some folk music down low with snacks to hand.
I think I'm finally finding my feet with this job and realising I can make a go of it.

#bitcoin #btc
Adam Chalmers (@adam_chal) on twitter: “Bitcoin was supposed to demonstrate the power of a true free market. Instead it's full of scams, rent-seekers, theft, useless for real purchases and accelerates climate change. Mission accomplished.”
#bitcoin #BTC
This entry was edited (2 months ago)
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