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Ooh, wish I had the unlock code for this one, but it was my free article for the week.
Polish Radio Station Uses A.I. to Interview Dead Nobel Laureate nytimes.com/2024/11/03/world/e…
in reply to Tamas G

I wonder sometimes if it’s an AI-produced story. I just can’t find, for the best of me, the actual audio samples. I did find the original interview though, I mean in text! It’s funny, not funny.


I appreciate living in a place where a ten year old comes to your door for Halloween dressed as Google AI and if you consent, recites the recipe for gasoline spaghetti.


The people have spoken, I'll try my best to ruin everything!


listen, I've had my moments, but at least I've never mansplained Margaret Atwood's book to Margaret Atwood


People who wear glasses are disabled, BTW. We need disability aids to function as an active part of society. If you wear glasses, you are disabled; your disability is just one that happens to be highly (if not totally) accommodated. It is generally considered reasonable to insist that you need your glasses and cannot cope well without them, and glasses are readily available and prescriptions for them not heavily gated. Touching or taking them without your permission is considered rude and cruel.
in reply to Xauri'EL Zwaan

This is by far the most popular social media post I have ever written lol. To be clear, as a person who wears glasses myself, I am well aware that financial cost is a major barrier to many people having glasses. These things tend to lie on a spectrum. The main point is how normalized glasses are, how wearing them rarely even excites comment. People who wear glasses aren't "brave" or "inspirational". To most, we're just treated as normal people living our lives


More and more as I try to untie myself from giant social networks, I find myself wishing that Fediverse software like Mastodon wasn't so seemingly allergic to algorithms. I don't think it should be algorithm driven, but if I'm new and I want to get a feed full of content that does have engagement, I think that should be possible. If I want to follow people who my friends follow, I shouldn't have to just look through all their followers lists. I don't know how you strike a balance and avoid excluding people, but it sometimes feels like we're too far in the other direction. I don't want to have to give people an entire checklist of ways to find people and content once they join, because then those people will be more resistant to joining. There has to be a happier medium between mindless algorithm-assisted scrolling and what we have now. And yes, I did post this with the expectation that people will tell me I'm wrong and I welcome that.
in reply to Simon Jaeger (Procrastodon)

I think the “explore” tab does some of that, but I think I know what you mean. Some twitterness would be nice, I mean, the good old Twitterness, not the Elon one.
in reply to victor tsaran

@vick21 You're right about the explore tab. There are some interesting functions in there that I could probably spend more time using.



*sigh* submitted an issue asking for some accessibility work to be done to a software package and the response was "there's no audience for this, someone who actually uses a screen reader should submit this request". I am definitely not the person to reply to this and have no idea how to do so in a reasonable manner.

#accessibility

This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to NV Access

@NVAccess @nellie_m @pixelate @FreakyFwoof I just realized y'all are the NVDA devs; I don't have access to a Windows machine, so I've never tried it, but I've heard great things! Thanks for what you do, and thanks for being on fedi, it's exciting to see you here!
in reply to Sam Whited

Thank you! It's great to be here - such a wonderful community!


Welcome to the RB family, Innertune 🥳

apt.izzysoft.de/packages/com.m…

InnerTune is a fork of InnerTune – a Material 3 YouTube Music client for Android.

Thanks to Malopieds (the author of this fork) for making this possible :awesome:

#reproducibleBuilds #IzzyOnDroid



who are these lunatics answering phone calls from unknown numbers and why are we polling them for election opinions?


Not if you delete your fucking account. #OneWeirdTrick press.coop/@Gizmodo/1134213933…


NVDA 2024.4 doesn't seem to read auto-completion info in chrome anymore, anyone have ideas as to what I can do to fix this? I hope it's just a me thing.
in reply to Andre Louis

@twynn Thanks Andre, I can replicate on Gmail's login page - what site are you looking at? I originally tried with the autocomplete suggestions on google.com and that DOES seem to work. I created an issue at: github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issue…

Please do comment on the issue with any extra info there.

in reply to NV Access

@NVAccess @twynn Anything. Everything. From homebridge to PiHole to anything that wants my name/other details. Every single site I've personally tried since 2024.4 has failed. I can't think of one that hasn't.
in reply to Andre Louis

@twynn It does seem to be a change in Chrome - I tried 2024.3 and 2021.3.5 and it worked exactly the same for me.
in reply to NV Access

@NVAccess @twynn I just added a comment on GitHub to this issue confirming the same thing is happening on my system.
in reply to NV Access

@NVAccess @twynn While we're talking about changes in chromium, is anyone else getting the weird thing where cursor movement by caracter in edit fields is just, slow and half the time reports the wrong character now? Especially on DIscord I notice this, with regular text mind you not mentions and fancy embeds.
in reply to x0

@x0 @NVAccess @twynn I've seen this behavior more in Chromium-based UIs (like Slack) if there's a multiline field with multiple lines of text inserted. Depending on which line you are on, I think the cursoring can be offset by one or two positions, which is interesting and I suspect may have to do with the factors of how the line breaks are calculated in relation to the cursoring, but it's just a hunch for me.
in reply to Tamas G

Or text wrapping. That's probably a separate issue though. I know it behaves a bit strangely when you try to focus a user mention in discord but like, it would. It's a button in an edit field.
This entry was edited (14 hours ago)
in reply to Andre Louis

@twynn It's really no different to any other site - you need to create an account, but that only requires an email address (and creating a password).

It's just comments here will get lost and people fixing the problem will only look at the issue itself.

in reply to NV Access

@NVAccess @twynn Yeah with respect, that is bullsh**. Reporting an issue on GitHub requires a bunch of extra steps, including:

- Navigating to the right repository;
- Finding the new isue button;
- Picking the correct issue type;
- Figuring out the issue creation interface;
- Filling out the issue template which involves figuring out what bits can be removed and what bits can't be;
- providing logs/other reproduction evidence.

While it is absolutely true that all of this is possible and for a lot of folks not all that hard, it is also true that for a significant amount of users this is way, way more than they want to bother with. I don't have a solution to this, perhaps a UI for users to report issues from within NVDA might lower the entry threshold, but let's not be dismissive about the complexities of filing/interacting with GitHub issues here

in reply to Florian

This explanation is already complicated. With respect, you guys need a simpler way of bug reporting. Especially with the amount of people who use NVDA. Not everyone is going to bother creating a github account. It also goes from the fact that, github is complicated for most people who don't have knowledge of how a lot of things work. Github is complicated even for some of us who know how to report bugs. Let's just be realistic. It might've worked before, but it's not going to work that well nowadays.
in reply to Мира🇧🇬🇭🇺

@tardis @zersiax @NVAccess @twynn yeah, I think the cognative load to use GitHub is quite high if you are not coming from the dev space and know some of it already. I get that this is just a comment on an issue and you are amazing for pre-creating it at 17360, but for someone to go through account creation and profile config just to add a single comment is a bit too much. And yeah, sadly a good solution will probably be harder to implement.




#time please boost far and wide, thanks

  • year-round standard time (67%, 867 votes)
  • year-round daylight saving time (22%, 294 votes)
  • keep switching back and forth (9%, 128 votes)
1289 voters. Poll end: 18 hours ago

#time


When the world gets a bit too much for you, play more music, listen to more music. Just get lost in that for a while.

reshared this



You know you’ve really messed up the spelling of a word when even spellcheck can’t figure out what you were trying to spell out.


Who will win?

  • the vacuum cleaner (89%, 33 votes)
  • the speakers playing while I vacuum (10%, 4 votes)
37 voters. Poll end: 8 hours ago

in reply to Jeff Fortin T.

@nekohayo OMG, I need to pause the music when I'm sawing in the workshop, and this... 🤔
in reply to Federico Mena Quintero

@nekohayo I tend to pause everything when I use cutting tools. I don't want lose fingers with the table saw.

in reply to SuspiciousDuck

Evidentne rovnaká firma ako to bolo pri falošnom webe o Korčokovi. A evidentne už mali túto doménu pripravenú dosť dlho. Autor sa ale bude určite iba zase vyhovárať, že s tým nič nemá a jeho firma bola zneužitá, rovnako ako to robil ohľadom jeho prvého webu.
This entry was edited (1 day ago)


#Synology #NAS users: If you use Synology’s Photos app, read about this critical vulnerability. infosec.exchange/@kimzetter/11…


apparently toy capsule machines run about $100 🤔
in reply to aeva

i'm tempted to buy one and fill it up with art and weird stuff and set it up in my living room and encourage guests to take a few and play it up like it's a magic capsule machine that periodically refills itself with new and exciting mysteries
in reply to aeva

dumb conceptual art idea

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in reply to victor tsaran

@vick21 You'd still have to charge them up on the regular, so they'd die at random times. Personally wouldn't bother. These are Behringer XM8500 dynamics connected to a Raspberry Pi.
in reply to Andre Louis

I guess, my issue is that I cannot make these mics stationary at the moment, so would love an opportunity to remove / install them at will.


#AndroidAppRain at apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid today brought you 16 updated apps, but also 2 apps were removed:

* DiviDoc contains a self-updater, and its author did not respond to our issue
* URL to PDF was rebranded to WebCapture more than a month ago, so the "old" app was removed

Further, several more apps could be confirmed as #reproducibleBuilds – bringing their total number here up to 315 (or relative: 26.2%).

Enjoy your #free #Android #apps with the #IzzyOnDroid repo :awesome:

in reply to IzzyOnDroid ✅

Re DiviDoc ... You commented on an old closed issue instead of opening a new dedicated one:

github.com/Armand31/Dividoc/is…

Whether or not the author cares I can't say but for most projects that is a good way to go unaddressed. Also for the sake of every other potential user checking out known issues...

in reply to Caleb Maclennan

@alerque Yes, I commented on the issue that introduced this, Caleb. And I've pinged the author explicitly, twice even. Apart from that, the project has not seen any commit since 2/2023, and Armand seems "gone" since June. So chances of this being addressed are rather low to non-existent.

Should it be addressed later, the app can easily be re-established, metadata have been archived and not deleted.



For many the Internet is Google. But Google profits massively from the data you share. The time has come to stop this unlimited data mining. That's why we are building Tuta. We do not track, log or share your information. And the best: No Ads.🥰🥰🥰
in reply to Tuta

you are right . But , unfortunately Big G has a lot of bots inside phones. Google hss stored anything about us . Only mode is a rooted device. Congratulations for last update on Tuta. Mail and Calendar.
in reply to Tuta

(1/?)

@Tutanota
> That's why we are building Tuta. We do not track, log or share your information. And the best: No Ads

Great stuff. Will you be implementing AutoCrypt, so people using Tuta can send encrypted email to people using other email services and apps, which also support the standard?

github.com/tutao/tutanota/issu…

Having to use Tuta's clients to access Tuta mail is pretty much the only thing that's been holding me back from using the service.

@Decentralize



What does one do with a new cotton t-shirt that has a big rectangle of vinyl print on the front... making it unwearable? Straight up cut it into rags?
in reply to Federico Mena Quintero

A) Is vinyl print solid color?
B) Does it have text/images on it?

If "A", take a Pilot marker and handwrite something funny.
If "B", yeah, cut it into rags.



Exceptionally frustrated

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in reply to Stephanie Appleby

Exceptionally frustrated

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uspol

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in reply to Blake C. Stacey

uspol

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Spotted on an evening walk on an isolated beach in Aotearoa #NewZealand

A small human (5?) holding up a kite so her older brother can get it in the air. She's an expert holder, picking it up every time it falls on the sand. The patience and optimism that it'll fly eventually seems infinite.

A man (30s?) with a thoughtful aspect pushing a wheelbarrow down to the water line. He's got all the gear for a perfect few hours fishing. A while later he's spotted in a deck chair next to a low table with a picnic on it while waiting for a catch.

A small group of young humans directed by a man (40s?) in setting up a sand-drawn rugby pitch. He's wearing a bucket hat and has the air of a dad on a mighty mission. Within minutes he has teams sorted and is running up and down the sand umpiring. This is serious business

Two grey haired naturists walking along the treeline on a quiet patch of the beach. From a distance they look like two tranquil, rather pink wild creatures happily holding hands as one of them points out different cloud formations crossing the skyline.

A couple of women (20s?) smooching while standing in ankle deep water. They pause to take a selfie and then one abruptly stoops and splashes the other. Shrieking, chasing and more smooching to follow.

Any typos spotted in this post are lost after being locked in overnight after the sunset gates were closed at this beach. If spotted give them a drink of water and a ride to the nearest town. They will appreciate breakfast.



Hey #openstreetmap people, i need your help again.
I'm using Overpass Turbo for the first time and struggling with a query that should be simple.
I've checked various help files but can't find anything.
I just want to show roads that have no speed limit. (So i know to go and fix that).

Something like:
nwr["highway"]["maxspeed"=null]

in reply to Simon Hobeck

thus should do the trick as well openstreetmap.org/user/Branko%…
in reply to Joost Schouppe

@joost_schouppe thanks, this is useful and essentially what I was looking for with Overpass.
I currently prefer MapComplete simply because I can quickly fix any missing values rather than jump between browser tabs.
Once I've completed the gaps, maybe then I can review older inputs.

in reply to Marián Kyral

taky mam vzdycky "radost", kdyz vidim update tohohle molochu. Bohuzel mam jednu appku, kde to nejde vypnout a zatim sem byl linej ten -9999 ebuild poradne prozkoumat, jestli bych to nevypl nebo je to nak vic zadratovany. Naivne sem si myslel (tak pred pul rokem), ze zkusim prepnout par balicku na binarni, ale ono to nejde (zatim?) uplne mixovat. Jen pokud existuje -bin alternativa separe, i u LO sem musel prejit na kompilaci, protoze -bin je zoufale stara a dle bugzilly to moc nevypada.
in reply to mahdi

@mahdi No je to na …

Firefox 30 minut, libreoffice cca 1 hodina, qtwebengine 2 hodiny 🤷‍♂️

in reply to Marián Kyral

@Marián Kyral @mahdi Já mám Firefox a Thunderbird binární, protože tam jsou updaty hodně časté, Libreoffice kompiluju na svých třech strojích pod hodinu (jsou to děla), na čas Qtwebengine se mi nechce vzpomínat.

Zkoušel jsem binpkg gcc, protože mi chvíli zlobila jeho kompilace, ale jinak té binpkg větvi Gentoo rozumím tak, že je spíš pro případ, kdy člověk spravuje síť a nechce kompilovat na každém PC.

in reply to Jiří Pavlík

@jiri @mahdi

Ta binární větev je pro všechny, kdo využívají nejčastější kombinaci USE flagů. Pokud člověk moc nedivočí, tak se použije binární balík. Jinak se kompiluje.

Bohužel čím větší balík, tím více USE flagů a tím větší šance, že se bude muset kompilovat. Nebylo by špatné, mít nějaký nástroj, který by mi řekl, kterými USE flagy se liším.

in reply to Marián Kyral

@Marián Kyral @mahdi Je to teda tak, že se portage sám rozhodne, že bude ignorovat option --getbinpkg nebo podobnou?
in reply to Marián Kyral

byvalo i hur :) kdyz sem s gentoo zacinal, tak muj 6kg notas s P4 daval OO.org ~24h :-P (nastesti pomerne rychle byl pak i binarni) ... btw firefox ma udrzovanej www-client/firefox-bin (esr i nejnovejsi), takze tady du cestou nejmensiho odporu.
in reply to mahdi

@mahdi Ten FF mě vůbec netrápí. Ani LO. Zato Chromium byl jiný příběh. Tam bin balíček byl, ale zrušili ho, kompilovat to nechci, tak jsem skončil u FlatPacku. Občas v něm potřebuji něco otestovat a na to mi flatpack stačí.
in reply to Marián Kyral

taky pouziju Chromium zridka, jen kdyz chci neco otestovat, existuje github.com/PF4Public/gentoo-ov… odkud beru
in reply to mahdi

@mahdi 😀😀😀 to jsou pro mě zprávy z jiného vesmíru. Se divim, že vás to baví.😀😀


Fairphone 4 and sensors

Full post here. rene.seindal.dk/2024/11/03/fai…

I bought a Fairphone 4 as a part of my project of de-googling my life.

Playing with different operating systems, I somehow ended up with a phone where most of the sensors didn't work, even if they did when I got the phone.

#EOS #DeGoogling #FairPhone4 #FP4 #MurenaOS #UbuntuTouch



What's the rule about changing the clocks? Spring forward, fall into a pit of despair?


Listening to @FreakyFwoof latest episode and this gets me thinking about interdependence care. Ever since I was young, it was stressed to me, even to the degree of harm because I developed unhealthy pride and got into some very unsafe situations because my pride lead me to creating a toxic environment of internalized ableism for myself, that independence was the only way to go, but blind people when I was growing up did not want me to practice interdependence care. I was to be fully independent, at all times. I was never to ask for help, from anybody, and while I don't want to explain all the lonely situations that put me in, I'd like to illustrate how interdependence care can be beneficial.

I was at a disabled persons house the other day with a group of disabled people. They knew carrying things was going to be problematic for me, with my cane, and the plate stacked with food, so they asked me if they could carry the food while I helped someone else pour a drink they asked assistance for and couldn't physically do. I said yes, and soon, we all were helping each other out and no agency was removed from anybody. Interdependence care looks different from the traditional care model because agency isn't taken away from anybody. It allows us to get to know each other and our bodies, which is a very intimate space. But by allowing other people into that very intimate space, a whole new kind of person centric care can emerge. It allows me to utilize words without qualifiers because when I speak of spoons, these loved ones instantly know where I'm coming from because we all practiced interdependence care, which is a type of love that I haven't seen much. There's only care, and no judgment, and it's far less lonely than being independent.

#Care #Disability



Once Linux’s Biggest Enemy: Darl McBride Dies and Nobody Notices lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_l…


Voy a relatar extensamente mi experiencia personal de la #dana viviendo en Picanya, pueblo que está separado de Paiporta por el maldito barranco:

Dia 1: A las 19h nos quedamos sin luz, agua y gas. Metro y medio de agua en la calle. Avisan de que no salgamos de casa, ¡a las 20:15! (Una hora después) Damos por perdidos los coches del garaje. Nos salvamos porque vivmos en el primer piso. No dormimos.

Dia 2: Salimos y vamos a ver la casa de mis suegros como podemos, esquivando coches amontonados. Tienen el garaje inundado y sin puerta. Nos dirigimos al centro del pueblo a preguntar si nos pueden cargar el movil para estar informados y en pleno paseo suena la alarma. Pavor entre los vecinos, parece ser que han soltado una presa para que no se rompa y viene otra ola. Al final nada, pero nos hemos tenido qie volver a casa corriendo. Finalmente pasamos la tarde (limpiando) y noche en casa de mis suegros porque estan saqueando casas y no tienen puerta.

Dia 3: Pasan muchos helicópteros pero nadie a pie. Nos pasamos la mañana limpiando. Consigo cargar el móvil utilizando el portátil del trabajo que tenía batería. No tenemos casi comida, así que me dirijo al punto donde todo el mundo viene con bolsas de compra. Resulta que es el mercadona, está la puerta forzada y todos cogen lo que quieren. Cojo estrictamente lo que necesitamos y vuelvo a casa. A mediodía el garaje sigue casi igual y la rampa medio despejada. Los vecinos nos miramos las caras con desesperación. Llega un grupo de chavales y nos ofrecen ayuda pero les decimos que ayuden al lado por que son mayores.

Dia 4: Empiezan a llegar decenas de personas a ayudar. Es el día que más avanzamos, dejando el garaje prácticamente vacío con solo algo de barro. En todo el día no ha aparecido ni un militar. Vuelve la luz a casa de mis suegros y podemos ducharnos por primera vez. En mi casa no hay luz ni gas, el garaje sigue inundado.

Día 5: Llegan los militares y oh... ya no los necesitamos...

#dana



in reply to Stephanie Appleby

sounds like a headset mic to my untrained ear, but successful test, if without any description on the audio. :)
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo Yeah it's a USB headset microphone that actually works! Yeah no description on it! If I tried longer voice messages and since I'm using the startrek soundpack it says: "Unable to comply!" and it drives me absolutely bonkers!


Well I can't say I've ever seen a Vroom error before.

'{"error":{"code":"unauthenticated","message":"Exception of type 'Microsoft.Vroom.Exceptions.UnauthenticatedVroomException' was thrown."}}'

in reply to Andre Louis

The first result for Microsoft Vroom has this to say: "This protocol enables a protocol client to send an HTTPS request to a protocol server using common web technologies to access data and perform operations." I trust that has sufficiently cleared up the matter?
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes I asked Google gemma 2 what it thinks it is, and got this. Whether it's true or not is a different matter. Though it sounds vaguely plausible I have my doubts.

Microsoft VROOM (Virtual Reality Optimization and Orchestration Manager) is an open-source tool designed to simplify the deployment and management of virtual reality (VR) experiences on Azure cloud infrastructure.

It automates tasks like provisioning VMs, configuring VR software, and managing user access. VROOM aims to reduce the complexity and cost associated with building and running VR applications in the cloud.

in reply to Andre Louis

@jscholes there's also VROOM (Virtual Robot Overlay for Online Meetings) is an experimental system for exploring the social experience of robotic telepresence ...


The world has turned into avoiding scams and trying to make shit work all the damn time. I just want something to go right. Somewhere where I'm not worrying about accessability or being taken advantage of, or having to do my due diligence about every god damn job I apply for. I'm so discouraged. I really don't want to do any of this anymore.

They say that being taken for a ride and being refused over and over gets easier. It doesn't. You just get numb to it after a while and you wonder what the damn point is.

This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Estelle

I assume they're kidding themselves. I can't get behind the attitude that blindness sucks 100% of the time"and everything sucks, but I'd never tell anyone it gets easier. Maybe when it's one thing again and again, like dog refusals, you get used to dealing with it and have a plan in place, but even then, it's still stressful and hard to deal with.
in reply to Simon Jaeger (Procrastodon)

The three habits of highly successful blind people: be born in the right country, marry a sighted person, and do nothing.
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes @simon It's understated how true this is. So many blind people outright dismiss each other by saying "Well, there's this work-around for [task that should be a 30 second ordeal], surely we have more things to worry about!" As someone that struggles with diagnosed ADHD that already makes it hard to do things, blindness cuts my energy in half on most days. The cumulative blind tax, comprised of all of the micro-inaccessibilities of life, adds up after a while.
in reply to Tristan

@jscholes @simon The harsh reality: blindness *is* a barrier, and the world literally isn't built for you. It doesn't ruin everything, but it is something that is part of the calculus that goes into whether an activity in life is doable or enjoyable. Pretending that it isn't is just fooling yourself and setting a bad example for those that might look up to you. (I should really find an instance with better character limits.)
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Tristan

Sadly, that's true, and I agree. Also, I went over my crazy anxieties today to ask for help. Lot of the blind people wouldn't be happy. But I met an awesome student and we shared a meal soo. There are nice people, after all. Because of quote try to always be independent quote thing, a lot of people think it's good to look down on others who don't mind help. Also, inaccessibility is way too real. None of us should struggle alone. Letting ourselves be helped isn't a crime, sharing isn't a crime. And if a phone call is easy for person A, it's an absolute anxiety attack cause for person B. We are different, and the sad reality is that what works for one, doesn't work for all. Your 3 second task can turn into a 30 minute task for someone else. And no one should be made to feel bad about it. People should be encouraged for trying, not stepped on because they are struggling. Also, the world is broken for real. And not only from the Reddit posts, but I have seen it live and yeah. The world is the shit that hit the fan right now. Also, to all humans who struggle with ADHD and autism, or anything really, good luck, may you get more energy, and my double thumbs up for not giving up. Because I know the other end of things when people have given up and it's grim. Soo, keep on fighting, and lots of patience. And it's totally alright to feel tired and vent it out.
in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes @cachondo @simon Heally. That's downright awful and negative. I have a sightedperson and yes, I was born in America. But I am a court reporter who busted her butt to get where she is. I have also traveled over the country by myself, lived on my own since I was 16 so I would not get beat anymorwh. So that do nothing part just ticks me off honestly.
in reply to Eden Linnea

I don't want to be evil, but I believe 0% of what you just said. Just by. The writing. Also, different people, different lives, different cultures, different struggles. Just saying. I have difficulty, really, reading what you wrote. And I hope the comment I am about to send won't be rude. Because I really struggled, and I still do not make sense of what you wrote.
in reply to Eden Linnea

@EdenLinnea I didn't take @jscholes comment to be against those who work for a living. The do nothing part to me said that there are people who are lucky enough to be born into a country that will support them financially, meet a sighted person to do all the things they can't or won't learn to adapt their way around, and then don't work or even attempt to.

Just my interpretation

in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @jscholes I was led to understand might have been sarcasm involved. Unfortunately, that doesn't always come through intexts. AllI saw was really the one comment and I" just stunned that someone would say that a blind person successful would be those three things. I was not raised around many blind people, so I think my stances can sometimes be harcore. I had to be tough and beearned to be from an early age. I know not everyone's experience is mine. I have a hardheadedness a lot of people don't have and have often used that to get where I needed to be. Sometimes my bluntness doesn't make me a lot of friends, but x'sn intentional.
in reply to Eden Linnea

@EdenLinnea @jscholes It's a bit of a stereotype, perhaps, but I know a lot of working-age blind people here in the UK who live off the benefits system. They've told the government they are incapable of work, which means they receive money each month without having to do anything for it.

Now I'm not against disability money or anything, but just as an example, one person I know is receiving roughly £26,000 a year in state benefits. I know that this person hasn't got the best qualifications or experience, but equally if they can spend all day cultivating followers on twitch, it's wrong, in my mind, to then claim they can't use technology to look for work or improve themselves.
That 26k is more than a sighted adult can earn on a full-time job at minimum wage, by the way, just as a point of comparison.

Conversely, I know people who have such complex medical needs that there's no chance they should ever be forced to re-train or look for work. They are truly and indisputably disabled to the point where we should, as a society, provide for them.

I guess the problem is some people might think that about young blind people with nothing else wrong with them. Until you've lived it, you can't always see the possibilities.

in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo I'm less concerned about the morality of capable blind people claiming benefits. I'm far more dismayed at the number of people refused government assistance who truly, very evidently cannot work, the gaps in or complete lack of employment history those blind people will have to present if they decide to apply for a position they actually want one day, and the possibility of the government assistance being withdrawn at any time leaving them with nothing.

Those last two certainly gave me a lot of anxiety before I found work, although some people don't seem concerned or aware. Either that, or they're putting on a show of not being worried about it. The more benefits you save for a rainy day, the less you get given. @EdenLinnea

in reply to James Scholes

@jscholes @EdenLinnea I don't know if they just aren't aware or just accept it under a sort of fatalistic, this is what I have now and i'll make the most of it sort of ideology.

All the time i was looking for work I was constantly stressed that I'd lose the benefits I did have. Nobody was interested in me proving I was looking for work, which begged the question as to why I got the benefits in the first place.

in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @EdenLinnea @jscholes You do know it’s 90% of work engaged blind people are unemployed? I don’t think they all told the government they were incapable. Maybe the government told them?
in reply to The Blind AI

@Lottie @EdenLinnea @jscholes I know in theory those are the stats.
I also know just how many of my peer group of blind but otherwise able-bodied adults have gotten themselves in the 'I can't work mindset, and that's sad
in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @EdenLinnea @jscholes I honestly think those people have decided they can’t get a job not that they can’t do a job. No matter how hard it is for people to work it’s harder for blind people to get work that’s the truth. I do think learn helplessness is playing a large part of this.
in reply to Simon Jaeger (Procrastodon)

@simon It's not just the blind, though, is it?
half the posts on one of the big UK subreddits are now anxiety posts. Young people who've never caught a bus, mailed a letter, filled a proscription, paid a bill. Literally, paid a bill. A bill comes with an amount and about a dozen ways to pay in black and white and rather than sit and read it, they turn to the net because they're anxious about what to do next.

The world has gone utterly off the rails.

in reply to Sean Randall

wait huh? I mean you're definitely right. anxiety is skyrocketing and a lot! of folks need a kick up the fundament. But I do think we're on another level in terms of the battles we end up fighting, and anxiety maybe is somewhat natural in such circumstances?
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Matthew J

@bermudianbrit @simon oh yes, I won't argue that much of the crap we get saddled with as blind folk is a level above. But I just wanted to point out that there are people in their late teens who, when they get a perfectly simple thing they were expecting (i.e. a bill), call it trauma or anxiety inducing and turn to the web for 'Advice'.

Nella Rose is a 27 year old youtuber/influencer and made a conscious choice to go onto a TV gameshow last year, which had been airing for over 20 years before this, and spoke direct to camera about how surprised she was at having to participate in the 'traumatising' events.
I just can't fathom the mindsets of some of these people, yet there's sometimes more accommodations for them than for genuine barriers thrown up due to disability.

in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @simon yep. This is something I do agree with. Its a difficult ballencing act sometimes I think, not to be resentful of shit like that or the people who perpetuate it. complicated issues. Where does mental health end and just fucking get on with it begin? not simple.
in reply to Matthew J

@bermudianbrit @simon the problem is, as soon as you trot out the 'just fuckin' get on with it' concept, we're told that the trauma was always there and people just talk about it more now, so stop being such an asshole.
in reply to Sean Randall

@bermudianbrit @simon and that's hard. I know people, trans people in the main, who feel that only now is it safe to express how they've always felt. And I'm incredibly aware of how liberating that is for them.
I narrowly avoided being sent to an 'institute for the enfeebled' rather than plain old 'school' at the start of the 1990's. I was that close to being labeled mentally unfit for public society. I still got called retarded and many other vulgar terms people wouldn't feel it appropriate to use today.

I'm out of education now, but some of the things we weren't allowed to discuss, or even make our youth think about in the last few years of being a teacher is incredible.

in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @simon elaborate? on things you're not allowed to discuss as a teacher? And do you think that fuels anxiety because then you're faced with them as an adult?
in reply to Matthew J

@bermudianbrit @simon I think so.
We got told not to speak to a particular student while they were walking the corridors once, because of the distraction factor. Not to reduce what we said, or avoid long encounters or limit it to the essentials, literally stop completely.

Then one year a student hadn't been accepted into the guide dog programme, so there was a blanket ban on mentioning dogs in range of them hearing, including in their shared classes.

Little things like that, it all added up to a wrapping in cotton wool attitude that never sat well with me.

in reply to Sean Randall

@cachondo @bermudianbrit @simon I'm looking for work and really fucking struggling. But I have never asked my partner not to talk about jobs, never asked an employed person who is also job-seeking to please be quiet. My shit is *my* shit.
in reply to Estelle

@bermudianbrit @simon shared shit is the shit, no shit.
A problem shared, and all that. I'd never suggest not talking about it.
But to imply you can rewrite the world to erase these issues is an absolute disservice to anyone suffering anything, I think.