Given that currently 8% of the people detained by ICE for deportation are factual violent criminals, American citizens should take note that the words of a dictator are fucking meaningless gravy.

Merely having the wrong meme on your phone and not enough money for the best deals on a golden Trump card can get you thrown into a gulag in another country.

#FuckYourCitizenship
#DeathToDemocracy

newsie.social/@ProgressivePowe…

This entry was edited (5 months ago)

Do it anyway.


I hate running. I used to believe that, over time, this would change. I thought, over time, that I would grow to love running out of sheer repetition. This has not happened.

I used to think that if I could write for a living I’d never have to work—my hobby would be my job. This also has not happened. It turns out that when you have to do something for multiple hours every day it’s not always fun. Sometimes the day goes by quickly because of how much fun you’re having, sure, but not every day. Some days you don’t feel like being creative but have to anyway. Some days you have absolutely nothing to say but need to keep talking because that’s the job.

Sometimes things are hard, is what I’m saying. It’s a universal human experience.

Companies, naturally, are trying to sell you things to “solve” this unsolvable problem. The logic of consumerism runs deep in all of us thanks to the hundreds of hours we’ve all spent listening to advertising’s constant rituals. In thirty second we see a problem presented, a solution offered at a reasonable price, then a moment of ecstatic relief as the product solves the problem. It’s the story we’ve all seen more than any other, drilled into our heads, shaping the way we see the world whether we realize it or not.

So obviously we all think we’re one purchase away from solving things that aren’t really solvable. Do you hate running? Buy a Fitbit and you can turn those dreaded workout into something fun. Are you having trouble feeling motivated? Maybe buy this fancy project management software, or notebook, or anything else you might come to believe will finally make it easy for you to do things you don’t actually want to do.

I am not, for the record, saying all of these things are useless. They have real purposes. But no tool is every going to make it easy for you to do things you don’t want to do. I am never going to like running—I’m just going to have to convince myself to do it anyway.

I’ve found ways to make running suck less. I do it first thing in the morning—that way I don’t spend all day dreading the workout to come. I always run with my wife, which creates the social pressure I need to actually follow through. I listen to music while I run, mostly so that I have something to think about that isn’t how much I hate running. And we basically always run the same route—that way I know exactly how much running is left and can avoid the need to make any decisions while I’m tired and angry.

None of this makes running fun. It does make it suck less. And part of doing things you dislike—or even doing things you like on days you’d rather not—is realizing that there’s never going to be some purchase or trick that will magically make it easy. There is never going to be some magic moment of truth where things click and you stop resisting the things you know you need to do.

Sometimes you just have to push through it. Sometimes it’s hard, and that’s okay. Do it anyway.

Featured image from the forth century CE depicting someone who enjoys running more than me.

Stuff I wrote this week


It’s been a few weeks since I published anything here—I’ve been away from home for a while. Here’s some stuff I published while I was out.


Stuff you should read



An adorable black and white cat looking at the camera from the carpet.

Happy #CanadaDay. I figured, it might be fun to share this #CanadaLand episode where one of the McKenzie brothers explains the role #CanCon played in helping #Canada get a reputation of saying "eh?" David Thomas does a great job explaining the history of #SCTV — funny how culture comes into being. Welcome to the Great White North!

canadaland.com/podcast/1164-da…

Reminder: Please join us for our monthly webinar scheduled for tonight, Tuesday, July 1 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time. We’ll be demonstrating the new Podcasts app which is included in the newest BT Speak update. You will also have a chance to ask questions and provide feedback to the team at Blazie Technologies.
We might even have some breaking news about the upcoming BT Braille!!
Below is the Zoom meeting link.
us02web.zoom.us/j/81033758140?…

Meeting ID: 810 3375 8140
Passcode: 024541

One tap mobile
+13017158592,,81033758140#,,,,*024541# US (Washington DC)

Dial by your location
• +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

Meeting ID: 810 3375 8140
Passcode: 024541

Find your local number: us02web.zoom.us/u/kdw2FlsDDS

Today I got to speak at the accessible banking conference in Brussels, organised by the European Blind Union and AccessibleEU, on a panel about making banking services actually work for everyone. I was joined by @ErikGustafsson and @DanielGoransson from #AxessLab, Hendrik Bourgeois from #Mastercard, and moderator Anna Martin from #BEUC.
Axess Lab kicked things off with a fantastic demo of a public touchscreen that starts speaking as soon as you explore it with your finger. That alone could solve a lot of the problems blind people face with lockers, kiosks, and terminals that currently rely only on visuals.
We talked about how inaccessible systems aren’t just annoying–they’re risky. If you have to tell your PIN to someone else just to pay, something’s seriously wrong. Another strong point was that accessibility isn’t something you can just add on at the end–it has to be part of how teams work, from product design to customer support. Otherwise, it just doesn’t stick well.

#AndroidAppRain at apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid today brings you 20 updated and 2 added apps:

* TaskManager: a tool for Android inspired by the Gnome system monitor 🛡️
* Voice: a simple, minimal audiobook player 🛡️

5 #Magisk modules have been updated at apt.izzysoft.de/magisk

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

Náš open-source podpisovač Autogram dostal natívnu podporu pre českú eObčanku.

Hľadáme testerov (a používateľov)! github.com/slovensko-digital/a…

reshared this

This is ingenious! More companies—especially web hosting companies—should offer this feature.

👉🏾 #Cloudflare will now block #AI crawlers by default theverge.com/news/695501/cloud…

I wonder if there is a #WordPress plugin for this‽ It would be great if #WriteFreely & #Ghost offered this feature as well.

Vznika tu mezidruhove pratelstvi? Chysta se souboj? Podeli se orel s orlosupem o mrsinu mysi v soudruzskem sdileni? Nebo si jenom stezuji na velikost klece, partnerstvo, a holubi provokujici orla v krmitku naproti klecim?

Rozuzleni prijde vzapeti. Orel zautoci a potvrdi dominanci ciste rasy. Orlosup je vyhnan na druhou stranu klece a na mrsinu si muze nechat zajit chut. Tady je svet jeste v poradku.

#lbc #liberec #zoo #orel #orlosup

@gnome I just noticed the disability pride flag in the profile picture, I didn't expect it but I love it! Especially as I know it's important for many members of our community, like myself.

Despite the accessibility issues of our project and despite misinformed critics (I have no issue with informed critics), I know we are actively working on better accessibility, and that it's particularly implemented by disabled members of the GNOME community.

reshared this

Airacast: Convention Time!

July means it’s time to hit the road for the conventions of the American Council of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind. Jenine Stanley and Everette Bacon go over everything you’ll need to know from traveling to and from Dallas and New Orleans to where we are in the respective exhibit halls and when you can catch our workshops, plus a convention deal from the Customer Care team. But wait! There’s more! It’s “Aira on the Go!” With our Q3 Giveaway. Find out what you could win just by using one of our transportation-related offers.

Listen Now🎧: pnc.st/s/airacast/7e808010/con…

Questions or comments about this podcast? Email us at airacast@aira.io.
Learn more about visual interpreting at www.aira.io.

Check out the ACB National Conference and Convention at acbconvention.org.
Check out the NFB convention at nfb.org/convention.

There's some slightly confusing messaging on Freedom Scientific's convention specials page.
vispero.com/events/acb-2025/
It states:
" 10% off all Home Annual Licenses and Home Time-Based SMA s"

For kicks, I called FS to see if there was a chance that I could renew my license a day earlier before the discounts kick in. The salesperson I spoke withh was very nice but said that this was for new license purchasers. I thought I missed this but their Web site clearly does not indicate this and I really believe that it should if this is the case.
He said that I could purchase a new license but this would change my serial number. Many JAWS users wouldn't care if their serial number changed if it meant getting a license at a discount. However, I have lots of third party software from Hartgen Consultancy that is tied to my current serial number. I know I could ask Hartgen Consultancy if they could substitute my old serial number with the new one but I might have to do the same thing again in a year if FS only offers discounts for new license purchases.
I told the salesperson, who again was extremely nice and very professional, that I wasn't going to quibble over a 10% discount but I suggested that they change the messaging on their Web site to reflect this to avoid calls from upset users who will be unable to renew their home annual license at the discounted price. I told him that I personally felt that they should honor it based on their Web site's messaging but that I wasn't willing to get into a fight over around a $10.00 discount. Other users will, however, and FS really needs to look at this.
The bottom line is that either their Convention Specials Web page should indicate that this discount is for new purchases of a Home Annual license or they should allow current Home Annual license holders to renew with the discounted price if they won't change the messaging on the Web page.

@freedomscientific

This entry was edited (5 months ago)
in reply to David Goldfield

I agree with everything you're saying here about the Home Annual License. I feel as of late, from what it seems, Freedom Scientific hasn't been very good at communicating all of the details about their products, in small fine print on their website, if you get what I'm saying, and in a way, this is only an opinion, but that's bad for business.
This entry was edited (5 months ago)

Does anyone happen to know what values I'd put in an `upgrade` HTTP response header when sending an HTTP 426 to tell a client that it needs to upgrade to TLS 1.2 or 1.3?

The HTTP spec says "The server *MUST* send an Upgrade header"
httpwg.org/specs/rfc9110.html#…

...but I can't find any examples. The `upgrade` spec says the format of the value is `protocol-name ["/" protocol-version]` - so presumably e.g. `TLS/1.3`?
httpwg.org/specs/rfc9110.html#…

It won't work for old clients obv but...trying to be correct.

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

@bagder @SimmerVigor Agreed. We're doing a trial of retiring TLS 1.0 & 1.1 which is a soft disabling - We'll return a custom error page with info & a path to contact us for any requests to our websites over 1.0 or 1.1.
Obv this means we complete the HTTP request/response which gives us the opportunity to be more helpful to the client. TBH, until our TLS lib removes 1.0/1.1 it *could* stay like this. I'm basically just trying to "bring the audience with us" as far as possible.

The progress bars in F-Droid's new design look odd. Did some research into the material 3 spec and why there's a strange blue dot at the end: gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroidclient…

Maybe someone wants to improve the colour choices here?

This entry was edited (5 months ago)

the ban hammer strikes again as the slop counter increases...

hackerone.com/reports/3231321

This entry was edited (5 months ago)
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

this one reminds me of the "vulnerability reports" we would sometimes get when I worked at Telegram. Where someone would claim that it's a severe vulnerability that messages, including ones from secret chats, are stored unencrypted in a database that is only accessible on rooted/jailbroken devices. And that was before AI. People would write these by hand and never stop to think it through.