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For those having issues with WhatsApp for Windows.
aryaniraula.com.np/whatsapp-wi…
Learn how to fix WhatsApp Windows accessibility issues and use WhatsApp easily with NVDA. Step-by-step guide for blind and visually impaired users.admin (arya niraula)
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Here's a collection of free-to-use short music for any kind of project imaginable. I've been working on this project for over 10 years on and off, and it's a labour of love.
Whether you're doing work for TV, Radio, Film, your next podcast, show reel, powerpoint presentation, youtube video or university assignment that requires something to intro or outro it, there should be something for you, and if not you directly, maybe someone you know.
This is not the final form. I add to it whenever I find inspiration to do so. Check back every so often as you may find more content was added when you weren't looking 🔇
Currently:
1210 items
766 MB download in mp3
over 9 hours of music.
Absolutely no AI was used (or harmed) in the making of this collection.
If you feel so inclined, please do boost for reach. Many thanks.
onj.me/shorts
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"RemoveWindowsAI" is a script created by zoicware, available on GitHub, that does exactly what it says: it remove every AI feature in Windows 11. Do what you wish to do with this information. I'm sharing this because some folks are forced to use Win11 at work or other places for any reasons.
github.com/zoicware/RemoveWind…
Force Remove Copilot, Recall and More in Windows 11 - zoicware/RemoveWindowsAIGitHub
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Save patients with your rhythm mastery! Rhythm Doctor is a rhythm game where you heal patients by defibrillating in time to their heartbeats.store.steampowered.com
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Behind the scenes of myNoise. Personal notes from the Stéphane, the creator of myNoise.mynoise.net
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It turns out there are patched windows 11 images around restoring narrator functionality.
Here is such an image I have found.
Does anyone know what's modified?
At first it sounds shady however it really seems to work.
@garo Please can you help me to download the appropriate build?
I've navigated to this url microsoft.com/en-us/software-d…
Selected Windows 11 (multi-edition ISO for x64 devices)
Pressed the Download now button.
The iso image I've downloaded does not start narrator when pressing ctrl+windows+enter after fully booting.
The file name of the image is Win11_25H2_EnglishInternational_x64.iso
The direct url to the image I managed to download this way is software.download.prss.microso…
Thanks for the help
CC @Jonathan
🎶 Electric Hayride — Bluegrass Meets Dubstep | Suno AI InstrumentalSaddle up and plug in! Electric Hayride is a wild fusion of foot-stompin’ bluegrass energ...YouTube
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Well, it's December 01, which means it's time to drag Sammy out of his box again.
This silly little song, which was probably someone's throw-away recording for a morning show in the 70s, has a story behind it, at least for me.
On Christmas Eve 1992, Brad Krantz played a song on Asheboro, NorthCarolina's WKRR, called Sammy the Christmas Snake, on his morning talk show.
It just so happened that my brother had a few boomboxes recording local radio stations to capture the essence of a Carolina Christmas that morning, when Sammy the Christmas snake played on Brad's show.
As I was 8 years old at the time, and my brother and I liked this silly little song so much, we decided to make it tradition to play it every Christmas morning before going upstairs for the "good stuff".
Unfortunately, however, in 1994, my brother went off to college, and the tape was lost somewhere. Naturally, it was the only copy we had.
A few years after that, Brad was fired from WKRR, and I lost track of him. I emailed one of the guys at the station around 2001 or so, to see if they knew where Sammy the Christmas Snake might be, or at least knew who recorded it. I was told that Brad took their only copy with him when he went to Charlotte, and they had no idea who actually wrote or recorded the song, only that Brad got it from someone in Boston.
In the summer of 2004, WZTK, a new FM talk station owned and operated by Curtis Media was launched. And, guess what? Brad Krantz is back with the Brad and Brit show.
I emailed him in August of 2004 just to politely ask if he still had Sammy the Christmas Snake, and asked if he would play it on his show over the holiday season. He said he would, that it was apparently widely requested, and said "thank you for remembering Sammy".
So, I started my audio recorder on December first to try and record Sammy the Christmas Snake for my own personal amusement, seeing as how I have been looking for it for 12 years on and off at this point. Apparently, Brad had expected this, and made sure to talk or play IDs at every possible opening in the song, which, as you can imagine, infuriated me. Yep, this was war!
I kept the recorder going every weekday morning through December 21, 2004, to see if he would slip and forget to play an ID in the same places.
Finally, on December 21, 2004, I had enough pieces to reconstruct it!
I ended up running seven different copies of the song as played on the Brad and Brit Show through my favorite audio editor, taking the best parts from each, to get the relatively unmutilated version of Sammy the Christmas Snake, albeit with a few compromises. The song came from a slightly scratchy record, dubbed to who knows what media, played over an FM radio station. After editing, there were differences in equalization in some parts of the song, most likely due to Brad playing the track back through a different player or channel on the station's console, but considering it was the only version of the song I could find anywhere, and, as of December 2025, I still have no idea who recorded it, my edit was good enough.
I wanted to share the song as widely as possible, thanks to my beef with Brad, and this was before the existence of Youtube, so I put it on a webpage with links to contact Brad and Brit, and thank them for allowing us to have access to such a wonderful song. This, of course, was in response to Brad's claim that he had exclusive rites to it, which I thought was completely unfair. There's no need to keep Sammy in a box like that!
Several years went by, and someone uploaded my edit of Sammy to Youtube. It has now been featured in several different videos, but it's obvious that it's my edit, and I've yet to find another version of it anywhere, online or offline.
There were some things that bugged me about my original 2004 edit, which I could now fix with tools and skills I didn't have at the time, so, on December 1, 2018, I fixed some small timing issues that existed between splices, reduced crackles, pops and rumble, made the equalization a little more consistent, got rid of some noise, and performed a few other touch-ups. This is the result. It's still not perfect, but it's better than it was, and certainly cleaner than any other version on Youtube as of December 1, 2018.
I'm still looking for a real copy of this song, or, at the very least, an idea of who recorded it. There is some speculation on the comments of this Youtube video.
I was told that this song also featured on a morning show on WNAP in Indianapolis, Indiana, around 1978-1982.
A few years ago, my edit was played on WKRR again, where it all started for me. Go figure.
As of May 2025, Brad Krantz has passed away, so if he actually knew anything about the origins of this song, we can't ask him now.
youtube.com/watch?v=o0eWo6qvZO…
Lyrics, sung by a guy with a New England accent sped up and singing with himself to the backing of a Fender Rhodes, some flutes, drums, bass and a glockenspiel are as follows:
There are such cute little Christmas galoots...
Little angels, and reindeer, and snowflakes that fly.
But from all those yule underdogs fondling my memory logs,
one multiple vertebrae kind of a guy.
Sammy the Christmas Snake
hid in the corner of Santa's workshop.
Sammy the Christmas Snake
bit all the elves and made all the work stop.
Hid in the stockings, he hid up the flue,
bit on Rudolph 'til his nose turned blue,
ain't no tellin' what a Christmas snake'll do...
*hiss, hiss, hiss*
Merry Christmas
Sammy the Christmas Snake
had peppermint stripes and pointy ol' fangs.
Sammy the Christmas snake
he hides in the holly where the mistletoe hangs.
Hid in the stockings, he hid up the flue,
he bit on old Santa and Misses Santa Too! OH!
Sammy the Christmas Snake
*hiss, hiss, hiss*
Merry Christmas.
Come on kids, sing with me!
Now, Santa lived with Herb the Christmas Dwarf at Santa's house,
and no one liked him much since he bit Sid, the Christmas Mouse.
'Til Rick the Christmas Mongoose went berserk and tried to wreck,
the sleigh and Sammy saved the day when he broke Rick's Christmas neck.
HEY!
Sammy the Christmas Snake
Now there ain't a ban on anacondas in the arctic.
Sammy that ol' Christmas Snake
Now those elves don't chase him with that forked stick.
What a merry mood he has all the girls and boys in,
givin' out the cheer and holdin' back the poison...
Sammy the Christmas Snake
Hey! Hey!
*Hiss, hiss, hiss*
MERRY CHRISTMASSSSS!
On Christmas Eve 1992, Brad Krantz played a song on Asheboro, NorthCarolina's WKRR called Sammy the Christmas Snake, on his morning talk show.It just so happ...YouTube
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Finally hit publish on a blog post I've been writing for a while.
It's common to hear the term "fully accessible" used to describe products which have passed WCAG 2.2 level AA. But, are they really?
In this post, I explore 5 examples which highlight why WCAG, as awesome as it is, is not a measure of great usability or performance.
craigabbott.co.uk/blog/2025/5-…
5 reasons why WCAG compliance does not mean accessible accessibleCraig Abbott (craigabbott.co.uk)
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The tractors drove to Parliament on Budget day in a protest over inheritance tax.Stuart Maisner (BBC News)
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Watch This : https://youtu.be/nVdLW8kls50I do not own the music and videos, neither ads or monetization.all the things up there goes respectively to the owne...YouTube
Watch This : https://youtu.be/nVdLW8kls50I do not own the music and videos, neither ads or monetization.all the things up there goes respectively to the owne...YouTube
Watch This : https://youtu.be/nVdLW8kls50I do not own the music and videos, neither ads or monetization.all the things up there goes respectively to the owne...YouTube
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Sensitive content
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Yesterday an open-source developer Christian has released life changing update to the privacy respecting #android app called #MakeACopy. The app now features so called #accessibility mode that is enabling #screenReader users to take pictures of the paper documents independently.
Accessibility guide is available on github.
The latest prerelease version provides clear Accessibility guidance phrases with screen readers such as Talkback, Corvus, Jieshuo and others that can handle announcement accessibility event.
I am verry happy about this. We are now getting privacy respecting open-source based screen reader accessible solution that performs very well and is easy to use.
The prerelease version can be downloaded at
github.com/egdels/makeacopy/re…
MakeACopy is an open-source document scanner app for Android that allows you to digitize paper documents with OCR functionality. The app is designed to be privacy-friendly, working completely offli...GitHub
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EDIT: The Malwarebytes article has been updated:
"After taking a closer look at Google’s documentation and reviewing other reporting, that doesn’t appear to be the case."
This confusion could've been easily avoided if Google was more clear in how they communicate with their users.
ORIGINAL:
PSA to anyone who uses Gmail!
"Reportedly, Google has recently started automatically opting users in to allow Gmail to access all private messages and attachments for training its AI models. This means your emails could be analyzed to improve Google’s AI assistants, like Smart Compose or AI-generated replies. Unless you decide to take action."
malwarebytes.com/blog/news/202…
A new Gmail update may allow Google to use your private messages and attachments for AI training. Here's how to turn it off.Pieter Arntz (Malwarebytes)
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After a few intense days with GPT Codex, it’s finally time to officially introduce Sara. #SARA or Simple Accessible Radio Automation, is a program primarily designed for radio presenters who host live shows.
Some notable features that are currently missing from other broadcast solutions accessible to blind users include:
a loop function – especially useful for intros,
a flexible number of playlists and players,
and a news editor module with the ability to embed audio clips that can be played while reading the news.
The application is 100% vibe-coded, and it’s definitely not recommended to test it during a live broadcast. It requires several sound cards to operate, and for now, I’m not planning to add any virtual audio routing like the one found in Radioboss or SPL. The program is and will remain open source, and perhaps someone interested in contributing will join the project.
In terms of screen reader compatibility, the main focus is on NVDA.
Happy testing: gitrls.com/michaldziwisz/sara/
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At 13, I joined a Wolfenstein 3d modding forum. 22 years later, my posts are still there - and still searchable.
The discussion I had in Discord 2 years ago?
Not so much.
We chose this. We can choose better.
blog.discourse.org/2025/11/the…
I recently spent forty minutes searching through Slack trying to find a technical decision — made eight months ago — about an app that 60% of my creative life depends on. I knew the conversation had happened. I remembered participating in it.JA Westenberg (Discourse)
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Most AI tools today run in the cloud and require an internet connection, subscriptions, or logins.Taylor Arndt (Taylor’s Substack)
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This thread is worth reading if you are a Google docs user.
Short version: When you export a document from Google Docs, Google replaces all your hyperlinks with links that allows Google to monitor the interactions of everyone you share your document with.
This hidden link replacement can potentially be used to build a model of your professional relations, where people who interact more with your content are considered a stronger relation.
Think about the implications.
fosstodon.org/@Joe_0237/111145…
Today I found out that google docs infects html exports with spyware, no scripts, but links in your document are replaced with invisible google tracking redirects.Fosstodon
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I have just found a nice document scanning app for android that can do automatic edge detection, cropping, multipage scanning, OCR, PDF export and more.
It's called #makeacopy and it's using #tesseract engine to perform the OCR directly on the device with no internet connectivity requirement at all.
The app has almost full #a11y support for screen reader users in the sense that all the controls are clearly labelled and it's easy to navigate.
I can't resist and I have asked the developer if it would be doable to add a screen reader compatible notifications making the automatic edge detection somehow accessible as well.
Now I'd appreciate comments from low vision screen reader users, mobility trainers, people assisting other blind people or others who might be able to tell if my idea is viable and how much you like it?
Here is link to the github issue I have started: github.com/egdels/makeacopy/is…
Thanks for looking into it.
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Here's the most efficient way I've found to make a video from an image plus audio file that preserves quality.
ffmpeg -threads 3 -hwaccel auto -r 1 -loop 1 -i "image.file" -i "audio.file" -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -x264opts opencl -vf scale=1280:720 -c:v libx264 -tune stillimage -c:a copy -shortest "video.mp4"
- A command prompt terminal should open and the encode should start. You can check the status by reading the bottom of the window.
- The window will close once the encode is complete. This could take anywhere from a few seconds to five-ten minutes. You should see a video file in the folder that is only a few MB larger than the audio+image files you started with.
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Make this a bat file on your path, start with image first, then audiofile, and you'll get audiofile.mp4 as an output.
@ffmpeg -threads 3 -hwaccel auto -r 1 -loop 1 -i %1 -i %2 -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -x264opts opencl -vf scale=1280:720 -c:v libx264 -tune stillimage -c:a copy -shortest "%~dpn2.mp4"
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Zoom released New firmware for H1E. I am sending this again because i broke the first post.
✨ Your new public_html folder is here, upload html and ~your-site is ready
~ public.monster 🐙
I'm pretty sure I'll regret making this, but upload your public monstrosity and let's see how it goes. Some fun may be had. I'll watch carefully for now 🕵️
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So on a fresh Windows 11 install, I would need to now run at least 4 GitHub scripts just to make it behave and tamed down to the process plus ram usage of Windows 10. Unbelievable. I'm going to provide links here, you use these at your own risk. I'm also favoriting this post for myself so this is a bit for me, too.
All of these require that Defender's "realtime protection" and possibly "tampor protection" stay off. Defender is very yelly.
First thing I do: github.com/ShadowWhisperer/Rem…
This removes Microsoft Edge, and I use the WebView remover. If you use JAWS, this one might not be for you, since I believe JAWS relies on the webView.
2. Spicy: Remove defender. Not for everyone, but if you have a 3rd-party scanner and AV you use that's light, or just want to manually scan files and do daily quick scans with a tool of your choice, it's good. Using WSL will reinstall the hypervisor bits. It does a lot, so be cautious.
github.com/ionuttbara/windows-…
3. New to the list: github.com/zoicware/RemoveWind… - for getting rid of all AI features. Again, large script, read and consult carefully.
4. My own quick debloat Gist for LTSC: gist.github.com/tgeczy/2d847e2…
This does a lot more plumming removal, and disables your search box, so don't be surprised.
5. For search box: Open Menu: github.com/Open-Shell/Open-She… - works really well.
Bonus: github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloa…
Powershell script to debloat Windows 11 LTSC. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.Gist
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Completely transform your computer in minutes. Simply download a verified Playbook, or use your own, and run it in AME Beta.amelabs.net
Enola Gay (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) vs Sarà Perché Ti Amo (Ricchi E Poveri)YouTube
My new favorite LLM trick.
Here's a link. Here's the JSON structure I need. Write me a Python script that takes this link and generates what I need.
15 minutes later, I have a working scraper.
This needs a sandboxed coding agent with network access approval (Openai Codex is perfect for this).
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@midzi iOS apps won't have enough permissions to do this. You have to set up mitmproxy on your computer, you'll also need to install its TLS certificate (as a provisioning profile on the iPhone) so that it can intercept encrypted https traffic.
This assumes the app doesn't have certificate pinning. If it does, that's a lot more reverse engineering, an Android device would come in handy here.
Recently, I discovered Mynoise.net by @Stéphane (Dr. P). Sometimes, when I cant sleep or need background noise for boring work, I use various background soundscapes. Here is my article about Mynoise from the blind users experience. Long post follows:
Here you can also try other soundscapes, such as Rain on a Tent or Fireworks. I recommend opening the Full List. The soundscapes are organized under headings.
At this point, the possibilities of Mynoise are just beginning. Each player can be customized. Although the ambiance differs, the controls are always the same. Let’s take another look at the previously mentioned Wind, Sea, and Rain Noise.
Under the heading Presets, you’ll find buttons with various predefined settings. Activating them changes the sound’s characteristics. For instance, you can choose Breaking Waves or Irish Summer.
Under User Stories, you’ll find user comments. By activating a comment, the sound’s parameters adjust to the same configuration used by that commenter.
Let’s say you want to manually adjust the balance between wind, waves, rain, and so on. Each player consists of ten sliders whose volume you can control. Here’s how:
The author thought of that, too. Press B to find the Save as URL button. After pressing it, a URL containing your custom parameters will appear in an edit field. You can copy this link to your clipboard and save it as a bookmark. That’s how it works in Firefox. Chrome, on the other hand, will automatically reload the page with the new URL. You can share this URL as usual—for this article, I created This Noise as an example.
Yes, and there are two ways to do it. If you’ve been experimenting with the site for a while, you might have opened one soundscape in one browser tab and another in a second tab. However, this setup is difficult to save or share. Fortunately, you can create a single page that combines multiple generators—up to ten soundscapes in one! This way, you can really make something like a Campfire in the Rain. Here’s how:
Unfortunately, Mobile app is not accessible for blind users yet. You can still use Mynoise in your smartphone’s web browser. The easiest way is to share the custom links you prepared on your computer. That way, you’ll always have your favorite sounds at hand—for example, to help you sleep.
The author also offers online radios featuring some of the sounds. You can find them in the RadioBrowser database by searching for Mynoise. Additionally, there’s a podcast called Pomodoro Sessions, so you can enjoy your favorite soundscapes right in your podcast app.
The author is open to discussing accessibility. Thanks to this, button labels have already been added to the player pages. To celebrate finishing this article—and your reading it all the way through—you can listen to Fireworks.
Podcast · myNoise · No ads, no talking. This podcast provides a wide range of background noises and music formatted for the Pomodoro technique: stop procrastinating and get the job done, 25 minutes at a time! These sounds won’t interfere with your fo…Spotify
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Jonathan
in reply to Gina • • •Erion
in reply to Jonathan • • •It's definitely a bit of a clickbait, and some things are not necessarily as bad as described, but the web version is indeed a step back and if the beta works better, then that's a win, until it stops working, right? Temporary solutions are still solutions.
This is a typical example when a bit of kindness and compassion goes a long way. Do you seriously expect someone to crowd-source whether this works, instead of trying it out themselves and posting about it because they know that a lot of people have trouble with the web version?
Least you think what I said was not fact checked: Fact checked on the 11th of December, 2025, using the following sources:
The web version being mediocre, using personal findings based on social interaction: This morning someone just asked me how could they jump to the top of the message history, because there is simply no hotkey to do so in the web version by default. Unlabelled buttons, speed and other issues are also present.
Henderson, Theia, et al. “"A Blocklist is a Boundary": Tensions between Community Protection and Mutual Aid on Federated Social Networks.” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 9, no. 2, May 2025, pp. 1-30.
Jonathan
in reply to Erion • • •It's also not the 1st time I see people posting this somewhere so sorry if I got a bit more harsh than needed.
Erion
in reply to Jonathan • • •No worries, it was meant to be a semi-serious comment, but I am not sure why this sounds wrong for you. The fact is that the beta works better right now than the web version, right? So regardless of how and when it is updated, accessibility-wise it's a better choice.
Should they fix the issues people are having, the web version could be a reasonably good client to migrate to, but given how Meta's handling betas and choosing to drop things just because they feel like it does not fill me with confidence that the future's bright. That's a different story though.
Jonathan
in reply to Erion • • •The article and over all complaint says that WhatsApp Desktop, regardless of the normal app or beta, is getting an electron web app.
The article says we should get WhatsApp beta (which, as I mentioned, is currently rolling out as the electron web app) so the solution is already invalid for the problem. The WhatsApp Plus Add On that article mentiones does also only work for the native app, which is beeing replaced.
Honestly at this point the WhatsApp website, web.whatsapp.com, can at least be tweaked with scripts like here: someplace.social/@jcsteh@aus.s…
So in my personal opinion, the website is currently the best bet. Though I don't use it cuz I simply want to have a dedicated app. But taht's another topic on it's own. TLDR afaik the article suggests an already broken solution and is not helpful.
SomePlace.Social
someplace.socialMartin
in reply to Jonathan • • •Erion
in reply to Jonathan • • •The article does not mention that the beta is using Electron, it just says: It simply provides newer features and a different structure than the standard version.
If we suppose that the beta is updated more often than the web version, then even if it's using Electron, if they change anything in regards to accessibility, beta users would see it there first.
Now the question is, given that WhatsApp is known to roll out different versions to different regions and update them at different times, could have been a change somewhere that both the author of the article and @NightDrake could not have had access to? Or could it be that the native app was the beta while the desktop one was already updated to the web version, i.e. the beta is still behind in some regions?
I believe what you said, but there has to be a reason why it works for some people still and it doesn't for others. I don't think this is intentional and honestly the more I hear about this the more messy it becomes, mainly because of Meta. One step forward and two steps back, as they say.