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Peter Vágner reshared this.


The moment Estonia disconnected its power grid from Russia has been shared online. A historic step toward energy independence.

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in reply to Andre Louis

@FreakyFwoof @jscholes Yeah, I conveniently located myself to Paris for this weekend. But the worry, but russia flips the switch early, leaving Estonia without power was real. Power generator sales were soaring in january.
in reply to Jakob Rosin

@jakobrosin @FreakyFwoof @jscholes I hope Estonia will soon switch to other energy sources. Syncing with the European energy network is a good first step. I am sort of surprised that Estonia still depends on Russia in anything. Good move re Paris.
in reply to victor tsaran

@vick21 @FreakyFwoof @jscholes I'm honestly surprised that our border to russia is still open. Have no idea why, while everyone else has had a clear decision on it.
in reply to victor tsaran

@vick21 @jakobrosin @FreakyFwoof @jscholes

It was all just about grid stability. Estonia has not been importing electricity from Russia for years and was not dependent on it.


Peter Vágner reshared this.


Looks like there's some new tech to install every week. This time, it's Joplin and a self-hosted server for notes, since it's accessible now.

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in reply to Erion

Wow! I should try! Is it any good? I also get notifications on Tusky! Ha! And my dms are filtered. :D This is super fun! Soo, is this app good?
in reply to Winter blue tardis🇧🇬🇭🇺

It's not perfect, but it's quite usable, you can sync encrypted notes up to a server and use it anywhere, like on your phone, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. It has collaboration as well, so you can share an entire notebook and work on things together. It has around 200 official plugins, like a journal mode, you can make notes public so people can read it, and a lot of cool things that just work out of the box. It can send you native notifications as well from a todo list.
in reply to Erion

Sounds cool. Maybe one day we can use it to write a cool story grins!
in reply to Erion

Yeah it's nice. I got the basic cloud plan with edu discount cuz I'm not confident enough in my hosting skills but once that subscription expires, which won't be that soon, I might also try selfhosting.
in reply to Jonathan

Is that accessible? Last time I checked it I was dissatisfied.
in reply to André Polykanine

It recently became accessible, yes. I tried it a year or two ago and it was unusable but there has been a lot of work put into it and now it has everything I ever need, including templates which none of the notetaking apps had so far.
in reply to André Polykanine

It's defenitly! The only thing I've considered as a bit annoying so far is the settings dialog on windows, because whenever I switch tabs its telling me some randomm setting from the task, like I switch to general and NVDA is already saying something about English US even though I haven't even moved to that languages list but I was to lazy to report and no idea how to properly formulate that and it doesn't make it unusable or something so heh. The general experience is fine. Also on android and I appriciate that because my previous app was ok on windows but horrible on mobile.
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to Jonathan

Managed to get it to build on ARM since it was missing a dependency, also half of the environment variables are missing from the .envSample, but for the most part it's quite straightforward. Let me know if you need some help in the future, it's really worth it just for the collaboration part alone.

Peter Vágner reshared this.


Call with a universal credit agent a couple of days ago.
'So can you upload a CV?'
'Yes sure, I can do that.'
'How will you do that, can you use a computer?'
'Yep, no problem.'
'How do you do that, do you use bra-lay?'
'What?'
'Bra-lay.'
'Oh, you mean Braille?...'
'Yes, yes. Braille. That's it.'
'Well, I can read braille but I will use a screen-reader.'
'Oh, you use a screen-reader?'

Yep, that's how my call went. I've heard of some weirdness in my time but 'Bra-lay' for Braille, that, is a special kind of special right there.

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in reply to Andre Louis

Wel... from your awful call, I now have a track name. Thank you useless UC agent.

Peter Vágner reshared this.


We have enabled Fast Authentication Streamlining Tokens (XEP-0484) on conversations.im. This completes a set of extensions designed to significantly improve the speed, reliability, and security of login.

Peter Vágner reshared this.

in reply to Daniel Gultsch

could you share some details about what needed to be done to enable this on the server side? I would especially be interested in the modules that need to be configured for Prosody (if that is what's powering conversations.im :blobcat: )

Peter Vágner reshared this.


Have you ever wanted something a bit more minimalistic than makefiles? If so, you might like this, the humble command runner: github.com/casey/just

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Peter Vágner reshared this.


I did a static analysis on the DeepSeek Android app

tl;dr it does aggressive device fingerprinting, root detection, has anti-tampering mechanisms, bundles native code and has dynamic code loading and execution facilities

none of which should be necessary for an app like this

more here: michael.bacarella.com/2025/02/…

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Peter Vágner reshared this.


#Movuary day 3 brings you a classic example of why I should not be allowed to make music like this, whatever this is supposed to be. I don't know how to classify it, and I wrote it. Creapy broken jazzy dub and bass? I dunno...

HQ download:
borris.me/audio/movuary2025/03…

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Peter Vágner reshared this.


While my day 4 submission was just an automation salad from the move, the day 7 #Movuary is a bit more regulated attempt at automation. iOs veterans will definitely recognise the samples used here.

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in reply to Jakob Rosin

This was a bit of fun. I remember that game from way back, I'm surprised you still have the sounds from it.

in reply to Andre Louis

This sounds groovy. As an aside, I had no idea what move was until I saw this and looked it up. Sounds cool!
in reply to aaron

@fireborn
Well here's your next sort of impulse-buy. Trust me, you want this. Right now. Right right now.

#InspiredBySound - Let's Move! (Ableton Move Accessibility Overview) youtu.be/p8IbinbOhY4

in reply to Andre Louis

I'm guessing I *don't* need a computer to use the accessibility either, a phone would work?
in reply to aaron

@fireborn Oh yes. I only used a computer so OBS could show what the screen-reader page was talking about.
in reply to aaron

@fireborn Yeah, but you can add lots of your own too. It ships with 64 GB of internal storage. It's non-removable and you upload using it's web-based move manager, but at least you can.
in reply to aaron

@fireborn If you look through the uploads, you'll hear stuff that Patrick, Kara and Jakob have also done. Some of those contain external samples. Yesterday I did one using samples from a Perkins Brailler for example.
in reply to Andre Louis

I saw that! This looks super fun. Depending on how early I can get one I might end up posting to the tag.
in reply to aaron

@fireborn I believe they're in stock, they had sold out very, very quickly a few months ago.
in reply to aaron

@fireborn I think so. Perhaps your local music shop will have it too, but not sure.
in reply to Andre Louis

I have ordered. I'm playing with note until the Move arrives :D
in reply to Patrick Perdue

@BorrisInABox Yup. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to use it while traveling, I guess it's just a case of learn the menus over time
in reply to aaron

Get it connected to your phone's access point/personal hotspot. Plug your phone into the line input of the Move. Monitor both with headphones. Everything talks, woohoo.
This entry was edited (4 days ago)
in reply to Patrick Perdue

@BorrisInABox Oh so the headphones would go into the move. got it! I'm super excited for this.
in reply to aaron

@fireborn Yep. Whatever is on the line input is passed through to the output jack, unless you are using the resample function, which... yeah, I do that a lot. Haven't done that while on the go yet, though, so I'll figure that one out when I get to that point, I guess. Braille display?
in reply to aaron

@fireborn There's even SSH access so you can get down and dirty with it. Oh yes...
in reply to aaron

@fireborn Also, to see just how powerful and cool this is, look up the associated Movuary hash-tag and se what others are doing with it. This thing absolutely rocks.

Peter Vágner reshared this.


#NextCloud #accessibility is highly impacted by this thing that seems very small. What they did is they removed (!) the Copy Public Link from the context menu in their File Explorer integration. I don't know who to call, but I'm pretty sure we need to create more noise in there. I'm thinking about starting a petition. Please join me! github.com/nextcloud/desktop/i… // CC @nextcloud

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in reply to André Polykanine

can you open a new issue about accessibility concerns in regards to removal of the Copy Public Link option? It's good to have a dedicated report to review and address it.

github.com/nextcloud/desktop/i…


Peter Vágner reshared this.


📣 Shortwave 5.0 is now available, bringing background playback and completely revamped stream recording!

blogs.gnome.org/haeckerfelix/2…

#GNOME

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Peter Vágner reshared this.


Experimented yesterday with Fedora’s KDE spin… I was shocked by the level of accessibility, although it wasn’t perfect. My primary issues with it were that I had to use a lot of Orca’s navigation commands to read panels in the systems settings app, and I had major issues with Konsole, the default terminal app. I wasn’t able to read any of the information in that particular apps interface using Orca. I also tried the Fedora workstation edition, which uses Gnome as it’s a desktop environment. Let’s just say that was not worth my time. Had accessibility issues there as well, and surprisingly it was worse than the experience I had with KDE. I know KDE defaults to Wayland, as does Gnome, but KDE’s accessibility implementation seems to be a lot better than what Gnome has under Wayland, with the exceptions I’ve previously mentioned. Incidentally, the X 11 experience with Gnome is actually worse now than it was previously. For example, the terminal app does not even open for me. I should also note that all this is under Fedora 41, so people aren’t confused. #A11Y #Accessibility #Blind #Experiments #Linux #Fedora41 #KDePlasma #Gnome #Wayland #X11

Peter Vágner reshared this.

in reply to Peter Vágner

@tyrylu @dino @pvagner @JRepin essentially, you can’t. I’ve never been able to get it successfully working with Orca. Not sure if it’s an issue with GTK4, Orca or the way the program was written, but it looks like I’ll have to use something like Thunderbird in order to use my XMPP server on Linux.
in reply to Gregarious

This will be most likely an app specific issue, but I have no experience with this particular app, so I can't say more, but a bug report, at least to track the fact, would be advised.

Peter Vágner reshared this.


I see blindies asking this and that and the other about VMWare workstation, so let me say that if you have any questions about doing stuff in VMWare Workstation, I'm your guy. I have near 8 years of experience, research, testing and tools on my side. Want VMWare Tools for Windows Vista and 7? Sure thing. Want a Windows XP VM with JAWS 9.0? I'll build you a Windows XP VM with JAWS 9.0. Shoot, want a Windows 98 VM? I can make you a fucking Windows 98 VM pretty easily.
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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in reply to Stu Hughes

This is the most passive aggressive ad for a Service I've ever seen and I love it.

Peter Vágner reshared this.


My girlfriend bought me a new dress last night and I went a little off the rails trying to describe it in the alt-text 😉

#AltText #AccessibilityIsHotAF #AccessibilityMatters

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Peter Vágner reshared this.


Fun fact: Did you know you can open the quick settings from within Windows setup OOBE screen using Windows +A and disable Wi-fi from there?
That's right. No need for messy commands. Just, go in there before it asks you to connect to a network, and toggle Wi-fi off. Can't believe they don't block the quick settings pannel.
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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Peter Vágner reshared this.


We are excited to announce the National Federation of the Blind Radio Network (NFBRN). Broadcasting 24/7, this dynamic station brings together a diverse mix of content from the organized blind movement, including legendary speeches, Braille Monitor articles, recent podcasts, convention highlights, uplifting stories, and live events. And there is more to come. Send your feedback to communications@nfb.org.

NFBRN is available on any Amazon device by opening "Nation's Blind."

#NFBInDC

Peter Vágner reshared this.


Peter Vágner reshared this.


Be wary when adding additional context only for #screenReader users. An example:

Say you're working on an e-commerce site, and some products have two prices to show how great a sale discount is. The before and after is made visually apparent via some aspect of text formatting, and you want to make it explicit for screen reader users too.

The first step is to ask if this is necessary. If a user encounters two consecutive prices and one is lower than the other, they may intuitively understand what's going on without any explicit signposting, and can verify how much they're gonna pay during the checkout process. Only your users can provide this verdict.

If it's determined that some additional context is helpful, you could format it as something like: "Was $14.99, now $8.99" (optionally swapping the prices). It's short and punchy in braille and speech, perfectly descriptive of the situation at hand, and mirrors how it may be spoken out loud on an ad.

Resist the temptation to go further than this. You do not need to say "original price: $14.99, current sale price: $8.99". This is much longer and more verbose, while adding nothing. It also implies that you think screen reader users need to be told what a price is and explained the concept of a sale, even though you're not doing so for other audiences.

You also don't need to spell out the word "dollars", format the price in words, repeat the product name, and so on. If you find yourself with screen-reader-only text like: "The current price of 500 Grams of Premium Oolong Tea was fourteen dollars and ninety-nine cents, and is now on sale for eight dollars and ninety-nine cents", it has gone way too far.

In short: Set out to identify the problems that actually need solving, and only solve those problems.

#accessibility

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

@miki I encountered some dropdowns on a survey recently that essentially followed this script. Only they also slipped in the unhelpful sentence, "touch devices are also supported", at the end. As it happens I was using a touch device and it took me about five minutes to work out how to select a value.
in reply to James Scholes

Yeah, that hint used to also be present on mobile, though I don't think it's the case any more.

Peter Vágner reshared this.


Promised I'll be dropping in with examples of good #A11y in different countries and then I broke the promise. Coincidentally, I was asked to fill in a survey where one of the questions was about this very subject so I'll share one of the examples I gave there. In Austria, the qualified electronic signature is one of the state e-government services. A tool was built to allow screen reader users to insert their e-signature into any PDF document. The signature can be both visible and / or just a digital finger print, possible to verify through a qualifying verification tool. The visible signature can be inserted in one of three ways: 1. You place it right at the end of the document. If there's place enough, it should land in the line below the last one where there is content, otherwise, a new page is created. 2. The provider of the document can first place a QR code at a place in the document they choose, then the signee can replace this QR code with their own signature. 3. The provider of the document can determine coordinates in pixels where the signature should be placed and the signee enters them on their side to place the signature. pdf.egiz.gv.at/ #Accessibility #Austria #Blind

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Peter Vágner reshared this.


HTe #Movuary continues. A challenge to produce something with the #AbletonMove every day in february. Todays submission is my attempt to create a typical rap beat. Deep bass, some claps and bells are a thing in this little loop. Enjoy.

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Peter Vágner reshared this.


Ooohhh GTK 4.18 has proper accessibility on Windows and macOS for the first time!! Exciting blog.gtk.org/2025/02/01/whats-…


What’s new in GTK, winter 2025 edition


We just had a GTK hackfest at FOSDEM. A good time for an update on whats new and exciting in GTK, with an eye towards 4.18.

GTK hackfest 2025Requirements


You can no longer call gdk_display_get_default() or gdk_display_open() before gtk_init(). This was causing problems due to incomplete initialization, so we made it fail with a (hopefully clear) error message. If you are affected by this, the usual fix is to just call gtk_init() as early as possible.

On Windows, we have a hard requirement on Windows 10 now. All older versions are long unsupported, and having to deal with a maze of ifdefs and unavailable APIs makes development harder than it should be. Dropping support for very old versions also simplifies the code down the stack, in Pango and GLib.

The same idea applies to macOS, where we now require macOS 10.15.

Spring cleaning


The old GL renderer has been removed. This may be unwelcome news for people stuck on very old drivers and hardware. But we will continue to make the new renderers work as well as possible on the hardware that they can support.

The X11 and Broadway backends have been deprecated, as a clear signal that we intend to remove them in the GTK 5. In the meantime, they continue to be available. We have also deprecated GtkShortcutsWindow, since it needs a new design. The replacement will appear in libadwaita, hopefully next cycle.

It is worth reminding everybody that there is no need to act on deprecations until you are actively porting your app to the next major version of GTK, which is not on the horizon yet.

Incremental improvements


Widget layout and size allocation has received quite a bit of attention this cycle, with the goal of improving performance (by avoiding binary search as much as possible) and correctness. Nevertheless, these changes have some potential for breakage, so if you see wrong or suboptimal layouts in applications, please let us know.

GTK has had difficulties for a while getting its pointer sizes right with fractional scaling on Wayland, but this should all be solved in GTK 4.18. No more huge pointers. Fixing this also required changes on the mutter side.

New beginnings


Accessibility in GTK 4.18 is taking a major step forward, with the new AccessKit backend, which gives us accessibility on Windows and macOS, for the very first time. The at-spi backend is still the default on Linux, and has seen a number of improvements as well.

And, maybe the biggest news: We have an Android backend now. It is still experimental, so you should expect some rough edges and loose ends. For example, there is no GL renderer support yet. But it is exciting that you can just try gtk4-demo on your phone now, and have it mostly work.

Enjoy!


in reply to Tóth Gábor Baltazár

@tthbaltazar pretty much because nobody ever contributed code for it in the past 20 odd years, and most of us are not Windows developers
in reply to fasterthanlime 🌌

Oh hi. I wrote most of the code in the new GTK AccessKit backend. Still a work in progress, and it currently relies on an unreleased version of the accesskit-c package. I need to make some time to put in a bit more work on that before 4.18 comes out.

Peter Vágner reshared this.


I don’t usually do this kind of evangelism, but if you’re looking for a reason to try #XMPP on #GlobalSwitchDay, now’s the perfect time: #Conversations_im is currently free on Google Play!

play.google.com/store/apps/det…

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