Notices by Alex Hall (alexhall@mastodon.social)

I'm usually on the side of technology being helpful, not creepy, and private by default. But I don't really understand the pushback with Siri Recap and Rewind in the new Apple Watch. People do know that existing smartwatches, phones, glasses, pins, rings, and headphones can all silently record, right? At least Apple Watch doesn't store audio. I see Rewind as a useful feature for those with hearing problems, and Recap as yet another AI notetaker. I don't understand the outrage.

@alexhall On a related note, I'm getting tired of people saying that Siri Rewind is dumb because asking people what they said is the more social, less technological, and plain right thing to do. That's not true if you have a hard time hearing, and asking people what they said is either embarrassing for you or annoying for everyone.

My debit card expired, and though my banking app says the replacement arrived last week, I don't have it. I'm now learning just how much relies on debit cards, when I thought it was direct bank account transactions. Apple Pay transfers: debit card. Refilling your Apple Cash balance: debit card. Using something like Cash (formerly Square Cash): debit card with an Apple Pay option that can only pull from your Apple Cash balance, a balance you can't refill without a debit card.

I like that recent blindness-specific apps silently agreed on how to open settings/preferences: ctrl-comma seems to be quite popular, matching the cmd-comma convention in macOS. I appreciate this, and I wish it could be normalized everywhere.

I see why complicated Rust projects can take so long to compile. Each crate the project needs must be downloaded as source, then compiled locally. Each crate that is downloaded has its own dependencies, which must be downloaded and compiled locally. I imagine this recursive process can get out of hand quickly.

At work the other day, a coworker looked at my laptop screen and commented that I hadn't activated Windows. I asked how he knew this, because I had NVDA's screen curtain enabled. He said that the information about unactivated Windows (I don't know if it's text or an image) was the only thing visible on my screen. I don't think this is a big deal, and is barely even a bug, but I do find it very amusing. I wonder why this happens?

I made some progress with getting Stardew Valley to work. I updated a couple of the mods, finally figuring out how to download from Nexus helped, and now the main menu speaks. Of course, I can't select any options or do anything at all, but this is more than I had before.

"America's 250th birthday is here!" proclaims Youtube. I tell it I'm not interested. "Shelf will be hidden for 0 days," is the response. Thanks a lot, Youtube. I love how you value what users want.

Has anyone gotten local LLMs to work on Linux with an Intel video card? My understanding so far is that I need ollama.cpp with a specific backend, but I don't know how to select the backend or how to set everything up.

Remember my suggestion that VoiceOver be able to only speak non-standard hints? Did that make it into 27, by chance? I have one device capable of running the beta, and I'm not installing it on that.

Edit: it seems the feature is there. I look forward to never hearing "double tap to activate" again.

I think I've noticed something, but I can't tell for sure. Skip this if you don't use NVDA and don't use sounds to indicate spelling errors.

Are NVDA's spelling error sounds a lot slower in 2026.1? I feel like they take a bit to play when I make a typing mistake, and don't play with the right words when I read text back. Is this a thing I'm only just noticing, or is it not a thing at all?

Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac Will Soon Stop Letting You Edit Documents - MacRumors https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/02/microsoft-office-2019-for-mac-no-edit-documents/

Okay, time for my semi-regular check, inspired by some recent discussions here: are there any good email clients for Windows? Thunderbird works, but search is a nightmare, and managing groups in the address book is not fun. Outlook has a ribbon and is, well, Outlook. Windows Mail is gone. The fancy ones, like Spark, aren't accessible. I use accounts from 3 different mail providers, so a web-based solution isn't feasible.

Remember that Claude is still not great at coding. I asked it for a simple PHP function, because the question involved HTTP headers and I'm not overly familiar with working with those. What it gave me used the double question mark twice. That's fine--use this header, else this one, else this one. The problem is that the second link in this chain would return either a string or an empty string, never null, so the third fallback would never be reached. Subtle if you're not good with PHP.

Artemis II was a truly awe-inspiring feat of cooperation, engineering, technology, and human advancement. I mean, it did turn into a bad Zoom call there at the end, but the fact that the communication with the dive teams was all that actually went wrong is incredible. I'm happy I got to witness this, and I sincerely hope I get to witness a moon landing in a few years.

I don't like any email clients, except maybe Apple Mail. My daily one is Thunderbird, which works well enough, but which I don't exactly love. That said, there are things that make me appreciate it greatly. Clicking a URL in an email, and being told that the URL doesn't match the link's actual destination, is such a thing. Thunderbird automatically lets me avoid click trackers, which I love.

I am teaching a class tonight, mostly consisting of an activity. I want to outline the activity so I don't miss anything. My brailler doesn't work, and I have no embosser. I'd prefer braille to keeping my place in a note on my phone. I have an original Orbit. Is there a way I can put a file on the Orbit that contains my notes? I have a Zoomax, too, but there's no way I trust that thing.

If I ever want a Mac, it'd probably be the Neo. I don't do much with macOS, and faster Macs never seem to make VoiceOver better, so there's no point in paying for good specs. Portable, runs macOS, good battery, solid construction. That's all I'd need. I'm happy with my Framework and see no need for an Apple laptop of any kind just now, but I like that this option is now available.

Can I change the volume of MP3 files without re-encoding them? I don't have lossless files to work with.

Hacker used Anthropic's Claude chatbot to attack multiple government agencies in Mexico https://www.engadget.com/ai/hacker-used-anthropics-claude-chatbot-to-attack-multiple-government-agencies-in-mexico-171237255.html?src=rss