Notices by Alex Hall (alexhall@mastodon.social)

Mentra’s first smart glasses are open-source and come with their own app store https://www.engadget.com/wearables/mentras-first-smart-glasses-are-open-source-and-come-with-their-own-app-store-150021126.html?src=rss

I installed the Intel graphics card in my home server. Now, I can't SSH into the server, suggesting it hasn't booted, but the lights are on and the fans are spinning. What happened? I don't know. I continue to think I should simply not do homelab stuff at all. It feels like everything I try either doesn't work right or dies completely. Maybe things will look better in the morning.

This haptic wristband pairs with Meta smart glasses to decode facial expressions https://www.engadget.com/wearables/this-haptic-wristband-pairs-with-meta-smart-glasses-to-decode-facial-expressions-214305431.html?src=rss

I'm still sometimes mad that sighted users are up to 8K monitors, or lower-resolution screens with insane refresh rates. Color accuracy is amazing. Bloom isn't a problem as dimming zone counts increase and OLED drops in price. There are resolutions, widths, inputs, and other features for almost any situation. Meanwhile, braille displays still cost thousands, and we're celebrating because we can kind of feel rough line drawings, on devices that still use mechanical pins. I get it, but still...

Am I wrong, or is there an NVDA add-on that can recognize an image if I'm focused on it? That is, I arrow to a graphic on a webpage (or press g), hit the keystroke, and get OCR and/or a description. I know nvda-r can do this for the screen, at least the OCR part, but what if I only want to target an image or figure element?

For quite a while, if I wanted to read files or do other things in a Docker container, I'd use docker exec to get a shell, then apt install nano or some other tool. Things got annoying the few times a container had no shell. Turns out Docker thought of this, and as of 4.49, anyone can use the docker debug command. You can install NixOS tools, inspect the entrypoint, and more, all without modifying the container in any way. https://docs.docker.com/reference/cli/docker/debug/

NVDA has the addition of magnification on their roadmap. I feel like that should be a separate project. Still under NV Access, still sharing some of the code base, and made to work with NVDA, but separate. I don't need and can't use magnification, so I don't love the idea of the download getting bigger to house those features and the startup slowing down as NVDA does visual things that are of no use to me. Am I wrong? No really, I'm asking. https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-roadmap/

I've never owned a fidget spinner, and I know they've kind of fallen out of fashion. But Linus, of Linus Tech Tips Youtube fame, now sells one made primarily from an old CPU. I've wanted one ever since I heard about it. They have some sales going on, so I just got one, then I added a second to meet the minimum for free shipping. I'm not sure why I'm excited about this.

I'm seeing how Foobar2000 works. It's big into playlists, and the last file played is saved to the default playlist. If I make a new playlist, then play a file, that file is added to the new playlist. Ctrl-tab moves between playlists. I wish I could tell it to not save anything, but saving the last file isn't a big deal. I wish it had volume boost and some other features, but I'm liking it so far.

Is there a basic media player for Windows? Play/pause, transport, supports all the formats, volume, all the basics. No cluttered UI, no library, no advanced playlist stuff, no video/DVD playback, no magic album art stuff. Just hand it one or more audio files and it plays, with good hotkeys and good accessibility.

Thanks for the quick answers. Three people said Foobar, so I guess I'll try that one first.

@marco I don't know much about that company, but the Basic Braille sure looks nice. A display with no keyboard, no notetaker applications, no nothing. Just a small line of braille. The site doesn't list the price, but I doubt their claim of "affordable".

Most of us remember our childhood phone numbers. But I also still know my dial-up phone number, the one I had to tell computers to dial in order to connect to the ISP and get service. At least, I'm fairly sure I do. I have a seven-digit number in my head, but I have no way to verify it.

Have any blind people here ever done Crossfit? I am considering it, but am not sure what accessibility problems I might run into. If it's all about running, or dancing, or other sight-heavy activities, I won't bother.

The plateau has room for more components and a larger battery. It took almost 20 years, but Apple engineers have discovered that more space means more space. Hand out the awards--this breakthrough in physics is truly incredible.

Unity developers can now tap into system screen reader tools on macOS and Windows https://www.engadget.com/gaming/unity-developers-can-now-tap-into-system-screen-reader-tools-on-macos-and-windows-200348860.html?src=rss

I'm good at math, but I'm very bad at financial math. Example: student loans. I have four, one for each year. Each has an interest rate of 5.35%. Is it better, financially, for me to use money in my 3.25% APY savings account to pay one or two of them off, or to keep making payments? Obviously, I'd save on accruing interest, but I'd also lose the APY interest from having a much emptier savings account. When I try to figure it all out, I confuse myself.

Hey web accessibility people: I got a message from someone asking about alt text. They want to know if there are official guidelines, recommendations, or the like for doing good alt text. Do such things exist? I know my own preferences, but I want to provide official, more universal resources if I can.

I haven't logged into projecteuler.net for about fifteen years. I remember several passwords I would have used around that time, but none work. I tried to make a new account, but my old username is still in the system, so I can't re-use it. I tried making my username alexhall instead, but that already exists. I guess I need a new username. It's annoying, because my normal username, mehgcap, is odd enough that I can generally use it everywhere without collisions. I sure wish I knew that password!

It was, I believe, 2010 when I learned that Smarties in Canada are a bit like M&Ms in the United States. U.S. Smarties are round candies made from solid sugar and flavorings. Despite going to Canada a few times, today is the first day I've eaten Canadian Smarties. They're odd. The shell has more of a flavor than I expected, and the chocolate is different. I don't love them, but neither do I hate them.