Notices by Robert Kingett (weirdwriter@caneandable.social), page 2

Hey other Blind folks, what native software do you use to listen to internet radio stations on the Windows desktop and iPhone? @mastoblind @main #Radio #Accessibility #A11y

Me: “Hello.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Hello. This is Bob Bobson from Microsoft Support. We are seeing a lot of virus activity from your device.”
Me: “Oh no. My device? Are you sure?”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Oh yes, we have many reports.”
Me: “Oh jeez. How can I fix it?”
NOT-Microsoft support: “It’s okay Sir. We can help you right now. Are you in front of your device Sir?”
Me: “Yes. I was just about to use it. I’m glad you called.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes Sir, we are going to help you. Can you please push the Start button?”
Me: “I think it’s already on.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Okay, Sir. Now you want to click on Control Panel.”
Me: “I don’t see that.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Do you see a bunch of information above the Start button?”
Me: “Yes.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “That is your Control Panel.”
Me: “Wow, I didn’t realise it had a name.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes Sir, now press on Internet Options.”
Me: “Yeah, I definitely don’t see any Internet options. I don’t think I purchased that feature. This is just a cheap one.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “They all have the Internet, Sir. Press the Start button again.”
Me: “Okay, it’s the same as before.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “That’s okay Sir. We are going to restart your device. Can you please turn it off?”
Me: “Um … I don’t know how. I’ve never turned it off. Since I bought it, it just kind of stays on all the time.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “There must be an off button on your device. How do you stop it when it’s running?”
Me: “In those cases, I usually press the big button.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Okay sir. Please press that button.”
Me: “Okay.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Is your device off?”
Me: “No. The door popped open.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Door? Is there a disc inside the door?”
Me: “No, there’s a burrito.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Why is there a burrito in your computer?”
Me: “Computer? I thought you said this was microwave support”.

The Media Treated Trump's Tesla Stunt Like a Car Show, Not Corruption https://www.readtpa.com/p/the-media-treated-trumps-tesla-stunt #Journalism

I wish I could tell #YouTube creators that YouTube will make it that much harder to watch videos, and they will lose audiences as a result, as this DRM experiment ramps up. https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12563 #Video #DRM

Holy Gods can people stop using modern #AI for transcriptions? Mainly because Generative. Machine. Learning. Is. Not. Designed. To. Transcribe. Speech, especially some bullshit hooked into GPT but moreover because it takes *longer* for editors like me to edit out the made up nonsense than it would have taken for me to edit out the word, "unintelligible."

But this is the crux of modern generative machine learning though. Because tech needs a quick buck, average people are using it for the completely wrong things and this makes us actually good at our jobs forced to put up with the incorrect usage. For example, cleaning up closed caption files or spoken word transcripts, removing half the made up crap when it would have taken me less time to just type what someone said the machine couldn't understand.

Moving forward, I'm charging people $2,000 or more if I detect any AI in their transcriptions they want me to edit. They'll stop hiring me but I honestly don't want them as clients if they're gonna have me edit made up CC files and audio transcripts.

Seriously! Why do people assume it's safe for them to travel here? I don't get it. @aral

Lynx Browser: The Land That Time Revived | Popzazzle https://popzazzle.blogspot.com/2022/06/lynx-browser-land-that-time-revived.html #Browser #Internet #Privacy

Interesting, but I feel the writer under reported this somehow. https://wedistribute.org/2025/02/funkwhale-filter/ #FunkWhale #Fediverse

Hey other #Accessibility people, I'd like to direct clients to places when I can't do what they are asking because of time, busy, a whole host of things. Problem is, I'm finding a *bunch* of accessibility development and even remediation solutions that love pointing businesses to overlays. Is there a solution I can direct people to that have a rotating team of #WebDev that specialize in accessible design and or usability testing? Both in one resource would be ideal. #A11y

Algorithm complacency. Why do people like algorithms rather than thinking for themselves? https://youtube.com/watch?v=QEJpZjg8GuA&si=vow3edCXcWoJUUsJ #SocialMedia #Algorithms

@esoteric_programmer @Fragglemuppet Yeah! I honestly don't understand why blind people love Foobar! Give me, VLC, or even, Media Player Classic! Not sure if MPC works on Linux though.

Set up a few webhooks so I can post to Mastodon via email. The email subject will be the CW of the post. Tried to set up a Web hook from my new website to Mastodon via RSS and the output is really clunky. There’s all this raw HTML when I did not escape anything. I included a link to the original post at the very top of the post, but can any #WebHook experts give me some pointers for using Web hooks to post a tag RSS feed to Mastodon and have the output be text and Markdown?

since this instance has a giant character limit, I am going to experiment with publishing a tag RSS feed directly to Mastodon. Because I have my post set to automatically delete, I want to include a link to the original post at the very top. Everything I try is outputting raw HTML and I don’t know where I am going wrong because I’m not escaping any characters.

I use https://ifttt.com/maker_webhooks @patricus

It is absolutely shocking how Substack turned a blog into a VC backed thing others love to write on/in. I read this through my RSS reader, but it’s a pretty good read even though the platform it’s on is less than desirable.

The True Costs of Being on YouTube - by carla lalli music https://carlalallimusic.substack.com/p/the-true-costs-of-being-on-youtube https://carlalallimusic.substack.com/p/the-true-costs-of-being-on-youtube?ref=feedle.world #YouTube #SubStack

If you’re a YouTube creator, your audience is going to be more limited than it already is. I just had several instances where YouTube would not let me watch videos, at all, unless I was logged into YouTube. I go to look this up to see if it’s a common occurrence, and this is what YouTube has to say on their troubleshoot page.

Make sure you’re signed into YouTube.

In order to protect the YouTube community, we may prevent signed-out users from accessing YouTube videos when they’re attempting to download material for offline use.

If you're a researcher trying to access YouTube data for your academic research, you can apply to YouTube’s researcher program. Learn more about #YouTube #Enshittification #

@FreakyFwoof Did you see this? https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/113964897388501103

Any of my fellow blind comrades know of an accessible torrent client I could use? I do use Aria2 but I have since learned that certain trackers block that Torrance software. Why, I don’t really know. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I’m very familiar with the command line so don’t be afraid to send me command line options. I am using windows for the moment. @mastoblind

Yay Kevin R Free will be narrating the audiobook version of Pass the Salt! https://compassiviste.com/product/pass-the-salt/ #Audible #Audiobook #Audiobooks @audiobooks

I'm doing my civic duty by seeding this torrent mirror from the CDC archive.

Torrent mirror:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:3bf9d780d838b6bbc977e9cc6a9530e70ec49732&dn=20250128-cdc-datasets&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.0x7c0.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexplodie.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.free-tracker.ga%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.qu.ax%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fopen.tracker.cl%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fns-1.x-fins.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.bittor.pw%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker-udp.gbitt.info%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ololosh.space%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.tiny-vps.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.stealth.si%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.dstud.io%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.dler.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopentracker.io%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.opentrackr.org%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.dump.cl%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.theoks.net%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.torrent.eu.org%3A451%2Fannounce

Actually that's a great suggestion! Adding instances with elastic search enabled. This may come as a shock to people, but not everybody wants to interact with everybody on a mass scale. Organic connection? Yes! Mass scale? Fuck no! Not everybody is worth talking to or interacting with, but moreover, posts are not your free content to make money @BeAware