Notices by Pratik Patel (ppatel@mstdn.social), page 4

So, considering that Google is making a big deal about Gemini 1.0 being equivalent to GPT 4 more than a year after GPT 4's release, all the noise about Bard last year was Google essentially trying to cover up its ass. Wasn't it? All the supposed #AI work aside, there was no LLM from Google that matched GPT 4 despite all the noise we heard from them.

I expected something like this after Apple's October #OpenSource AI effort. The potential #accessibility implications are pretty significant here.

Apple partners with University of California researchers to release open-source #AI model #MGIE, which can edit images based on natural language instructions

Apple releases ‘MGIE’, a revolutionary AI model for instruction-based image editing

https://venturebeat.com/ai/apple-releases-mgie-a-revolutionary-ai-model-for-instruction-based-image-editing/

#GenAI #photos #photography

@WarnerCrocker unless the agenda of the rocket docket is to provide a cover for delay. Stretch out a hearing for the longest time possible followed by thinking time.

Is there a new category of people we're going to need to call Teslaholes?

Lol. I love that this is being reported uncritically. This is the same network who had to stop the mentioning of a certain music start's name completely from stopping her nudes.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino gave the strongest testimony at yesterday's Senate hearing and quickly won legislators' favor by announcing X's endorsement of the Stop CSAM Act — becoming the first social media platform to do so.
https://t.co/XaP3NNmjmN

@WarnerCrocker I particularly enjoyed MKBHD's early look.

@heydon Despite so much evidence, people just refuse to listen. CAPTCHA companies have no incentive to tell implementers that the crap tun of data collected by people solving CAPTCHAs is their business model.

If there's anything that makes you feel inadequate is trying to deal with inaccessible CAPTCHA page again and again followed by stupid bureaucracy.

@WarnerCrocker Congrats.

#Microsoft issues system-level ban for “unauthorized” #Xbox accessories

Crackdown limits some cheat devices but also hurts fighting and #accessibility hardware.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/10/microsoft-issues-system-level-ban-for-unauthorized-xbox-accessories/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#BlindPeopleUnite

I know many #blind people who use GMail's HTML view. Not only will they be confused but will be unhappy.

"You can display Gmail on your browser in Basic HTML view until January 2024. After this date, Gmail will automatically switch to Standard view".

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/15049?hl=en

Bookmark this URL to go to basic HTML view.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/

It should still work but doing so will not provide the option to set the mode as the default anymore.

#accessibility

You know how X, the site formerly known as Twitter, can't collect your biometric data or other data?

1. Don't login to the site in any way whatsoever.

2. Delete your account if you still have it.

3. Delete the hidden account that you didn't think we knew about.

4. If you still have your Twitter app installed on any of your devices, delete that too.

5. Don't be tempted to create a new account.

I have two linked announcements:

I'm unofficially/officially retiring from freelancing as an #accessibility consultant. The decision has been long in coming. While I will always continue to care about accessibility work, I no longer find it fulfilling. I will continue to be involved in projects that highly interest me as I've been doing for a couple of years now.

I'll focus instead on mentoring, leadership, executive training/coaching and other such work.

Part 2 coming soon!

#a11y #careers

Git Commit implies the existence of Git casual and Git one-night-stand.

@WalterShaub Could you please make sure that the photos you provide have a description so that #blind and other #disabled people could glean the information and the content? Please let me know if you need resources on how to provide the best descriptions.

Thank you for considering it.

#accessibility