Sven Slootweg (soft-deprecated) @joepie91@pixie.town

“No computers.” the guard said harshly, holding out a metal box.

I put my phone in the box. He didn’t budge. I took off my smart watch and added it in.

“Are you sure you have no more computers? The detector sends out a brief EMP. It would be a shame to destroy any gadgets. Or injure you." He was staring at the side of my face.

Ah. I removed the Connex from my temple. I’d forgotten it was there.

He ushered me into what looked like an old electronic doorway, then pressed a button. A light flashed.

"You're free to enter. Enjoy." No smile.

I passed through a corridor to desk where a receptionist smiled. "First time?"

"Yes, is it obvious?"

"Don't worry. It's simple. Through the double doors there you'll find the main selection of books, by era and topic. It's colour-coded and easy to follow. You'll need these if you want to touch anything." She put a paper mask and thin laboratory gloves on the desk.

"Behind you is the iffy section, as we call it. Books printed after 2015."

"2015?! I thought AI printed books only appeared in the mid 2020s."

"That's probably true, but we can't be sure. Preserving authentic pre-AI knowledge is our raison d'être. We can't be too safe."

Her look turned serious and I saw the devotion to the cause in her eyes. Since the Big Corruption of '32, no digital files could be trusted to replicate original human knowledge. This library was a time capsule.

"Can books be taken out?"

"No, I'm afraid not. We couldn't let them back in, as they could be fakes."

"So, can I copy things? My phone and Connex were taken away. Do you have a camera to message me chapters?"

"No, we're strictly machine-free. but we have several scribes. They're very good." She was enjoying my puzzled look.

"They can copy down whole pages for you. With pen and paper," she answered my unspoken question.

"Pen and paper?" these were words of tales and myths.

"Come, I'll show."

#devotion #MastoPrompt #microfiction #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

Oh, and developers?

If you don't label buttons, which is the most easiest fucking thing to do, you are a bad developer.

I can't program for shit (only HTML), but even when I learned a bit of Visual Basic at University, I learned how to label a button.

3/3

So, blind people that care about their privacy and security are basically fucked. Either:

1. They buy an Apple computer (accessibility is very good, and a good screen reader)
2. They buy a Windows computer and need to buy a license for Jaws screen reader (if they can't work with NVDA or Windows Narrator).

It is fucking ableism. Fucking privilige. And I hate it.

2/3

Wow.

An excellent post from a blind screen reader user, on how bad accessibility is on Linux.

https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-want-to-love-linux-it-doesnt-love-me-back-post-1-built-for-control-but-not-for-people/

It is a fucking shame. And it is pure neglect, as pointed out in the blog post.

Hot take: a new version of open source software should not release before accessibility is fixed. It should be treated as a show stopper, because it actually is for people with a disability.

1/3

#accessibility #a11y #OpenSource #Linux

How about some cat motion with your coffee

#Caturday

https://todon.eu/@dbattistella/114490128850629430

@MamaLake @actuallyautistic I found myself thinking yesterday that "I'm not too sensitive. It's the rest of the world is not sensitive enough. And the world would be a better place if more people were this sensitive."

Is there a coop or collective of disabled people in tech where you can go to hire accessibility experts? I don't want to continue to release software unless I know its accessible, but I can't know that unless I have my software audited by disabled tech experts that know the pitfalls of these things. I don't need free labour either. I am happy to pay for this service.

#a11y #accessbility #disablity #foss

Searching for hackers (hacker: anyone that likes making technology do what wasn't intended) to build a community for jailbreaking MR headsets

Chat anyone interested in glitching Mixed Reality headsets ? I'm trying to build a community so we can get something done, as there's a bunch of folks that wanna charge money for it and I don't really like that idea x3.

The main SoC is XR2 by Qualcomm, it is an ARM SoC, and most of the headsets run very locked-down Android.

The goal here is to try to jailbreak it so we can run custom, fully open source software on it, possibly even mainline drivers to Linux and run something like #postmarketos :)

Unfortunately I am a systems hacker, I am hopeless when it comes to electric engineering anything, so I cannot actually pull off glitching myself. I can help with the stuff that comes after, such as mainlining drivers, though :)

IRC #xrbreak on oftc
Matrix: #xrbreak:itycodes.org
Discord: https://discord.gg/HeDAg3Ma7A

Please boost! Let's build an open and accessible community!

Any help is appreciated, no information is useless! If you would be interested in helping, we need anyone with, including BUT NOT LIMITED TO

MR headsets for testing
Electrical engineering knowledge
Ability to design or assemble PCBs
Reading ARM disassembles to try to find a glitch point or a bootrom exploit or w/e
General experience with hacking embedded devices
Experience with Linux or Android security for rooting
Anyone with info about TEE/TrustZone (kexecing mainline kernel from rooted Android)
Contacts to folks that have any of the above
Experience managing communities and setting up bridges, wikis...

#jailbreaking #android #linux #hacking #xr #vr

I used to have a lil device that simulated a heartbeat when you pushed the button. I think it came with a plushie, but I just carried the device.

Does anyone have one of these? Can anyone recommend one to get?

Boosts highly appreciated

If you spend enough time in the "social media for public good" space, you'll realize there is a subset of people who essentially want to build what I call "Valhalla but for debate club members".

Their vision of a perfect social media experience is endless debate about big important ideas where people constantly get to show off how much more rational and civil they are than each other. The debate never ends. If you are obliterated in the public sphere you are reanimated. It's all in good fun.

"Create an account to read the full story."

FUUUCK YOOUUU

just negotiated a 50% discount on my EE mobile plan, in part thanks to @unlobito

apparently the strat is to wait until the contract expires, request a PAC, and then you get a call from the magic discount people (which happened to me here)