'We'r Needin tae talk aboot wir language' is a 15 minute talk A gied in Inverness aboot wir language situation in Scotland.
This is fae ma first language Scots neuroscientist POV.
This wey thit many o us talk, Scots, is at the very core o oor beins, an yit we'v developed a cultural taboo aboot it tae the pynt o denialism.
Tae develop a healthy relationship wi oor ain voices we need tae accept oor linguistic reality, an develop it tae the best we kin!
ICE is terrible etc and also, white Europeans and white Americans are finally learning what your countries do to brown and black people / has been doing to / have always been doing to / still do to
No individual should have to suffer this sort of inhumanity; I hope all of this galvanizes you to speak up against inhumane immigration detention for *all* people
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Maybe I'm alone in this, but while people often say they stick to Debian or Ubuntu based distros because they value stability, I swear it seems like I've had less issues with Arch / EndeavourOS, and I get all the latest features in a timely manner. Also, using anything but KDE now feels like downgrading from a supercar to a skateboard.
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I completely agree with you about Arch. I've been using it for over 10 years with no real problems. I have a 9 year old machine that is up to date and Arch was only ever installed once.
Ubuntu has always been frought with problems. Upgrades gone terribly wrong.
And so much else.
Fixes when can find them tend to be click this try that. Instead of go look at this wiki page and follow the instructions.
Arch based distros have more freedom, more choice and the best doc around. Rolling releases are the best.
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I'd say it's unfair to lump Ubuntu's issues with Debian. I've had systems run without issue for over a decade with Debian; only failure was due to faulty hardware. The few times I've tried Ubuntu, I've run into various issues caused by Canonical, whether UX or technical.
Most recently I installed Ubuntu on my parents desktop. They complained Firefox was closing on them randomly. Turns out snap was closing Firefox mid-use due to updates. Switched to Debian+Firefox/Flatpack, now zero complaints.
The meat industry is killing 70 billion animals a year, causing deadly pandemics and destroying the planet. Is your bacon sandwich really worth it?
huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/veg…
The world is treating the symptoms of this coronavirus pandemic, but we're ignoring the root causes, Chas Newkey-Burden writes.Chas Newkey-Burden (HuffPost UK)
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IsDavisLuEnabledInActiveDirectory? Not any more. IsDavisLuGuilty? Yes. IsDavisLuFacingJail? Also yesIain Thomson (The Register)
Dude gave anyone looking for forensic clues a layup
would lock every employee out of their accounts if his credentials were ever revoked, and named the code IsDLEnabledinAD, as in "Is Davis Lu enabled in Active Directory."
That's kind of an easy figure out: look for all the D.L.s in the company and work from there. But then
investigators subsequently found the source code for this program on an internal development server in Kentucky, and that Lu's user account had been used to execute the malware on the production box. Lu was also the only member of his team who had access privileges for that dev machine.
This guy left an easy forensic trail.
There was something amiss before. Nobody starts compromising the system just a few months before getting fired.
he was demoted
That also indicates there's more to the story than it seems.
Martha Nussbaum’s philosophy is dynamic and challenging, but also elegant and lucidly written: she is the thinker of our timeBrandon Robshaw (Aeon Magazine)
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"This exchange of bread and water was more than a simple act of trade; it was a testament to our humanity that refused to be stolen by the Israeli genocide... sharing what little we had and giving from our scarcity."
electronicintifada.net/content…
Israel has failed to destroy the spirit of solidarity.The Electronic Intifada
Doing an #introduction as I'm new to Friendica, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite ways to engage with the fediverse, and friendica.world. I'm always happy to meet people with similar interests, so feel free to boost / share!
I'm a human who loves weird art, all sorts of music (from Hindustani to Death Metal), tech, sunny days, green hills, incense, tea, spirits, soft couches, cats, and books. I'm a prolific vegan cook, and I design, code, write, play games, and produce, write, and play music for fun.
Some relevant tags are: #ADHD #arch #atheist #chicago #design #endeavouros #exmo #ExMormon #FLOSS #FOSS #GNU #incense #indieweb #introductionspost #KDE #LGBT #libregraphics #leftist #linux #music #scotland #tea #TransRights #trombone #vegan #vegancooking #webdev #writing
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that everything good and useful in this world comes from autistic and otherwise neurodiverse people.
The Dead Planet Theory
The Dead Planet Theory
No one does anything, the bar is lower than you thinka_real_society (a_real_society’s Substack)
"Since the age of Reagan, the greatest scarcity in the United States is not technical innovation, but rather the willingness to work together for the public good. It makes no sense to encourage the former at the expense of the latter."
— Richard Stallman: Free Software, Free Society
Nathan tagged NathanU's status with #FLOSS
"Since the age of Reagan, the greatest scarcity in the United States is not technical innovation, but rather the willingness to work together for the public good. It makes no sense to encourage the former at the expense of the latter."— Richard Stallman: Free Software, Free Society
Nathan tagged NathanU's status with #FOSS
"Since the age of Reagan, the greatest scarcity in the United States is not technical innovation, but rather the willingness to work together for the public good. It makes no sense to encourage the former at the expense of the latter."— Richard Stallman: Free Software, Free Society
"For people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they could not escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who could not defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men."
— Patrick Süskind: Perfume
My wife came across this, and sent it to me.
Damn.
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rachael laura yay ~~, ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES, sOlOw-NH, This Account Kills Fascists, Voting is Your POWER, Rubber Side Down 🇨🇦, Lesley Carhart, Fi 🏳️⚧️, No Gods , no Masters! RESIST, Gwyn Ciesla, M.S. Bellows, Jr., Solarbird, jules / cowbell as fuck, Gurre Vildskägg, ~> epm:install zora, Martin Vermeer (not Jesus), Debbie Goldsmith 🏳️⚧️♾️🇺🇦, Bill Hooker, JWcph, Radicalized By Decency, 🇳🇿 💉*10 Roger, Sune Auken, Clifton Royston, Jules 🍺, Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) , La Ruralie des fleurs, Jens Finkhäuser, Thibaultmol 🌈, Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷, Bruno Girin, Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK, Ame, WearyBonnie, tiffs, Billy Smith, BedastGPT, Cainmark Does Not Comply 🚲, Enno von Friedland, The Witch of Crow Briar, apocalypselog, Nathan, waspfactory, L'égrégore André ꕭꕬ, Tony Hoyle, lj·rk and Garry Keenor reshared this.
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These millions of stories involve lost years for closeted gay people. These folks never had a high school hook-up with a real crush. They didn’t lose their virginity to someone they were actually attracted to. They didn’t share the first dance of their wedding with someone they deeply, passionately and romantically loved. And every day, they have had to present in costume; let’s call it “heterosexual drag.” They have had to perform straightness while concealing their real, human desires for the same sex.
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It's taken me long enough to get here, but I'm finally realising that using an open standard file format for whatever I need to store gives me the best chance of still reading it decades later.
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Whole Foods replaced Shoyeido with these sticks from Auroville. I cannot fathom why.nathanupchurch.com
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#LabPlot is a FREE, open source and cross-platform Data Visualization and Analysis software accessible to everyone. In LabPlot your #data is yours alone!
In this short video you can learn how to quickly import your data into #LabPlot and visualize it.
Boosts appreciated! 
🚀
@opensource @openscience @alternativeto @9to5linux @omgubuntu
➡️ youtube.com/watch?v=Ngf1g3S5C0…
#FreeSoftware #OpenSource #FOSS #FLOSS #DataViz #Data #Research #Science #OpenData #Privacy
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@mikeTesteLinux
Thanks! We are going to release a new version of LabPlot (2.12) soon. You can also check out the growing list of the post-v2.11 development news here:
➡️ discuss.kde.org/t/labplot-post…
Boosts appreciated! 🚀
#FreeSoftware #OpenSource #OpenScience
A list of all new features of the development branch added after the 2.11 release of LabPlotKDE Discuss
It depends on the expected functionality. You can check the existing features here:
➡️ labplot.org/features
We are currently working on expanding #LabPlot's functionality in these areas:
▶️ Live Data Analysis
▶️ #Python Scripting
▶️ Statistical Analysis
▶️ Quality Improvement Charts
Scribus has always been about substance. With 1.7.0 style, usability, and designer-focused features take the front seat.nathanupchurch.com
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Happy to see Scribus still moving forward strongly. It's not often I've used it and I'm no designer. But it's been the most sane tool for a few tasks (various info flyers). I love this tool, but it's not been the easiest one. However, the end results has always been great after some battling.
Seeing the next version improves the user interface ... I'm starting to look forward to the next DTP challenge!
I've also used Inkscape for some graphic stuff including bitmap images. It's been a great tool as well, and sometimes the simpler Scribus tasks can be done in Inkscape - when there is not so much text.
I simply love both of them.
And why they concern us allPala Najana (Vegan Horizon)
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Reminder that you should move your email archive to another provider, preferably one in Europe, and delete everything in GMail, including in the "all mail" folder.
Then cancel the account entirely if you can, or put a permanent "vacation" message saying that your clients / organizations should not use google products for security reasons.
Also be sure and delete everything out of google drive.
Even if you do cancel the acct(s), they will not delete your data immediately, or possibly ever. You need to do it yourself.
Your data is not safe with google. They have AI crawling every bit of it, and data mine for hundreds of third parties you know nothing about, including muskrat et al.
Additionally, any online service or app you use that has an option to login with google, you should replace. They are letting google data mine your info.
Time to pull the kill switch.
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I love that they put the band members on the packaging illustrated as little räuchermanner! @incense group
Official #Rammstein #incense cones. See my review at nathanupchurch.com/blog/rammst… @incense@a.gup.peRammstein Incense Cones: A Review
It's only natural that the pyrotechnics obsessed neue deutsche härte act would release a line of incense cones. Today I'm taking a look.nathanupchurch.com
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Nathan tagged Nathan's status with #incense
I love that they put the band members on the packaging illustrated as little räuchermanner! @[url=https://a.gup.pe/u/incense]incense group[/url] groupOfficial #Rammstein #incense cones. See my review at nathanupchurch.com/blog/rammst… @[url=https://a.gup.pe/u/incense]incense group[/url]@a.gup.pe
It's only natural that the pyrotechnics obsessed neue deutsche härte act would release a line of incense cones. Today I'm taking a look.nathanupchurch.com
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Nathan tagged NathanUp's status with #incense
Official Rammstein incense Cones: A Review
Rammstein Incense Cones: A Review
It's only natural that the pyrotechnics obsessed neue deutsche härte act would release a line of incense cones. Today I'm taking a look.nathanupchurch.com
Nathan tagged NathanUp's status with #rammstein
Official Rammstein incense Cones: A Review
Rammstein Incense Cones: A Review
It's only natural that the pyrotechnics obsessed neue deutsche härte act would release a line of incense cones. Today I'm taking a look.nathanupchurch.com
I Tasted Honda's Spicy Rodent-Repelling Tape – And I will do it again
Link: haterade.substack.com/p/i-tast…
Discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…
And I will do it again unless someone stops me.Liz Cook (Haterade)
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Krita. Haven't used Bigot Photoshop in years.
As the new EdTech Manager at my institution, I swapped our BYOD policy software list from it to Krita too. So we aren't promoting it to the kiddos.
It's also just harder to use, less intuitive, and doesn't allow as easy of a transition to actual Photoshop or other commercial software.
As someone who is totally blind, the Fediverse is the only place where I have ever been able to follow people such as photographers, artists, or even those who post pictures of their cats or the food they ate. The reason is that most of them use alt text. They take the time to describe the images that my screen reader can't recognise. Some write the descriptions themselves, and others use tools such as altbot. Some worry that their descriptions aren't good enough, especially when they are new at this. Let me assure you, not only are they good enough, they are extremely appreciated! If the rest of the world thought as you did, it would be a much better place. Don't hesitate to ask if you're unsure of something, but never think that we don't notice your effort.
#appreciation #accessibility #altbot #alttext #blind #blindness #fediverse #gratitude #images #inclusivity #peoplewhocare #pictures #technology
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HollerPixie, cafkafk, Asta Halkjær From, Minami-o le sabreur, Alexander Goeres 𒀯, daughter of lilith, Ramin Honary, Fluttershy 🦋, Bill Woodcock, Clovis, Christoph, lizzy مثلية الله ☭, Liv, Lv4the1, Vale, mira (lily), amber❄️, mei, , Eric, Hypolite Petovan, yelling jackal, mira, Sara, minecraft, Jack, eviloatmeal, resident Death Stranding 2 apologist (arch, btw), DreamcastBlast, aismallard, Bitslingers-R-Us, Torsten, ava (needs to be held), Mono, Luna Dragofelis ΘΔ 🏳️⚧️, elly, older, kimapr, Daniel Django (Akkoma), Katharina Debus, dmi 💽, mew, Noah Loren, Fae Empress, adi, Daltux, Cătă 🇷🇴🇺🇦🇲🇩🇪🇺, clacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛, small, primitive, wingless, Cryptic, Johan Moir (Friendica), Maddy has MOVED!, Girl-Man and the Boy Woman, TinJar, Luna Dragofelis ΘΔ🏳️⚧️🐱, HermitCyclop, Half_Spook_Half_Krieltjes, Sirupp, TidusFox9, Rairii and yuki - queen of the snow like this.
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Here's something I posted before about an easy way to get more consistent at this... 🙂
mastodonapp.uk/@bytebro/113833…
@loren@flipping.rocks I've posted this before, but I'm pretty rubbish at remembering alt-txt, but since I followed @PleaseCaptionBot@hachyderm.Mastodon App UK
Thanks for posting this.
I've shared a screenshot of your post on Bluesky as well: bsky.app/profile/drsybren.bsky…
@sybren I will do the same if that’s okay with you Georgina. I can omit your name/avatar.
Bluesky actually has a settings option where you can only send your post after adding Alt Text, which I have activated.
@lydiaschoch I find that I will put extra information in the alt text. Joke that's not in the post itself, perhaps. Pointing out what's strange in the picture. Explaining the joke. Something like it's a SPOILER tag you're only going to get if you check the alt text.
If web comics can do it, why not everyone?
Besides, the character count on alt text is HUGE.
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@zy Some Mastodon sites offer to translate a post into the reader's language, which also translates the ALT text. As someone who likes to read posts in languages I'm not fluent with, it helps a lot to understand the pictures as well (e.g. memes or comic strips).
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on desktop web browsers, there's a tag in the corner of an image - either ALT or just a scary red exclamation mark (indicating that there's no ALT text).
If a user drags the mouse pointer over the image, the alt text is visible to sighted users. I think most mobile apps show it on a click, but I don't really remember.
Sensitive content
I'm sighted and I often look at the alt text on Fediverse graphics!
It's great for things like "here's a person I don't recognise, are they famous, is it a clip from a show and what's the show and why is it relevant here". There are cultural references which would just whoosh over my head without the description.
Or sometimes there'll be one like "photo of woodland, with a squirrel" and I'll be like "oh yeah! there _is_ a squirrel in the corner there" 😀
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Einige schreiben die Beschreibungen selbst, andere verwenden Tools wie altbot. Manche machen sich Sorgen, dass ihre Beschreibungen nicht gut genug sind, vor allem, wenn sie neu auf diesem Gebiet sind. Ich kann Ihnen versichern, dass sie nicht nur gut genug sind, sondern auch sehr geschätzt werden! Wenn der Rest der Welt so denken würde wie Sie, wäre es ein viel besserer Ort. …
Übersetzt mit DeepL.com (kostenlose Version)
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I admit that sometimes I struggle with alt tags. Understanding what there is to see in a picture is one thing, but providing info within the context of the overall post seems like it can come in handy
Curious to know if you tried Bluesky. I ask bc I thought Bluesky has a way to caption images.
Thank you so much for posting this! I always include alt-text, but started doing so consistently mostly because self-appointed alt-text cops kept needling me anytime I left it out. This is the first time an alt-text user has actually said something nice about it (that I've seen in my feed, anyway).
Very kind of you to take a moment and say you appreciate it. I will continue to include it.
Hi - I need to learn - how should we go about captioning video?
Thanks!
@SamanthaJaneSmith
I alt it the same way I do an image.
Physical description, then meanings/subtleties that are not as obvious, and if there is one the script
Georgiana Brummell likes this.
What a great post, so helpful and encouraging.
I have a deaf/blind follower who mentioned my alt/text to me early on and I've tried to make a point of it ever since.
Describing colors is important, and all the things that make photos interesting. I figure if people don't want to read the whole thing, no one has to!
But I also try to make it funny, if I can, like dog_rates always does, so there's a point to reading it for everyone. I'm sure I rarely succeed. 😀
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@Memere I've seen posts that say something like "Can you believe this nonsense?"
And the image didn't make said nonsense obvious.
But the alt-text did. Sometimes, explaining the joke works for everyone.
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@Nat Oleander It's just a pity that if you post about an obscure enough niche topic like I do, it's the more difficult to make image posts perfectly accessible to everyone, the more obscure the topic is. For the more obscure the topic is, the more you have to describe, and the more you have to explain. (Caution: Never put explanations into alt-text! They must go where everyone can access them.)
I currently write the longest image descriptions in the whole Fediverse by a wide margin. But they may not actually be accessible enough, even though I describe all my original images twice.
The short descriptions in the alt-text don't always contain text transcripts, especially not all of them, and being only short descriptions, they aren't full, detailed visual descriptions either. The long descriptions for the same images in the post regularly end up with a five-digit character count. They may not be accessible because they're way too long. But sometimes they're the only place where all text transcripts can be found. And they are the only place where explanations can be found.
So the consequence should be that I quit posting my original images because they're impossible to make perfectly accessible to everyone, at least as long as there is no rock-solid definition for what's actually required in image descriptions in my obscure edge-case. But there isn't even any consensus on whether text that's illegible or that's so tiny that it's basically invisible must be transcribed if it can be sourced.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
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@Georgiana Brummell I'd say not everyone would consider almost 1,000 characters of image description in a 1,500-character alt-text accessible. And even fewer people would consider a long image description in the post itself that's tens of thousands of characters long accessible if your screen reader spends an hour or several rambling it down.
My most extreme case is a post with only one image. That one image is described twice like all my halfway recent original images. The short description in the alt-text is a bit over 1,400 characters long which barely leaves any room for the note that there is also a long description in the post itself. That long description is over 60,000 characters long. I'm not kidding. It took me two full days from getting up to going to bed to research for it and write it.
Now, there are a few dozen bits and pieces of text all over the image. At the resolution at which I've posted the image, two of them are ever so barely legible for sighted people. They're on a large logo on a building. Four more, two of them on that logo, too, two more on a sign on an easel, are illegible, but still visible. At least more on signs inside the building are visible, but they can't easily be identified as text. All the others are so tiny that they're invisible. It takes the long image description to even know where they are, for example, on the control panels of teleporters.
And yet, they are all within the borders of the image. And I can transcribe them. I can't read them in the image, but I can go to the place shown in the image and take closer looks.
Unfortunately, the rule or guideline that any and all text in an image must be transcribed verbatim does not take into consideration text that can't be read in the image, but that can be sourced and thus transcribed by whoever posts the image. No confirmation, no exception. And so I have to assume that I have to transcribe illegible text as well. And so I do transcribe them all.
But there's no way for me to put all these text transcripts into the alt-text, not if I want to keep Mastodon, Misskey and their forks from chopping it off at the 1,500-character mark. I'd also have to explain where all these pieces of text are, after all. And so the text transcripts are only available in the 60,000-character monster of a long image description.
It isn't really accessible to expect blind users to have their screen readers ramble and ramble and ramble for hours, just to get information that should actually belong into the alt-text which, in turn, shouldn't be longer than 200 characters.
On the other hand, it doesn't really seem accessible to me if I expect people to ask me to describe things in the image for them. It rather feels sloppy, if not out-right ableist to not describe everything that someone could possibly want to know right away.
The problem with my images is that they're renderings from very obscure 3-D virtual worlds. This means that nobody knows what anything in these images looks like unless they can see these images. This, in turn, means that I cannot expect anyone to know what something in my images looks like anyway. They don't.
At the same time, I can't expect everyone to not care about my images. In fact, I expect the very topic of 3-D virtual worlds that actually exist to make people curious. At this point, it doesn't matter what's important in my images within the context of the post. Sighted people will go explore the new and unknown world by taking closer looks at all the big and small details in the image.
But blind or visually-impaired people may be just as curious. They may want the same chance to explore this new world by experiencing what's in that one image. Denying them the same chances as sighted people is ableist. But giving them this chance requires an absolutely titanic image description.
Sure, I describe lots of details which a sighted person can't possibly recognise when looking at the image, especially not at the resolution of the image as I've posted it. But I simply can't keep telling blind or visually-impaired people that certain things in the image can't be recognised due to the image resolution. It feels lazy, like weaseling out. I mean, I can see all these details. Not in the image, but where the image was made, simply by walking closer to them or moving the camera closer to them.
If there are two dark objects inside a building that may or may not be plants, but that can't be identified as plants by looking at the image, why shouldn't I describe them as follows: "On the sides of the teleport panel, there are two identical açaí palms in square terracotta pots with wide rims. Like the other potted plants, these mostly dark green plants with long pointy leaves are kept at an indoor-compatible size, namely about three and a half metres or eleven and a half feet tall. Also, like the other potted plants, they are made of only four flat surfaces with partially transparent pictures of the plant on them, arranged in angles of 45 degrees to one another."
If there's room for improvement in my image descriptions, I improve my future image descriptions and declare my past image descriptions outdated. In fact, the 60,000-character-long description is outdated because it's bad style to describe dimension using measures. Instead, dimensions should be described by comparing them with something everyone is familiar with like body parts.
Right now, by the way, I'm upping my game at describing avatars, using rules and guidelines for describing people which I've discovered over the last few months. The last time I've described an avatar, I've done so in about 7,000 characters, but according to my new discoveries, I may have missed something.
However, I can't go into so much detail while still making my image descriptions short enough that a screen reader can read through them in under a minute.
CC: @Nat Oleander
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #Metaverse #VirtualWorlds #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
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@Georgiana Brummell @Nat Oleander Well, technically speaking, the long description isn't alt-text.
What went into the actual alt-text of the image were 1,402 characters of visual description + 97 characters of notice that there's a long description in the post. The over 60,000 characters went into the post text body, right below the image itself.
I could have put the long description into the alt-text. But it would have been a nightmare for blind or visually-impaired people because screen readers can't navigate alt-text. Also, Mastodon, Glitch, Hometown, Misskey, Calckey, Firefish, Iceshrimp, CherryPick, Sharkey, Catodon and the other Mastodon and Misskey forks chop long alt-texts from outside off at the 1,500-character mark. Mastodon would simply have deleted almost 59,000 characters from my image description on their side, had I put it into the alt-text.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
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A while back, I built an exhibit I thought people would find interesting.
The first place I took it, I was thanked for having an exhibit which was accessible for the visually-impaired (I'm not certain about totally blind). I hadn't even thought of it that way!
You can read my write-up here. Unfortunately, the "caption" property on the images kind of conflicts with the "alt text" property, and I don't know which one you'll get.
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How do I make posts more accessible to blind people on Mastodon and the Fediverse?
fedi.tips/how-do-i-make-posts-…
h/t @FediTips
If there’s no #Alt4Me tag on the undescribed image, it’s still worth being polite as no one wants bad feelings generated around the topic of descriptions. You might want to just reply with a description and #Alt4You tag, and if they’re abled they will hopefully get the message that descriptions are preferred.
An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediversefedi.tips
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A friendly suggestion to all the people who follow me here: put alt text on your images. It makes a difference!
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If you don't mind my asking - as a comic artist, I usually post full comic pages. There isn't enough alt text room to fully transcribe the page, so usually l will write something like "Page X of the comic Love and Hex. Full transcript: (link to an external page with both the comic image and a complete transcript)" followed by a broader description of what's going on without much detail.
Does that sort of thing suffice, or is there a preferred approach?
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Are there things your screen reader has trouble with or that make listening more tedious?
I remember from years ago there was a sequence preference for some things. For example, with lists, I think the preference was word first, then tick box or radio button.
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I often spend more time writing alt text than the text in the toot itself - not just to keep the toot itself as short as possible.
I always spend more time describing my images than writing the post that they go into.
For my meme posts, that's because I have to explain the picture and find the appropriate links to external explanations (KnowYourMeme etc.) to shorten my explanation block if possible.
For my original images, it's because I have to describe them twice. There's always an alt-text which, as of late, fills the 1,500-character limit imposed by Mastodon, Misskey etc. to the brim. But that alt-text is only a shortened and slightly adapted version of an extremely long long description which goes into the post text body and which also includes transcripts of any and all text in the image, readable or not, as well as all explanations which I deem necessary for outsiders to understand the image. Since the images are about an extremely obscure niche topic, this means I have to explain a lot.
A while ago, I spent two full days, morning to evening, researching for and describing and explaining one single image. The result was probably the longest image description ever posted in the Fediverse. And I actually had to limit myself, otherwise the description would have been even vastly longer and taken over a month to complete. Good thing I don't have any character limit to worry about. The only exception is that Mastodon may reject posts from outside with over 100,000 characters.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
Don't hesitate to ask if you're unsure of something, but never think that we don't notice your effort.
I do have a few questions, specifically because my image posts have gone unnoticed by blind or visually-impaired users so far.
Judging and assuming from the information I've gathered so far, my original images require very extensive and detailed descriptions. A full description is too long for alt-text, so what I do is write a full description with all text transcripts and all necessary explanations, put it into the post text body and then condense a shorter, but still long alt-text from it. What's your stance on this method of describing the same image twice over?
Also, where would you personally prefer a long description? In the post itself? Or in an external document that's linked into the post? If you're on a phone app, remember that the external document will inevitably open your Web browser.
Do you prefer images described, based on what a sighted person can see in the image as it is posted? Or do you prefer a description that is not limited by the restriction of the image itself, for example, assuming an infinite image resolution and an infinite zoom factor that would let sighted people theoretically see even tiniest details?
If I mention something in my image description of which you don't know what it looks like, do you need a detailed visual description?
Concerning text transcripts: Let's assume a bit of text in an image is too small to be legible for sighted people, but I can read it at the original source, so I can transcribe it nonetheless. Shall I transcribe it? What about if said text is too small to be recognisable as text or so tiny that's it's practically invisible? I mean, after all, the concept of image resolution should not matter to totally blind people, so writing that a piece of text can't be read because the resolution of the image is too low ought to sound like a lame excuse for skimping a transcript.
If there's a building in one of my images, I can safely assume that you don't know what that one specific building looks like, so I guess I can also assume that you need it described. If I could, I would do so using architectural terms and then explaining all these architectural terms right after using them. Would you say that's the correct way? Because that's why I avoid having realistic buildings in my images.
If there's an image in my image, do you need it described? At a level that I can source right where the image is without moving away too far, or at a level that I can only source by moving farther away to the place shown in the image? What about an image in an image in my image? (I'm serious. I've actually described images within images within my image, but I've stopped when this was about to go out of hand due to there being too many to describe.)
I'm currently working on a series of posts with images showing a virtual-world avatar in various but similar outfits; in fact, I have been since last year. I may have questions later regarding at what level of detail I have to describe that avatar.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
thanks!
I've shared this post of you because more people need to know that Alt Text and Image Descriptions are not only good but are appreciated by those that rely on them!
After all it's easy for sighted people to dismiss it when in reality it doesn't take away anything from them if they just write a sentence or two per image.
#AltText #ImageDescription #Accessibility #Fediverse #blind #inclusion #thanks
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Inconvenient? ...
Well, actually, check this answer from Georgiana:
friendica.world/display/84b6ef…
@Xanathon That would be truly wonderful! But honestly, even just using AltBot normally is fine, since the descriptions usually appear as a post right after the original.
@My best life 🎒 This is actually what I mean when I say altbot. It's very easy to use, and the instructions are on the page.
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Will do as soon and as good as I can. I promise. Sorry for ignoring this until now 🥹
@davidrevoy @nunesdennis also, at minimum, consider that the default is something like "image." So even the difference between "photo" and "screenshot" and "meme" at least provides handles on what they're missing.
Obviously enough detail to be included in the conversation is better & elaboration on what's notable or aesthetic is best. Someone could always ask a question if they were curious, but not if they have insufficient info.
I usually elaborate on why it's nice: see attached
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@zy @shred
@dandylover1
When I get a message in German, the alt text is also in German (for example). It makes it easy to copy and paste into an internet translator.
I have found it helpful when the words are embedded in the picture too. Just go to the alt text and cut and paste.
I'm so happy that it helps people with vision problems.
(I had no idea German would be so important in 2025, but here we are.)
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And add craziness that machines can't see as crazy.
Instance admins report massive AI scraping of Mastodon Posts.
There is work being down now, to poison image data invisibly, but when using alt text make sure to add weirdness to poison AIs.
Use long tweezers with yellow bold tanks. Unsubstantiated greening will flout.
Poison alt text for AIs
Make it fun for readers and yourself.
Its helping end AI.
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@Spinner @Georgiana Brummell When I want to post an original image, that "one extra minute" is more like several hours or even multiple entire days that it takes to research for and write the descriptions for one image. No, I'm not joking.
Even when I post a meme, I can't describe the visuals in the image itself in a few minutes. And then the explanations (which go into the post itself rather than into the alt-text) come on top.
Still, I always go all the way whenever I post an image. I'd rather not post an image than underdescribe and/or underexplain it. I refuse to do any less than that because I always have to expect someone somewhere out there needing it. That's why I've only posted one measly image in the last 12 months, and that was a meme.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
@Giselle @Jennifer Moore 😷 @Georgiana Brummell This is actually a mistake that many Fediverse user keep making because they don't know better, and because the majority of Mastodon users only have 500 characters available.
That's because not everyone can access alt-text. I'm being absolutely serious here. In order to access alt-text, you need either a screen reader (which sighted people don't have) or at least one sufficiently working hand.
If you want to explain your image, please do so in the post text itself and not in the alt-text.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta
@Giselle I've been told that by a Mastodon user who really values accessibility. However, she told me that she cannot access alt-texts because both of her hands don't work well enough for her to access alt-text.
It was her who told me to never explain things in alt-text because she and people like her can't read these explanations, because they can't open the alt-text with these explanations inside.
Explaining stuff in alt-text and not in the post throws people like her in front of a bus, just like not describing images at all throws blind and visually-impaired people in front of a bus.
I have explained my image posts in the post text body ever since, regardless of Mastodon users whining that I exceed 500 characters.
Explanations go into the post/toot where everyone can access them.
I mean, sure, you're free to put them only in the alt-text because your character limit is so meagre. You're just as free to write super-short alt-texts that don't really describe anything. You're just as free to not describe your images at all.
But don't complain if someone criticises you for either.
CC: @Georgiana Brummell
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
On this, if your threat model includes the state-level actors, it seems like you ought to be using a secure OS like Graphene, no?
If you are using Signal, and you are doing something the government considers illegal, the way they are going to read your messages about it is they will arrest the person you sent the messages *to*, and make your counterparty show them the logs. We know this because this technique came up again and again in, for example, the Jan. 6 court filings.There may, hypothetically, be other Signal exploits available to a government, but this is the one they will use, because it works.
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@mcc I may have used that term without properly understanding its meaning. My thinking was that if arrest is a possibility, it may make sense to use something like Graphene. I imagined that by using an OS without potential Google / Apple backdoors, that has strong device encryption, police may not be able to gain access to the device and, at least in the US, fifth amendment protections would prevent them from compelling you to provide a password. But I am just postulating; I absolutely do not know what I am talking about on this stuff.
But yea, I hear you on the levels. I'm sure with adequate budget anyone can get whatever they like from you.
It is my expectation¹ that an up-to-date Apple device with device encryption and with reasonable settings (IE, Face ID off) would be resistant to being broken into by conventional law enforcement. If "intelligence" services can break into such phones it is probably by methods they don't want to expose to the probing eye of a court.
¹ I do not know if this is still true in the Apple Intelligence era.
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Remember Aaron♥️
Fuck #Meta 
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📄 Mehdi.doc, 🇺🇦🇪🇺 cweickhmann, Fluffgar 🏴 HAS MOVED, Dusk to Don, ⚛️Revertron, Femme Malheureuse, CHB, Gina Intheburg 🇺🇦 🌻 🥥🌴, Cainmark Does Not Comply 🚲, FoolishOwl, Axel 🚴😷🐧🐪⌨ | #WeAreNatenom, Seneca, BedastGPT, Wendroid 🇺🇦, Bill Jorth, txerren 🇵🇸, D. Moonfire, Ned Yeung, S T E L L A R, ralf tauscher, anubis2814, -rb, Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK, Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈, Szescstopni, Lisa Melton, Dualtronic, Łukasz Horodecki, Sam Wronski, Joakim Fors, 0xFFFF_FFFF, Iris, Mockza, Dianora (Diane Bruce), Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) , nixCraft 🐧, Adam Katz, Allinrep ☕️, @kbsez@mstdn.social Has Moved, # Don T3rr0r, David Palk#RejoinEU 💖🇪🇺🕊🌈, Parade du Grotesque 💀, Colin Bikes Seattle, hex, clarkiestar, Beachbum, Natsura, Nathan, ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES, Max, CaveDave, Aral Balkan, Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸, trends, Micro pas cher et Fée spéciale, Chirayu, grutjes, The Febrile Muse, Cthulku has moved, Ron Dyck, grayrattus, Blippy the Wonder Slug 🇩🇪, EtherAndRhum, Kierunkowy74, Kyle Montanio, Grant 🇺🇦ArmUkraine🇺🇦, Kim Possible, monkeyfinger, Jan Penfrat, Hobs, 😀🚲, Tommi 🤯, Canadian Crone, Paul Shryock and 199 other people reshared this.
For anyone who doesn't know Aaron, I really recommend watching this docu about him
And yes, at this point i don't care anymore if this docu is legal or illegal on YT
youtube.com/watch?v=3Q6Fzbgs_L…
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.www.youtube.com
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This is the FULL MOVIE! - The Internet's Own Boy depicts the life of American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist Aaron Sw...YouTube
The Internet's Own Boy depicts the life of American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz. It features interviews...Internet Archive
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Why is it relevant what they use it for?
Did they have a permission to download it? If not it was illegal.
If so, I hope they signed the contract with blood and it cost Zuck jr.
Attached: 1 image @TheAlgorythm@chaos.social @stux@mstdn.social That would be Sam Altman (OpenAI), not Zuck.Mamutovo
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His website is still up at aaronsw.com.
Among other things, he co-authored RSS at 14, cocreated Open Library and Reddit, was influential in Creative Commons, and founded Demand Progress. All of this in his too-short twenty-six years on this planet.
Aaron Hillel Swartz, may his memory be for a blessing.
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Oh… THAT’S what Meta did (I had read random comments online, but wasn’t sure what they did and then got distracted by the avalanche of news coming at me.)
Ugh… that’s freaking HORRIBLE!
Makes you wonder about the utility of IP a little... if corporations disregard others' IP (ie. Everything on the Internet) then perhaps we do away with IP altogether. Or greatly reduce copyright protections in favor of copyleft perhaps.
In 2005, Sam Altman and Emmett Shear were in the inaugural class for Y Combinator, the startup accelerator.Ritu Singh (NDTV)
Attached: 1 image @dgfitch@kolektiva.social @KarlSchroeder@mastodon.social A lot of people view the cruelty of capitalism as just a straight forward consequence of market incentives: profit maximization, arbitrage of information asymmetry, etc.zirkus
How many of the people agreeing to that it's a outrage are still using Meta?
How many are still using Meta and simply ignored all the previous violations the company performed?
Bigots.
Btw, the thread's discussion is maily about Aaron, which is not the main topic. See how fast people get distracted.
It's about Meta's THEFT and copyright violation, not about Aaron (RIP)!
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Some noteworthy books by Aaron Swartz and about him
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aaronsw was an acquaintance in real, and we had exchanged emails and were FB friends.
He was principled, charming, talented, and much loved.
But he was also entitled and arrogant.
MIT blocked his access to JSTOR passively a number of times and he kept working around ip blocks, etc.
MIT had very good surveillance abilities, when we had a compromised guest laptop at One Laptop per Child IS&T called me in like 5 minutes and told me you have five minutes to get this off the net.
[cont]@stux
Hi, I've moved server so I thought I'd introduce this again:
Mutant Standard is an emoji set that aims to combine familiar, standardised symbols with completely new ones, aimed at letting certain groups of people (queer people and furries in particular) communicate themselves more authentically.
You can check it all out at mutant.tech.
(I'm currently working on a rebrand and big restructure of the project so a lot of things are changing soon!)
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🔁 From our "Digital Crossroads" collection:
The Open Source Torment Nexus - tante.cc/2025/02/07/the-open-s…
---
See other stories like this one here: feedle.world/digital-crossroad…
#web #internet #socialmedia #blogging
One of the most popular memes when it comes to talking about the tech sector is Alex Blechman’s tweet about the Torment Nexus: One can interpret the tweet in a bunch of ways.tante (Smashing Frames)
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Asta [AMP]
in reply to Adrianna Tan • • •that ICE and the administration are now doing this to white Europeans is certainly an escalation, but the fundamental problem is, and always has been, that it does this to anyone.
And so long as it retains the ability to do this to anyone, no one is safe. I really, really hope that is made abundantly clear to everyone, because as long as ICE, the infrastructure behind it, the the ideology that led to its creation and current status exist, it will be bad. People will be harmed.
I desperately hope people don’t just take a few token white people being released (if that happens) and move on…
Nathan
in reply to Adrianna Tan • •like this
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Lucky ✨
in reply to Adrianna Tan • • •Nathan likes this.
Mike McCaffrey
Unknown parent • • •She is not asking for white guilt. She is asking for white action, rather than white indifference.
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC
Unknown parent • • •{ id: d2718, ok: 🇵🇸🌈🏳️⚧️🇺🇦 }
in reply to Adrianna Tan • • •