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OK, so the hot new Ambutech cane I recently purchased has cracked, so it’s time for another one, and so it’s also time for a rant about assistive technology and eCommerce. Specifically, why does every single assistive technology vendor’s eCommerce setup have to suck so badly? Most of these are running WooCommerce, and holy hell it’s painfully obvious that these installs aren’t up-to-date, that the themes being used do not have WooCommerce support, (let alone accessibility), and that whoever set these up knows pretty much nothing about eCommerce, marketing, or WooCommerce. This isn’t about one-man shops. This is about vendors who have staff, who have the income, and yet who are perfectly willing to provide their customers with a horrible user experience just to save some cash. Guys, eCommerce is hard. There’s a reason you’re not going to get a working eCommerce that does everything you need it to do for any less than $10,000. But trust me, it’s worth the investment. If your customers have an enjoyable experience shopping with you, (and this includes accessibility), they will be more than willing to recommend you to their friends and family and you will see more business for your efforts.

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Not that I’m going to go leave this comment on the Breitbart website or anything, but there’s one huge problem with the so-called “buttering-up” strategy which Joel Pollak attributes to the president, and as someone who has negotiated my fair share of contract terms, I think I can comment on this to some degree. That strategy can work, if a few things are in place: First, you have to already possess a reputation for having an amiable personality. If you don’t have that, and you then go to the negotiation table pouring the sugar on as thick as you can, whoever’s on the other side is going to see right through that, and proceed accordingly. Second, as with any negotiation, you don’t show your hand before talks begin, and you sure as hell don’t hand over all your cards, (as the president appears to have done), before you secure worthwhile concessions from the other side. To do otherwise isn’t negotiation, it’s desperation to save face, and it usually never turns out that way. So I think it’s safe to conclude that the president, (once again) got played like a baby grand.

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An Introduction to Block-Based Homepages with the Genesis Framework by Carrie Dils
StudioPress just released Revolution Pro, the first Genesis child theme to sport a block-based homepage. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create one.

Speaking from experience, I know exactly what Carrie is talking about when it comes to widgets being a poor choice, (although the only available one), for homepage layouts. I’ve done more than my fair share of theme customizations and often times those customizations meant hiring someone to redo the CSS. I, for one, will be over the moon when I can fully use Gutenberg and take advantage of block-based homepages.

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Current status: Dealing with DNS and MX entry ratfuckery. I will be glad when this shit is working properly and this day gets to the part where I am doing enjoyable things. I think if I could throw this server off a roof right now I would. It’s going to drive me to start drinking. Oh and of course there’s the obligatory browwser/screen reader hick-uping going on because we just have to have delays between key-presses. And no, this is not NVDA. It’s the world-class screen reader we all know and love because this web host’s control panel is improperly coded so I’m reliant on the huristics Jaws employs to get this working. Never mind that browser support for anything other than Internet Explorer is pure unadulterated bullshit. Jesus I can’t believe this screen reader costs money.

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All three of my Apple Watch’s rings are full, and I’ve completed most of the work I wanted to get done today. I have a few things I’m putting off until tomorrow because I need to spend some time fighting with screen readers plus web apps but I’m not broken up about it. I have a very enjoyable evening ahead of me and I plan to enjoy every minute of it to the fullest extent possible. I’ve been looking forward to this all day.

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Today has been a very productive Monday but it is now beer hundred hours and I am signing off until tomorrow. I hope to get a restful night’s sleep tonight. See y’all on the other side, and behave while I’m gone. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, or if you do, make sure you do it well.

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I’ve spent the necessary time to troubleshoot where things went wrong on my site, and I’ve found the problem. My Hebrew Date plugin has had an incredible run, but it’s now finally time for me to rewrite the whole thing. This is something I’ve been planning to do for a long time, but the project has lived on the back burner ever since I adopted the plugin. It’s now to the point where, (if I want to use it), it’ll need to be fixed. There were already a few things I needed to fix, like the calendar drift, which is far too geeky of a subject to delve into in a short note like this, and there are some things I’d like to add to it in order to make it featureful enough for my needs. So it’s disabled for now and hopefully everything resumes working as it should.