Page 7099 – Amanda Unvarnished

· 25 Elul 5780 (Monday 14 September 2020) · 1 minute to read

Devin Prater (mastodon.host)

This just has to come out. You know, thinking about Microsoft's Surface Duo or whatever, all I can think of it is that it's running Android. Why? Because hardware doesn't matter to me, not that much. Sure, RAM and CPU power matters to me, and disk space of course. But what really matters, ...

I’m just curious. Is there anyone other than Fandroids, (die-hard fans of Android) or Google who is seriously suggesting that Android is on par with Apple when it comes to productive accessibility?

On a more serious note, I think Devin’s making a very valid point. Apple may be a company I hate to love, but there’s a reason I switched from Android to Apple a long time ago and it has nothing to do with my love of corporations

The only part of Devin’s post I’d quibble with is the part about whether or not people are pushing for accessibility in the open source arena. If there’s not buy-in from project maintainers and/or project founders, accessibility is going to be an up-hill battle.

And it doesn’t help that the leadership of the open source and free software communities are basically ambivolent at best about this whole accessibility thing.

I was actually looking into getting myself a Surface, but if they’re running Android I think I’ll hold off on that.

Oh and hi devin, glad I found you on the fediverse. That was a nice Monday morning bonus.

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Amanda CAARSON

· 24 Elul 5780 (Sunday 13 September 2020) · 1 minute to read

Here’s an experiencial example of why Goodreads sucks. At least from the app, I couldn’t find standalone copies of either The Firm or A Time To Kill, just this boxed set and a few other boxed sets. Don’t get me wrong. Boxed sets are great, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. But I suppose I’m reading The Firm after A Time To Kill. The Firm is a book I really like, but I don’t think I appreciate a service like Goodreads, which theoretically has access to and control of the largest book database in the world and which we are all to one extent or another beholdent to, forcing the issue of my next read.

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Amanda CAARSON

· 23 Elul 5780 (Saturday 12 September 2020) · 1 minute to read

( )

Oh look! The folks behind #AccessiBe are paying for praise again.

Lifnei Iver comes to mind, which in an incredibly ironic twist is extended beyond its literal meaning to be interpreted by the Sages as misleading people, among other things.

And if you have to pay for praise, you know you’re intentionally misleading your users.

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Amanda CAARSON

· 23 Elul 5780 (Saturday 12 September 2020) · 0 minutes to read

Secretary Pompeo’s Meeting with the Taliban by U.S. Embassy in Kabul

Office of the Spokesperson The below is attributable to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Cale Brown: Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo met today with Taliban Political Deputy and Head of the Political Office Mullah Beradar and members of the Taliban negotiating team in Doha, Qatar, on the historic occasion of the start of peace negotiations. Secretary Pompeo urged the Taliban to seize this opportunity to forge a political settlement and reach a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire. He welcomed Afghan leadership and ownership of the effort to end 40 years of war and ensure that Afghanistan is not a threat to the United States or its allies.

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Amanda CAARSON

· 21 Elul 5780 (Thursday 10 September 2020) · 1 minute to read

So I ordered some #WordPress swag this morning, and I’d like to say that I am getting better order status notifications from a home-grown free plugin (WooCommerce) plus probably a low-cost solution for the shipping part than I get from either Amazon or the postal service. This is awesome.