If you're in the UK, or can access this in any other way, you need to watch this. I cannot express that in stronger terms. It is real, brutal, topical, and I feel like death now. Please watch it. If you can't watch it, share it, especially if you have any exposure to disability. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-experiment/on-demand/77319-001
My mate had a big gong in his bedroom.
"What's that?" I asked.
He said, "it's a speaking clock"
"How does it work?" I asked.
He picked up a hammer and hit it, and two seconds later a voice came through the wall shouting,
"For fu*k sake! It's half past two in the morning!"
An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Latvian, a Turk, a German, an Indian, several Americans (including a Texan, a New Englander, and a Californian), an Argentinian, a Dane, an Australian, a Slovakian, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Moroccan, a Frenchman, a New Zealander, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Guatemalan, a Colombian, a Pakistani, a Malaysian, a Croatian, a Uzbek, a Cypriot, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Chinese, a Sri Lankan, a Lebanese, a Cayman Islander, a Ugandan, a Vietnamese, a Korean, a Uraguayan, a Czech, an Icelander, a Mexican, a Finn, a Honduran, a Panamanian, an Andorran, an Israeli, a Venezuelan, a Fijian, a Peruvian, an Estonian, a Brazilian, a Portuguese, a Liechtensteiner, a Mongolian, a Hungarian, a Canadian, a Moldovan, a Haitian, a Norfolk Islander, a Macedonian, a Bolivian, a Cook Islander, a Tajikistani, a Samoan, an Armenian, a Aruban, an Albanian, a Greenlander, a Micronesian, a Virgin Islander, a Georgian, a Bahamanian, a Belarusian, a Cuban, a Tongan, a Cambodian, a Qatari, an Azerbaijani, a Romanian, a Chilean, a Kyrgyzstani, a Jamaican, a Filipino, a Ukrainian, a Dutchman, a Taiwanese, an Ecuadorian, a Costa Rican, a Swede, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Belgian, a Singaporean, an Italian, and a Norwegian walk into a fine restaurant.
"I'm sorry," said the snooty maître d', "but you can't come in here without a Thai."
Badenoch said, talking about cutting PIP: ‘My focus is making sure that those who can work, do work. Mild anxiety, ADHD or routine back pain do not mean you cannot work. We should also stop pretending that a diagnosis is a reason to give up on someone."
PIP is not means tested. You can get it while you work. Many people on it can only work *because* they have PIP covering expenses to help them do that.
I fucking hate the way they use this shit to stoke anger.
Mate: I've invented a new device when I smashed my microscope into my telescope.
Me: Whats it called?
Mate: A kaleidoscope.
Okay, time for me to be that person. I know I've got people who follow me and who I follow who disagree with me on this, and I am interested in hearing differing viewpoints on it as I am for all topics minus joining the MAGA movement. That said, I likely won't argue or engage here for very long, I'm just getting thoughts out and do find dialog around this interesting. Say what you will about large language models, and I do. But they can literally function as eyeballs as a service. I've currently got Claude verifying the lookk of screenshots and views in an iOS app without need for a sighted person. And this extends to meta glasses, it's eyeballs as a service, in a device you can put on your face. Do I wish it wasn't meta, or for that matter, any large tech company? Yes of course I do! But do I wish Waymo wasn't owned by Google? Yes! That's not going to stop me from using technology; all a boycott does is show the company you don't need them. They do not need you. They have investors and venture capital and governments willing to protect them and tons of corruption, they'll be just fine if a random blind person boycotts them. We are very very tiny specs in a giant machine, and IMO the way to deal with it is to use the tech while actively speaking out about its flaws and pushing for local AI, like I do. Could someone use meta glasses to be a pervert? Yes, absolutely! But I've heard stories about people being pervs with their phone cameras over 10 years ago, this isn't new. In the same way I could use a car to go kill a bunch of civilians, and I could use it to bring food to tons of starving homeless people, tools have positive and negative uses. Also, to the people paranoid about wearable cameras to the point of confronting folks: I promise you, I'm using these to avoid walking into a pillar and read my mail, not to spy on your unremarkable life. Don't be weird.
If the villagers of Piddington vote for independence, then if I were Burnham, I would respect their democratic wish and grant them independence immediately.
That would of course mean revoking all their British passports. And since they are so dead set against undocumented migrants, we'd then have to build a big fuck-off wall around the village with a couple of border posts on it, and only let the villagers out if they are in possession of a valid Piddington passport, compliant with the international standards of ICAO Document 9303.
Oh, and of course they would need a visa as well. Can't have free movement now, can we? I suppose it might take a few months for visa applications to be approved, but do they want control of their borders or don't they?
I am using a mighty mug full of coffee, the mug with non tippable technology and this is on my desk in front of me close to my computer, it's well away from my typing area, but even so,,,,, scary times. *smile*
I WILL NOT BE BULLIED 💎
I received a vicious reply today because I use AI. It wasn't a disagreement. Nor a criticism. It was a full-frontal personal attack! And I’ll admit it affected me more than I expected.
I USE AI MAINLY BECAUSE I'M PARALYSED.
Typing is physically difficult for me. I have the use of only one hand. So, tapping out a post or email with one finger is exhausting. Voice and AI help me turn my own thoughts into usable writing in a normal amount of time.
THAT SHOULD NOT REQUIRE A DEFENCE.
You can dislike AI. You can distrust it. You can argue about copyright concerns, energy and water use, labour, culture, or anything else that concerns you. I will listen to you and answer you.
But attacking people simply for using AI is not principled.
IT'S BULLYING.
And disabled people should not have to produce a medical justification every time they use a technology that makes their life easier.
AI is a tool. How it is used matters. Who gets harmed matters. Context matters. What does not help is turning “AI user” into a moral accusation and deciding that cruelty is suddenly acceptable.
I’m quite happy to discuss the technology with anyone.
HOWEVER, I WILL NOT BE BULLIED FOR USING IT.
I didn't need to do anything about the attack. Before I could even decide how to respond, both the post and the person disappeared from my notifications.
@3goodthings @DigitalCoup @meditation @economics_that_works @startrek
#AI #Accessibility #Disability #AssistiveTechnology #Fediverse #Bullying #PWD #Tool
Winnie enjoying the electric blanket
just found something out. if you go into the task list view while running jaws for windows, insert f10, select a running app and press the delete key, it will close that app. wow! #jaws #screenreader #accessibility.
so more misleading claims from the current leader of the free world.
@babe might be of interest to you as a concerned rabbit parent, Labour politician wants training courses for rabbit owners in Wales https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0vzwdkddeo
iplayer on bbc1 now has audio description on live programming! yay! #bbc1