does anyone want a slice of (Apple) history?

I'm selling my (working) Apple G4 Cube and bits

https://ebay.io/m/fhLhlA

has anyone who relies on assistive technology (screen readers or otherwise) tried Zed or one of its forks? https://zed.dev/blog/zed-1-0

whenever a new thing boasts about having reached "1.0", i get real curious about its accessibility. if it wasn't built with accessibility in mind, it becomes more difficult to make it accessible afterwards.

#accessibility #a11y

So, I have arranged the office and started cleaning the walls, and the smells coming from the Bad Wall are... distressing.

Oh, and I started getting at some of the other paint lumps and they're not paint. They're hopefully just dirt and not anything worse, but the smell doesn't have me confident. (It's definitely not just nicotine residue either. Please, if you indulge in the devil's lettuce, do it outside because it absolutely will fuck up wall finishes and it is a pain in the ass to clean off.)

I also cannot figure out at all how the roller blind got installed, or get the screws undone to get it down, because I literally cannot get a screwdriver to reach the screw at one end and the others seem to be jammed (and are also incredibly hard to access). The blind is very clearly not the right size for such a narrow windowsill either, but unless it can get it for free I'm not replacing it with anything else. (I do have brackets and a rod for curtains, but I don't want to install them because that's the probably-asbestos-containing fibre cement wall.)

I got the advice I needed about skim coating, thankfully (and it was so good and comprehensive that I also bought a sample pot and some tools I'll need).

Apparently, as long as I do a good clean and maybe a light sand and a primer coat, I should be okay to skim the entire room. And okay to use something like liquid nails on some plasterboard to smooth out the weird cement sheeting bits.

At some point I'll figure out the fill plate for the carpet void (I'm now thinking a nice rug of appropriate size rather than a carpet off cut, but I'll still need some plywood or something underneath) and a couple of acoustic panels for the wall the TV is closest to, but those are more complicated jobs.

For the 26 of you that are following me...

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Thank you, all 26 of you! #GetFediHired #FediHire

Figured I'd solicit some opinions...

After viewing the attached images what colour should the skirting boards, door frame and door be painted? (Poll in next post, as I apparently can't do image and poll in the same toot?)

#DIY, #Renovation

Ugh. Office painting yesterday didn't go as well as I liked.

The colour seems to go on patchy, especially in the first coat, and I'm not sure if it's a technique issue or an issue with the product itself (or if it's just how it looks because of how weird the wall texture also is; it went on better in the section I re-plastered, but I do *not* have the energy, budget or equipment to skim coat an entire wall). I also didn't tape the entirety of the archetraves because of how fragile the paint is on them, so ofc I got the wall colour on a few patches and I need to touch those up.

Not that it matters, because the masking tape still pulled huge chunks of paint off the archetraves anyway, that will need to be scraped back, filled and repainted. (This happened several times when I was priming the walls, on patches where there hadn't been any obvious blistering or peeling so I wasn't expecting it. It's also hard to scrape the archetraves because apparently nobody makes curved-edge scrapers; I've been making do by cutting up a takeaway container, but the edge on that eventually blunts and I've had trouble matching the curvature.)

It also took several chunks off the skirting boards. And because I got impatient and didn't want to re-tape between coats, I have some tearing along the skirting too. I guess I can feel vindicated in deciding to start with the walls first and do the skirting and trims later. (Still can't decide if it looks good with white or if it'd look better matching the walls. Or if it'd look better again with a dark brown close to the colour of the window frame and sill.)

I'm thinking that I'll do one more coat on this wall today, and if it's still coming up patchy then I'll have to ask for more detailed troubleshooting in some specific forums. And that I might need to get some delicate surface masking tape for the archetraves instead of using the regular stuff on them.

#DIY #renovation

#DIY #renovation #painting

So, having finished priming one room and having a bunch of primer left over, I wondered why I hadn't made any progress on surface prep on the second room I was going to paint. And then I remembered.

There are at least 3 (that I can easily see) long strips of what appears to be some kind of double-sided adhesive tape that was *painted over*. Trying to remove the paint from these with a safety scraper (that takes actual blades) is proving extremely difficult - not only does the adhesive gum up the blades, I can still only remove the surface paint, not the adhesive. I can't seem to get the blade in underneath it no matter how hard I try, and it's seriously hurting my hands just to try. (Whatever it is, it's *still* sticky even after scraping the paint off.) EDIT: I got mad and really forced the blade in to where I gouged the wall, but it's only removing the adhesive tape in tiny little fragments. The strips are too neat and regular to be anything other than some kind of tape, but it's not peeling like I'd expect tape to. I don't care about having to fill gouges in the wall but it's just so slow to chip this stuff out this way.

Is there an easier way to do this than going through hundreds of blades and probably giving myself RSI too? The paint on the wall is old and poorly-bonded anyway, but I'm not sure if any adhesive removal cleaners would be able to soak through it to get to the tape, or if it would get any easier to remove. I have no idea what exactly the tape is either, so I'm not sure if a heat gun is a good idea. I cannot find anything on Web search that gives me any pointers - it's all either how to remove tape, or how to remove debris that's been painted over. (It's also entirely possible that nobody else has had this problem.)

The wall is plaster applied over brick so it should be hard to damage, buuuut the room is also carpeted doesn't exactly have good ventilation (and I currently have to sleep in it as well), so I'd rather not use anything that would create a lot of fumes or potentially damage the carpet.

🙂Update - thank you everyone that boosted this!
The call for testers is now closed.

Hi Folks,

I am looking for screen reader users to test a site taking approximately one hour. This is a paid gig - $50 via a gift card. Please ping me for more details.

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#a11y #accessibility #ScreenReader

I really want him to go full Leon, even though I know it's the wrong movie.

#Monsterdon

#Monsterdon

Took me a minute to catch up because I missed the start time, but I'm here now.

And look, maybe you should have held onto the tapes? IDK? (I forgot, did she get fired?)

(Cloverfield did this better, but Cloverfield had the benefit of being after 2001. Just saying.)

When we design for disabilities, we make things better for everyone. This is called the Curb-Cut Effect. The term was coined by disability students and activists in the 70s, who added curb cuts to the Berkeley sidewalks to make access easier for those in wheelchairs. They discovered those also helped people with strollers, using trolleys for deliveries, etc.

Friends, I have £1,000 that I want to donate to a UK trans support charity.

I've donated in the past, but I was hoping someone (with experience) could recommend a charity that they think would benefit from the donation (and helped you in some way).

It's a single donation to make a greater impact.

If you have any questions, please do ask me too (or DMs/email)

Does anyone have any tutorials or resources on how to figure out airflow and ventilation weirdness in your house?

There's nothing particularly wrong with this one, and the weird thing I'm encountering is probably normal.

For some reason, I can get more cool air from the AC into my room if I have my pedestal fan pointed at the door. I thought doing that would be pushing the cool air back out of the room, but it doesn't seem to be the case?

I know I can use incense sticks to get a visual on what the air is doing (I don't have any at the moment though) but I can't figure out why this particular thing is happening. I'm not getting very far through Web search again either, so I suspect the answer is slightly complicated.

Trying to find either a dry oilskin or a waxed cotton in a red tone (I really want a rusty red, but I could settle for a burgundy or a slightly brighter red with no pinky tones to it) and I'm not having a lot of luck. I've found a few places with either black or brown tones, but I wanted something brighter for a winter raincoat. (I know winter is almost over, but it's probably going to take me until next winter to make one.) I tried DIYing it some years ago and it... did not go well (the resulting fabric still smells awful, and it developed a weird brownish bloom on it too).

I'm considering Merchant & Mills in the UK (I like the rust or oxblood dry oilskins) but I'd really rather be buying from somewhere in Australia for the sake of getting it sometime this year. Anyone know of any sellers with more of a colour range? Or any other options that are reasonably breathable?

EDIT: I've caved and looked into ripstop nylon and even Goretex, and I swear everyone only has black, brown, maybe a dark blue if I'm lucky, and sometimes virtually any colour but red. (Including yellow, which I know is rather traditional for raincoats but I don't think I look good in it.) Am I just buying at a really bad time?

I guess I could test the pattern by making up the liner first (haven't really decided on what I'm making that in yet, I want the raincoat to be a bit lighter to account for humidity but not too light; I've had bad experiences sewing with flannelette before and I haven't had any luck finding single-side brushed cottons or similar, and I think shirting cotton is probably too light) and I probably should do some tests of how to sew in Hi-Vis tape so I know how it's going to behave.

#sewing #fashion @sewing

@sewing What's everyone's favourite notions and tools seller in Australia?

I need to get a few things for work, and some things I want for home, and I also need to get some basics for needle felting to fix a few things.

I've looked at Punch with Judy but their site is kind of annoying to navigate, and I'm not sure about their pricing. (I can't claim anything on tax either, since my workplace does supply all tools... but I'm not a huge fan of the supplied ones.)

There’s no such thing as inaccessible colors. It’s all about combinations. Yes, even yellow! And purple.

I love yellow (have you seen my hair?) and purple (have you seen my palette?). Together, they prove you can design vibrant, accessible palettes with so-called “tricky” colors.

I debunk the myth that “accessibility limits color choices” with 6 WCAG-tested palettes that prove creativity and accessibility can go hand in hand. Full tutorial + video.

👉 https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/yellow-purple-and-the-myth-of-accessibility-limits-color-palettes/

It is Weekend Eve and I am seeking ideas for sandwiches that I can take to work. Preferably nothing involving eggs or fish, or anything that desperately needs to stay refrigerated. (And that work on pretty much whatever bread.)

I did a very basic rocket, turkey and cheese this week because I didn't have any other ideas. It probably needed some cranberry sauce or something, IDK. It was just sort of boring.

Yay, got notice that the landlord wants the house back in October. The long notice is nice I guess, but still.

Extra pain in the ass that I just had a possibly good job offer come up (in my niche, so slightly better odds of actually getting it).

If anyone has any leads in #Adelaide for something affordable to two pensioners (if it can fit three adults that would be great but I'm keeping my expectations down) that would be helpful but I'm not expecting much; I'm putting out feelers elsewhere as well and at worst I probably have some fallback options.

Does anyone know of any galleries or quick references with visual examples of different colour gradings, techniques, editing, etc?

I know some of the basics like jump cuts, shot-reverse shot, montage, and so on.

Particularly distinctive styles as well - I've found some basic info on colour grading wrt the infamous 'Mexico filter' and bleach bypass as used by David Fincher, and I've found a bit of a basic description of the 'CSI Montage' (which goes into a little bit more than the visuals) but not a ton on it. (And a deep-dive on the 'colour grading' in The Ring, which was pretty much all done in-camera with a unique combo of a particular set of filters and a very specific film stock... so I guess I should look at basic examples on that too.)

And a lot of descriptions of camera techniques like rack focuses are either super technical (I don't really care about how it's done or the technical details, more about what it looks like to a viewer) or don't have any visual examples attached.

#film #media #medialiteracy #filmcrit