User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
Admin
completely blind computer geek, lover of science fiction and fantasy (especially LitRPG). I work in accessibility, but my opinions are my own, not that of my employer. Fandoms: Harry Potter, Discworld, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Buffy, Dead Like Me, Glee, and I'll read fanfic of pretty much anything that crosses over with one of those.
keyoxide: aspe:keyoxide.org:PFAQDLXSBNO7MZRNPUMWWKQ7TQ
Location Ottawa
Birthday 1987-12-20
Pronouns he/him (EN)
xmpp fastfinge@im.interfree.ca
keyoxide aspe:keyoxide.org:PFAQDLXSBNO7MZRNPUMWWKQ7TQ
blog https://stuff.interfree.ca/
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
This might be the only ethical use for AI voice cloning once it improves a bit: I could just train a voice I like and have it babble endlessly soothing gibberish for hours. I'm not hurting the artist, because I wasn't engaging with her content anyway; I can't, and don't want to, understand a word she's saying. So this is the one case AI would actually be less objectifying.
3
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
To clarify, I have no problem with any of these things. If the sexy pseudo-Japanese shark girl is doing non-English ASMR, that's fine with me. But she never is. And I also don't want them on my front page when I launch the YouTube app on Apple TV to show my teenaged relative something, and now he believes that I, too, want to talk endlessly about his favourite vtuber/e-girl/perversion. Anyway, shared pain is lessened, right? So that means you must all click like on this YouTube video in order to trash your recommendations in support of my struggle. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zWz92f_HGs
0
1
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
I am really starting to hate that the only thing that gives me is soft female voices speaking a language other than English. Capitalism plus the Algorithm of the hellsite means the robots just toss me into the softcore hole or the hole and call it a day. Or sometimes the porn vtuber hole, if they're feeling frisky. And then I just have to live with my YouTube front page being filled with a mix of techmoan and girlfriend roleplays for months because I fell asleep while listening, forgot to turn off autoplay, and didn't wake up when I got tossed into the pit of sexy pseudo-Japanese shark vtuber furries and booby clickbait thumbnails. And I just know AI Girlfriend apps are the only ads I'm going to see for a month.
4
1
3
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@SeveraSnape Maybe a mono to stereo? Does the bookport support stereo audio at all? If not, that'd be it.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
If you haven't yet archived any from fanfiction.net that you still want, I'd recommend doing that now. The website is more broken than it's ever been: page 2 of search results doesn't load, author profiles don't load, on top of all the other issues with emails not sending, the total lack of moderation, etc.
3
30
16
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@lynessence We absolutely should! My Wednesday afternoon is pretty open :-)
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Android Days Five and Six: let's get appy!
Probably the final entry in this particular series.
stuff.interfree.ca/2025/06/01/android56.html
3
6
4
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@xogium It’s a subscription. But like 50 bucks for four years.
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@xogium So I'm holding off on publishing for a few days, but I think I found the solution. There's a permission called "allow app to modify system settings" in the app info under see all permissions. Once I found and enabled that, it doesn't seem to be losing full control anymore. If it's still stable on Sunday, I'll call it solved. Unfortunately, TalkBack is just so laggy and mushy and annoying that it's worth it to me. Jieshuo is easily five times faster, maybe more, and doesn't crash like TalkBack sometimes does.
2
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
What screen readers do you use regularly on your Android device? I’m looking for an anecdotal idea of how popular alternative apps on really are. Please boost! Thanks so much for your help.
Talkback 29 votes33%Prudence 2 votes2%Jieshuo 6 votes6%Other, please say what in a reply 0 votes0%I don’t use a screen reader 37 votes42%I don’t have an android 13 votes14%
Multiple choice - 80 users voted - Ended
3
57
9
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@quanin @lynessence maybe because I liv in a house not an apartment? Even uber eats brings my food to one of my neighbors half the time.
2
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@quanin @lynessence I have! Multiple times. That’s why I switched to cabs in the first place.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@quanin @lynessence with the many issues around public transport, most of the time my flight or train gets rerouted and that happens to me anyway. Or the human cab driver drops me somewhere random and leaves. At least a self driving car would take me to the wrong place in comfort.
1
0
1
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@lynessence Same!
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
One of my closest and longest friends is starting a new YouTube channel documenting his journey to fulfill a life-long dream of his. Even though he's low vision, through a new program available in Ontario, he has the opportunity to gain his drivers license via the use of a bioptic telescope. If you love cars as much as he does, are just curious, or are a low vision person interested in what a program like this could mean for you, check out his first video on the channel! As far as I know, this is the first time someone has documented the journey of learning to drive with a bioptic telescope from day one, from the perspective of a person with a disability, rather than a doctor or other medical professional. You can find the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GZdw1CzYtI
1
9
6
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@jonathan859 I'm glad you're enjoying the series! I carry too much junk already when traveling; I'm not sure I can manage two phones at once LOL. Jieshuo is really overwhelming at the start, but once you get it going, it's way faster than TalkBack. You've just gotta spend a day at it. Now if only it would stay enabled...
0
0
1
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@JamminJerry I actually use One Drive, not dropbox. Do any of those apps support that?
3
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@matt hahahahahaahahahahahahaaaa! Will it save a wealthy executive a penny, while also allowing him to transfer all liability to "the computer" for anything that goes wrong? If yes, then it's absolutely happening. Sorry, I'm cranky and sad and your optimism triggered me.
0
0
1
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@mcourcel I have not! From a brief glance it looks just like shortcuts, though. I've got a dozen or so of those on my iPhone that trigger regularly.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Android day Four: Equality Achieved
I complete Android customizations bringing me what feels like equality with IOS, at least for the base system.
stuff.interfree.ca/2025/05/28/android4.html
6
5
5
0