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
I heard back from support promptly. They’re investigating.
1
1
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@jeremyjanzen Yeah. I just need to borrow a sighted human to help me deal with an inaccessible checkout process. It’s not urgent until allergy season starts so I’ll give them a few weeks.
0
0
1
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Continued updates on my innosearch testing: I have still heard nothing. I submitted a support request via the contact us form just now.
2
1
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@dhamlinmusic I have no idea what the heck they meant. Clicking took me to SEO spam about nutritional supplements. I assume they sell protein powder with the ability to make me so fit I'll retroactively become buff in 2006.
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Ad spam I just got: "How to cancel goodlife membership in 2006". If only this was an add for a time machine.
1
1
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
For anyone who uses these days, is there a replacement for the UI sounds extension? It hasn't been updated to support the new extension API. Sadly I have situations that require Chrome.
0
6
1
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Update on : two days later, I have the order confirmation email, but no delivery or shipping info, or even a delivery estimate. I'm not impressed so far. However, it's way too soon to make a final judgement. I will contact support on Monday if I haven't gotten any updates.
2
1
3
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@robini71 Eh, I just do that always and all the time LOL
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Is it just me, or do other people find knocking things over comes in streaks? I can go nine months at a time without spilling or knocking over anything. Then over the course of a few days, I knock or spill something over once or twice a day. Then it stops and I'm normal again. I haven't changed my environment, or habits, or anything. Let's see if I can get back on track and not spill anything today.
3
1
6
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@Tamasg Yeah, if it's on Amazon, I tend to just purchase directly; I have an Amazon Prime account, and I'm comfortable with how the website works. But in this case, the product was only available directly from the manufacturer, or from retailers like wayfair where I don't have an account. And I just don't have the time or mental energy right now to fiddle around with a new website I might use only once.
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
So I seem to be on a bit of an testing kick. A non-critical product I needed (some replacement filters for an air purifier) was available at the best price from a website I really didn't want to deal with right now. So I put the order in via innosearch.ai. I'm mostly suspicious because the marketing is so polished; I've come to distrust well-marketed products. On the other hand, if innosearch makes it possible for me to spend less money on Amazon, and makes distributing my shopping dollars to other places more practical, it's a net ethical win. If I get entirely the wrong thing, or nothing at all, it won't break me. I'll keep this thread updated with my experiences.
2
4
4
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@adam I speak from experience.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@adam And it crashes NVDA so hard you have to reboot the machine?
2
0
1
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@matt Having exchanged emails with Andrew, GUide’s developer, I really don’t think this is a cash grab. He strikes me as well intentioned. I was unaware of the coding issues, or that it runs an unsecured web server on the users machine. From what you can see, is there anything to stop another rogue app from connecting to the web server and telling Claude to execute stuff on the user’s machine? I was only really evaluating this from a functionality perspective. Though I was somewhat surprised that some of the changes I proposed in my email weren’t things he’d thought about previously. This feels to me like good ideas that didn’t get enough time in the oven, combined with lack of experience and good intentions. The telling thing, to me, will be what happens over the coming weeks. Will this go back in the oven for more cooking? Will we see the changes in safety and security that are needed?
0
2
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@mcourcel No, it's something similar for Windows. www.guideinteraction.com
2
1
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
So an update on Guide: I've exchanged some long emails with Andrew, the lead developer. He's open to dialogue, and moving the project in the right direction: well-scoped single tasks, more granular controls and permissions, etc. He doesn't strike me as an maximalist can and should do everything all the time kind of guy. He's also investigating deeper screen reader interaction, to let AI just do the things we can't do that it's best at. I stand by my thoughts that the project isn't yet ready for prime time. But as someone else in the thread said, I don't think it should be written off entirely as yet another "AI will save us from inaccessibility" hype train. There is, in fact, something here if it gets polished and scoped a bit more.
1
6
1
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@jscholes @Jage It's also a security thing. Sure, it was pretty funny that it opened Stardoo Valley. But if I was using it on my real machine, I can think of a lot of apps I wouldn't want it to unexpectedly launch.
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@jscholes @Jage On a more serious note, I think the interface as presented is just way, way too generalist, and its freedom too unrestricted. Things I'd like to see:
1. it gets prompted with the name of the currently focused app, and the mouse is disallowed from leaving that app window.
2. Bringing it up with alt+ctrl+g gives prompts of what tasks it thinks it could perform inside the current app. Instead of the current general "ask me to do anything!"
3. It should have access to the DOM for browsers so it's not taking screenshots and acting only on that all the time if it's being asked to do something on a webpage.
4. It really, really needs training on NVDA focus mode. It says to turn off speech, but that doesn't solve for it trying to type into an edit field when NVDA isn't in focus mode. It does this constantly.

I still don't think it'd be ready for prime time, but it would be closer.
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@Jage Nope. It's far, far better at Balatro than me. And now I'm upset and I hate it forever. ROFL JK
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
@Jage Also, the only way to start a new chat is to open the program and close it again?
2
0
0
0