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
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
@lynn And before you ask: no, a screen reader shouldn’t be a large resource drain. But unfortunately, the people who write accessibility API’s don’t think about speed the same way people developing graphics libraries and low level visual interface components do.
1
0
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
@lynn I have a framework 16. But my plan is to just keep replacing parts every 5-7 years and stop buying laptops at all. I didn’t want to go used because I run a screen reader, so performance matters a lot more for me as the screen reader is an extra resource drain on everything the computer does. I also can’t solder; some blind people can, but I’m not one of them. So I needed something I could fix without ever touching a soldering iron.
1
0
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
@lynn Used thinkpads I guess? Lenovo also sucks as a company. But the laptops are easy to fix and there’s a healthy used market for machines and parts.
1
0
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
@lynn It just let the controversy die out and everyone moved on. There are too many horrors for a single one to keep everyone’s focus for more than a few weeks. And they no if you want an open laptop you have no other choice anyway.
1
0
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
@x0 Oh, good to know! If it’s international I’ll at least join.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
@x0 My understanding was that bits is US only though. Unfortunately I’m Canadian.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
@WeirdWriter They only hated bloggers who weren’t making money. They loved HuffPost or even BoingBoing. Similarly, everyone loves iHeart podcasts because they make money. Fanfiction authors are dehumanized for the same reason. Can what you’re doing directly make you money? If yes, you’re a hero! If no, you’re hardly even a human.
0
2
2
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1mo
After over eight years, my journey with Fable (makeitfable.com) has come to an end. I’ve worked full time at Fable since the beginning: back when Fable only worked with Canadian screen reader users. Over that time, Fable grew from a three person company to the enterprise it is today, expanded its human-first accessibility testing and research offerings to The United States and The United Kingdom, widened the circle to work with users of screen magnification, voice control, eye gaze and switch systems, and many other assistive technologies. We were also the first to begin working to bring the community of users with cognitive challenges into accessibility research and testing. During that time, I’ve had the privilege to work in every part of the organization, doing everything from public speaking, to community management, to writing and thought leadership, to technical and engineering work. It’s been a long and winding road, with many life-changing experiences and milestones along the way. But now it’s time for me to find my next chapter. I’m not sure what it will be, yet, but I’m open to exploring all opportunities. If you’ve got an opening anywhere in the digital accessibility and inclusion space, do feel free to get in touch!
⭐1
5
25
10
1
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@Alan @jaybird110127 Ass reception? There’s a fart joke here somewhere…
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@jaybird110127 They also shut down our weather radio. So we need recordings of that, too.
0
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@jaybird110127 It amuses me you think they’re that organized. They’re probably in some random employees basement.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@jaybird110127 They’re made by the government. So legally they’re in the public domain. I could file a freedom of information request. Or whatever we call it in Canada.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@jaybird110127 I should just go over to the nrc and ask them for the original recordings lol
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@jaybird110127 I should have thought of doing this. I live even closer to the transmitter. And am sort of glad it’s gone lol.my cheap equipment sometimes struggled on the shortwave bands with how powerful the signal was.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@evilcookies98 But do you have your notifications set to get Mastodon’s from the station? Or your station set to get notifications from the Mastodon? Either way, it’s not as bad as the time I complained to my friend group: “Ow ow ow! I just burned my coffee on the tongue!” To be fair it really was hot and it hurt.
1
0
0
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@SyHoekstra @technocounselor If it’s in Toronto there is crowd noise. The Canadian describers are live on location.
1
0
1
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@Tattooed_Mummy Sounds like a good use case for AI: finding and dismissing all the prompts to use AI. LOL
0
1
5
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
I do not want to build anymore rust applications. That took an hour of my laptop fan running on full. I did not enjoy it. My laptop doesn't grind that hard when running local LLMs!
1
0
3
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@alexchapman @pixelate @Mudb0y It’s like shooting a gun. I’m responsible for what the bullet does after it leaves the gun. If I don’t know where it will go or who it will hit, I shouldn’t shoot. Even if AI wrote the code, I’m responsible for it. If I don’t know what it does, I won’t share it. Because when something goes wrong, it’s my fault, not the AI’s fault.
0
0
1
0
User avatar
🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
2mo
@alexchapman @pixelate @Mudb0y Yes, exactly. But when AI writes code, I review it enough to understand what choices it made, if those were the right ones, and how everything all works and fits together. If I don’t have that knowledge myself, and can’t get it by looking at it via the code, and the submitter doesn’t explain his work and his reasoning, I’m not merging it into anything I release. AI code isn’t the ultimate problem.
2
0
1
0