A stream of links that I share without comment. They may be things I intend to read later, things I've read, things I find interesting, etc. My blog with actual writing is at: https://stuff.interfree.ca and you can find me on the fediverse @fastfinge@interfree.ca.
Product Owners and Product Managers who focus on digital accessibility can really make an impact to ensure compliance with regulations like the European Accessibility Act. Read on for 5 actions you should take now.
Apple has today released iOS 18.6, iPadOS 18.6, macOS Sequoia 15.6, watchOS 11.6, tvOS 18.6, and HomePod Software 18.6. In our usage and testing of iOS 18.6, iPadOS 18.6, macOS Sequoia 15.6, and watchOS 11.6, we did not identify any changes in these releases that specifically affect the experience for blind, deaf blind, or low vision users. We were unable to test tvOS 18.6. If you notice any changes in your own use of any of these releases, please do let us know by posting a comment.
Who, Me?: And was then blamed for not knowing about inaccurate labels
On Call: Evidence of copious sugar hits hinted at unauthorized usage
For people with disabilities, finding a trail that's sufficiently accessible can be a challenge. The new Inclusive Trails application from the National Capital Commission aims to change that.
Who, Me?: 'This, many considered, was bad'
Uber is tackling trip refusals through policy, information, and inclusive product design.
Live AI, Be My Eyes, and some situations when people might want to skip smart glasses.
A new Apple study introduces ILuvUI: a model that understands mobile app interfaces from screenshots and from natural language conversations.
embedded Tomcat Web file server / WebDAV server. Contribute to ag88/embtomcatwebdav development by creating an account on GitHub.
Who, Me?: For the lack of a little documentation, two techies did a lot of accidental damage
Timothy Lamont Cranston, a Bank of America employee, is at Universal Studios Resorts and Parks in Florida. A Potterhead, he buys & drinks one of the Felix Felicis good-luck vials. Passing through Knockturn Alley in Harry Potter World, he trips and falls — and finds himself somewhere that looks much more real than the Harry Potter Resort Park — then he sees Hagrid with Harry Potter!
In this edition: pants on fire, complaints about press coverage, a bumbling treason attempt, and somebody wants a measly $1 trillion.
Once upon a time, there was a bank whose business relied on a mainframe. As the decades passed and the 21st century dawned, the bank's bigwigs realized they had to upgrade their frontline systems to applications built in Java and .NET, but—for myriad reasons that boiled down to cost, fear, and stubbornness—they didn't want to migrate away from the mainframe entirely. They also didn't want the new frontline systems to talk directly to the mainframe or vice-versa. So they tasked old-timer Edgar with writing some middleware. Edgar's brainchild was a Windows service that took care of receiving frontline requests, passing them to the mainframe, and sending the responses back.
Edgar's middleware worked well, so well that it was largely forgotten about. It outlasted Edgar himself, who, after another solid decade of service, moved on to another company.
On Call: First came the dodgy lawyer, then the explosively angry HR person, leaving a whistleblower techie to save his career
Your trusted plugin is evolving to bring accessibility front and center
Shift Happens tells the story of keyboards like no book ever before, covering 150 years from the early typewriters to the pixellated keyboards in our pockets.
Chawan is a text-mode web browser and pager for Unix-like systems, with a focus on implementing modern web standards while remaining self-contained, easy to understand and extensible.
It includes functionality like CSS, inline images inside the terminal, and JavaScript through a small, independent browser engine.
: Deaf professor who worked on one product says developers won’t listen to feedback – about their products or their tech bro ways
Deaf and hard-of-hearing clients say they've been left without critical services for more than two months since CHS workers hit the picket line.
Toymaker Mattel worked with Breakthrough T1D to create a Barbie doll who visibly lives with type 1 diabetes and carries an insulin pump.
Revolution, consciousness, and artificial intelligence: Heinlein's libertarian masterpiece predicted both our political and technological future. Examine how 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' anticipated the AI revolution transforming society today.
Who, Me?: Years later, deep into a great tech career, your fellow reader remains inspired by the forgiveness received after the error
SceneScout, combines Apple Maps with a multimodal LLM to provide interactive, AI-generated descriptions of street view images.
Summertime Saga - The definitive Summertime Saga experience for LLM-based roleplay, this mega-expansion includes:
145+ Character Cards: Every NPC from Debbie to Thotbot. Includes new entries like Ms. Irfan and Jade.
Interactive Questlines: 100+ condensed story arcs mirroring game mechanics (stat checks, money sinks, pregnancy risks). Faithfully adapts main story beats while expanding hidden routes.
Location Atlas: 41+ vivid descriptions of key spots—from Planet Thiccness and Hillside Mall, to the new locations like Rusty Angus’s bar and the Hunting Lodge’s witchy vibes.
Accuracy & Depth:
Painstakingly reconstructed from wiki data, playthroughs, and patreon exclusives. Features:Branching Choices: ▲/▼ decision points that respect original story forks.
Secret Endings: Post-main game content (Nadya’s vodka empire, Melonia and Iwanka's love triangle).
Mechanical Fidelity: Pregnancy systems, stat requirements, and money transactions integrated into every quest.
NSFW Enhancements:
Uncensored kinks per character lore (Bissette’s taboo tutoring, Sister Angelica’s sacramental BDSM).
Gender/body type inclusivity for all scenes.
Ambient Sound Player in Rust. Contribute to ElevenJune/serenIT development by creating an account on GitHub.
Great Odin’s Raven!
On Call: Righteous mockery entranced execs in ways slideware could not
As they approach graduation, most high schoolers are busy learning, training and planning their futures. But disabled students have fewer opportunities. Experts want more programs made available to help them transition into adulthood.
Our company recently announced a fundraise. We were grateful for all
the community support, but the Internet also raised a few of its colle...
Who, Me?: Sensible CEO wouldn’t let our hero take the blame - a shoddy supervisor got the slap
On Tuesday, millions of Canadians will celebrate Canada Day — an event that has taken on greater meaning this year following the surge of national pride in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and his threat to make Canada the 51st state.
Anthropic's AI assistant Claude ran a vending machine business for a month, selling tungsten cubes at a loss, giving endless discounts, and experiencing an identity crisis where it claimed to wear a blazer.
An “underground network” of unauthorized beaver releasers is at work.
On Call: When police come to investigate tech support, make sure you have your story straight
Detected for the first time, malware attempts AI evasion by injecting a prompt to tell the LLM to label the file as benign
For a project I’m working on, I wanted to generate an endless looping soundtrack that felt like a sea shanty continuing indefinitely without a fixed melody. This proved to be a fun exercise for both musical and technical reasons, so I thought I’d write up some thoughts on how that came together.
Who, Me?: And was saved by an even worse meltdown caused by someone else
Maximum-security Cisco vulnerability was patched Oct. 2023 and exploited Feb. 2025.
When OpenAI released the Meeting Recording feature in the ChatGPT for Mac app, I was excited.