szescstopni @szescstopni@qoto.org

UK tweeps. Anyone recommend a preloaded 12 month PYAG sim card mainly for data but also minimal call / text (I can find such deals for data only but not combining calls/texts)

🙏

OK #Mastodon. I've seen several toots on #accessibility for #screenreader users, however, I've not seen one from a screenreader user (as far as I know). I've used ZoomText, Outspoken, JAWS (AKA JFW), Supernova, NVDA (Windows), and VoiceOver (both on Macs and iPhone). I don't have experience with Windows Narrator or TalkBack. I would like to rectify and clarify a few small things.
First off, any awareness of accessibility issues, and endeavours to make things more accessible is great. Keep going!
But…
Blind/low-vision people have been using the internet as long as everyone else. We had to become used to the way people share things, and find workarounds or tell developers what we needed; this latter one has been the main drive to get us here and now. Over the past decade, screen readers have improved dramatically, including more tools, languages, and customisability. However, the basics were already firmly in place around 2000. Sadly, screen readers cost a lot of money at that time. Now, many are free; truly the biggest triumph for accessibility IMHO.
So, what you can do to help screen readers help their users is three simple things.
1. Write well: use punctuation, and avoid things like random capitalisation or * halfway through words.
2. Image description: screen readers with image recognition built-in will only provide a very short description, like: a plant, a painting, a person wearing a hat, etc. It can also deal with text included in the image, as long as the text isn't too creatively presented. So, by all means, go absolutely nuts with detail.
3. Hashtags: this is the most commonly boosted topic I've seen here, so #ThisIsWhatAnAccessibleHashtagLooksLike. The capitalisation ensures it's read correctly, and for some long hashtags without caps, I've known screen readers to give up and just start spelling the whole damn thing out, which is slow and painful.
That's really all. Thanks for reading! 😘

The fallacy of mandatory mobile SIM card registration #SimReg

Nigeria. 'Why tracking kidnappers remains difficult despite SIM-NIN [national identity number] linkage'

https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/insecurity-why-tracking-kidnappers-remains-difficult-despite-sim-nin-linkage/ <from experience. There are a number of ways to track kidnappers without #SimReg

kącik ciekawostek o 4 w nocy: do pewnego momentu nie zaprzątałam sobie głowy zagwozdką czemu ludzie kichają po spojrzeniu na słońce/po ekspozycji na duże natężenie światła. Ale kiedy w końcu się nad tym zastanowiłam (jako, że nie brzmi to nazbyt sensownie z perspektywy, ja wiem? ewolucyjnej?) i zaczęłam szperać na ten temat okazało się, że ten niewoluntarystyczny odruch nie dotyczy wcale większości populacji. Ja tak mam, siostra tak ma, ojciec, mama. A okazuje się, że zespół ACHOO (Autosomal

A lovely Phanias albeolus jumping spider seen at the #StanleyPark #BioBlitz today in association with #EntSoc22

test 5
#FotografiaGrzybowa debiutuje na słońportalu

There is this trick in microscope photography that involves filtering the light through a polarizing filter, and then putting another out-of-phase polarizing filter in front of the lens. This largely eliminates specular reflections and makes it so much easier to decipher the markings on SMD chips.

Before / after:

Two eastern painted turtles reflected in the calm waters of Hopewell Lake. Spotted today on a hike with the kiddos, might be the last warm day for a while in these parts...
#turtle #reflection #hiking #reptile #wildlife #photography

“Being ok with sucking at something while learning” is an extremely undervalued skill.
As is “being happy for people that are better than you”.
Super important for
- learning how to code
- learning a new language
- art, music, podcasting, cooking
- really everything.
Don’t forget to teach your kids these skills.
Also, demonstrate these behaviors.
Let your kids see you being bad at something and not giving up and staying positive.

I have encountered more image descriptions on Mastodon in 24 hours than I have in Twitter in a couple of years. Seriously. I'm not exaggerating.
As a blind person, this means a lot to me. If you read this and you describe your images, thank you so, so, so much on behalf of all of us. If you don't, now you know you'll be helping random Internet strangers make sense of your posts by typing in a few more words than usual.

Today I fixed my notes of two #SystemsBiology theoretical classes.

This one was about the circadian rhythms and I learnt about an interesting experiment which suggested that the superchiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus might be involved, since transplanting the fetal SCN in arrhytmic mice seemed to restore it. Not only that, but the periodicity of the rhythm depends on the donor!

Source
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00222-7

About a third of bee species nest in cavities. This could mean hollow or pithy stems, tree hollows, fallen or standing dead trees, or other crevices. You can help them by offering places to nest. It could be as time-consuming as keeping honeybee hives, as chancy as setting up bee hotels, or as simple as leaving a foot or two intact when you cut standing stems.

Here's advice from Tufts Pollinator Initiative on how to leave stems for #bees and #pollinators:
https://sites.tufts.edu/pollinators/2021/04/the-right-way-to-leave-stems-for-native-bees/

Some people measure time to death of a social media platform by a head of lettuce. A leaf wilts, the bell tolls.

Me? I measure it by whether or not Chuck Tingle has published an erotic novella about it yet.

My friends, it is time. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLSFV2CK/

There's only one kind of #NFTs we do here on the #Fediverse