Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | jquast's comments login

The author of edbrowse is visually impaired, and so is the target audience.

This is like saying braille books could use more illustrations.

Please read the very first hyperlink to learn more, http://www.eklhad.net/philosophy.html


True. I still want screenshots though!

>This program was originally written for blind users, but many sighted users have taken advantage of the unique scripting capabilities of this program

Not sure a Braille book is a suitable metaphor here. A Braille book that is readable by people who don't know Braille, and also (to some degree) markets itself to sighted people?


I stand by my metaphor. It’s a command-line interface, a picture of text is only reducing its accessibility.

To complain about the visually impaired not doing enough to make the content more accessible for the visually gifted. I’m just too upset to respond to this kind of discussion. This is my last HN discussion, you’re right, blind people should take screenshots of their programs, enjoy your contrarian community


Another metaphor would be a screenshot of bash, or a screenshot of cat, or a screenshot of the original /bin/ed. Next they'll be wanting someone to stream a session of /bin/cat on youtube. Yes, this program was developed with blind people in mind. Plenty of sighted people have found uses for it, and that's lovely. For blind people, there's really no equivalent to the screenshot. Maybe a typescript. Maybe a few minutes of audio from a TTS. Of course, the latter would be useless to a deaf-blind person. But our best bet is reading some docu and taking it for a spin. It is not too much to ask of sighted people to step out of their comfort zones for a little while. Your world is highly suboptimal for me. Care to step into mine for a bit? Not having access to cheap visual imagery is in fact no cross to bear.


Without doubt, implying that lack of screenshots of software designed for blind users is unfair should tickle a self-aware person’s sense of irony and one should be careful with phrasing.

That said, I suspect such requests are not fully baseless.

While nothing beats actually putting on a blindfold and trying, it does not seem unreasonable for a sighted person to try to find out what, e.g., Braille looks like. This knowledge may give them ideas into how it could be possible to incorporate more of it into predominantly visual spaces, for example. We have different modes of attending to the world, and in fact it is seeing Braille in public spaces that reminds many sighted people that not being able to see it is actually a thing (and perhaps even prompts some to learn it).

Is it not similar with software? If it could increase adoption of accessible software among users who do not need it in their current state, would that not support the goal? (Not to deny that screenshots are really beside the point when it comes to documentation completeness of such software, of course.)


us sighted people are imaginatively impaired. we need screenshots because we don't have developed the capacity to imagine an interface from a textual description like blind people probably do.


Absolutely.


It doesn’t have to be an image to be a screenshot. It could just as easily be a properly formatted monospace block quote of the terminal contents.



I'm sorry to see you go. Yes, this is HN at its absolute worst and most self-entitled.


I don't think this disagreement is worth being so upset about. Be well my friend.


Boy, it must be hard when you want someone to take a minor step to make it easier for you to understand or use some software, but your values aren't shared by the community of software makers, so they don't do it.


Hard disagree.

Please everyone name it what it is, and don’t try to be coy or clever. Call it the metrics database, the example.com web service, the marketing tool, the data acquisition service, etc.

I really hate that most private code bases are named “Steve” or similar, in a sea of micro services with Stacey and Stans and then there’s Steve 2.0 projects, and the only thing they bothered to document in the readme is the origin story and maybe a cute meme picture to go with it. And all of those people are gone and I’m a new employee and it’s not funny anymore.

Everybody please just be serious, name it what it is, and document private business code like a professional. You’re getting paid so please take your job seriously.


And then the metrics database also stores the tracking timeline for physical deliveries, because the business decided that it had to cut corners and ship a feature urgently and they had just fired the CTO for standing up for quality engineering at the expense of velocity.


https://investor.vanguard.com/investor-resources-education/a...

I’m very certain that even in the crazy case you have outlined, SIPC insurance would cover up to a half million. Some brokers provide additional insurance beyond the regulatory requirements.

I think everyone recently learned about FDIC because of SVB etc., but I think it’s important that people are also aware of SIPC, and especially to consider that there is no crypto currency exchange that offers any such insurance of any kind, https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/cryptocurrency/cryp...


All of the content is provided by the community, if not directly submitted, ripped from message boards, Usenet, and other websites.

Please don’t think that UG is paying anybody to transcribe (or repair/moderate, desperately needed) the guitar tabs.


Agreed, I would rather a foreign agency with no power or authority over me to have my personal data than a government that has the authority to wrongfully tax, investigate, jail, prosecute, and imprison me for that same data.


You should choose the devices that are the most secure, using the information you have available at the time.

Choosing a foreign government to spy on you rather than your own government isn't a clear choice. While a foreign government is less likely to be interested in you personally and likely less able to directly cause you harm, you also have less recourse against them than against your own government and their interests are less likely to be aligned with yours.

Additionally, your government may be able to co-opt the compromised devices anyway and would certainly have an incentive to do so.

I'd also question that a device that is by-design-compromised is otherwise secure from bad actors. It is difficult to imagine the incentive structure that would make that possible.

Finally, once this personal data has been harvested by either government, there is nothing to stop these governments or rogue elements within these governments from trading or sharing that data with your own government or other actors.


I don't chose to be spied on by any government! But if I could chose only one, it would be an opposing country like China or Russia.

American businesses are forced to share our private data witn three letter agencies. Conversely, I can't imagine any leverage, money or lawful, that would cause a Chinese citizen living in China, with families in China, to be so stupid as to collaborate with the US government in any way, unless they wish for their families to be sent to labor camps.

My data is safer with the Chinese. I don't like it, but that's where we stand with our privacy.


The problem is that the American government has shown time and time again that their interests are not in any way, shape, or form aligned with that of the public.

At this point, I’d trust a (likely) disinterested state actor over one that has been proven to be actively malicious.


Now I'm imagining a self destructing roborock vacuum burning down my house when China goes deep in anti US territory.

Best policy I abide by is to prevent any data from exiting my network or remote control period. I don't care who is spying.


Most likely you won't have that problem because the power grid will be offline.


This will certainly be used by corporations to whitewash their bad histories.

IBM’s relationship with the Nazi Holocaust was difficult to find last week. the Wikipedia article, the book, and articles were all pushed further down to the bottom of google search because of the “News” that IBM pulled out of X advertising for anti-Semitic remarks.

Although the “news” is now older and not pushing down the results as far as it was last week. There will be perpetually generated “news”, books, and blogs that whitewashes away bad histories.

AI-generated PR campaigns that never, ever, stop.


Which of you are doctors? Why do you talk like this if you are not?


In general when people speak in depth about something like this you can assume they or someone they love suffered from the relevant issues being discussed.

In my case I’m lifelong bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.

I’m definitely not a doctor. You shouldn’t trust medical/psychiatric information given in any internet comment though.

And to paraphrase the other commenter, “didn’t realize I needed to get your permission to write about something without the proper qualifications”.


I guess I forgot to check with you first


You are correct about the mortgage payments, I had a 1-2 cent error every few months, after a days struggle, I simply added a “Penny” column to add or subtract as necessary so that they would match!


It is easier to locate keys when given hints like an empty space on the board, it’s much easier to find “f4” next to a gap rather than counting four keys from the left


This is IBM letting us know that they are still breathing, they got more brand awareness from this article than a years worth of spend with X, big brain move from big brain execs


Many people that downplay IBM, could only dream to create a startup that achieves 1% of their yearly profit, and R&D outcomes.


Which ironically suggests another good reason to stop advertising on Twitter.


I’d also like to add that IBM had no issues doing business with the Nazi party.

They did it for the money, and stopped doing it for the money. They advertised on X for the money, and they stopped advertising X for the money.

Is a white nationalist of faith worse, or better, than a white nationalist of profits? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust


The Nazis were capitalist. That tradition continued since. Everything under capitalism is done for profit. IBM isn’t any worse than any other part of capitalism in 2023.


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: