alexhall

@alexhall@mastodon.social

I have a computer science degree and work in IT. I'm a fan of Apple, but not to an extreme. I enjoy playing acoustic guitar and electric bass. I'm blind.

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alexhall, to random

I sure wish I knew the password I used when I set up my Be My Eyes account years ago. It's not my usual pattern, nor my normal fallback when my main one is too long. It's not saved in iCloud. The password reset in the new Windows app doesn't work. Website it is, I guess.

alexhall, to random

Linkedin email: "Alex, you appeared in 1 searches this week." Um... Really? You're a company owned by Microsoft, worth--probably--tens of millions at least, and you can't properly pluralize? It's a simple if statement, guys. It takes thirty seconds.

alexhall, to random

Wow, ChatGPT 4o is fast. I'm asking it some PHP questions, and the responses are far faster to generate than I'm used to with 3.5. I'm not even talking about images yet, just text.

alexhall,

@jscholes Oddly, when I tried Be My AI just now, I didn't notice an increase in speed. That service has always varied wildly for me, from barely two of the waiting sounds to over ten. Today was four, which isn't out of the ordinary.

alexhall, to random

I tried to use VSCode to make a git commit today. It seems the buttons to confirm or reject the commit message lack hotkeys. Is this right? It's faster for me to just type git commit -a -m "message" than to tab and f6 my way to the right button. Am I missing something?

alexhall, to random

I finally found something I don't like about ESpeak: it says "mister" when it reads "mr", regardless of whether there's a period after the r. My company recently switched to Gitlab, so merge requests are now a common topic of text-based conversation. "I'm having trouble creating an mister for this." "Can you make an mister for that?" "Let me go approve that mister."

alexhall, to random

There's a lot of buzz about Google's upcoming AI efforts. But does anyone remember that demo a couple years ago, where Google Assistant would call to make reservations and appointments for you? Amazing demo, much press coverage. Then it launched and didn't work very well, and we never heard about it again. Google is famous for two things: randomly killing products people like, and vastly over-promising upcoming features. Just saying.

alexhall, to random

I'm using Vim over SSH. In insert mode, every time I type a non-space character, NVDA says it twice and then says what I assume is the cursor's new column. For instance, if I type a p, I hear "p, p, 14". I know one instance is my character echo setting, but is there a way to have Vim not do whatever it's doing that makes NVDA speak the character and number?

alexhall,

In case anyone else runs into overly verbose screen reader echoing in Vim, the fix is to make sure you're not in insert mode, then type ":set noruler". Thanks to @tspivey for the tip!

alexhall, to random

I tried Be My AI on a restaurant menu. I was initially impressed--it told me the items on each side of the two-page menu, identifying the names and some options. For instance, it said there were baskets, which options I could get, and what all baskets come with. It mentioned a chicken melt, so I asked for more details. Grilled chicken, Swiss cheese, and grilled onions on rye. The only problem? That chicken melt didn't exist. It made up the name, then made up details when I asked for more info.

alexhall, to random

I know how random this is, but EasyPost is a company worth emulating as far as their developer resources. Their API documentation is all on one page. No navigating dozens of links, no JS expanding and collapsing. Just open the page, and there you go. They have API libraries in several languages, with great change logs, a solid readme, and active development. I know no one here is likely to need them, but I love working with them.

alexhall, to random

There's an email from Glidance today. We now know that the unit's retail price is expected to be $1,499, and the monthly subscription is expected to be $40. If you're one of the first 500 people to sign up on May 20 and put down a $100 deposit, you can purchase your unit for $899, and get the first three months free.

alexhall,

This feels like a weird way to introduce a whole new product category. It's asking a lot for people to pay $999 in total, just to try something that might not work for them. So far, I've only heard of Glidance tests in controlled, easy environments, like hotels or conferences. What if I get it and it can't handle my sidewalks, or find my curbs, or locate chairs in my waiting rooms?

alexhall, to random

I'm asking ChatGPT how to use a class-level method to replace sys.excepthook, but still let the method access class instance properties. So far, its first three solutions have been very obviously wrong. I am yet again feeling pretty secure in my job just now. No, ChatGPT, adding a fourth parameter to the method won't work. Python won't add a value for it. Yep, AI isn't replacing me quite yet.

alexhall, to random

I keep reading posts from people using the "comment and paste a post link" method. My main client doesn't support this. I really wish official quote post support would arrive in Mastodon! I know it was accepted and is in the works, but I'm not sure what the planned timeframe is.

TheQuinbox, to random

Just got home from my last ever high school class. FREE AT LAST!!!

alexhall,

@TheQuinbox Congratulations! So... Now what do you do?

alexhall, to random

I overheated my treadmill this morning. I didn't know I could overheat it, but it turns out I can. This is good to know. So much for my plans to slowly push my long jogs to an hour. The treadmill stopped itself at about 45 minutes. And no, I still haven't found a local guide for outdoor jogging.

alexhall, to random

Audible's emails have always been annoying to read, but manageable. Today, I got an email that something in my wishlist is on sale. The book the email was telling me about? Apparently, it's a fascinating volume entitled "link image". Yay for accessibility regressions.

alexhall, to random

I think I'm becoming a fan of putting each function or method parameter on its own line. It takes up more space, but it's easier to review them one at a time, and I can move the order of parameters around simply by using my IDE's command for moving lines up and down.

alexhall,

@TheQuinbox It would be a lot to arrow through, but wouldn't it be valid? I'm not sure what language that's in. It's the methods with longer parameter lists where I'm starting to like this. Two or three, sure toss them on one line, but six is easier on separate lines. If I want to review a class to find its public API, it's simpler to hear things broken up this way, for me. Of course, I prefer very verbose parameter names, so that makes single-line signatures way longer.

alexhall, to random

For anyone wanting my Dice World username: mehgcap. My favorite game is Yatzy, followed closely by Farkle. I'm also happy to play Threes or Twenty-Four. I prefer bonus games if you have the bonus rolls for it.

alexhall, to random

I've played Farkle with someone whose Dice World username is lisa621 almost every day for years. We've even exchanged a few messages, usually when one of us rolls six 1s and gets a ridiculous store. If that account is yours, ping me. It'd be neat to know who's behind that account.

alexhall, to random

I'm using Microsoft's neural voices for my NVDA say-all voice. I just read the abbreviation "C/SrA.", which is short for cadet senior airman. Instead of just saying the letters, the voice decided to say "C/ sister A" for some reason. Please, voice manufacturers, PLEASE stop making assumptions about abbreviations, dates, and acronyms.

alexhall,

@alyssa6595 I'm still not sure how it works, but yes. Note that this add-on defaulted to a non-English voice, so getting to the voice selection was a bit of a chore, but it was doable. https://datajake.braillescreen.net/tts/synthesizers%20for%20nvda/neuralVoices-1.0.nvda-addon

alexhall,

@TheQuinbox That's interesting. I didn't think there was an API at all for these voices. I thought they were locked to Narrator/Cortana and that was it.

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