André Polykanine

@menelion@dragonscave.space · Joined ⁨Dec⁩ ⁨2021⁩

A married and happy geek living in Strasbourg, France. #Backend software engineer, #accessibility specialist.
My main programming languages are #PHP and #CSharp.
Pro-European right-centrist. Technical progress must not be stoppable.
#AI is our assistant, not our replacement nor our enemy.
Pagan, worshipper of Scandinavian gods.
This account is multilingual. Posts may contain strong language, not always behind a content warning, and personal opinions.
No alt text, no boost.

Spoken Languages
English, français, українська, русский, deutsch
About me in emojis
👩‍❤️‍👨, 👨‍💻, 🎙️, 🎹, 🚶‍♂️, 👨‍🦯, 🧝‍♂️, 🐉, 🚳, 🚊, 🚆, ✈️, 🐈; 🥖, 🥩, 🍫, 🍔, 🍟

André Polykanine boosted

I'm concerned about the growing over-the-top rhetoric around smart glasses. I fear it's only a matter of time before a blind person, using these as a genuinely helpful and legitimate accommodation, finds themselves the victim of a serious incident. ‘Antizuck’ iOS app that claims to detect nearby smart glasses tops App Store chart 9to5mac.com/2026/07/31/antizuc

9to5Mac‘Antizuck’ iOS app that claims to detect nearby smart glasses tops App Store chart - 9to5MacVibes around Meta’s AI glasses are off lately. So much so that one of the top three paid iPhone apps...

André Polykanine boosted

I think I finally found a book that is too long for the NLS eReader to handle. IT by Stephen King, which is 48 hours in audio format. On one eReader downloading it from BARD, it straight up says book reader stopped, please restart the application and won't load. On another eReader downloading it from bookshare, it loads. But then when I tried to access file manager to delete it and a couple other books, it said file manager stopped, please restart the application. Seems to me to be related. Has anyone else seen this?

André Polykanine boosted

Arch Linux isn't an operating system. it's a Tamagotchi for IT nerds. You don't actually use your computer to do any real work. You just keep the OS alive. It is the life mission now because you refuse to go to therapy or let go that 20 years old Thinpad. You have to feed it ⁠`pacman -Syu⁠` every day, massage its broken dependencies and pray the new kernel doesn't shatter your graphics drivers. It’s cute, but some of us actually need to open a python code or browser without checking a wiki first

André Polykanine boosted

Replying to @⁨skobkin@gts.skobk.in⁩

Как сказал ChatGPT, с которым я просчитывал геометрию этих антенн после того как я её собрал "на глаз" без подстроек и показал ему первый замер:

Человечество иногда случайно сгибает медь правильно.

#quotes #ChatGPT #fun #DIY #antennas #log

André Polykanine boosted

I noticed some core NVDA modifications (namely unfamiliar .pyc files in library.zip) while poking around on my BrailleNote evolve, so I reached out to Andrew Flatres about GPLv2 source compliance. To my delight, HumanWare actually packaged up the source code for the community! If anyone wants to take a look under the hood at how their commands and display layers interact: humanware.s3-accelerate.amazon
Huge thanks to Andrew and the team for turning that around so quickly, this makes my nerdy heart happy.
Additionally, I grabbed all the GPL-licensed code HumanWare distributes in NVDA's AppData directory on version 1.0, and put it in a zip file here: dropbox.com/scl/fi/s872ianc6bf

André Polykanine boosted

When high-level compiled programming languages hit the scene in the 1970s, I wonder how many machine-language, punch-card programmers groused about the poor quality inefficient code they produced? And, yes, I do realize there are differences in the comparison, but, really, I think the general idea stands. Technology moves forward and there are just different approaches to how we humans handle change.

André Polykanine boosted

Question for people who vibe-code full apps, especially blind people, as I believe that covers most of my followers who do this: What would it take for you to be comfortable coding directly in a programming language without an LLM? A high-level programming language with better tutorials and quickstart templates than are currently available, particularly for writing real apps? Or do you believe that having an LLM generate the code is the only way you could practically do what you do?

André Polykanine boosted

Symfony 8.0 reaches its end of maintenance! 2 years of work, 650+ features, 13,202 lines of deprecated code deleted, then 16 patch releases and 646 fixes from 270 contributors. Thanks to all of them! Next stop: 8.1. symfony.com/blog/symfony-8-0-r

symfony.com/blog/symfony-8-0-reaches-its-end-of-maintenance
Symfony 8.0 reaches its end of maintenance today. A look back at the version that made Symfony smaller while it grew, and what to do if you are still running it.symfony.comSymfony 8.0 reaches its end of maintenance (Symfony Blog)Symfony 8.0 reaches its end of maintenance today. A look back at the version that made Symfony smaller while it grew, and what to do if you are still running it.

André Polykanine boosted

Hello! I'm Florent, a french guy who makes instruments in Estonia, mainly from the flute family. I only use wood from the nearby forest.

I’ve had the account @monviolon for years but it was intended for discussing the violin. I’m opening this new account to follow artists and craftspeople and to present my instrument-making activities, which have now officially become professional ones.

Please feel free to share this post to help me out 😉

#introduction #woodworking #whistle #fipple #handcraft

In a pine forest, a bearded man is standing behind a display made from a branch, on which whistles are hung. He is smiling slightly at someone outside the frame of the photograph.
ALT

André Polykanine boosted

It's a long shot but I don't suppose anyone in the UK, London more specifically has an old google pixel they'd be willing to part with? I'm running into issues with my app working perfectly fine on a galaxy with all labelled buttons, but not on google's devices. I'm making 0 money from this app so I don't and can't justify buying a new device just for this one thing, but someone's old, replacement device they no longer need would be super helpful. Thanks Fedi.

André Polykanine boosted

Replying to @⁨menelion@dragonscave.space⁩

Rant about Mastodon

@menelion As a communist that has been using Linux on his desktop for the past 22 years... Yeah, pretty spot on. I notice it on my nuclear energy advocacy and I know for a fact that by far most people on 'Energy Twitter' didn't move to Mastodon for two reasons: 1. it was perceived to be 'too difficult' (which I honestly never quite understood) and 2. this social dynamic you just summed up. Many went with Bluesky instead, or remained on X. Often both.

André Polykanine boosted

A year ago we started exploring AI tools, prompting techniques, and real-world workflows. A lot has changed since then!

Join Elizabeth Whitaker and Rachel Buchanan on August 6 at Noon ET for "From Prompting to Productivity: Building Better AI Workflows." In this session they will look back at what has worked, what has evolved, and how to build smarter AI workflows today.

ACVREP credits are available for those who attend live.

Register today! us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regist

Vispero, Free AI Training Webinar, From Prompting to Productivity: Building Better AI Workflows, Thursday, August 6 at Noon ET, Presenters: Rachel Buchanan and Elizabeth Whitaker (both pictured).
ALT

André Polykanine boosted

Replying to @⁨menelion@dragonscave.space⁩

re: Rant about Mastodon

@menelion

The problem is that the people who created these technologies were and are motivated in ways that they don't accept as true.

What I mean is that while everyone has biases, when you don't acknowledge your biases and simply bake them into the work, it shows.

Most Mastodon users talk about the "non-commercial" model of the system, but what this means in practice is often that there's a patron or king that pays the bills.

In Babka's case, despite begging regularly on Patreon, that's me, but trust me, nearly every Mastodon instance has the same issues.

And the motivations of the authors similarly show up, and while they are a group that is often marginalized, within the walls of the Fediverse, they act with the same level of discrimination that they experience.

Are you Black? A Jew? Disabled? A political Conservative? Then sadly prepare to be marginalized and even targeted on the Fediverse. :(

André Polykanine boosted

Good news for #RemoteIncidentManager users:
Many of you asked. We heard you. And now, it's official.
Today, we are proud to unveil Remote Incident Manager's groundbreaking mobile companion as the next big thing in accessible, fully portable #RemoteDesktop!
Run trainings, perform technical support, or drop into your computer while out and about, directly from your mobile device.
Interested in helping shape the development of the world's first #byUsForUs mobile remote desktop solution? Fill out the form and we'll get you on board! iOS builds are ready and waiting for you all to kick the tires, with Android builds forthcoming.
pneumasolutions.com/remote-inc

pneumasolutions.comMobile Beta Signup – Pneuma Solutions
Rant about Mastodon

A post I've recently boosted starts with: "I know #Mastodon hates LLMs and AI."
and unfortunately, it's very true. Although #Fediverse apologists keep saying it's "for everyone", it's actually not. To be welcome on most Mastodon servers, you *ought* to love or hate someone and something you were told to love and hate by leftists de facto governing Mastodon. I won't go into details, but for example, if you don't hate so-called "big tech" and "tech bros", if you don't hate capitalism, if you don't hate AI, if you are not leftist (ideally far/extreme left), — you might have problems on this network.
There are exceptions of course, most significant I know of being the #Blind community exiled from Twitter after Musk banned third-party clients, but again, most of the servers' signup forms say literally this: leftist, anti-AI, anticapitalist, anti-big-tech, pro-open-source (which is not bad per se, but often it drifts to "If you are not using Linux desktop and don't want to, you're evil"). And if you do not suit those standards, you are automatically stigmatized and treated… another way, let's put it like this.
Why this rant? Just for people to understand that this network is also biased, like any other. Many times I heard things like "look, X/Twitter is biased, it's for conservatives", "TikTok and SnapChat are biased, it's for youngsters", and "Mastodon is not biased, it's for everyone".
Nope, it is biased. It is. Like all other network. Except for YouTube probably (too many videos for every taste 😊).