2019-02-01 11:39:01 (edited by Dark 2019-02-01 11:41:56)

Welcome to yet another of these monthly chat topics. As usual, feel free to chat about anything and everything you want from games, to books, to movies to why penguins would win in a fight with ostriches.

This is usually the point in the year when everyone says "wow! its only been a short while since Christmas, where has the time gone?" but actually a lot has gone on in January, at least for me, which means I've been about ready for a new month.

I attended my formal graduation, I was horribly ill with a  awful cold (which my lady is still getting over), I had a lot of things to sort out, including more major db updates, and of course as everyone knows its been a really great year for games so far, and with few minutes of glory and gold gun on the horizon looks like it'll continue to be.

Yesterday my lady and I were due to go and see Mary poppins, which is something we've been planning to do since Christmas but have either been too ill or occupied etc to do. One of the reasons for said occupation was due to the fact that for the last two weeks, my lady has been waiting for a parcel from Germany containing the last of the possessions she left over there when she moved rather precipitately to England in fifteen.
The other eleven parcels all arrived fine and have all even been unpacked, however, no sign of this one, and manifestly we didn't want to leave without it. There have been no delivery cards through the door,  or notifications, despite the fact that my lady's German relatives had all the correct address and contact details on the parcel.

So my lady phones the post office, who tell her apparently they attempted to deliver the parcel several times but got the wrong address, but they have no idea what is happening with it and tell her to call royal male central office for the midlands. Royal male don't know anything either but tell her  tracking number sounds like parcel force.

When she (eventually after 45 minutes listening to horribly synthetic Vivaldi), gets through to Parcel force, they tell her the tracking number sounds like Dhl.
So, at this point I decide to spare my lady a break and phone dhl. Small problem, Dhl have about 20 different phone numbers.
the sisxth one I try, I eventually get through to someone after another 20 minute wait to be told that Dhl express isn't the right department, I need a Dhl parcel.

I try directories, no number for Dhl parcel. I phone their international office to get a very unpleasant woman who informs me that the tracking number is not  international number, puts me through to customer service who eventually slam the phone down on me.
I then use google to try and find Dhl parcel, and while I find the site, their system to track parcels via tracking number utterly fails, despite how I try to format the number and our post code.

I phone the number on their website, to be told "enter your tracking number"" and then have the robot hang up on me. i try the other options, and eventually get royally pissed and simply hammer the zero key which eventually! gets me to speak to an actual human being!

In fairness he was a very nice human being, and did find the parcel and tell us what the hell has gone wrong, apparently there has been a label mix up and the parcel has gone to the completely, utterly, totally and absolutely wrong address and post code! The joke being the people at that address even accepted it. This was why I couldn't find it via tracking number, since it had the %100 wrong post code (we think the driver might have made a really major mix up, maybe labels fell off two parcels and got switched).

Luckily, the parcel doesn't contain anything too valuable, though it does have a few things such as recordings of Concerts my lady gave in Germany which have sentimental value.

So, he said he'd call back and arrange for the parcel to be picked up from the wrong address, ---- which meant once again Mary poppins had to wait, however he then never called back!

So, from all of this, why in the planet of hell can't these bloody companies actually employ human beings!we could've got things sorted far quicker if we'd just been able to speak to a bloody human! oh yeah, humans need paying where automated systems do not! the world is craaaaaaazy!

In other news, things aren't too bad. I've been doing a lot of gaming which has been fun, plus continuing my read through of Dracula with my lady. I've also started a bently little horror, about an evil housing association. He's an author I've only read one book of thus far (the influence which I also did a review of), but my lady has read more of his and I've heard lots of good things.

The Association is shaping up to be quite disturbing I think.

I'm intermitantly watching Angel series 5 to finish off my Buffy anf Angel complete watch, but season 5 is less good sadly, really having the small investigation team suddenly head of the evil corporate  doesn't make for quite as good drama, and I also wish Spike's story had actually ended in Buffy with his heroic sacrifice, since it'd got to quite a good end point.

anyway, I'd better stop rattling as I've got to dash off early this morning.

Hope everyone else is having a good 2019 thus far.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-02-01 12:08:37 (edited by Pineapple Pizza 2019-02-01 12:11:57)

I get to  post on this topic before a gets stuck to the top. Yay.

That cold blast  that hit the US seems to be starting to clear up now, at least where I live. I've had two days off from school.  Funny thing is, there was very little snow, which is just quite sad depending on the way you look at it.

I would rather listen to someone who can actually play the harmonica than someone who somehow managed to lose seven of them. Me, 2019.

2019-02-01 14:22:47

lol I will post in every monthly chat topic in existence, My birthday is this month, that is exciting, i am currently searching for the manamon tangeria tower theme,  I know with the right amount of searching I will find it, I will not give up, i am also going to start work on this game i am making, nothing too big, just a small space invaders game, that is all for now

2019-02-01 14:25:09

Hey.
This month should go well because on february 11th is my birthday, but who knows, the last 2 months were, hmmmm not so good.
Everyone in my house was sick, my cold wasn't that bad comparred to everyone else's, my laptop broke and I can't take it anywhere now because the lid won't close and the worst, I had aloooooooot of home work which was unnecesary and my frentch teacher, which is also the headmaster of this damn school didn't look at my test and gave me a quality feedback of 8 out of 10, which is not really a big deal, but I've shown it to other frentch teachers and they said that it is not perfect, but it is about 9.5 out of 10.
Yeah, that is it from me, howp you had a great month and howp for the best now.

I am myself and noone is ever gonna change me, I am the trolling master!

2019-02-01 18:56:06

Long post ahead I'm about to talk about several things.
I'm back to posting, finally, properly.
Firstly, I've stuck the topic, as I think that's what we normally do. Will just have to remember to unstick it at the end of the month.
Now here's where things get crazy. Rightfully, in the staff topic, people are wondering what's going on, why haven't we started to sort stuff out, and I am going to admit, it's because of distractions on my part. So, so much happened in January.
There was an event on January 19 called Pop Goes the Culture, which was a sort of cosplay lifestyle kind of event although much more of a stage show. The first half was interviews, and then they got some people up to do a blindfolded gaming challenge and yep, you guessed it, they picked me too, and I was laughing my head off. The game we were playing? New Super Mario U Deluxe on the switch, which was so funny because the whole audience was shouting when to jump. I ended up mashing the a button so much that instead of merely jumping my Mario was rolling over and over a whole, and actually got past it and then landed on a goomba.
However, I've sent a message to the organizers, who I know in person too, about other things to try, because this was a very funny section and I hope it comes back. A blindfold racing challenge (no, not blindfold racer I hope!), a blindfold card game challenge as a lot of them are turn-based with a sighted helper for each person, and, one of the things I have obviously suggested, is audiogames. If I hear back on any of this, I might have to start contacting some of our developers, as some things might need sorting. All I can say for now, is, stay tuned, as nothing's set in stone.
Then, Mortal Kombat 11 was also announced. This is quite exciting, although we'll just have to see where it goes.
Kingdom Hearts 3, an rpg game, also came out.
Then I've been rehearsing for my theatre show in April. I'm part of a group called First Act and we're doing a show called Monster Mashup. Since this is a public forum and not much has been publicly announced about the show, I won't put very much about it here as a result, accept to say that I'm enjoying the rehearsals. I will, however, say that I get to play a werewolf, but I will leave the rest for another time.
I'm also rehearsing for a cabaret in February. I should be able to do New York New York, plus a new song for me at least, I think I'm going to try and do "If I were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on The Roof.
I recently purchased the Mary Poppins Returns soundtrack as well, and I really like the music.
So, what's happening this month?
Well firstly, at some point this month I am going to get back to making an effort with the forum. Contacting the staff email list, putting an update out on here, and you can bet there is going to be an apology incoming as well on my part. January came and went without much admin work from me, and I don't think in hindsight that was very good on my part as more and more things started happening in real life, but I'm getting some more time on my hands.
I am going to a dinosaur event this month, too, which I am looking forward to, some big walk around ones there and some dinosaur facts, I think. It's quite a short experience.
I also will continue gaming this month too.

2019-02-01 23:38:48

The January topic is still sticky, that needs to be taken off.

I would rather listen to someone who can actually play the harmonica than someone who somehow managed to lose seven of them. Me, 2019.

2019-02-05 14:34:47

hi
i'm very happy cause I unbanned

2019-02-06 15:10:45

Welcome back Mahdi.

2019-02-06 15:13:48

thanks a lot

2019-02-07 04:41:30

Hi Mahdi and welcome.

wow Aaron interesting stuff there, monster mashup sounds fun. Sadly my lady and I are struggling to find anything stage wise where we are now, since most directors are bastarrds and don't tend to like blind people. Also, btw interesting I never had you pegged for a baritone :~D.

@Angel sorry about the french homework, but different teachers have different expectations, its just one of those things, and you can be dam sure your french is better than mine lol.

Well as for my lady and I things have been somewhat eventful, though not always in good ways.
Right now we've just found out that she needs to get an extention to the spousal visa for the next two years before she can apply for an actual settlement visa. This basically means another two years of not being able to have a bank account, and worse, not being able to studdy in the UK which is a major pest and something she's not pleased about.

She is also having merry hell with the parcel I mentioned in post 1, since we've heard bugger all back from Dhl Parcel, and right now I can't even get through to speak to a human  being, Dhl Parcel doesn't even have an email contact, so I'm actually having to go to the governmental postal complaints division, which is pretty bonkers! but hay if you can't get through to an actual person what else can you do?

Less irritatingly though, my lady went to her very first last night of the proms last weekend.
For those who don't know, this is a major musical event in Britain. The promenade concerts are a series of sort of fun orchestral concerts, and the last night  particularly special and usually an event in itself, with various orchestras running a last night of the proms program, which was what we went to on Saturday.
It always finishes with fantasia on sea songs, pomp and circumstance by Elgar (with the land of hope and glory words), rule britania and Jerusalem, usually with waving of British flags.

Btw, minor digression, if this country really must! have a national anthem, why the bloody hell couldn't it be Jerusalem or land of hope and glory which both have far nicer tunes (and in the case of Jerusalem), far nicer words than that boring dirge which just waffles on about how great the current royal is. it doens't even rhyme properly  goodness sake rhyming queen with, ----- mmmmmm, queen! really was it written by a five year old?

okay digression over.

My lady really enjoyed this, both the last night program, and some of the fun stuff we heard, which  a full sweet of music from the good the bad and the ugly (not just the bit that everyone always hears), and an awesome brass fantasia by a modern composer.

We also went yesterday to a local blind association event. Okay, the blind association was about what I expected, lots of over seventies having very stilted conversation and not a place we'll go back to methinks, but the event  a man and lady from a local owl sanctuary bringing some owls in and talking about them, and letting people stroke and hold them.

i have some quite fun photos of me with an eagle owl on my shoulder which was actually pretty awesome. Oddly enough, something I didn't know was that firstly if Owls are actually bought up by people they can be prretty friendly, and secondly, they can live a stupidly long time, like around 60 years, hence all the traditions about the wise old owl.

it was pretty amazing actually, and I'll never think of the owls in the hp books quite the same way again.

In other news, I'm now reading George RR Martin's latest fire and blood.

I'll say what pretty much all sensible people have said about the book, no it isn't the winds of winter and for this Martin should get a right royal boot up the arse, ---- actually I wonder if Martin's publishers are waiting to bring the book out post the final season of game of thrones, but we'll see.
Also, since I've already read world of ice and fire this one felt especially pointless to me.

On the other hand, it is extremely compelling, especially the little character moments and the chance to get to see some of Deanerys' ancestors, not to mention other people's (we've met Sam's  much fiercer namesake).

Probably not for everyone if you don't have the stomach for lots of history, and lots of pretty goryy, horrible destructive history at that, (my lady isn't reading it for this reason).

I've also been working on the db, though most recently have found myself very much taken up with some recent awesome game entries like Path of adventure and a few minutes of glory which are pretty cool.

Hope everyone else is having fun.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-02-08 16:41:31

@Dark:

it is always very interesting to here about your musical ventures... adventures? whatever. but they are very interesting. sadly for me, no more hope for music stands out, since I have gotten busy in my studies, and haven't found another teacher who could teach me. it was nice when I used to learn to play pianno at the age of seven, but my teacher moved away and I haven't found one who could replace him.

at this point, my hope lies on algorithmic composition, but for that I need much more advance programming knowledge.

anyway, something happened to me today which angered me a lot.

I met a person today, (you know, the kind who are quite arogant and full of themselves,) and he was talking to my parents normally. but as soon as he saw me, he started to flaunt his knowledge of English.

I don't know whether you guys are aware or not, but for some reason, the English is given quite an importance here in India.

so, he started to speek in rapid English, me, not one of those people who easyly get cowed, replied in same manner.

then, he asked me the question related with some grammer, it was not something like past or present tence or anything like that. it was the kind of thing which you would study for a exam, and then forget. I couldn't answer.

so, just because I couldn't answer one question, according to him, I don't know English. that angered me a lot. I told him in retaliation that no matter how many rules he knows of the language, unless he could speek it like the native people, he will never master it.

I will be the first one to admit that my grasp on the rules of grammer is not perfect. also, I did not learn any English from my school, but by watching English versions of old cartoons and anime which were dubbed in Hindi and aired here, and mostly translating what exactly the screen reader I am using is telling me, instead of just thinking everything would be predictable.

and I am very proud of every skill I learned in my life so far. so I really get angered just because the way I learn things do not conform to their way of thinking.

on some different matters, the weather got really nice here for two or three days, but then went back to just as cold and dreery again. I am going into a marriage for three days, (these things take long here in India,) not something I am excited about.

because the place would be filled with people, and when that happened, I really don't like. also, the loud music, rather than listen to that, I will like to rupture my ear drums. less pain and confusion that way.

for this exact reason why I can't wait to get indipendent of my family, because then I won't have to rely on them, and won't be pulled in these events.
also, I read an artical which tried to say that our planet is cooling, but I really have a feeling that it was a written by a internet kid who didn't like that people do not pay attention to their opinions.

anyway, hope you are having much more warmer month.

2019-02-08 21:49:58

@Dark eagle, musical opportunities are a little thin on the ground at the moment, my lady and I are both very serious singers, but finding chances to do that is damnably difficult, mostly due to directors being scumbags as I said. The last night of the proms concert was good though, even if we were just in the audience for that one.


Your English seems extremely good to me judging by what's said on this forum, so I wouldn't worry too much about what some idiot thinks, also interesting that  is so well thought of in India.

As for us, Yesterday we did finally get to go and see Mary Poppins returns. While it was good fun, at the same time it really did feel like Starwars episode 7, in that it was very much a case of "something that sounds like mary Poppins" rather than anything really new.
My lady was particularly irritated that Emily Blunt made Mary Poppins an alto, indeed the section where Mary said "I haven't sung in years" my lady commented "and my voice has dropped two octives" big_smile.
Then again since my lady has a singing voice that sounds quite a lot  Julie andrews (if Julie Andrews were American), I can see why sh'es a little annoyed, and I did notice Emily's accent wasn't always perfect though not quite as bad as dick vandike's from the original which has to be one of the worst cockney accents in history big_smile.
We also made the mistake of having Julie Andrew's original tuppance a bag popup whilst we  listening to random disney songs over pizza  which was probably not a good move for appreciating Emily Blunt big_smile.

On the other hand, the turning turtle song was awesome, and I really liked the music hall rap for doing something different. I also appreciated that ggrown up Michael banks was a nice guy rather than the expected arsehole, and the kids for the most part avoided annoying  of sickening holllywood cuteness big_smile.

I did think it was a bit on the nose though for Disney, the world's largest entertainment coorporation to talk about share citificates saving the day and show that the so called evil bank wasn't quite as evil after all, especially after they indicated that Michael had to give up painting for banking. So the moral seems to be "go off and have fun, and remember the big multinational coorporations are your friends!", which sort of makes a mockery of the original feed the birds vs investment bit in the film big_smile.

Either way it was fun and we probably will also pickup the soundtrack too.

Weather wise its still freezing, also our stupid boiler cut out today. it does this occasionally when it loses pressure. We were able to fix this  having a facetime audio call to my dad, but it is still a pain, though at least the heat is back on.

Hope everyone else is still having a good February.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-02-09 14:49:40

About the english thing in indea, I’ve seen similar patterns in former colonies, some to more of  an extent than others.

As for weather, rain, rain, and mor rain for the last few days, aside from  yesterday, in which the sun finally decided to come out.

I would rather listen to someone who can actually play the harmonica than someone who somehow managed to lose seven of them. Me, 2019.

2019-02-11 20:43:50

Off topic: I hate my calculus class. I also hear people say to their buddies, he’s going to stick his stick up your ass. Referring to my cane, on an almost daily basis

2019-02-12 07:09:10

Retrospectively longn post ahead, watch out!

I graduated in computer engineering right before christmas, finally! It's a four and a half years long bachelor's degree of 8 semesters and 5 internships. I'm currently on vacation before starting to work for real for Microsoft, Redmond. It's going so fast!

I've had a lot of interviews, articles and even some TV lately, because apparently it's not common to finish a bachelor's degree with a perfect score whilst being blind even though I think being blind doesn't have to do much with grades. Anyway, I had the chance to give the blind community some exposure so I gladly did those media things. I don't know why, but here in Quebec (it's in Canada) there has been a lot of news recently about blind people and blindness in general. This is a good thing.

After one of the article, the grandmother of a 11 years-old boy who apparently has the same disease as me wanted us to meet. He's very smart and super positive about that even if he was diagnosed only two years ago. He reminds me of myself when I was his age, though he's actually further ahead than I was, because he's already developing Mods for MineCraft in Eclipse. Hee's also passionate about computers so he's really like a mini me. We'll keep contact so I can give him some advice. This way, he won't have to struggle as much as I did to find solutions along the way. I also promised him I'd chat with the Ubisoft crew so he could visit the studios, he was nuts, apparently it was one of his biggest dream, let's make that come true shall we ? Gotta remember to do that.

It's been frickin cold here. I walked with a friend around a lake nearby when it was minus 26 degrees Celsius. After 5 minutes I wasn't feeling my legs anymore, it was kinda stupid to do that, especially with really thin pants. It then got a bit warmer. Good you might think ? Hell no. The thick layer of ice covering every outdoor surface whatsoever started to melt. Combine ice with water on top and you develop a new skill: walking without having to lift your feet. There was massive accidents involving 150 cars, 75 suffered damage. And of course, because I just graduated, the school closed twice in two weeks where it never happened a single time in my whole bachelor's degree, screw you weather, get your things together.

I'm currently trying to get a work visa to work in the US. By I'm trying, I mean Microsoft is trying for me, though they keep shooting me a ton of paperwork I have to fill. So this is my last month of vacation unless I'm delayed by my visa not arriving on time. Delays would mean more vacation though... Kidding of course. Right Microsoft? if you see this, I never said that.

Game-wise, I restarted to play A hero's call and man that game is awesome, I forgot how cool it was. I made a necromancer, I'll see if it was a good choice. The navigation system is so brilliant, just plain genius in my opinion. With quick audio clues on your sides indicating interactables or openings / narrowing as well as useful beaconing system. Plus this system has the pro of dealing nicely with the usual back and front 3D sound problem, you just don't hear and require to hear what's behind you. I also tried your adventure from non vision goms and it's pretty cool.

I also started to develop an app to make browsing reddit blazing fast, but the guy who wrote a nuget package a I use stopped answering my e-mails after I requested a missing feature in his nuget, so perhaps I'll have to implement it myself which is kind of a bummer. I don't know if this app will be useful to anyone, but I'll open-source it. I just prefer desktop app to browse reddit instead of the web site loading dynamically the content with JAWS not realizing the DOM changed.

And... voilà! I think I'm gonna stop there. I always write too much, which makes me think of those reports and exams I won't have to do again.

Yippers and cheers!

Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another. ― Lemony Snicket

2019-02-13 11:42:04

So, I am back from the wedding.

Since it was the wedding of the younger son of my mother's big sister, it was not so problematic as I was expecting. my brother (We actually are cousins, but we are close like brothers,) understood my problem with loud music, so he took me on a far enough place to sit.

@Dark:

Thanks. nice to know that I don't need specialized classes for English.

@Idiot:

I think out of the asian colonies, India is the worst in this aspect.

@Oregine:

Congratulations. would you mind telling me somethings?

mainly, what is the difference between computer engineering and learning programming (Like I am doing currently?)

Also, nice of you to help that kid like this way. I am always telling the elder blind people who I meet in this country, that they should always help the younger kids with their experiences. sadly, they do not seems to be listening to me.

What's more, I am in a writing mood lately. even if I know that exams of the colege are near, I can't help it. I can't believe that I am about to clear my first year of colege so soon.

Yes, I am confident enough that I would be able to clear the exams. but with what sort of marks, I am not sure yet.

2019-02-13 22:52:56

@15, I would be interested in that Reddit app. I use one that's currently in beta for IOS, but I don't find navigating long posts as seamless on my phone as I do on the computer. You have to listen to one large block of text being read all at once, which I find problematic sometimes. Usually, when I'm reading things on the web, I don't do a say all, I just scroll through with the arrows so that if I miss something, I can go back and read it again. Unfortunately, there's not really a way to do that on IOS, and it annoys me.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2019-02-14 15:09:12

I think a reddit app would be awesome!
Earlier, Dark mentioned about me possibly being a baratone. From what has been happening over the past few years, I think I've learned that my main range is bass, although I can go up to mid fairly comfortably, and my highest voice range is around a top E to top G, and when we are at that point, it's stretching to the limit, and is hard to hit those notes.

2019-02-15 07:52:48

@16, computer engineering is a very wide field of study. You do programming, yes, but also electronics, embedded programming, processor design and organization all the way up to databases, web applications, communication protocol and stacks, signal processing, artificial intelligence, computer security (attack and defense), how an OS works. There are many more specialization then, you can do bioengineering, quantum computing, Internet of Things, sensors, actuators, any chip design, chip packaging, etc. Computer engineering is more practical than computer science where it's more theoretical.

And this is only the computer part, but as engineers (in Canada at least), you need to have minimal knowledge in all engineering specialties like physics, electrical, chemistry, math, robotics.

Finally, there's the more random, but useful stuff like managing budgets, managing projects, dealing with humans, some legal stuff, intellectual property, ethics, safety, sociology. Engineers will often become managers, so there's a huge emphazis on management.

Basically, a computer engineer is a guy that knows a lot about computers, that can program and design complex distributed systems, that can deal with a team of humans chenneling strengths and weaknesses of every team member to meet client goals, but also knows what other engineers in different areas are talking about to make larger projects. The goal is that an engineer can talk to legal peeps, finance peeps, other engineers, researchers, C-level and know what is going on even if you are not an expert in everything.

If you wanna know more about one thing in particular in the list above, don't hesitate.

@17, same! I'm a master of the down arrow. I'm not sure about the user experience I want for the user yet, but I want it to be super fast. I thought up and down arrows to navigate posts, then right-arrow to expand to comments and so on, like a tree navigation. But it would read text like blocks, perhaps space bar could enter in reading mode where you can read line by line and word by word.

Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another. ― Lemony Snicket

2019-02-15 09:59:26

@Origine interesting stuff and good luck with microsoft. I will say its encouraging that they're  hiring a blind graduate for a change, quite a turn around from some of their previous attitudes. Also weather  in Canada sounds Crazy! big_smile.

@Aaron, interesting, range wise, I'm a tenor myself, with a top range of around an a, c on a good day, and a lower range around the bottom A ish.

well things have been calming down a bit if still a bit crazy. unfortunately it turns out my lady's Uk visa application needs to be done entirely online. This is a bit ridiculous because its a google form so you need to complete one set of questions before the next set, as well as gather a hole bunch of documentary evidence such as statements about having a committed relationship and then literal scans or photographs of the name identification of the people who made those statements which is nuts! doing this with physical media was bad enough, but god knows what the government expect in terms of digital applications, also  the lawyers we used last time run a checking service to make sure your application is okay that will be horribly complicated too.

Sadly my lady's parcel seems to be missing forever, we think the stupid people at dhl delivered it to the wrong address, but since they added the wrong postcoad we  track it, neither can we get in touch with anyone since Dhl parcel have no contacts.
On the plus side, yesterday we went out for a really nice valantine's day meal at a local Italian restaurant which was awesome, plus my lady has been accepted to work voluntarily as a counsellor for victims of sexual abuse. She really wants to do this professionally (since singing professionally seems impossible in this stupid country), but sadly studdying isn't possible until we have the blasted visa and can apply for student loans since the prices for courses are insane!

Gaming wise I still need to work out a hero's call. Its odd, I never had issues with Swamp or shades of doom but for some reason I've not quite got my head around hero's call's navigation which is really strange. I have however been checking out a couple of browser games and muds in preparation to adding to the db, though i'm still waiting to hear back on information about accessibility in a couple of cases.

Also my novella is going well, though I'm having trouble getting into writing book reviews at the second. Still I'd like to get the novella finished so I can actually look at perhaps publishing somewhere.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-02-16 07:59:07

@20, what is/used to be Microsoft reputation and what are you referring to ? News, articles, do you have some links, I'm interested. I always thought they were an inclusive company.

Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another. ― Lemony Snicket

2019-02-17 12:16:30

@Origine:

Nice to know that other countries also requires the knowledge of the different engineering disciplines . but as always, India manages to do that wrong as well. everything here depends on marks, to the detriment of other developments.

I know that the moment I started to learn programming, I would only most likely be a application developer. which is fine with me. specially since I found a teacher who teaches me very nicely.

2019-02-20 15:14:37

@@Origine: Microsoft used to have a less good rep access wise due to narrator's lack of progress pre windows 7, the fact that a lot of their older development tools were not accessible, and that they changed from accessible ones (I recall Jim Kitchin once complaining that visual basic studio's new version was a nightmare), and their habit of altering windows interfaces on a whim (anyone remember the windows arrow?).

Obviously, matters have improved significantly since then, especially with new version updates no longer breaking the windows interface , though I still do not like Microsoft edge big_smile.

Well things have been busy especially in the trying games front (see the db updates), indeed I've had to forceably extracate myself from a couple of games like Popmundo once they have writeups, but its good the db is now feeling a little more complete.

The next project is facebook and text spaced, though at the moment I'm relaxing and playing a bit of coremud as I said  in new releases, indeed I'm drilling ore right now big_smile.

Writing my lady's  form is not quite as terrible as I believed, it turns out they save with an account email and password and can print a pdf which we can send to the solicitor's checking service which makes sense, though there is still a hidious number of questions.
it'd also be nice if there was a way my lady could practice some basic online form controls, EG something like the looktell voicevoer tutorial but for the internet. While she's familiar enough with sights  like wikipedia, she's still not quite up with the likes of radial buttons, combo boxes, auto complete edit areas  and so on.
I tended to pick those sorts of things  up in browser games as I needed them but myb lady hasn't played browser games quite as much (Maybe I should get her into something like LogD)./

it actually seems odd to me that though the documentation for NvdA tells you about how to navigate internet controls, it doesn't give any practical examples. Ah well, at least I can always hang around and explain stuff as she comes to it, although this has also now started my mum trying to persuade me to go and be a tech teacher for   visually impared people big_smile.

In other news, I'm continuing to write still workign on my novella, also banging out a review for Bently little's book The Association. My lady and I are also reading Dean Koontz Watchers  which i'll  also be reviewing. Thus far I like the super intelligent golden retriever, but am less keen on the usual brand of Dean Koontz explanations of how nice all his characters are big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-02-20 20:38:25 (edited by Origine 2019-02-20 20:41:34)

@Dark, I thought you talked about their attitudes hiring-wise, like some sort of past discrimination. Now, I don't think Microsoft's products accessibility is perfect, but they do a good job, much better than Google in my opinion. It's totally crazy that they released Edge without making it accessible seriously. But now that they will rebuild it on top of Chromium, I bet it's gonna be much more accessible in the future. However, I'm not sure why I would use Edge when I can use Chrome, we'll see what they come up with.

Also, it would be nice if you made a series of videos to use NVDA, I'm an advanced user with JAWS, have been using it for many years, but my use of NVDA has been limited to a couple days in total. I'd especially like the advanced stuff, like the power user tips and tricks.

In other news, something totally crazy happened lately. An ophtalmologist reached to me after reading an article about me. She wanted to tell me about Luxturna, a gene therapy for Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) that affects the RPE65 gene. I already knew about that treatment and told her that my LCA affected the RDH12 gene, not RPE65, but maybe it wouldn't be too hard to reuse the same technique to target RDH12 instead of RPE65 in a near future. She did some research apparently because she came back to me few days later and told me that she was told that research on RDH12 LCA was lagging behind, only being able to characterize the disease on mice. She linked to me rdh12.org, and told me that I should contact Dr. Jean Bennett in the references list, because she was the co-director of the study for the gene therapy on RPE65.

So I sent an e-mail to Dr. Jean Bennett asking if there was any development for a gene therapy on RDH12 and what made it so hard to target RDH12 instead of RPE65 using the same technique. I thought it would be to find a viral vector that would target that specific gene, but apparently it is being able to find animals that have the same disease aka LCA with RDH12... or so it was. Jean told me that they thought they circumvented this problem and they will start trials in the next 1.5 years. She then asked me if I wanted to be contacted when they would soon start the trials. I said yes of course! This means that I could be a test subject for Luxturna on RDH12 mutations. Now results vary of course, there might be side-effects, perhaps I will not be elligible, perhaps it's gonna be delayed, but maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to see again. There is hope, but no illusion. If it happens, great, if it doesn't, I still can have a wonderful life full of challenges.

By the way, if anyone with LCA RDH12 happens to be in the vicinity of Philadelphia, they are currently carrying out tests in preparation for the trials. You should contact Dr. Tomas Aleman to <[email protected]>.

Cheers!

Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another. ― Lemony Snicket

2019-02-21 17:23:42

warning, future arguments may arouse from this post. Remove it if need be.

Microsoft has created the seeing AI app. I have to give them credit for that. Making it free was the best choice they could have made, although I wouldn't mind paying money for it. And it works very well. With NVDA and seeing AI, one day we can make people understand that free doesn't always mean bad. I'm talking to you knfb reader and jawse users. Stop supporting organizations who think paying a massive amount for something is the best decision. If jawse was 100 and knfb was 20 then ok I would understand some people paying  for the software, but 1000 and 100? Unacceptable...