Search
1000 results for “alt_graph”
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By African-American artist Charles White (1918-1979), Harvest Talk, 1953, charcoal, Wolff's carbon drawing pencil, and graphite, with stumping and erasing, on ivory wood pulp laminate board, 26 1/16 × 39 1/16 in. (66.1 × 99.2 cm), The Art Institute of Chicago, © The Charles White Archives Inc. More info in ALT. #arthistory #blackart #BlackArtists #blackartist #drawing
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Just a #thought #experiment. I #might be #totally #wrong.
A #pixelphone + #grapheneOS + #nexdock = most #secure #notebook #smartphone #hybrid on the #planet?🤔🤔 🤔
If you don't know what a nexdock is
https://y.com.sb/watch?v=zJ5x7XeSMKE
Alt. link.:
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Asahi Linux adds microphone support for MacBooks with Apple Silicon
The Asahi Linux project has done a lot of work over the past few years to allow users to install and run Linux on recent Macs with Apple Silicon processors. But while most features are already working (including displays, graphics drivers, USB and wireless ports, and cameras), there are others that have long been considered works in progress including support for Thunderbolt, DisplayPort Alt […]
#asahi #asahiLinux #beamforming #linux #macbook #macos #microphone
Read more: https://liliputing.com/asahi-linux-adds-microphone-support-for-macbooks-with-apple-silicon/
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[Livre] Toxic Data : Comment les réseaux sociaux manipulent nos opinions.
@interessant
toxicdata.chavalarias.org/
editions.flammarion.com/toxic-data/9782080419415
Salut à tous et toutes ! Je me suis lancé dans la lecture de ce bouquin et j'ai envie de vous proposer une lecture collective avec des résumés et graphes. Et vous invite chaudement à l'acheter et le partager. Comme à mon habitude, je commence par le sommaire :D
Sommaire
Avant-propos
La France dans le collimateur de l'alt-right
Que se passe-t-il derrière nos écrans
Nos réseaux sociaux vue du ciel
Quand les algo partent en vrille
Libre de se laisser enfermer
Toxicité à tous les étages
Quand c'est gratuit, c'est vous le produit
Diviser pour mieux regner depuis l'étranger
Subversion 2.0
Entracte
Check-up d'une démocracie malade
La démocracie, la première victime de la COVID19 ?
En marche vers le populisme
La France face au spectre du fascisme ?
Le capitalisme d'influence
Comment sauver notre démocracie de l'overdose du numérique
Résumé
Un polar contemporain qu’il faut lire pour ne pas en être la victime.
Avec la montée en puissance des réseaux sociaux, une lame de fond s’abat sur les démocraties : le tissu social se déchire, les opinions sont manipulées, les élections sont déstabilisées.
Si les outils numériques ont représenté une innovation majeure dans la production et la diffusion de savoirs, ils ont également leurs côtés obscurs : ils donnent les clés de l’influence sociale à tout acteur, politique ou étatique, qui souhaiterait asseoir ses idées auprès d’un grand nombre de nos concitoyens.
Comment se prémunir des intoxications et sauver notre démocratie de l’overdose numérique ?
La science révèle notre dangereuse inadaptation à la nouvelle donne numérique mais nous aide également à en combattre les ravages. Livrant une analyse stupéfiante des effets de l’action des GAFAM dans notre quotidien, David Chavalarias propose des pistes concrètes, tant individuelles que collectives, pour nous en protéger.
#VendrediLecture #ToxicData #DavidChavalarias #HelloQuitteX #X #Facebook #Whatsapp #BigTech #Gafam #ExtremeDroite #Fascisme #Politoscope #CNRS #systemeComplexe #science -
20 books that have had an impact on who you are. one book a day, 20 dates. no explanation, no reviews, just book covers (with alt text).
Day 7/20: The Giver – Lois Lowry
only realized the depth and meaning behind this series when i re-read it years later. to young me, this defined knowledge and suffering and human memory in a way i hadn’t previously seen.
the graphic novel is absolutely unmatched; use of color becomes so much more vivid. i have yet to see the movie, though – is it any good?
#20Books #20Books20Days #books #bookstodon #dystopian #TheGiver @bookstodon
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Hey all, I posted an ebook/pdf for the mathober pairing series I did this year - enjoy. Art work touches on catastrophes, category, number theory, graphs, inverses, singularities and more.
Blog post: https://fractalkitty.com/2022/12/10/pdf-of-time-and-cosmos/
direct pdf link:
https://fractalkitty.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OfTimeandCosmos.pdfDoes anyone know how to do alt text for a pdf so it is more accessible? The individual posts for the collection have alt text I could add.
#mathober2022 #mathart #haiku #poetry #mtbos #math #mathbook
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[Livre] Toxic Data : Comment les réseaux sociaux manipulent nos opinions.
@interessant
toxicdata.chavalarias.org/
editions.flammarion.com/toxic-data/9782080419415
Salut à tous et toutes ! Je me suis lancé dans la lecture de ce bouquin et j'ai envie de vous proposer une lecture collective avec des résumés et graphes. Et vous invite chaudement à l'acheter et le partager. Comme à mon habitude, je commence par le sommaire :D
Sommaire
Avant-propos
La France dans le collimateur de l'alt-right
Que se passe-t-il derrière nos écrans
Nos réseaux sociaux vue du ciel
Quand les algo partent en vrille
Libre de se laisser enfermer
Toxicité à tous les étages
Quand c'est gratuit, c'est vous le produit
Diviser pour mieux regner depuis l'étranger
Subversion 2.0
Entracte
Check-up d'une démocracie malade
La démocracie, la première victime de la COVID19 ?
En marche vers le populisme
La France face au spectre du fascisme ?
Le capitalisme d'influence
Comment sauver notre démocracie de l'overdose du numérique
Résumé
Un polar contemporain qu’il faut lire pour ne pas en être la victime.
Avec la montée en puissance des réseaux sociaux, une lame de fond s’abat sur les démocraties : le tissu social se déchire, les opinions sont manipulées, les élections sont déstabilisées.
Si les outils numériques ont représenté une innovation majeure dans la production et la diffusion de savoirs, ils ont également leurs côtés obscurs : ils donnent les clés de l’influence sociale à tout acteur, politique ou étatique, qui souhaiterait asseoir ses idées auprès d’un grand nombre de nos concitoyens.
Comment se prémunir des intoxications et sauver notre démocratie de l’overdose numérique ?
La science révèle notre dangereuse inadaptation à la nouvelle donne numérique mais nous aide également à en combattre les ravages. Livrant une analyse stupéfiante des effets de l’action des GAFAM dans notre quotidien, David Chavalarias propose des pistes concrètes, tant individuelles que collectives, pour nous en protéger.
#VendrediLecture #ToxicData #DavidChavalarias #HelloQuitteX #X #Facebook #Whatsapp #BigTech #Gafam #ExtremeDroite #Fascisme #Politoscope #CNRS #systemeComplexe #science -
[Livre] Toxic Data : Comment les réseaux sociaux manipulent nos opinions.
@interessant
toxicdata.chavalarias.org/
editions.flammarion.com/toxic-data/9782080419415
Salut à tous et toutes ! Je me suis lancé dans la lecture de ce bouquin et j'ai envie de vous proposer une lecture collective avec des résumés et graphes. Et vous invite chaudement à l'acheter et le partager. Comme à mon habitude, je commence par le sommaire :D
Sommaire
Avant-propos
La France dans le collimateur de l'alt-right
Que se passe-t-il derrière nos écrans
Nos réseaux sociaux vue du ciel
Quand les algo partent en vrille
Libre de se laisser enfermer
Toxicité à tous les étages
Quand c'est gratuit, c'est vous le produit
Diviser pour mieux regner depuis l'étranger
Subversion 2.0
Entracte
Check-up d'une démocracie malade
La démocracie, la première victime de la COVID19 ?
En marche vers le populisme
La France face au spectre du fascisme ?
Le capitalisme d'influence
Comment sauver notre démocracie de l'overdose du numérique
Résumé
Un polar contemporain qu’il faut lire pour ne pas en être la victime.
Avec la montée en puissance des réseaux sociaux, une lame de fond s’abat sur les démocraties : le tissu social se déchire, les opinions sont manipulées, les élections sont déstabilisées.
Si les outils numériques ont représenté une innovation majeure dans la production et la diffusion de savoirs, ils ont également leurs côtés obscurs : ils donnent les clés de l’influence sociale à tout acteur, politique ou étatique, qui souhaiterait asseoir ses idées auprès d’un grand nombre de nos concitoyens.
Comment se prémunir des intoxications et sauver notre démocratie de l’overdose numérique ?
La science révèle notre dangereuse inadaptation à la nouvelle donne numérique mais nous aide également à en combattre les ravages. Livrant une analyse stupéfiante des effets de l’action des GAFAM dans notre quotidien, David Chavalarias propose des pistes concrètes, tant individuelles que collectives, pour nous en protéger.
#VendrediLecture #ToxicData #DavidChavalarias #HelloQuitteX #X #Facebook #Whatsapp #BigTech #Gafam #ExtremeDroite #Fascisme #Politoscope #CNRS #systemeComplexe #science -
[Livre] Toxic Data : Comment les réseaux sociaux manipulent nos opinions.
@interessant
toxicdata.chavalarias.org/
editions.flammarion.com/toxic-data/9782080419415
Salut à tous et toutes ! Je me suis lancé dans la lecture de ce bouquin et j'ai envie de vous proposer une lecture collective avec des résumés et graphes. Et vous invite chaudement à l'acheter et le partager. Comme à mon habitude, je commence par le sommaire :D
Sommaire
Avant-propos
La France dans le collimateur de l'alt-right
Que se passe-t-il derrière nos écrans
Nos réseaux sociaux vue du ciel
Quand les algo partent en vrille
Libre de se laisser enfermer
Toxicité à tous les étages
Quand c'est gratuit, c'est vous le produit
Diviser pour mieux regner depuis l'étranger
Subversion 2.0
Entracte
Check-up d'une démocracie malade
La démocracie, la première victime de la COVID19 ?
En marche vers le populisme
La France face au spectre du fascisme ?
Le capitalisme d'influence
Comment sauver notre démocracie de l'overdose du numérique
Résumé
Un polar contemporain qu’il faut lire pour ne pas en être la victime.
Avec la montée en puissance des réseaux sociaux, une lame de fond s’abat sur les démocraties : le tissu social se déchire, les opinions sont manipulées, les élections sont déstabilisées.
Si les outils numériques ont représenté une innovation majeure dans la production et la diffusion de savoirs, ils ont également leurs côtés obscurs : ils donnent les clés de l’influence sociale à tout acteur, politique ou étatique, qui souhaiterait asseoir ses idées auprès d’un grand nombre de nos concitoyens.
Comment se prémunir des intoxications et sauver notre démocratie de l’overdose numérique ?
La science révèle notre dangereuse inadaptation à la nouvelle donne numérique mais nous aide également à en combattre les ravages. Livrant une analyse stupéfiante des effets de l’action des GAFAM dans notre quotidien, David Chavalarias propose des pistes concrètes, tant individuelles que collectives, pour nous en protéger.
#VendrediLecture #ToxicData #DavidChavalarias #HelloQuitteX #X #Facebook #Whatsapp #BigTech #Gafam #ExtremeDroite #Fascisme #Politoscope #CNRS #systemeComplexe #science -
[Livre] Toxic Data : Comment les réseaux sociaux manipulent nos opinions.
@interessant
toxicdata.chavalarias.org/
editions.flammarion.com/toxic-data/9782080419415
Salut à tous et toutes ! Je me suis lancé dans la lecture de ce bouquin et j'ai envie de vous proposer une lecture collective avec des résumés et graphes. Et vous invite chaudement à l'acheter et le partager. Comme à mon habitude, je commence par le sommaire :D
Sommaire
Avant-propos
La France dans le collimateur de l'alt-right
Que se passe-t-il derrière nos écrans
Nos réseaux sociaux vue du ciel
Quand les algo partent en vrille
Libre de se laisser enfermer
Toxicité à tous les étages
Quand c'est gratuit, c'est vous le produit
Diviser pour mieux regner depuis l'étranger
Subversion 2.0
Entracte
Check-up d'une démocracie malade
La démocracie, la première victime de la COVID19 ?
En marche vers le populisme
La France face au spectre du fascisme ?
Le capitalisme d'influence
Comment sauver notre démocracie de l'overdose du numérique
Résumé
Un polar contemporain qu’il faut lire pour ne pas en être la victime.
Avec la montée en puissance des réseaux sociaux, une lame de fond s’abat sur les démocraties : le tissu social se déchire, les opinions sont manipulées, les élections sont déstabilisées.
Si les outils numériques ont représenté une innovation majeure dans la production et la diffusion de savoirs, ils ont également leurs côtés obscurs : ils donnent les clés de l’influence sociale à tout acteur, politique ou étatique, qui souhaiterait asseoir ses idées auprès d’un grand nombre de nos concitoyens.
Comment se prémunir des intoxications et sauver notre démocratie de l’overdose numérique ?
La science révèle notre dangereuse inadaptation à la nouvelle donne numérique mais nous aide également à en combattre les ravages. Livrant une analyse stupéfiante des effets de l’action des GAFAM dans notre quotidien, David Chavalarias propose des pistes concrètes, tant individuelles que collectives, pour nous en protéger.
#VendrediLecture #ToxicData #DavidChavalarias #HelloQuitteX #X #Facebook #Whatsapp #BigTech #Gafam #ExtremeDroite #Fascisme #Politoscope #CNRS #systemeComplexe #science -
CW: Adult content<br>Explicit or potentially disturbing media
Alright, time for another YCH! To get a slot, you just need to call a payment processor from stop-paypros.neocities.org! If you manage a 10 minute call, I'll throw in the censor alt as well <3 #vore #GraphicDigestion #FatalVore #digestion #PainfulDigestion #furry #FurryVore #VoreArt #YCH #giveaway
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:rnwtawpfwcb7tx2mpkmwchrk/post/3lvgpyqgxzs2c -
@Jeffrey D. Stark I know that decision tree, and it doesn't really work for my original images because it's limited to what you'd usually find on professional/commercial static websites or blogs with a very small choice of kinds of images.
Let's take this image as an example here. It was the first image I've described in detail. I'm not going to link to that description because it's hopelessly outdated and probably terribly lacking at only a bit over 13,000 characters, and the image does not have a descriptive alt-text yet. It's an old shame, so-to-speak.
Does the image contain text?
Let's say, what the image shows within its borders has 22 bits of text on it, for any definition of text. This could count as yes.
However, of these 22 bits of text, only three are legible in the image as it is, at the resolution at which I've uploaded it: three times a capital M. As I've said, for any definition of text. The other 19 are so small that they're illegible, or they are so small that they can't be identified as text, or they're so tiny that they're invisible at this resolution. The big black sign in the middle with the yellow writing on it has a tree in front of it.
Is it still a yes because, while it isn't readable, there still is text?
Is it a yes for the three capital Ms?
Is it a no because the text does not show itself as text in this image at this resolution? So technically speaking, with the exception of the three capital Ms, there is no text in this image because where there's text in the original, there's just some blurry mush that does not qualify as text in the image as shown?
Or is it a no because I can't transcribe it anyway if I can't read it? Fun fact: I have transcribed all this text. 100% verbatim. And provided translations for everything that isn't English. So "you can't read it anyway" doesn't count because I can read it.
Now comes the kicker: If we pick yes because there is text in the image, the decision tree implies that it is an image of text and nothing else, and that the image-describing process is over after transcribing the text. This wouldn't even work with an image macro.
Does the image contribute meaning to the current page or context?
Does this question even work in this case?
Let's say the post in question is about the world where the image was taken shutting down soon and my avatar in this world disappearing. Because it was when I first posted this image. It's just meant to be a last farewell.
It doesn't add any extra information. This is not a post in a professional commercial or scientific or technological blog. So, does the image contribute meaning, yes or no?
If so:- It's not "a simple graphic or a photograph". It's a digital 3-D rendering, and it's anything but simple.
- It's not "a graph or complex piece of information". Complex, yes. But it isn't a graph, and it isn't a piece of information of the kind you'd have on a scientific website.
- I don't think it "shows content that is redundant to real text nearby".
Is the image purely decorative or not intended for users?
That's debatable. On professional websites and blogs, this question may make sense. In social media where nobody adds decorative images to posts, it doesn't. In the Fediverse which has way higher accessibility standards than 𝕏 or Facebook or Tumblr or Threads or Bluesky or LinkedIn, it makes even less sense.
Is the image’s use not listed above or it’s unclear whatalttext to provide?
Probably.
The top of the article is already a dead give-away: This guide is not meant for social media. Not for the big commercial silos, and even less for the Fediverse where Mastodon re-defines what makes an image description good. Not even two dozen people in the world use social media that support HTML<img>tags in posts.
While professional Web accessibility experts will throw their hands up into the air in utter outrage over 250 characters of alt-text because it's too long, Mastodon users celebrate alt-text that's four times as long.
So this is a case where a whole bunch of edge-cases unhandled by the WAI meet in one place:- A situation in which not the audience comes to the content, but the content comes to the audience without the audience necessarily explicitly seeking out this kind of content.
- Social media with possibilities that vastly exceed those of the big commercial silos, especially regarding character count, while at the same time mostly not supporting full HTML.
- An audience which has defined its own accessibility "rules". Including blind or visually-impaired people who do want to know what something in an image looks like, even if the WAI alt-text guidelines forbid describing it.
- Content that has never been taken into consideration by any alt-text/image description guide out there. Ever.
Trying to force this into the WAI or WCAG guidelines is akin to trying to push a square peg into a round hole that was drilled by people who think all pegs are round.
I mean, as you've just seen, I can't even clearly answer any of the questions in the decision tree.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #WebAccessibilityInitiative #WAI #WCAG #A11y #Accessibility -
@Jeffrey D. Stark I know that decision tree, and it doesn't really work for my original images because it's limited to what you'd usually find on professional/commercial static websites or blogs with a very small choice of kinds of images.
Let's take this image as an example here. It was the first image I've described in detail. I'm not going to link to that description because it's hopelessly outdated and probably terribly lacking at only a bit over 13,000 characters, and the image does not have a descriptive alt-text yet. It's an old shame, so-to-speak.
Does the image contain text?
Let's say, what the image shows within its borders has 22 bits of text on it, for any definition of text. This could count as yes.
However, of these 22 bits of text, only three are legible in the image as it is, at the resolution at which I've uploaded it: three times a capital M. As I've said, for any definition of text. The other 19 are so small that they're illegible, or they are so small that they can't be identified as text, or they're so tiny that they're invisible at this resolution. The big black sign in the middle with the yellow writing on it has a tree in front of it.
Is it still a yes because, while it isn't readable, there still is text?
Is it a yes for the three capital Ms?
Is it a no because the text does not show itself as text in this image at this resolution? So technically speaking, with the exception of the three capital Ms, there is no text in this image because where there's text in the original, there's just some blurry mush that does not qualify as text in the image as shown?
Or is it a no because I can't transcribe it anyway if I can't read it? Fun fact: I have transcribed all this text. 100% verbatim. And provided translations for everything that isn't English. So "you can't read it anyway" doesn't count because I can read it.
Now comes the kicker: If we pick yes because there is text in the image, the decision tree implies that it is an image of text and nothing else, and that the image-describing process is over after transcribing the text. This wouldn't even work with an image macro.
Does the image contribute meaning to the current page or context?
Does this question even work in this case?
Let's say the post in question is about the world where the image was taken shutting down soon and my avatar in this world disappearing. Because it was when I first posted this image. It's just meant to be a last farewell.
It doesn't add any extra information. This is not a post in a professional commercial or scientific or technological blog. So, does the image contribute meaning, yes or no?
If so:- It's not "a simple graphic or a photograph". It's a digital 3-D rendering, and it's anything but simple.
- It's not "a graph or complex piece of information". Complex, yes. But it isn't a graph, and it isn't a piece of information of the kind you'd have on a scientific website.
- I don't think it "shows content that is redundant to real text nearby".
Is the image purely decorative or not intended for users?
That's debatable. On professional websites and blogs, this question may make sense. In social media where nobody adds decorative images to posts, it doesn't. In the Fediverse which has way higher accessibility standards than 𝕏 or Facebook or Tumblr or Threads or Bluesky or LinkedIn, it makes even less sense.
Is the image’s use not listed above or it’s unclear whatalttext to provide?
Probably.
The top of the article is already a dead give-away: This guide is not meant for social media. Not for the big commercial silos, and even less for the Fediverse where Mastodon re-defines what makes an image description good. Not even two dozen people in the world use social media that support HTML<img>tags in posts.
While professional Web accessibility experts will throw their hands up into the air in utter outrage over 250 characters of alt-text because it's too long, Mastodon users celebrate alt-text that's four times as long.
So this is a case where a whole bunch of edge-cases unhandled by the WAI meet in one place:- A situation in which not the audience comes to the content, but the content comes to the audience without the audience necessarily explicitly seeking out this kind of content.
- Social media with possibilities that vastly exceed those of the big commercial silos, especially regarding character count, while at the same time mostly not supporting full HTML.
- An audience which has defined its own accessibility "rules". Including blind or visually-impaired people who do want to know what something in an image looks like, even if the WAI alt-text guidelines forbid describing it.
- Content that has never been taken into consideration by any alt-text/image description guide out there. Ever.
Trying to force this into the WAI or WCAG guidelines is akin to trying to push a square peg into a round hole that was drilled by people who think all pegs are round.
I mean, as you've just seen, I can't even clearly answer any of the questions in the decision tree.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #WebAccessibilityInitiative #WAI #WCAG #A11y #Accessibility -
@Jeffrey D. Stark I know that decision tree, and it doesn't really work for my original images because it's limited to what you'd usually find on professional/commercial static websites or blogs with a very small choice of kinds of images.
Let's take this image as an example here. It was the first image I've described in detail. I'm not going to link to that description because it's hopelessly outdated and probably terribly lacking at only a bit over 13,000 characters, and the image does not have a descriptive alt-text yet. It's an old shame, so-to-speak.
Does the image contain text?
Let's say, what the image shows within its borders has 22 bits of text on it, for any definition of text. This could count as yes.
However, of these 22 bits of text, only three are legible in the image as it is, at the resolution at which I've uploaded it: three times a capital M. As I've said, for any definition of text. The other 19 are so small that they're illegible, or they are so small that they can't be identified as text, or they're so tiny that they're invisible at this resolution. The big black sign in the middle with the yellow writing on it has a tree in front of it.
Is it still a yes because, while it isn't readable, there still is text?
Is it a yes for the three capital Ms?
Is it a no because the text does not show itself as text in this image at this resolution? So technically speaking, with the exception of the three capital Ms, there is no text in this image because where there's text in the original, there's just some blurry mush that does not qualify as text in the image as shown?
Or is it a no because I can't transcribe it anyway if I can't read it? Fun fact: I have transcribed all this text. 100% verbatim. And provided translations for everything that isn't English. So "you can't read it anyway" doesn't count because I can read it.
Now comes the kicker: If we pick yes because there is text in the image, the decision tree implies that it is an image of text and nothing else, and that the image-describing process is over after transcribing the text. This wouldn't even work with an image macro.
Does the image contribute meaning to the current page or context?
Does this question even work in this case?
Let's say the post in question is about the world where the image was taken shutting down soon and my avatar in this world disappearing. Because it was when I first posted this image. It's just meant to be a last farewell.
It doesn't add any extra information. This is not a post in a professional commercial or scientific or technological blog. So, does the image contribute meaning, yes or no?
If so:- It's not "a simple graphic or a photograph". It's a digital 3-D rendering, and it's anything but simple.
- It's not "a graph or complex piece of information". Complex, yes. But it isn't a graph, and it isn't a piece of information of the kind you'd have on a scientific website.
- I don't think it "shows content that is redundant to real text nearby".
Is the image purely decorative or not intended for users?
That's debatable. On professional websites and blogs, this question may make sense. In social media where nobody adds decorative images to posts, it doesn't. In the Fediverse which has way higher accessibility standards than 𝕏 or Facebook or Tumblr or Threads or Bluesky or LinkedIn, it makes even less sense.
Is the image’s use not listed above or it’s unclear whatalttext to provide?
Probably.
The top of the article is already a dead give-away: This guide is not meant for social media. Not for the big commercial silos, and even less for the Fediverse where Mastodon re-defines what makes an image description good. Not even two dozen people in the world use social media that support HTML<img>tags in posts.
While professional Web accessibility experts will throw their hands up into the air in utter outrage over 250 characters of alt-text because it's too long, Mastodon users celebrate alt-text that's four times as long.
So this is a case where a whole bunch of edge-cases unhandled by the WAI meet in one place:- A situation in which not the audience comes to the content, but the content comes to the audience without the audience necessarily explicitly seeking out this kind of content.
- Social media with possibilities that vastly exceed those of the big commercial silos, especially regarding character count, while at the same time mostly not supporting full HTML.
- An audience which has defined its own accessibility "rules". Including blind or visually-impaired people who do want to know what something in an image looks like, even if the WAI alt-text guidelines forbid describing it.
- Content that has never been taken into consideration by any alt-text/image description guide out there. Ever.
Trying to force this into the WAI or WCAG guidelines is akin to trying to push a square peg into a round hole that was drilled by people who think all pegs are round.
I mean, as you've just seen, I can't even clearly answer any of the questions in the decision tree.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #WebAccessibilityInitiative #WAI #WCAG #A11y #Accessibility -
@Jeffrey D. Stark I know that decision tree, and it doesn't really work for my original images because it's limited to what you'd usually find on professional/commercial static websites or blogs with a very small choice of kinds of images.
Let's take this image as an example here. It was the first image I've described in detail. I'm not going to link to that description because it's hopelessly outdated and probably terribly lacking at only a bit over 13,000 characters, and the image does not have a descriptive alt-text yet. It's an old shame, so-to-speak.
Does the image contain text?
Let's say, what the image shows within its borders has 22 bits of text on it, for any definition of text. This could count as yes.
However, of these 22 bits of text, only three are legible in the image as it is, at the resolution at which I've uploaded it: three times a capital M. As I've said, for any definition of text. The other 19 are so small that they're illegible, or they are so small that they can't be identified as text, or they're so tiny that they're invisible at this resolution. The big black sign in the middle with the yellow writing on it has a tree in front of it.
Is it still a yes because, while it isn't readable, there still is text?
Is it a yes for the three capital Ms?
Is it a no because the text does not show itself as text in this image at this resolution? So technically speaking, with the exception of the three capital Ms, there is no text in this image because where there's text in the original, there's just some blurry mush that does not qualify as text in the image as shown?
Or is it a no because I can't transcribe it anyway if I can't read it? Fun fact: I have transcribed all this text. 100% verbatim. And provided translations for everything that isn't English. So "you can't read it anyway" doesn't count because I can read it.
Now comes the kicker: If we pick yes because there is text in the image, the decision tree implies that it is an image of text and nothing else, and that the image-describing process is over after transcribing the text. This wouldn't even work with an image macro.
Does the image contribute meaning to the current page or context?
Does this question even work in this case?
Let's say the post in question is about the world where the image was taken shutting down soon and my avatar in this world disappearing. Because it was when I first posted this image. It's just meant to be a last farewell.
It doesn't add any extra information. This is not a post in a professional commercial or scientific or technological blog. So, does the image contribute meaning, yes or no?
If so:- It's not "a simple graphic or a photograph". It's a digital 3-D rendering, and it's anything but simple.
- It's not "a graph or complex piece of information". Complex, yes. But it isn't a graph, and it isn't a piece of information of the kind you'd have on a scientific website.
- I don't think it "shows content that is redundant to real text nearby".
Is the image purely decorative or not intended for users?
That's debatable. On professional websites and blogs, this question may make sense. In social media where nobody adds decorative images to posts, it doesn't. In the Fediverse which has way higher accessibility standards than 𝕏 or Facebook or Tumblr or Threads or Bluesky or LinkedIn, it makes even less sense.
Is the image’s use not listed above or it’s unclear whatalttext to provide?
Probably.
The top of the article is already a dead give-away: This guide is not meant for social media. Not for the big commercial silos, and even less for the Fediverse where Mastodon re-defines what makes an image description good. Not even two dozen people in the world use social media that support HTML<img>tags in posts.
While professional Web accessibility experts will throw their hands up into the air in utter outrage over 250 characters of alt-text because it's too long, Mastodon users celebrate alt-text that's four times as long.
So this is a case where a whole bunch of edge-cases unhandled by the WAI meet in one place:- A situation in which not the audience comes to the content, but the content comes to the audience without the audience necessarily explicitly seeking out this kind of content.
- Social media with possibilities that vastly exceed those of the big commercial silos, especially regarding character count, while at the same time mostly not supporting full HTML.
- An audience which has defined its own accessibility "rules". Including blind or visually-impaired people who do want to know what something in an image looks like, even if the WAI alt-text guidelines forbid describing it.
- Content that has never been taken into consideration by any alt-text/image description guide out there. Ever.
Trying to force this into the WAI or WCAG guidelines is akin to trying to push a square peg into a round hole that was drilled by people who think all pegs are round.
I mean, as you've just seen, I can't even clearly answer any of the questions in the decision tree.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #WebAccessibilityInitiative #WAI #WCAG #A11y #Accessibility -
@Jeffrey D. Stark I know that decision tree, and it doesn't really work for my original images because it's limited to what you'd usually find on professional/commercial static websites or blogs with a very small choice of kinds of images.
Let's take this image as an example here. It was the first image I've described in detail. I'm not going to link to that description because it's hopelessly outdated and probably terribly lacking at only a bit over 13,000 characters, and the image does not have a descriptive alt-text yet. It's an old shame, so-to-speak.
Does the image contain text?
Let's say, what the image shows within its borders has 22 bits of text on it, for any definition of text. This could count as yes.
However, of these 22 bits of text, only three are legible in the image as it is, at the resolution at which I've uploaded it: three times a capital M. As I've said, for any definition of text. The other 19 are so small that they're illegible, or they are so small that they can't be identified as text, or they're so tiny that they're invisible at this resolution. The big black sign in the middle with the yellow writing on it has a tree in front of it.
Is it still a yes because, while it isn't readable, there still is text?
Is it a yes for the three capital Ms?
Is it a no because the text does not show itself as text in this image at this resolution? So technically speaking, with the exception of the three capital Ms, there is no text in this image because where there's text in the original, there's just some blurry mush that does not qualify as text in the image as shown?
Or is it a no because I can't transcribe it anyway if I can't read it? Fun fact: I have transcribed all this text. 100% verbatim. And provided translations for everything that isn't English. So "you can't read it anyway" doesn't count because I can read it.
Now comes the kicker: If we pick yes because there is text in the image, the decision tree implies that it is an image of text and nothing else, and that the image-describing process is over after transcribing the text. This wouldn't even work with an image macro.
Does the image contribute meaning to the current page or context?
Does this question even work in this case?
Let's say the post in question is about the world where the image was taken shutting down soon and my avatar in this world disappearing. Because it was when I first posted this image. It's just meant to be a last farewell.
It doesn't add any extra information. This is not a post in a professional commercial or scientific or technological blog. So, does the image contribute meaning, yes or no?
If so:- It's not "a simple graphic or a photograph". It's a digital 3-D rendering, and it's anything but simple.
- It's not "a graph or complex piece of information". Complex, yes. But it isn't a graph, and it isn't a piece of information of the kind you'd have on a scientific website.
- I don't think it "shows content that is redundant to real text nearby".
Is the image purely decorative or not intended for users?
That's debatable. On professional websites and blogs, this question may make sense. In social media where nobody adds decorative images to posts, it doesn't. In the Fediverse which has way higher accessibility standards than 𝕏 or Facebook or Tumblr or Threads or Bluesky or LinkedIn, it makes even less sense.
Is the image’s use not listed above or it’s unclear whatalttext to provide?
Probably.
The top of the article is already a dead give-away: This guide is not meant for social media. Not for the big commercial silos, and even less for the Fediverse where Mastodon re-defines what makes an image description good. Not even two dozen people in the world use social media that support HTML<img>tags in posts.
While professional Web accessibility experts will throw their hands up into the air in utter outrage over 250 characters of alt-text because it's too long, Mastodon users celebrate alt-text that's four times as long.
So this is a case where a whole bunch of edge-cases unhandled by the WAI meet in one place:- A situation in which not the audience comes to the content, but the content comes to the audience without the audience necessarily explicitly seeking out this kind of content.
- Social media with possibilities that vastly exceed those of the big commercial silos, especially regarding character count, while at the same time mostly not supporting full HTML.
- An audience which has defined its own accessibility "rules". Including blind or visually-impaired people who do want to know what something in an image looks like, even if the WAI alt-text guidelines forbid describing it.
- Content that has never been taken into consideration by any alt-text/image description guide out there. Ever.
Trying to force this into the WAI or WCAG guidelines is akin to trying to push a square peg into a round hole that was drilled by people who think all pegs are round.
I mean, as you've just seen, I can't even clearly answer any of the questions in the decision tree.
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #WebAccessibilityInitiative #WAI #WCAG #A11y #Accessibility -
MINISFORUM MS-A1 mini PC is now available with a Ryzen 9 9950X processor
The MINISFORUM MS-A1 is a compact desktop computer that measures 189.5 x 186 x 48mm (7.46″ x 7.32″ x 1.89″), features a robust set of ports that includes USB4, OCuLink, and dual 2.5 Gb Ethernet connectors.
Unlike most smaller mini PCs, the MS-A1 also has an AMD A5 socket that allows you to bring your own processor or upgrade to a more powerful CPU in the future. But if that feels like too much trouble, you can also buy a system that comes with a CPU pre-installed. When the MS-A1 first launched earlier this year it was available either as a barebones computer or with an AMD Ryzen 7 8700G chip. Now the company is selling a version with a higher-performance Ryzen 9 9950X processor.
Both chips are desktop processors that are compatible with motherboards that support AMD’s AM5 chipset. But the Ryzen 7 8700G is a lower-power processor with decent integrated graphics, while the Ryzen 9 9950HX is a higher-performance chip with far more processing power, but less impressive graphics since it’s often paired with a discrete GPU.
Ryzen 7 8700GRyzen 9 9950HXCPU8-cores / 16 threads
Zen 4
4.2 GHz base / 5.1 GHz max freq
24MB total cache
65W TDP (default)16-cores / 32-threads
Zen 5
4.3 GHz base / 5.7 GHz max freq
81MB total cache
170W TDP (default)
100W TDP (as configured in MS-A1)GPUAMD Radeon 780M
12 x RDNA 3 cores
Up to 2.9 GHzAMD Radeon Graphics
2 RDNA 2 cores
2.2 GHzThe MS-A1 is available as a barebones computer (without any memory, storage, or processor) for $259, or you can pay $919 or more for a model with a Ryzen 9 9950X processor. Theoretically it might be cheaper to purchase a barebones model and then buy that processor separately – it currently sells for around $599 or less. But there’s something to be said for the convenience of not having to install the processor yourself.
As for graphics, the integrated GPU is good enough to handle video playback and some hardware-accelerated graphics for web browsing and other apps. But if you want to do any gaming or graphics work, you’ll probably want a discrete GPU.
hile there’s no room inside the MS-A1 chassis for a discrete GPU, you can connect an external graphics dock thanks to the computer’s 64 Gbps OcuLink connector. Theoretically you could also use the USB4 port… but not with an AMD Ryzen 7000 or Ryzen 9000 series processor.
That’s because while this port functions as a 40 Gbps USB4 port when used with a Ryzen 8000 series processor, it tops out at USB 3.0 speeds when the system is configured with Ryzen 7000 or Ryzen 9000 series processors. The USB Type-C port does support DisplayPort Alt Mode no matter what processor you’re using though, so it can always be used as a video output.
Inside the computer there are four M.2 slots with support for PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs and two SODIMM slots for up to 96GB of total DDR5-5200 memory.
Ports include:
- x OCuLink (64 Gbps)
- 1 x DisplayPort 2.0
- 1 x HDMI 2.1
- 1 x USB4 Type-C (40 Gbps w/DisplayPort Alt Mode, 10 Gbps with Ryzen 7000/9000)
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (10 Gbps)
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (5 Gbps)
- 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A (480 Mbps)
- 1 x 3.5mm audio
- 2 x 2.5 GbE Ethernet(RTL8125BG)
- 1 x DC power input (19V/12.63A 240W)
via VideoCardz
-
OS/2 Warp 4.52 on 86Box with Super Socket 7 [1998]
OS/2 was a proprietary operating system that was initially developed by IBM in partnership with Microsoft as a replacement of DOS before it became entirely developed by IBM. OS/2 Warp 4 was officially released in 1996, and development slowed down to a halt because it failed to compete Microsoft Windows. OS/2 Warp 4.52 was officially released in December 2001, and this year, it will celebrate its 25th year anniversary.
Our focus in this article is testing OS/2 Warp 4.52 on an 86Box emulated machine with a Super Socket 7 [1998] motherboard. You can download it from here.
We’ve configured the virtual machine as follows:
We’ve configured a virtual machine to run with:
- Machine type: [1998] Super Socket 7
- Machine: [SiS 5591] Gigabyte GA-5SG100
- CPU: Intel Pentium @ 166 MHz
- Memory: 128 MB
- Video: [ISA16] Cirrus Logic GD5434
- Keyboard: AT Keyboard
- Mouse: PS/2 Mouse
- Sound card: [ISA16] Sound Blaster 16 PnP
- Floppy disk controller: Internal device
- Hard disk controller 1: Internal device
- New hard disk: os2warp452.vhd
- C/H/S: 1054/16/63
- Size: 518 MB
- Bus: IDE
- Channel: 0:0
- CD-ROM drive 1: ATAPI (0:1) KENWOOD CD-ROM UCR-421 208E (72x)
Once everything is configured as above, we can now start the virtual machine. Insert the boot disc called
mcp2-refresh-boot-en.isoto the CD-ROM reader, then configure BIOS as necessary.To be more specific, we need to go to the BIOS setup using DEL and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first with PGUP/PGDN.
After that, we save the changes and restart the virtual machine.
The installer starts by telling you to insert the installation CD-ROM to the drive.
In this case, right-click on the CD-ROM icon, select “Insert…”, select
mcp2-refresh-install-en.iso, and double-click it. Then, press ENTER.After that, you should be able to see this welcome screen:
Press ENTER, and you’ll be taken to another screen that welcomes you to the operating system installer.
Press ENTER. At this point, since it’s a fresh installation, and the hard drive is already empty, you’ll get the “Volumes Too Small” message. This means that you’ll need to create a single partition that will be used to install OS/2 Warp 4.52 to.
Press ENTER, and you’ll get a warning message telling you that all data on modified volumes will be deleted, and that backups should be made. Since there is no data on the hard drive, you can safely ignore this warning. Just press ENTER.
After that, you’ll be taken to the partitioning screen where you’ll be presented with the logical volume manager, with the logical view being the default. Press F5, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can see your hard disk, such as the below screenshot:
Here, you can create a physical partition. Press TAB, then ENTER, and you’ll be presented with those options.
Press ENTER to create a new partition. You’ll be asked whether this partition is going to be logical or primary. Select “Primary partition”.
After you select it, you’ll be presented with various dialog boxes telling you to specify the size and the name of the partition, as well as the position of the partition. Select “Create at the start of the free space”, then enter the partition name, then the size.
After that, this partition should be created.
We are not done yet when it comes to partitioning, so we need to go back to the logical view. Press ENTER, then press ENTER on “Create a new volume”. Then, select “Create a volume that can be made bootable”, then C:.
You’ll be brought back to the physical view that will tell you to choose a physical disk. Below the physical disk, the logical partition should be shown at the bottom of the screen. Press ENTER when this dialog box appears.
Press ENTER again, then select “Use existing partition”.
Now, a new logical volume will appear with the partition name that you’ve chosen. However, it’s still not ready yet for installation, since there are extra steps that are needed. We need to make it installable.
Press ENTER, and you should see the menu box below:
Select “Set the volume installable”. The status of your logical volume should change from “Startable” to “Installable”. Afterwards, press F3, and press ENTER when “Save the changes and exit” is highlighted.
Afterwards, you should be able to see the below dialog box telling you to insert the boot CD-ROM to the drive and restart the virtual machine using CTRL + ALT + DEL.
At this point, we need to change the BIOS boot order to avoid the black screen issue. Press DEL, go to BIOS Features Setup, and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first.
Then, exit the BIOS setup while saving changes, and follow the instructions all the way until the following screen shows up:
Verify that “Volume C” shows up. If not, you’ll have to configure the partitions again until the volume shows up in this screen. Since we’ve already configured everything, and that Volume C corresponds to our hard disk, press ENTER when “Accept the volume” is highlighted.
Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to format it slowly or quickly. This is a clean installation, so we’ve chosen a quick format. Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to use FAT or HPFS. We’ve chosen the HPFS file system.
After that, the installation of the base system begins.
After that, the virtual machine will automatically restart. Go back to the BIOS setup and make sure that the C drive comes first before the CD-ROM.
After that, OS/2 Warp should boot up to the GUI portion of the installer. The first thing you’ll be presented with is the configuration of the system, including the country, the graphics adapter, and the sound adapter.
First of all, we went to “Multimedia Device Support”, and added the SoundBlaster 16 PnP device to the list of installed devices.
Afterwards, we’re presented with another set of configuration, once we’ve selected “Next”. SInce there’s no need to configure anything on that screen, we’ve just clicked Next. Then, it presented us with options to choose the country/region, with the default selected country being “United States.”
Then, the printer configuraion window has shown up. SInce there’s no printer installed, we’ll leave it as it is.
We’re then presented with the graphics adapter configuration. It automatically selected the Cirrus Logic graphics adapter as we’ve chosen earlier for the virtual machine configuration.
Once we’ve selected OK, we’re then presented with a set of packages to install.
As soon as we clicked “Next”, we’re presented with another wizard that lets us configure some more services.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with a prompt to identify ourselves.
After that, we’re given another set of software packages to install. They represent the client services for OS/2.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with another configuration screen where we needed to configure the user ID and password for the file and print sharing services, and the network adapter and protocol services.
We went to create a new ID and a password for the sharing service
Then, we went to “Network Adapters and Protocol Services”, and a dialog box that told us to add a network adapter appeared. Since we don’t intend to have internet connectivity in this installation of OS/2 Warp 4.52, we’ve selected “No network adapter.”
Once we pressed OK, we’ve seen this result:
Now, we’ve pressed Install, and a confirmation dialog box appeared.
Now, the installation of the remaining system files started here.
Once it was done copying files, we’re asked whether to use the defaults for the monitor type or to use the display adapter utility program.
We’ve chosen the defaults, and an informational box appeared stating that the screen might flicker while the testing was underway.
After that, the remaining portions of the installation started. This is part one of the long waiting journey!
After the restart, depending on the region selected, OS/2 Warp 4.52 might tell you that there’s something wrong in the CONFIG.SYS file related to the codepage, just like below.
After that, the long waiting journey continues…
The system then restarted, and the desktop finally appeared, but with another dialog box asking us whether we needed to install sets of extra tools or not.
We’ve chosen the biggest option, which was “OS/2 Toolkit (English only)”. Then, we’ve clicked on Install once we’ve inserted the boot disk back to the CD-ROM drive.
Then, a configuration window where it tells us to configure the installation of the OS/2 Toolkit, just like below.
We’ve chosen to install everything, so we just chose Install. Yet another long wait journey starts…
After the installation of the toolkit reached 100%, a dialog box that told us that the installation was successful showed up. Once done, we’ve clicked on Quit in the toolkit installer.
Since the dialog box told us that the CONFIG.SYS file was modified and that we needed to restart the virtual machine. Therefore, we’ve clicked on Exit, then right-clicked on an empty area around the desktop and chose “Shut down”.
Once the shut down was done, we had to press CTRL + ALT + DEL in the virtual machine side. After that, the system booted up to the desktop, and the sound works!
Nostalgic, isn’t it?
#86Box #Linux #news #OS2 #OS2Warp #OS2Warp4 #OS2Warp452 #Retrocomputing #Tech #Technology #update -
OS/2 Warp 4.52 on 86Box with Super Socket 7 [1998]
OS/2 was a proprietary operating system that was initially developed by IBM in partnership with Microsoft as a replacement of DOS before it became entirely developed by IBM. OS/2 Warp 4 was officially released in 1996, and development slowed down to a halt because it failed to compete Microsoft Windows. OS/2 Warp 4.52 was officially released in December 2001, and this year, it will celebrate its 25th year anniversary.
Our focus in this article is testing OS/2 Warp 4.52 on an 86Box emulated machine with a Super Socket 7 [1998] motherboard. You can download it from here.
We’ve configured the virtual machine as follows:
We’ve configured a virtual machine to run with:
- Machine type: [1998] Super Socket 7
- Machine: [SiS 5591] Gigabyte GA-5SG100
- CPU: Intel Pentium @ 166 MHz
- Memory: 128 MB
- Video: [ISA16] Cirrus Logic GD5434
- Keyboard: AT Keyboard
- Mouse: PS/2 Mouse
- Sound card: [ISA16] Sound Blaster 16 PnP
- Floppy disk controller: Internal device
- Hard disk controller 1: Internal device
- New hard disk: os2warp452.vhd
- C/H/S: 1054/16/63
- Size: 518 MB
- Bus: IDE
- Channel: 0:0
- CD-ROM drive 1: ATAPI (0:1) KENWOOD CD-ROM UCR-421 208E (72x)
Once everything is configured as above, we can now start the virtual machine. Insert the boot disc called
mcp2-refresh-boot-en.isoto the CD-ROM reader, then configure BIOS as necessary.To be more specific, we need to go to the BIOS setup using DEL and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first with PGUP/PGDN.
After that, we save the changes and restart the virtual machine.
The installer starts by telling you to insert the installation CD-ROM to the drive.
In this case, right-click on the CD-ROM icon, select “Insert…”, select
mcp2-refresh-install-en.iso, and double-click it. Then, press ENTER.After that, you should be able to see this welcome screen:
Press ENTER, and you’ll be taken to another screen that welcomes you to the operating system installer.
Press ENTER. At this point, since it’s a fresh installation, and the hard drive is already empty, you’ll get the “Volumes Too Small” message. This means that you’ll need to create a single partition that will be used to install OS/2 Warp 4.52 to.
Press ENTER, and you’ll get a warning message telling you that all data on modified volumes will be deleted, and that backups should be made. Since there is no data on the hard drive, you can safely ignore this warning. Just press ENTER.
After that, you’ll be taken to the partitioning screen where you’ll be presented with the logical volume manager, with the logical view being the default. Press F5, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can see your hard disk, such as the below screenshot:
Here, you can create a physical partition. Press TAB, then ENTER, and you’ll be presented with those options.
Press ENTER to create a new partition. You’ll be asked whether this partition is going to be logical or primary. Select “Primary partition”.
After you select it, you’ll be presented with various dialog boxes telling you to specify the size and the name of the partition, as well as the position of the partition. Select “Create at the start of the free space”, then enter the partition name, then the size.
After that, this partition should be created.
We are not done yet when it comes to partitioning, so we need to go back to the logical view. Press ENTER, then press ENTER on “Create a new volume”. Then, select “Create a volume that can be made bootable”, then C:.
You’ll be brought back to the physical view that will tell you to choose a physical disk. Below the physical disk, the logical partition should be shown at the bottom of the screen. Press ENTER when this dialog box appears.
Press ENTER again, then select “Use existing partition”.
Now, a new logical volume will appear with the partition name that you’ve chosen. However, it’s still not ready yet for installation, since there are extra steps that are needed. We need to make it installable.
Press ENTER, and you should see the menu box below:
Select “Set the volume installable”. The status of your logical volume should change from “Startable” to “Installable”. Afterwards, press F3, and press ENTER when “Save the changes and exit” is highlighted.
Afterwards, you should be able to see the below dialog box telling you to insert the boot CD-ROM to the drive and restart the virtual machine using CTRL + ALT + DEL.
At this point, we need to change the BIOS boot order to avoid the black screen issue. Press DEL, go to BIOS Features Setup, and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first.
Then, exit the BIOS setup while saving changes, and follow the instructions all the way until the following screen shows up:
Verify that “Volume C” shows up. If not, you’ll have to configure the partitions again until the volume shows up in this screen. Since we’ve already configured everything, and that Volume C corresponds to our hard disk, press ENTER when “Accept the volume” is highlighted.
Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to format it slowly or quickly. This is a clean installation, so we’ve chosen a quick format. Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to use FAT or HPFS. We’ve chosen the HPFS file system.
After that, the installation of the base system begins.
After that, the virtual machine will automatically restart. Go back to the BIOS setup and make sure that the C drive comes first before the CD-ROM.
After that, OS/2 Warp should boot up to the GUI portion of the installer. The first thing you’ll be presented with is the configuration of the system, including the country, the graphics adapter, and the sound adapter.
First of all, we went to “Multimedia Device Support”, and added the SoundBlaster 16 PnP device to the list of installed devices.
Afterwards, we’re presented with another set of configuration, once we’ve selected “Next”. SInce there’s no need to configure anything on that screen, we’ve just clicked Next. Then, it presented us with options to choose the country/region, with the default selected country being “United States.”
Then, the printer configuraion window has shown up. SInce there’s no printer installed, we’ll leave it as it is.
We’re then presented with the graphics adapter configuration. It automatically selected the Cirrus Logic graphics adapter as we’ve chosen earlier for the virtual machine configuration.
Once we’ve selected OK, we’re then presented with a set of packages to install.
As soon as we clicked “Next”, we’re presented with another wizard that lets us configure some more services.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with a prompt to identify ourselves.
After that, we’re given another set of software packages to install. They represent the client services for OS/2.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with another configuration screen where we needed to configure the user ID and password for the file and print sharing services, and the network adapter and protocol services.
We went to create a new ID and a password for the sharing service
Then, we went to “Network Adapters and Protocol Services”, and a dialog box that told us to add a network adapter appeared. Since we don’t intend to have internet connectivity in this installation of OS/2 Warp 4.52, we’ve selected “No network adapter.”
Once we pressed OK, we’ve seen this result:
Now, we’ve pressed Install, and a confirmation dialog box appeared.
Now, the installation of the remaining system files started here.
Once it was done copying files, we’re asked whether to use the defaults for the monitor type or to use the display adapter utility program.
We’ve chosen the defaults, and an informational box appeared stating that the screen might flicker while the testing was underway.
After that, the remaining portions of the installation started. This is part one of the long waiting journey!
After the restart, depending on the region selected, OS/2 Warp 4.52 might tell you that there’s something wrong in the CONFIG.SYS file related to the codepage, just like below.
After that, the long waiting journey continues…
The system then restarted, and the desktop finally appeared, but with another dialog box asking us whether we needed to install sets of extra tools or not.
We’ve chosen the biggest option, which was “OS/2 Toolkit (English only)”. Then, we’ve clicked on Install once we’ve inserted the boot disk back to the CD-ROM drive.
Then, a configuration window where it tells us to configure the installation of the OS/2 Toolkit, just like below.
We’ve chosen to install everything, so we just chose Install. Yet another long wait journey starts…
After the installation of the toolkit reached 100%, a dialog box that told us that the installation was successful showed up. Once done, we’ve clicked on Quit in the toolkit installer.
Since the dialog box told us that the CONFIG.SYS file was modified and that we needed to restart the virtual machine. Therefore, we’ve clicked on Exit, then right-clicked on an empty area around the desktop and chose “Shut down”.
Once the shut down was done, we had to press CTRL + ALT + DEL in the virtual machine side. After that, the system booted up to the desktop, and the sound works!
Nostalgic, isn’t it?
#86Box #Linux #news #OS2 #OS2Warp #OS2Warp4 #OS2Warp452 #Retrocomputing #Tech #Technology #update -
OS/2 Warp 4.52 on 86Box with Super Socket 7 [1998]
OS/2 was a proprietary operating system that was initially developed by IBM in partnership with Microsoft as a replacement of DOS before it became entirely developed by IBM. OS/2 Warp 4 was officially released in 1996, and development slowed down to a halt because it failed to compete Microsoft Windows. OS/2 Warp 4.52 was officially released in December 2001, and this year, it will celebrate its 25th year anniversary.
Our focus in this article is testing OS/2 Warp 4.52 on an 86Box emulated machine with a Super Socket 7 [1998] motherboard. You can download it from here.
We’ve configured the virtual machine as follows:
We’ve configured a virtual machine to run with:
- Machine type: [1998] Super Socket 7
- Machine: [SiS 5591] Gigabyte GA-5SG100
- CPU: Intel Pentium @ 166 MHz
- Memory: 128 MB
- Video: [ISA16] Cirrus Logic GD5434
- Keyboard: AT Keyboard
- Mouse: PS/2 Mouse
- Sound card: [ISA16] Sound Blaster 16 PnP
- Floppy disk controller: Internal device
- Hard disk controller 1: Internal device
- New hard disk: os2warp452.vhd
- C/H/S: 1054/16/63
- Size: 518 MB
- Bus: IDE
- Channel: 0:0
- CD-ROM drive 1: ATAPI (0:1) KENWOOD CD-ROM UCR-421 208E (72x)
Once everything is configured as above, we can now start the virtual machine. Insert the boot disc called
mcp2-refresh-boot-en.isoto the CD-ROM reader, then configure BIOS as necessary.To be more specific, we need to go to the BIOS setup using DEL and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first with PGUP/PGDN.
After that, we save the changes and restart the virtual machine.
The installer starts by telling you to insert the installation CD-ROM to the drive.
In this case, right-click on the CD-ROM icon, select “Insert…”, select
mcp2-refresh-install-en.iso, and double-click it. Then, press ENTER.After that, you should be able to see this welcome screen:
Press ENTER, and you’ll be taken to another screen that welcomes you to the operating system installer.
Press ENTER. At this point, since it’s a fresh installation, and the hard drive is already empty, you’ll get the “Volumes Too Small” message. This means that you’ll need to create a single partition that will be used to install OS/2 Warp 4.52 to.
Press ENTER, and you’ll get a warning message telling you that all data on modified volumes will be deleted, and that backups should be made. Since there is no data on the hard drive, you can safely ignore this warning. Just press ENTER.
After that, you’ll be taken to the partitioning screen where you’ll be presented with the logical volume manager, with the logical view being the default. Press F5, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can see your hard disk, such as the below screenshot:
Here, you can create a physical partition. Press TAB, then ENTER, and you’ll be presented with those options.
Press ENTER to create a new partition. You’ll be asked whether this partition is going to be logical or primary. Select “Primary partition”.
After you select it, you’ll be presented with various dialog boxes telling you to specify the size and the name of the partition, as well as the position of the partition. Select “Create at the start of the free space”, then enter the partition name, then the size.
After that, this partition should be created.
We are not done yet when it comes to partitioning, so we need to go back to the logical view. Press ENTER, then press ENTER on “Create a new volume”. Then, select “Create a volume that can be made bootable”, then C:.
You’ll be brought back to the physical view that will tell you to choose a physical disk. Below the physical disk, the logical partition should be shown at the bottom of the screen. Press ENTER when this dialog box appears.
Press ENTER again, then select “Use existing partition”.
Now, a new logical volume will appear with the partition name that you’ve chosen. However, it’s still not ready yet for installation, since there are extra steps that are needed. We need to make it installable.
Press ENTER, and you should see the menu box below:
Select “Set the volume installable”. The status of your logical volume should change from “Startable” to “Installable”. Afterwards, press F3, and press ENTER when “Save the changes and exit” is highlighted.
Afterwards, you should be able to see the below dialog box telling you to insert the boot CD-ROM to the drive and restart the virtual machine using CTRL + ALT + DEL.
At this point, we need to change the BIOS boot order to avoid the black screen issue. Press DEL, go to BIOS Features Setup, and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first.
Then, exit the BIOS setup while saving changes, and follow the instructions all the way until the following screen shows up:
Verify that “Volume C” shows up. If not, you’ll have to configure the partitions again until the volume shows up in this screen. Since we’ve already configured everything, and that Volume C corresponds to our hard disk, press ENTER when “Accept the volume” is highlighted.
Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to format it slowly or quickly. This is a clean installation, so we’ve chosen a quick format. Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to use FAT or HPFS. We’ve chosen the HPFS file system.
After that, the installation of the base system begins.
After that, the virtual machine will automatically restart. Go back to the BIOS setup and make sure that the C drive comes first before the CD-ROM.
After that, OS/2 Warp should boot up to the GUI portion of the installer. The first thing you’ll be presented with is the configuration of the system, including the country, the graphics adapter, and the sound adapter.
First of all, we went to “Multimedia Device Support”, and added the SoundBlaster 16 PnP device to the list of installed devices.
Afterwards, we’re presented with another set of configuration, once we’ve selected “Next”. SInce there’s no need to configure anything on that screen, we’ve just clicked Next. Then, it presented us with options to choose the country/region, with the default selected country being “United States.”
Then, the printer configuraion window has shown up. SInce there’s no printer installed, we’ll leave it as it is.
We’re then presented with the graphics adapter configuration. It automatically selected the Cirrus Logic graphics adapter as we’ve chosen earlier for the virtual machine configuration.
Once we’ve selected OK, we’re then presented with a set of packages to install.
As soon as we clicked “Next”, we’re presented with another wizard that lets us configure some more services.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with a prompt to identify ourselves.
After that, we’re given another set of software packages to install. They represent the client services for OS/2.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with another configuration screen where we needed to configure the user ID and password for the file and print sharing services, and the network adapter and protocol services.
We went to create a new ID and a password for the sharing service
Then, we went to “Network Adapters and Protocol Services”, and a dialog box that told us to add a network adapter appeared. Since we don’t intend to have internet connectivity in this installation of OS/2 Warp 4.52, we’ve selected “No network adapter.”
Once we pressed OK, we’ve seen this result:
Now, we’ve pressed Install, and a confirmation dialog box appeared.
Now, the installation of the remaining system files started here.
Once it was done copying files, we’re asked whether to use the defaults for the monitor type or to use the display adapter utility program.
We’ve chosen the defaults, and an informational box appeared stating that the screen might flicker while the testing was underway.
After that, the remaining portions of the installation started. This is part one of the long waiting journey!
After the restart, depending on the region selected, OS/2 Warp 4.52 might tell you that there’s something wrong in the CONFIG.SYS file related to the codepage, just like below.
After that, the long waiting journey continues…
The system then restarted, and the desktop finally appeared, but with another dialog box asking us whether we needed to install sets of extra tools or not.
We’ve chosen the biggest option, which was “OS/2 Toolkit (English only)”. Then, we’ve clicked on Install once we’ve inserted the boot disk back to the CD-ROM drive.
Then, a configuration window where it tells us to configure the installation of the OS/2 Toolkit, just like below.
We’ve chosen to install everything, so we just chose Install. Yet another long wait journey starts…
After the installation of the toolkit reached 100%, a dialog box that told us that the installation was successful showed up. Once done, we’ve clicked on Quit in the toolkit installer.
Since the dialog box told us that the CONFIG.SYS file was modified and that we needed to restart the virtual machine. Therefore, we’ve clicked on Exit, then right-clicked on an empty area around the desktop and chose “Shut down”.
Once the shut down was done, we had to press CTRL + ALT + DEL in the virtual machine side. After that, the system booted up to the desktop, and the sound works!
Nostalgic, isn’t it?
#86Box #Linux #news #OS2 #OS2Warp #OS2Warp4 #OS2Warp452 #Retrocomputing #Tech #Technology #update -
OS/2 Warp 4.52 on 86Box with Super Socket 7 [1998]
OS/2 was a proprietary operating system that was initially developed by IBM in partnership with Microsoft as a replacement of DOS before it became entirely developed by IBM. OS/2 Warp 4 was officially released in 1996, and development slowed down to a halt because it failed to compete Microsoft Windows. OS/2 Warp 4.52 was officially released in December 2001, and this year, it will celebrate its 25th year anniversary.
Our focus in this article is testing OS/2 Warp 4.52 on an 86Box emulated machine with a Super Socket 7 [1998] motherboard. You can download it from here.
We’ve configured the virtual machine as follows:
We’ve configured a virtual machine to run with:
- Machine type: [1998] Super Socket 7
- Machine: [SiS 5591] Gigabyte GA-5SG100
- CPU: Intel Pentium @ 166 MHz
- Memory: 128 MB
- Video: [ISA16] Cirrus Logic GD5434
- Keyboard: AT Keyboard
- Mouse: PS/2 Mouse
- Sound card: [ISA16] Sound Blaster 16 PnP
- Floppy disk controller: Internal device
- Hard disk controller 1: Internal device
- New hard disk: os2warp452.vhd
- C/H/S: 1054/16/63
- Size: 518 MB
- Bus: IDE
- Channel: 0:0
- CD-ROM drive 1: ATAPI (0:1) KENWOOD CD-ROM UCR-421 208E (72x)
Once everything is configured as above, we can now start the virtual machine. Insert the boot disc called
mcp2-refresh-boot-en.isoto the CD-ROM reader, then configure BIOS as necessary.To be more specific, we need to go to the BIOS setup using DEL and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first with PGUP/PGDN.
After that, we save the changes and restart the virtual machine.
The installer starts by telling you to insert the installation CD-ROM to the drive.
In this case, right-click on the CD-ROM icon, select “Insert…”, select
mcp2-refresh-install-en.iso, and double-click it. Then, press ENTER.After that, you should be able to see this welcome screen:
Press ENTER, and you’ll be taken to another screen that welcomes you to the operating system installer.
Press ENTER. At this point, since it’s a fresh installation, and the hard drive is already empty, you’ll get the “Volumes Too Small” message. This means that you’ll need to create a single partition that will be used to install OS/2 Warp 4.52 to.
Press ENTER, and you’ll get a warning message telling you that all data on modified volumes will be deleted, and that backups should be made. Since there is no data on the hard drive, you can safely ignore this warning. Just press ENTER.
After that, you’ll be taken to the partitioning screen where you’ll be presented with the logical volume manager, with the logical view being the default. Press F5, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can see your hard disk, such as the below screenshot:
Here, you can create a physical partition. Press TAB, then ENTER, and you’ll be presented with those options.
Press ENTER to create a new partition. You’ll be asked whether this partition is going to be logical or primary. Select “Primary partition”.
After you select it, you’ll be presented with various dialog boxes telling you to specify the size and the name of the partition, as well as the position of the partition. Select “Create at the start of the free space”, then enter the partition name, then the size.
After that, this partition should be created.
We are not done yet when it comes to partitioning, so we need to go back to the logical view. Press ENTER, then press ENTER on “Create a new volume”. Then, select “Create a volume that can be made bootable”, then C:.
You’ll be brought back to the physical view that will tell you to choose a physical disk. Below the physical disk, the logical partition should be shown at the bottom of the screen. Press ENTER when this dialog box appears.
Press ENTER again, then select “Use existing partition”.
Now, a new logical volume will appear with the partition name that you’ve chosen. However, it’s still not ready yet for installation, since there are extra steps that are needed. We need to make it installable.
Press ENTER, and you should see the menu box below:
Select “Set the volume installable”. The status of your logical volume should change from “Startable” to “Installable”. Afterwards, press F3, and press ENTER when “Save the changes and exit” is highlighted.
Afterwards, you should be able to see the below dialog box telling you to insert the boot CD-ROM to the drive and restart the virtual machine using CTRL + ALT + DEL.
At this point, we need to change the BIOS boot order to avoid the black screen issue. Press DEL, go to BIOS Features Setup, and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first.
Then, exit the BIOS setup while saving changes, and follow the instructions all the way until the following screen shows up:
Verify that “Volume C” shows up. If not, you’ll have to configure the partitions again until the volume shows up in this screen. Since we’ve already configured everything, and that Volume C corresponds to our hard disk, press ENTER when “Accept the volume” is highlighted.
Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to format it slowly or quickly. This is a clean installation, so we’ve chosen a quick format. Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to use FAT or HPFS. We’ve chosen the HPFS file system.
After that, the installation of the base system begins.
After that, the virtual machine will automatically restart. Go back to the BIOS setup and make sure that the C drive comes first before the CD-ROM.
After that, OS/2 Warp should boot up to the GUI portion of the installer. The first thing you’ll be presented with is the configuration of the system, including the country, the graphics adapter, and the sound adapter.
First of all, we went to “Multimedia Device Support”, and added the SoundBlaster 16 PnP device to the list of installed devices.
Afterwards, we’re presented with another set of configuration, once we’ve selected “Next”. SInce there’s no need to configure anything on that screen, we’ve just clicked Next. Then, it presented us with options to choose the country/region, with the default selected country being “United States.”
Then, the printer configuraion window has shown up. SInce there’s no printer installed, we’ll leave it as it is.
We’re then presented with the graphics adapter configuration. It automatically selected the Cirrus Logic graphics adapter as we’ve chosen earlier for the virtual machine configuration.
Once we’ve selected OK, we’re then presented with a set of packages to install.
As soon as we clicked “Next”, we’re presented with another wizard that lets us configure some more services.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with a prompt to identify ourselves.
After that, we’re given another set of software packages to install. They represent the client services for OS/2.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with another configuration screen where we needed to configure the user ID and password for the file and print sharing services, and the network adapter and protocol services.
We went to create a new ID and a password for the sharing service
Then, we went to “Network Adapters and Protocol Services”, and a dialog box that told us to add a network adapter appeared. Since we don’t intend to have internet connectivity in this installation of OS/2 Warp 4.52, we’ve selected “No network adapter.”
Once we pressed OK, we’ve seen this result:
Now, we’ve pressed Install, and a confirmation dialog box appeared.
Now, the installation of the remaining system files started here.
Once it was done copying files, we’re asked whether to use the defaults for the monitor type or to use the display adapter utility program.
We’ve chosen the defaults, and an informational box appeared stating that the screen might flicker while the testing was underway.
After that, the remaining portions of the installation started. This is part one of the long waiting journey!
After the restart, depending on the region selected, OS/2 Warp 4.52 might tell you that there’s something wrong in the CONFIG.SYS file related to the codepage, just like below.
After that, the long waiting journey continues…
The system then restarted, and the desktop finally appeared, but with another dialog box asking us whether we needed to install sets of extra tools or not.
We’ve chosen the biggest option, which was “OS/2 Toolkit (English only)”. Then, we’ve clicked on Install once we’ve inserted the boot disk back to the CD-ROM drive.
Then, a configuration window where it tells us to configure the installation of the OS/2 Toolkit, just like below.
We’ve chosen to install everything, so we just chose Install. Yet another long wait journey starts…
After the installation of the toolkit reached 100%, a dialog box that told us that the installation was successful showed up. Once done, we’ve clicked on Quit in the toolkit installer.
Since the dialog box told us that the CONFIG.SYS file was modified and that we needed to restart the virtual machine. Therefore, we’ve clicked on Exit, then right-clicked on an empty area around the desktop and chose “Shut down”.
Once the shut down was done, we had to press CTRL + ALT + DEL in the virtual machine side. After that, the system booted up to the desktop, and the sound works!
Nostalgic, isn’t it?
#86Box #Linux #news #OS2 #OS2Warp #OS2Warp4 #OS2Warp452 #Retrocomputing #Tech #Technology #update -
OS/2 Warp 4.52 on 86Box with Super Socket 7 [1998]
OS/2 was a proprietary operating system that was initially developed by IBM in partnership with Microsoft as a replacement of DOS before it became entirely developed by IBM. OS/2 Warp 4 was officially released in 1996, and development slowed down to a halt because it failed to compete Microsoft Windows. OS/2 Warp 4.52 was officially released in December 2001, and this year, it will celebrate its 25th year anniversary.
Our focus in this article is testing OS/2 Warp 4.52 on an 86Box emulated machine with a Super Socket 7 [1998] motherboard. You can download it from here.
We’ve configured the virtual machine as follows:
We’ve configured a virtual machine to run with:
- Machine type: [1998] Super Socket 7
- Machine: [SiS 5591] Gigabyte GA-5SG100
- CPU: Intel Pentium @ 166 MHz
- Memory: 128 MB
- Video: [ISA16] Cirrus Logic GD5434
- Keyboard: AT Keyboard
- Mouse: PS/2 Mouse
- Sound card: [ISA16] Sound Blaster 16 PnP
- Floppy disk controller: Internal device
- Hard disk controller 1: Internal device
- New hard disk: os2warp452.vhd
- C/H/S: 1054/16/63
- Size: 518 MB
- Bus: IDE
- Channel: 0:0
- CD-ROM drive 1: ATAPI (0:1) KENWOOD CD-ROM UCR-421 208E (72x)
Once everything is configured as above, we can now start the virtual machine. Insert the boot disc called
mcp2-refresh-boot-en.isoto the CD-ROM reader, then configure BIOS as necessary.To be more specific, we need to go to the BIOS setup using DEL and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first with PGUP/PGDN.
After that, we save the changes and restart the virtual machine.
The installer starts by telling you to insert the installation CD-ROM to the drive.
In this case, right-click on the CD-ROM icon, select “Insert…”, select
mcp2-refresh-install-en.iso, and double-click it. Then, press ENTER.After that, you should be able to see this welcome screen:
Press ENTER, and you’ll be taken to another screen that welcomes you to the operating system installer.
Press ENTER. At this point, since it’s a fresh installation, and the hard drive is already empty, you’ll get the “Volumes Too Small” message. This means that you’ll need to create a single partition that will be used to install OS/2 Warp 4.52 to.
Press ENTER, and you’ll get a warning message telling you that all data on modified volumes will be deleted, and that backups should be made. Since there is no data on the hard drive, you can safely ignore this warning. Just press ENTER.
After that, you’ll be taken to the partitioning screen where you’ll be presented with the logical volume manager, with the logical view being the default. Press F5, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can see your hard disk, such as the below screenshot:
Here, you can create a physical partition. Press TAB, then ENTER, and you’ll be presented with those options.
Press ENTER to create a new partition. You’ll be asked whether this partition is going to be logical or primary. Select “Primary partition”.
After you select it, you’ll be presented with various dialog boxes telling you to specify the size and the name of the partition, as well as the position of the partition. Select “Create at the start of the free space”, then enter the partition name, then the size.
After that, this partition should be created.
We are not done yet when it comes to partitioning, so we need to go back to the logical view. Press ENTER, then press ENTER on “Create a new volume”. Then, select “Create a volume that can be made bootable”, then C:.
You’ll be brought back to the physical view that will tell you to choose a physical disk. Below the physical disk, the logical partition should be shown at the bottom of the screen. Press ENTER when this dialog box appears.
Press ENTER again, then select “Use existing partition”.
Now, a new logical volume will appear with the partition name that you’ve chosen. However, it’s still not ready yet for installation, since there are extra steps that are needed. We need to make it installable.
Press ENTER, and you should see the menu box below:
Select “Set the volume installable”. The status of your logical volume should change from “Startable” to “Installable”. Afterwards, press F3, and press ENTER when “Save the changes and exit” is highlighted.
Afterwards, you should be able to see the below dialog box telling you to insert the boot CD-ROM to the drive and restart the virtual machine using CTRL + ALT + DEL.
At this point, we need to change the BIOS boot order to avoid the black screen issue. Press DEL, go to BIOS Features Setup, and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first.
Then, exit the BIOS setup while saving changes, and follow the instructions all the way until the following screen shows up:
Verify that “Volume C” shows up. If not, you’ll have to configure the partitions again until the volume shows up in this screen. Since we’ve already configured everything, and that Volume C corresponds to our hard disk, press ENTER when “Accept the volume” is highlighted.
Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to format it slowly or quickly. This is a clean installation, so we’ve chosen a quick format. Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to use FAT or HPFS. We’ve chosen the HPFS file system.
After that, the installation of the base system begins.
After that, the virtual machine will automatically restart. Go back to the BIOS setup and make sure that the C drive comes first before the CD-ROM.
After that, OS/2 Warp should boot up to the GUI portion of the installer. The first thing you’ll be presented with is the configuration of the system, including the country, the graphics adapter, and the sound adapter.
First of all, we went to “Multimedia Device Support”, and added the SoundBlaster 16 PnP device to the list of installed devices.
Afterwards, we’re presented with another set of configuration, once we’ve selected “Next”. SInce there’s no need to configure anything on that screen, we’ve just clicked Next. Then, it presented us with options to choose the country/region, with the default selected country being “United States.”
Then, the printer configuraion window has shown up. SInce there’s no printer installed, we’ll leave it as it is.
We’re then presented with the graphics adapter configuration. It automatically selected the Cirrus Logic graphics adapter as we’ve chosen earlier for the virtual machine configuration.
Once we’ve selected OK, we’re then presented with a set of packages to install.
As soon as we clicked “Next”, we’re presented with another wizard that lets us configure some more services.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with a prompt to identify ourselves.
After that, we’re given another set of software packages to install. They represent the client services for OS/2.
Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with another configuration screen where we needed to configure the user ID and password for the file and print sharing services, and the network adapter and protocol services.
We went to create a new ID and a password for the sharing service
Then, we went to “Network Adapters and Protocol Services”, and a dialog box that told us to add a network adapter appeared. Since we don’t intend to have internet connectivity in this installation of OS/2 Warp 4.52, we’ve selected “No network adapter.”
Once we pressed OK, we’ve seen this result:
Now, we’ve pressed Install, and a confirmation dialog box appeared.
Now, the installation of the remaining system files started here.
Once it was done copying files, we’re asked whether to use the defaults for the monitor type or to use the display adapter utility program.
We’ve chosen the defaults, and an informational box appeared stating that the screen might flicker while the testing was underway.
After that, the remaining portions of the installation started. This is part one of the long waiting journey!
After the restart, depending on the region selected, OS/2 Warp 4.52 might tell you that there’s something wrong in the CONFIG.SYS file related to the codepage, just like below.
After that, the long waiting journey continues…
The system then restarted, and the desktop finally appeared, but with another dialog box asking us whether we needed to install sets of extra tools or not.
We’ve chosen the biggest option, which was “OS/2 Toolkit (English only)”. Then, we’ve clicked on Install once we’ve inserted the boot disk back to the CD-ROM drive.
Then, a configuration window where it tells us to configure the installation of the OS/2 Toolkit, just like below.
We’ve chosen to install everything, so we just chose Install. Yet another long wait journey starts…
After the installation of the toolkit reached 100%, a dialog box that told us that the installation was successful showed up. Once done, we’ve clicked on Quit in the toolkit installer.
Since the dialog box told us that the CONFIG.SYS file was modified and that we needed to restart the virtual machine. Therefore, we’ve clicked on Exit, then right-clicked on an empty area around the desktop and chose “Shut down”.
Once the shut down was done, we had to press CTRL + ALT + DEL in the virtual machine side. After that, the system booted up to the desktop, and the sound works!
Nostalgic, isn’t it?
#86Box #Linux #news #OS2 #OS2Warp #OS2Warp4 #OS2Warp452 #Retrocomputing #Tech #Technology #update -
Das Große Nerdlicht-Abecedarium: C
Ein #Abecedarium ist eine muntere alphabetisch sortierte Auflistung von Begriffen – im Grunde ein kleines Lexikon, das sich nicht allzu ernst nehmen muss. Wie geschaffen für eine #Blog-Rubrik. Lest und bestaunt also das Große Nerdlicht-Abecedarium!
Diesmal zum Buchstaben C wie
C64
Ich bin schon so alt, die Spielkonsole meiner Kindheit und Jugend war der Commodore 64 C mit Labberdisketten-Laufwerk und dem Competition-Pro-Joystick. Gespielt wurde alles, was die Schulhoftauschbörse hergab, von Hanse über Summergames bis hin zu Barbarian. Als das Gerät irgendwann Ende der 90er auf dem Dachboden verschwand,1 endete im Großen und Ganzen auch meine Gamer-Karriere.
Danach kamen nur kurze #Games-Phasen mit Age of Empires, Heroes of Might and Magic und schließlich mein World-of-Warcraft-Jahr Anfang der 2000er. Heute installiere ich mir höchstens ab und an mal ein Spiel auf dem Mobiltelefon.
Vielleicht sollte ich doch mal wieder auf dem Dachboden nach meinem C64 wühlen. Könnte ja noch funktionieren.
Christiania Chroniken, die
Zu den Konstanten in meinem Leben zählt: ich schreibe gern und ich lese gern #PerryRhodan – selbst wenn ich bei beidem immer mal wieder kürzere oder längere Pausen einlege. Logisch, dass diese Vorlieben oft zusammenfallen, weswegen ich bereits eine ganze Menge Perry Rhodan Fanfiction produziert habe und immer noch produziere.
Im Jahr 2002 durfte ich bereits zum zweiten Mal einen Heftroman im Rahmen der Perry Rhodan FanEdition veröffentlichen. Band 7 dieser Reihe stammt aus meiner Feder und trägt den Titel “Die Christiania Chroniken”. Über das gelungene Titelbild von Stefan Lechner freue ich mich noch immer.
Das Kolonisten-Abenteuer aus der Frühzeit der Serie spielt am Rande der Galaxis und handelt von zwei Jugendlichen, die mit einem Raumschiff ausbüxen, dabei in große Schwierigkeiten geraten – wodurch aber schließlich ein von schurkischen Menschen unterdrücktes Alienvolk befreit werden kann.
Ursprünglich sollte das natürlich nur der Auftakt zu einer ganzen Serie von Abenteuern sein,2 die jedoch nie von mir geschrieben wurden. Man kommt halt zu nix.
Der Heftroman ist heute leider nicht mehr erhältlich. Wer ihn also noch im Regal liegen hat, möge ihn in Ehren halten. Für alle anderen hätte ich einen kostenlosen Download im Angebot – es ist allerdings der schiere Text und es handelt sich zudem um den “Authors’ Cut”, eine etwas längere Version, die ich zudem mit einem alternativen Ende versehen habe, in dem ich zwei “prominente” Figuren aus der Originalserie auftreten lasse.
Viel Spaß damit! (HINWEIS: Der Link führt zu GoogleDrive, wo ich das PDF abgelegt habe.) Die Christiania Chroniken (Author’s Cut)
Con
#ScienceFiction-, #Fantasy-, Rollenspiel- und Comic-Fans sowie etliche andere Nerdgruppierungen nennen ihre Messen und Fantreffen gemeinhin “Con”.
Dabei kann man das deutschsprachige Fantastik-Fandom grob in zwei Gruppen unterteilen: jene, die “der Con” und jene, die “die Con” sagen. Die eine Traditionslinie leitet sich von “der Konvent” ab, die andere von “die Convention”. Erstere findet sich heute vor allem im Perry-Rhodan-Umfeld, letztere bei Fans von #Comics, Mangas oder #StarTrek.
Aufgrund meiner Vorliebe für die älteste Science-Fiction-Serie der Welt zähle ich zur ersten Gruppe. Vor allem um die Jahrtausendwende war ich regelmäßiger Gast der einschlägigen Perry-Rhodan-Treffen in Hamburg, Sinzig und Garching – und natürlich auf dem WeltCon 2000.
In den Jahren und Jahrzehnten danach ging mein diesbezügliches Engagement wieder stark zurück. Für den Nordcon – auch ein “der”, obwohl es fast gar nicht um Perry Rhodan geht – hatte ich jedoch oft Zeit, in den letzten Jahren habe ich es sogar nach Leipzig und nach Braunschweig geschafft.
Egal, ob “der” oder “die” – vielleicht sehen wir uns im nächsten Jahr auf irgendwelchen Cons.
Comics
Ich bin seit jeher ein großer Freund der Neunten Kunst und habe diese Begeisterung bis heute bewahrt. Daher dreht sich auch ein Großteil meiner Blogposts um dieses Thema, seien es Superheldenheftchen,3 Mangas, Disneycomics,4, frankobelgische Alben oder inhaltsschwere Graphic Novels. Viel mehr ist dazu eigentlich nicht zu sagen. Ich liebe Comics in all ihren Erscheinungsformen und werde niemals genug davon bekommen.
ComiXology
Im Falle des reinen geschriebenen Worts habe ich schon lange meinen Frieden mit dem digitalen Lesen gemacht. Tatsächlich gefällt mir der E-Book-Reader inzwischen sogar meist am Besten, irgendeine haptische oder gar olfaktorische Leseerfahrung fehlt mir nicht im mindesten.
Als Ausnahme bleiben besonders illustrierte Bücher, wie beispielsweise die Zamonien-Romane von Walter Moers. Und natürlich Comics. Wobei es #ComiXology fast geschafft hätte, mich auch bei den bunten Bildchen zu digitalisieren.
Die Comiclese-App und -Plattform wurde 2007 gegründet, ich bin – wie so oft – erst ein paar Jahre später darauf gestoßen. In der kurzen Zeit bis sie wieder verschwand – beziehungsweise nach Erwerb durch Amazon in die Kindle-App aufging5 – hatte ich aber durchaus große Freude daran. Es ist ihr hervorragend gelungen – zum Beispiel durch eine Panel-weise Leseoption – den Lesegenuss ins Digitale zu übertragen.
Wobei dieser Genuss und diese Freude stark an das dabei verwendete Endgerät gekoppelt sind. Auch wenn ich es mir eine zeitlang einreden wollte, auf dem Smartphone bringt es nichts, es muss schon ein Tablet sein – für einen Android-Puristen nicht ganz einfach.
So, oder so. ComiXology gibt’s nicht mehr, auf Papier sind Comics aber ohnehin am schönsten.
Cowboy Bebop
Auch wenn ich erst recht spät in das Thema #Anime eingestiegen bin und über eine entsprechend dünne Datengrundlage verfüge, zähle ich #CowboyBebop zu einem herausragenden Beispiel dieses Genres und zu einer der besten Science-Fiction-Serien überhaupt. Und ja, mir hat sogar die Live-Action-Version gar nicht mal so schlecht gefallen.
Cthulhu
Eine Zeitlang haben mich die Werke eines gewissen Herrn Lovecraft in ihren Bann gezogen. Vor allem die Traumlande–Geschichten mochte ich ich sehr gern – und mag sie auch heute noch. In eben jener Zeit war ich außerdem intensiv mit Pen&Paper #Rollenspiel beschäftigt und entsprechend begeistert bei etlichen Cthulhu–Spielrunden dabei.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
––––––––––––
- wo es noch heute ruht[↑]
- daher auch die “Chroniken” im Titel[↑]
- egal ob Marvel oder DC[↑]
- von Carl-Barks-Klassikern bis zu Lustigen Taschenbüchern[↑]
- wodurch immerhin ein paar Funktionen erhalten geblieben sind[↑]
#Abecedarium #Anime #Blog #Comics #ComiXology #CowboyBebop #Fantasy #Games #PerryRhodan #Rollenspiel #ScienceFiction #StarTrek
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CONTENT WARNING: The details and linked videos of this event may be disturbing to some.
August 24, 2019:
Elijah McClain, a massage therapist, violinist, and “gentle soul”, was walking home from a convenience store not, far from his home in Aurora, Colorado. Because of his anemia, which often made him feel cold, he was known to where a ski mask. On his way home, someone in a house he passed called police to report an unarmed, “sketchy” individual. Minutes Later, Aurora PD’s Nathan Woodyard saw Elijah walking to his home and stopped. Within 9 sec. of exiting his car, Woodyard had his hands on Elijah McClain. Just seconds later, officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt showed up, also engaging with Elisha. As he explained he was an “introvert“, and was “just walking home“, one of the officers responded, “Relax, or I’m going to have to change this situation”.
The officers had McClain against the wall, before taking the five feet seven, 143 lb man to the ground. One of their body cameras was detached and landed in the grass, capturing an officer slowly walking out of view. With Elijah and police no longer being filmed clearly, one officer can be heard claiming, “he just grabbed your gun dude“. Within four seconds of the allegation, Elijah can be heard choking as a result of police applying the carotid restraint, restricting his airflow. FOUR SECONDS?! One of the officers later told investigators that McClain “briefly” fell unconscious and the officers released their grasp on his neck. The chokehold was implemented only one minute and four seconds after the first officer exited his vehicle. The three officers involved, Woodyard, Rosenblatt and Roedema, all claimed their body cameras “fell off ” in the “struggle” with this small statured young man.
The video footage is very difficult to listen to. Elijah McClain can be heard gasping as he pleads with officers to stop, saying, “I can’t breathe“. Elijah continues to plead, saying his name and that he was “just going home“. Through his sobs, came the words I, and many others with invisible disabilities, will never forget. “I’m just different. I’m just different, that’s all“. It’s hard to difficult the police on the audio of one body cam, but Elijah’s words are clear… “I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why are you attacking me?”. As officers ignore his pleas, they seem to spin tales of their “struggle” with a 143 pound person. One repeated the accusation that McClain tried to grab officer Roedema’s gun, and that they “had” to use the carotid hold.
About six minutes after the initial contact by police, Elijah McClain can be heard vomiting for the first time. One of the officers commands him to “STOP“, to which McClain apologized, saying, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to do that. I just can’t breathe correctly”. In the next few minutes, McClain gets sick “a few more times” while officers held him face-down, repeatedly telling him to “stop resisting“. Reports say he was also handcuffed and still wearing the ski mask when he was sick, and as a result, was struggling to breathe. He may have been trying to roll on his side, or remove the mask to breathe better, as police seemed to be acting out a show of “resisting arrest” for the body cam audio.
The officers can be heard threatening him, “Don’t get up. It’s not gonna be good for you, I’m telling you right now“. Another officer standing over him said “You keep messin’ around, I’m unna bring my dog out here“, saying he would let the dog attack Elijah. Approximately 11 minutes after the initial contact by officer Woodyard, the cameras capture police saying, “When the ambulance gets here, were gonna go ahead and give him some ketamine“. This is also when they claimed “whatever he’s on, he has incredible strength”, as another concurs “yeah, crazy strength”. It’s alarming that police, and individuals of such character, have authority to mandate the administering of this powerful sedative.
Image from another officers body cam footage. Read Alt text for more.The timing of the accusation that Elijah McClain attempted to grab the firearm, only seconds after body cams were removed, is highly suspect. Again, McClain was 143 lbs, being held by three much larger men. While one of the officer’s body cam was still attached, another can be heard telling him to “move” his camera. I don’t believe the body cams dislodged, and firmly believe these accused murderers doffed them. The Maclean’s attorney said police intentionally removed their body cameras “to support a false allegation that McClain reached for a gun“. Though it is not clear on the video, there is absolutely, no doubt in my mind, the accusation is false. The same is true, regarding their claims for body cam audio that Elijah was “struggling“. If he was struggling, it was likely for air and survival.
The report from paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec claimed that when they arrived, Elijah was displaying signs of “excited delirium“. The snap “diagnosis” was made, despite never touching, talking to, or checking Maclean’s vitals. Were these paramedics scapegoating in an effort to protect their fellow first responders? After incorrectly estimating his weight, the paramedics administered 500 mg of ketamine to McClain, a dosage for someone nearly 60 to 70 pounds larger. For those who believe in forcibly drugging people, the proper ketamine dosage for Elijah’s weight, is about 325 mg. Approximately 23 minutes after Nathan Woodyard stopped “to talk” to McClain, the officers involved were informed, Elijah, had no pulse. Less than a week later, he was declared brain-dead on August 27, and died, five years ago today, on August 30, 2019.
According to cpr.org – CPR news: “After McClain’s death, Dr. Stephen Cina, a contractor forensic pathologist for Adams County, completed the autopsy on Sept. 3, 2019. There were two Aurora police officers, and two representatives from the Adams County District Attorney’s office in attendance“. I’d be interested to hear that conversation, considering the findings of the autopsy. The Adams County corner ruled the cause of death as “undetermined“, saying that, “a therapeutic amount” of ketamine was found in Maclean’s system. The report, reeking of scapegoating, speculated about drug use and undiagnosed mental illness, while seeming to conclude nothing, but suppositional ifs.
Excerpt from Dr. Cina’s report: “The manner of death may be accident if it was an idiosyncratic drug reaction,” . “It may be natural if (McClain) had an undiagnosed mental illness that led to excited delirium, if his intense physical exertion combined with a narrow coronary artery led to an arrhythmia, if he had an asthma attack, or if he aspirated vomit while restrained.”… “It may be a homicide if the actions of officers led to his death (eg. carotid control hold…)”.
That’s a lot of “Ifs”. I can’t help but wonder “IF”, the presence of officers and DA personnel “may” have influence the doctors findings. In conjunction with the corners “undetermined” autopsy determination, Adams County DA Dave Young said, he would not bring charges against the officers. This seeming manipulation of justice, by those who controlled it, was met with outrage.
Another slap in the face, illuminating the culture of Aurora PD, occurred in October 2019, less than two months after Elijah’s death. Several other officers returned to the scene, taking pictures while they joyfully reenacted the cardioid hold, used on McClain. In July, 2020, after the photos were made public, three officers were fired and one resigned. It’s remarkable that they were fired for mocking and taking pictures, while the officers accused of killing Elijah, were still patrolling the streets. The shouts of “Justice for Elijah”, became louder as it seemed this heinous police action was being ignored. Once again, protesters took to the streets.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) – BF Denver Post – Read Alt text for more.Protests and Indictments:
The winds of change began to blow in the summer of 2020. A change.org petition compiled over 2 million signatures, seeking justice for Elijah McClain. On June 10, 2020, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told the public, Atty Gen Phil Weiser would be investigating the death of McClain. Also that June, protesters shut down a section of Interstate 225, demanding accountability for his death. In the series of peaceful demonstrations, protesters were also targeted by police. During one of those protests, when heavily militarized police arrived, the legendary chant began, “WHY ARE YOU IN RIOT GEAR! WE DON’T SEE NO RIOT HERE“. Finally, there was momentum in the battle for some form of justice.
In September, 2021, over two years after the crime, a 32 count grand jury indictment charged the five first responders for their actions. The forensic pathologist who was part of the grand jury investigation, concluded the cause of death was “homicide“. The individuals named in the grand jury indictment were: officers Randy Roedema, Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt, and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec. All five were charged with Manslaughter and Criminally negligent homicide, among other charges. Roedema, Rosenblatt and both EMTs were additionally charged with Second-degree assault and Crime of violence.
Protesters shut down Interstate 225. Read Alt text for more.The indictment was followed by a series of other events. In September 2022, well after the grand jury indictment, Adams County announced, the original 2019 autopsy report had been amended. It now stated the means as “COMPLICATIONS OF KETAMINE ADMINISTRATION FOLLOWING FORCIBLE RESTRAINT“. However, the cause of death was still listed as “UNDETERMINED“, rather than “homicide”. Interestingly enough, in November 2021, the city of Aurora agreed to pay the family of Elijah McClain, $15 million to settle a federal civil rights action.
After much legal wrangling, many delays, and the passing of four long years, the five accused murderers, were tried in three separate cases. Nathan Woodyard, the first Aurora officer on the scene, who put his hands on Elijah within nine seconds, stood trial alone. The other two officers, Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt, faced “justice” in the same proceeding. The paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, were also put on trial together. I gave daily reports during the trials, but ultimately became disgusted by the outcomes. I do not believe justice was properly served.
Image showing protests and mugshots of the accused. Read Alt text for more.In the joint trial of the two Aurora officers, the jury found Randy Roedema guilty of criminally negligent homicide, and third-degree assault causing bodily injury. Officer Jason Rosenblatt was acquitted, and will serve no jail time. After the verdict, Elijah McClain’s mother, Sheneen, told reporters as she left the courthouse, “… I’m pissed!”. I must say, so am I! Randy Roedema, the only officer to be incarcerated for the murder, was sentenced to 14 months with options for work-release prison time.
In June, the Denver Post reported that Randy Roedema told a judge “he is depressed, paranoid, sleeping poorly and has lost 30 pounds since beginning his part-time jail sentence”. I imagine, Elijah’s mother has been sleeping poorly for four years. He claims jail is too tough? I’m sure it’s not half as tough, as what he subjected Elijah McLean to.
Both of the paramedics were found guilty for their part in the administration of ketamine to Elijah McClain. Peter Cichuniec, the EMT who estimated Elijah’s weight, and authorized the administration of the drug, was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, and “second-degree unlawful administration of drugs”. The other, Jeremy Cooper was convicted, only of criminally negligent homicide, and sentenced to 14 months of work-release, four years probation and 100 hours of community service. Peter Cichuniec, was sentenced to the minimum, five years in prison.
Officer Woodyard, the first on the scene, was acquitted of all charges and, essentially “paid” to leave the Aurora Colorado Police Department. After joining the force in 2016, and being acquitted after his trial, Woodyard initially said he planned to return to the department. In January of this year, he resigned instead, and was paid almost a half million dollars by the city.
In public records obtained by the Denver Post, “following his acquittal and resignation”, he was paid a total of $429,895.51 by the city of Aurora.
According to the documents obtained by the Post, “the money paid to Woodyard came in three payments”:
⦁ Nov. 22 – $212,546.04 in back pay accrued while he was suspended;
⦁ Jan. 19 – $200,000 for “backpay, accrued leave, and other consideration” – including an agreement not to pursue any claims against the city;
⦁ Jan. 19 – $17,349.47 to cover the cost of one year of medical coverage.If the group of five men that did this, where civilians, what do you think there penalty would have been? Nathan Woodyard, served no time, and is now over $400,000 richer, in part, because of his involvement in the incident. The others were given a slap on the hand, when considering the magnitude of the crime. According to other investigations, Aurora Colorado’s pattern of policing, has raised concerns of implicit bias towards those with invisible disabilities, POC and other marginalized people. In so many ways this is a travesty of justice to so many. Elijah McClain suffered during the event, and for days before his passing. His family, is still suffering. Justice for Elijah McClain? Balderdash!
It’s reported that over 1100 people were killed by police in 2022, 1,329 in 2023, according to “”Mapping Police Violence”. Other reports say, “half of people killed by police have a disability”. It seems to be a dangerous time if someone decides another is different, especially if that someone has authority. People with disabilities are not a “new thing”, and represent about 26% of the US population. Why should it be necessary to teach those sworn to “”serve and protect””, basics like: understanding, accommodation, proper communication, and preservation of dignity, when it comes to invisible disability? Can things like human decency, actually be taught with “”adequate training””?
Considering Elijah and the story of Christian Glass, is it any wonder many individuals with invisible disabilities, are afraid to call police for help? How many such crimes are covered up or not reported? More importantly, why did so many have to suffer, before anyone heard them call… “”I’m just different. I’m just different, that’s all””.
OutOfExile_IDR™ © 2023
Photo of Memorial to Elijah McClain. Read Alt text for more.Elijah McClain’s last words: CW
“I can’t breathe. I have my ID right here. My name is Elijah McClain. That’s my house. I was just going home. I’m an introvert. I’m just different. That’s all. I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why are you attacking me? I don’t even kill flies! I don’t eat meat! I don’t judge people, I don’t judge people who do eat meat. Forgive me. All I was trying to do was become better. I will do it. I will do anything. Sacrifice my identity, I’ll do it. You all are phenomenal. You are beautiful and I love you. Try to forgive me. I’m a mood Gemini. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Ow, that really hurt! You are all very strong. Teamwork makes the dream work. [after vomiting] Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to do that. I just can’t breathe correctly.”OutOfExile_IDR™ – © 2024
All writings, images, graphics, logos, and other content by: OutOfExile_IDR™ unless credited otherwise.
All Rights Reserved. No Scraping.
Source Links:
Half of People Killed by Police Have a Disability: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/half-people-killed-police-suffer-mental-disability-report-n538371
Six minute video analysis of Elijah McClain’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGlHMZQtO7U
Full 3 hour video including multiple officers body cam footage and Elijah McClain’s mother attempting to get answers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5NcyePEOJ8
Timeline, analysis of body cam footage in Elijah McClain case: https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/elijah-mcclain/elijah-mcclain-body-camera-video-analysis-timeline/73-68537e78-add9-4e66-97c6-a22c080b1e1e
Police mock the death of Elijah McClain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giOB3LJj_g0
Accused killers plead not guilty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUU-xE-uouQ
Protesters targeted: https://www.thecut.com/2021/10/how-aurora-colorado-police-cover-up-misconduct-and-brutality.html
“Hundreds of Officers That Have Been Labeled Liars. Some Still Help Send People to Prison”: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/10/14/brady-lists-police-officers-dishonest-corrupt-still-testify-investigation-database/2233386001/
Aurora officer paid “to leave the force: https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/aurora-officer-nathan-woodyard-resignation-agreement-acquitted-elijah-mcclain-death/73-29dfd591-c3c1-4b79-a5d5-64f7441ed7f8
Example of Aurora PD’s racial profiling: https://sentinelcolorado.com/metro/police-courts/aurora-cop-who-shot-boy-14-part-of-unlawful-search-settlement-of-black-man/
Legal analysis by Wolfberg and Wirth: https://www.ems1.com/legal/articles/legal-analysis-what-the-paramedic-criminal-charges-in-the-elijah-mcclain-case-mean-for-ems-wIPxkOn0Hn4ToKVk/
Wikipedia page containing a link to the 911 call and police body camera: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elijah_McClain
#BLM #ElijahMcClain #EndAbleism #Hero #IMDifferent #ICantBreathe #Justice4Elijah #SocialJustice #SocialJusticeone #StopKillingUs #Writing #ActuallyAutistic #disability #I #JusticeForElijahMcClain #NoJusticeNoPeace
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In a complete departure from my usual meanderings, I’m going to present an in-depth comparative review of eight iOS Mastodon/Fediverse apps. (Video: ‘What is the Fediverse?’) Given that I’m not alone in moving to Mastodon from Twitter at the moment (whether tentatively or bridge-burningly), I’ll also draw comparisons with the official iOS Twitter app, noting points of comfort and familiarity as well as things that might jar a little at first. But please bear in mind that Mastodon isn’t meant to be a clone of Twitter. I’ve chosen these eight apps in particular simply on the basis that they have a rating of 3 stars (out of 5) or higher in the iPhone App Store (in fact, all of them are rated 4–5 stars):
- Fedi for Pleroma and Mastodon v. 3.2.0 (Big Fig/Fedi)
- Mast: for Mastodon* v. 2.2.3 (PoeticBytes)
- Mastodon for iPhone and iPad v. 1.4.0 (121) (Mastodon)
- Mercury for Mastodon v. 2021.4(54) (Daniel Nitsikopoulos)
- Metatext* v. 1.5.1 (2) (Metabolist)
- tooot* v. 4.0.0 (Zhiyuan Zheng)
- Toot!* v. 16.0 (132) (Dag Ågren)
- Tootle for Mastodon* v. 1.11.6 (Moortz/Takashi Morioka)
*link to App Store
Skip to the end for a tl;dr summary. (This is a very long post.)
Initial considerationsHow much does it cost?First things first, you might want to consider how much you’re willing to spend. Fortunately, only Mast (£2.49, €2.99) and Toot! (£3.49, €3.99) will cost you actual money (so you could, like me, try all eight apps for £5.98). If you decide you like an app, and you want to (and have the wherewithal to) support the developer, the two paid apps along with Mercury and Tootle have in-app purchase options for tipping them (with a small amount of bonus functionality unlocked in the case of Mercury).
Will it still be around next year?Before getting too comfortable with an app, you might also want to consider how likely it is to continue being maintained. All these apps work on the latest iPhones, but the timeline below shows that some haven’t been updated for a while, including the venerable Tootle, which was the only one of these I had used until this month! (I first toyed with Mastodon in 2018, when none of the others were around – including the official Mastodon app, which is actually the baby of the bunch.) Having said that, if you do have to move from one app to another at some point in the future, it should be at most a minor irritation, as long as you don’t make heavy use of app-specific features that store data on your device (such as Mast’s saved hashtags, or draft toots in those apps that support them).
Timeline showing periods from the first version released on the App Store to the most recentAnd what about other platforms, btw?Although I’m talking about iOS (i.e. iPhone apps), all of these also work on iPad. (Mercury works in iPhone-emulation mode.) Beyond the Apple ecosystem, both the official Mastodon app and Fedi are available on Android – but other apps such as Tusky seem to be more popular there. On the desktop, there are a few apps available (including a macOS version of Mast, which felt unpolished and buggy when I tried it). The standard multi-column Mastodon web interface – perhaps tailored slightly by your chosen instance – is probably the nicest way to connect to the social network when you have the luxury of a large screen.
First impressionsNever judge a book by its cover, or an app by its icon. That doesn’t mean I’ll put up with ugliness! Fedi gives us a zero-effort, bland, corporate ‘productivity app’ icon, so it’s not winning any prizes here (disclaimer: there are no actual prizes), and nor is tooot, with its oops-I-forgot-to-replace-the-placeholder look. The icon for the official Mastodon app looks ok, perhaps a little too like the official Twitter app’s icon, using a flat white logo on a blue background, which would be the same colour as Twitter’s if it weren’t for the addition of a slight gradient. (And it’s obviously an elephant rather than a bird.) Mercury’s icon captures, um, the blobbiness of liquid metal. Ok, that’s a charitable guess. It is one of four apps, though, that allow you to choose variations on the theme, and this redeems it (slightly). Two of the others are Mast and Metatext, both of which are reasonably smart elephant logotypes. That leaves Tootle, whose cute little elephant looks a little weary, but then it is relatively long in the tusk. The winner for me, another one with the option of picking your own variant, is Toot!’s cheery cartoon mastodon! Social media should be fun – but if you’ve come from Twitter, you can be excused for having forgotten that!
Getting startedThat’s enough of a preamble. Although I’m going to focus mainly on what I think are the things you’ll want to do most of the time you’re using an app, it’s worth looking briefly at how easy it is to get started, including setting up an account on an instance, and connecting to an existing account.
(If I’d thought of this in advance, I’d have noted what it was like at the time. Now I’ve had to log out of both my Mastodon accounts on all eight apps to remind myself! It took me a while to work out that I had to do a firm press on an account to bring up the option to remove it in Mast. And I actually had to delete and reinstall both Mast and Toot! because they insisted – not so unreasonably in normal use – on remaining logged in to at least one account!)
On opening the apps for the first time, you’ll be greeted with varying levels of friendliness and/or intimidation.
FediMastMastodonMercuryMetatexttoootToot!Tootle Initial screens for the eight apps (following any splash screens)Metatext and Toot! both introduce the brand-new user to Mastodon. The first app, albeit after an unnecessarily laboured fade-in of the welcome screen, has a short embedded YouTube video (produced by Mastodon). The second app has a brief text introduction, as well as a link at the bottom of the screen that will pop you out of the app and take you to that very same video on YouTube.
Mercury’s ‘Find and join a mastodon instance’ link actually links to Mastodon’s home page – which slightly unfortunately also prompts you to open the official app if you have it installed! I suppose you will eventually find lists of instances once you’ve read or skimmed over the introductory blurb.
The official Mastodon app’s ‘Get Started’ button (the first of only two on that screen) will take you to a screen in which you can choose from lists of instances, sorted thematically, and there’s a little explanation there too.
Fedi appears to suggest the instance fedi.app, but if you accept that default, and tap any of the three buttons, you’ll get a horrible red error box at the top of the screen – with raw HTML code for the first two buttons! So don’t do that! (It does go away, but it doesn’t inspire confidence.) If you ask for help choosing an instance, the lack of polish continues to shine through (um, no, that’s not quite right). You’re landed on a GitHub documentation page! (GitHub is a website used by software developers.) When you select the text box, you do get a list of suggestions. The documentation reveals that the developers of Fedi favour Pleroma (an alternative to Mastodon), and the instances they recommend skew in that direction, including some very nasty ones you may have heard of, such as Gab and Spinster (which most instances in the Fediverse block, as indeed do some apps themselves).
The other apps – Mast, tooot and Tootle – don’t offer any explicit guidance on what to do, but assume you know you want to connect to an instance (you do, by the way!). tooot has some mystery boxes labeled ‘Name’, ‘Users’, ‘Toots’ and ‘Universes’, whose purpose will only become clear when you type an instance URL into the text field. It also slightly oddly offers app settings at this point. Worst for shaking confidence is the wonky English: ‘Logging in process uses system broswer [sic] that, your account information won’t be visible to tooot app. Read more privacy policy’.
A note on terminologyThere are a number of different names for things in the Mastodon world, and the apps vary in their choice of terms. (Some even have settings that let you choose the ones you prefer.) The instances that you can sign up to are also known as servers. Toots (the Mastodon equivalent of tweets on Twitter) are also known more prosaically as posts, and officially as statuses. Toots can be favourited or liked (with stars, hearts or neither). They can also be boosted, reposted or reblogged (the equivalent of retweeting). A stream of toots is either a timeline or a feed. As on Twitter, you can have a profile pic, but these are sometimes called avatars (a term I prefer to avoid because of its appropriation from Hinduism).
Screenreader accessibility (part 1)Before going any further, I should say that Toot! and Tootle are sadly likely to be unusable by low-vision users who rely on being able to increase the text size on their iPhones (rather than using screenreaders). Unfortunately, these apps don’t respect the settings on your phone, and don’t offer any way to change the font size within the app either. The developer of Toot! has known about this issue since 2018, but it clearly hasn’t been a priority to fix it.
I’m not a screenreader user, but I have done just enough playing around with VoiceOver (the iPhone’s built-in screenreader) to have at least some idea of what’s useful. Or at least I can spot when app developers have done things really badly! But I haven’t explored every aspect of these apps using VoiceOver, and I can only give a hint of how accessible these apps are.
The opening screens for Mercury, Metatext, Toot! and Tootle are all straightforwardly navigable from top to bottom using VoiceOver. Mastodon’s opening screen takes you straight to that ‘Get Started’ button. tooot’s opening screen works fine too, with the proviso that there’s no explanation of the mysterious labels beyond the ‘Login’ button (but these are as much of a mystery for those of us using the visual interface!).
Mast’s opening screen is navigable, but unfortunately highlights several user interface elements that are hidden visually and intended not to be seen or active at this point. You need to skip past no fewer than seven invisible and unusable elements – five buttons, a heading and a list – to get to the ‘Instance name’ text field. Not great.
Fedi’s VoiceOver support is haphazard from the start. On the opening screen, the label for that all-important instance text field is widely separated from the text field itself, and the app gives unnecessary description of a ‘screenshot’ before getting into the functionality. I did actually play with Fedi properly, using a couple of instances, but it didn’t have many redeeming qualities. I’m so unimpressed by the app that I don’t think it’s worth labouring descriptions of how well it behaves elsewhere. It is therefore eliminated at this stage. (I wasn’t planning to have elimination rounds, but the app forced my hand!)
Signing up or logging in to an instance An instance’s login pageI said a few paragraphs ago that I’d look briefly at this aspect, but it seems I don’t do briefly at the moment! Fortunately, all of the apps share the same sign-up/login process, as this is delegated to the instance’s login page (which generally looks more or less the same from instance to instance – I’ve only seen minor customisations like colour changes).
If you haven’t already created an account on your chosen instance, you can choose the ‘Sign-up’ link here, which takes you to joinmastodon.org. Otherwise, you just need to enter your email address and password, and you’ll be asked to authorise the app to access your account. If you’ve set up two-factor authentication on your instance of choice, there may be another step here. And depending on the instance, you may also have to agree to abide by the instance’s rules.
There are some app-dependent wrinkles (of course!).
The official Mastodon app offers an alternative sign-up route, which happens if you tap the ‘Getting started’ button instead of the ‘Login’ button – here you are presented with the instance’s rules, and supply your display name, chosen username, email address and password within the app.
In Metatext, after you’ve typed the name of an instance, the ‘Log in’ button may be joined by another button, depending on the instance: ‘Request an invite’, in the case of an instance that requires you to be invited; ‘Browse’, in the case of instance that allows public browsing of its Local timeline and users; or ‘Join’, in the case of instance you can’t browse publicly but can sign up to without being invited.
Tootle also allows you to browse publicly accessible instances, using it’s ‘Take a look’ link, though this is unfortunately always active, and just pops up an unhelpful ‘Oops, something is wrong’ error when you try to look at an instance that doesn’t allow public browsing.
Toot! is very helpful in some ways, but its sign-up/login process feels a little tortuous at first (or at least it works very differently from the other apps). When you pick an instance, you are shown the instance’s rules and have to say you agree with them before proceeding. If the instance you have chosen allows public browsing, you then see its Local timeline, and can switch to its Federated timeline. (I’ll explain these later.) If on the other hand the instance you have chosen doesn’t allow public browsing, you’ll see a screen labeled ‘Local timeline’, but with no toots and an unhelpful message about ‘errors when loading’. In either case, if you want to sign up or log in, you need to take an extra step: the simplest way is to tap the dimmed ‘Home’, ‘Toot’ or ‘Notifications’ button at the bottom of the screen.
More than one instance?All the apps reviewed support accounts on multiple instances. In four of them, to add an instance, you start with the same action used to switch between your instances. In Mastodon, Mercury or tooot, press and hold the ‘Profile’ button or profile picture at the bottom of the screen. In Tootle, tap the display name/instance name at the top of the screen.
In Metatext, you switch instances by pressing and holding the profile picture at the top, but to add a new one, you need to tap it instead and then choose ‘Accounts’. In Mast, you switch instances similarly by pressing and holding the ‘Profile’ button at the bottom, but adding a new one is a little more convoluted: tap the ‘Profile’ button, tap the cog at the top left, scroll down and choose ‘Accounts’.
Toot! is a little different. To add an instance, tap the ‘…’ at the top right, and choose ‘Servers’. But to switch instances, use the instance switcher button at the bottom right: either press and hold, or swipe left or right for a nice rotating transition between screens for different instances.
Both Metatext and Toot! allow you to treat a publicly browsable instance the same way as the instances you’re signed up to, as far as it makes sense to do that, which could be quite useful. Tootle doesn’t quite treat read-only instances on an equal footing, but allows you to add ‘tabs’ for such instances at the bottom of the screen. Mast also allows you to add what it calls ‘instance timelines’, hidden away under ‘Explore’.
Exploring the FediverseTimelinesThere are three basic timelines in Mastodon:
- Home. This is where you’ll see public toots (and possibly other kinds of posts) of all the people you follow, in the order that they’re posted. It’s more like Twitter’s ‘Latest tweets’ than its opaquely generated ‘Home’ view. (Note: the Home timeline doesn’t exist if you’re browsing a publicly browsable instance without logging in.)
- Local. Here you can see all the public toots on your instance, again in chronological order.
- Federated. This timeline is like the Local timeline except that instead of just the public toots on your instance, it includes the public toots on all instances that your instance is currently federated with. Unless you’ve chosen a very isolated instance, this is a fast-flowing stream of toots.
If you have just signed up on an instance, your Home timeline will be dispiritingly empty. No algorithmically suggested people to follow or anything like that. You’re in charge here! So you probably want to start by looking through your Local timeline – or the Federated timeline if you’re feeling brave!
In Mast, the three timelines are available under ‘Feed’, and are labelled with tabs across the top of the screen as ‘Home’, ‘Local’ and ‘All’ (i.e. Federated).
Metatext works similarly, except that the button at the bottom is labelled ‘Timelines’ rather than ‘Feed’, and the Federated tab is labelled ‘Federated’. It’s also nice that you can swipe left and right between the three timelines.
tooot devotes two buttons at the bottom to timelines: the house button is for the Home timeline, labelled ‘Following’, while the globe button is for a view with two tabs, ‘Federated’ and ‘Local’, and again you can swipe between them.
Toot! also reserves the house button for the Home timeline. To access the Local or Federated timeline, tap the instance switcher. You can choose between the two at the top of the screen.
Tootle has separate buttons on its configurable tab bar for the three timelines.
In Mercury, you switch between timelines by tapping on the ‘Timelines’ button, which reveals a slide-in menu, including the three timelines, and also a lot of other things that aren’t really timelines.
It may surprise you to find that there is no Federated timeline in the official Mastodon app, and even the Local timeline is hidden away under search, disguised as ‘Community’. Lead developer Eugen Rochko (who also runs the large instance mastodon.social) has tried to justify this decision, but I’m not at all convinced, and for me it counts as this app’s biggest negative point.
Direct message timelinesDirect messages are really just toots in Mastodon. So they appear in your Home timeline along with everything else. Their distinguishing feature is simply that they have their visibility set to direct (as opposed to public, unlisted or followers). This means they are visible only to people mentioned in them.
Nevertheless, most of the apps have a facility to show you just those toots with this property. Mast and Metatext have a ‘Messages’ button, Mercury has a ‘Conversations’ button, and Tootle has a ‘DM’ button. Toot! has a ‘Direct messages’ view accessible from the ‘…’ menu at the top of the screen.
Otherwise, direct messages are highlighted in various ways in your Home timeline: Mercury and tooot use an envelope icon, and change the boost button to a padlock and a subtly dimmed boost icon respectively (since you can’t boost direct messages). Metatext and Tootle show their envelope icon in place of the boost button. Toot!, by default, styles direct messages in conversation bubbles, and omits the boost button. It also notifies you of new direct messages using a little profile pic circle at the top right.
Mast uses a paper aeroplane icon for direct messages, but Mastodon doesn’t distinguish them from toots with other visibilities at all. Both these apps confusingly retain an active boost button. In Mastodon, this appears to work momentarily and is then immediately undone, but since you can’t tell otherwise that the toot is a direct message, this could be very frustrating. In Mast, it also seems to work, and updates the number of boosts to 1. But this is only a display bug (and unboosting straightaway leads to the number of boosts being −1). If you go to a different view and return, everything is fine.
By the way, Mast gets completely hung up if you send a direct message without any mentions – though why you’d do that only I can guess!
Screenreader accessibility (part 2)Now, I have to concede ignorance about how people actually use screenreaders to navigate complex structures like Mastodon (or Twitter) timelines. So I may have approached this somewhat idiosyncratically! For one thing, I only tried the flat navigation style, whereas I can imagine grouped navigation being better in some situations. I did switch to the container rotor to move between major elements of the user interface with vertical swipes. Before I tried this, I had a lot of difficulty getting around parts of all the apps.
As a baseline, I compared the apps’ behaviour when selecting a toot in a timeline and letting VoiceOver ‘read all’ (default: two-finger swipe down), without considering how easy it was to select that first toot. Mastodon, Metatext and tooot all did a good job, with about the right amount of detail for an overview. Toot! felt ever-so-slightly verbose at times, but was basically fine. Mercury gave slightly more information than appeared on screen, and didn’t quite keep its visual and audible timelines in sync in some minor respects. Mast would have been ok, except that content warnings were completely ignored, which feels like a major failing. Tootle was fine with content warnings, which it just read as labelled buttons, but unfortunately it read everything else on the screen as well, which made browsing the timeline in this way very tedious.
Navigating through the timeline, element by element, Toot!, tooot and Tootle (from best to worst) all fared poorly. The container rotor didn’t often help, as the heading, timeline and button bar are not properly connected in the apps, and I couldn’t say how easy they would be to use at all for someone who relies on a screenreader. (I couldn’t access the button bar in any of these apps without actually tapping on it.)
Mast had one or two peculiarities. Saying how old a toot was, the ‘h’ for hours was read as ‘aitch’, the ‘m’ for minutes as ‘metres’, and the ‘s’ for seconds as a plural ending! Content warnings, as noted before, were not treated correctly, with VoiceOver simply diving in and reading the visually hidden content.
In Mastodon, content warnings did at least kept stuff hidden – just a little too well though!
Mercury was really awkward to navigate consistently – I couldn’t really work out the logic at all, which was very frustrating. Sensitive content was sometimes read out, while content warnings clung onto their secrets a little too tenaciously.
Some useful pieces of information, such as indications that toots are direct messages or have some other non-public visibility, seem to be omitted from VoiceOver support in most apps. Metatext fared better than most here.
Multilingual support is frankly appalling across all the apps here, and I suspect this is a longstanding problem with VoiceOver on iOS that simply hasn’t been addressed. What is frustrating is that the other screen-reading tool in iOS (‘Speak Selection’/‘Speak Screen’ in the ‘Spoken Content’ accessibility options) does a pretty good job of identifying languages and reading toots in a timeline accordingly. That tool, however, isn’t interactive, and simply reads until you tell it to stop. This isn’t just an issue with Mastodon apps, but equally with the Twitter app, and indeed any app that doesn’t have content explicitly marked for language (which would be normal good practice on the web).
In summary, VoiceOver accessibility isn’t great, with all the apps having failings in this area. I hope the developers will pay more attention to accessibility in future releases. I was going to say that the web interface is probably a better bet in the meantime, but I just tried it and it seems even worse! 🙁
Searching and browsingBesides connecting with others on your instance’s Local and Federated timelines (which, of course, you can’t do if you’re using Mastodon!), you’ll probably want to explore further afield, at least at first.
All the apps have a search function, accessed in most cases using the familiar magnifying glass button (except in Toot!, where you need to tap ‘…’ and choose ‘Search’). If you enter a search term, you’ll usually get matches of people (the term is found in profiles in federated instances), hashtags (the term is found in hashtags that have been used at some point) and toots (the term is found in toots in the Federated timeline). You can choose between these using tabs in Mastodon, Mercury and Metatext. (In Mercury, you need to tap ‘search’ separately for each tab, which is slightly irritating.) Mastodon and Metatext also have an ‘All’ tab, which shows a selection of search results from each category, and this is essentially what tooot and Toot! show in their tab-free search results screens.
For hashtag results, Metatext and Toot! display little recent-usage graphs alongside each hashtag found.
In Mast, the search function in the current release is almost completely broken: after tapping the second magnifying glass, or pressing and holding the first, you get to the search field. It has tabs for ‘Toots’ and ‘Users’, but only manages to display two or three toots in an unscrollable list. If you tap ‘Users’, the search closes!
Tootle’s search is a little different, with no ‘All’ tab, but tabs (across the bottom) labelled ‘MyToot’, ‘Hashtag’, ‘Account’ and ‘Instance’. The middle two are self-explanatory, as is the last (though this addition doesn’t seem very useful). As far as I can tell ‘MyToot’ finds the search term in toots that you have posted, boosted or favourited.
Besides search functionality on their ‘Explore’ screens, Mast and Metatext let you browse profile directories for your instance – and in Mast, for instances federated to it too. This is the place to find the Local timeline in Mastodon too (‘Communities’).
Mastodon, Mast and Mercury also have some slightly opaque additional features on their ‘Explore’ screens, including what seem to me to be un-Fediverse-like suggestions of accounts to follow and news items. I haven’t explored these further.
ProfilesThere’s not a huge amount of difference in the usability of user profiles (and if you’re anything like me, you’ll spend a lot more time focusing on toots and threads than on people’s profiles). Coming from Twitter, most of the apps’ profile views will look fairly familiar, with a header image at the top, and a profile pic in a little frame beside the user’s display name and username. All the apps except Mercury, tooot and Tootle will enlarge the profile pic or header image if you tap on it, just as in the Twitter app. Mercury doesn’t show a header image when you’re viewing your own profile (but you can still edit it).
Some of the apps use a square frame rather than the Twitter-like round frame for the profile pic, and the header image varies from app to app in how it is cropped, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that will work here. Tootle breaks the mould visually here (or perhaps it’s fairer to say that it predates the mould!), with (a variable part of) the header image used as a background for the profile pic and the entire bio. This does unfortunately render some bios extremely hard to read. (Note that bios can be up to 500 characters in length, compared to Twitter’s 160.)
Profile informationBesides the bio, there may be a table of up to four rows containing user-defined information, possibly including links to websites, which can be ‘verified’ if they point back at the Mastodon account. This table usually appears just above or below the bio. But Mastodon hides it under an ‘About’ tab alongside ‘Posts’, ‘Posts and replies’ and ‘Media’). And Mast hides the individual rows of the table under its ‘Links’ menu item. Tootle doesn’t display this information at all. Of the apps that do, all but Mast and Mastodon indicate the ‘verified’ status of any web links. Only Toot! tells you when the link was verified.
All the apps have some way of showing you if you’re following or requesting to follow the person, usually doubling up as the button to follow or request to follow them. Toot! is the exception: it states separately whether you’re following the person, being followed by them, or following each other, which is actually quite helpful. Mastodon and Mercury don’t show you whether or not the person is following you (though if they are, they will appear in your list of followers). Metatext only tells you if a person is following you, not if they aren’t.
All the apps display the number of accounts the person follows, and the number of people following the account. All but Metatext and Toot! also display the total number of toots.
Only three of the apps – Mast, Metatext and tooot – show the date the person signed up to the instance. Mast is slightly overzealous in reporting the time as well, which isn’t actually recorded and always comes out as 00:00:00 UTC (GMT)!
If you have endorsed/featured a user (something you can only do in Mast or Toot!), you can see the endorsement status in their profile in Toot! This seems of limited use!
Most of the apps use a very similar layout for your own profile and other people’s profiles (apart from things which only make sense in one context or the other). tooot is the odd one out here: for your own profile, instead of the bio and other information, it gives access to various lists/timelines and settings.
Beneath the profile information, the apps display the user’s toots, most recent first (except in Mercury, where you have to tap on the ‘Toots’ option to view them on a separate screen). Any pinned tweets come before other tweets, except in Mast, Mastodon and Mercury. In Mast, there is a ‘Pinned’ menu item you can use to see these, which does feel a little awkward and counter to the idea of pinning things for everyone to notice.
Mastodon, Metatext and Toot by default omit toots that are replies to other toots, and have a separate toots-and-replies tab for all toots. Mastodon and Metatext also have a tab for toots containing media. Mast and Mercury have separate galleries of recent media below the basic profile information, with links to the toots containing them.
Interacting with a profileThe thing you’re most likely to want to do after checking out someone’s profile is follow them. And all the apps have some kind of follow button (which may request a follow if the account is set to require approval of followers). Tootle’s follow button disappears after use. To unfollow, you need to use a menu item instead. In all the other apps, the follow button turns into an unfollow button.
Although mentions are just toots that include a person’s username (beginning with @), and direct messages are just mentions with visibility set to direct, all the apps conveniently offer some means of doing one or both of these from either a button or menu item on a person’s profile. Offering both feels like overkill though, as you can easily convert either into the other by changing the visibility – public or direct – while composing the toot.
Profiles in Mercury and Metatext have a notification bell that you can tap presumably to be notified whenever that person toots, though I haven’t tested this.
Almost all the apps offer menu access to items that will be familiar from Twitter, principally mute, block, report and share. (Mercury doesn’t include block or report. Tootle doesn’t include report.) Reports go to the administrator of the instance the user’s account is on. Hopefully you won’t need to report or block users very often.
If you use an instance’s web interface, you can add your own private notes to other people’s profiles. Unfortunately, such notes can be neither created nor viewed in any of the apps here. That’s a shame, as you could use private notes to remind yourself why you followed – or blocked – someone, say.
Toots (and other posts)Interacting with timelinesI’ll use the word timeline loosely here to include not only the chronologically ordered Home, Local and Federated timelines, but also lists of favourites and bookmarks, and lists of toots returned as the result of a search, or those under a profile. (But for now I’m only talking about lists of toots, so I’m not counting lists of notifications, hashtags etc.)
MastMastodonMercuryMetatexttoootToot!Tootle The seven apps showing part of my personal timeline of tootsAll the apps display timelines in a way that will feel familiar to Twitter users, with newer toots above older ones. Tootle, however, also (consistently, but confusingly) carries this over to its display of threads, with replies above original toots. The remaining apps follow the convention used in Twitter, and have replies in chronological order below original toots in the display of conversations/threads.
Mast and Mercury reduce visual clutter a little by eliminating the action buttons beneath the toots in this view. In Mast, these become visible in the ‘Detail’ view shown when you tap on a toot. In Mercury, they pop up beneath the toot when you tap on it. Toot!, as elsewhere in its interface, uses small caps text rather than icons, which looks quite stylish in my opinion.
Moving through a timeline is completely intuitive, with scrolling just as you’d expect in an iPhone app. Tootle is slightly frustrating though, as the timeline comes to a disappointingly abrupt halt when you flick-scroll up or down. It feels as though it could do with an oil!
As in the Twitter app, a timeline can sometimes have gaps in it, which you can fill in using a load-missing-toots button that sits in the gap. This button in Metatext or Toot! shows, by way of little arrows that rotate as you scroll the timeline, where the missing toots will be placed – either above the toot that is below the gap, or below the toot that is above the gap. This is incredibly helpful in reducing disorientation.
A Toot! convoIn most of the apps, tapping on an otherwise inactive part of a toot takes you to a detail view where you can see how the toot is connected to other toots – what it is in reply to, if anything, and any replies to it. Here is where toots with unlisted visibility show up, when they would be hidden from the Local timeline for instance.
Mercury is the exception: as just noted, tapping on a toot brings up the hidden action buttons for the toot. You can then tap the conversation button to see the detail view (which has ‘replies’ and ‘thread’ subviews). As an alternative to using these buttons, in Mercury you can use swipe gestures: a short swipe to the left is the equivalent to tapping the conversation button; a long swipe to the left is equivalent to tapping on the favourite button; a short swipe to the right is equivalent to tapping on the reply button; and a long swipe to the right is equivalent to tapping on the boost button.
These swipe gestures felt quite handy when I first came across them, but in many ways I’d rather see swipe to the right used as an equivalent to the back button, as it is in the Twitter app for instance. None of the apps do this.
The way connections between toots are indicated in the detail view for a toot varies from app to app. Toot!’s indication of a conversation is particularly innovative, using (by default coloured) vertical connecting lines linking the profile pics beside the toots. Fragments of these lines are also visible above and below profile pics in a timeline, to indicate that the toot is in reply to something or has replies. Not quite sure yet if it’s just a gimmick, or something that’s actually useful. But there’s much about Toot! that feels playful, and makes using it feel comfortable and enjoyable.
Viewing and listening to mediaThere can be up to four images in a toot. Alternatively, there can be audio (with an optional thumbnail image), video with audio, or silent video (such as an animated GIF).
Images, as shown in the screenshots, are dealt with in different ways by the apps, especially when there is more than one in a toot, and I’m not sure I could argue that any approach is better than the others. In Mercury, Metatext, Toot! and Tootle, alt text is displayed beneath (or sometimes partly overlaying) an image when it is enlarged. In Mast, you can only see the alt text by long-pressing on an image in the context of a toot (not when it is enlarged). As far as I can tell, Mastodon and tooot don’t display alt text.
Audio in toots can be played by all the apps except Mastodon and Tootle. Tootle does, however, show the thumbnail image! Only tooot shows the image and plays the audio. In Mast and Mercury, note that there is no sound when your iPhone is in silent mode. (The same applies to videos with audio in those two apps.) Mast and Metatext have standard controls for moving to different parts of the audio in their full-screen audio plays. Mercury lets you play audio within the timeline, and has a slidable bar showing how far through the audio you are.
Silent videos in a timeline play automatically on a loop in all the apps except Mast and Tootle. Tapping on a silent video in any of the apps enlarges it to the full screen width. Mast and Tootle use the standard iOS player for this, these two apps alone giving you controls for moving backwards and forwards through a silent video.
Only Metatext has silent auto-play in the timeline for video with audio, and it moves particularly smoothly between full screen and in-timeline views for both kinds of video. Toot! also has fluid transitions for video, but doesn’t keep the place between different views. All the apps except Toot! use the standard iOS player for video with audio.
Support for alt text with audio and video is patchier than for images (but I haven’t checked whether it is available in VoiceOver in either case). Metatext displays alt text for silent video only. Tootle shows the alt text for audio (for which it only displays the thumbnail!). Only Toot! displays alt text (in full screen) for audio and both kinds of video.
Mastodon allows media to be marked as sensitive, so that it is hidden or (in the case of images) blurred by default. And it also allows toots to be flagged with a content warning, hiding the main text. In Mast, a toot with a content warning takes up as much screen space as it would if the whole toot were there: it is effectively covered by a labelled black rectangle. (This probably explains why the screenreader reads the covered text anyway.) A similar approach (but without screenreader issues as far as I’m aware) is taken by Mastodon, Mercury and Toot!, but the other apps use a variable amount of screen space for a toot depending on whether the content is shown or hidden. Metatext’s buttons for content warnings feel very intrusive, dominating the timeline. All the apps except Mast allow you to hide material again after revealing it if you wish.
Interacting with tootsSometimes you’ll come across toots in languages that you don’t understand. Only Mast offers anything like the convenience of Twitter’s machine-translation option. I’m not sure what it uses behind the scenes, but it seems effective, and readily copes with toots that switch languages. (It can also translate bios in profiles.) Mercury offers a translate option for toots, but this opens a web page in Safari, with the text being provided to Russian search engine Yandex, which typically tries to translate the text into Russian in the first place! If the text contains an apostrophe, only the text before this is copied to the translation site. In Mastodon, Metatext and Tootle, you can select some text (e.g. in a toot in detail view) and use the iOS translate option. This is a little clunky, but better than nothing. tooot and Toot! only allow you to copy the whole text of a toot, which you could then paste into the translation tool of your choice. Not exactly handy though.
All the apps have reply, boost and favourite buttons, which work pretty much as you’d expect. Metatext, Toot! and Tootle’s buttons have a bonus feature: if you long-press them, you get a menu asking which account you’d like to use to reply, boost or favourite. This is extremely convenient if you have more than one account. And in Toot!, you get the same menu when you tap on a button if you’re viewing an instance that you’re not logged in to.
Composing toots and threadsThe toot buttons in tooot, Toot! and Tootle sit a little incongruously on the bar at the bottom of the screen (the other buttons there being for different views within the app rather than actions). Toot!’s button uniquely pops up a menu asking if you’d like to start with text, an existing image, or a photo taken using your phone’s camera. Given that most of us probably start with text most of the time, this feels like an unneeded extra step on the way to composing a toot. A minor quibble though. Mast, Mastodon and Mercury all have their toot buttons in the top right corner, while Metatext’s hovers over the bottom right corner, but not right at the bottom.
Whether you are launching a completely fresh toot out of the blue or replying to an existing one makes little difference at this stage, except that replies are usually pre-filled with mentions of the person or people you’re replying to (not in Mast). All the apps have a box for you to type, paste or speak into. They all show either the number of characters you’ve used so far or the number remaining of the maximum 500. (I believe some instances allow 1000 characters here.) And all except Tootle have some way of indicating when you’ve gone over the limit. That’s because in Tootle, you simply can’t exceed the limit. If you’re typing, it won’t accept another character beyond the 500th. If pasting or dictating text would take you over the limit, none of what you’ve pasted or dictated is included.
Tootle also counts characters a little differently: like Twitter, it treats emojis as two characters long (because their Unicode representations do in fact take more space to store). All the other apps (correctly for Mastodon) treat emojis as single characters. Tootle is joined by tooot in erroneously counting other Unicode characters according to their storage requirements.
Emojos are instance-specific custom emojis, some animated, which are represented in toots by names between a pair of colons. These appear to take up whatever space their name takes up, and you can use them either by choosing them from an emojo picker, or by typing their name. Metatext handily offers visual autocompletion suggestions as you type, which can make finding the right emojo that much easier.
Regardless of their actual length, all URLs in Mastodon are treated as if they were 23 characters long (and use of URL shorteners is officially discouraged). Mast, Mercury and Tootle all fail to count URLs correctly.
Finally, on the topic of counting, only the local part of a username (e.g. the ‘@transponderings’ of ‘@[email protected]’) is supposed to count towards your character allowance. Only Mercury, tooot and Toot! get this right. All the apps, incidentally, offer completion suggestions as you type usernames. Tootle’s seems to have less coverage than the others though.
While all the apps allow you to reply to toots you have written, only Metatext and Toot! let you write a thread of toots to be tooted more or less simultaneously. Writing long threads is arguably less useful on Mastodon than on Twitter, given that single toots can be much longer than tweets, but there may be times when it will be convenient. Unlike Twitter’s threads, a thread of your own toots can occur even in reply to someone else’s toot. Threads aren’t treated in a special way by Mastodon though: this is simply a convenience feature in these two apps.
Adding media to tootsOnly Mast, Metatext and Toot! allow you to paste images in from elsewhere, but in all seven apps you can choose an image from your photo library. And when it comes to videos, only Toot! lets you paste a copied video into your toot. And none of the apps seem to let you paste audio!
In fact, only Mast and Metatext support inclusion of audio in toots. And only Metatext lets you add alt text to audio, or mark audio as sensitive media. Neither app supports the full range of audio formats that Mastodon supports.
Mast, Mastodon and Metatext allow you to browse for files containing images and video, whereas the other apps limit you to the Photos library on your iPhone.
When it comes to video, Mercury, tooot and Toot! all work well. But I had trouble posting videos from both Mast (which was taking forever) and Mastodon (which didn’t seem to want me to toot while there was video attached). I didn’t investigate this any further. Mastodon (if only it worked!), Mercury and Toot! let you add alt text to video. Only tooot and Toot! let you mark video as sensitive media.
Tooting miscellanyMastodon’s delete-and-redraft capability (introduced in June 2019) will be the envy of many people stuck on Twitter, as it’s very much like the oft-requested edit button. All the apps except Mastodon and Tootle support this.
In most apps, you can set the visibility of a toot to public, unlisted, followers or direct. However, thanks to the developer’s stance on Local and Federated timelines, you can’t create unlisted toots in Mastodon. This is a pity, particularly as I have seen a number of people recommending that toots in a thread after the first should be unlisted, as a courtesy, so as not to clutter up other people’s timelines.
All the apps allow you to add content warnings to toots (called spoilers in Mercury and tooot – and I suppose it makes sense to use them for both purposes).
All the apps apart from Tootle also allow you to include polls in your toots. Unlike Twitter’s polls, these can be set up so respondents can pick more than one of the two to four options. However, the official Mastodon app only allows single-choice polls.
Toots can be scheduled for later publication – they are uploaded to your instance immediately, but held back until a specified date/time. Of the apps reviewed, only Mast and Mercury support this.
Cautionary notesWhen you are composing a toot (or a thread of toots) and tap elsewhere in the app, Mast, Mercury, tooot and Tootle all do what you’d expect if you’ve come from Twitter: they ask if you want to save your draft. In Mast, tooot and Tootle, there are buttons in the compose window to allow you to pick a draft from where you left off. In Mercury, you need to open the draft from the drafts ‘timeline’.
None of the remaining apps have a draft facility. At least Mastodon warns you that you’re about to discard your draft. Metatext and Toot! unceremoniously discard whatever you’ve been writing, whether a single toot or perhaps even a lengthy thread! Be very careful!
Mercury allows you to select video alongside other media from the Photos library. It will attempt to toot and erroneously state that it has succeeded. Mastodon also allows you to do select an untootable selection of media items, but it fails to make sense of the video in that case, before you toot. This is the only case I’ve come across where one of the apps has crashed though.
NotificationsJust two of the apps, as far as I can tell, show announcements from your instance admin. Because these are pretty rare, I’m not sure if they appear elsewhere in other apps. In Metatext, announcements are available at the top right of the main ‘Timelines’ view. In tooot, you can find them under your profile.
Aside from these announcements and the special highlighting of new direct messages in Toot! that was noted earlier, each of the apps maintains a running list of notifications including mentions, follows (and follow requests), boosts, favourites and poll updates – yes, unlike in Twitter, you can be notified when a poll you’ve participated in ends!
In all but one of the apps, you can see your notifications by tapping the bell icon at the bottom of the screen. In Mercury, the notifications view is found among the timelines that you select from in the list that slides in from the left.
Mercury and Toot! have app settings to choose which kinds of notifications to receive. I presume (though I haven’t had the chance to test it) that these don’t only affect the notifications view, but also the live notifications that pop up if you’ve enabled them in your iPhone settings.
In tooot, if you tap on the filter button, you can choose to view or not view each of six types of notification. Mast also has a filter button for six types of notification, but you can only choose to few one type or all.
Mastodon, Metatext and Tootle offer a simple tabbed view giving a choice between all notifications and just mentions (also just follows, and ‘others’, in Tootle). Settings in each of these apps also offer finer control over the kinds of notifications you receive.
Only Tootle takes things to the next level in terms of interaction between the in-app notifications and iPhone notifications, with independent control over how mentions, boosts, favourites and follows are brought to your attention both inside and outside the app.
Neither the apps here nor the Twitter app do a particularly good job of showing you which notifications you have not yet seen. But one thing I miss from Twitter is the consolidation of notifications. It would be really good to know that 11 people had favourited a toot rather than knowing separately that A, B, C, … and K had favourited it. (On the flip side, the detail in Mastodon does mean that each favourite and boost has a time stamp, so you can tell when they all happened, which I suppose might be nice to know sometimes.)
Privacy considerationsAccording to the App Store, Mastodon, Metatext, Mercury and Toot! do not collect any data from app users. Zhiyuan Zheng, the developer of tooot, claims to collect ‘user content’, ‘identifiers’, ‘usage data’ and ‘diagnostics’ from app users, but ‘not linked to your identity’. (Oddly enough, tooot is also the only app to display a ‘privacy protection’ notice if you take a screenshot.) The developers of Mast and Tootle have not yet submitted privacy/data-handling policies to Apple.
Other bits and bobsFive of the apps – Mast, Mercury, Metatext, tooot and Toot! – work in landscape orientation, though I’m unsure whether that’s ever going to be the best way to view Mastodon timelines. Still, if that’s your preference, it’s worth knowing.
There are other (non-screenreader-related) accessibility options in the apps’ settings, which I haven’t had time to explore here.
Three of the apps – Mast, Mastodon and Mercury – have additional menu items available from their icons on your iPhone’s home screen. From all three you can compose a toot, while two can take you straight to different timelines or other views. I’m not sure how useful this is.
All the apps feature in the ubiquitous iOS share menu, and their built-in share functionality is adequate for occasional use. If you frequently find yourself wanting to share things with your followers when you’re in other apps though, you might want to consider Linky for Twitter and Mastodon (£3.49). This allows you to use the iOS share menu to share text, photos etc. on Mastodon or Twitter, with markup options and various other features, and posting to multiple accounts simultaneously if required. (It doesn’t currently allow you to provide alt text for images, so you need to use the delete-and-redraft option subsequently to add this.)
Mast and Mercury both have iPhone widgets, but the former doesn’t really work, and the latter isn’t really particularly useful.
Tootle has a little play/pause button, which lets you see toots scrolling in continuously or else leave the timeline where you put it. The difference may only be noticeable on the Federated timeline!
Mastodon has an option to turn off animated emojis (there are a lot of instance-specific custom emojis in Mastodon), but it doesn’t work.
Mast and Tootle displays dates and times in US format regardless of the settings on your iPhone.
If you get fed up with looking at toots, Toot! has a couple of Easter eggs tucked away at the bottom of menus to keep you amused!
Summary – tl;drFor various reasons, Fedi was eliminated from consideration at the Getting started stage (although I had also used it for a bit with my accounts, and didn’t find that it redeemed itself later on).
Mast’s search functionality is completely broken at this point, and many other aspects of the app are buggy. The app developer appears to have left it to rust, which is disappointing, as it does have one or two nice touches, notably the inclusion of in-app translation of bios and toots. But I can’t really recommend using this app at present.
The other six apps are all fairly straightforward to set up with accounts on one or more instances, most working in pretty much the same way. Metatext, Toot! and Tootle additionally let you have read-only access to publicly browsable instances alongside the instances you’ve signed up to.
Mercury has the clunkiest timeline support, while Toot!’s is definitely the coolest (and Toot! generally feels most fun to use of all the apps in general, with some delightful transitions). The official Mastodon app bizarrely doesn’t have a Federated timeline view at all.
While all apps support direct messages in your Home timeline, Mercury, Metatext, Toot! and Tootle also have filtered timelines that show just your direct messages.
All the apps have issues with VoiceOver accessibility, but Mastodon and Metatext probably fared better than the others (with the proviso that I’m not a regular screenreader user).
Scrolling through timelines of toots feels fairly comfortable in all apps, although Tootle can feel a little sluggish. Mercury has some nice swipe gestures, which reduce visual clutter in the timeline. Toot! shows conversation threading using (optionally colour-coded) connecting lines between toots.
Media support varies greatly among the apps. Metatext and Toot! probably come out on top, on balance, with Toot! being the only app to show alt text for all media types, and Metatext being the only app that allows you to compose toots with audio attachments.
Toot! and Tootle both make working with multiple instances easier, as you can reply, boost or favourite from another instance without leaving the instance you’re looking at.
Toot! is the only app that counts characters in toots correctly according to Mastodon’s rules when you’re composing a toot.
Both Metatext and Toot! have support for composing threads of toots. But beware: neither Metatext nor Toot will offer you any warning if you close a toot or thread you’re in the middle of composing. If you do that, it’s gone!
All the apps except Mastodon and Tootle support the delete-and-redraft feature, basically an edit button. (It preserves text, attachments, alt text, polls, visibility settings – everything except any replies, favourites or boosts.)
I’m not going to try to condense all this into a simple star rating, but I’ve personally found myself being most comfortable using Toot! and Metatext. Sadly, none of the apps do everything just right, and you may find the combination of features (and omissions and bugs) tips the balance in favour of one of the other apps. Some of the apps at least are being actively developed, so App Store reviews pointing out problems you’ve had might actually lead to changes being made.
CorrectionsThanks to Heinz Skunk for pointing out that Metatext also has long-press reply, boost and favourite buttons for using an alternative instance.
Thanks to Avi for pointing out that Metatext does in fact indicate in their profile when someone is following you.
Thanks to Anna e só for pointing out that Toot! is problematic for low-vision users, as it doesn’t respect the iPhone text-size settings. I found that Tootle has the same issue.
Thanks to Camille for making me aware that Android’s Tusky app supports private notes on profiles. I had claimed before that none of the iOS apps did so because the Mastodon API didn’t support this. But I checked again and saw that it had been in the API since v3.2.0. (At the time of writing this review, Mastodon was at v3.5.2.)
Behind the scenes: the making of this blog postAs well as obtaining the eight apps (for the princely sum of £5.98, as noted), and tipping £0.89 for bonus functionality in one, I had to spend a fair bit of time researching the differences between the apps. I also invested in one or two additional tools to make the job of writing this a little easier. I used a 24-hour licence of Time.Graphics (£4.09) to make creating the timeline as hassle-free as possible – twice, in fact, because two of the apps were updated while I was writing it. And after a lot of searching (and skipping lots of web articles saying what I wanted to do wasn’t possible), I discovered KeyPad, a Mac app (£2.49 in-app purchase required) that lets me use the keyboard and trackpad on my MacBook to control my iPhone, meaning that, with a touch accessibility option turned on, videos could show where I’m tapping on the screen (but I didn’t actually use this in the end!).
I don’t mind spending a little less than £15 on this post. To be honest, it’s the time and the spoons involved that are more valuable to me. I don’t write blog posts for money, but in the hope that someone at least will find what I’ve written to be of value to them. If you have found this helpful, please like it if you’re able to, and if you can share it more widely, whether by tooting or tweeting a link, or by reblogging if you have a WordPress account, I’d really appreciate that. And if you do have a bit of spare cash, I’ll be extremely grateful for any tips received on my Ko-fi page! 😊
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https://transponderings.blog/2022/05/21/eight-mastodon-apps-for-iphone/
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Emergence of governance in open communities
How the Fediverse is growing to meet its challenges
[German language version of this text will be published in FIfF-Kommunikation, the journal of the Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (FIfF e.V.)]
ToC
The dead live longer
Multi-layered self-regulation
Gab: the Nazis are coming
Threads and Bluesky: Federation Washing?
Conclusio: Small is Beautiful
LiteraturThe social media landscape has been undergoing a tectonic shift since Elon Musk took over Twitter and Donald Trump took over the USA. The Fediverse emerged at a time when the previous phase of decentralised social networks – the blogosphere – was being supplanted by globally centralised platforms such as Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005) and Twitter (2006). With them came the problems: surveillance-based advertising, election manipulation by Cambridge Analytica, addictive design, enshittification of previously useful services (Cory Doctorow), techno-feudalism (Yanis Varoufakis).
In contrast, a counter-movement for the recentralisation of the Internet (Kahle 2016, Berners-Lee et al. 2016) is emerging and for sovereignty in Europe, which is becoming painfully aware of its comprehensive technological dependence on the US.
The perception of a crisis is giving rise to a new digital universe, the decentralised and federated Fediverse. For many migrants from toxic environments, it feels like a friendly neighbourhood where reason and civilised conversation prevail. Of course, this is not a genetic trait, hard-coded into Mastodon & Co. But how does an open community oriented towards the common good, a bustling field of players and technologies, organise itself? How does the governance of complex socio-technical systems unfold?
Resilient structures of self-organisation, so the theory goes, are the result of experiences of conflict. Current external or internal conflicts as well as structural problems (onboarding, money, etc.) trigger a collective reflection that challenges open communities to emerge from a lack of structure. The solutions, as I would like to show with examples, can be of technical or social protocols, usually a combination of both.
The dead live longer
Distributed and federated protocols have been around since 1999 with XMPP. According to official historiography, the Fediverse began in 2008 with the decentralised OpenMicroBlogging protocol and the platform Identi.ca, a free version of Twitter based on it, both developed by Evan Prodromou.
In January 2016, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) presented the ActivityPub protocol to improve the interoperability of the various decentralised platforms in the Fediverse. Prodromou is again co-author. Also since 2016, Eugen Rochko has been developing the microblog Mastodon, which is now the star among the decentralised platforms with around ten million users. In addition to Mastodon, the microblog Misskey, the photo platform Pixelfed, the link aggregator Lemmy and the video platform Peertube are also popular in the ActivityPub universe (FediDB: Software, April 2025).
As already mentioned, the development is motivated by criticism of the techno-feudalism of the mega-platforms. The current lead author of ActivityPub, Christine Lemmer-Webber, notes that no companies are involved in the team developing the protocol, which is very unusual for technical committees. In addition, the team identifies predominantly as queer, which leads to functions in the protocol and in the clients that help users and administrators to protect themselves from ‘unwanted interaction’ (Klemens 2023).
Mastodon is run by a non-profit limited company. The community excludes venture capital as well as surveillance advertising, which has made the mega-platforms the richest companies in the world. Mastodon per default does not even include a function for displaying adverts. But how is a global community that is essentially financed by collecting donations supposed to build an alternative to this overwhelming power and lure people out of the lock-in by the mega-companies?
As the Fediverse contradicts all business logic, experts predicted that it would soon come to an end (Woźniak 2025). The opposite is the case. At Berlin Fediday 2024, Prodromou (2024) reported on growth by all criteria: ActivityPub is being implemented by more and more platforms (WordPress, Ghost.org, Flipboard, Threads). The number of users is growing continuously, as are the bridges to other protocols, applications, content, publications and institutions of self-organisation: the SocialCG (Community Group) for ActivityPub at the W3C, the online conference FediForum, the moderator community IFTAS, Mastodon’s non-profit offshoot in the USA. He answers the question of his presentation title ‘Is Bigger Better?’ with a resounding yes.
A week later, Prodromou announced the creation of the Social Web Foundation (SWF), whose mission is a ‘growing, healthy, sustainable and multipolar Fediverse’. Shortly afterwards, the foundation became a member of the W3C as a community front-end for ActivityPub: ‘We collect requirements and design potential extensions to the ActivityPub protocol and guide them through standardisation’ (SWF 2025).
Multi-layered self-regulation
The Fediverse is, of course, also subject to external regulation through laws, etc. The focus here is on the area in which the Fediverse players are free to regulate themselves. The Fediverse project unites them on the basis of a normative conviction: a different, decentralised, federated Internet is possible. Civil society and the public sector can collectively create an online environment in which people treat each other in a civilised and respectful manner. Common values are initially shared tacitly. As the community grows and becomes more diverse, but especially when conflicts challenge these values, they are made explicit in rules of conduct, mission statements, etc. and operationalised with mechanisms for their implementation and enforcement.
Projects usually start with minimal ad hoc organisational structures and move on to more permanent forms as required. Regulation arises in order to solve problems, e.g. a legal form must be established in order to open a bank account and thus collect donations. Internal dynamic lead to the problem of the Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL). A free software project is started by a man (is there really not a single woman in the Wikipedia list of BDFLs?), becomes popular, grows into a community of co-developers and users, in which the founder remains at the top, respected for his valuable contributions. A meritocracy that, if left unchecked, becomes dysfunctional. The term was coined for Linus Torvalds and his Linux kernel. In the Fediverse, this currently affects Matt Mullenweg from WordPress, Daniel Supernault from Pixelfed and Loops and Eugen Rochko from Mastodon, for example. The latter announced in January 2025 that he would retire from management and concentrate on development. A new non-profit company is to be founded to which he will transfer the Mastodon brand and the copyrights to the code. This means that Mastodon’s independence no longer depends on a single person (Mastodon 2025).
Gab: the Nazis are coming
2016 was a breakthrough year for the Fediverse. It was also the year of Brexit and Trump’s first presidential election. And behind both, the Alt-Right movement emerged onto the research radar from image boards like 4Chan. An Internet-native movement that only half-jokingly boasts of having voted Trump into office and promotes “Fashy”, a “fashionable fascism” (Cramer 2017).
Gab was launched in August 2016 as a social network for radical free speech. Co-founder Andrew Torba cited ‘the total left-wing monopoly of Big Social’ as the motive. Especially during the 2016 election, Facebook and Twitter censored conservative voices. Gab started on its own technology as a mixture of Twitter and Reddit.
Gab was soon banned from the app stores for hate and pornography. In October 2018, a white supremacist killed eleven people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The perpetrator had posted his anti-Semitism on Gab for almost a year. As a result, payment services, web hosts and cloud providers also blocked Gab. To circumvent this block, the creators decided to migrate Gab to a fork of Mastodon in July 2019, making it accessible with every Mastodon app.
Mastodon founder Rochko spoke out on the same day. He explained that the licence (AGPLv3) does not allow certain uses or users to be excluded as long as it is complied with. At the same time, he expressed his disgust at Gab,
“which uses the pretense of free speech absolutism as an excuse to platform racist and otherwise dehumanizing content. Mastodon has been originally developed by a person of Jewish heritage and first-generation immigrant background, and Mastodon’s userbase includes many people from marginalized communities.
Mastodon’s decentralized approach that allows communities to self-govern according to their needs has enabled those marginalized communities to create safe spaces for themselves where previously they were reliant on big companies like Twitter to stand up for them, which these companies have often failed to do.” (Rochko 2019)
It was precisely decentralisation and federation that brought about a social protocol as a solution. On the one hand, many Mastodon admins had already decided to block Gab, including mastodon.social, which is operated by the Mastodon gGmbH itself. On the other hand, rules have been made explicit for the servers listed on joinmastodon.org, which is also operated by the gGmbH. With the Mastodon Server Covenant, server operators commit to
1. Active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia,
2. Daily backups,
3. At least one other person with emergency access to the server infrastructure,
4. And to give users at least 3 months of advance warning in case of shutting down. (Mastodon: Covenant)
There is no technical switch against Nazis. Although there have been discussions about inserting code into the clients to prevent them from logging into Gab servers, such changes can be easily reversed. The copyright licence also does not allow Nazis to be excluded from using one’s own software. There is a long debate about banning use for military purposes, for example (Kreutzer 2006). In practice, restrictions on use by licence violate the definition of free software and have not become established.
Nazis can set up their own Fediverse servers. However, the Federation’s code of conduct, the Covenant, ensures that these instances remain isolated, like Gab and Truth Social, and do no harm in the Federation. For newcomers, this level is less visible than the policies of the individual instances. However, it is crucial for the information space as a whole.
Regulations are only as good as their enforcement. Block lists for accounts and instances are maintained as tools for the daily work of admins and moderators (e.g. Oliphant). The moderators have joined forces in the IFTAS (Independent Federated Trust & Safety) forum.
Looking back at research on “alternative social media” (ASM), Robert W. Gehl (2025) notes that the widespread assumption that ASM are progressive had a blind spot: they can just as easily be used by the political right. The deplatforming of right-wing radicals on the mega-platforms increased the pressure to build their own places for radical freedom of speech. Now the research has turned into the opposite and reduced ASM to ‘alt-right social media’. However, Gehl sees an advantage in the fact that an aspect that was largely missing from the earlier literature has since been addressed: governance. ‘Much of the earliest scholarship focused on how technical elements such as free and open source software and decentralized architectures would shift power away from corporate social media to end users, but had less to say about how those users might govern themselves.’ (ibid.)
Threads and Bluesky: Federation Washing?
The next invasion of the Fediverse threatened to come from one of the mega-platforms that the alternative was up against. Meta wanted to capitalise on the Twitter exodus following Musk’s takeover and planned a text-based companion app to Instagram. Threads launches with fanfare on 5 July 2023. Thanks to Instagram’s more than two billion users, the new service gained 100 million users within five days, except in Europe, where a data protection clarification delayed the launch until December. Threads also began integrating the ActivityPub protocol in December 2023 (The Verge 2023).
The bridge from Instagram to the Fediverse has triggered even more heated debates than Gab, including reciprocal death threats. Above all, there were fears about the well-known strategy of embrace, extend, extinguish. From this camp, the tried and tested instrument used against Gab was brought up: a campaign for the collective exclusion of threads from the federation, which was followed by many instances.
Conversely, Fediverse stakeholders welcomed threads because they see interoperability between platforms as a major step forward. ‘We’ve been advocating for this for years,’ wrote Rochko (2023) on the day of the threads launch. In his blog post, he addresses accusations (data tracking, advertising, being overwhelmed by huge servers, embrace-extend-extinguish, moderation). However, he describes the lock-in of the social graph as the biggest problem, which prevents users from switching platforms if they do not want to lose all their contacts.
“The fact that large platforms are adopting ActivityPub is not only validation of the movement towards decentralized social media, but a path forward for people locked into these platforms to switch to better providers. Which in turn, puts pressure on such platforms to provide better, less exploitative services. This is a clear victory for our cause, hopefully one of many to come.” (ibid.)
Prodromou also welcomed the mega-platform’s access so that the Fediverse can quickly grow and become a powerful alternative. If there are problems, every site and all users are free not to connect to the newcomers. ‘Choice is part of the strength of the Fediverse.’ (Prodromou 2024)
Another invasion came from Twitter, specifically from its co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. In 2019, he launched an initiative that gave rise to the AT Protocol and Bluesky Social. The platform with the look and feel of the original Twitter was launched in 2023. In January 2025, Bluesky claimed to have 30 million users (BNO News 2025).
Technically, the AT protocol allows decentralisation. In fact, the system is currently neither decentralised nor federated, as Lemmer-Webber (2024) discusses in detail. Furthermore, venture capital financing, not least from blockchain circles, raises doubts about sustainable freedom.
Conclusio: Small is Beautiful
The mega-platforms must continue to be rendered less hazardous through legal regulation. Buying oneself free is not an option. Rather, building alternatives is crucial. Decentralisation from above leads to a Fedi-Washing that only looks like it. The inherently decentralised network of protocol-connected nodes that has grown over the years and organises itself from below is sustainable. Last but not least, the Fediverse offers an opportunity for Europe. Many of the developers and more than twice as many Fediverse servers are in the EU (8,818) than in the USA (4,275) (Fediverse Observer, April 2025).
The non-profit nature and small size of the communities are clearly positive features of the Fediverse. Kissane & Kazemi (2024) have investigated how governance is organised on individual servers and between servers. Their conclusion: ‘Fediverse governance as we encountered it in our research conversations is emergent, unevenly distributed, and often reactive.’ The majority of Fediverse servers are operated by individuals or small groups. Medium-sized servers offer uniquely favourable conditions for community self-governance according to local norms and allow for very direct, context-dependent moderation that is superior to that of centralised platforms. ‘The Fediverse’s combined emphasis on the sovereignty of local norms and a federated form of network diplomacy can offer a real and optimistic challenge to the dead end of centralized content moderation at scale’ (ibid.).
To summarise: local, manageable communities form the basis, create diplomatic networks and grow organically into a fediverse that is more than the sum of its parts. Small is Beautiful as a prerequisite for Bigger is Better.
Literatur
Berners-Lee, Tim et al. (2016). Solid: A Platform for Decentralized Social Applications Based on Linked Data, 2016, http://emansour.com/research/meccano/solid_protocols.pdf.
BNO News (2015). Twitter alternative Bluesky hits 30 million users, 28.01.2025, https://bnonews.com/index.php/2025/01/twitter-alternative-bluesky-hits-30-million-users/.
Cramer, Florian (2017). Meme Wars: Internet culture and the ‘alt right’, at FACT Liverpool, 07.03.2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiNYuhLKzi8.
FediDB: Software (o.J.). https://fedidb.org/software.
Fediverse Observer (o.J.). Server nach Land, https://fediverse.observer/stats.
Gehl, Robert W. (2025). A Brief History of Alternative Social Media Scholarship, 07.02.2025, https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2025/02/07/asm-scholarship-history.html.
Kahle, Brewster (2016). Locking the Web Open: A Call for a Decentralized Web, Juni 2016, https://archive.org/details/LockingTheWebOpen_2016.
Kissane, Erin & Darius Kazemi (2024). Findings Report: Governance on Fediverse Microblogging Servers, https://fediverse-governance.github.io/.
Klemens, Ben (2023). Mastodon – and the pros and cons of moving beyond Big Tech gatekeepers, Ars Technica, 02.01.2023, https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/mastodon-highlights-pros-and-cons-of-moving-beyond-big-tech-gatekeepers/.
Kreutzer, Till (2006). Open-Source-Software zwischen Moral und Freiheit, iRights, 15.08.2006, https://irights.info/artikel/open-source-software-zwischen-moral-und-freiheit/6219.
Lemmer-Webber, Christine (2024). How decentralized is Bluesky really?, 22.11.2024, https://dustycloud.org/blog/how-decentralized-is-bluesky/.
Lemmer-Webber, Christine (2025). Toot, 19.01.2025, https://social.coop/@cwebber/113856458328842294.
Mastdon: Covenant (n.d.), https://joinmastodon.org/covenant.
Mastodon (2025). The people should own the town square, 13.01.2025, https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/.
Prodromou, Evan (2024). A Bigger Better Fediverse, presentation at Berlin Fediday 2024, 14.10.2024, https://berlinfedi.day/2024/.
Rochko, Eugen (2019). Gab switches to Mastodon’s code. Our statement, 04.07.2019, https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/07/statement-on-gabs-fork-of-mastodon/.
Rochko, Eugen (2023). What to know about Threads, 05.07.2023, https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/07/what-to-know-about-threads/.
SWF (2025). The Social Web Foundation announces its membership in the World Wide Web Consortium, 11.2.2025, https://socialwebfoundation.org/2025/02/11/the-social-web-foundation-announces-its-membership-in-the-world-wide-web-consortium/.
The Verge (2023). Threads is officially starting to test ActivityPub integration, 13.12.2023, https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/13/24000120/threads-meta-activitypub-test-mastodon.
Woźniak, Michał “rysiek” (2025). Eight years on, Mastodon stubbornly survives, personal blog, 05.04.2025, https://rys.io/en/177.html.
#Fediverse #FreeCulture #Internet #mediaScience #publicSphere
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> now running on real metal, #ThinkpadX280 #NetBSD10
Beautiful!! Congrats! :D
> #wifi working, graphics seem to work, xrandr down to 1368x768 on this tiny screen
Still a totally usable resolution. ;)
> #scrot for screenshots
Yes! See if you can find i3-scrot somewhere. It's a little easier to use. Holler if you can't find it.
> Issues still to address:
> Where do I configure keeping the set wallpaper and screen resolution size?
Put stuff in
~/.Xsession.
For wallpaper, you can usefehornitrogen, or just something likeXbackground??? I'm not running X11 on here, so I'm having to go on memory.
Xrandr will write a file that you can source like a shell script, IIRC> Can't seem to figure out sleep. Closing the laptop lid does nothing.
man zzzorman apm. Search the web for 'suspend when closing lid "NetBSD"'> A battery icon or some type of notifier would be nice.
Gkrellm??
> Using Firefox Nightly and sometimes dialogue boxes extend passed the edges of the screen.
Try alt-drag or super/meta-drag inside a window to see if you can grab and move it past the screen edges. Otherwise consult the WM docs.
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“Welcome to Beige Party. The first rule of Beige Party is: you do not talk about Beige Party. The second rule of Beige Party is: you DO NOT talk about Beige Party! Third rule of Beige Party: if someone yells “stop!”, goes limp, or taps out, the party is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a party. Fifth rule: one party at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: the parties are bare knuckle. No shirt, no shoes, no weapons. Seventh rule: parties will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Beige Party, you have to party.”
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Chicago comedian in real life, Internet poster in posting. Proudly hatless. Suspicious of most squirrels. Only wrestles sea cows seasonally
my mom fucked a bat
"I used to be just like you before I started going to therapy"
Your Occasional Adequacy
Very much just saying things, really.
All my posts …. oh, OK then (but we’re discussing this terminology at some point), ‘toots’: https://justmytoots.com/@[email protected]
A small intro: I’m someone of no importance. I’m not frightened of dying. What scares me is NOT dying.
Survived cancer and various other things/people that have tried to kill me.
If it ain’t Pompey, politics or nonsense I ain’t interested 😎
Dum vivimus, vivamusWriter, comedian, illustrator, and international woman of mystery. Sworn enemy of the Swedish Yule Goat.
Mostly one-liners at my own expense
Awkward AF
Midwest to West Coast
Photos on Pixelfed: @Alice
Please direct any and all complaints to the anthropomorphic hotdog that manages this account.
Alt Txt avatar= Caucasian woman light long hair neck up shown in dark vignette. Bright pink frame around avatar . Alt Text Header: Dropped petals of a peony flower pale pink with hints of deep pink on concrete #noindex #nosearch
🚫 Sober Ally--Not into recreational drugs or alcohol 🚫
I AM LRRR, FUTURE CONQUEROR OF YOUR PLANET. STRANDED IN AMERICA SINCE 2023. OMICRON MALE. KEYNOTE SPEAKER. PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL. HE/HIM. TRAHR. BLM. HEEL. BELOVED MICRO-CELEBRITY. CONNECTIONS TO FUTURAMA CANON ARE TENUOUS AT BEST. I DO ALL-CAPS AND CARTOON VIOLENCE AND YOU CANNOT CHANGE ME. I AM UNHINGED.
NOT AN OFFICIAL ACCOUNT FOR ANYTHING. DON'T LISTEN TO ME.
TOOTS POSTED BY MY HUMAN GHOSTWRITER AGAINST HIS WILL.
I'M LIKE IF CALVIN'S DAD HAD A BLOODTHIRSTY IMAGINARY ALIEN MONSTER HOBBES.
Normalize calling Sam Altman ai-nāṣir.
Member of the Great Migration of Nov 2022
Retired mainframe storage manager, channel Marvin the Paranoid android, like cats, tech, open world games,nature.
Very amateur scientist /astronomer / climatologist.
Wide musical tastes, scouse sense of humour.
Absolutely no time for “alternative” facts.
Nullifidianhttps://justmytoots.com/@[email protected]rty
Avatar: A red squirrel wearing elven style armour with a winged helmet & a sword.
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⚠️ 👉 Potty mouth. 👈 ⚠️
Deutscher, aber sprecht kaum Deutsch.
--
#Bassist #EveryDayIsCaturday #Audrey #PoultryCoroner #RandomShoes #BongSignal #GangsOfNovember #TheArtOfShitposting
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https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tobyartste1Hi, I'm Ben.
I'm a heady mix of a serious responsible grown up man and a stupid man-baby idiot with delusions of grandeur.
I'm a big nerd, really into music, cooking, books, films and scifi. I hate/love running and generally love being outdoors.
🌱
He/Him
Want to buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/thebreadmonkey
Psst ...wanna see some toots?... https://justmytoots.com/@TheBreadmonke[email protected]
Solutions architect (before that, in project management). Maker of dad jokes. Actual dad.
Recently migrated from mastodon.social. Still figuring out who I'm going to be on Beige.
Bad jokes, worse opinions. Tonally all over the place. Irish (North), living in England. Leftist provincial dad. He/him.
The Toots, the whole Toots and nothing but the Toots: https://justmytoots.com/@Nickiquote@mstdn.social
Avi: himself, default white bloke in glasses, b&w. Header: drawing of Aretha Franklin’s eyes staring out over sunglasses.
NOTE- Newly moved over from Mastodon Social. I realized Beige Party is more my style. Please follow back if we used to be mutuals. Thank you!!! *Gen-X mom in KY *Cog in the corporate machine *Fuck the GOP *Ally 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ *Yes to Love, Kindness, and Irreverent Humor *Sweary
I suspected he was not a real hypnotist when he said I was growing Swedish, very Swedish, but here I am, doing many typically Swedish things.
Drinking tea 🫖 taking photos. Definitely a dog person. Former graphic designer, now a volunteer making old things beautiful. I like brutalism and chairs (and uranium glass). Oakland, CA, previously NYC & London.🖖🏼 She/her/ma’am. Pro-abortion. In the Fediverse since Nov 22. #SlavaUkraini 🇺🇦 #BLM #NAFO #Simpsons #nobridge #guillotinis🍸
#Sober guy living outside of the Greater #Houston Area. I still miss Rock 101.
Avatar: A goat wearing sunglasses. It looks rad as hell. Header: An illustration of a fictional cat named Princess Donut. She is wearing a tiara. https://justmytoots.com/[email protected]Not as smart as I think, not as funny as I look
I have no hole into which you can pigeon me. I'm unique. Just like everyone else.
I'm equal parts seven, seventeen, and seventy, and have been since elementary school. I've got the open ended curiosity of a seven year old, the suicidal bravery of a seventeen year old, and the wisdom of an old man.
I am equal parts George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter Thompson, and Charles Bukowski.
Wee Archibald Mouse, III
Photos (nature, street, artsy)
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Pro-idealism, anti-materialism.
Profile pic is the face of a mouse courtesy USDA's Flickr account, found with a free-to-use DDG search.
All photos are my own, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Journal – Week 17 🐾, April 2026
What a week!!! The last countdown, the final preparations, until Koa came to his new home on Wednesday! On Monday, I tried to clean up some more, make sure things were being more secure, so Koa would not be able to damage anything, or himself, in an unexpected moment. On Tuesday, my PT worked very hard to try and loosen up my very sore shoulder and breast muscles. And then... The countdown ended, and it was Koa day! A very busy day, with a lot of good things. But, at the end of the afternoon, both Koa and I were exbausted. So we grabbed many little naps when we could. Thursday, was our first real day together. Loads of new impressions. We did our best to make it a good day. My body was sore, and I was tired as heck, but I was so happy wity Koa... 🥰 Thursday was a great day, very exhausting, very challenging at times, but to see this little bundle of love in my home... In our home... We tried to get into a routine a bit, I did my best to learn more about him, and it ended with another night on the old couch. Friday, we learned some more... He was doing a great job, while I was worrying a lot if I was doing the job right... In the evening, mum was able to pick up a smaller crate at Joke's place, which meant: sleeping in my bed! Koa wasn't too amused with the changes, but in the end, we did manage to get some hours of sleep in. Saturday, we got our first visitors, and I don't know who loved it more... Koa or Timmy... 🥰 Yolande came for a short visit on Sunday. And that's how we ended week 17... Tired, a bit insecure at times, but so full of love for my little dude. ❤️ Alt Text:A 14-day weather forecast graph for Herpen, dated April 20, 2026, generated by the "weer & radar" app.The image features a teal header with the location and date. Below it is a graph with a white background, where weekends are highlighted with vertical light grey bands. The graph displays two lines: a top line with red dots showing the daily maximum temperatures (Max °C) and a bottom line with dark blue dots showing the daily minimum temperatures (Min °C). At the bottom of the graph, a horizontal bar indicates the expected amount of sunshine using colored blocks, ranging from bright yellow for "veel" (a lot) to light grey for "weinig" (little), with raindrop icons for rainy days.Here is the detailed daily breakdown from left to right:Week 1:Monday: Max 12°C, Min 4°C, rain expected.Tuesday: Max 14°C, Min 5°C, light sunshine.Wednesday: Max 17°C, Min 4°C, a lot of sunshine.Thursday: Max 18°C, Min 3°C, moderate sunshine.Friday: Max 15°C, Min 2°C, light sunshine.Saturday: Max 14°C, Min 6°C, very little sunshine.Sunday: Max 14°C, Min 6°C, moderate sunshine.Week 2:Monday: Max 13°C, Min 4°C, light sunshine.Tuesday: Max 12°C, Min 4°C, very little sunshine.Wednesday: Max 13°C, Min 2°C, very little sunshine.Thursday: Max 14°C, Min 3°C, light sunshine.Friday: Max 16°C, Min 6°C, light sunshine.Saturday: Max 17°C, Min 6°C, moderate sunshine.Sunday: Max 16°C, Min 7°C, rain expected.The footer of the image displays the "weer & radar" logo, icons indicating the app is available for Android, Apple, and Web, and the timestamp "Stand: 20-04-2026". Quick links to the days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. […]https://cynnisblog.wordpress.com/2026/04/28/journal-week-17-%f0%9f%90%be-april-2026/
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Journal – Week 14, March/April 2026
A mixed week, not just weather wise, but also sleep and busy wise. Monday I tried to relax a bit, trying to eat some healthy bits. Tuesday was a busier day, with physio, Nijmegen and.... Puppies! Wednesday I tried to relax a bit, and I had some good news, which was very welcome. Thursday was another busy day, as usual, with the German groceries. Friday, I didn't get the best sleep, and it was a long day, as two of my besties were coming to visit me! They helped me with two chores, for which I am very grateful. We had a good time, but still, after the short night, I was glad when I could go to bed. I tried to have a relaxing Saturday. And Sunday, the first day of Easter, it was time to meet up with the fluffy piranha's again! 🐾🤎 Alt Text:A 14-day weather forecast graph for Herpen, starting March 30, 2026, from the Weer & Radar app. It displays daily maximum (red) and minimum (blue) temperatures in Celsius. Weekends are shaded light blue.Week 1 temperatures (Max/Min): Monday 9/5 with rain; Tuesday 11/3; Wednesday 13/5; Thursday 12/1 with low sun; Friday 12/4; Saturday 17/8; Sunday 15/10 with light rain.Week 2 temperatures (Max/Min): Monday 12/4; Tuesday 17/9 with light rain; Wednesday 15/7; Thursday 12/6; Friday 12/4; Saturday 13/5; Sunday 12/4.A bottom bar indicates sunshine levels, showing mostly moderate sunshine (yellow), except for Thursday of the first week (grey, little sun). Raindrops denote wet days: two on the first Monday, and one each on the first Sunday and second Tuesday. Quick links to the days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. […]https://cynnisblog.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/journal-week-14-march-april-2026/