TFA

if life were easy...

2007-08-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

then what...

But these are interesting times.

Well work is going crazy, in a good way, I hope.

Home life is good, as the littlen becomes more and more a rounded inquisitive human being.

Ali got her job and is happy.

But bloody hell I need a holiday!

Chasing Tail

2007-03-07T03:25:00.000-08:00

Just what will a randy dog do, to get some action?

Well how about break through a wood gate (pulling out four nails) then jump over (or at least try) a four and a half foot fence with metal spikes at the top. Resulting in the below:

BUT THATS NOT THE DUMB BIT!!!! He broke out again THE NEXT DAY!! On three legs. Not sure what he hoped to do once you found his love interest. Well ok I do, but HOW, is another matter...

Jess wows maldroid fan[s] on MySpace

2007-03-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

Jessica got some pretty nice words from both fans and band members for her vivid depiction of little girls, kicking robot behinds. Inspired by Maldroid's "Heck No".

"mad skillz" says lead guitarist.

And the suggestion of album inlay is raised by idiottt

A dizzying career lies ahead for this talented artist, already world renowned for her mermaids and hamsters. But will she cope with the stardom. Only time will tell...

Me showing off. Again...

2007-02-03T07:02:00.001-08:00

Me juggling

Its the Good Life for us...

2007-01-27T03:31:00.000-08:00

Ali, Jessica and I checked out an alotment over Whetstone way this morning. I have to admit, it put a big smile on my face. I've just signed the Tenancy agreement. The staggering sum of £10.85 is yet to exchange accounts, but they let me have the key to the gate already anyway...

It felt wonderful standing in a quiet bit of, mainly, green. I'm rather petheticly excited about getting some wellies and packing my gardening stuff in the boot of the car...

There's a shed at the bottom, which means I'll be able to walk it most days.

My only concern is that it becomes MOST days, and Ali starts to regret getting it, due to lack of my presence in the house at weekends... But now I think about it... May be thats her plan.

Well that could have been worse...

2007-01-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

N.B the cars in shot have not been moved since.

Someone thought 60 was a good speed to take the Junction near our house this morning at around 1:30a.m.

While I could do without having to pay for a new fence, I was pretty darn chuffed that I wasn't haveing to buy a new rear end for a VW Bora. The skid marks are about 10yrs. ~ 30ft. However he was still doing 10-20mph when he hit the fence by the mess he made of it. Which means he was doing at least 40mph when he left the road. I'm guess more than 50 is likely.

2007-01-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

Now I can

Right. I made some software that made Lead article in the Reuters UK Internet Section!

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-01-19T161023Z_01_L1851821_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-BRITAIN-TOOLBAR.XML

*beams smugly*

Sure its not perfect, and there's no end of improvements to the design, but we're getting there.

There was a minor hiccup with the release, but that soon got sorted. Thank you Reuters. Thank you IMRG. Thank you folks at Textic.

Thanks Hugh Huddy at the RNIB for these kind words:

"RNIB welcomes the accessibility features offered by the Safe and Sound Toolbar. When added to a well designed website, the toolbar offers useful features for users who may otherwise find websites difficult to use, such as having selected sections of the content read out in easily understandable human-sounding speech. Every day, inaccessible website design prevents people with disabilities from using the Web and shopping online. Accessible design means more customers."

Who rightly underlines the need for accessible design...

Thanks Tesco for this:

“I am delighted that the online retail industry has endorsed the ISIS Safe and Sound toolbar. Such technologies combined with the power of the Internet give disabled people true independence, and allows our industry to reach out to a potential 1.8 million customers who may not be able to visit a physical store. With this technology, everyone wins.” Nick Lansley, Tesco

Thanks to my mum, my dog, my milkeman. The guy who says 'Hi' when I get my coffee in the morning. Thank you to....

Sorry. I'm getting carried away aren't I.

Anyway. Its made me happy.

2007-01-17T15:04:00.000-08:00

I can't say what it is

There's a press thing about to happen. It could be a real big deal. It may come to nothing. You can never tell. But this time I'm quite excited about it, because I think we've got something pretty cool. Problem is I can't say hat it is till Monday! And the suspence is killing me.

Anyway, all very exciting.

:)

Helping Hand Take 3

2007-01-14T10:49:00.000-08:00

So, that was better received (do leave comments please :).

But looks like the 'thumbs up' gesture. And that ain't good, coz Iranians and Russians may take offence! So....

Helping Hand II

2007-01-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

More iconic, fewer colours etc...

Thoughts?

Anyone do any better? (I'm quite sure someone can :)

A Helping Hand?

2007-01-09T04:07:00.000-08:00

I'm quite sure this isn't a new idea. And I know there are arguments against, with regards to avoiding being patronizing. Which is important. However, I can't yhelp but feel that the sybmbol for accessibility (the stick fella in a wheel chair), is a little out dated, not not very 'inclusive'.

So what about something LIKE this.

Not this, cos its crap. I mocked it up in a minute or two just now. But to me an out streched hand symbolizes assistive services better than the stick guy.

Thoughts?....

Cheers

New Gadget For Xmas

2006-12-31T06:48:00.000-08:00

Read this on your Mobile

I just made this Google Gadget.

I should be relaxing right? Anyway, I see this getting some serious development sometime in the new year.

It adds the Talklets toolbar to your Google homepage. I'm looking into ways of implementing on other Google pages and applications, as well as deeper integration with things like Gmail, which currently will work if in HTML mode, but not default mode (if useing the toolbar or bookmarklet - see Installing Talklets for individuals ).

Epecialy as its Beta, please leave comments on what you think, and what you'd like to see altered/added...
Bugs can be reported below, but preferebly to Phil.a.teare~#AT#~googlemail.com

Have a great one everyone!

:)

2006-12-15T11:57:00.001-08:00

2006-12-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

2006-12-12T12:14:00.000-08:00

I'm sick :(

2006-12-10T05:27:00.000-08:00

Not in the head you understand. Well... OK in the head. But, I'm focussing on the blinding pain in my stomach right now. Its hard not to.

The folks came down this weekend. We'd got them tickets to Spamalot. Ali (the wife), Jess (our wee one), Mum and Dad, all went while I huddled up in pain on the bed. Which is where I am now.

The Doc is convinced that it's not gallstones. I'm not so convinced. The pain killers I've been given a VERY strong though. I'm used to pain. Had bone fragments floating in both knees for at least 5 years, I've had injuries playing rugby etc... But the only thing that real compares to this (when its bad) is a dislocated jaw (which I've had the pleasure of experiencing twice). You see the muscle and tendons in your jaw (well not in it, attached to it) are ridiculously strong. So if your jaw gets out of place, those tendons will still keep pulling your jaw up, clamped to whatever's nearest. And if that's not some nice cartilage joint, it'll be bone, tendons, and nerves. It about the same as having someone go to work on your face with a pair of pliers. The only difference is, that torturures know when to stop. But it could easily take hours before you get your jaw repositioned.

Well its not quite that bad. But having experienced that twice, I feel fairly well qualified to discuss pain. And this hurts. So my guess is gallstones.

But hey, you don't want to know about that I'm sure.

So you're wondering what I look like right? (No? - Oh. Well anyway...)

2006-11-24T04:53:00.000-08:00

Left, Simon Peg. Right, me (a tiny bit drunk)

Voter aphethy? Not on my watch!

2006-11-22T05:18:00.000-08:00

Sign the petition, or the kitty gets it!

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/govaccessibility/

Sorry!

2006-11-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

What?

2006-11-14T10:53:00.000-08:00

There will be a cessation of verbal violence, whilst I try to get on top of some code upgrade related work.

What with all the browser upgrades and whatnot, there's no rest for this wicked soul. :(

Back with more opinionated rubbish as soon as the warm, brown and smelly sea I stand in subsides to a level below my snorkel once more.

New Phishing bug found in IE7?

2006-11-08T06:54:00.000-08:00

Looks like it. I don't know how I did it, but I got the address bar showing my previous address, and the the current page to stay put. This was a random accident, and I'm still trying to reproduce, but it did happen...

The page was fully functional, and according to the browser, fully loaded.

Screen shot:

Obviously I could mock up anything in photoshop, But if you believe me (and its true) you can see that I didn't just type in the google address, as its got its icon next to it...

Hmmm.

Sort it out M$

Duvet day...

2006-11-06T09:00:00.001-08:00

So I'm feeling a bit grim. Flu. Or a 'Man Cold', as the wife would say. Anyway I've spotted an assortment of handy links today.

I don't have the mental energy to say much about them, but they all interested me....:

http://justaddwater.dk/2006/10/23/captcha-usability-humane-alternative-to-captcha/

Have just seen some nasty spam over on the Accessify forum, and then came across this a couple of minutes later, I thought this is the kind of thing they need to be implementing. Yes there's a problem if you have js switched off. But in which case I think you could force the user to go through a little, convoluted email verification process (IF they had no JS)...

Then on a pet subject of mine, browser zooming, AlistaireC as a great, in brief, comparison of the major browsers:

http://alastairc.ac/2006/11/browser-zoom-comparison/

After winging at length about the IE7 zoom being bug ridden, my issues with it seem to have been fixed now. i.e. it now evaluates hit areas of elements correctly during mouseover events when the page is zoomed. Well done M$. Don't say I don't thank you when you get things right. Eventually.

I'm off to whimper some more....

Kapp Notes: Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: Talking Web Sites

2006-11-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

Kapp Notes: Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: Talking Web Sites

Here's another intresting take on uses for Talklets

There have been several inventive suggestions as to what it could be useful for: tesing site for accessibility, increasing "stickability" (as I can testify to), creating alternative format versions of publications,...

All good stuff.

Response to comment on "Is the AJAX accessibility problem, really a problem?"

2006-11-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

Well I got a great full fat response to my brief take on the screen reading
problem with AJAX. I'll start by mindlessly reiterating my initial stance,
filling it in a bit, and then reply to each major point in turn, and see
if I come to any conclusions... First I should point out that I agree with virtually everything said in said response. So this is a subjective positioning, more than a denial of what was said.

IMO (never a good start to a sentance...) trying to say 'The Web"
must restrict its methods to accomodate old versions of screen readers is
unreaslistic, and impractical. Yes the notion is moot, even
stipulated by many regulations and guidelines, but we live in a real world,
and sometimes guidelines are inaccurate, or become so as the world around them
evolves. AJAX is here. It will only increase from now on. Yes making it
accessible is great, but some are saying it can not be accessible at all
(because it relies on users upgrading their screen readers, and that
is 'inaccessible'), therefore it is bad... My point is, all the accessiblity
guildines, and regulation litigation in the world can not hold back
inovation on the web. We (screen reader developers, webmasters and developers,
web 2.0 content creators - i.e. users) simply have to keep up. Winging
won't help (at the risk of offending, I hope I don't, it's not intended to).

TV came first. Then subtitles, and now, many decades after TV became
near ubiquitous within the home, we're starting to see commentary services for
VI viewers (previous to this, TV was less accessible than most AJAX
sites). TV media outlets are not forced and are barely encouraged to
offer their content in audio only and visual only
formats. This would be analgous, to me, to the
imposition on Web 2.0 to be backward compatible with old screen
readers, OR (as it is impossible is some cases) offer all content in a format
that is. No, we (those previously mentioned) must demand and/or
create new services for minority users, to make the new tech accessible,
and expect that to involve the development of new thech.

I know this is tantermount to blasphemy in the field I work. But it is not an
absolute. There should be encouragement to do what we can, where
possible and practical, right now. But there should not be laws mandating
this. IMO. Looking at my stance, it seems rather right-wing, 'let the
minorities get their goodies, when someone can be bothered the help them'.
This is far from the case. I'm a developer AND user of scren reader tech.
So I'm putting the onus on me. But how silly would it be to put all the
legal onus on the screen reader companies. Why not make it law that
Freedom Scientific make their upgrade free, in order to make the latest web
standards and feautres/techniques compatible with their stuff (inc
javascript and AJAX)? Because it wouldn't be fair, or practical...

Should we this all as a problem was my question. Note the question
mark in the title. No I don't think its a problem, I think its an exciting
future for screen reader users, as our screen reading tech improves and
evolves to make use of web 2.0.

</rant>

Problem 1: You can upgrade up to two consecutive versions of JAWS if
you're already covered by a Software Maintenance Agreement. But buying such an
agreement is expensive, to the tune of
$180
for JAWS Standard and $260 for JAWS Professional.

There are OSS solutions being developed. And JAWS chageing too much is hardly
a reason to impose laws on billions of web users and hundreds of millions of
web developers. This should raise questions though. Like, should the
government be offering larger allowences to VI workers and students?

Problem 2: Upgrading to a version of JAWS released before Vista
entered the Release Candidate stage and that is
not
optimized for Internet Explorer 7 is not going to be terribly
appealing even to those who can afford it.

This seems very tenuous. Yes its a real life pain, but Vista is to all of
us... Not just those of us useing AT.

Problem 3: What about other screen reading and voice browsing software?
Virgo? Window-Eyes? Home Page Reader? HAL? Edbrowse? Orca? Gnopernicus?
ZoomText? Opera? VoiceOver? Thunder? This isn't just a JAWS issue. Screen
readers are extremely complex software
(ever
tried one?) and asking someone to switch to a different screen
reader is not dissimilar to asking someone to use a new operating system. Oh
yeah, and if you go for a commercial screen reader, switching can be even more
expensive than upgrading. JAWS Standard will set you back $895.

Same applies to all of them. If I bought JAWS version 1 and expected all of
todays software and online content to be accessible via it, I'd be sadly
disapointed, and naive (again at the risk of offending, which I'm not trying
to - its just MHO). And again, the rest of the world should not be
hounded for the cost one company sets for their product, no matter they cater
to. Plus, as you point out yourself, they're not the only solution. As
for have I tried one, I have made two, and am useing one now.

Problem 5: W3C's
Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines explicitly request that we attempt
to accommodate those users who "have an early version of a browser, a different
browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system". Obviously,
even good principles should rarely be taken to extremes. But from an ethical
perspective, surely the limit of our compromises on behalf of outdated user
agents ought to be what we might reasonably expect users to do (for example,
continuing to use the expensive screen reader of their choice), not what will
make us the most money (for example, going out of our way to support Internet
Explorer 6)?

But reasonably, they HAVE to expect to update their software, if the menas of
creating a displaying content evolves beyond the capabilities of their current
technology. This is far from 'nice', but is practical.

Liked your list of links.

I may come back to this when I have more time.

Cheers

2006-11-01T06:46:00.000-08:00

Is the AJAX accessibility problem, really a problem?

I've been looking at the issue of AJAX and dynamic content updating, with regards to screen reader users. And my conclusion is, if there is a problem its this: You've got an old version of JAWS? Then upgrade...

End of.

I've heard from many folk reporting to be in the know regarding this issue that "there's no way for the user to know if the content is updated" with panic in their eyes. Well actually it turns out that the issue was with JAWS using a buffer to store the DOM, which only updated after page refreshes and loads. Well that wasn't the best way of doing things, and so they've changed that.

I have good sight, but poor reading skills due to abnormal neurological morphology. My brains a funny shape. Not drastically so, but enough to make reading a pain. Its called dyslexia, and I'm far from alone. 10%+ of the population are effected. I realized something today. I had been missing bits of info updating magically on the screen, through new funky use of newly famed AJAX trickery. But something struck me. I soon learned to look for it. Yes I know many screen reader users can't "look" for it exactly, but the can use their tech to scan for it. And they, like I, will soon learn to do this...

So if the problem is solved, as long as JAWS users upgrade, and users continue to learn to use the evolving tech they're confronted by, then there really isn't such a problem is there?

Or is there?

Please do comment. I'm looking for answers still...

IE 7 Gets something right? ...or not?

2006-10-31T11:21:00.000-08:00

Well today was the day I could no longer put off testing within the new, 'Gold' release of the IE 7 browser. I had been checking now and then, but when issues arose, I kept saying, 'its a Beta - when they've finished playing, I'll get on the case'.

Its not such a terrible effort, considering the enormous difficulties MS face, simply due to their number of users, and the diversity of uses IE is put to. However I'm a little suspicious of a few failings.

The zoom problems, which make screen-readers and Java-script think the mouse is somewhere it isn't, for one. Luckily, our own Zoom feature work fine still. But theirs still needs work. As you will see if you follow the link above, or turn on the screen-read on the bar below.

But THIS made me laugh!

1) Install IE7.

2)As recommended, have anti-phishing switched on.

3) Then click on the link to Free Hotmail in your Links section of your toolbar.

Apparently Hotmail Login (I'm a Live user) is a "Suspicious website". Or so say MS, via their latest and greatest browser feature.

Should we tell them?

I've not tried duping this on any other installs, so may this may be a very rare bug, I have no idea, but I can reproduce after reboot on the VPC XP pro SP2 machine in question...

I have to say that this feels particularly good after so many years of seeing their hideous pop ups telling my users that my software might be a "security risk", after following their own guidelines to the letter on how to develop and deploy applications, for their operating system.

:¬)

Better go play with Firefox 2.0 now...