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I’m a full visually-able user and I love looking at websites. I know though, that not everyone experiences websites in the same way. Browsing websites at different screen sizes is a hot topic at the moment, but lets not forget that it’s not just mobile users that experience websites differently, blind users experience them in a way you might not even realise. So I started using a screen reader to see (I suppose I should say “experience”) how a blind user navigates a website. In the country of the blind, the Lynx-compliant site is king.
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"I think we’ve got a moral obligation however to help blind users navigate the web"
That's an interesting comment - but the reality is that this isn't just a moral obligation, in some countries this is also a legal obligation. Here, in the UK, this is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act.
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Yes, but as far as I'm aware nobody has yet been prosecuted for failing to comply with this on a website.
I've tried arguing for this at a couple of previous employers, but their attitude is its not worth the hassle as there's little chance of prosecution.
Morally objectionable, but seems to be standard business practice.
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Rob Grainger wrote: Morally objectionable, but seems to be standard business practice.
Indeed, but the RNIB is beginning to make moves on this here in the UK.
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I'm really glad to hear that.
Interestingly, good accessible web design often overlaps with good web design anyway - not only do you improve accessibility, but as a side effect your site is easier to search, more adaptive to browser differences, ...
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In this post I use ScriptCraft, Minecraft, and L-systems to create fun in-game fractals and discuss how you can too. ScriptCraft is a Minecraft mod that allows you to run JavaScript inside the game using the Java Rhino library. L-systems were originally created by a Hungarian botanist named Aristid Lindenmayer who was interested in modeling plant growth. You can model arboreal growth, brush and shrubs, and also roots (by changing the modeling environment a bit to bring about different tropisms). You can do more than model trees though – there are tons of interesting fractals to make... Pro tip: make you sure experiment with lava and water for cool 2D fractals turned 3D.
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Free apps are dangerous, yet free is the dominant business model most mobile apps are taking these days. The roadmap is simple: grow as quickly as possible, then insert ads of some kind or get acquired. For consumers it offers a crummy set of choices: either losing the countless hours you put into the app or have your private data sold to marketers — since as well all know, when the product is free, you are the product. So how are we to trust investing time (our most valuable asset) in free apps that seem to inevitably "jump the shark," no matter how cool they start out? Are paid apps the answer, or will we need something more complex to keep developers in business? Once again, with feeling: You get what you pay for.
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I find it annoying when people complain about advertising/other ways of selling user information in a free app. Why should someone take the time to create and (probably more importantly) support an application if they get nothing from it? App developers need to eat too (and web developers too, since the mobile app ecosystem pretty closely mimics the web ecosystem). It's a service like any other, real people have to use their real time to make it, real time that they could use for work, play, or anything else.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there isn't anyone out there who wouldn't want to just make an app for fun. Even in assuming there are people who would both create and support it for nothing, they'll probably get bored with it at some point (and decide, "I don't really care enough that it doesn't display properly on your obscure phone model"), and they aren't likely in the majority. But, I find, at least for me personally, once I have a working version of a personal project, I don't care to waste time making bug fixes (beyond the glaringly obvious), and I usually move onto something new. I couldn't see supporting an app if I wasn't getting something for it.
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What about the other option? Paid apps. I'd happily pay for my apps/services if I never had to see another ad (*cough* Code Project *cough*).
I suppose the problem is that the general masses prefer free/ads. Because of them, we all have to deal with free garbage jam packed with ads.
It's always nice when a developer releases a free/ad app, but also releases a paid/adless version. I wouldn't be opposed to making this a required model for a given ecosystem (e.g., iOS).
Disclaimer: I didn't read the article... maybe it says something similar.
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Sure but people who pay for apps usually aren't making those complaints.  Personally, I prefer the free-with-ads for most things (especially if I don't know if I'll like it), but I completely understand that I will be advertised to, and some of my personal information sold, and consciously accept that (of course, I never give an app any information it doesn't need, for example if a game asks for my phone number and it isn't optional, I delete it or give it a fake number if it doesn't verify it). It's just the whiny self-entitled people who think they should get something for nothing that bother me.
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We all know now that Windows 8 sales have been.... disappointing. You can blame the hardware. You can blame Windows 8's mixed-up interfaces. You can blame the rise of tablets and smartphones. Whatever. The bottom line is Windows 8 PC and laptop sales have been slow. So, what, according to Amazon, in this winter of Windows 8 discontent has been the best selling laptop? It's Samsung's ARM-powered, Linux-based Chromebook. Shocked? Amazed? Why? The Chromebook has several things going for it. Its interface is primarily the Chrome Web browser. Who can't use a browser?
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The third full generation of Lego's programmable robotics platform, EV3 is aimed at both enthusiasts -- young and old -- and educators, and blows past the previous generation with a long list of new features that add speed and power, intelligent programmability, and more ways to communicate with the robots. Lego expects to begin selling the product, which includes 594 Technic pieces that can be used to make five different robots, this summer at a retail cost of $350. It will also release instructions for 12 additional robots at launch. ...ARM9 processor, SD expansion slot, 16MB flash memory, Linux, Bluetooth 2.1, iOS and Android compatibility...
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Lenovo is starting up CES 2013 with a very big announcement, and we do mean big. The PC maker just announced plans to release the IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC, a massive 17.8 pound, 27-inch all-in-one Windows 8 PC that can also be laid flat on any surface. Where I come from we call that a "desk".
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It’s fair to say that Dune 2 is one of the founding fathers of the RTS gaming genre. The initially slow paced strategic action builds up over some beautifully crafted missions and was an instant hit when Westwood Studios unleashed it onto DOS based PCs and the Amiga in 1992/93. Fast forward 20 years and the OpenDUNE project is a modern day attempt to faithfully re-create the classic on today’s hardware. But as seems to be the trend at the moment author Aleksander Guryanov has seen fit to compile the C source of OpenDUNE down to JavaScript, making the game fully playable in your browser in the process. He who controls the DOM controls the universe.
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Going back to the days of ITX computer case mods, I’ve had the desire to place a computer inside of a stock Super Nintendo case. Instead of the project being a simple case mod, I’ve wanted to configure the computer in such a way as to maintain a console playing experience, with the additional benefit of having a full-fledged computer under the hood. With the Raspberry Pi, I finally found a platform suited to the project’s needs. DIY Super Mario.
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What follows is a good mixture of art and science. Intel's power engineers will take apart a competing device and probe whatever looks to be a power delivery or filtering circuit while running various workloads on the device itself. By correlating the type of workload to spikes in voltage in these circuits, you can figure out what components on a smartphone or tablet motherboard are likely responsible for delivering power to individual blocks of an SoC. Today we will dissect a living system-on-chip CPU and see how it works.
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With Windows 7 and Windows 8 the team and I blogged quite a bit, and often at great length  , about the design choices, implementation, and features of those products. Learning by Shipping picks up where these blogs leave off. The title comes from something impressed upon me early in my career, which is that learning as an engineer comes from the process of starting, then finishing, and iterating on products–getting products to market and putting the broad feedback loop to work. The teams and processes used to create products are critically important and fun to talk about relative to shipping and learning as we search for the best approaches to use at a given time. Write code. Ship code. Repeat.
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SQL injection attacks were once considered the greatest threat plaguing the Internet. They continue to be the source of many large data breaches today. This is due to the fact that these vulnerabilities are common, easy to exploit, and very rewarding to attackers. As a web developer, it is your responsibility to protect your clients and users from these threats. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to DELETE FROM Employees
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I recently ran into a statement that left me very perplexed. A programmer was proudly declaring that he can’t understand every piece of code he wrote a week ago. I honestly tried to figure out where the pride comes from, but I can’t. Is he proud that he writes so much code every day? That anyone is willing to pay him to write code? Let me state my opinion on this matter clearly up-front: not being able to understand the code you wrote a week ago, or a year ago, is unforgivable for a professional programmer. Code that isn’t readable is as bad as, or worse than, code that doesn’t work.
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At some point, the cheerleaders—and yes, amazingly, they’re out there—are going to have to face reality: Windows 8 is selling slowly. More slowly than Windows 7 at launch, and more slowly than Windows 7 a year ago. And while a peek at NPD’s publicly released data for the holiday selling season can provide some clues as to why, I can tell you exactly what happened. Netbooks didn’t just rejuvenate the market for Windows 7, they also destroyed it from within.
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The link is broken here and in the daily newsletter.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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it just loaded for me...
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Sorry, must be something on my end...will try it again later.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Hate to say this but: works on my machine. 
Director of Content Development, The Code Project
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