Improving the world, one byte at a time! ⠠⠊⠍⠏⠗⠕⠧⠬⠀⠮⠀⠸⠺⠀⠐⠕⠀⠃⠽⠞⠑⠀⠁⠞⠀⠁⠀⠐⠞⠖
Designing a Terminal for an Audio-First Workflow Most shell environments assume a visual interface. Prompts are colorful, information-dense, and optimized for quick scanning. My workflow is different. I'm blind, and I work with a screen reader, which means my terminal is fundamentally an audio interface. Instead of scanning the screen, I'm listening to the environment as I work. That changes what…
This poem is a deep reflection of my thoughts as I wander the many canyons, deserts, mountains and other landscapes on this plannet we call home. The layers of rock are windows into the past, that put the human experience into perspective. Once, while eating a cake rich with layers of different composition, it dawned on me that the rock layers of many places where I recreate are like this cake.…
Introducing the "TrailWeaver" Smart Cane: Where AI Meets Absurdity As someone who thrives on blending technology with accessibility, I’ve always aimed to create tools that empower people to explore the world. But today, I’m taking a slightly different approach. Allow me to introduce my latest (and most questionable) invention: the TrailWeaver Smart Cane —a device that combines cutting-edge AI…
30Impact30: Revolutionizing Adaptive Recreation Today, January 24th, is my 30th birthday, and I'm launching an ambitious philanthropic project. My goal is to have thirty times the impact of any other year of my life while I'm thirty. As a result, I am starting a project I am calling 30impact30. I am planning to raise $30,000 by leading 30 pitches of 5.7 or greater between January 24, 2025, and…
Melodies, drift like snow in the wind, sooth the mind; bring joy to thee. In song, we rest, peacefully listening; Drifting like wind across the landscapes of life. Rest, weary soul, let music relax your troubles, Listen; Feel; be the music!
Introduction Websites exist thanks to multiple layers of technologies where every layer is dependent on all layers below. This stack of technologies make it possible to send a website from a remote server to a users computer, and display the information in that webpage. Each layer of this stack has a highly specialized role, and attempts to misuse a layer of the stack will result in a poor user…
For a hobby project, I will likely need to build a COM interface, for a screen reader integration, and doing so in python would be annoying to say the least. I therefore decided I might take a stab at implementingn it in rust for personal development, and rust seems more interesting than c++. I recently ran into an annoying issue trying to configure vscode debugging and running on windows. Here is…
I have been skiing since I was 3, so for 26 or so years. I have skied trees, couloirs, bowls, moguls, and pretty much anything you can find in-bounds. This blog post came about after I started outlining how I may teach aspiring ski guides to guide blind people. I realized there isn't much free information available not related to a purpose built adaptive program on how to guide a blind skier. This…
Background Screen readers announce focus changes using a fairly simple algorithm. When focus changes, only announce the things that are necessary to announce, given the change between where the current user is now, and where the user was before the change occurred. If focus moved from a item within a combo box, and another item within that combo box, the combo box didn't gain or lose focus, but…
The following thread marks the end of my time on twitter. Multiple issues, such as data failing to update, data being cached in some instances but not others and thus causing weird behavior, etc made me decide I will trust this app no longer. It could lead to life threatening issues. These are the final meaningful Tweets for @derekriemer from Thursday, February 02 2023, 19:26 MST explaining my…