HOME Connectivity...?

Kicking this story out the door while contemplating what to hope for on the connectivity front in 2024.

"RantWoman, you should probably apply for the Affordable Connectivity Program."

There are various reasons, some documented elsewhere that RantWoman has not yet applied. One is that volunteering through the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing gets RantWoman "plenty of bandwidth," except for the part about impending construction expected to disrupt that access for up to SIX MONTHS!?!?!

Anyway, RantWoman is going to summarize options available at her home address, which just to confuse data mavens is different from her mailing address. RantWoman is not going to identify providers but anyone who recognizes their company and wants to argue is invited to submit a comment which RantWoman will not post but will follow up on.

Also note to internet providers: competition matters. AND RantWoman learned awhile ago at a transportation related neighborhood walk that there are 9000 units of new housing permitted within less than a mile of a soon to be opened light rail station. SO opportunity???

The currently operating providers

The Old Telecomm Co.

--Has been serving RantWoman's building for years.

--Satisfactory for one neighbor's needs.

--Sends a different neighbor to the computer lab to watch Amazon videos without a lag.

--Repairs require staff assistance to allow access to a communications closet.

--RantWoman said goodbye when she got rid of her land line, partly because premium plans were not available at RantWoman's address.

Another widely advertised service has an address lookup that says "Not available yet in your area."

Brand known not to live up to its name not only for people in RantWoman's building.

--Some iteration of a provider that formerly charged what seem to RantWoman to be outrageous prices for cable. 

--Has a zip code lookup that SAYS its higher speed plans do not serve RantWoman's zip code BUT is the wire behind "plenty of bandwidth" at the computer lab. RantWoman thus wonders, because the computer lab is in a different building without 120+ individual apartments, whether "plenty of bandwidth" would hold up if there were a last mile to the other building and to individual apartments.

--"plenty of bandwidth" still sometimes has a lag late at night. RantWoman has not chased down reasons for this.  YouTube lag just is not the most pressing problem of RantWoman's life.

A hot spot with "unlimited" service from RantWoman's cell phone provider.

--"Unlimited" means on months when RantWoman needs personal, private, and otherwork connectivity, RantWoman sometimes hits 16GB of "unlimited" and is informed that performance may slow.

--RantWoman is unclear about why if she has two supposedly unlimited lines and the cellphone seems often just to use Wifi if it is available the total in "unlimited" cannot cover both lines but it doesn't.

A few weeks ago, RantWoman's smartphone went belly up in spectacular and pathetic fashion. For a few days RantWoman was quite bereft until she was able to go to a store and get a new phone, 5G even. 

Digression: While phoneless RantWoman added to a periodic bus journey to another neighborhood and wanted to stop at a store where she got really great helpful service during her most recent previous phone transition. SIGH. That location had closed. Phoneless, RantWoman had to go home and look up the location she has now visited more times than would be preferable.

Getting a new phone has so much info reload overhead that RantWoman did not deal further with the 4G hot spot for a while, until...Black Friday promotion, briefly summarized as try 5G home internet for free. Off Rantwoman went on the bus only to need to wait for help and while waiting for help watch other customer interactions that RantWoman will document separately. RantWoman is a little unclear why the clerk did not think to note that RantWoman has a mailing address in a different zip code than her home address. Based on talking to another customer who lives in that zip code, RantWoman is willing to bet that 5G home access is not uniform through that zip code. 

As RantWoman learned later, the zip code lookup for 5G availability says RantWoman's mailing address zip code is covered and RantWoman's home address is not. In any case RantWoman got advice about how to call for help AND a suggestion to ask about both the Affordable Connectivity Program and a $200 Amazon gift card that was part of the Black Friday promotion., RantWoman toted a home internet gateway home to try it out. It doesn't work. RantWoman had a mutually frustrating tech support call with a very brave staff person about what was or was not in the corporate smartphone app and what does or does not happen about RantWoman's phone. 

At a certain point, RantWoman realized what was wrong and that the tech support person really probably could not fix the problem. RantWoman had provided one clue that might have been helpful: RantWoman's phone switches in and out of 5G within her apartment and chances are that would happen for the home internet unless RantWoman was able to find a spot that MIGHT have stable 5G and a surface to put the gateway on.. 

AT LAST, RantWoman fired up her hotspot and looked at the regular corporate website. That is where RantWoman discovered the all-important zip code lookup and decided that at least for now, the 5G unlimited home internet is not going to work.

Along comes a Cyber Monday come back to our store promo. RantWoman decided that would be a good day to go return the Home gateway. RantWoman was WRONG. The store would not accept the device. RantWoman had a call, in store, to someone who finally said that for $2 more per month than what RantWoman was paying counting two lines and taxes RantWoman could keep her hotspot and get the next increment of "unlimited." 

As for returning the device, in an age of connectivity and printable bar codes, there would be need to SNAIL MAIL RantWoman a return label which would arrive in 5-7 days. RantWoman gets mail at a UPS store and knew she already had packages to pick up so she figured pick up packages and box and label and pack and ship the device out in a few days on the same trip.

RantWoman was optimistic. One rainy day RantWoman packed up the gateway in its original box with all the original packaging along with something waterproof to carry things. Off RantWoman headed out to her mailbox.

RantWoman picked up her other packages.

The anticipated return materials had not arrived. RantWoman pondered a bit and then decide to TRY something: RantWoman has email on her Smartphone. The UPS Store has email and printing capacity. Could RantWoman PERHAPS get the needed return label emailed to her while she waited at the UPS store...?

Ring, Ring

Automated voice "this is your assistant. ... Your wait to talk to a representative is 45 minutes or some such thing but try 'text me.' RantWoman has previous experience with texting. RantWoman assumes that the texting line is working several calls ata time, just based on the response time between messages. The text line got RantWoman an email that SUPPOSEDLY had a return label. Supposedly. Instead what was there was more links, more acres of print RantWoman was not going to read with either bad eyes or screen reader, the need to log back into the app, and then AGAIN nothing in the app to do the last step to print the label.

ANOTHER call. This time RantWoman demanded a human and got one fairly quickly. RantWoman got passed to one person in the Home Internet program. RantWoman explained the problem AGAIN. THANKFULLY the customer service person was still listening. While Home Internet person was telling RantWoman that what she requested Could Not Be Done, Wonderful Customer service was able to do a workaround that got everyone close enough to get the box shipped with instructions if the workaround unravels on the other end.

But back to the Affordable Connectivity Program:

--RantWoman currently qualifies based on income, BUT aspires to have more income next year so...

--Renewal of the Affordable Connectivity program is up to Congress in a few months anyway so...

PS. RantWoman would DEFINITELY not turn down the $200 Amazon gift card promised as part of the Try Home Internet promotion. Now, if only RantWoman can figure out who to ask....

PPS. Thank you to the UPS Store staffperson worried about RantWoman getting safely home in the rain and dark. RantWoman was, as usual, wearing her hi vis I'm Allergic to getting run over fashion outerwear. RantWoman had too streets to cross at a COMPARATIVELY safe location with understandable if quiet APS (accessible pedestrian signals). After that RantWoman had one bus transfer but NO MORE STREET CROSSINGS. 

STUDY: Is Zoom Making Us Dumber?

Posting without comment particularly about how people with different sensory issues experience and appreciate different aspects of Zoom.

Straight from Google: How to use TalkBack screen reader

This is a VERY cool video.

RantWoman wishes she had had such a clear simple intro when she first got her Pixel phone. 

On the other hand, RantWoman is the sort of technology cowboy who tends to think instructions are for sissies; just put the device in my hand and I will figure it out or Google directions on some other device or...

Unfortunately, sometimes this means RantWoman has too much vision and half-learns accessibility tools that would make her life MUCH easier if she knew them better. 

Anyway, watch the video and then try it and then read RantWoman's comments below.

Two things catch RantWoman's ear:

"granularity?" anyone want to guess or have one's techno-novice mother / grandmother or one's grade schooler guess what is meant by "granularity" here?

Interestingly, RantWoman thinks a novice user COULD figure out in context what "granularity" means if only the instructions were not being demoed by a sighted person.

WHY does RantWoman think these instructions are being demoed by a sighted person?

It's the same issue as when RantWoman is riding a bus and wants to know not only the stop she needs but also a few stops ahead as cues to stop whatever she might be doing, gather her belongings, and get ready to get off the bus.

In this case, some but not all the contents of menus and menu trees are not demonstrated. It will take a couple rounds of trial and error to get both the swipe patterns and the general layout of menus sorted out, but RantWoman WILL try some of the tips she has learned.

Charge? For Twitter / X ? Ummmm

 The question on EVERYONE's mind: would you pay to use Twitter / X?

Corollary question: how much advertising would RantWoman be willing to tolerate?

Corollary question: what would make you flee Twitter?

RantWoman has not yet fled the platform despite Musk firing his accessibility #a11y team and refusing to work with third-party apps, some of which others find more accessible than Twitter / X. 

In fact, in RantWoman has 4 accounts: 

--The original all over the place one that hits tech, transit, accessibility of various forms, environmental awareness, matters of faith, and other things. 

--One created by accident where RantWoman has worked hard to cultivate what she considers valid and useful info streams related to international affairs 

--One not quite doing what RantWoman thought it might.

--One "owned" by Ambassador Thwack, the badly behaved white cane and anger management consultant. RantWoman allows Thwack's Twitter feed to receive all sorts of garbage specifically to monitor the garbage of the day. Thwack also is much less guarded about some opinions than RantWoman prefers to be on her main more or less professional account.

Most of RantWoman's posts get at best a few hundred views

RantWoman does her best not to engage trolls and to avoid lasting connection with accounts that appear to be bots.

The thought of having to figure out all the things that work for RantWoman with Twitter / X on another platform just makes RantWoman grumpy.

As to payment, RantWoman's thoughts so far:

How much do I value the connections I make on Twitter? A LOT. Am I willing to pay SOMETHING? How about MAYBE $5 / YEAR if it's up to Musk and all his whims? MAYBE. If Musk had a qualified multidisciplinary board and owned less than 30% of the company, I might be willing to pay $20 / YEAR.

As for advertising: for free RantWoman tolerates. RantWoman's inclination just to mute all advertisers will go up quickly if fees are imposed.

One thing RantWoman MIGHT be interested in paying for: Twitter and particularly the Twitter content network help RantWoman easily find information from multiple sources for a given topic. This very much simplifies RantWoman's quest for good content. HOWEVER, many sites want to hit RantWoman up for payment even before seeing the first article. RantWoman MIGHT be willing to pay Twitter if the multiple news sources that come up for RantWoman could receive even a penny when RantWoman really likes the content. RantWoman does not want and cannot afford to subscribe to everything she finds valuable, but some kind of micropayment option connected with pathways on Twitter / X would make RantWoman very happy.

Look, RantWoman gets that making a profit is desirable. RantWoman thinks louder voices than RantWoman are trying to impress on Musk that his behavior is weighing heavily on financial performance issues.

RantWoman wonders what percentage of people who have stuck with Twitter / X are like RantWoman in terms of not wanting to rebuild networks or not wanting to have to figure out a new app.

Stay tuned: see what the tech billionaire does next.

Hasta en las mejores familias: Zoom documentation edition

Happy #DisabilityPrideMonth2023 Everyone

Browsing tech support pages is exactly the sort of nerd activity RantWoman sometimes grabs when there is an unexpected gap in time mentally scheduled for something else.

Today's excursion: reading about all the accessibility features one can adjust in Zoom.

https://explore.zoom.us/en/accessibility/

RantWoman was zipping along in her notice existence but don't remember details mode until...RantWoman reached the section about screen reader support.

Behold 

Can any of RantWoman's
super supportive groupies, well-intentioned allies, 
or random passers by tell what is wrong
with a screen shot about this exact information?

(Psst: this is a snapshot in time. If the image disappears because RantWoman has brought the issue of inaccessible inforrmation aimed at exactly the people who need this particular accessibility information, it MIGHT be because RantWoman has connected this post with Zoom tech support and the problem has been fixed.)

Fear not. Y'all are in good company. Why just yesterday RantWoman had to pen a similar piece about Zoom instructions  received in connection with an event in RantWoman's beloved faith community. The post is full of jargon, but perhaps readers will still get the point. New frontiers in meeting accessibility planning.

As long as RantWoman is going off, RantWoman would like to add that it is very nice to ask people whether they need any specific reasonable accommodations. HOWEVER, it would also be lovely to invite others to share accessibility tips. 

For example, consider always sharing the mute / unmute command, *6, and the raise / lower hand *9 commands when there are people dialed in by phone.

Also, many people like to lip-read. People have lots of reasons to keep cameras off. RantWoman considers it good manners to turn camera on when speaking. People who like to lip read might also prefer Speaker view to gallery view.

 

FS Cast 230 and more

Fun Fact for users of Freedom Scientific's screen reader program JAWS: Freedom Scientific has a podcast called FSCast. RantWoman is sure there is some notification setting she needs to find in order not to have the podcast announcement seize control of whatever RantWoman is trying to do and demand that RantWoman either listen to the podcast or make a couple other choices. 

Most of the time RantWoman just bangs the down arrow to Remind Me Later.

Recently, though RantWoman had time in her schedule and gave FS Cast 230 a listen.

(Note to self: check whether listening to a different podcast channel comes with the option to speed up the replay.)

There are a couple cool tech tips at the beginning. RantWoman is going to let Major Scotty Smiley (Ret.) tell his own story; RantWoman is also happy to let readers digest the latest reporting from NRTC about use of technology in the workplace on their own.

On the whole, going forward this podcast is useful enough that RantWoman is probably sometimes actually going to listen when some work activity is suspended while RantWoman waits for JAWS to present the announcement.

One really important point: this narrative makes RantWoman want to screem "No. No. NO!: about one fun fact. Major Smiley may be the first blind person in quite awhile to  return to active duty after losing vision. But he is not the first person ever. 

After WWII many men returned home from the front blinded in the war. RantWoman went looking on the American Printing House Hall of Fame for reference to, RantWoman believes, either a colonel or a general who ordered his blinded troops to remain on active duty so that they could get rehabilitated and learn skills of blindness. The other way to search about this is to look up the history of white cane usage, but that also is more historical diligence than RantWoman is going to attempt tonight.

RantWoman has one more bit of unsolicited advice for anyone in or connected to the military who is doing blindness related vocational rehabilitation: blindness happens lots of ways. RantWoman imagines that military-related groups on almost any social media platform can help people make connections.

Maybe that is enough for one post.

Not done with....Holiday appreciations?

In appreciation of
the plants' service to holiday spirit

In connection with one of RantWoman's Twitter hobbies.

Praise God!

No firearms!#MerryChristmas

And joy and peaces for #Hanukkah #Kwanzaa #Solstice #Festivus .... https://t.co/npaiElwOfO

— Amb. Thwack Vaxxed & Masked (@AmbassadorThwa1) December 26, 2022

Eccentric song references in honor of the next impending deluges

Here Comes the Rain again: Eurhtyhmics, remastered 2018

Here comes the Rain: Darry Hall
 

And in the world of software and accessibility #a11y

Special holiday forced smiles for both a recent Zoom update and whatever Mac-based checkbook manager RantWoman's friend GrandMaFF uses. RantWoman will read the Zoom update notes. Really. Really. RantWoman WILL also venture further into the world of Microsoft Edge than she has ever done so far. Someday. 

GrandmaFF has been using the same software for over 10 years. She resents a different look and feel every time she opens the software. Some of the time she reports lovely customer support experiences. Some of the time, not so much. Occasional and unpredictable effects of strokes a few years ago probably do not help.

Next we come to meditations on two bumpy onramps to the new digital frontier. 

One involves laundry, hope that coin payment which attracts vandals can be replaced by either debit cards or phone payment, no actual audio cues about whether one's efforts work and heaven help anyone if the phone owner gets sick and needs someone else to to their laundry.

The other involves a medical device currently under recall and replacement. Customers get to help by learning how to pair the device with Bluetooth. The Android app has accessibility glitches. A downloadable set of directions has lots of moments that read through screen reader as "unlabelled image." Since RantWoman can't read the directions, RantWoman can't tell whether the instructions include something like "Please ensure that Bluetooth is turned on for both devices you are trying to pair." RantWoman figured that out on her own and then hit another glitch that caused RantWoman to interact with an associated secure email portal and hopefully soon with a human by phone. .

In both of the latter cases, RantWoman is wavering somewhere between "Please Fix it. Make it so" and "RantWoman will be very happy to help you fix this at the hourly rate of..."

Special holiday shoutout both to the new #ChiefTwit and to migration of people away from the #ChiefTwit's domains. RantWoman had a conversation with one sight-dependent friend RantWoman has previously tried to interact with about accessibility lacunae. Friend commented "I don't know anything about accessibility." RantWoman was seized by some kind of holiday spirit because she did not just blurt out "no, you still don't and that's the point. Just because you are retired from any WORK obligation possibly to interact does not mean the topic is not going to stalk you in other realms."

How is everyone else doing about holiday cheer?

To be fair, RantWoman has had MANY fine moments and more will happen when Little Sister GETS RID OF #Covid.

Center on NonVisual Accessibility workshop on Collaboration Platforms Weds March 16 10 am to 2 pm pacific time

Attend the upcoming event to learn about the accessibility of communication platforms

Wednesday, March 16, 2022 from 1:00-5:00 p.m., Eastern, via Zoom

To collaborate and work together online, businesses and teams of all types use communication and collaboration platforms. The use of these apps and services has skyrocketed, enabling teams in widely distributed areas to work seamlessly with each other during the COVID pandemic. Join the National Federation of the Blind Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Access on Wednesday, March 16, 2022 from 1:00-5:00 p.m., Eastern, via Zoom when we will compare the accessibility of several top collaboration services. We will review Slack, Microsoft Teams, Trello, and Discord. For each service, topics covered will include:

·     Initial setup

·     Creating projects

·     Chatting among team members

·     Sharing files

·     And more

Take advantage of this free opportunity. Register today!

About Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility

The National Federation of the Blind is the transformative membership and advocacy organization of blind people. Our Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility (CENA) provides resources and events with access technology experts. Learn more about CENA. Nonvisual accessibility is creating equal access for blind and low-vision users. 

Video conference app world tour Election observer edition.

 RantWoman has been known to live-tweet in-person meetings of the Citizens Telecommunications Advisory Board. But in the age of video conferencing, RantWoman's first task is...join the meeting.

The platform: Webex! 

(RantWoman knows someone who does corporate consulting for a company that relies on Webex so RantWoman will pass along anything she hears.

Can you find the
festive holiday string of lights?
It's pandemic holiday

RantWoman has successfully joined a Webex meeting from an app downloaded to a machine running JAWS at The Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing . But apparently, something has gotten upgraded. RantWoman has now had trouble joining two different meetings. 

The first problem meeting, RantWoman had some weird browser issue trying the mandatory test for compatible media players. The second time RantWoman is not sure what the problem was except maybe RantWoman should have tried less visual and more screen reader.

 

If RantWoman had her act fully together, she would arrange in advance for a practice session. RantWoman is a last-minute girl though. When frustration strikes on the PC, RantWoman just bails and uses her Android phone with Talkback. 

This is less than optimal. 

For one thing, Large screen on the PC. RantWoman can actually see faces in a way that would be indecently close in real life

No obvious captioning. What? Read the documentation to see how this might be handled? Ummmm? Ditto for ASL interpretation. Never Mind. RantWoman does not need either feature; it's just that a couple days ago she was on a Zoom webinar with an ASL Interpreter, a protactile interpreter, a certified deaf interpreter, captioning, and a request to adjust so someone could lipread the person voicing ASL.  There was also spoken Spanish though no one requested the option of lipreading the Spanish interpreter

Unlike Zoom, webex default with Talkback is a voice every time the speaker changers identifying the speaker. RantWoman has mixed feelings about this feature: RantWoman likes the Zoom option of announcements on touch on some devices. It actually would be nice to have an audio cue of who is speaking in Zoom, but RantWoman finds the Webex announcements annoying. This may partly be the default voice.

But on to the agenda. It's election night for the President and vice President for 2021. There are no hyperventilating emails announcing that "Mitch McConnell Exploded" or "Lindsay Graham is furious" or "Stacey Abrams is terrified." There was a description of the voting procedure, in this case send a private chat to the designated neutral observer. 

Thoughtful speeches. Uncontested races. Unanimous votes. Nothing even to try to overturn. Now rantWoman will resume eating her salad.

Next agenda items: end of year summaries. Eek. Screenshare! Wait: did the voice try to read it???? Oops. That's the chat. Hmm. RantWoman can find the chat but not read past chats. And how does one turn of the voice notifications? Oops. Figured out how to read others' posts to chat. 

And just like that the newly-elected chair adjourns the meeting. Happy holidays y'all!

PS for anyone who needs to sing the year out the door, from the Russian band DDT

20202 according to DDT 

No RantWoman has not fully parsed the lyrics, but if you need a brief explanation of the band's name--and another 2020 election story, put DDT into the search bar.

The Great Weekend Plumbing Adventure.

 Yes, indeed, plan ahead about plumbing if you are going to have a #pandemic!

Going to have? How about delivered whether one wants or not.

RantWoman for the last week or so has had recurrences of drainage problems in her bathtub and kitchen sink.

There would be the usual suspects: grease and food matter in the kitchen and a lot of hair in the bathtub. A friend suggested RantWoman try baking soda and vinegar in the kitchen. RantWoman tried it, a couple times. No change. RantWoman did a certain amount of bailing water and pouring down the toilet. RantWoman also became acutely aware of how much water winds up in short wash jobs. And RantWoman has begun to climg the walls about washing dishes.

 RantWoman finally got her act together to submit a work order both on paper and with a photo of the paper attached to the email. Friday morning, there was a knock at RantWoman's door. 

"Housing. I am here about your plumbing."

"Do you need me to put on a mask?"

"Yes please and maintain social distance."

"Sure. No problem."

Maintenance guy was busy in the bathroom for a good while. The culprit of course: hair. RantWoman will replace the plastic screen she has been counting on. RantWoman will actually substitute something called the TubSchroom.

RantWoman also means to add a couple instruction video links.though applying one's search engine of choice will yield plenty of options.

Wait. RantWoman is getting ahead of herself.

Maintenance Guy had a big powerful plunger. He worked at the kitchen sink for quite awhile. This did not move any water that RantWoman could tell but it seemed to loosen a lot of gunk. Maintenance Guy said the situation needed a plumber to take the u joint off and clean. That would take until Monday at least. So RantWoman bailed.some more water and made temporary peace with her fusses about cleanliness.

RantWoman went away to do something else. When RantWoman came back, some of the water had drained out of the sink so RantWoman tried another round of baking soda and vinegar. Has RantWoman mentioned: the vinegar was donated by a neighbor who did not want it and offered it without even knowing about the sink situation. That round of soda and vinegar did not seemed to make a difference, though when RantWoman woke up in the morning the sink had drained quite a bit.

Somewhere in here RantWoman had a conversation with Little Sister. Little Sister was singing the praises of a kit made by Drano with a bottle of drain cleaner and a plastic wiry tool to use to try to dislodgeclog material before one pours in the liquid solution. Little Sister reported that this could be ordered from Amazon Fresh. RantWoman has never used Amazon Fresh. RantWoman was kind of down from the tiresome sink issues. Finally, Little Sister just said "How about I just order it for you?"

RantWoman has Dial-a-Tirade issues with Amazon. RantWoman also was not charmed with the thought of interacting with screens at that moment. Little Sister on the other hand is a whiz and the queen of family online orders. RantWoman realized she should just shut up and Accept Help Dammit! 

Little Sister took down exact delivery address and looked up delivery windows that would fit in RantWoman's full Saturday Zoom schedule. Little Sister also wrote something in the instructions about "Customer Is BLind." The delivery window approached. RantWoman had just gotten onto one of the Zoom events when the driver called. The line dropped a couple times. Driver was not in the parking lot closest to RantWoman. RantWoman hit redial and got some Amazon logistics recording suggesting RantWoman look something up online. 

Baking Soda and Drano Kit

The white foam erupts

Look the drain is bare!

NO! Online is not  going to help find the driver so RantWoman just texted and the driver called back. RantWoman described what she was wearing, told the driver she does not see well and thought she needed to check a different parking lot that it would take a couple minutes to get to. RantWoman saw a figure coming toward her. "Are you the driver?" Bingo! Connection Made. RantWoman came back to her Zoom with a giant bottle of vinegar, two LARGE boxes of Baking soda, 3 Drano kits and the TubShroom pictured above. RantWoman also decided that babysitting Drano would be too much fun for the rest of her Saturday night even even by RantWoman nerd standards.

In the morning, the sink had also drained some. RantWoman and Little Sister wound up mixing Drano issues in with the sister vibes about RantMom and RantWoman decided just to pour and see what happened. Little Sister decided she did not need to listen. RantWoman poured. And waited. And Waited. There were a couple eruptions of white foam and a definite chlorine odor. At last the sink cleared and RantWoman followed the directions about pouring boiling water down the drain. RantWoman poured several kettles full of boiling water down the drain over the day. 

RantWoman at first poured slowly and only until the indentation right at the drain was full. The water drained. RantWoman added another kettleful. Gradually RantWoman was able to pour the whole tea kettle. Even more exciting, eventually, RantWoman consistently heard the sound of water flowing freely!

At this point, RantWoman plans to attempt dishwashing, probably with some reduce water usage strategies in the morning. Cross fingers things still work tomorrow!

And if flows hold up, count on weekly rituals with the soda, vinegar and then boiling water.

More art to fight pandemic anxiety

RantWoman is taking time from her busy schedule of generating well-crafted essays on the problems of ...

Scratch that. RantWoman is simply meditating upon two threads from her Twitter presence in the last couple days.

They all?

What to do in English when one wants to make clear that "They" does in fact refer to a plural number and not just an individual, RantWoman's term, rejecting the whole gender binary thing. RantWoman herself uses they as non-gender specific and lets they be either singular or plural. RantWoman has an inner catch about this: RantDad was the family grammarian and he would probably be spinning in his grave about modern "they" usage.

Thanks to Johnny Cash, though RantWoman has an inspiration. Go back a few centuries and go for Thou, Thee, Thy. RantWoman is only going to toss out the idea unencumbered by more than glancing acquaintance with precise knowledge about the history and shifts of this usage. Worth considering for today? Ummm....

In the meantime, it's Christmas in August. Rather than again manifest RantWoman's complete inability especially on her blog to go anywhere in a straight line, enjoy the tune, meditate on the title and clear indication, the word :"children" that plural is meant. Then come back for another round wherein RantWoman may further try to unravel the allusions in the song.

And for our next Arts themed bakeoff, it's the annual Who has the coolest Parliament building? Parliaments World Cup contest. 

RantWoman had to go out Wikipedia-ing on a big screen to form opinions about the named contestants in this semifinal round. 

The verdict:

Brazil wins on serious modernist design elements, slightly edging out Kuwait

A Wonderful Image from Arch Digest

Wikipedia on the National Congress of Brazil

Kuwait definitely has the more interesting Wikipedia entry.

Kuwait National Parliament Building 

Wikipedia entry Interesting comments about islamic art traditions

Hungary and Mexico tie for third place on both design and documentation grounds.

Look them up your own selves.

Pandemic Postcards Trying To Stop the Wind etc

It's time again for #PandemicPostcards

First some #Pandemic art. 

This video is not audio described but some of the visual elements are worth asking someone to explain.

Also watch all the way to the end because there are lots of credits and they are big enough for RantWoman to read.

The August primary!

RantWoman and RantMom now live in different city and county council as well as different congressional districts. And we cannot get together to have a ballot marking party anyway, but we have both voted. And we tend to agree on some major "We DO NOT WANT" contenders for example for governor.

RantMOM's take: media outlets should get their endorsements out say a week earlier. Many people have already voted. If you want to influence the vote get your endorsement list AND any glossy flyers with circles and charts and photos and brightly colored print out earlier than current practice.

RantMOM also has not absorbed the details: do ballots need just to be either postmarked or in the drop boxes by AUGUST 4? RantWoman STRONGLY urged RantMom just to call the elections office and ask (and not spread misinformation). Readers who need this info: use your search engines for King County Elections

New Blogger Interface

RantWoman should just open some documentation search results and then turn her monitor to navigate the new site without visual cheating to learn needed keystrokes. RantWoman should do this. Will it happen? Stay tuned.

The Annual Box of Lucky Charms (tm)

RantWoman gets to have a colonoscopy on Thursday. Doesn't RantWoman know how to party! RantWoman also gets to have a #COVID19 test on Tuesday. RantWoman can hardly wait.

But wait: RantWoman is supposed to eat (more) days of "bland diet" and one day of clear liquids with other procedure prep which anyone who has ever experienced this delightful process knows all too well. By bland diet, the instructions RantWoman has found online mean basically delete a whole lot of things RantWoman does to prevent what the colonoscopy is looking for. Okay it's a TEMPORARY deletion, but still. On the bright side, if RantWoman has to skip her deluxe weekly pot of porridge servings of oatmeal fortified with oat bran, flazx meal nutritional yeast ... , is it the PERFECT excuse to buy the annual box of Lucky Charms (tm)! Actually, RantWoman would have bought Rice Krispies (tm) because they are slightly more nutritionally responsible. However the Lucky Charms came in a reasonably sized box. The Rice Krispies only came in a box big enough to feed a small village for a week. Even if the cat helps, RantWoman's household just cannot handle that big a box of Rice Krispies. So Lucky Charms it is!

RantWoman also succumbed to some other temptations in the mindless carbs category. RantWoman really needs to go back to eating fiber.

Quarters

WTF about coins. People still need to do laundry. Everyone RantWoman asks is told they cannot sell quarters. WTF. RantWoman naively thinks it SHOULD be pretty hard to mess up coin circulation. There should be some essential job categories in the work process to get the quarters in and out of banks. The occupant of the White House launders all his money through Deutsche Bank; this should not mean the rest of us have to forego our laundry!

The Juice Media: Honest Government Ads

It's Friday afternoon and RantWoman's brain is wandering ALL OVER THE PLACE. RantWoman is also just making herself live with and figure out Blogger's spiffy new interface.

It's also the last day of #DisabilityPrideMonth and there is a full moon looming over RantWoman's sleep patterns.

In other words, RantWoman needs HUMOR.

Luckily RantWoman has discovered a wonderful outfit from Down Under, JuiceMedia.

The Juice Media

In particular, RantWoman appreciates this Tells Way Too Much of the Truth effort to intervene in US elections.

Okay, RantWoman appreciates the Video. RantWoman DOES NOT APPRECIATE a website that wants RantWoman to pay money just to show the actual video some other way than on Twitter. Folks, RantWoman WANTS to propagate your stuff. RantWoman WANTS to put your work in front of people who have more money than RantWoman does to support you. RantWoman will probably find a way to give you money, but RantWoman wants to propagate the Trump2020 video NOW!

So here goes linked via Twitter.

The Trump 2020 Video via Twitter

The great video conferencing world tour and bakeoff

A friend sent RantWoman the link to this Washington Post article reviewing some of the many video conferencing options now washing over the internet.

WaPo Review of Video Conferencing Apps

RantWoman has previously had, um, awkward conversations with the friend who provided the link basically about the problem common to many organizations wanting to think about accessibility but going in with little knowledge of what to look for and what to ask about. Many organizations, as in small non profits, slightly technophobic faith communities. Honestly, RantWoman did not even relate to many of the points in the article above, so here are things on RantWoman's mind.

How will the app / platform interact with realities such as device battery and users' data plans? RantWoman is making liberal use of her own officially unlimited data plan. Unlimited, though, usually means lowered performance after RantWoman uses something like 15 GB in a month. Lately RantWoman is also getting notices mid-billing cycle saying  that she has been granted some additional increment of data. RantWOman assumes this is because of RantWoman's appetite for video conferencing. RantWoman is not sure what this should mean for instance for low-income users willing to experiment with telemedicine but who might have considerably more constrained connectivity. RantWoman has been known to say, well if telemedicine really adds value to the health care system, then insurers should be willing somehow to help pay for it, but RantWoman is getting away from her main point!.

RantWoman also soberly notes that she does not do all of her video conferencing on her own data plan; RantWoman does a considerable share of these meetings "the office!" The office is closed of course, due to the #Pandemic; that means RantWoman does not have to tend to customers or staff and is free to use the internet and to express good intentions about which technical skills she will be practicing. Meanwhile, topics on RantWoman's list to write more about in a survey article or two:

Ease of use for different categories of users from virtual birthday party attendees to corporate meetings.

Usability and work-arounds for users whose devices range from the most current available to hand-me-down devices that cannot be upgraded to the latest version of the OS.

Ease of doing additional accessibility measures such as automated captioning or feeds for ASL interpretation or CART transcription.

Ease of screen sharing and options for sharing files if for instance screen shares are not accessible for users of assistive technology.

Ease of doing privacy and full disclosure about use of data. Does the vendor sell or not?

Comprehensive implementation of accessibility standards and clear information ON THE HOME PAGE about the approach used to address accessibility..

RantWoman considers herself sort of a hardy user willing to put up with a certain sense of the wild west and new trial and error adventures around every curve. That does NOT mean RantWoman is eager, for instance to walk / cheerlead RantMOM through all of the same trial and error.

Nor does it mean that RantWoman is going, on the fly to grasp every relevant nuance of whichever platform the meetings of the day are using. This is where good documentation and decent customer service matter. RantWoman is currently annoyed by one unnamed vendor. Tech support was useless when the group of users was considering a demo, but now the vendor keeps emailing RantWoman every day. Sorry, but at this point RantWoman is most motivated just to get signed out of the email list.

But suppose one ventures further into the world of telemedicine and HIPAA-compliant platforms intended to help practitioners with all manner of services besides the technological and regulatory requirements of health care. RantWoman has just the domain for you: behavioral health, behavioral health as seen on Planet RantWoman.

RantWoman has a very good therapist. Therapist is bravely trying several different platforms that :
RantWoman has a GREAT therapist.

Great therapist is currently struggling herself to learn various online practice options. And Great Therapist has a problem child client who has been doing what problem child client does rather more frequently than she likes: almost every time RantWoman encounters software in a new realm, she winds up asking a whole bunch of accessibility-related questions, and spending time stepping through websites looking for something anything related to promises about #a11y, say on home pages. To be fair, MUCH has improved as the use of mobile devices with built-in accessibility options has expanded. But gripes above the "medium sucky" level frequently tempt RantWoman to say "You have problems. Hire me to help you fix them, in this case to the Vendor, NOT to the practitioner. See RantWoman thinks, in TeleHealth software as in tools small nonprofits use to streamline, that the customer should NOT have to know very much about accessibility to be able to evaluate information provided by the vendor. And in the meantime, there is free consulting and there is figuring out paths for billing!

Google Forms 2018-- The Best Free Forms Software?

#CoronaVirus #CoronaVirusOutbreak

When it's the end of the world as we know it and the country is about to plunge into an abyss, it's the perfect time for Training Videos! Posting here means RantWoman thinkgs it's a great video except for ONE #a11y point important to blind users. Does anyone want to take a crack at what the problem is?


Okay, Okay: This one here and that one there. RantWoman appreciates knowing what word is being clicked on, but it would be totally awesome to hear a little more detail "Click on the Blah option on the Blah Blah menu."

A girl can dream!

Facilitate this

RantWoman has been meditating about meetings. Today, by coincidence, one of the meetings on RantWoman's meeting cyclei is having an email discussion about how to deal with our next meeting.

The discussion yielded questions the group might ask of ourselves during introductions and using the methodology listed below. RantWoman has posted the content below with permission of the author; RantWoman also has not gotten the preview copy she has of the book read. RantWoman simply posts here and will editorialize elsewhere based on one thread of her life

ONE-TWO-FOUR-ALL MEETING DESIGN

BY MARK K. SMUTNY

An easy way to engage everyone in a meeting in a matter of a few minutes is a technique called 1-2-4-All. Far superior to brainstorming, 1-2-4-All is a piece of cake to facilitate and takes fifteen minutes at most.
How it Works
Here is the way it works. The facilitator poses a creative question on an issue of concern to the group. For example, "How might we be the safest workplace in our city in the coming year?" or "What top three priorities should our business plan address in the next six months?"  Individuals take one minute to list ideas on a piece of paper. Then, in pairs, each person quickly shares his or her ideas (two minutes).  They notice similarities and patterns and strengthen their combined ideas.  Next, pairs combine into groups of four to share, compare, and coalesce ideas in four minutes.  The final stage is a plenary session:  the "All" in 1-2-4-All. Each group of four shares one key idea with the whole group, popcorn style, avoiding duplication. The results are recorded for all to see on large post-it notes or a whiteboard.
Results
In fifteen to twenty minutes, 1-2-4-All harvests the collective wisdom of a group with everyone's participation.  In a short time, 1-2-4-All generates energy, excitement, and engagement. Unlike groups in which someone drones on and on, or a hearing in which people give two-minute speeches, the results from 1-2-4-All are wildly democratic. No one sits quietly unless they ask to pass. The group is set free to create and innovate.
Better Than Brainstorming and Presentations
I use 1-2-4-All all the time when facilitating meetings. In contrast to brainstorming or presentations, which can favor the verbose and aggressive, 1-2-4-All is fundamentally inclusive. Ever voice has power. Every voice and perspective gets in on the game. Even the shy or the culturally less dominate share ideas.

For more ideas on how to empower every voice and perspective in your group or organization, order my book from Amazon: THRIVE: The Facilitator’s Guide to Radically Inclusive Meetings and visit my website at www.civicreinventions.com. Drop me an email mark.smutny@civicreinventions.com on a meeting issue that plagues you. I will be in touch.
Copyright © 2019 Mark Smutny and Civic Reinventions, Inc.
All rights reserved. For permission to distribute copies of this article in any form, contact: mark.smutny@civicreinventions.com.

Including Persons with Disabilities

The Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990. Since then, awareness of how to include persons with disabilities has skyrocketed. Nonetheless, meetings frequently have little or no accommodations for persons with disabilities. Even groups committed to inclusiveness too frequently exclude. Listening, building awareness, and training can reverse these exclusive practices.

In this chapter, I include some recommendations for meetings in which persons with disabilities are recognized as equals and their gifts honored. I encourage everyone who values inclusion to read further in this area than this short chapter permits.

The need for skilled facilitators able to work with a range of persons with disabilities and to craft meeting designs accordingly cannot be overestimated. The number of persons who need accommodation is staggering. According to the U.S. Census, 57.6 million Americans reported having a disability in 2010. Over 20 million of these either "have trouble" seeing even when wearing glasses or contact lenses, are blind, or unable to see at all. Thirty million have a hearing loss. One in eight people in the United States aged twelve years or older have hearing loss in both ears. Approximately 8 million Americans have some mobility impairment that necessitates the use of adaptive equipment such as a cane, crutches, walker, wheelchair, or scooter. Sixty million Americans nationwide have learning and attention issues. Millions more struggle with autoimmune disorders, cancer, diabetes, service-connected disabilities, or cardiovascular and respiratory challenges. Temporary disabilities from falls, accidents, and broken bones number in the millions as well. With the number of aging baby boomers growing, these statistics will climb. As the truism says, "All of us will eventually have a disability."

Preparing for meetings with persons who have disabilities begins long before the meeting. Considerations include meeting location, parking, entrances, exits, the meeting room or rooms, and the location of restrooms. People with mobility disabilities want to know if there are safe and convenient drop-off areas, sidewalk cutouts, and safe and wide pathways to the meeting rooms. Like everyone else, they want to know where to find the food, beverages, and restrooms; and where to register attendance. Some will want to sign up for the next gig, buy a book, or know where to find the petition to lobby elected officials.

The planning team and facilitators begin by listening. Who will the attendees be and what advice do they have about accessibility? Persons with disabilities are the experts, along with their companions and advocates. Listening to their needs begins the inclusive planning process.

The meeting planners need to address a variety of questions. Will the event need to be on one level? Will captioning be required? Will a signer be needed? Will a companion dog attend? Will a full transcript of the proceedings be helpful? Will invitations need to be in Braille or is large print sufficient? Do aisles and table layout need to accommodate mobility devices such as wheelchairs, scooters, and walkers? Are assistive listening devices needed? What type of furniture and layout facilitates full participation? Asking these questions up-front goes a long way toward inclusion and making meetings accessible. Empathy, decency, and fairness require that they are asked.

Meeting planners may need to arrange for recording the proceedings in real-time for persons who are deaf, hearing impaired, or who need a readable record to trigger their memory. Graphic recorders can be an excellent choice for visualizing and summarizing meetings. Graphic recordings benefit the visually dominant, persons who cannot hear, and those who are hearing impaired.

People with mobility needs require the meeting room to be configured for wheelchairs and other devices. Expand narrow aisles and clear obstacles. Braille handouts and large print versions may be required. Guide dogs need to be accommodated. Signers and caption writers may need to be recruited.

One way to communicate that your group values inclusion is for the invitation to contain details about the meeting’s accessibility.  Receiving an invitation and noticing that the event will accommodate one’s needs builds trust. People feel welcomed and honored. They are more likely to attend and will engage more fully in the meeting.

If possible, send out agendas, PowerPoint files, charts, and other hand-outs in advance. When agendas and supporting materials are received ahead of time, participants can more easily prepare for the topics. This improves meeting flow. Participants need to calculate the time required to get to the event and their return, so include starting and ending times in communications to help everyone plan accessible transportation.
   
Greeters are an excellent way to welcome everyone when they arrive at the meeting location. For those who are blind, greeters are essential. They can describe the pathway to the meeting or escort the person whose sight is impaired to the first stop.
If a registration table is needed for signing in and receiving handouts, make sure that people with mobility disabilities can approach the table. The same goes for refreshments. Make sure the tablecloths are short--no long hanging frills and frippery. Be ready with kind people to help fill plates and glasses for those who need help. If needed, help bring full dishes and liquid refreshments back to a person's table.
If there is a podium where a speaker or facilitator stands or sits, make sure it is adjustable. When possible, a better selection is a table with chairs and microphones. If there are interpreters, translators and signers, make sure they can be seen. For the leader or facilitator, provide a small table with a glass of water and a place for notes. If a raised platform from which people will speak is not accessible, do not use it.  Bring a table down in the crowd--it will enable all to participate. As a side benefit, having people sit at a table on the same level creates intimacy and warmth.
For those who are blind, facilitators should briefly describe the room layout and location of restrooms and refreshments. Describe the location of tables, chairs, and podium. Remove clutter and keep aisles open. When meetings begin, invite participants to share their name when they speak. This allows the blind to know who is in the room and who is talking.
If the meeting includes audiovisuals with projected slides, summaries of discussions on whiteboards, or flip charts, the facilitator should describe what she or he sees.
When contracting with interpreters, translators, captioners, and graphic recorders, planning teams should be aware that it may take weeks to line up professionals whose services are in high demand.  Begin planning early.  Before the event, facilitators should dedicate time to talking with interpreters, real-time captioners, and graphic recorders to describe meeting expectations. Provide handouts, agendas, and background material to help these professionals plan.
On the day of the meeting and well before the session begins, have the facilitation team review the set-up. Make sure that seating, lighting, and equipment are in place. Review the table setup and other fixtures to make sure no obstacles exist in aisles and between tables. Test assistive listening devices. Make sure that interpreters are adjacent to speakers and facilitators and that sight lines are clear.
Making meetings accessible and accommodating persons with disabilities are not lofty goals. They make practical business sense. The amazing variety of life experience and the stamina and courage it takes to navigate life as a person with disabilities means that all of us should cherish their contributions.

Facilitators, planners, and consultants who seek to learn from and comply with the ADA requirements can find a wealth of resources and training online. Articles, checklists, and webinars abound. For designing accessible meetings see http://www.adahospitality.org/topic/planning-accessible-meetings. For a complete list of ways to accommodate persons with disabilities, visit https://adata.org, the website of the Americans with Disabilities Act National Network and its ten regional centers. Other nations have similar resources.

SCAM ALERT: Phishing for Social Security Numbers

Hi All

Below is an example of a pretty garden variety phishing scam. As always, avoid clicking on links as described here.

Guest post from anonymous poster:
If you haven’t heard already, there’s a scam going around. The better partof my day has been spent contacting credit bureaus, financial institutions, Social Security and the FTC.

This morning I received a call on my cell phone from Maryland, 240 846 8836. I answered and it was a robo call telling me fraudulent activity had been reported with my Social Security number and to call immediately. I did and a man with a heavy Pakistani accent told me fraudulent activity had been reported and that legal enforcement was taking place. He asked me to give him my social security number and birth date so that he could tell me about the activity and unfortunately I did.

The caller gave me his name of Officer Joshua Brown (a very generic, Anglo name for someone with a heavy Pakistani accent) and an employee ID number and case ID and warrant number for me. He said that there were legal charges against my name for suspected activity in Texas near the border in
El Paso. He said the FBI had been alerted and something about a car in which drugs had been found. It sounded like a scam to me and I said I would call back later to receive the full information because I had a bus to catch. He said if I didn't call by tomorrow  that local law enforcement
would become involved. This was frightening and felt personally threatening.

I changed my plans and returned home to speak with (staff in my community) I asked what I should do if people arrived to my door insisting that I come away with them, and one said I could call dispatch (911) and ask them to verify that they had sent officers to the building. He said that (genuine) officers would be very understanding. If officers had not been dispatched, I could ask that they be dispatched at once as people impersonating officers were attempting to search my home,
issue a subpoena, or arrest me with or without a warrant.

I then took precautions associated with identity theft. I filed a report over the phone with the Social Security fraud hotline and on-line with the Federal Trade Commission; requested fraud alerts and credit freezes to be placed with all 3 credit companies; contacted my financial institutions; and will attempt to file my taxes this evening so that no one can file a fraudulent tax return in my name.

I finally got through to Social Security’s main number this afternoon, and
the representative described the exact series of details of the scam I had
experienced. She said that it has been going around and had even been on
the news. It still left me scared for my safety. As a woman I have to be
aware of the possibility of abduction, rape and even murder. If someone
comes to my door I won’t open it and will call 911. The caller did not ask
for my address. My building has a close relationship with our local law
enforcement officer, and I emailed him about what occurred as well.

Just a word to the wise. What a way to play on national fears generated
about immigration.

Rants for the Snowpocalypse

Topical Hashtags: #seattlesnow  #seattleSnowmaggedon2019

definition: a series of snow storms lasting several days and generally causing large scale consternation and difficulty.

Quality of Snow

The first couple rounds the snow was fluffy and pure as snow should be.

 

This last round goes splat, splat, splat. NO that is not how snow is supposed to be. It just is not.

 

 

Metro

Snow routes? Read up on Snow Routes in advance? That would have required more forethought than RantWoman mustered.

 

RantWoman DID sign up for alerts. RantWoman definitely GOT the alerts about the Emergency Service Network. RantWoman did not actually READ the alerts until after about the third one came and reporting on KUOW mentioned the word “hilly.” Ruh-roh. The #8 is all about hilly and there was that previous photo of a bus perched dangerously on Denny on the overpass over I5. So no Rt. 8. In snow and ice, when property owner’s inclination to clear sidewalks is uneven, RantWoman prefers pedestrian routings that minimize both street crossings and distance needing to be walked. Rantwoman has been spoiled about two grocery store options and a separate pharmacy where she can ride the 8 to the store, shop, cross the street and come back home. But RantWoman is resilient and The Queen of Spades is a commanding presence.

 

RantWoman thinks it would not be terrible for Metro to publish their probable Emergency Snow Network in advance. Consider putting info about whether a route is on the Emergency Snow Network in printed schedules AND on signs at bus stops along with the caveat that service is still not guaranteed. Also, push the info out as soon as the forecasts suggest snow, particularly as much snow as this storm series.

 

RantWoman managed one round trip from the Central District to the U district and back via downtown with multiple shopping stops and not too much walking on slippery uncleared sidewalks.

 

Civic-mindedness:

PLEASE, everyone clear your sidewalks. Yes, of course the snow seldom lingers in Seattle and lots of people slide by assuming things will melt quickly, but sometimes those few days really matter. Yes, and “everyone“ definitely means a couple places near and dear to RantWoman TOO.

 

Car Culture

Beloved Faith Community: Did RantWoman ASK about the parking lot? NO! RantWoman is talking about the sidewalks, public right of way, highly important to many people who visit regularly and seldom visit the parking lot!!!

 

RantWoman, frothing at the mouth WILL NOT HELP, really. Be glad for 15 people who made it to Sunday worship. Nobody biked. At least 3 people walked. Others took the bus or drove. People were VERY glad to be together.

 

PLEASE, now that a melt-out is apparently on the way, also help clear storm drains if you can.

 

 

Bread Riots and Cat Food.

Thank you Emergency Snow Network: RantWoman paid about 20% more for cat food than she is used to. Cat is worth it but good thing to have the money margin to manage.

 

On the other hand, almost $6 for a loaf of bread??? RantWoman REFUSES to pay that much no matter how many nuts and seeds are in the bread. Ditto for downtown markup for peanut butter and tahini.

RantWoman did get good deals on potatoes, limes, and a couple spreadables . RantWoman also decided there is a chance of power outages so cook a pot of rice as starch.

 

Jeff Bezos, because soap opera is good distraction

Amazon: RantWoman cares about in approximately equal measure: really cool powerful inclusive accessibility efforts, the question “why does the richest man in the world need tax breaks?” and emiserating labor practices. RantWoman just has never been motivated by the thought of instant delivery of anything. RantWoman also likes going to actual stores and having social interactions with her shopping experiences. How hopelessly retro.

 

Marriage: The collapse of a marriage is not a spectator sport. LEAVE THE BEZOS FAMILY ALONE.

 

The National Inquirer: Good for Jeff for telling the National Enquirer where to take their bottom-feeding blackmailing BS. RantWoman is wondering why the Inquirer was stupid enough to think he would cave in the first place.

 

Genitalia? NOPE, Do Not Need to see it. OF COURSE Dan Savage wants to see but RantWoman is definitely in the Do Not Need to See camp.

 

VOTING

And one more thought to cleanse the brain: NO Jeff Bezos is not singlehandedly responsible for the state of housing and property values in the Puget Sound. He just is NOT. If people do not like these problems, it is up to everyone to get up and go vote in better options.

 

And yes, the RantWomen also both got our voting arms on!

Too much fun of the Read the Manual / Help Files Kind

RantWoman is leading an exciting and drama-filled life today.

 

1. RantWoman wanted to store some Kindle books on her new Christmas present hand-me-down iPad. Trying to read visually is usually a bad idea; RantWoman figures if she is going to be tempted to do it anyway, at least put the book on a bigger device. RantWoman lost track of how many tries it took before she got logged into her Amazon account. RantWoman succeeded just fine in making a purchase. But somehow the download just hung. Plan B is put the book on RantWoman’s phone and also on her low-end Kindle Fire.
    
2. RantWoman means to download some books from BARD / the National Library Service. RantWoman actually does not care about reading on any device with a screen. The books will get downloaded to a flash drive for use with the extremely cute highly tactile digital talking book reader. HIGH excitement.
    
3. RantWoman has sent a couple whines out into the interwebs. RantWoman has been having fun with the New York Times crossword puzzle app. RantWoman had been having sufficient fun in spite of some navigation / accessibility whines until the free trial ran out. RantWoman has been barely making do with the daily mini puzzle and growling that she will not pay for a subscription for something that is not fully accessible. Silly RantWoman needed to look in Settings > Puzzle preferences to adjust the navigation herself. RantWoman unchecked the  Skip Filled Squares box. Then Talkback read both the box numbers and the letters. Stay tuned for testing when tomorrow’s fresh mini puzzle hits the interwebs.
    
4. Google docs accessible? What does RantWoman have to remind herself of in which browser for best results?
    
5. And speaking of software evaluation for no-budget nonprofits, faith communities, and other parts of the very unevenly technologized universe, RantWoman suddenly finds herself wanting to suggest mailing lists lots of directions and to make archives of multiple strands of minutes. Too much fun for today but stay tuned.

Gifts, Calories, HAPPY NEW YEAR wishes

RantWoman celebrates Gifts, to herself.

1.       Lately via Twitter feed: news that there is now a New York Times Crossword Puzzle App! RantWoman had to go to the Play Store to get it, but RantWoman is now hooked. Rantwoman has not tried to do the NYT crossword puzzle in YEARS. RantWoman is not certain the puzzle can be done entirely eyes free and RantWoman strongly suggests a number of #A11y tweaks, but RantWoman will be coming back for that one.

 

2.       The in-person shopping experience. RantWoman needed to go to REI and was thrilled to find a lot of the construction in the area is cleaning up. RantWoman wanted to replace the water bottle sling she uses to tote her smartphone. RantWoman also needed a scrunchy knitted hat for RantMom. RantMom is allergic to wool and also to the giant pompoms adorning many of the hats. It took RantWoman and the cane standing around looking befuddled enough to attract helpful humans a couple times before RantWoman registered all of the directions to find the hats but RantWoman found an awesome one.

 

3.       A hand-me-down used secondhand iPad. Look RantWoman is the oldest child. She always generated rather than received the hand-me-downs or did not fit ones that might have come from other families. So RantWoman is GLAD to use the term hand-me-down. RantWoman is happy to report that setup is going slowly.

 

a.       RantWoman has managed to create an iCloud id with a typo in what displays but not in the username.

 

b.      RantWoman has managed to turn on Voiceover, the built-in screen reader. Look up the swipe pattern to do this? Who? RantWoman?

 

c.       Rantwoman has managed to enter TWO wifi passwords.

 

d.      RantWoman has managed to get the Bluetooth keyboard to connect twice

 

e.      Stay tuned for some “how do we do this podcasts thing?” experiments and some language geek bakeoffs about content in languages RantWoman has officially studied.

 

4.       RantWoman has gotten to try out the Orbit Braille display. The Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing had money at the end of the year and consensus was that we should get an Orbit. RantWoman reads braille slowly but was once again earning her Nerd cred just reading the built-in instructions. Now RantWoman wants one of her own.

  

Holiday FOOD notes

1.       Peppermint:

a.       RantWoman is DONE with candy canes.

b.      Peppermint belongs NOWHERE near coffee. Peppermint and cocoa sound lovely but leave coffee out of it.

c.       RantWoman has scored peppermint in the Seasonal Joe’s O’s and in peppermint ice cream. That is plenty of peppermint.

 

2.       Fruit cake:

a.       RantWoman LIKES fruitcake. Scratch that. RantWoman likes GOOD fruitcake. The commercial specimen she scored this year does not qualify. The only fruit seemed to be maraschino cherries and the nuts were huge and not chopped. The batter had a bouquet about like wallpaper paste and no flavor other than sugar.

b.      Next year RantWoman will take responsibility for her taste and get on the ball early enough both to bake some fruitcake and to souse it in something worthy of the effort.

In the meantime HAPPY NEW YEAR to all.