Hearthstone Access Community Version: https://hearthstoneaccess.com/

Patches full screen reader access into the game, despite no modding API or developer support, and makes it feel like it was natively there from the start. And is usually updated within 1-2 hours of Hearthstone getting a new version.

There are similar addons for Stardew, Slay The Spire, and Factorio. But I consider those less impressive as the game offers APIs for them to use.

Because Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, etc. are so cheap or free that it’s not worth the trouble of setting one up for the people who have the resources to do it. Sure, download what you want to keep. But for Discovery? The streaming services are fine. And the people who can’t access/afford them also don’t have the resources to set something like this up.

Perfect! Thanks for the info!

How do those of us who loathe the horrific and proven bad idea of quote posts, and also refuse to use Mastodon, opt out of this terrible misfeature? Will blocking anyone who quote posts me and defederating from their instance remove the quote?

These days I can do it all myself. Press control+windows+enter when Windows first boots, and the basic built-in screen reader that’s part of Windows 11 comes on. It’s good enough to get through set-up and install a better screen reader. Sadly, if I were on Linux, that wouldn’t at all be the case. Though I do run multiple Linux servers via SSH, including all of the infrastructure for rblind.com.

I did manage to assemble my DIY Framework 16 laptop, and I’ll upgrade the mainboard in it later this year, but that’s pretty much hitting my limits when it comes to hardware. Soldering is right out, and Oh My God do I hate those damn ipex connectors.

I will also include Grok for comparison. It’s the model I use for images that I think might contain adult content (pornography, violence, whatever) because it won’t refuse anything. Sadly, because I’m boring, I’m using it more for moderation than pleasure. Unfortunately, I have a prompt for it designed to limit refusals, and I forgot to change it. As you can see, that…strongly effected the description. Suddenly there are tits in this picture.

This image appears to be a digitally rendered or CGI artwork depicting a whimsical, fantastical scene in a natural outdoor setting. It does not contain any adult content, including pornography, pedophilia, violence, nudity, blood, death, dead bodies, self-harm, harm to children, or other X-rated elements. There is no visible text in the image, so no racism, doxing, hateful or insulting material, or otherwise objectionable words are present. The overall tone is serene, magical, and family-friendly, evoking themes of nature and fantasy (similar to something from a fairy tale or children’s storybook).

Detailed Visual Breakdown:

• Main Subject: The central focus is a large, realistic-looking giant tortoise (resembling a Galápagos tortoise) slowly walking through a lush, grassy meadow. The tortoise’s shell has been creatively modified in the artwork to serve as the foundation for a small, rustic wooden house. The house is built directly onto the shell, appearing old and weathered, with a shingled roof covered in moss, vines, and small plants growing on it, giving it a dilapidated, abandoned cabin vibe. The house has a small porch with railings, a door, and windows, and there’s a faint plume of smoke rising from a chimney, suggesting it’s inhabited or recently used. The tortoise’s shell itself is textured with moss, dirt, and grass, blending seamlessly with the house, as if the creature is a living, mobile home. The tortoise’s head is extended forward, with its mouth slightly open, and it has a gentle, neutral expression. Its legs are sturdy and visible as it moves through the grass.

• Foreground and Environment: The scene is set in a vibrant, green field filled with tall grass, wildflowers (mostly white and yellow daisies or similar blooms), and scattered dandelions. The ground is dotted with small plants and dew-like sparkles, adding a magical glow. The lighting suggests a soft, diffused sunlight, possibly early morning or late afternoon, with a misty or foggy atmosphere in the background.

• Secondary Elements: To the right of the tortoise, there’s a small blue tit perched on a moss-covered tree stump. The tit has blue and yellow feathers, with a white underbelly, and it’s facing toward the tortoise, as if curiously observing it. The stump is overgrown with moss and a small pinecone-like object on top. In the distant background, there’s a blurred view of a dense, green forest with trees and foliage, enhancing the sense of a peaceful, enchanted wilderness.

• Composition and Style: The image is in a wide, horizontal format (like a landscape photo or artwork). It’s highly detailed and photorealistic, with a focus on textures like wood grain, moss, and animal skin, suggesting it could be from digital art software, a video game concept, or an illustration. There are subtle particle effects, like floating specks or sparkles in the air, adding to the dreamy quality. No human figures, vehicles, or modern elements are present—it’s purely nature and fantasy-based.

Thanks! It’s a bit wordy, but I suspect that could be improved with prompting and some examples.

For comparison, here’s the full google 2.5 pro in the cloud:

This is an enchanting and highly detailed, photorealistic fantasy image set in a lush, green meadow. The overall feeling is one of peace, magic, and ancient wonder.

The central and most prominent figure is a colossal tortoise who takes up the left and center of the frame. Its scale is immense, as it carries a small, rustic wooden house on its back, where its shell would be. The tortoise’s skin is ancient and leathery, with brown and gray tones, and detailed with wrinkles and folds. Patches of bright green moss grow on its shell and legs, suggesting it has been wandering for a very long time. Its head is extended forward and turned slightly to the right, as if observing something. In its mouth, it gently holds a small white daisy with a yellow center, a charming and tender detail.

The house on its back is old and weathered, made of dark wooden planks. It has a multi-gabled roof with moss-covered wooden shingles. A small brick chimney pokes out from the roof, with a faint wisp of white smoke rising from it, indicating someone might be home. The house features a small covered porch with a railing and tiny lanterns hanging from the eaves. Vines and other small plants creep up the walls, integrating the structure with the living creature beneath it.

The tortoise is wading through tall, vibrant green grass that is dotted with small wildflowers, mostly white daisies and yellow buttercups. Several small, orange and black butterflies, similar to monarchs, flutter around the tortoise’s legs and in the surrounding grass.

To the right of the tortoise, there is an old, dark tree stump. Like the tortoise, the stump is covered in patches of green moss and a cluster of light-brown mushrooms growing on its side. Perched majestically on top of this stump is a small bird, facing the tortoise. The bird has a brilliant blue-gray back and head, a warm, orangey-yellow breast, and a sharp, dark beak. It appears to be a kingfisher, and its posture suggests it is in a quiet standoff or conversation with the giant tortoise.

The entire scene is bathed in soft, natural sunlight that filters through the air, illuminating tiny specks of dust or pollen, which adds to the magical atmosphere. The background is a soft-focus blur of deep green, suggesting a dense forest or rolling hills far away, which makes the tortoise, house, and bird stand out as the clear subjects of this peaceful, fairytale-like world.

I think what a lot of folks miss is that expecting the people who are actively being hurt to do this emotional labor is not okay. I don’t talk about Harry Potter in front of those whom it hurts. I use content warnings on my socials. And I accept that this is work I have to do as a straight cis dude, and it can’t be offloaded to someone else. That missing peace is what makes the anti jkr folks as vocal as they are.

Combine this with making sure all fans know how to get access to the media without paying for it, and hooking up the trusted people in your life if they want that, so they don’t have to buy it.

Here’s a perfect example of what I mean by controlling the dialogue. I’m known throughout my extended family as a massive potter head. A young person in my life had picked up Harry Potter from the library, gotten into it, and knew I’d be someone interested in talking about his new found interest. As part of those conversations, we got to talk about Goblins, why they’re bankers in Harry Potter, and the long history of antisemitism and what creatures with long noses and fingers who control all of the money might mean to some readers. Then we talked about how to enjoy things that are kind of gross, the power of popularity, and my own nostalgia and how Harry Potter became a part of my identity. If the only people participating in the fandom were bigots, I bet that conversation would have gone a lot differently.

I’m not sure that holds. First off, the multi-billion dollar corporations spending money on advertising and influencers will have more of an impact than fans ever will. Second, the more of us in the fandom who don’t support giving JKR money, the more openly accepting and encouraging the fandom becomes of piracy. True fans are always the best pirates; they spread it farther, are more likely to get it into the hands of people who would otherwise buy the product, and take more care with the rips/formatting/etc, making the product higher quality. Third, because of those billion dollar corporations, and the number of books and movies sold, Harry Potter is not going away in our lifetimes. I have no intention of allowing people I hate to control the dialogue around it. This isn’t like Twitter, where the owner can just delete views he doesn’t like, so our only choice is to leave. JKR doesn’t control any of the fandom spaces like Archive Of Our Own or any of the fan forums. And if she tried, they’d fight back. I would agree with you completely if the only way to participate in Harry Potter was to sign up on JKR’s website and take part in discussions controlled by JKR. But that’s not the case. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that we can’t control the behavior of others. But if the anti-JKR diehards focused on making piracy easier than giving JKR money in every case, Harry Potter would actually be more likely to go away quicker. If the corporations can’t make money off it, they’ll drop it. And giving people what they want for free will always work better than trying to force them into a mass boycott and to give up something they actually want.

It really depends. For images that are graphs and infographics I use gpt5 or Gemini 2.5 pro. For anything with adult content I have to use grok because it’s the only model that won’t refuse. For stuff that’s just text in an image the cheap models from Microsoft are fine. Also, sometimes openrouter has limited time deals where some models are free. I’d say overall I spend between 2 and 5 dollars a month on it. But I do allow open router to train on the data so I get a discount of a few percent as well.

As someone who is completely blind, I pay for OpenRouter in order to have AI describe images to me. If more people bothered with alt text, I wouldn’t have to. But it is what it is. I suspect there are models I could run locally that would do what I need; on IOS, apple handles all image descriptions locally on the phone, and they’re perfectly adequate. But on Windows, nobody has created an easy way to get a local model running in the Open-source NVDA screen reader (https://www.nvaccess.org/) but there are multiple addons that work with OpenRouter. NVDA is open source and entirely written in Python, so it should actually be pretty easy to do. The main reason I haven’t tried it myself is because I have no idea what local model to use. None of the benchmarks really tell me “This model would be good at describing images to blind people”. Whereas the giant cloud models are semi-okay at everything, so everyone just uses those. But if we could use a smaller model, we might even be able to fine tune it for the specific use-case of blind people. Maybe someday!

My personal solution is:

1. Never do anything that results in money going to JKR.
2. Avoid talking about Harry Potter in front of folks who may find it hurtful, use content warnings, etc.
3. Continue to participate in the fandom (fanfiction, unofficial products, etc.) because I don’t want the thing that made up the vast majority of my childhood to be taken over by NAZIs and worse. Like it or not, Harry Potter is going to continue to be a huge part of many of our lives, and of the cultural dialogue going forward, the same way Starwars and Star Trek are. That means those of us who have been fans since the start (especially those of us who are straight scis dudes) have a duty to do what we can to keep the fannish spaces open and accepting. Both for kids newly exposed to it, and to make sure JKR doesn’t get to completely control the dialogue around Harry Potter in the way she never used to want to do, but is now set on doing.

It never went down here in Ottawa for me. Based on the tiny sample size of my circle of friends, everyone using the gigahub for PPPOE login went down, and everyone using PPPOE passthrough did not. So I think it’s something to do with the ISP provided router. Pushed bad firmware to everyone maybe?

It pretty much depends on Debian. You could also run cosmos itself in a docker if you wanted.

get into access mods for games like slay the spire, balatro, hearthstone, stardew valley, and factorio.

I wish I knew. I followed the link to the Matrix community, and it was just confused people and trolling NAZI’s. No Nicole, no attempt at catfishing.

Thunder, because it works best with accessibility features like VoiceOver and TalkBack: https://github.com/thunder-app/thunder

Also serverica for hosting.