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Flash and JAWS/Accessibility

Submitted by Karthik on 9 December, 2005 - 19:02

Getting Flash to be MSAA accessible is a chore in itself. And if you are converting a poorly written app to be accessible, welcome to hell :/

For my own reference, and due to the lack of any practical documentation on the net, here are a few things to keep in mind. Also, these were primarily tested with JAWS, a popular MSAA compliant screen reader. I'm just extemporising here, so feel free to correct any errors or recommend stuff I've left out (by adding a comment) and I'll edit it in..

Rain, Pizza and Hypocrisy

Submitted by Karthik on 2 December, 2005 - 21:00

The scene: It's half past eight in Chennai. It's been raining all day. Roads are flooded to an extent but traffic is still chugging along fine.

The need: Pizza to warm my innards.

M.O: I check the net and find the numbers for Pizza Hut and Domino's.

Pizza Hut's lines are busy, while Domino's answers. So I think to myself that this is a good time to put their "20 minutes nahin tho free" promise to the test. So, my interest is piqued [this incidentally is my first call to Domino's or any other pizza joint in India] and I start messing on my phone for something akin to a countdown timer.

Book list - 2005

Submitted by Karthik on 30 November, 2005 - 19:59

I'm going to try and keep a record of all the books I read starting from those I remember reading this year. I was hoping to add a simple review or a rating.. but as per usual, I'm going to blame it on the lack of time..

In no particular order:

  • Cliff Stoll
    • The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage [Non-Fiction]
  • Neal Stephenson [Sci-Fi]
    • Snow Crash [Reread]
  • George R.R. Martin [Fantasy]
    • A Feast Of Crows
  • Robert Jordan [Fantasy]
    • Wheel Of Time - Book 11 - Knife Of Dreams
  • Robert A. Heinlein [Sci-Fi]
    • Citizen of The Galaxy
  • Lois McMaster Bujold [Sci-Fi]
    Vorkosigan Saga

X-mas lights and your distro in a new light

Submitted by Karthik on 29 November, 2005 - 23:48

Both oldies but goodies which have been re-doing the rounds in the last coupla days:

X-mas lights [WMV]: The song is "Wizards in Winter" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra - a rather odd Christian rock/metal band that features Al Pitrelli - ex-Megadeth, Savatage etc. - on guitars..

Despair Linux: Really amusing if you're a Linux head.. Seems to have been rekindled by this blog by Jon Lech Johansen..

Update-o-rama

Submitted by Karthik on 23 November, 2005 - 12:10

Added in a few updates to the site a couple of days ago:

  • Added the global broadband comparison table.. *phew* this was a lot of work..
  • Updated Hathway pages with the plans from their plan pages. Also amended my review to put them in a little more positive light as speeds have been much better off late.
  • Removed Net4India from the broadband page and move it to the Other ISPs page. The responsiveness of their customer service divisions is just positively .. bovine :/

Airtel sells your cell number :-/

Submitted by Karthik on 21 November, 2005 - 12:39

Sequence of events:

  • September 2005: I suffer from a congenital (sic) dislike (hate is probably an appropriate word as well) of mobile phones, and as such don't encourage people ringing me - email/IM me I always tell them. But, nevertheless I got myself a new Airtel cell on one of their cheap as chips plans. This phone is primarily a phone that I keep only for dialling out, and therefore its number is a closely guarded secret :P
  • Just before my connection is activated, this "dude" comes home on the pretext of verifying my address (which I suppose is understandable). I tell him "Yeah, this is me, and this is where I live - thank you. You can approve my connection now. Good bye".

Parikrama to write a song for Microsoft

Submitted by Karthik on 19 November, 2005 - 12:06

Just learned from their mailing list that Parikrama, India's lone flame in the land of rock, are apparently going to be writing and performing a song for Microsoft to help launch 3 new products - Visual Studio 2005, MSSQL server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006. And there apparently might be a video made as well..

oh and apparently Gill Bates is going to be there with bells on for the show :P

-K

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