Microsoft Narrator and some emoticons

Messing around with Windows Narrator, because I found a more complex emoticon I used in the past (>>-x_x–>, an arrow through a dead face) and that led me down the rabbit hole trying to figure out how to make that more accessible. (Short answer: probably too many “standards,” no real way to make it work.)

I tried Apple’s screen reader on an iMac years ago at work. I don’t remember much about the experience, it was pleasant enough, but then I didn’t test it out on any of my old blog posts hahaha! So I don’t know how Apple deals with emoticons. Unless there’s a screen reader on the iPad that I’d have to dig around to test out.

Anyway, here are a few things I noticed with Narrator:

  • Why is “Windows” pronounced as if it rhymes with endows? Isn’t Narrator made by Microsoft?? Confusing.
  • It’ll read some emoticons/punctuation. But it can be inconsistent:
    • Read ^^;; as “caret caret” first (ignoring the semicolons), then “sweating face.” (Which, no! It’s not…sweating! It’s sweatdrops!)
    • Read >.< as “angry face” once, then didn’t read it the second time.
    • The >>-x_x–> emoticon above was read as “x underscore x.”
    • It read ^^ alone as “happy face.” (It’s…not quite…happy, more like bashful happy? Right?)
    • Read o_O; as “confused face” (probably ignoring the semicolon) but o.O was read as “oh dot oh.”
    • It didn’t read >.< but it does understand >_< as “angry face.”
  • For some reason I couldn’t get Narrator to read anything in Pale Moon other than the title of the Window. Strange. I didn’t want to spend my time diagnosing that or trying to figure out Narrator.

I was disappointed it couldn’t read any text coded with abbr and title or aria-label. I supposed there’s a setting I have to configure, but it’s not on by default. So I guess there’s no making emoticons 100% accessible at this point in time. :/ (Read as “uneasy face.” xD [Read as “x d.”]) But at least it read + correctly, so as someone wrote in 2014 that “1+1=2” was often read as “1 1 2”, things have gotten somewhat better over the years…?

blurred vision

I’ve figured out why it’s hard for me to look at my desktop monitor.

It’s a 20″ widescreen monitor, native 1680×1050, but the text is way too freakin’ small for me at that size. So I’ve got it down to 1440×900, a setting lower.

However, while text is at a good size for me, it is also slightly blurry. Not as bad as when I had it at 1280×768 though. (Because yes, I really am blind and do like my text big…)

The text isn’t as blurry as if I were using Microsoft’s Cleartype though, which I am very grateful for.

The only program this is bugging me in is Firefox/all other cool browsers that don’t have the initials I and E. All my Adobe design programs already antialias or blur the edges of my text, but then they aren’t rendered pixel by pixel, more along the lines of vectors…hahaha, horrible pun.

I could possibly make the screen smaller and pull the monitor closer to my face, but it’s at a comfortable distance at the moment. Maybe a couple inches too far, but not too bad. If I were to get too close, I’d get sick. I don’t know why. Whenever I sit too close to a monitor I get dizzy. Weak, yes!

Yet in computer labs in school I was always leaning as far back as I could possibly go, always sticking out in aisles and hyperextending my arm to reach the mouse and keyboard… Also had to take occasional breaks to rest my weary eyes and head.

I was considering keeping it at native resolution and just zooming in text for browsers, but I realized that the Windows interface text is all tiny and squishy and I probably can’t do anything about that other than using some LARGE PRINT theme that my Grandpa would have.

I guess I’ll just have to learn to live with slightly blurred text and slightly tired eyes at the end of the day.

less zippy laptop

Quicky post … right.

Finished upgrading Win XP and drivers and such on my laptop, then re-installed all the programs and copied back most of my files. Interesting note: most of the programs I installed, I downloaded free online. Only three were on CD (Paint Shop Pro 6, yes, Photoshop 7, and my Canon camera things).

For a day or two after the fresh install I had a really hard time connecting to the internet. I could access the computer network, but not the internet. X( I’ve had problems with my laptop network card (external, yes my laptop is that old) and XP SP2 before. I downloaded a new driver that time, but I don’t know how I fixed it this time. Apparently some weird mix of installing and uninstalling some drivers I downloaded from Dell made things click. *blink*

Now my speed never reads as fast as 54 mbps, it’s about half that speed or less, but then again I never really trusted the high number before. Just because the card can go that fast doesn’t mean it is.

The only other problem I have is, for some reason my laptop doesn’t like to come back from standby. Whenever I try to wake it up, everything runs slower than molasses if it were a hundred years old. At first I thought it was my wireless card driver or something, because that’s happened before, with that whole SP2 fiasco, but my laptop runs fine from startup.

Then I thought it was Photoshop, because it’s been running slow recently (can’t remember what settings I had it at before), but a third time proved that theory false. Now I’m wondering if it’s Firefox that’s the cause, but I’m too scared to try it out, and I can’t remember if I had Firefox open the very first time…

End result? I’ve got 4.92 gigs of free space on my harddrive, less than before, but I’ve also got most all my music on this laptop now. XD That folder went from about 3.5 gigs to a bit over 12 gigs. I also sacrificed my pet pictures—they’re currently only on my external harddrive (must remember to copy them to my desktop…*worry*)—I don’t normally do anything with them anyway. That saved me three gigs.

(Oh, of course, my startup time is about the same as it was before, perhaps a mite faster, but not really noticeable. Firefox (still on 2) also has gone back to opening fairly slowly, but what can ya do?)

All in all, I am one happy puppy. Or should I say kitty? We don’t have a dog at the moment. :(

zippy laptop

Yay! I have a fresh install of XP on my laptop! XD It starts up so fast! But I still have to install all my programs again…

Firefox (2 still, don’t quite like 3) starts up really fast too! :D Still have to import my bookmarks, and work on my preferences (allow or deny cookies for sites as I go around).

I’ve gone from 5.5 gigs hard drive space free to 25 gigs free! Tomorrow I’ll have to move all my files back on here. Hoping I have enough space to upload most of my music. *crosses fingers*

I finished reorganizing my closet today too. (Well, finished installing new shelving and finalized where I put everything.) What a productive day! It just zipped by! Like my laptop! Ohoho!

what the hell (WinXP SP2)

This entry is for the Windows XP Service Pack 2 thingamabobber. >b

Okay, so I downloaded and installed it and uhh … I have a headache. *forgot what she was going to say* x_X Um. It isn’t as bad as this one article that I read said it would be.

First thing when I restarted, that window opened telling me something was off about my Norton AntiVirus program. The article said it was because the NAV wasn’t registered in some Windows thing or another … I dunno, I don’t really remember (this entry is also proof for how bad my memory is). And that it would be fixed in later versions of NAV … ? Something like that. Well, Daddy just told me to select “I will monitor this program on my own.”

Second thing all these shortcuts and stuff were added (or re-added; I take down a lot of stuff ^^;), that I got rid off (had to remember how to get the IE icon off my desktop without deleting it).

Third the pop-up blocker has a really really annoying way of alerting me that a pop-up was blocked. That being a new toolbar appearing at the top of my window and pushing down the whole display of my browser. x_X I turned that off. I also turned off my Pop-Up Stopper. (Yay! I can open little pop-ups on Firefox now instead of getting a new tab with a blank page! :b)

Fourth, I opened an html page I have on my hard drive, the Lisa Loeb fanlisting members page. That little toolbar popped up again and told me, “To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this file from showing active content that could access your computer. Click here for options…” I wouldn’t really have minded that (except for the part where, you know, the e-mail addresses aren’t displayed because the Javascript spam blocker I use is “active content”), but then I went to check out the same exact page online, at inangeling-dot-net, and absolutely nothing like that showed up. I was able to view the e-mails addresses. Yeah. That’s really helpful, blocking something from me that I have on my own hard drive and not blocking something that’s online.

The fourth thing is the only one that reeeeally annoys me. Stupid thing. I don’t want to turn that option off, because I despise ActiveX controls, but then, I don’t know how often I encounter those. I know very well how many Javascripts I have on my hard drive, though. x_x