- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Free or cheap cloud based monitoring tools
by Andrew Hodgson 06 Apr '22

06 Apr '22

Hi. Anyone had experience with cloud based monitoring tools? I'm looking for something that can ping a health endpoint on a web server and if we get an error back it alerts me. I had done something similar from my own machine a while ago but want something cloud based like Pingdom, Pagerduty etc. Preferably free or low cost. Thanks. Andrew.

3 3

OT: Braille for IT?
by John G. Heim 19 Feb '22

19 Feb '22

I am working on a program that takes a string of text and generates a 3D printer file that prints the text in braille. I'm using liblouis to generate the ASCII braille and it generated, ",,x" for the string "IT". Like in the title, "IT Manager", it made the IT be a double capital sign and then the letter x. Yes, an x all by itself is the word "it". But is that shortcut legitimate braille for an acronym? If I was doing it by hand, I'd have done the double cap sign and then the letters i and t. PS: As a proof of concept, I'm trying to make a plaque for my manager's office door, if I can. I thought she'd get a kick out of it. -- ### John G. Heim, 608-263-4189, jheim(a)math.wisc.edu

2 1

duo mobile admin panel
by Kathryn Jedynak 05 Feb '22

05 Feb '22

Hello everyone: In the duo mobile admin panel when a user has multiple phones listed you can move the one they want to use to the top of the list. Is there a way to do this with a screen reader? The only way I found is to do it with the mouse. Please let me know if there is an accessible way to perform this task. Thanks, Kathryn

1 0

Professional qualifications
by Andrew Hodgson 22 Jan '22

22 Jan '22

Hi. Just wondering if anyone has done professional qualifications lately where you have been able to take tests from home reliably with a screen reader? I have heard good things about the Salesforce exams though havendon't want to take those myself. I have potentially given up on doing any more Microsoft exams due to not being able to find a test centre who can accommodate my reader requirements, looking to see if other exams may be easier to do from home. Thanks. Andrew.

2 3

screen reader Accessibility with bitlocker
by Kathryn Jedynak 15 Jan '22

15 Jan '22

Hello: I would like to know is there a way to make bit locker accessible with a screen reader. Currently, we set up a passcode for our users and they have to type in that passcode in order to boot their computer. However, currently there is no screen reader accessibility during this process. Is there a way to make this process accessible? If not, what other solutions are out there for bit locker accessibility? Thanks in advance. Kathryn

5 4

FW: utilities for drive recovery help
by Andrew Hodgson 10 Jan '22

10 Jan '22

Sorry I missed this email which I think should have gone to the list. Thanks. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: David Mehler <dave.mehler(a)gmail.com> Sent: 29 December 2021 19:41 To: Andrew Hodgson <andrew(a)hodgson.io> Subject: utilities for drive recovery help Hello, I've got two drives that are failing, both NTFS-data drives. I've atempted using spinrite, but even with be my eyes help it's not proving practical, I have to get some local knowledgeable help which won't be for a while. This brings me to tarch, or grml, or some bootable distro. I've got a bootable USB drive with a system called Ventoy on it so all I have to do is drop the iso on and boot it, arrow the appropriate times and enter and it boots. My problem is enabling speech, it seems like every bootable distro is different in this regard is this true? The goal, once booted with speech, is to get spinrite-like functionality, check the sectors of these drives, organize them as needed, so I can then take an image of the drive, ensuring it's good and image that to the new drive. Any recommendations for utilities that would pull this off? Thanks. Dave.

2 1

What my job?
by John G. Heim 03 Dec '21

03 Dec '21

I'm retiring. Want my job? it's a great job. https://jobs.hr.wisc.edu/en-us/job/511554/system-engineer-ii The pay is not great but the benefits and job security are outstanding. Initial interviews will be via Zoom. But you'd probably have to travel to Madison for the final interview. And you'd have to move here if you get the job. Madison is always in the top most livable cities in the country. -- ### John G. Heim, 608-263-4189, jheim(a)math.wisc.edu

5 5

IP phone recommendations?
by Can Kırca 01 Dec '21

01 Dec '21

Hi, Before I start, I'd like to say thank you to mr. Irwin, he answered my basic questions about PBX. Finally I've completed my IVR setup and other tasks, and now I need a dec or wireless phone. For handsfree and speaker quality, maybe accessibility features and for other details, which models do you recommend? I'll make outbound and receive inbound calls. Also, is there a way to configure these phones without sided help to enter SIP/connection details? Thank you.

4 9

Automation for HyperV VM's
by Billy Irwin 24 Nov '21

24 Nov '21

Hi All, Have any of you had any experience deploying Windows VM's over HyperV by automating the install for example using an answer file? I am now in charge of a Hyper-V cluster and would like to rapidly deploy VM's. I would like to avoid using sysprep because it will disable RDP during it's process. Thanks, Billy

1 0

Recommendations for small tablet?
by John G. Heim 23 Nov '21

23 Nov '21

I've always owned both an iPod Touch and an iPhone. The reason is that I don't want to carry my phone around all the time. So I am doing yard work, home repairs, working out or whatever, getting my iPod wet and dirty and wearing down the battery. Meanwhile, my iPhone stays safe and fully charged. But recently, I've gotten more and more irritated with Apple. For example, they got rid of the feature in the MacOS iTunes app that allows you to sync your music library with your IOS devices. So now I no longer have a way to get all the music I ripped from my old CD-ROMS to my iPod Touch. I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation for an Android device that is similar to the iPod Touch. How accessible is Android these days? I'm not too worried about getting used to a new operating system. But as a long time IOS user, am I going to be disappointed with the accessibility of Android? - ### John G. Heim, 608-263-4189, jheim(a)math.wisc.edu

6 15