@cassidy@blaede.family
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

cassidy

@cassidy@blaede.family

Building useful, usable, delightful products that respect privacy.

:eos: Partner success at https://floss.social/@EndlessOS Foundation
:gnome: @gnome Foundation member
:flathub: https://floss.social/@flathub contributor

Previously: co-founder and CXO at elementary OS, UX architect at System76.

Frequently posting about #OpenSource, specifically in #GNOME and #Flatpak realms. I also enjoy #StarWars, #LEGO, #3DPrinting, and #SmartHome.

I have a background in UX architecture, open source, product design, & communication.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ryne, to random
@ryne@androiddev.social avatar

Thinking of spinning up a personal blog to review products that don't conflict with my work.

I still play with gadgets and research the hell out of them and how they fit with my needs, and I do basically the same level of mental documentation as I did when I was a full time product reviewer. Taking a few photos and vomiting up a few thousand words of insight would at best take a couple hours extra.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@ryne

Do It GIF

cassidy, to music
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

Something arrived a day early 👀

ta1da, to random
@ta1da@mastodon.social avatar

I just can't seem to settle on a . I've tried Firefox, Chromium, Vivaldi, Floorp, and even Edge. There's always something

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@ta1da it's not the exact same thing, but have you tried container tabs in Firefox?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-use-firefox-containers

I find it really useful for keeping multiple accounts/profiles separate.

cassidy, to Starwars
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

I wish Justin of starwarsfonts was here on the fediverse, because I have a question!!

Any idea what the font used in the text graphics is here? It’s driving my wife crazy; she thinks it might be Albertus Nova, but we aren’t sure—and something just looks… wrong with the text.

https://youtu.be/J3kyYFHdRsM?si=WbYEP_k7q1iCDwHp

Like… it almost looks like someone vectorized a screenshot or something if that makes sense??

Any ideas, @louie? 😅

cassidy, to random
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

Imagine if all the resources that have gone into chasing “AI” were spent paying humans to do interesting, creative things, instead.

cassidy, to random
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

Can (and should) I provide a door code for our front door for deliveries to our house when we’re not home? I’m sick of deliveries being put smack in the middle of the front step on a perfect pedestal for porch pirates…

I can set up a specific code for each delivery company and make it only work during certain hours/days when a delivery is expected, so the security implications aren’t too bad imho. My bigger question is: will delivery companies even bother with it?

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@ryne my old MyQ smart garage door opener kept trying to convince me to give Amazon (and now Walmart) access to our garage for deliveries. It is a neat idea but I kind of hate that the third party cloud service wants to be the intermediary there.

I guess I can try adding the instructions and just see what happens?

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@benpocalypse we do have a delivery box by the door, but sometimes the package is too big… in which case they just plop it right in front of the door which:

• Makes it exceptionally visible to porch pirates, and
• Prevents us from opening the door if it’s heavy!

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@cjw2001 yeah, that becomes a whole lot less convenient, then. Luckily porch pirates have not been a huge issue; I think we had something stolen a couple years ago and then got a small deck box for packages and it hasn't been an issue since. But today FedEx delivered a big box right on our porch while we were out, and it got me thinking.

micah, to random
@micah@ilbery.family avatar

@kim and I counted the number of mosquito bites I have on my legs from the one evening we sat outside to talk with the neighbors. I have a total of 65 bites on my legs. 20 on my right leg and 45 on my left. I'm starting to worry that statistically I have some sort of mosquito spread infection just from the sheer number of bites I have. And people wonder why I fucking hate the summer. Also I don't like being hot. I need a place where it's overcast and slightly rainy at all times.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@micah @kim oof! Denver is not overcast and slightly rainy at all times, but it is so dry that bugs are not a huge problem, and it’s super nice out in the shade even on hot days.

I always like to say that the acceptable temperature range is wider than most places because the sun is so hot but the air is cool; it can be chilly out but you feel fine in the sun, and it can be hot out but you feel fine in the shade.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@micah @kim (I also hate hot weather because I get too hot all the time, but I really like summers here!)

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@kim @micah 🙏 let us know if you need any help scouting things out, moving, etc. Seriously!

cassidy, to alternative
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

I forgot how much I loved this whole album. A song from it came up on my radio today so of course I’m just listening to the whole album on repeat again.

https://invoguerecords.bandcamp.com/album/francis-deluxe-edition

cassidy, to ChatGPT
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

I was curious if a niche blog post of mine had been slurped up by so I asked a leading question—what I discovered is much worse. So far, it has told me:

• use apt-get on Endless OS
• preview a Jekyll site locally by opening files w/a web browser (w/o building)
• install several non-existent “packages” & extensions

It feels exactly like chatting w/someone talking out of their ass but trying to sound authoritative. need to learn to say, “I don’t know.”

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

Each time I would correct it or provide the error I would get when running obviously-incorrect commands, it would output something like, “It seems there might have been a misunderstanding…” and then gaslight me into thinking I did something wrong, instead of ChatGPT just outputting pure bullshit.

Again, exactly like chatting with someone on the Internet who has no idea what they’re talking about but is trying to hide it.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@ids1024 yeah, fair point. Which is why I try to constantly use “LLM” instead of “AI,” because people seem to miss the “artificial” part of artificial intelligence. It’s artificial in that it is not intelligent!

This race to use LLMs for everything is so misguided; LLMs can be super cool for very specific things like summarizing a long text, typing suggestions, describing images, etc. but I genuinely think that chat model is just a terrible idea that needs to die.

atobsmith, to Starwars
@atobsmith@mastodon.social avatar

Currently Reading… Lesser Evil by Timothy Zahn https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57614048-lesser-evil

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@atobsmith you're plowing through these!!

cassidy, to SmartHome
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

Very work-in-progress, but I have started to document my smart home stuff on my website! This might end up turning into a whole subsection once I figure out how I actually want to organize it, but for now, it’s a dumping ground all on one page. 😅

https://cassidyjames.com/home

#SmartHome #HomeAssistant #Zigbee

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@derek huzzah! I will say that the Nest camera integration is not really better with the Starling Home Hub and Home Assistant, though it was easier to set up. The cameras are really low frame rate and delayed, though. 😞

You do get all the recognition stuff exported as sensors though, which is dope; for example, you get a “motion” sensor, “unfamiliar face” sensor, and familiar face sensors for every saved face on each camera which opens up a lot of interesting stuff.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@derek the best part for me was being able to integrate my Nest × Yale Lock, Nest Protects, and Nest Floodlights as regular devices. Well worth it.

cassidy, (edited ) to random
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

I got an air quality sensor and air purifier, and have learned:

• opening the windows is the most effective way to decrease particulate matter

• our humidifier pumps out hazardous levels of particles when using tap water (oops)

• waking up w/an irritated throat and sinuses goes away with clean air!

• high particulate matter is correlated with nosebleeds in kids—and our kid gets chronic nosebleeds

I am happy to have learned all of this but also feel like an idiot for learning it so late. 😭

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@corbin ah yeah that's the one that's been on my wishlist forever lol

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@kevinrns ah yeah I meant to mention that and ran out of characters: opening windows with clean air outside is the best way to improve indoor air quality—but of course don’t do that if the outdoor air quality is poor/smoky/etc!

I have a local weather station’s air quality sensor added to my smart home dashboard so I can compare indoor and outdoor air quality to decide whether we should open windows.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@adnan ha, yeah I should clarify that I meant where I live, with decent outdoor air quality.

I have a local weather station’s air quality report hooked into my smart home dashboard so I can check that opening the windows is actually a good idea, too!

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@pootriarch I went with the IKEA VINDSTYRKA one because it was relatively affordable and works with Home Assistant over Zigbee. It's just a PM2.5 sensor (plus temperature and humidity), nothing fancy like a CO2 sensor—but it works as a start for understanding general air quality.

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