cassidy

cassidy, 3 months ago to opensource

Remember to share positive posts, memes, etc. about open source things you use and like. A simple “I like this” or “thanks for working on this” can go a long way!

Happy people carry on using things quietly while negativity gets shared, memed, and shoved in front of folks who work on your favorite projects. One negative comment too often outweighs ten positive ones, because human brains are dumb.

Spread positivity, save someone from burnout.

#OpenSource #GNOME #Linux #FOSS #FLOSS #FreeSoftware

cassidy, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

For people working on actual privacy-preserving technologies like sandboxing apps from one another and your data, it’s pretty infuriating that Google is steaming ahead with the extreme misnomer “Privacy Sandbox”.

It’s a system that tracks everything you do on your device or browser—the opposite of privacy—then gives a profile of you to any app or site that asks—the opposite of a sandbox.

It’s telling that it’s mostly adtech companies who are on board.

https://privacysandbox.com/#ecosystem

cassidy, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

Stop linking to Twitter; it is intentionally broken without creating an account and signing into it, even just to see a tweet, now.

• No thread context: Link to a tweet in a thread, and visitors cannot read the other tweets in the same thread, including the immediate parent in the thread. So context is entirely broken

• No replies: If you link to a tweet, visitors cannot see any replies to said tweet

• Aggressive prompts to create an account when trying to find more context/clicking anything

cassidy, 6 months ago to mastodon

I feel like I’m always poking journalists and other public figures to get verified on Mastodon… part of this is a lack of knowledge around the topic and the fact that joinmastodon.org kind of buries the details of “how” in the docs.

So, I’ve written up my own how and why:

https://cassidyjames.com/blog/mastodon-verification/

Feel free to share! Hopefully it adds to the collective knowledge and helps get more folks verified here.

✨🗨️ Public replies to this post will appear as comments on the blog.

#Mastodon #verification

cassidy, 3 months ago to GNOME

Do you work on GNOME or adjacent stuff? Do you want to help improve the GNOME desktop around usability, reliability, safety, digital well-being?

GET PAID TO DO IT!

The @gnome Foundation is offering a one-year contract (with potential to extend) to work on the above on behalf of the Foundation. You’d probably interact with me, the GNOME design team, and core maintainers of GNOME components.

https://foundation.gnome.org/2024/01/12/application-open-for-gnome-foundation-software-engineer/

#GNOME #Linux #OpenSource #FOSS #FLOSS #GetFediHired #OpenPosition #hiring

cassidy, 10 months ago to mastodon

I’ve promised enough people this, so I had to do it! 😁

Here’s my write-up of how I added client-side Fediverse-powered comments to my Jekyll blog using the Mastodon API.

Huge props to @jwildeboer for the initial inspiration, as well as @julian and everyone who provided feedback for inspiring the design improvements.

https://cassidyjames.com/blog/fediverse-blog-comments-mastodon/

✨💬 Reply to this thread then check the blog post comments to see it in action!

#Mastodon #Jekyll #WebDevelopment #ActivityPub #design

cassidy, 11 months ago to random

Web developers: when you say, “your browser does not support this site,” what you REALLY mean is that YOU don’t support the browser. Don’t turn it around on the user because you chose not to stick to well-supported standards, or worse, are doing user agent sniffing.

If you truly use some feature shipped by one browser and not everyone, at least say, “We use x standard feature, which is unsupported in this browser.” But even then, the web is all about progressive enhancement.

#WebDevelopment

cassidy, 1 month ago to ai

“AI” as currently hyped is giant billion dollar companies blatantly stealing content, disregarding licenses, deceiving about capabilities, and burning the planet in the process.

It is the largest theft of intellectual property in the history of humankind, and these companies are knowingly and willing ignoring the licenses, terms of service, and laws that us lowly individuals are beholden to.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/06/technology/tech-giants-harvest-data-artificial-intelligence.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ik0.Ofja.L21c1wyW-0xj&ugrp=m

#AI #GenAI #LLM #LLMs #OpenAI #ChatGPT #GPT #GPT4 #Sora #Gemini

cassidy, 8 months ago to Steamdeck

I'll keep saying it, because it keeps coming up. If you're working in the FreeDesktop, Linux, or Flatpak spaces, you need to understand this, even if you don't personally care about gaming or Steam Deck.

#SteamDeck #Flatpak #Flathub #Linux #FreeDesktop #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #FOSS #FLOSS

cassidy, 6 months ago to security

People building apps and web services: I feel like we need to talk about two-factor authentication terminology.

Here are some of the things I always think and then realized I've never written down. 🧵

#security #ux #UXCopywriting #copywriting #UXDesign

cassidy, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to bitwarden

Do you use #Bitwarden? Do you also use #Linux or #SteamDeck?

The #Flatpak is a community effort, automated from the official release. That feels a bit off for your password manager; the thing that holds all your secrets.

A community post from 2021 asking them to maintain it only got 211 votes, 117 likes, and 46 comments but over 10k views. I and other #OpenSource folks commented and said we'd be happy to help, but never heard back.

Maybe give the post some attention?

https://community.bitwarden.com/t/bitwarden-should-manage-its-flathub-application/30823?u=cassidyjames

cassidy, 7 months ago to apple

Reminder that Apple uses a technology literally invented in 1984 to brainwash their users into thinking anyone using a non-Apple device is poor.

This lie is rampant and reinforced by the billionaire CEO of Apple, the richest company to ever exist.

Apple intentionally makes their devices bad at communicating with other devices because it means kids without Apple devices might get bullied into giving Apple more money. Apple knows this, and plays into it.

#Apple #iPhone #iMessage #RCS #Android

cassidy, 11 months ago to random

Friendly reminder of this dope share-to-mastodon button from my friend @micahilbery. It’s pretty, it’s simple, and it’s customizable. :)

https://share-on-mastodon.social/

cassidy, 3 months ago to GNOME

Developers of apps on Flathub, some questions for you!

First, what's your app? Why did you choose Flathub to distribute your app? Do you distribute on other stores/distribution methods, or just Flathub—and why? What's something you like about Flathub? What's something that could be better?

Thanks; please boost for reach!

#Flathub #Flatpak #GNOME #KDE #Linux #OpenSource

cassidy, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to opensource

I just saw that Mozilla is retiring the Mozilla Location Service which provides an open, crowdsourced alternative to proprietary location services from Google and other vendors. 😰

https://github.com/mozilla/ichnaea/issues/2065

This is used by GNOME and thus Fedora, Ubuntu, Endless OS, etc. to help provide OS-level location services without requiring every app to implement its own. And apparently a patent troll is part of the reason Mozilla stopped investing in it. 🙃

#OpenSource #Linux #GNOME #Mozilla

cassidy, 6 months ago to linux

Portals are the Linux desktop API for apps.

Check out this shiny new little website covering some of the basics, but the gist: every desktop supports these APIs with a native UI that makes sense to their desktop. But cross-platform apps can just use Portals and their app will work across desktop environments, OSes, etc.

https://flatpak.github.io/xdg-desktop-portal/

#Linux #FreeDesktop #OpenSource #FOSS #FLOSS #Flatpak

cassidy, 8 months ago to linux

I’m gonna dip my toes into volunteering as a Flatpak/Flathub developer advocate—basically, providing a human contact at a real company that can help larger apps/companies get their apps in front of Linux (and thus Steam Deck!) users.

What are some of the biggest apps you think are missing from Flathub—or for apps already there, which are the ones you’d like to see verified?

#Flatpak #Flathub #Linux #SteamDeck #OpenSource

cassidy, 9 months ago to GNOME

A challenge proposed by @jjardon for #GUADEC2024 in Denver: we try to go the whole week using only GNOME for our phones. No iPhone, no Android, just GNOME OS or postmarketOS or whatever with GNOME on top.

Navigate with Maps, wake up with Clocks, share our adventures with Snapshot and Tuba, communicate with Fractal, etc.

Think that sounds impossible today? We have one year to get things into shape before then! 😅

#GNOME #GUADEC2023 #Linux #LinuxMobile #OpenSource

cassidy, 10 months ago to random

If you use content warnings for posts, first: thank you! A lot of folks appreciate it whether it’s about potential triggers or just specific interests.

I’ve also found that it’s more helpful if you spell out the warning rather than using shorthand. This is especially true for franchises: not everyone will read an sw warning as a Star Wars spoiler, or suf as Steven Universe Future, for example. It’s also helpful for common ones like “eye contact” or “mental health” instead of ec or mh.

cassidy, 3 months ago to GNOME

Flathub has OVER A MILLION active users! 🎉

https://docs.flathub.org/blog/over-one-million-active-users-and-growing/

That's a nice new stat to reference when asking developers to bring their app to Flathub: it gets them in front of more than a million Linux users. 👀

#Flathub #Flatpak #GNOME #KDE #Linux #OpenSource

cassidy, 10 months ago to denver

Anyone know of open source places hiring Denver-area or US-remote positions? I have some friends looking.

#GetFediHired #Denver #OpenSourceJobs

cassidy, 5 months ago to opensource

People familiar with Flatpak and Blender... want to help Blender on board with Flatpak, officially upstream?

There's an open issue with initial tasks to be completed: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/102949

They could use some help around packaging and permissions. :)

#b3d #OpenSource #Flatpak #Flathub #Linux #Blender

cassidy, 10 months ago to GNOME

I blogged about something I’ve been talking about/working on/following for months (or years, depending on how you count!): https://cassidyjames.com/blog/freedesktop-accent-colors-gnome-proposal/

There’s a fun little quiz/challenge thing towards the end; let me know how you do!

#GNOME #GNOMEdesign #OpenSource #UX

cassidy, 2 months ago to random

The long game is paying off: more and more cross-platform apps are getting FreeDesktop dark style support for free. 💪

Recently I’ve noticed Signal and Slack both respect the Dark Style preference in GNOME, which should mean it works across elementary OS, KDE, and other FreeDesktop environments as well. This is thanks to having it standardized under FD.o and then getting it into Chromium, and thus Electron.

If we want more apps to “Just Work” on Linux, this is the sort of work we have to do!

cassidy, 4 months ago to threads

I’m happy to see Threads starting to federate with Mastodon and other ActivityPub networks!

Open standards are good, and honestly, I have a ton of friends already on Instagram and Threads that would never join yet another social network, but I’d still love to keep up with them and their lives without having to use Threads. Federating via ActivityPub enables exactly that.

#Threads #Mastodon #ActivityPub #federation #Fediverse