Justin Myers @[email protected]

Every year, we participate in a developer survey to get an idea of how we can best serve you. This year, not only will your response help Mozilla, our survey partner (SlashData) is donating money to the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Answer here: https://t.co/h9O2NKzFXN tweeted by @MozDevNet

The fundamental problem with platforms is that you're working with someone else's business plan, and that plan doesn't match your output or use case unless you have a literal contract with them https://t.co/c7faOh6Ujz

I'm seeing a lot of hurt, upset, and angst out there this evening. And honestly, I'm not sure if I can really say or do anything to help anyone.

So please just remember that you're a lovely bundle of stardust and sunlight, and that no matter what you're feeling right now, you are valid. I hope your rainclouds pass quietly and quickly. ☀️

In the meantime, here is a cat sleeping in a flowerpot. I hope it makes you smile. 💚

some of the new folks seem to not be getting this, so here goes.

twitter has social currency, masto has social currency as well.

twitter social currency rules:

- amass followers
- defend your territory
- demolish your opponents

masto social currency rules:

- share your life
- be yourself
- help others

as with anything, there's ways the latter's rules can be taken advantage of, but if you're thinking you can swap out one for the other, you're reading things wrong.

Wrap up in a blanket.

Remember, you can't search by text on Mastodon, except in your own timeline. That's so harassers can't just find people to attack via a simple search.

Therefore it's important to use hashtags so people can find your stuff, assuming you want them to.

#Advice #HowMastodonWorks

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/07/cage-the-mastodon/

"Welcome to Magic School. Here is your schedule."
"Thanks! But..."
"Yes?"
"This is just 'Ethics' and 'Human rights' and things like that."
"Correct, that's the first year curriculum."
"Do we have to learn all this?"
"Of course! What do you think this is, software engineering?"
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

A spaceship landed in the park. An alien emerged, looked around, and walked up to the nearest person. Me.
It held my hand gently, patted me on the shoulder, and said "There, there, it'll work out".
Then it left.
It's silly, but I do feel better now.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

Remember. Western society tries hard to make us cold and ruthless. An act of kindness is an act of rebellion.

Go. Rebel.

1) don't confuse 'the internet' with 'the web'; 2) don't confuse 'the web' with 'social media'; 3) don't confuse 'social media' with 'corporate social media'

If your mantra is "move fast and break things" you have _no_ right to call what you're doing "engineering". None.

That is the territory of people who make sure airplanes don't fall apart with you inside.

“As I read through the list, the same words kept coming up over and over: friendly, modern, clean, simple, human. It’s like everyone wants something that they can use to define their brand, yet they really just want a slightly different version of what everyone has.”

(via Why are tech companies making custom typefaces? )

http://migurski.tumblr.com/post/180538141280

with the default settings, "clear", or the delete key, only makes a region transparent but doesn't delete the colour info. it can easily be retrieved

ways to fix this are:
1. uncheck "save colour values from transparent pixels" when exporting
2. put a fresh transparent layer underneath everything, its colour info (pure black) will be saved instead
3. just fill the area with a solid colour instead
3.1. or save as jpeg

If humans can't use your tech,
they don't need to become more technical,
your tech needs to become more human.

Reclaiming RSS

“Before Twitter, before algorithmic timelines filtered our reality for us, before surveillance capitalism, there was RSS: Really Simple Syndication … As we move away from the centralised web to the peer web, it’s time to rediscover, re-embrace, and reclaim RSS.”

https://ar.al/2018/06/29/reclaiming-rss/

#ethicaltechnology

Hey, Mastofriends, I'd like some help/feedback on a thing.

I'm building an open source platform for hosting web comics. I want it to be safe and usable by as many folks as possible, out of the box. But before I get too far into a rabbit hole of difficult-to-change design, I want to ensure I consider all the options users would actually appreciate in a community platform like this will be.

Linked below is my current list. Thoughts?

https://trello.com/c/xg8E27jw/51-site

We still have a tech position open at the Freedom of the Press Foundation (a nonprofit): a Sr. Software Engineer position to work on SecureDrop, the open source whistleblower platform used by 65+ media organizations, originally developed by the late Aaron Swartz.

You get paid to work
✅ from anywhere in the world
✅ on a world-changing project
✅ that's open source,
✅ stewarded by a small team
✅ that's led by a woman.

Help spreading the word is much appreciated:

https://freedom.press/jobs/job-opening-senior-software-engineer-securedrop/

so, my dad is a mechanical engineer and i've been thinking about doing some kind of formal conversation with him to see what software engineers and mechanical engineers have in common. best practices, approaches to technology, tackling new projects, that kind of thing. i'm gathering questions and pinging my networks for some ideas.

if you could sit down with an engineer, what would you ask?

retoots encouraged!

#programming #software #engineering #development #tech