@cassidy@blaede.family
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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.

atobsmith, to Starwars
@atobsmith@mastodon.social avatar

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

cassidy,
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@atobsmith you're plowing through these!!

cassidy, (edited ) to random
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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,
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Related: IKEA US has their STARKVIND air purifier on a 33% off sale right now.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/starkvind-air-purifier-white-smart-00461949/

I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially if you have an IKEA smart home hub or other Zigbee hub like Home Assistant! It has manual controls, child lock, an automatic mode that kicks the fan up higher when the particulate matter increases, and a built-in PM2.5 sensor—all accessible over Zigbee.

Unfortunately the version where it doubles as a small table is not on sale at all, though.

cassidy,
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@mattdm I don't have much to compare to, but for the price, design, and Zigbee, I am very happy with it so far. 🤷‍♂️

cassidy,
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@corbin dang, nice! What CO2 sensor do you have? 👀

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

cassidy,
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@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,
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@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,
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@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.

cassidy, to random
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Honestly, I kind of miss this. The software feels much more human and organic, not just because of the depth and shadow, but thanks to the earthy color tones.

I would love to be able to ship accent colors in GNOME to give people more control over the look and feel over their computers in a well-defined way that doesn’t leave them or app developers with broken promises.

@windowsonwindows https://mas.to/@windowsonwindows/112463918670890861

cassidy, to linux
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

Ooh, it looks like the Intel MIPI IPU6 webcam driver should land in Linux 6.10! 🤞

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20240516080159.76e8b45d@sal.lan/

This is the type of webcam used in recent laptops like the Dell XPS series, which only worked ootb with Windows and Ubuntu. This should mean it will be easier to guarantee webcam support across Linux distros again, soon!

#Linux #OpenSource #Dell #DellXPS

cassidy, to SmartHome
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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

cassidy,
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@holgerschurig I don’t think I have had to replace any LED bulbs I have bought over the last ten years, aside from a couple of cheap Wi-Fi ones from the early days that were obviously faulty.

I don’t think every bulb needs to be smart and RGB, since a smart switch is actually a good Idea for some lights where you don’t need color changing. However, I do really like tunable white bulbs to get a nice daylight during the day and warm white in the evening.

cassidy,
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@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,
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@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, to SmartHome
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I love how you can see when it started raining based on our humidity sensors around the house.

cassidy,
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@sumokirby it’s a bit of an ironic name; it’s a small spare bedroom with a TV and couch. 😁

cassidy,
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@jonno Material Rounded! https://github.com/Nerwyn/material-rounded-theme

cassidy, to android
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Ugh. Pocket Git, another long time favorite Android app of mine, has disappeared from the Play Store—without an obvious replacement.

I don’t want to start developing Android apps, but dang, I could really use replacements for these:

• Straightforward git client (explicitly not an IDE)
• Package tracker that supports multiple carriers

I’ll design them if someone else can develop them? 😝

#Android #GooglePlay #OpenSource

cassidy,
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@tyil my point would be to design and develop an open source replacement.

I use F-Droid as well but the situation is no better there, either; the issue is that there are no good apps in the category.

cassidy,
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@orsvarn I gave it a try but the Google Play version is broken (it tells you not to use it!), and the F-Droid version couldn't find my SSH keys, so…

cassidy,
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@FelicianoTech I previously posted about OneTracker specifically disappearing; I liked how it was super straightforward, didn't try to do a bunch of other things and just worked.

The others I've tried want a bunch of permissions (like access to my whole email account), advertise a bunch of other features (like a whole shopping experience, following other brands, shipping insurance…) and/or were just not well designed.

tailscale, to random
@tailscale@hachyderm.io avatar

Android users, today's your day. 🎉

We've relaunched the Tailscale app, redesigned from the ground up for a better look-and-feel, faster performance, and even more features. Check it out 👇 https://tailscale.com/blog/android/?utm_source=Mastodon&utm_medium=owned-social&utm_campaign=devrel-social

cassidy,
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@tailscale huzzah! It looks a lot nicer! Switching to Jetpack Compose was a good call.

cassidy, to homeassistant
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I continue to believe Zigbee delivers on the important things that Matter and Thread keep promising, but actually:

• mature
• widely available
• affordable

The one thing Matter over Thread devices can claim is that they work without a hub… except they don’t; the hub still has to be built into your Nest display, Apple HomePod, etc.

I have hundreds of low power, local-only smart devices from a dozen or so brands and it all… just works together.

#HomeAssistant #SmartHome #Matter #Thread #Zigbee

cassidy,
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@tuhgy I really like IKEA for Zigbee light fixtures, though! Any of their IKEA Home Smart/DIRIGERA/TRÅDFRI stuff should all just work over Zigbee.

cassidy, to random
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I wish I had all the money to throw at hardware, specifically for Linux testing/development. 😭 I’m super interested in trying out:

• @starlabs StarFighter and StarLite
• Steam Deck
• Newest Dell XPSes
• Samsung 27" 5K display (HiDPI on an external display, yes please!)
• Modern powerful ARM laptop

I feel like there is a lot of interesting stuff going on in the hardware land that I don’t get to check out!

cassidy,
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@shane_kerr @starlabs yeah, I know that's a common thread with brand new products from Star Labs; since they're a small shop and are actually manufacturing unique devices (versus using a white-label product like most other small companies), they can take a loooong time to get off the ground. :(

Here's hoping it ends up being a dope device, though!

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