Martin Owens :inkscape: :flag_nonbinary:

Inkscape Programmer and Software Freedom Contractor. Graphics, art, computers, politics, ideas, science.

Pronouns: they/them
Politics: A socialist... well, a federated pro-social consensualist... er, or something like that.
Meme Immunity: Innate rebel, adaptive skeptic, and pro-humility
Culture: British, Northern, Industrialist, Riverfolk, Pro-Sustainability, Pie.

My avatar image is a cartoon cat in a bowler hat with a spanner and overalls working on a machine.

Alignment: Chaotic Good
Inkscape: https://inkscape.org/~doctormo
Support Me: https://en.liberapay.com/doctormo/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxxdsRV92DZGE-RcRsw_gw

Public Key

npub1wg8ly5qwexf7prxzfpcw4jqkzy5gd5758az2cfj7kzme9wjhextsygq6l7

NIP-05 Address

doctormo_at_floss.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8yrlj2q8vnylq3npysu82eqtpz2yx602r739vye0tpdujhftun9cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsngz49m

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1wg8ly5qwexf7prxzfpcw4jqkzy5gd5758az2cfj7kzme9wjhextsygq6l7

Show more details

Published at

2026-08-11T21:56:34Z

Kind type

0 Metadata

Event JSON

{ "id": "c4cf8a6b4be2f4cdd165b1f74a3c04bb9226d32c6d02b40b14fedc54c452ede7", "pubkey": "720ff2500ec993e08cc24870eac816112886d3d43f44ac265eb0b792ba57c997", "created_at": 1786485394, "kind": 0, "tags": [ [ "emoji", "inkscape", "https://cdn.masto.host/floss/custom_emojis/images/000/059/593/original/2db47a76431dad40.png" ], [ "emoji", "flag_nonbinary", "https://cdn.masto.host/floss/custom_emojis/images/000/588/020/original/4ba8cb9fb7290afa.png" ], [ "proxy", "https://floss.social/users/doctormo", "activitypub" ], [ "L", "pink.momostr" ], [ "l", "pink.momostr.activitypub:https://floss.social/users/doctormo", "pink.momostr" ], [ "-" ] ], "content": "{\"name\":\"Martin Owens :inkscape: :flag_nonbinary:\",\"about\":\"Inkscape Programmer and Software Freedom Contractor. Graphics, art, computers, politics, ideas, science.\\n\\nPronouns: they/them\\nPolitics: A socialist... well, a federated pro-social consensualist... er, or something like that.\\nMeme Immunity: Innate rebel, adaptive skeptic, and pro-humility\\nCulture: British, Northern, Industrialist, Riverfolk, Pro-Sustainability, Pie.\\n\\nMy avatar image is a cartoon cat in a bowler hat with a spanner and overalls working on a machine.\\n\\nAlignment: Chaotic Good\\nInkscape: https://inkscape.org/~doctormo\\nSupport Me: https://en.liberapay.com/doctormo/\\nYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxxdsRV92DZGE-RcRsw_gw\\n\",\"website\":\"https://floss.social/@doctormo\",\"picture\":\"https://cdn.masto.host/floss/accounts/avatars/111/059/286/876/672/393/original/ff6f5dfc75c1f378.png\",\"banner\":\"https://cdn.masto.host/floss/accounts/headers/111/059/286/876/672/393/original/e9bd1fa2ec7c6fa5.png\",\"nip05\":\"doctormo_at_floss.social@momostr.pink\"}", "sig": "d5596e9fd5f4dcd9a142d0ac65c011f5a46a6c093506c698d37c149b3dc9057968062e7e6db6091fac10f0b2d0463b1b8b60c0206ac4488751ae789c1f20be82" }

Last Notes

2026-07-29 02:51:59 UTC

- reply

Stealing from bastards is allowed. You also pretend the elves developed it at night and you found it like that in the morning.
You don't owe bastards politeness, or attribution beyond what is required by law.

2026-07-26 20:55:53 UTC

All free software maintainers will be randomly assigned a local user. You must go to their house and watch them install your rust crate, python wheel, flatpak and you must watch them use it all the way through.
If they like it you will be given a cup of tea.
Library maintainers will be assigned a nearby junior developer and script writers will be assigned a fresh faced junior admin.
I don't make the rules, this is just the law now.
#foss #oss #code #design #ux

2026-07-21 18:53:59 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@gamingonlinux/116958382115564493
Oooh, this moves Mozilla from captured controlled opposition to outright Nazis. Cool.
I will now do everything and anything to undermine Mozilla. It is the job of a any right minded person to oppose Nazis everywhere.
Viz. Do you think I've EVER going to give too shits about how much an Inkscape SVG renders in Firefox? Absolutely fucking not.
@npub16pr…crsg
#note1wg2…ehcw

2026-07-21 14:18:22 UTC

Does anyone know of a small crayon bot. Some small 20-30cm rig cnc that can hold crayons and draw pre-planned drawings? Like a pen plotter that you could plonk down on paper in the wild and press a button and have it quickly draw out something?
Pastels also.
#cnc #penplotter #bot
@npub1r68…q3rz

2026-07-20 12:59:57 UTC

RE: https://floss.social/@doctormo/116948525818396685
I think this format works better for @npub1fdr…lvhs than for me lol.
It was good to give the format an trial and I think some people enjoyed the multi-post but the response was kinda meh. I might also be just boring, so attempting to write fun prose might have failed too 😅 no glory here.
Big thanks to the folks who tool the time to go through all 7 toots.
#note1x70…ltqs

2026-07-20 05:48:58 UTC

- reply

Isn't it laconic, don't'ch think?

2026-07-19 21:55:09 UTC

- reply

There are alternatives. From villages where everyone is into each other's business but freely sharing produce, to borg collectives that just move resources around as non-entities and so don't care if they are sacrificed for the whole.
Our problem is that our breeding group is way-way lower than our social group aspirations. Family of 12, tribe of 120, society of 9 billions... oops.

2026-07-19 21:48:19 UTC

- reply

Well... it is make-believe, but so is justice and mercy.
But what it is is a system of remembering trust atomically across millions of people. I'd love it if people's well wishes on my youtube comments could barter me some bread at the shop, but the chain of supply doesn't have a functional route back to those well wishes and their trust and need of my service to them (making inkscape).
So money is... useful. But because it moves trust, it also launders it, and that IS POWER.

2026-07-19 21:41:44 UTC

- reply

"How comfortable do you like your desk manacles" sort of thing. lol yeah.
Sargents (middle managers to desk folk) want to get stuff done with outside implications we, that as lower decks are deliberately insulated from. You can either be in sales and privy to the client's whims or in production and protected from it!
Your actual top brass don't care as long as the army of workers is marching into office, gleaming with fake smile. You are a social status coin for the golf course.

2026-07-19 20:30:51 UTC

- reply

Footnotes:
¹ This is also why it's bad as you can be an absolute evil bastard and money will wash all your sins.
² Don't let anyone tell you a market is maximally efficient, it's an ABSTRACTION, of course it's lossy.
³ This is where labour subjugation helps to lower wages. We'll park that over here with the other fire.
⁴ Sarcasm obviously. But the thing it's trying to achieve is pretty much the same.
⁵ Viz. Not developed in the open, collaboratively.

2026-07-19 20:30:37 UTC

- reply

7/7
So we can see that humans really really need structures, and those structures are not always *merely* hierarchies. But membranes that serve to move trust around to create the mechanisms that move labour, expectation and needs. We could design these, standardise them to be more humanist, easier to operate and better to detect abuse.
IF we understood they existed and knew how they worked. We could make companies utopias-on-the-inside.
Fin.

2026-07-19 20:30:11 UTC

- reply

6/7
See we can also do Free Software on the inside. Android is Free Software (but not open source⁵) because it only has one user and one developer. Google. This is a membrane, just like the HR one above. It's trying to filter trust, and control and a bunch of things and it stinks in exactly the same way being a employee of a shitty communist-on-the-inside corporation is.
You didn't think I'd get back to membranes did you...

2026-07-19 20:30:01 UTC

- reply

5/7
In FOSS we build trust based on common contribution AND do I know you? Have I seen you at a conference? etc. The ability for me to work with Gtk developers improved when I met them in person... mostly. And it's because this is transacting labour in a high trust community.
AND THEN we invited the entire world in and with no trust system. Not security trust; economic trust; Labour trust. And it poisons every GPL project to not trust our users. Well except google's GPL code...

2026-07-19 20:29:49 UTC

- reply

4/7
Worker owned coops, networks of contractors and that guy that comes to fix your pipe when it bursts all have to deal with trust on a job by job basis. Each job has a high overhead of negotiation. Do I know you enough? can you afford me? can we build trust with reputation websites? Hey aren't you my sister can't I get discount? and etc.
It's good for flexibility, but it's really really inefficient in low trust societies too.
In free software we obviously dodge this significantly...

2026-07-19 20:28:53 UTC

- reply

3/7
You have possibly felt this weird shift from hiring candidate, to employee. And the way loyalty and care changes significantly. It's why bursting the membrane by leaking, whistleblowing or just saying things that make the company look bad is punished in the extreme. You are not being punished an an capitalist employee from the outside but as a disloyal communist subject on the inside.
There are of course organisations which don't have this kind of membrane structure...

2026-07-19 20:28:29 UTC

- reply

2/7
But for a company; you don't trust them, they don't really trust your labour; money's great. You can set the terms³ of the value you expect to transact with the HR membrane who serve to separate the function of the business on the inside from the mess of negotiating labour on the outside.
The inside can be many things from a pre-planned utopia⁴ with a 5 year plan, a socialist technocratic theme park for pencil fanciers to a military junta with cut throat humiliation rituals...

2026-07-19 20:28:06 UTC

RE: https://mas.to/@adalbertsen/116948281620327263
Blog 1/7
I have a theory called "the corporate political universe" also called "communism on the inside"
It works like this: Money is cool because it anonymises trust¹ into something else. It's bad because it's inefficient² compared to just, yah know; doing things for people you already trust. This is why your kid talking the trash out doesn't come with a tap to pay transaction and 10% tip and your neighbour helping borrowing you some sheers doesn't end up with a payment scheme negotiation...
#note1q73…465v

2026-07-02 14:55:36 UTC

- reply

We don't really need a shotgun of issues against nuclear. It's fairly simple: It's too expensive compared to batteries.
Modular, pebble bed, gen three, doesn't matter. Too expensive.
The other issues can be hand waves, quibbled, couched, staunched or washed. But no one disputes the cost. They only claim that it's "essential", which it isn't because batteries.
@npub1pq4…2mle

2026-06-04 14:24:03 UTC

semi-hemi-demi-otics

2026-04-14 22:57:49 UTC

RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@whitequark/116405268796156121
I'm thinking some kind of tea based icon for KeePassChi? Maybe one where the steam is in the form of a key?
Something distinctive from the KeePass circle at least.
Anyone want to have a go at some open source contribution and use #inkscape ?

2026-04-12 04:26:34 UTC

Does anyone know why electron apps in Linux have a giant weird window shadow that flickers and glitches out? It's consistent between Signal and FreeTube for me and I have no interesting in a weird window shadow at all.

2026-04-07 11:03:30 UTC

This chamber has an echo
It's the echo of the social contract
The echo of consent
The echo of consideration
The echo of collaboration
The echo of a safe space
The echo of a silly space
The echo of our space
...
#mastodon #fediverse #poem

2026-03-24 02:35:40 UTC

- reply

Pub people

2026-03-12 22:02:14 UTC

- reply

The horse being on a cliff is really interesting visual. Compared to the real life one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse

2026-03-06 00:21:33 UTC

Haha, I got my first AI bot detection on the Inkscape job posting.
This email starts talking about cheese half way through the message... which it would only do if it saw the hidden text in the job description.
Reminder: if the job application has a big red box that says No generative AI to be used to apply for the job, or do the job; then perhaps don't use an AI to generate your cover letter?
Come on guys!

2026-03-05 19:44:55 UTC

- reply

It was before it's tine?

2026-02-25 15:49:49 UTC

Your hand in on your mouse, the cursor hovers over an input box that says
[ 10.0 ]
You need to get it to 20.0 and start scrolling with the mouse's scroll wheel.
What do you do?

2026-02-19 13:17:50 UTC

- reply

Thanks!
How does it constrain the axis for rotate?

2026-02-19 03:47:04 UTC

- reply

That sounds bonkers, but if it's what people want 😅
Special cursors and everything?

2026-02-19 03:44:13 UTC

- reply

What they hold the key or press it one or something?

2026-02-19 02:32:00 UTC

- reply

What are the manipulation UX for blender? I didn't think it was very different from Inkscape.

2026-02-11 17:54:55 UTC

- reply

Oooh, can I suggest one where the parrots all talk to each other in a line, and each time they pass it on it gets more and more garbled as they are "learning" from each other and it degenerates into informational goo.

2026-02-07 20:35:13 UTC

New update video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76jg9XbNIKA It's a bit low production values as I just wanted to get something out the door. But thank @npub1dn5…xvrk for the motivation to make a video and @npub16ys…sjae for the graphic I "reused" for the artwork.
Mostly updates on small things, some hiring things, GSoC news and a breakdown of the layers in the engine work.
#inkscape

2026-01-29 19:01:03 UTC

"You ask for a banana you get the gorilla holding it."
This is the first time I'd heard of this in dependency management in #programming.
Ref: https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2011/07/19/you-wanted-banana/

2026-01-27 15:56:49 UTC

- reply

I'm not an american 🙃
Unintended consequences are where these things have traditionally fallen down. You start demanding papers to access porn, and you end demanding papers so you can deny access to food.
There are tons of things that are possible to do that don't require invasive identity checking. We haven't done them. Instead we're reaching for the biggest ugliest stick to beat this problem. It's a bad first resort.

2026-01-27 13:27:21 UTC

- reply

Identification of this nature demands identity collapse, that is, all of the many ways you might choose to present yourself to different friend groups, professional groups, family and governmental agencies must be one single identity where reputation in one bleeds over into the others.
The problem online isn't accounts using fake names. It's systems of reputation that give equal privileges to new accounts as they do to 10yo annons. Discarding reputation as too hard to assess.

2026-01-12 14:49:40 UTC

- reply

Oh sugar, beets are as to parsnips as turnips are to radishes.
@npub16ys…sjae

2026-01-12 14:10:06 UTC

- reply

The color of carrots is actually fascinating bit of history. I suspect human selection is the cause of the colour and they are normally very dark purple or white.
David! Where are Carrot's brother and sisters? Also carrots, different colours. 😸
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrot

2026-01-07 17:31:54 UTC

- reply

There's no AI in Inkscape 😉
(actually don't know if you're using Inkscape to typeset these weeklies)

2026-01-06 15:13:36 UTC

I mistyped yesterday as "resterday", I like it.

2025-12-31 16:53:12 UTC

- reply

Thinking how we would do this in inkscape.
Tricky problem. Transaction lists are easier. But perhaps it could be done as an delta on top for changes within the selection.

2025-12-24 17:19:40 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jessie/115774314854244968
I notice that the British Library is also hiring a #Linux Server Specialist (#RedHat), UK only, to recover from their 2023 cyber attack.
https://ce0752li.webitrent.com/ce0752li_webrecruitment/wrd/run/etrec179gf.open?WVID=5071482BMD&LANG=USA&VACANCY_ID=8062619t4R
This posting is up in Boston Spa; that's not that Boston, not /that/ Boston, keep going.... yep that one.
It's interesting to see them trying to hiring #opsec and #sysadmin skills to try and harden their systems. Wonder if it will work.
#note1qnw…qvnc

2025-12-18 16:00:08 UTC

Is there a Santa who fixes all the stuff you already have rather than bringing new stuff?

2025-12-04 20:28:55 UTC

I feel like my foss project management work revolves around pushing developers, volunteer or not; to go just a little bit further. Write that test, document that strange code, merge into the branch, get it backported, make sure it's consistant with the rest of the project.
It's the uninteresting stuff that moves a contribution from being "I got this working for me" to "I got this fixed for everyone"
#foss #oss #opensource #freesoftware #community #project

2025-11-26 01:35:43 UTC

Has anyone ever heard of a phono jack connection detection that works in windows with headphones and a sound system, but only works in linux in the headphones?
This issue breaks my understanding of how phono detection works. How the operating system would have any way to distinguish between the two. And it sounds like some physical weirdness.
Anyone else seen anything like this? Please boost.
#Fedora #Linux #Foss #Audio #Sound

2025-11-19 17:21:22 UTC

- reply

A group of stochastic parrots is a "Slop"

2025-11-14 18:44:05 UTC

- reply

Okay, I'd like to see that svg to confirm it's using adobeRGB ICC profile for the color data. And then also make sure those colors were translated with the right intent.
You said you selected the colors in CMYK, but that's impossible to do correctly with sRGB. And separations are going to be meaningless in any RGB until you get it into CMYK.

2025-11-14 18:14:26 UTC

- reply

Wait so you selected colors in inkscape using fake CMYK? Ugh, those selectors are nonsense and cause so many problems!
If you used icc profiles there data wouldn't have changed when importing into scribus.
Thanks for detailed description. This informs my designs for the CMYK inkscape.

2025-11-14 15:25:44 UTC

Ghostbusters in the Shell

2025-11-06 06:17:23 UTC

Happy Birthday [@inkscape](https://mastodon.art/@inkscape ) !
22 years old right now!
Long may we continue.
#inkscape #foss #oss

2025-10-31 02:01:54 UTC

Cloud outages?
Isn't that just a way of saying "storm".
@npub1afm…5gp4

2025-10-29 15:45:51 UTC

Oh good god the AI trap on the inkscape website has twelve million hits. That's the hidden url that bots are told not to index, but ai bots LOVE to hit that thing.
But attacks continue to increase.
I'm going to have to decide if I need to block t-mobile and other mobile carriers because of all the malware on android phones being used as ai bot sources.
#foss #floss #sysadmin #ddos #ai #inkscape

2025-10-10 18:38:37 UTC

Get more ears on CassetBoy's lastest banger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8uOPrU4B9s
Haha, that bit about AI was a wild hit too. Love it.
#Labour #ukpol #comedy #rap #parody

2025-09-24 17:05:47 UTC

Ok I need a pixelfed sever that would be kind to my art and crafty younger sister. She's coming from Instagram where they're feeding her uk race baiting right wing nonsense. So a safe space, and I guess a bunch of connections to see other people crafting etc.
Any tips?

2025-09-19 22:42:12 UTC

My neighbour and friend brought over some rice porridge because they learned I was sick. (It's just a cold) but so sweet of them ❤️
there is such a thing as society.

2025-09-17 17:19:38 UTC

- reply

EmBEDded Thoughts

2025-09-14 22:28:58 UTC

- reply

Its worse. Regulations provide the rulebook which provides a level playing field between moral thinking citizens and abusive arseholes. Once there are no rules, not only is there less predictability for markets, but now the only thing holding people back is their own morals. Perfectly making sure only the worse evil cretins do well in business.

2025-09-13 15:39:36 UTC

Is there an Inkscape user who has and uses a drawing tablet device available to test some fixes for 1.5?
What we need is some testing on the smoothness of the drawing, it *should* be better than 1.4 and hopefully not break.
Downloads are here: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/7427 to get them you click on the green checkmark and click your OS, and download the AppImage, 7z (windows) or dmg.
Comment on the linked page if you can. Here is ok too.
Thanks!
#inkscape #wacom #gtk4 #gtk

2025-08-11 21:11:05 UTC

Does anyone know what this is?
I found it today nailed to the *inside* of a closet wall which is an outside wall of the house. Attached in such a way that it couldn't possibly have been put there after the house was built in 1873.
It looks like Japanese print and seems to be wrapped and stuck into a sort of envelope. It was hanging vertically from the top beam and had been there for a very long time. As you can tell from the degradation.
But what in the world is it?
#mystery
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/115/012/164/994/869/183/original/8305d99133db75d5.jpeg

2025-07-24 21:44:36 UTC

- reply

They have three thousand Mastodon Support Team bots
The MST3k bots. 😝

2025-07-22 17:31:59 UTC

I know this is for a car, but many a thing cried out at a command line. 😅
#git #programming #gitlab #mergerequest #foss #opensource
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/114/898/070/205/932/150/original/8349eef459cdf95c.jpg

2025-07-20 07:05:35 UTC

Duolingo is getting weirder and weirder since they went all in on #ai
I stopped doing most of the lessons and just did a word a day as a keepie-up. But, er.
Araña means chandelier? Tea translated to merianda instead of té, this actually makes sense to me as a northern brit, but who else is going to think tea means snack time?
Weird words with weird uses and not in a fun way, in an ai slop kinda way.
#duolingo

2025-07-17 00:38:03 UTC

"...and our electricity here comes from a renewable source ... nuclear ..."
Let me just stop you there. You don't need an Oxford degree to know Nuclear might be low carbon (construction depending) but it aint and can't physically *be* renewable.
Unless those clever boffins have figured out how to break entropy and rejoin U235 atoms.
https://youtu.be/SS6S1i_GLfw time code 7:28
#energy #electricity

2025-07-12 18:45:51 UTC

- reply

Every time I ask a different AI to help with code, it lies like a bastard. And I suspect it's because I'm not asking for things that have copious examples, but things that are rare and hard.
At least I don't trust them. Some other poor sods will be duped into pretty believable code.

2025-07-12 07:45:37 UTC

- reply

I have always thought that introducing people to "Mastodon" was probably a mistake. What people need an invitation to join, and the materials templates to make it easy to join, would be local and club based servers which are advertised directly.
@npub16ys…sjae Do you think we could pair up some of your cute drawings with an svg template to just pop in the details for any server which someone could print and hand out locally?

2025-06-25 21:27:30 UTC

- reply

I'd love to pick your brains about this particular news. From what I can read it looks so vague that it's no so much introducing something as inducing anxiety.
I have no reaction because it doesn't appear to have anything in it. Perhaps out of sheer cowardice. It's hard to gauge anything other the a will to "do something" or be seen to be doing something at least.
Interested?

2025-06-15 03:56:06 UTC

- reply

I've had to re-read even this clarification a few times. It seems to suggest the opposite.
To me it's unclear since policy is already devolved to servers and the unkind reading is that a server here means the *server software*. Which is still policy, it's just the opposite policy of "devolved to the server" (human).
I look forward to your next iteration on this point as it is at least *interesting*

2025-06-15 03:23:53 UTC

https://spectra.video/w/7wEFKqfZSPWZyFtbBHRUCs
Ugh, I was mostly on side but then it went all libertarian techbro-privilege on the topic of creating net-neutrality by systematically forbidding server moderation. As seductive as mechanisms of fair-play replacing human relationships is; Just No.
That and the contrived centrism he's offering bsky. The bad false equivalence to ActivityPub is a real tow curler.
What a duff ending to an otherwise good talk.
@npub1ma3…zykq @npub1fdr…lvhs

2025-06-11 16:06:08 UTC

- reply

This is a new one. It only happens in the png export?
I suspect this is a antialiasing bug.
Do you know if it's been reported? I've not seen this issue yet.

2025-05-29 17:53:24 UTC

We do a group photo when we do an #inkscape event. This year because I had to attend remotely; I've added myself into the photo. You can barely notice I wasn't actually there!
#lgm #conference #photo #Nuremberg #vectorArt
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/114/592/384/100/338/029/original/332ce0ae8929a6d4.png

2025-05-28 16:46:01 UTC

- reply

Mine were about 70% inconclusive, most of the time cards were just as effective. I've even uploaded blank cards of all white, just to compare.
But a couple of them did show a heavy preference. Those videos seemed to be when Youtube itself was promoting the video more widely. So my subscribers didn't seem to care, but a wider audience did have a preference. The largest gap I was was 25% vs 30% vs 45% and 45 had my face (actual face, not cartoon)

2025-05-28 16:11:30 UTC

- reply

Do you A/B your cards on youtube? You can upload 3 of them and see what your viewers are clicking on.

2025-05-23 01:17:04 UTC

- reply

It is, unfortunately, the leopard. Take VC money and your job becomes serving them, never serving people and watching you business turn into a face eating leopard like some 80s werewolf.
The only real solution is to do business with people who *can't* cause that abuse.
The safe way is to #PayForFreeSoftware

2025-04-01 04:23:08 UTC

- reply

Would work for me, said it detected malicious ip address, or lack of javascript or some such nonsense.
Maybe it doesn't like LiberaWolf browser. But I did give it a shot.

2025-02-27 18:05:22 UTC

Do any #infosec people know anyone doing teen and preteen education on data sharing, online safety and other such social hardening practices?
#school #education

2025-02-26 01:08:45 UTC

It might have taken an ungodly amount of time. But getting these corner cases right in this PDF export is going to mean the world to a lot of people.
Arabic and Hebrew and non messing up the glyphs.
#inkscape #pdf #cmyk #arabic #language #unicode #text #glyphs #hewbrew
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/114/067/497/053/012/187/original/fa650aad794d1370.png

2025-02-22 18:58:57 UTC

Just as every right has a left.
Every right has a responsibility.
Speech, discretion.
Guns, safety.
Voting, engagement.
Driving, attentiveness.
Teaching and regulating those responsibilities is not tyranny. Being careless and reckless is not freedom.

2025-01-26 15:13:58 UTC

It's my fondest wish that we find more uses for #fediverse and make inventive ways of using the ActivityPub protocol.
I've mentioned the event/calendar idea before. But I'd also like to see a jobs site, with tools specifically designed around that activity.
Maybe like this:
#mastodon #fedi #FediJobs #jobSearch #webDev #ActivityPub
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/113/895/278/342/008/141/original/a0b67a4d3ea0cd69.png

2025-01-25 09:34:21 UTC

- reply

It took a bit of searching but I think this is the original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv1xHPk7fqE

2025-01-24 02:34:30 UTC

- reply

So, er, multiple types of hash tags?
Surely the hash tag's original purpose is discovery, not for filtering or self-indexing. Though I can see them being useful for that.

2025-01-23 21:42:44 UTC

Should hashtags be treated as an intent to "index publicly" in federation?
For example, if I use #inkscape in a post; what I mean to say is "please let anyone in the entire world, on any instance, know about this post if they are interested in inkscape" but if I don't hash tag it, then that word is not treated as a declaration of public intent to index and it should only be searchable on my local instance?

2025-01-20 20:40:23 UTC

#privateEye #pol #satire #cartoon #comic #goverment
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/113/862/605/243/184/915/original/abfefcaebd371953.jpg

2025-01-19 17:18:21 UTC

First #inkscape update for 2025 and we're talking about Text and Tabs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vNZBZndm5Y
Big thanks to @npub16ys…sjae for his kind blog post about my work and for all y'all help with this inkscape work this past year.

2025-01-14 09:08:43 UTC

- reply

Federate the money.
It should be possible to build in accounting software, this would help tool up instance runners with a framework of good management.
From there you can share data with fellow admins to compare costs.
Transparently tell users exactly how much it's costing them to host them (Individually if code is smart).
But most interestingly; send money around the system based of mutual aid, strength of connection and media weight.

2025-01-12 23:59:48 UTC

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
Boop Snoot Extreme!
Two persons enter; one of those persons takes a nice nap!
Who will win the fancy belt?!!
#MastodonMood

2024-12-28 08:35:07 UTC

The company's "HR department" is for the company.
Your HR department is called a Union.

2024-12-22 12:57:13 UTC

- reply

I have the same feelings about the Free Software cultures I hang out it. As one of the few working class, not university educated programmers it's very clear that there is a pre-thought consensus about simple things like labour, and getting people to do work. A contribution that is easy for a well heeled college grad is a cruel request on a single parent living day to day.
Yet we need diversity, the lack of it eats at our creativity.

2024-12-10 14:01:06 UTC

I kinda love #fedi, that there's a post with graphs that shows what we all believe to be true; yet there will be replies that go "I looked at the paper and here is a nuance, complexity or framing problem"
This ability to look at the things we want to be true and yet still interrogate them is what makes a humble skeptic. The tools are firstly there to be applied to our own ideas, not as a weapon to fight others' ideas. Especially when we want or "know" the truth already.
#skeptic

2024-12-08 21:08:48 UTC

No one 😢
#Christmas #Xmas #memes #liverpool #uk #England #Cymru #Scotland
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/113/619/214/187/189/841/original/81d110c14fe79b40.jpg

2024-11-22 19:05:37 UTC

Had to explain to another user why asking a volunteer project to fix an issue is inappropriate.
And I get that's it's a really subtle point here between saying "I also have this problem" (fine) and "Please fix this issue" (not ok)
i.e. You can only ask people you have a relationship with to do work for you. You can NOT ask strangers to labour for you for free, even if you think it's important, or appropriate.
#FreeSoftware #OpenSource #PayForFreeSoftware
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/113/528/150/658/357/531/original/c0b6563fe83a1b72.png

2024-10-28 17:03:22 UTC

This gift from [@Grant_M](https://mastodon.social/@Grant_M ) just arrived!
It's a sheet of stickers of art by @npub16ys…sjae of various free software mascots.
My daughter [@Luna_vio](https://furries.club/@Luna_vio ) has been looking for an xania sticker so I hope She'll put one of these on her computer.
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/113/386/083/929/536/690/original/d73463a0309cb72f.jpg

2024-09-29 16:25:08 UTC

The Release Candidate for #Inkscape 1.4 is out:
https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.4/?latest=1
This release is basically the finished thing. New fixes will go into 1.4.1 unless there's a showstopper (i.e. everything crashes) so you can consider this to be basically the finished thing if you want to get 1.4 sooner than Oct 9th.
More translations will happen for the final release though.
#opensource #foss #illustration #software #graphics #FreeSoftware

2024-09-23 16:59:31 UTC

Sigh. I can't not share.
#roman #cartoon #comic #PrivateEye #qrcodes
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/113/187/925/024/764/305/original/9d64d672744bc5d5.jpg

2024-09-20 14:08:43 UTC

@npub1mjj…a2m6
Today I had to recommend a laptop to an accountant. One thing they tend to look for is computers with numpads on the keyboards. I see the darter 16 has this, very useful to me today.
#linux #desktopLinux #payForFreeSoftware

2024-09-15 23:52:12 UTC

My flabber is well and truely gasted by the numbers from my last youtube video. I swear I made a technical video about python extensions expecting it to do poorly. Maybe breaking 1k views eventually; but it's got a third wind today breaking 17k views.
Users/viewers are capricious and mysterious in their desires. When taken as a statistical collective. 😉
Wy couldn't my UX with Role Playing Games have done this good? That video was actually interesting! 😅

2024-09-05 14:40:59 UTC

Hey @npub1zgt…c69a or @npub1y8f…25hj immigrant question: I thought #boston wasn't allowed to take sides in this. I expected some sort of treaty. Or Boston pizza to be a donut. 😉
#pizza #food
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/113/085/448/441/672/431/original/bf7e1ec36fc95e1b.jpg

2024-09-02 05:12:44 UTC

*sigh*
Here's a person on YouTube that has probably never contributed to any open source project. Never funded anyone and sure and hell hasn't funded me.
Complaining that Inkscape doesn't have... what I have stated in about a hundred videos that I am trying to build... CMYK and compares us to a billion dollar company.
If you give lint and grief, you can't really be expecting product and service in return. Can you?
We give these guys: 🥔
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/113/066/228/885/378/892/original/1655c387438788b0.png

2024-08-25 20:00:37 UTC

This is how methodical you have to be to support a proprietary data format in #foss - https://manpreetsingh.hashnode.dev/gsoc-report-inkaf
Big shout out to Manpreet who has been storming his GSoC project this summer. ❤️
This work is written in python and could easily be reused by other #oss projects that want to be able to read these affinity files.
#inkscape #AfinityDesigner #art #design #GSoC #python

2024-08-16 16:20:31 UTC

- reply

A final thought for my #OpenSource #FreeSoftware friends.
The project I work on, Inkscape, outposts almost exclusively. The project has it's own chat server and forum where you can talk "with the project", but outside? Not so much
But even with that, we're talking about closing our twitter account. It's go so bad that even abusing an account for outposting is becoming problematic. Though no decisions have been made.
Your #foss project makes choices about it's authentic self too

2024-08-16 16:17:01 UTC

- reply

Outposting is an active strategy.
It's something you can use to support healthy independent networks and it's something you can use *in* the bad places.
You don't have to be active on facebook to outpost there. Let a thousand links to your toots bloom, if you like.
It's also something we should be cautious of. Because we're open, we're also open to tolerating our network being used in this way too.
A 21st century enclosure is possible.