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How do I know when I'm good enough at coding to solve issues/ commit code related changes on open source projects?
  • In the sense I think you're asking, never: contributing a fix or an improvement is never a one-and-done, fire it off and forget it edit. Each contribution is a request to open a dialog. Implicit in each pull request are multiple questions, perhaps including "is this a good idea", and "do you like this attempt to do it".

    If the project maintainer who reviews your PR doesn't like it, they can expend the effort to try to explain why, and teach you. So try to make their job easier, by opening with a clear explanation of why you're doing it, and if what you did involved design decisions, why you chose as you did.

  • Any sci-fi with aliens where humans are not the less advanced race?
  • I'm glad I got to enjoy Ender's Game before I learned about the author. I remember enjoying it, but teeth-grinding rage at the aims the author supports is going to prevent me from enjoying rereading it, or recommending it to anyone.

  • Google just made it a lot easier for people to begin automating their smart home
  • I regard "smart" as an epithet I want to avoid in appliances. Light switches, thermostats, refrigerators, and all the rest seem to work great without adding internet connectivity, security breaches, corporate surveillance, and vendors removing functionality, or ending support to turn the appliance into e-waste.

  • Some favorite nonfiction books from your childhood?
  • Would "Carry On. Mr Bowditch" count?

    As an entertaining biography written for kids, it's not a reference book, but it's not purely fiction, either.

    Closer to reference would be another favourite, "The Ashley Book of Knots, which I devoured.

  • What RSS Feed Reader should I use?
  • I got started with RSS using a TUI program on unix, whose name I forget. But then Google came out with Reader (and Listen for podcasts). When they lost interest and dropped them, I exported my OPML and switched to apps I could find on f-droid. Now I back up my OPML scrupulously and am currently happy with Feeder and Antennapod; Google taught me I didn't want to depend on someone else's server for something like this; it's too important. If ever I find I want some feature that requires a server, I'll self-host something (Nextcloud?), but I seem to be well enough served by purely local clients.

  • [DISCUSS] Pros/cons of videos for technical documentation?
  • I really hate video, prefer reading. But by reading the material to a camera, people get paid by youtube, and then set up a patreon for buying access to the material they read. Everybody loses, hooray:-(

  • Prepare your Firefox desktop extension for the upcoming Android release
  • It did, then came the big rewrite, and nearly all extensions went away. Some eventually came back, but Singlefile never did; there's no longer any way to save the html of a site you visit. So I keep Iceraven, which still supports the addons that firefox used to.

  • Prepare your Firefox desktop extension for the upcoming Android release
  • It did, then came the big rewrite, and nearly all extensions went away. Some eventually came back, but Singlefile never did; there's no longer any way to save the html of a site you visit. So I keep Iceraven, which still supports the addons that firefox used to.

  • Best free and open source keyboard alternatives to google gboard
  • For me, the key is FOSS. I was a keen fan of swiftkey, its word predictions worked great. Then it was bought by a company that I distrust, and when I was forced to choose another, I decided to try to ensure I'd never have to switch again.

    A little while after I bailed on swiftkey, the news reports came that it was auto-filling random strangers' credit card numbers; I felt vindicated.

  • Best free and open source keyboard alternatives to google gboard
  • I've got three soft keyboards enabled on my phone, to choose between as needed.

    Unexpected Keyboard is my default; it's a perfectly cromulent basic keyboard, that makes all the punctuation, ctrl/fn/esc available for comfy shell work.

    When I need to type in non-ascii characters like accented letters, I have AnySoft available. And pwsafe has a soft keyboard in it to let me avoid passing my (exceedingly hard to type, long random) passwords through the clipboard.

    I used to have Hacker's Keyboard in the mix, but Unexpected Keyboard has made it unnecessary.

  • Text editor with sort functionality
  • With "Unexpected Keyboard" (from f-droid) it's ok. I've come to expect that there's a basic choice between easy, with GUI, and powerful (like "sort a region of lines"), which is only GUI if you've got a powerful GUI, like plan 9. Otherwise, powerful means keyboard-driven.

    When I've got a long, complex edit, I've got a nice, pocket-size, battery-powered folding bluetooth keyboard; combined with the kickstands on my phone cases, it is pretty good.

  • How does everyone here feel about foldable phones?
  • I'd love one. Preferably the opens-like-a-book style, not the vertical ribbon.

    But I don't want to carry around something that costs that much. They're currently priced for someone with way more money.

  • InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)BE
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