Yesterday I spent some time customizing my Linux. Today I took a screenshot.

I use a setup that ensures that I am connected to a VPN when I join certain Wi-Fi networks. However, sometimes I connect to other networks and I forget to check for the key icon that reminds me I am not connected to my VPN.

There are many processes that aim to increase the quality of the software during development. A critical one is honesty. However, honesty can be harsh and it can be counterproductive. That’s why we need to complement candor with kindness.

If you are following this blog you probably know that the Drupal Association recently announced the call for proposals for Lightning Talks and they made Google Slides mandatory. I am happy to report I have been able to collaborate with the DA to amend the situation.

I recently started renting a VPS server to host some of the ethical alternatives to the typical host of surveillance services.

One service that I have enjoyed in the past is Dropbox Paper. However this “free” (as in beer, not in freedom) service preys on your personal data, just like its big brother Dropbox. To me this is not acceptable, so I decided to give CodiMD a try. CodiMD is an evolution of HackMD, a free software alternative inspired in its free software cousin Etherpad. CodiMD is licensed under Affero General Public License¹.

DrupalCon North America is the anual conference about the Open Source CMS, and it is amazing. However this year there is something we need to help fix. It seems that in an effort to streamline the event’s organization the use of Google Slides is required to participate in the ignite talks.

My goal with this post is to encourage people to participate in this discussion so we can see other points of view.

Yesterday I decided to add some analytics to my blog. This was not something that I decided lightly since web site analytics are a type of tracking. For the longest time I considered analytics to be against the rights of privacy that this blog wants to defend.

If you are interested in the online privacy space and software development, then you should check out this track in FOSDEM 2020.

This last week I have been in Palm Springs attending the retreat of the company I work for, Lullabot. One of the evening activities are ignite talks. I presented one about privacy.

This is a re-post of the article I wrote for the Lullabot blog.

How can more maintainable custom code in Drupal be written? Refactor it to follow SOLID software design principles. As long SOLID purity isn’t pursued into an endless rabbit hole, SOLID principles can improve project maintainability. When a project has low complexity, it is worthwhile to respect these principles because they’re simple to implement. When a project is complex, it is worthwhile to respect these principles to make the project more maintainable.