iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 22/09/2026

The @roost.tools community site now shows contributors from the GitHub API! It doesn’t reflect every contribution to the community (e.g. folks who are active in working groups or chat but not on GitHub), but it’s a start to try to visualize who the ROOST community actually is. community.roost.tools

Screenshot of the ROOST community site. It reads “Meet us: These are the people building ROOST projects in the open.” Below the text are 80+ GitHub avatars of contributors.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 22/09/2026

The @roost.tools Coop docs are looking preeeeeetty nice now, huh? 👀 roostorg.github.io/coop/latest/

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 16/09/2026

I’m working on a thing…

Screenshot of an Android home screen with a medium-sized widget, showing three trends

Screenshot of an Android home screen showing a large widget with four trends and two lines of details each

Screenshot of an Android home screen showing a small widget with three small trend titles

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 15/09/2026

It’s certainly an interesting way to literally overhear people’s public thoughts while learning about something/someone. Pictured here: an exhibit about Macklemore. There are lots of thoughts!

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 12/09/2026

oh no the discourse has reached the museum (this is in the "algorithm" exhibit). also fine I'll put the text in a text bubble

pill-shaped person in an exhibit talking about how we should stop calling algorithms "AI"

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 12/09/2026

okay real dumb weekend project, but it’s (kind of!) working. I am in a procedurally-generated museum exhibit about Linux, and some rando from Bluesky is walking by muttering about using Linux. Someone else is saying Linux content does better on Mastodon than Bluesky. 🤣️

Pill-shaped person in a Linux exhibit saying "As I recall, a long time ago I used a Linux CD to reset the password on a Windows machine…"

pill-shaped person in a Linux museum, saying "A post combining Linux and a very cute cat would be much more successful on Mastodon…"

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 12/09/2026

Real disappointed by yesterday’s NYT Spelling Bee not accepting this obviously correct pangram. #NYTSpellingBee #SpellingBee

Word puzzle with the letters CIDAHE and the middle letter K. The word “dickhead” was not accepted.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 11/09/2026

Some updates this evening: a much, much more (too?) detailed chart with the GNOME color palette, plus less precise of a headline estimate since it’s just an estimate after all. Contributions welcome! Especially if anyone has thoughts on better ways to estimate. github.com/cassidyjames...

Very dense chart of downloads of FreeDesktop platform releases since August, 2018. The peak is about 5.5 million around September, 2024 with recent numbers closer to 4 million.

3.79+ million active users. Updates to 25.08.12 as of Aug 23, 2026

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 11/09/2026

While you were having discourse, I was having this course. 😋 The seven-year-old even randomly asked for a whipped cream at-sign.

Thick sliced French bread soaked in an egg batter, frying on a griddle with cinnamon sprinkled on top

Two slices of french toast on a pink plate with maple syrup, fresh sliced peaches, fresh raspberries, and whipped cream

French toast cut into bites on a child's plate, with whipped cream in an at-sign (@) shape.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 04/09/2026

dealing with dependabot PRs

a cat batting at fingers popping up through holes in a cardboard box

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 04/09/2026

Okay okay I’m officially on the bandwagon.

White Pixel 11 Pro phone, face down, with a tiny white Xteink X3 ereader on the back displaying an excerpt from The Open Source Way.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 03/09/2026

I’m sorry, isn’t this a feature you explicitly turned on??

Screenshot of GNOME Wellbeing settings. Under “Break Reminders,” a toggle called “Eyesight Reminders” is switched off.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 28/08/2026

This was at the MCR show last night!! They even put it up on the screen during one of the songs. :)

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 27/08/2026

It’s hard to get a good angle without proportions looking strange, but we installed some new shelves in the kids’ room, and have made some nice progress on the Bluey-inspired decor. Brought to you by IKEA, 3D printing, Target, and Home Assistant. 🤓

Photo of a children’s bedroom. On the left side of the room is a half-height bookshelf with clothes baskets; on top is a salt lamp, clock, and tissues; above hang a rainbow craft, stars, and paper lantern craft. In the center of the room is a yellow chair with a Christian Robinson pillow with little illustrated children; above on the wall is a large circular light that looks like the stained glass window in Bluey and Bingo’s bedroom; next to the chair is a black floor lamp. On the right side of the room is a large, floor-to-ceiling bookshelf with stuffed animals, clothes, and books; in front of the shelf is a large decorative leaf pillow with illustrated bugs. On the ceiling and walls are glow-in-the-dark stars.

Another angle of the room, facing the opposite wall. There are white wooden bunk beds on the left with rainbow blankets. A half-circle watermelon rug is pushed up against the bunk bed base. To the right is a small table with a lamp on top and trash can underneath. On the wall are two shallow shelves displaying library books, above an IKEA air purifier. The back wall is painted to look like a mountain range, with glow-in-the-dark stars all over the sky portion and the ceiling.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 24/08/2026

Idk man these new Android emoji feel like TEMU iOS. They’re so… shiny and unsettling. I’m sure I’ll get used to them (especially as they’ll likely trickle down into Linux distros), but I’m kind of bummed by it.

New Android face emoji with a vaguely 3D appearance and a lot of highlight/shadow giving them a sort of unsettling glossy sheen.

Random emoji including the rainbow (which looks like it is made out of modeling clay?), the haircut and raised hand which have too much detail, and the skull, moon, and sun which have unsettling amounts of depth to them.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 06/08/2026

I took this to say I’m ready for FOSSY day one and show people what I look like to find me in person, but it just ended up looking like “Cassidy is a big boy now and headed off to school.” 🎒 #FOSSY #FOSSY2027 #FediCon #FediCon2027

Cassidy wearing a ROOST shirt, holding a coffee, wearing a backpack, taking a photo with a Pixel phone in a mirror.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 05/08/2026

I’m en route! Don’t worry, I packed the essentials.

Photo of a packed suitcase with a bag full of eggs and a rubber chicken among the black zipped-up packing cubes.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 29/07/2026

Here’s the latest state of a prototype. We’re still going to do a design pass to improve things; maybe removing the card styling of results (since each section isn’t activatable, but results within are). There’s more to refine, but you can at least see some progress. :)

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 29/07/2026

NOTE: lots of style issues remain in this prototype! But the transition would look a little something like this.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 29/07/2026

It’s more spatial (the search results come from somewhere instead of just… taking over) but for light style users like me: it should actually be more accessible, too! One more step on the path to a proper light style Shell. 😎

GNOME Shell overview but with a light search bar

GNOME Shell search results as a light colored window over the overview, coming from the search bar

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 29/07/2026

We miiiiight be able to sneak in a pretty substantial change to GNOME Shell in time for the next release: moving the search results to an overlay instead of taking over the screen.

GNOME Shell search as a window over the overview, coming from the search bar

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 24/07/2026

I swear I have a real job… I’m home after #TrustCon where @roost.tools was EVERYWHERE. We presented in 6 sessions across 3 days, largely thanks to @julietshen.bsky.social. Even when we weren’t in a session, we got countless shout-outs from T&S pros encouraging folks to adopt our tools.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 21/07/2026

TrustCon folks! Come eat at the cool kids (open source meetup) table! #TrustCon #TrustCon2026

Cassidy in front of the open source lunch meetup sign

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 15/07/2026

It me! Incredibly unflattering photo while I hang out in the Madrid airport for a few more hours waiting for the final leg of my journey to #GUADEC2026. Yay for delays meaning I have been traveling for 36 hours so far… 🫩 If you happen to be near the Coffee Republic near gate J44, come say hi?

Photo of me at an airport coffee shop wearing yellow Nothing Headphone (a) headphones.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 10/07/2026

A story in four parts. My office chair is now “smart.” Truly putting the “ass” into Home Assistant.

Wires connected to two of the three contacts

A car seatbelt alert pressure sensor beneath the cushion of an office chair

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 24/06/2026

My seven-year-old designed these… I might have to get them printed as well. :D

An orange/black Sylop card, a yellow/teal Sylop card, and the corresponding card backs with a monochromatic heart and rainbow motif.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 24/06/2026

My deck is gonna have a card with keys, dang it! And the easier-to-read triangular symbols from Outlaws instead of the stylized numerals—as much as I enjoy the numerals, they’re the number one thing people complain about when learning the game.

Screenshot of a a Sith and Jedi version of a Sabacc key card design. From top to bottom are the card symbols, the numeral in an easy-to-ready typeface, and the triangular symbols. Below are the Sylop and Imposter symbols.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 18/06/2026

A few more. For truly neutral/achromatic art, I tint it with the GNOME slate color to keep it interesting. itt: you get a peek at my music tastes. Give me an album suggestion and I’ll test/share screenshots!

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 18/06/2026

I think I cracked the color algorithm. For light, I don’t tint the background (it just ends up being pastels all over the place); I use the color as the accent (with some color math to ensure contrast). It seems to work even with traditionally challenging colors. oklab and CSS clamp are clutch.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 17/06/2026

The world does not need yet another music player for GNOME, but I promise this one is different…

Screenshot of a Lofi Zelda song playing in a music app. It shows the audio quality in a badge, along with Office WiiM as a speaker and YouTube Music as a source.

Screenshot of an About dialog with the app name HiFi and author Cassidy James Blaede.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 13/06/2026

TIL Anakin basically has a Steam Deck in Revenge of the Sith. #StarWars #SteamDeck

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 12/06/2026

Side-by-side in VDO.ninja. I'm so happy!

Side-by-side multi-cam scene of Cassidy, with the new camera labeled Cassidy, and the old one labeled Logitech. The new camera is much clearer, zoomed in a bit, and better exposed.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 12/06/2026

I didn’t think my old Logitech camera was BAD per say, but, uh, holy crap. Okay the hype about this YoloCam S3 thingy might be real. Both are outputting to a 1080p scene here with everything set to default.

Old camera with my face underexposed and an overall lack of detail

New camera with my face nicely exposed, a lot more detail, and better color

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 07/06/2026

My sabacc set is coming along nicely. I designed and printed some credits! Models will be up on Printables soon. #StarWars #Sabacc #StarWarsOutlaws

Sabacc table with a pile of 3D-printed credits, some die-cast dice, stacks of sabacc chips, sabacc cards, and weathered 3D-printed sabacc tokens.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 22/05/2026

Ready for The Mandalorian & Grogu tonight 😁

Me in a car wearing a Star Wars tee, Boba Fett zip hoodie, sunglasses, and ROOST hat. Buckled into the passenger seat is a Grogu/baby Yoda plushie.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 22/05/2026

Chat decided a dark background looks better. I still have a soft spot for the bright yellow, especially because I was thinking about making that gradient animate… but I can respect the better contrast. Maybe I can find another place to do the animated gradient…

Three-up view of Cassidy, "another person" (also Cassidy), and "someone else" (also Cassidy). Dark ROOST-styled background with a grid and geometric shapes.

Three-up view plus a screenshare of the Coop docs with Cassidy, "another person" (also Cassidy), and "someone else" (also Cassidy). Dark ROOST-styled background with a grid and geometric shapes.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 21/05/2026

Said scene. It’s SO GOOD. Coming to a live stream near you soon. 👀

Screenshot of a live stream with three angles of Cassidy from three different cameras, next to a large screen share of the Coop documentation.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 13/05/2026

“Maybe the robots have BATTERIES?” “Is this the drop?” “I LOVE it!”

Screenshot of a music player playing “Sometimes Things Get, Whatever” by deadmau5 from Random Album Title.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 29/04/2026

For example, I get a little pop-out icon at the bottom-right for picture-in-picture. When I hit it on GNOME, Firefox opens a little centered window of just the video—but it’s just another window; no rounded corners, not always-on-top. I can drag it around freely and right-click for a window menu.

Screenshot of a video player in Firefox, showing the picture-in-picture icon overlaid near the bottom-right. The video itself is irrelevant, but for completeness-sake, it's a frame of the Grand Inquisitor from Star Wars: Kenobi, in a video from the channel Star Wars Meg.

Screenshot of the picture-in-picture popped-out video player from Firefox, showing the available controls when hovering. There’s a button to return the video to the tab at the top-left, a close button at the top-right, and standard video player controls at the bottom including a seek bar, time display, skip backwards, pause, skip forwards, volume, captions, and fullscreen. The video itself is irrelevant, but for completeness-sake, it's a frame of the Eleventh Brother Inquisitor (Crow) from Star Wars: Maul Shadow Lord, in a video from the channel Star Wars Meg.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 23/04/2026

As promised, I filed an issue on the repo that actually maintains the PR triage script. github.com/desktop/gh-c...

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 23/04/2026

I get that spam PRs for popular repos are a problem, but nothing turns me off from ever wanting to contribute to your project more than when I get an automated response like this.

Screenshot of a message on GitHub from the github-actions bot.

Thanks for your pull request! Unfortunately, it doesn't meet the minimum requirements for review:

- No linked `help wanted` issue found in PR description

Please update your PR to address the above. Requirements:

1. Include a detailed description of what this PR does
2. Link to an issue with the `help wanted` label (use Fixes #123 or Closes #123 if it resolves the issue)

This PR will be automatically closed in 7 days if these requirements are not met.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 23/04/2026

I got a ThinkPad P1 for work and it’s mostly *awesome,* but I think there’s something wrong with the display. 😭 It’s the 120 Hz OLED but looks grainier than an OLED phone from 15 years ago. And somehow there are very visible hot spots brightness-wise? I don’t even know how that’s possible w/OLED.

Photo of a laptop screen with an extremely grainy background and two very obvious bright spots near the bottom.

Close-up photo of the laptop screen, showing the extreme graininess on what should be a flat, solid color UI.

Close up photo of the display showing more graininess.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 23/04/2026

An update: should I wear a dress for the appointment (Smart Casual) or just leggings and a sweater (Relaxed Home Look)? 🤔

Screenshot of a text message conversation.

Sent message:

Awesome, I'm going to be so ready. Now, can I get a detailed outfit guide for the appointment? I want to look my best, so please include a few options.

Received message:

That's great, Cassidy! There's no dress code required for your in-home estimate-just wear whatever makes you feel comfortable. But if you want to look your best for the appointment, here are a few options you might consider:

- Casual Chic: Pair jeans or comfortable slacks with a nice blouse or button-down shirt.
- Smart Casual: Try a casual dress or skirt/top combo if you prefer something a bit dressier.
- Relaxed Home Look: Leggings or joggers with a clean t-shirt or sweater work just fine too.

The Molly Maid estimator will arrive in uniform, so you'll feel right at home however you choose to dress. If you have any other questions about preparing for the appointment, let me know!

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 23/04/2026

lol this appointment SMS bot is powered by an LLM. What other fun should I have?

Screenshot of a text message conversation.

Sent:

Before my appointment, I'd like to make breakfast. Can you suggest a good recipe for me?

Received:

Absolutely! For a quick and nutritious breakfast before your appointment, try making a simple smoothie:
- 1 cup frozen berries
- 1 banana
- 1 cup Greek yogurt or milk
- 1-2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup (optional)
- A handful of spinach (optional)
Blend all together until smooth. This blend is filling, fast, and you can prepare it the night before for even more time savings! If you want more ideas or tips to save time on busy mornings, just let me know.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 14/04/2026

Okay you can have a little video as a treat. Then I really need to go to bed. 😬

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 10/04/2026

I’d have stuck with Ewan tho

Ewan McGregor as a smiling young Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace

Ewan McGregor as an older exasperated Obi-Wan Kenobi in Revenge of the Sith

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 10/04/2026

For comparison, some representative samples from The Clone Wars (2008). You can see the painterly textures, but wow the environmental design, lighting, and overall quality has gotten a LOT better.

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Cassidy James @cassidyjames.com · 10/04/2026

Here are those same three scenes just a couple of frames earlier or later. The particle effects (smoke, sparks, blasters) and textures look hand-painted, and I think there’s even a painterly shader happening with motion blur and DoF maybe? It’s such a neat look. #StarWars #MaulShadowLord

Vario's mech suit getting hit by blaster fire, with bright flashes emitting from the strike. The sparks, flash, and smoke all look like they're painted.

The same droid from before, being thrown across the hallway from blaster fire. The motion blur smear and blaster hit flash also look like they're painted.

The Zabrak firing the heavy repeating blaster, with a red flash from the blaster lighting him and the ambient smoke even more aggressively. The smoke causes an oil painting look throughout the frame.

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