It's been a lot longer than we planned between episodes, but we're happy to be back in 2026 with a great chat with Mike Saunders from The Document Foundation who maintain the wonderful LibreOffice suite.

We chat about why it's important to have alternatives to Microsoft Office, the history of LibreOffice, why a truly open document format is so important as well as random detours into the concept of modern word processors for vintage hardware!

What's your view on LibreOffice and the reasons for needing alternatives to things like Office 365 and Google Docs? We'd love to hear from you, so please send us a note to podcast@crossedwires.net, or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

"Don't you people backup? I backup, and I don't even know what backing up means!" - Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that's important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you'll want to make sure it's kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn't really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn't in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

• Mastodon Links:

  • Jae: jae@mastodon.me.uk

  • James: jsbilsbrough@mastodon.me.uk

  • LibreOffice: libreoffice@fosstodon.org

  • The Document Foundation tdforg@fosstodon.org

• LibreOffice

• The Document Foundation

1. 00:00:04: Introductions

2. 00:07:39: Apple’s Open Source Contributions

3. 00:10:10: Proprietary Software

4. 00:13:39: Libre Office

5. 00:18:26: Why Do We Need Alternatives to Microsoft Office

6. 00:34:13: Misconceptions About Document Formats

7. 00:43:04: Cloud & Privacy

8. 01:05:08: The Importance of Updates

9. 01:16:28: Wrapping Up

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

• (00:00:04) - Introductions
• (00:07:39) - Apple’s Open Source Contributions
• (00:10:10) - Proprietary Software
• (00:13:39) - LibreOffice
• (00:18:26) - Why Do We Need Alternatives to Microsoft Office?
• (00:34:13) - Misconceptions About Document Formats
• (00:43:04) - Cloud & Privacy
• (01:05:08) - The Importance of Updates
• (01:16:28) - Wrapping Up

What makes a beautiful app interface, a stunning icon, or that little bit of UI magic that shows the care poured into the design process? Our returning guest is Gedeon Maheux, co-founder of Icon Factory, who joins Jae and James to talk about how human design will always beat out generative AI and how the latter is having a substantial impact on their business.

Do you have a favourite app design, or maybe an icon that always gives you a certain feeling? We'd love to hear from you, so please send us a note to podcast@crossedwires.net, or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

"Don't you people backup? I backup, and I don't even know what backing up means!" - Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that's important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you'll want to make sure it's kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn't really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn't in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

• Mastodon Links:

  • Jae: jae@mastodon.me.uk

  • James: jsbilsbrough@mastodon.me.uk

  • Gedeon: gedeonm@mastodon.social

  • IconFactory: Iconfactory@iconfactory.world

• IconFactory

• Louis Mantia's Blog

• Previous Appearances by Gedeon:

  • Can You Hear Me - iPhone 16 Event

  • Weaving a Tapestry

  • A Good Day to Podcast

  • Ollie, Space Karen, and an API

1. 00:00:04: Introductions

2. 00:07:17: The State of the IconFactory

3. 00:16:36: App and Icon Design

4. 00:27:22: Designing for Liquid Glass

5. 00:46:26: Icon Variety

6. 00:52:51: More Than Just Icons

7. 01:13:10: Closing Thoughts

Intro and outro theme: Ace of Clubs by RoccoW

Did you grow up wishing you could make real 3D objects from your computer, maybe if you're British you remember the cartoon 'Penny Crayon'? Well, in this modern world we live in, you can do all of that with a 3D printer.

Our guest is friend of the show and all-round self-hosting nerd, James Smith, who has been working on Manyfold which is a self-hosted project you can use to manage all of your 3D model files.

Of course, none of that will make any sense if you don't know your Z-Axis from your extruder, and so James and James attempt to give a comprehensive guide to 3D printing, with an unintentional bias towards filament based printing.

Have you gotten into 3D printing yet, maybe you've got some horror stories to share of prints gone wrong, or want to share your amazing creations? We'd love to hear from you, so please send us a note to podcast@crossedwires.net, or why not come join the discussion on our Discord server.

If you liked this episode or any of our content, we’d greatly appreciate any little bit of support you can throw our way over at our Ko-Fi page.

"Don't you people backup? I backup, and I don't even know what backing up means!" - Nicola Murray, Secretary of State for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship

If you have any kind of file that's important to you, be that a treasured family photo, your latest research paper, or just the list of the co-ordinates of your best places in Minecraft, you'll want to make sure it's kept safe, right? Well, just syncing that to the cloud isn't really enough, you need a proper backup strategy too.

Part of a good backup strategy is having a backup that isn't in the same place as your computer, and this is where a good cloud backup service is so important. Our friends at Backblaze provide simple, reliable, and affordable backup options for your Mac or Windows PCs for just $9/month. You can get a 15 day free-trial when you follow this link to sign up.

Need to host your own instance of Manyfold, or any other app or service that can run on Linux, then check out Hetzner, with hosting in the EU and great rates on both AMD and Ampere powered ARM servers, as well as great pricing on storage including object storage and hosted NextCloud.

• James Smith on Mastodon

• Manyfold: Website / Mastodon / Public Instance

• Benchy - Public domain 3D printer test model

• Ender-3 V3 SE

• Bambu Labs Cloud Dependancy - Louis Rossman on YouTube

• Slicers:

  • OrcaSlicer

  • Slic3r

• 3D Design

  • TinkerCad - Free web based model creation from AutoDesk

  • FreeCad - Open-source CAD software for Mac, Linux, and Windows

• Online Model Sites:

  • Thingiverse

  • Printables

• Mentioned models:

  • NES Switch Cartridge Case V2 by flyingpurplecow - Thingiverse