Blog

The nationwide quarantine has not reduced Sidnet’s effectiveness in any way. After all, we have been honing our remote working skills for the last 15 years. Apart from our office being empty, all meetings taking place online and the creation of a separate channel named “Coronavirus” for our company chat, our lives have not changed much.

Mozilla Foundation

The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that strives for an open, “healthy” and accessible Internet. They are also the publisher of the annual Internet Health Report, as well as such well-known open-source solutions as the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email program.

“The very thought of spreading ideas and taking concrete actions to help build a better Internet is very close to my heart. Sharing knowledge, critical thinking, social utility and respect for privacy are all inseparable parts of the Mozilla Foundation’s DNA,” says our developer.

These values are evident in the Foundation’s most recent publications concerning the challenges faced by creators and other Internet users during the coronavirus pandemic.

Examples?

• COVID-19 & what platforms are doing to limit the spread of misinformation: Facebook. The first article in a series about how popular websites strive to counteract misinformation.
• Privacy, pandemics and the AI era. An article aimed at initiating a debate on the long-term threats related to the collection of data from people who may be suffering from COVID-19.
• Online Meeting Tips. A collection of tips on how to organize effective online meetings.

St. Brother Albert’s Aid Society

The first Polish NGO with the goal of helping the poor and the homeless. It has been operating for nearly 40 years, and currently provides housing for 3,500 people in need. The society runs dozens of homeless shelters, club rooms, kitchens, and free bathhouses.

“I think it is very important to reach out to people who need help. This holds especially true in times when indifference to the problems and the suffering of others – the elderly, people who are lonely or who find themselves in a difficult life situation – is practically commonplace,” says Łukasz to further explain his choice.

The society accepts not only financial help, but also donations of food, clothing, footwear, medicine, cleaning products and other items that may help the people under its care.

As we celebrate Internet Domain Day, we wish to support what made the Internet the way it is – databases and kittens. The man responsible for choosing the open-source and charity projects that we will be supporting this month is not just the mastermind of #SidnetDonations, but Sidnet overall.

Michał Wojciechowski has been managing our software house for 15 years. Throughout this time, he has participated in over 200 programming projects and more than 20 half-marathons – and he has also tried to stop his cats from meowing in the background during team teleconferences countless of times… 😉

Read on to find out more about Michał’s choices.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an open-source database management system. Apart from MySQL and SQLite, it is one of the most popular free solutions of this type. It is used by such companies as Skype, Instagram, TripAdvisor and The Guardian.

More than 500 volunteer creators are actively involved in working on PostgreSQL and they have been developing the project for over 30 (!) years. The result is an efficient, feature-rich and standards-compliant program, which includes more than a million lines of code and is fully owned by the community that designed it.

“Many people claim that PostgreSQL is a worthy competitor to Oracle – a commercial solution. We have used PostgreSQL in a number of projects, including a few web applications built for the Iconaris marketing agency. It also serves as a database for some of the tools we use internally, such as GitLab”, said Sidnet’s founder.

“Futrzaki” Foundation

The foundation was established in 2015 by a group of volunteers who strive to improve animal welfare. They often help stray cats and dogs, some of which are mutilated. They collect donations, organize adoptions and constantly promote having the right attitude towards animals.

“Thanks to the ‘Futrzaki’ foundation, I now have a new cat in my apartment – Lotka. The foundation volunteers put a lot of effort into finding people who are responsible owners and offer really good homes to animals. For example, the condition for adopting Lotka in the first place was to secure my balcony with a protective mesh”, said Michał.

Before they find a new home, many cats (including Lotka) are brought to the Bajka temporary shelter.

“I visited the place two times, once to familiarize myself with Lotka and then and finalize the adoption process. The temporary shelter is run by great people, who truly love animals”, said Michał.

Calm, modest and a man of few words – Wojciech is certainly one of the most inconspicuous members of the Sidnet team. Yet, he also happens to be an effective Senior Full-Stack Developer, responsible for the continued development of the Fooder web and mobile application. Wojciech Wąsik excels in helping us achieve any business goals set by the app’s client (ZT Kruszwica S.A.), as well as the Iconaris marketing agency, which has been collaborating with us for 12 years now. Not to mention that he always beats us in poker, quiz games and Hero Realms at team meetups.

See which open-source and charity projects we will be supporting this month per Wojtek’s request.

Linux Mint

Linux Mint is an open-source operating system based on Ubuntu/Debian. Since it is not at all inferior to Windows in terms of ease of use, it is especially popular among novice Linux users. Compared to other Linux distributions, its characteristic features are the modern design and improved compatibility with software that is not 100% open-source. For example, it allows users to play audio/video files both in the system media player and the web browser immediately upon installation.

“I replaced Windows with Mint both at home and at work. Not only is Mint faster, but it is also free. It was an easy choice” – said Wojtek.

The creators of Linux Mint provide information on what they plan to do with the funds collected. They use voluntary donations to finance hosting, advertising, software distribution, equipment purchases, and the work of the people involved in the project.

Znajdki Foundation

The foundation strives to combat violence against animals and animal homelessness. Their workers take dogs and cats away from irresponsible owners and look after injured, abandoned animals. The foundation actively participates in events such as Warszawski Dzień Zwierząt (“Warsaw Animal Day”) and Bieg Chomika (“Hamster Charity Run”).

“The foundation’s volunteers encourage everyone to support their work in any way they can, depending on individual possibilities. Apart from obvious ways of providing support, such as donating money or creating a temporary shelter, the foundation is always eager to accept any help at all” – said our developer.

How you can help the animal shelter:

• Donating any spare cleaning products, such as mops, brushes, washing powders and cleaning agents.
• Help in publishing announcements on adoption websites.
• Taking photos of the animals. Photos help pets find new homes or virtual caretakers.
• Playing with the dogs at the shelter and taking them out on walks.

E-mails, forms, payment process steps… When making your website multilingual, make sure all the bits and pieces are translated. Use a checklist that we created, based on a recent project we completed partially pro bono as a Christmas gift for Sarcoma Association.

Having chosen the right approach to implement multiple languages on your website, you should expect some challenges before you get everything working. Get prepared for a few common issues.

Learn what solutions we developed to resolve those common problems while working on a recent project, completed partially pro bono as a Christmas gift for Sarcoma Association.

We have “one simple way” of dealing with the upcoming Blue Monday – supposedly the most depressing day of the year (though this has never been proven scientifically). We use this method once every month, and its results can be truly astonishing. How do we deal with the winter blues then? Through the monthly #SidnetDonations, of course. As part of this initiative, we donate funds to open-source and charity projects based on requests from our colleagues.

This time, the projects that we will be supporting were selected by Mariusz Różański. Despite being the youngest of our team members, he already has several years of experience in web development, as well as being a dad. Mariusz works remotely from Toruń, primarily on projects for our British clients: THG and UK2.

Webpack

Webpack is an open-source JavaScript tool. It allows the user to merge resources, styles, scripts and graphics to create a single, optimized output file. Webpack combines individual project modules (e.g. JavaScript, Sass, Less, HTML files, external libraries and others), while also taking order and dependencies into account.

Mariusz has been using this tool for several years, both for simple and complex web projects.

Which of Webpack’s features does he particularly like?

• Configurability. Webpack is known for its extensive configuration options. It makes it possible to easily adjust every single detail to perfectly suit the project’s needs.
• Website optimization. Webpack allows the user to split output files into smaller pieces. These so-called “chunks” may be set to load in certain circumstances but be skipped in others (e.g. in the mobile version).

“New frontend technologies are created virtually every day, with some being useless or borderline pointless. There is even a joke website counting the days since the creation of the last JavaScript framework, and so far I haven’t seen the counter go over 3 days. Among all these tools there are also those that actually increase productivity and become an inseparable element. For me, such a tool is Webpack,” Mariusz said.

TipTop Foundation

The organization helps children suffering due to disability, poverty or difficult life circumstances affecting their families.

“The TipTop Foundation is close to my heart because it helps children with reduced and increased muscle tone. The pain and discomfort that babies experience from the very first days of their lives make rehabilitation necessary and require strong perseverance on their parents’ part as well. This I know from personal experience,” our developer said.

The foundation supports parents through such activities as financing treatment, organizing rest and rehabilitation and assisting in collecting funds. It helps orphanages by carrying out renovation works thanks to donations, as well as providing the necessary equipment and helping the children directly.

“Some children are simply unable to develop properly without external assistance. It’s a wonderful thing that TipTop Foundation volunteers to look after them. If detected early, all ailments related to muscle tension can be cured completely. Therefore, nothing should prevent children affected by this condition from receiving the help they need to grow into strong, thoughtful people who will go on to build a better future for all of us,” Mariusz added.