Lost hunger of knowing...

It's rather surprising how many people lose their sense of wonder, and just stop asking questions about the world around them. They seem contempt to just cruise by, without wanting to know more about whatever they come across. Some even feel threaten by anyone wanting to know more, even if the answers to the questions being ask could be beneficial to everybody.

Many fear that knowing how something works would make it less wonderful, that by the act of knowing you take value away. Knowing the inner workings of something would make it less marvelous, that it would make it less worthy in their eyes.

I don't agree at all with that at all, knowing actually makes things more wonderful. The fact that we know more about something doesn't take away, but adds to it. That we know more, means that we've more to wonder about. Knowledge about the universe we live in, not only our world, makes for a more wonderful and magnificent place.

That hunger of knowing how things work, and are related to each other, has made our lives fuller and worth living. It has added years to our lives, while being able to enjoy them in good health and has given us the chance to share more with our loved ones.

One thing that out thirst of knowing has shown us, is that there will be more questions to answer and greater riddles to solve. In many ways we might never know everything, which is a good thing because that way we can continue to move forward and be better. It's that never ending quest to know that will take us to new places.

Instead of teaching our children not to question, we need to give them the tools to do it in a way that will improve their lives. The sky is no longer the limit, I don't longer believe there is a limit if we keep looking for answers.

Open development for security protocols and standards...

One of the good things that came from what was leaked Edward Snowden, is that security protocols and standards are being checked for flaws and vulnerabilities. Some have been found, no doubt more will come in time, with steps being taken fix them.

With all the work being done to tighten security, and people being more aware about the importance of securing their systems to protect their privacy, it's important to keep an eye on that work so that their information is safe and their privacy respected. The importance of security protocols and standards are paramount on both cases, and thus the work to harden them is vital.

That's why there is a need to have them developed in an open way, so that they can be constantly checked and improved by as a large a community as possible. They will never be completely fool proof, but the open development can help to minimize the risk by allowing patches to be submitted sooner later later.

With more of our lives taking place on the digital realm, the protocols and standards used to protect our information can't continue to be developed behind closed doors. People need, and should have the right, actually know how what they use to protect themselves work and be able to study it freely. All development should be carried out openly, in a way where the validation of those protocols and standards takes the input of a wider community.

Security will be enhance with more people working together to make it better in an open and collaborative environment, not with less people working behind closed doors.

The right combination...

I've thinking about getting a tablet, yet I don't really think that it would be all that useful for me. My needs are better covered by the laptop smartphone combo, and tablets don't really fit my needs.

When sitting at home, the laptop computer is a lot better for me. I still use the keyboard a lot to write both on my blog or emails. While on the go, the smartphone fits my needs since it allows me to write short messages, share photos or short thoughts in a more practical way for me.

The combination of computer, smartphone and tablet is still rather dependent on how do you access information and if you need to create things using a computer. What any person should get is dependent on what they are going to do with those devices, since that device needs to conform to what that person needs to do with it.

What most people will have in common in most cases, is that we all are going to be using smartphones while on the go since they are the most convenient way to access or share information quickly when you just want do it quickly and you're aren't going to do it for a long period of time.

Tablets and laptops are easier to use for extended periods of time, just that they excel at different things. Tablets, for the time being, are better suited for consuming media and information. Their format suits better to consuming, rather than creating, content. I don't doubt that in the near future you'll be able to create content as easily on them, as you do on a computer, yet the time is not now.

Computers are still the best way to create content, specially work that need a lot of computing power. Also, it's more comfortable to work for extended periods of time on a computer than it is on a tablet.

For me, the perfect coordination is the laptop-smartphone.

What could have been...

While I was reading this article at Ars Technica, I couldn't help but to feel a bit of sadness and nostalgia. I really liked Nokia's mobile phones, and I had high hopes for their Symbian OS. By the time they released the N8 smartphone with Symbian^3 on it, I was really hopeful about the OS.

Another thing I really liked, was that Nokia had open sourced Symbian and that made it an option for me. The idea that my favorite mobile brand used an open sourced OS was very appealing, since I enjoyed using it. I would loved to see Nokia throwing it's weight behind Symbian, so that by now there would be two open source mobile operating systems at the market. The other being Android, which has matured a lot since it was released.

In a way, I'd have loved to see Nokia adopting Android when it stop using Symbian on their smartphones. In that case, I would still be on Nokia's field. In many ways, I felt betrayed when by the switch to Windows. Ever since they did so, I haven't even considered buying anything from Nokia. Before that, I was loyal to Nokia.

Now, it's to late for any kind of change. Seems that Nokia really went south, and it got lost somewhere only to become somewhat irrelevant at the smartphone arena.

It's a shame where Nokia has come, it comes to show that the future is not certain for anyone.

Sad mishandling of information...

One of the virtues of the Internet, is that it democratizes the flow of information. It allows individuals to share information, or to access it, in various ways, in any format they dim to be more convenient and at any time they have the chance to do so. Those who are interested on that information can access it the time that suits them best, and redistribute it to others that might find such information interesting or valuable.

More than ever before, the flow of information is free to flow not only from hand to hand or to a hand full of people. Now, information can be flow much faster and to much more people than it has ever been possible. Not only that, it no longer has the constraints of time and location to tie it down. Information generated at one corner of the world, can reach anywhere around the world in an instant.

It's sad, and enraging, that some governments try to limit that free flow of information or use it against the people. Even worse, is when they try to get access to private information without going through the passes they legally have to access such information.

The flow of information needs to be unimpeded by no one, but the person from who the information originated from. Each of us, must have every guarantee that we have full and total control of our information, and thus the way it flows. Our information should only arrive to our intended destination, and shouldn't be tempered on transit in any way, shape or form.

If the government thinks it needs to intercept it, it should be made to give a valid reason before it's allowed to intercept it to read it. The government shouldn't be able to do so without proving, beyond reasonable doubt, that it has a valid argument to do so.

While information is a common good, that belongs to us all, not all information should be treated like that. Some information is private to the individual, and that information should be treated as the property of that individual. All other information, specially that the is comes from public areas, needs to remain in the hands of the public.

The flow of information should be unimpeded, at all times, so we all can access it on equal terms.