Tsikbal: from my perspective

This year my music listening habits have changed to listening to my music library and to Spotify . I found that I really like Spotify, since it gives me the right balance of the music I like while letting me discover new music based on my tastes. It also has the plus that the artist get paid for their work. There is only one thing that I don't like about Spotify, and it's use of digital rights management( DRM ). I can't agree on the use of DRM, since it restricts users right to control the software that runs on their devices. DRM is not the way to help artists make a living, since efforts should be concentrated on making it easier for user to support their favorites artists. Adding artificial restrictions like DRM doesn't do much for help artists, and harm the user in more than one way. Instead of restricting users, ways to make easier to support artists should be made available. In some ways, artists, producers and content creators should realize that ...

There has been a lot of talk in Guadalajara about using smart cards on buses of the public transportation system, the only step taken toward this has been that a norm has been approved by the local congress a few years back. So far, only the light rail system and the Macrobus use smart cards. The problem being that they are incompatible, which is at least problematic for riders that use both systems on regular basis. The ideal would be that the smart card system for all three systems would be integrated, allowing riders use one card for the three systems. That would facilitate things for everyone involved, which is one of the main reasons to adopt the smart card to begin with. Personally, I'd go one step beyond and allow users to pay with their smartphones. That would facilitate things a lot more, since a large portion of riders already use smartphones to begin with. I rather use a smart card, specially if it allows me to use it on the three systems. I already u...

After a couple of year using Nokia's E63 using Symbian's S60 platform and a year using a Blackberry Bold 9650 , I made the jump to Android via an independent manufacturer called MOBO (page is in Spanish since its a Mexican brand). To be honest, I was really a fan of Nokia's smartphones and of Symbian as an OS. For me it was sad to see Symbian being ditched, and worse when it's place was taken by Windows Phone OS. I've rather seen Nokia move to Android, since I believe that it would have made a much better match. Since I've being using Android, it has taken Symbian's place as my favorite mobile OS. As devices go, MOBO has become my go to brand since it sells unlocked smartphones at a decent prices that have good quality. And while the specs are not premium, they are more than good enough for most people. I'm also really conscious about the design of the devices I use, and MOBO's devices have the design I like. The only thing I miss i...

Many times when I talk about open-source software , the question of why the concept behind it hasn't been applied else ware if its so good come around often. It turns out it has, in the form of Copyleft , and there are many artists actually using it to license their work. The fact that Copyleft is expanding beyond software development speaks volumes. It tells that Copyleft works, and that its beneficial to creators and users alike. It might not be perfect, but it actually could mean that there be viable alternative to Copyright that benefits both artists and their fans. In more than one way, it could shift how artists relate to their fans and how their work spreads. It also means that their source of income is going to change even more, and it ways that aren't all that clear at the moment. The advent of the Internet, smartphones, and tablets has changed the dynamics of how people shares things and what owning ideas or art means. In a way, it has become ever harder...

October has come, and with it Ubuntu 16.10. Codenamed Yakkety Yak, it isn't that big an update over Ubuntu 16.04 LTS though it has some interesting updates like Linux kernel 4.8, Unity 7.5 and Nautilus 3.20. In general, so far Ubuntu 16.10 has been worth the upgrade. I haven't come to any problems or serious bug. Performance on my system has been better on some aspects, while on others it has remained the same. Though I'd like to have seen an upgrade to Unity 8, the improvements that came with the 7.5 are really nice. As it has been the trend for the last couple of years, each new Ubuntu release come with improvements not revolutionary changes. That's good for most of the people that use the OS, and why I really love Ubuntu. While I can expect some changes, I can also expect that those changes won't be at the expense of braking my system. That is something really valuable for the average user, that wants her or his computer to work as expected after...

Blackberry has become a shadow fo what it was a few years ago, in large part because of Apple's iPhone and Google's Android devices. I can remember a time when the smartphone to get was a Blackberry one, now most consumers wouldn't even consider one. Personally, my first smartphone was a Nokia E63 , which I selected because at the time I was a big Nokia fan. That device really made me a fan of the QWERTY keyboard on smartphones and of the Symbian OS. When time came to replace the Nokia E63 I briefly considered the Nokia N8 , in a way to see how having a smartphone without a QWERTY keyboard would work for me. At the time, Nokia made Symbian open-source for a time before making it proprietary some time later. To be honest, I really was rooting for Nokia and Symbian to be able to make themselves strong players along Google's Android on the smartphone arena. But that didn't come to pass since Nokia went and made a deal with Microsoft, and later sell i...

This article on Linux Journal , called " The Many Paths to a Solution ", really gave an idea to explain to people who don't know much about Linux why are the so many distros out there. Many seem to believe that the main reason that there are so many reason for there being more than 50 actively maintained distros, is that Linux must not be really that good. That's not really the case, since the users of most of those distros could easily make a point for why their distro is great for them. Each distro represents a path to a solution to a problem that a group of users have to solve. That's why not every distro is a fit for every user, and also why many become disenchanted with Linux. In many of those cases, the user wasn't matched to the right distro to begin with. While in other times, the expectations weren't meet to what the distro offered. That's why its vital to match new users to the distro that better suits their needs, not to the d...

Last Monday the SAP server got busted by a virus, and all hell broke out. It took the better part of three days to set it back up, and by the fourth day it wasn't up to speed. Until this happened, nobody really gave a second thought to the fact that we all are dependent on central server to get the info we all need to do our jobs. SAP is vital for every department pass the information needed for all departments work smoothly. And while some of us use local storage to actually work some of the info in a more detailed way, our main source of information is centralized at a single server. At least in my case, and of my coworkers at my department, my work didn't come to a complete halt. Some of the info I work with, isn't dependent on SAP. As such, it means that I still could go ahead with some of my work. The same goes some of the other departments, though having access to the info on SAP sure does makes thing a lot easier. Yet, this event highlights the dangers...

Its official, Apple ditched the 3.5 mm headphone jack in favor of it's Lightning connector on the iPhone 7 . Now, Intel says that the 3.5 mm headphone jack should be replaced with a USB-C connector port. The main problem with the change, is the potential for users to get locked into an ecosystem because of compatibility issues. At this point, if you buy an iPhone 7 you'll need an adapter to use your current headphones. No doubt it the near future headphones using the Lightning connector will hit the market. The main issue here, is if Android smartphones will go with the Lighting connector or with the USB-C connector. The odds are that they go with the USB-C connector since Android already has support for it and they won't have to have to pay license fees to Apple to use it's Lightning connector. To be honest, USB-C connector is becoming ever more common. As such it has better odd of being able to replace the 3.5 mm headphone jack, and has better odds of...

Ever since OpenOffice.org became Apache OpenOffice.org , after Oracle's acquisition of  Sun Microsystems , it has been losing developers. Most of them went to fork, develop LibreOffice out of fear that OpenOffice would become an afterthought for Oracle. Even though Oracle gave contributed OpenOffice and it's source code to the Apache Software Foundation , after it indeed stop the development of the office suite, developers didn't came back to the project. As a consequence, development of OpenOffice has virtually stopped. On the other hand, LibreOffice has gained not only many new developers, but also widespread acceptance. Almost every mayor distro ships with it, and even the Italian government joining. So, learning that there is some serious consideration about shutting down the OpenOffice project all together due to lack of developers comes to the surprise of anyone. For me, its a bittersweet thing. For one, OpenOffice was the first open source offic...

One of the biggest misconceptions of free and open-source software( FOSS ) is that is free of cost. In reality, FOSS can have a monetary cost and still be fully compliant with the FOSS concept. In order to be considered free software it has to respect the following four freedoms: Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose. Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish. Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute and make copies so you can help your neighbor. Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Freedoms 1 and 3 require source code to be available because studying and modifying software without its source code can range from highly impractical to nearly impossible. While some prefer keep the open-source part out, and just talk about free software, I prefer to the free and ...

One of the things I enjoy most, is to create content for you all. But with my current job, I don't have as much time as I'd like to devote to create that content. For this reason , I created an account in Patreon. If you like the content that I create for you, and would like to see more of it posted you could have a part on it by sponsoring a monthly amount, or as you see fit. In order to be able devote myself a 100% to create content, I need about $500 dollars a month. The best thing for you and me, is that many of you can help me achieve that goal. If we can achieve more of $500 a month, there would be more daily updates and other ways to say thanks for your support. I thank you in advance for your support, and here's the link: patreon.com/nothaleon

When Facebook bought Whatsapp I hoped against all hope that Whatsapp wouldn't succumb to collecting data from users, and use it so Facebook would strengthen it's add business. It actually scored some kudos when it added end-to-end encryption, a good thing to protect our privacy. Alas, Whatsapp has announced that it will start collecting data and it will serve it to Facebook in order for it to be able to better able to serve ads on Facebook. So far, they claim that Whatsapp won't be serving ads on the app itself. Yet since Whatsapp promised it wouldn't serve data to Facebook to begin with, it becomes harder to believe that they'll keep their promise that they won't serve ads in the future. It now becomes a question of when they'll start doing it, and how would they look. Personally, I liked to use Whatsapp because it respected user privacy by not collecting data. And when it started using full encryption end-to-end, it strengthen it's positi...

While open-source software has it's advantages for everyone, it doesn't really goes as far as it should to protect users freedoms or to make innovation easier. For that, it also needs to be free software , which is possible using a free software license such as GNU General Public License and the Mozilla Public License . Its not enough for users to have access to the source code to study it, users need to be free to modify and redistribute it as well. In order to raise awareness among as many users as possible, I believe that its vital to refer to software that has both attributes as free and open-source software . For many non-technical users, don't really see or understand that just because application is open-source it doesn't mean its free software, most specifically libre software. There is some confusion, since that access to the source code doesn't mean that your four freedoms are respected. These freedoms are the following: Freedom 0: The f...

As this article points out,  security through obscurity in software is not really all that safer than software using FLOSS. The evidence so far seems that proprietary software doesn't have that good run so far, and what it make it worse is that in some cases people could have cough on what was going on if it was possible to audit the software independently by third parties. To be honest, all software is vulnerable to have malicious code injected and to have bugs that could be maliciously exploited. But the difference between between free software and proprietary software, is that on free software that malicious code can be discovered in a faster and easier way. True, there are examples where there has been vulnerabilities that have been missed for years. But, most of the time vulnerabilities are found and corrected relatively fast. This is particularly important on code used on applications that where human lives are on the line, where is vital to have third parties audi...

Denuvo, a DRM solution, has proven that it can be defeated . Though the crack was patched a couple of days later, that someone managed to defeat kind of makes a point against DRM as a solution for piracy. Let's face it, most of the piracy problem has it's roots on people wanting to share what they love with others. We want to share with others the music, videos, and other content with others. With the advent of computers and the internet, doing so legally speaking has become almost impossible, since the companies who provide such content want to have absolute control on how we share that content. The truth is not the scale, not the fact that the content is shared. While a portion of that sharing is illegal, most of it is just people sharing what they love with others that have the same taste as they do. As such, DRM and other tech that prevent such sharing among peers, comes in the way of people discovering new thing they would be willing to pay for than otherwise the...

Boeing is considering killing the 747 , the aircraft that many consider democratized air travel, while Airbus does the same for it's A380 . They don't seem to be able to compete with more efficient twin engined aircraft like the Boeing's 787 or Airbus' A350 XWB . Both the 787 and the A350 XWB are better fit for airlines, since they have lower operating costs. Most importantly, with turbofan engines becoming more reliable and efficient, and thus allowing longer extended operations( ETOPS ) for twin engine airplanes, seems to have doomed the 747 and the A380 to the graveyards. The decision to ax the 747 or A380 hasn't been made, but that both Boeing and Airbus have made public the decision of doing so is on the table makes it at least likely, since such a choice will have quite a big impact on both companies. As an aviation enthusiast, seeing the 747 or the A380 go is something I don't want to see. The 747 is such an iconic aircraft, and the A380 is...

While the FCC verdict against TP-Link is good news, since it allows users to run the third party firmware of their choice, it also highlights something that worries me. Most often than not, they way rules are set make it easier to close the door to people to do modify their computers and gadgets with the software, or firmware, or their choice. One extreme case of this locking out from working on what we own for our own purposes, is the plight the farmers being unable to fix their own tractors . Regulation makes it illegal for them to access the software than runs on their tractors on their own, which they should be allowed to do since what they want to do is just fix their tractor so they can actually go to work. Farmers should be able to have their own tractors by any party they want to. What worries me the most, is that most laws and regulations are placing the interests of corporations over the interest of the people. This leaves the people vulnerable to whatever corporati...

This podcast on Curious Minds about Richard Stallman & The History of Free Software and Open Source is really good, since it really clarifies it's history and what free software is all about. Free software, and open source software, is not just about the technical aspects, but also a movement about protecting user's freedoms from corporate interests. Users shouldn't need to worry about giving away control of what the things they own, and corporations shouldn't have the ability to take control out of users. Once you pay for something, you should have full control over that item. Even when you subscribe for the use of something, the ultimate control over your personal information should remain yours. The information you disclose to any company should be limited only for internal use, used only for the purposes intended why you shared that information for. One should never have to have to choose between having the latest tech, or giving up our freedoms. O...

As an Ubuntu and Spotify user, I find it quite frustrating that there isn't a supported  native client for Linux. While in general the Linux client works quite well, there are some features missing. The one I miss the most is the ability to minimizing it to the icon tray. In itself, it isn't a big deal. Yet, I'd like to have the option to have Spotify running on the background as I do with the Android client. Yet, I prefer the look and feel of the 1.0.28 version of the client. It feels a lot more modern, and I really thinks it has been a step forward design wise. While I'd like to see Spotify to have a native client that runs on as many Linux distros as possible, it would be nice to see Canonical and the Linux Mint development team working closer with Spotify to have a native client supported for these two distros. The main reason for this is that they are the two most popular distros, and the ones that biggest share of users that would seriously switch to...

Microsoft's Windows might be the most used operating system on PCs, but on mobile it's presence is basically non-existent. As such, they aren't going to hit their target of installs by 2018 . According to Microsoft, Windows 10 would hit the 1 billion user mark sometime by 2018, and for that they need to sell about 50 million smartphones a year. That seems to be way to optimistic, since Android and iOS dominate the smartphone market in such a way that its hard to see other players coming along to challenge them. To make things worse for Microsoft, when people go to buy a new smartphone they usually go looking specifically for either an Android or iOS device. There aren't enough people who go looking for a smartphone powered by Windows powered one. Apps are one of the reasons for this, since most developers just focusing their efforts on Android and iOS(with a few just releasing their app on just one of them). It seems that Windows is doomed to either be a ni...

On this day and age, is easy to forget what people want from form public transit services is actually good and reliable service. While having things like charging ports and free WiFi are nice perks to have, they are nice extras to have once users have a reliable public transportation service. People still need to move easily within the city they live, and the public transit is the most efficient way to do so on medium to long distances on urban areas. For most people, I include myself in, public transportation is the best way to move around most of the time. Actually, with a public transportation service that was reliable most people would not need to have a car at all. Urban areas need a reliable public transit more than they need more cars on the road, in order to improve quality of life within cities. We need mass transit that we can count will arrive on time, its affordable and dependable. Lets face it, most people could be better served by a public transit than a car for...

As this article at Wired, some miss CD's, vinyl or cassettes out of nostalgia sake. Specially people, who like me, grew up owing music on the medium having them around is somewhat satisfying. Yet, even younger generations seem to appreciate at least having some MP3 files handy. The thing is, streaming services while being handy way to discovering or accessing music, won't entirely supplant other formats. One of the most important roadblocks, are some right holders simply won't release their music to streaming services. Also there is the fact that people want to have some of their music available in a way that streaming services like Spotify or Apple music wont allow. There are several legal, technical, and sentimental issues that prevent streaming services ever to supplant owning music in the format of your choice. But, it makes it the perfect way to complement it. I used to say I wouldn't have a use for streaming services, yet I found Spotify a nice way t...

When I read that Linux desktop just passed the 2% market share , I had mixed feelings. On one hand, it means that more people are using a Linux distro on their computers. On the other hand, Linux is not as widely used as Windows or OS X. Yet, the fact that Linux has increased it's market share is something to at least to be happy about. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the percentage is actually a bit higher since a large number of installations go unnoticed. Specially since the number of times Linux distros is used to have an idea of how wide the user based is. That number is not all that reliable, since one download could mean several installations on multiple machines. As such, any market share information should always be taken with a grain of salt. But, I feel happy that Linux gets more widely deployed Because this means that more people will be likely to actually used a Linux distro, and see for themselves that Linux can be at least as user friendly a...

If there were any doubts that open-source software is the way to go, the fact that Microsoft just released version 1.0 of .NET Core should go a long dispelling this idea. .NET Core is a open-source cross platform implementation of Microsoft's .NET Framework development environment that runs on OS X and Linux. While it isn't the same thing as Microsoft open-sourcing Windows, its a sign that open-source software is here to stay and its making inroads with a lot more users that many are willing to admit. Not that long ago, Microsoft was an enemy of everything open-source. Now, its embracing it in order to stay relevant. Let's face it, open-source software has never been the problem that Microsoft made it to be, but rather a solution for developers and users for a whole host of problems. Most importantly, it give credence to the idea that open-source software is a valid development tool. This helps both developers and users, since it gives both a better and faste...