Tsikbal: from my perspective

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...