10/17/2020

Mexican personal finance management.

Since a couple of years ago, there has been easier to carry less cash in Mexico with several ways both businesses and people can pay for services electronically or with credit or debit card.

Banks have been making transfers to other people, and paying for services and taxes, via their apps a lot easier. I use the apps of Santander, and Banorte, and both have been making such transactions easier with each app update. Specially since March, when the lock downs started because of the pandemic.

Also companies that allow to take payments using a tablet, or an smartphone, have been making a lot of inroads. The biggest one has been Clip, followed closely by PayPal's iZettle.

Also PayPal, and Mercado Pago, have entered the Mexican market heavily.

For the time being, most people use their bank's app, or website, to manage their payments. Specially since in Mexico almost everyone with a formal job receives their payroll on a bank account that their employer set up for them, or which ever account they asked to be used for that purpose.

Even freelancers can asked to be payed via electronic transfer to the bank account of their choice, making it a lot easier for everyone.

The services offered by the likes of Clip, and iZettle, make it a lot easier small businesses, to take cards. Which for many of them, means an increase in their sales in substantial numbers. In some ways, in areas where the use of credit and debit cards is prevalent, those small businesses that haven't made the jump to accepting card payments is becoming an odd thing to find.

Even in lower income areas, businesses using either Clip or iZettle are starting to become common. Even some entrepreneurial cab drivers are starting to offer it as a way to attract more costumers to compete against Uber and DiDi.

In several cities of Jalisco, one can pay public transportation without the use of cash using a card called Mi Movilidad or another called Innova Card. And the fact that you can now add balance them at some of OXXO convenience stores make them a lot more practical to use.

Taking all of this together, makes the need of carrying large amounts of cash is becoming a thing of the past.

10/04/2020

Remmina made home office viable for me.

Up to last week, I didn't have to do home office. As such, I haven't had to access the computer on work remotely. But when I had to work remotely last week, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do so since I use Linux Mint on my personal laptop and Windows at work.

As such, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to access my desktop remotely in order to be able to work from home. This was compounded by the fact that the IT department of my workplaces had problems doing so in the past, so much so that they trashed the idea to move to Linux.

So, I had some hours to find a way to connect remotely in a way that wouldn't interfere with my ability to work from home. After a couple of hour I narrowed my search to Remmina, which had a lot of good reviews to work at a remote Windows desktop from Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

And so far, it has worked as a charm. I've no problems related to Remmina, just a problem at the server side. As such, this opens the door for me to continue use Linux Mint while the being able to do my work effectively since I can access all what I need with an Internet connection.

To be honest, this gives me another reason to stay with Linux Mint since I can access my Windows desktop at work with ease. And to be honest, with every update since I rejoined Linux Mint with the 18 release, I found the Linux Mint making it a better OS for the average user.

Sci-fi: trying to see future tech and its impact on society.

Growing up in the 90s consuming a lot of sci-fi media, it feels rather strange that some of the tech described on sci-fi has become a reali...