Tsikbal: from my perspective

I find it rather irksome, not to say almost unethical, for tech companies to corral users to their platforms. To make matters worse, in some cases they seem to make their devices as incompatible to others as they can just to make it close to impossible for their users to leave the ecosystem the company created for them. As users, we are better served by having products built around a single, and open, standard. This way we can have the freedom to move to another companies products if we choose to do so, while not having to worry if what we have will work on those other products. We have the right to use whatever products we want, and companies have no right to lock us to their devices. When it comes to competing standards, users must have a bigger say on on which one they prefer. Once the standard becomes the reference point, it should be open and free for all to use. Standards shouldn't be used as a tool to keep competition out, and users locked in whatever walled garden ...

The Internet must remain neutral, no government or central organism should have control over all of or any part of it. At most, bodies should be set up to add and maintain standards that run the Internet, not what to regulate the Internet itself. With the Internet becoming an integral part of our daily lives, there is a real need to keep it neutral so we all can make use of it as we need to. Just as city streets, and other public infrastructure, where only basic standards are placed to make use of them, so that everyone that needs to can make use of them freely with no discrimination other that not engaging on illegal activities. The only part that needs some kind of regulation on the Internet, are the standards on which it runs. Those standards should be open for all, built and maintained on a transparent way so that any one interested in studying them, or making a contribution, can do so without any impediment. Most importantly, those standards should be freely available...

It's sad to see that the current state of the technology field tends to be pro business, not pro users. The users are losing ground, giving up their freedom to use their devices as best they seem. In many cases, companies still own the devices we buy. Companies have a lot of say on how we can use our devices, and what we can run on them, in many cases having the right to punish users that don't use their devices as envisioned by the company who made it. Even though illegal behavior must be punished, taking users rights over their devices can't be approved or done in name of cracking on such behavior. User should be able to modify their own devices as they want, and to share how to make such modifications, freely while they are not engaging in any illegal activity. The problem is that, in several cases, innocent people are being punished because of behavior that isn't illegal. They only engaged on activities that weren't approved by the big businesses, y...

It's interesting to see how many people don't really understand that the results given back by any software, are only as good as the data entered into it to compute. In many cases the problem is not the software itself, but how people chooses the data to work with. No matter how good the software is, if the right data sets aren't selected to begin with the results are just not going to be the ones expected. It's important to understand what data sets are meaningful to your problem, in order to make sure that those are the ones that are picked up. If not, all the hard work will be for nothing. The problem that's being targeted needs to be correctly stated, so that the right parameters to be measured and the right data is collected to be studied. Armed with that information, the software can be better selected to the problems needed to be solved. I've seen a lot of times, how a great piece of software selected to be used in a way it wasn't intende...

We are at a point in human history, where modern computer technology can empower people in ways never imagined. The advent of laptops, tablets and smartphones, have fundamentally changed how people can access information and the way they share it with each other. When we add the Internet into the mix, we have a platform where people from around can have a common place to come to access and share all that interested in. Now people have a real chance to go to the source of the information, and have a better chance to get it without filters applied to it. Not only that, that information can be verified and compared among several portals. Add that it can be shared in an instant with family and friends, it becomes harder to try to hide things from the people. People are getting more control over how the information flows, with who they share it with, and the time and place they access it. We need to keep our ability to do so intact, since the control over it means that we can also ...

As with many other things, I want a clean and minimalist design on my software. I don't want any other than the necessary at hand, so I can concentrate at the task I'm working on. Yet, I've found that designing anything to be like this is a hard feat to get correctly. It's incredibly easy to over or under do it, for the have the right tools at hand while arranging them just the right way. Not only that, it irks me when I'm not allowed to take features in or out so I can get it to be as I want it to be. I can understand that any software comes with the features most uses as default. In any case, the user needs to be able to make any change to the configuration to make it work better for him or her. Making the design clean and minimalist doesn't equate to taking away functionalities, it just means that there is a need to better need to understand how those functionalities are used. This way they can be better placed, so that those most commonly used c...

It's interesting to see how traditional media tries to control how information flows, trying to control the perception, only to be foiled by how people share events among themselves. The thing is, that many times the information gets distorted too by the people. Not that many people wants to distorted, but it gets distorted because it loses context. Mainly because people tends to focus on a single part of the information, losing the context that brings knowing the background on which events are happening. At the end, we need to get our information from both traditional outlets and from social media. The traditional outlets are useful to get the big picture, to get the context surrounding the story we are interested in. From the social media we can get a better sense on how people that are directly affected, or involved, by the issue think and feel about what's happening. In a way traditional media gives us the context, and social media gives us the finer details to...

It bothers me than more often than not, women are either under or miss represented in science and technology. The same thing could be argued on the geek culture at large. There is the perception that women that have a keen on interest on science and technology aren't all that feminine at all. Like if femininity and these fields are mutually excluded. Almost always women that have a strong interest, or good, on these fields are portrayed as socially awkward or not even remotely feminine. To make things works, the ones who are feminine or attractive are there there to take advantage of the geeky men that have no defense from their charms. At times woman are totally dependent on the technical abilities, or knowledge, of a man to save the day. We need to change this perception, since it's costing society to lose a large number of women that have the interest to be on working on science and technology that get deterred because of that those aren't places for women. ...

It's sad to see social media used to attack and insult opponents, widening divides while making anger make any mutually beneficial resolution less likely. Now more than ever, we need to take social media not only as a tool to share what we think and what we care with those we care or agree with. Social media is also a tool that needs to be used to engage in true debate with those who oppose, or not share, our views. Only by doing both, communicating with those that agree and with those who disagree with us, can social media can become the powerful tool needed to build a better world. Social media isn't here to end disagreements, or to widen the divides that already exist. Social media is here so that we can actually work together to take the common goals we all have, so that we can build a better world where all our views are represented. In many ways, social media is a way to give people a way to make their views and opinions known. With the help of social media, ...

There is a need to make technology more inclusive, not only to be used, but also in its creation, development and adaptation for different needs. If people can't have ample access to technology to do all of these things, no matter how useful or innovative at the beginning, it'll soon be obsolete or irrelevant. If any technology is made so as much people can do more than just work with it, chances are the technology will reach its full potential. And it's more than likely than that potential is far beyond anyone can foresee. To take technology there, it needs to let everyone in and let them modify it or add to it openly. Closing it to the general public is the best way to ensure a short life for it. Inclusive technology is the best way to make out present, while at the same time ensuring our future. Technology gives us the best tools to do both, and the best way to do so is to have technology that is work on and developed in an open and transparent manner. Peopl...

Another of the reasons that I love FLOSS is the way it works, and the culture that surrounds it, is the fact it allows people work and form communities around it as they would normally do. The best software that come out from FLOSS is one where people can claim as their own, and work on it as they can. In many ways, FLOSS represents people working together in order to produce what they need in they way that best suits them. It really it's the software of the people, for the people and by the people. This is the way software needs to be made, and worked on in order to make it the best possible for use it's intended. People should be able to come together to work on the software they need, to develop it and share it with others freely. Others should also be able to take the source code of any software to be used and modified to suit their needs, with the only condition that they give credit to the original developers and share those modifications back to the community so...