Tsikbal: from my perspective

One of the oddest combinations the Internet, and smartphones, have created is combining socialism and the free markets. What I mean, is that they have brought together people in order to see socialism as the form of government that brings the most benefits to the majority; and the free market as the economic system to follow that brings prosperity to the majority. As a democratic socialist , I've always believed that the combination of a socialist form of government, and a free market economy, is the best way to create more fair and inclusive society. The main reason why the combination of the Internet and smartphones is bringing socialism and the free markets together, is that it not only increases the transparency of both governments and corporations. It also allows people connect self organize, and have more say on how the government works, and to free markets even more by allowing, both the individuals and small producers, by allowing them a more direct access to t...

For me, its mind-blowing that having a device on your pocket that allows you not only to connect with others in real time, access wealth of information on any subject, but also create content or contribute any way you in an instant, has become so normal. Smartphones give us the ability not only of being consumes of knowledge, or content. They also give us the chance to contribute with knowledge to be used by other, or create content in a way that years ago would be unthinkable. In many ways, they also have made harder to control how knowledge spread and how we consume content. More than ever, this abilities gives people to take ownership of both knowledge and content in more immediate, and powerful way. And even though we are still far from being something that everyone can take advantage of, we are well in the path of it becoming a reality in just a few decades. Now, the importance of making sure that our children have the tools to process all of this vital not only for t...

It irks me somewhat when people compare their childhood with the one of the today's children, and proclaim that theirs is far superior just because the children won't be able to experience what they did. They seem to willfully ignore that every generation's childhood is different from generations past and future. The world each generation experience their childhood in a different context from each other. To compare how we experience our childhood to the one of today's children is not fair, since their world isn't the one we grew up in. We see our childhood with tainted eyes, ones that in some ways make it a bit better than it actually was. People forget that we have to give them the tools to be able to face a world that'll be different that the world we are now. Trying to give children the same childhood that we had, is not the best idea. We need to let them be children in the context of how the world is now, while giving them the tools to make them abl...

Though I've come it to like running GNOME on Ubuntu , I found it that after a while GNOME became quite a RAM hog . A few weeks ago, I ran into Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix , which brings my favorite desktop environment, Cinnamon , to Ubuntu as default. So far, I haven't used more than 4 GB of RAM with the same usage I had on GNOME. And, I've come come to realize how much more of a better fit Cinnamon is for my daily need. And, even though I like Linux Mint , being able to use Cinnamon as default on Ubuntu is something a like a bit more. Mainly because I prefer Ubuntu over Linux Mint, though I admit is mainly because Ubuntu was the first distro I used full time when I made the jump to Linux. Yet, I don't discard making the jump back to Linux Mint if Ubuntu using Cinnamon doesn't become an official flavor when 2021 come around. In a way, Linux Mint could be considered the official Cinnamon flavor, since its based on Ubuntu, yet it follows the long-term release sche...

I find it interesting how some people seem to see technology as either as something that'll save us, or what doom us. It seems that most don't seem to realize that most of the time, technology won't do either on its own. At the end of the day, technology on itself won't save or destroy humanity. It rather comes down to how we use it to interact with other people, and the world around us. All technological devices are merely tools that help us to complete a task, which on its own is not good or evil. The user is the one who is good, or bad, not the tool that was used to do the task at hand. The people who use any tool, are the ones who are responsible for the end results. To blame the tool, is to take the responsibility away from the one who used it. By doing so, we are shielding that person from the consequences that should come for the use, or misuse, that person has to face. If we want to people to use technology in a way that benefits all, or at least do...

I find it somewhat funny that most people still believe that using a Linux distro would be using a command line interface like this: When most distros would use a graphic user interface like this: Although the user interface varies from distro to distro, most of the time there is no need to use a command line interface. Most of the daily tasks can be made without the need of entering the terminal emulator , which makes life a lot easier and less daunting for the average user. In the seven years I've been using Ubuntu, or Linux Mint, the amount of time I've to use the terminal has been dropping significantly. So much so, that it can be more than a month before I make any use of the terminal, and most of the time is to uninstall old kernels to make space for the current one. As such, it has become more user friendly for the average user. This is specially true for distros like Ubuntu, and Linux Mint, since most, if not all, can be done without the use o...

On daily basis, I use a laptop at home and a desktop at work. As such, I've found that if given the choice I'd rather use a laptop the whole time. Though desktops will always be more powerful, for my workflow a laptop is just a much better fit. It gives the flexibility of use I like, and especially I don't need to have that much of a powerful CPU, or GPU, for what I do both at work and at home. The most important thing for me, is that a laptop is a much better fit for my lifestyle. I'm always on the move, not liking to stay at home for long periods of time. So, I like to go to a coffee shop to do some work just so I don't get to restless or simply to change my surrounding a bit. Not only that, even at the office I'd love to be able to move the computer around. Set it at my lap, or just move next to a window just to change the scenery a bit from time to time. Most importantly, I like the ability to take my work with me without worrying about havi...

It seems that Apple finally understood that prioritizing function over form isn't always the best idea to create products that just work. The best products, the ones that just work, and look great, are the ones on which the designers understood how to balance the form and the function to make the product that works great and looks awesome. Putting to much emphasis on either the form, or the function, is the recipe for creating the kind of products that will fail big time. If you put to much attention to form, you'll get a product that won't work at least at well as people needs it to work. At wort, you'll get something completely unusable, since many of the items that need to be there for the product to work as the user needs it to won't be there. On the other hand, if you go only by function you'll get products people won't use because they are uncomfortable to use, there is no easy way to figure out how to use it, or simple people won't p...

With so much misinformation, and lies being spread around social media, media in general and the Internet, it has become harder to know what to believe or who to trust. Specially when that misinformation resonates with core beliefs of people unwilling to do some extra research, or just look for more information to collaborate what they came by before making up their mind. All of these becomes more insidious, when you add into the mix the fact that there are many that aren't capable to question what they come the information they come by. Many just take it on face value, which in some cases can lead to the wrong conclusions about the subject of the news they heard about. Critical thinking is a skill that needs to be learned, and even easier to take for granted for those who learn to think in such a way. So much so, that it takes many by surprise that many people out there didn't learn to think critically. Which makes it hard to communicate with them, since some don'...

One of the things I look forward every October, is the release of a new Ubuntu comes along. Although I currently use Linux Mint, Ubuntu's 19.10 Eoan Ermine release is tempting me to make the jump back. Ubuntu holds a special place for me, since it has the first Linux distro I used full time. Also, its the one of the OSes that I find that are better suited for the uses I give my personal computers. So, I always keep an eye on what's new with each release in order to see if there is enough there to make me want to make the jump back. I've to admit that ever since the 19.04 Disco Dingo came out, the idea of coming back to Ubuntu has grown stronger. In some ways, is a sense of nostalgia that makes me want to return to the distro on which that started me on the use of a Linux distro. But there's the fact that how Ubuntu implements GNOME's on the desktop environment , makes a bit of a better fit for my daily use. It simply helps things flow when I'm using m...

It's somewhat interesting, or sad, how people tend to see technology either what will save or destroy humanity. It seems that for most of these people it's hard to understand that any technology just has the potential help us go either way. At the end of the day, it all depends how we use technology which will determine if its impact on our lives will be positive or negative. All new technologies will change how we relate to the world around us, but its the use we give that will determine the benefits we can expect from them. Most of the time, most will take the easy path of blaming any technology rather than accept that it was misused. While is true that some technology has been proven to do more harm than good, most of the time is the misuse of technology that brings harm. Even fear, in many shapes, has come into play for either not accepting it or for its misuse. In a way it seems like people loves how technology makes their life easier, but they don't want ...