Going on with less cash.

After a few weeks working from home, I've come to use cash far less than I did before. Most of the purchases I do on regular basis, I can do using credit, or debit, cards of via electronic transfers. As such, I don't need cash as much as I used to.

To be honest, even before the start of the pandemic my use of cash had be declining for some for years now. Working from home only accelerated the trend, with no sign that my use of cash would increase any time soon. As it stands, there is no really a good reason for me to carry much cash.

The need of having cash with me, or at least large amount of it, is becoming less important for me. I just need small amounts, since most of payments I've to do by electronic ways. Most importantly, is that I can actually choose not to use cash on my every day life.

In a way, I've seen this coming a long way ahead. Yet, it still got me by surprise since it came in a way I wasn't expected to come by.

For me, not having to worry about having to have cash at hand, makes my life a lot easier. Mainly because I don't have to withdraw money often, which gives me a lot more flexibility of what to do with my time, and not having to worry about getting it stolen. As time goes on, more and more places are starting to accept payments by credit and debit cards, or by electronic transfer, which make my need for cash even less.

Time will tell if my use of cash will keep decreasing, or just stays the same.

Need to change the education system.

As time goes by, I've come to the realization that the problem isn't the amount of information that its available online, but there are many who don't have a way to process information critically in order to differentiate which information is relevant and useful from misinformation. Most people just are able to just memorize facts and figures, but not processing information.

The problem isn't the amount of information out there, but that our education systems put emphasis on memorizing, rather then on giving students the ability to actually process the information they come across, in order to learn new things and make decisions based on that information.

Simple memorization is not longer useful, but rather the ability to process new information and to internalize it in order to be able to act on it in the best possible way according to the needs we have at the moment. What we need now, is that people are able to go through new information and have the ability to use it almost in real time.

As technology is becoming taking over most of the repetitive stuff we do, we need to make sure more people can make the transition to jobs that require the ability to process information and make decisions made upon those new inputs. The main problem is that a large proportion of the population doesn't have that ability, and they are being left behind.

The world is changing at the pace, and direction, that makes it almost impossible for them to adapt to it. Many simply don't have the skills needed to be able to do so, and no place were they can actually learn them to be able to adapt. It isn't that they are unwilling to do so, they cannot adapt because they lack the skills to do so.

While the job market have changed on what it needs, workers haven't kept up to those changing needs because they can access the skills they need. The way we see education needs to change.

Having a good experience with a Motorola One Fusion.

Recently I got a Motorola One Fusion, since the device I was using for about 3 years nos was starting to show its age. After a couple of months of usage, I must say it was quite a good choice. It works quite well for me, since it cover all my needs and expectations about how a smartphone should work.

It also cements mid-range smartphones as my go to option, and Motorola as one of my top 3 brands. Motorola has been one of the brands I usually take as an option, but now having hands on experience with one of their devices it has really come to be one of the main options. It also gets extra points due to the fact that its easy for me to get it unlocked from the start.

The other one would be Nokia, because of the good reviews and of nostalgia, but its hard to get one of their devices in Mexico unlocked from independent stores.

I prefer to get my smartphones unlocked from the get go, mainly as a safeguard in case I need to change carrier for whatever reason. Specially since smartphones are quite expensive, and I don't really like to change them if the one I'm currently using still is in working order.

Though I've toying with the idea of trying an iPhone, my current smartphone kind of makes it harder for me to make the jump to the iPhone. With each new version of Android I get to use, the user experience keeps getting better for me. In more than one way, Android just works for me.

Challenges of adapting to the future workplace.

The kind of jobs performed by people has changed a substantially in the last hundred years. Most manufacturing jobs now are done by robots, or are done using tools that weren't available a couple of decades ago.

Many people have shifted to jobs either service industry, or an administrative position. For many, there is a lot more knowledge about the tools, or systems, needed to be effective in the job they do. They need to be able to use software, or a tool, on which there is a certain level of training needed to be able to even use it.

As time goes on, even a bigger share of the manufacturing jobs will be done by machines, with only a few minority be left to specialized workers. Most people will need to move other jobs, and receive the training to be able to do those jobs. That is why education needs to change faster, since the current system is educating people for jobs that most likely won't exist in the next couple of decades.

This will have a huge impact in all aspects of society, making it vital to make sure we can actually give society as a whole what it needs to make the shift to the new ways all this changes will make.

Society as it stands today, isn't fully ready to cope with the changes technology is doing to the way we work. Many people don't have the skills needed to shift to new jobs, and no way to access the training to get them. This puts them in a disadvantage, since they won't be able to get a new job to replace the income they lost, or get access to better paying jobs.

As a society we need to put in place the structure were access to education and training is accessible for all. If not, we face a future where a large amount of people won't be able to have access to a job because they don't have access to the education or training. Even today, there are people who can't get a better job simply because they can't access the training, or curses, needed to get them.

In a way, that future is now if we don't want to be overrun by it.

Working from home.

I've been doing home office full time for the last week, and it was better than I expected it to be. It help me validate that I can all do all my work, and be effective at it, from home. Since I can access all the software I need to do my work via a remote desktop, and I can contact my coworker vie a phone call, Whats App, or an email, there is little or no need for me to be at the same place than my boss or coworkers.

Besides, not having to go to the office itself saves me a lot of time and I find that even though at times work still piles up, I'm a lot less stressed about work. Though there is some adaptation to do, I do prefer to do home office. While I do miss seeing some of my coworkers in person, I do prefer working from home since I feel like I'm more effective doing home office.

If any change is required, I'd rather just having to go to the office once or a couple of times a week for a few hours. That way, I'll get to get out of the house a bit more while still benefiting from working from home most of the time.

To me personally, home office is something that works for me.

Changes on how, and where, we work need to come.

It's interesting to see how while some people already have the skills, and tools, to work from home effectively, most of the time they are reluctant to that option. It looks like that, while it could be more beneficial for them to do home office, the idea of making such a change is not one that come easy for them.

While it is true that home office is not the best option for everyone, many could be even more effective working from home. Specially those whose presence at the physical location of their company is not really required and the time to get to and from there is to long. Today, there are ways to get all the information they need from they coworkers without having to be at the same place, and with the advent of tools like remote desktops to access the tools they need from where ever they happen to be with an Internet connection, it becomes even more practical to work remotely.

Even a hybrid model, make people anxious about working remotely. Even when there is talk about the amount of time needed to get to work, or not having enough time for personal stuff, the idea of working remotely and getting some extra for personal use by not having to go work in other place, is a change not everyone is willing to make. It seems that they believe that not being present at the office all the time will make them irrelevant, even when they can give better results working from home.

To be honest, in many cases a hybrid work model would be most beneficial for most company and workers. Being able to work from home some days, while going to the office on others, would be both the companies and the employees more flexibility on their time management to be more effective at their jobs. With the benefit that people would be more happy and feeling more in control of how they work.

While it would require a lot of change to get the model to work, the tools are already there to make it work and the people already have the skills to use them effectively. The only thing lacking now, is the will to actually implement the changes, and to seem the through.

Falling behind with the technology that could help us get ahead.

I've noticed at work that there is a lot of misgivings about using technology we have at hand to work in better, even if it means doing things in a different way. It feels like people are scared of changing how we have worked so far, even when it has proved to work and it is better for us to make the changes to the processes to benefit everyone involved.

It feels like we are wasting valuable opportunities to improve things in ways that will benefit both the costumers and us in the long run. We could be finding ways to better serve our costumers, while making work easier and more enjoyable for us using the tools already in place. There is room for improvement, but the baseline is already there to start the move, and make in a way that that will help us improve our workflow with the input of those who will interact with tools directly.

As it is, I feel we are chasing what others are already doing instead of setting things in our own terms. Investment is done to catch up with were technology is now, instead of at least riding the wave. We are behind the curve, and its putting a lot of strain on how much we can compete in the marketplace.

The biggest hurdle is that there is a lack of will to do something about it, and it taking a negative tool on everyone. Hope time would prove me wrong, but it seems it won't be that way.

Right of repair should be a given.

The right to repair the things we own shouldn't be something that a president had to issue a executive order about. It should be a given, that if we legally acquired something, we should be able to have it repaired if that fits out needs.

Not only that, there should be a whole ecosystem of third party shops where we are able to get the repairs done if we so choose to have it done. There is a whole set of reasons why we should be legally able to do so, from price to convenience of access, that the manufactures of our devices shouldn't be able to stop us from getting repairs from third parties.

For third party shops to be able to repair our devices, there is no need for them to have full access to all the trade secrets of the manufacturer of the device. Just enough information to be able to perform repairs, just have access to the information needed to do the repair and the parts to make a quality repair.

Companies that block the right of repair of people, are not looking out for their customers. They are looking for their own bottom line, forcing their customers to either pay the what they ask for or buying new replacements for the device that broke down. Their best interest, is not always the best interest of their customers.

Repairing our things should be a normal part of the life cycle of all products. Extending the life our things, specially our electronic devices, is a good thing for the environment , since it helps to reduce e-waste. Most damage that most electronic devices encounter before they need to be replace is an easy fix, and as such it should be encourage to be fixed.

At the end, as owners of our devices, we should have the final say when we replace them and when only fixing them is what we need. When we buy them, they belong to us.

The companies that manufacture them don't have a say in when we replace them, or where we have them fixed.

Android vs iPhone.

The whole Android vs. iPhone thing is something that really has bugged my for quite some time now. As an Android user, I can see some ways iOS is better. The same goes for the hardware itself, there some things I really like about the iPhone that I wish Android devices had.

Yet, there is simply no motive for me to make the jump to the iPhone. Android, and the devices that run Android, simply work better for me. The only thing I really somewhat envy from the iPhone ecosystem is the amount of holsters made for it. Other than that, Android devices are just a better for my usage.

What irks me the most, is when the iPhone is directly compared to the low end of Android devices. There is no competitions there, and the manufactures of those devices aren't even trying to compete with the iPhone. Low end Android devices are targeted for people that just need a basic smartphone, with a low price.

To make matters worse, even high end Android manufactures most of the time try to cater users in ways Apple doesn't. They know that directly competing with the iPhone can be a losing proposition, so they try to make the sale by not directly comparing themselves with the iPhone.

In many ways, they even cater to people who wouldn't consider the iPhone for several reasons. For one, the price range of the iPhone can be too high for what some people are willing to fork over a smartphone. And even those who are willing to pay the price of an iPhone, the iPhone simply doesn't appeal to them since in certain circles is has become to common.

At the end of the day, smartphones are just a tool that should work for each user. For some the iPhone is the one, and for others an Android device is the answer.

Most importantly, as Android and iOS have been developed over time there has been cross-pollination between both OSes. Somethings have been implemented first on Android, to later make the jump to iOS and vice-versa. The idea that all innovation has occurred only on one side is just plain wrong.

So, instead of trying to push down the throat of people your favorite one let people just choose the one that works for them.

Android just works better for me.

When the first iPhone, followed by the Android smartphones that followed the form factor, I admit I was somewhat doubtful that it work for me. At the time I had a Nokia E63, and if I preferred a physical keyboard at the time. The first smartphone without a physical keyboard that caught my eye was the Nokia N8, since Nokia was my go to smartphone brand at the time, and I really like the Symbian OS at the time.

When the time came to change my smartphone, I decided to give Android a try with a device that had Android KitKat on it. It impressed my for the better, specially since Android does all what I want it to do in ways iOS doesn't do.

At the moment I just got a Motorola One Fusion with Android 10, and Android just keeps giving me what I expect, and need, my mobile devices to do. While I've tested some iPhone devices, Android based ones simply work better for me. I admit that the iPhone and iOS are pretty good, but Android just works better for me.

As time goes by, Android devices are just the best fit for my use of my mobile life. To the extent that when I have to replace my smartphone, to make the jump to the iPhone is something I don't really consider. I might jump between OEMs on the Android side of smartphones, but the jump to iOS is not worth it for me.

I just prefer the experience Android gives me.

A better office setup.

I've been using my laptop that runs Linux Mint at work as a test for a week now, and so far it has been quite a good experience. To do my work, I mainly use Remmina to access the remote desktop we use to access the software we use to manage things, and do invoices for our customers. I also use WhatsApp desktop app to communicate with the coworker that sends the remissions to be invoiced and fulfilled for our customers.

The current setup I use at work is the one showed in the picture, and it has proven to be far better than trying to use a single monitor or using my smartphone to monitor WhatsApp for the remissions to be invoiced and passed over to be fulfilled.

I never imagined that I could use my current setup as easily as I'm doing it now. While I have been able to work from home when needed using Remmina, the idea to be able to do so at the office was an idea I was playing with for quite sometime. I really didn't went tried it because I wasn't sure I could setup the network printer we use to print the remissions and the invoices from Remmina.

Turns out that it was quite an easy task to do, and it hasn't given me any problems at all. What has actually help me to work better, is that I can use the external monitor just for Remmina while I use my laptop's monitor to check the information needed to look for without having to minimize Remmina each time I need to check.

As time goes by, the benefits of my current setup become more obvious and it makes harder to go to using just one monitor. What is more important in a personal lever, is that it proves that Linux distros can be more widely adopted in more use cases by regular people.