Tsikbal: from my perspective

Each time I upgrade my Android smartphone , I get remained why Android has become my go to mobile operating system . While the iPhone and iOS are great, Apple fails to give what I expect from an smartphone at a price point that's good for me. My Motorola One Fusion started to restart itself at random times, and getting stock on while booting, so I decided to upgrade my smartphone taking advantage of the discounts of the El Buen Fin here in Mexico. After a couple of weeks of shopping, and doing some research, I choose the Nothing Phone 1 . The Nothing Phone 1 is a really solid mid-range Android smartphone, that comes with a near vanilla Android. The biggest change it has from stock Android, is the Nothing OS user interface . While Nothing OS is quite nice, I changed to Discreet launcher , which has become my go to Android launcher. The Nothing Phone 1 has proven to be an upgrade from the Motorola One Fusion in every aspect. While the Motorola One Fusion was a solid smartphon...

Elon Musk take-over of Twitter , has made it a lot more toxic than it already was before. While there was toxic behavior before hand, as in many other social media sites, it was kept at somewhat acceptable levels. Yet, since Elon Musk took over there has been a increased level of toxicity from people who believe that free speech means they shouldn't face the consequences of its use. Seems like those people believe that any kind of moderation on what they post is censorship, when in reality good moderation is there for people being able to have a base level of respect and security. The fact that people seem to believe that they should be able to say whatever push back is something to be expected. The irony is that they don't really expect it in reality, since they are conscious that you can't say all you think all the time. There is always some level of moderation, even censorship, in our everyday interactions. Not saying all we have in our mind is something we have to do i...

Since Monday I couldn't stream Disney+ on the Linux Mint laptop I use to stream media, and it turns out that its a bug that prevents the service to stream on Linux. To be honest it was quite confusing, since I've been able to stream Disney+ for more a year now without any issues. What's more, that Netflix , and Prime Video , continue to work as usual only added to the frustration. Hope the issue on Disney+ gets resolved soon, since it should be an issue since they have official support for Linux for quite a while now. Users should be able to use any OS they like on their computer, and should be able to access any service they like on the Internet . This specially true for payed sites, like streaming services. The Internet has to be built on open standards , since it has become the one of the most important public forums, and repository of knowledge humanity has seen so far in history. The Internet has become a piece of infrastructure vital for the world as we know it. Al...

Afer Elon Musk took over Twitter , there has been a lot of talk about how freedom of speech will be restored to the platform and such. The thing is that, those claiming that their freedom of speech was breached by being banned from Twitter forget a couple of things. To begin with, freedom of speech doesn't mean one is free from the consequences of exercising it. People can answer you back, stop talking to you, or sue you for defamation . There are some other consequences you could face, both positive or negative, but there you can't escape from them. Secondly, Twitter is private company. As such, it can ban of using its platform to spread speech that goes against the user agreement. When you open an account on any social media platform, everyone agrees to a set of rules to follow. If a user breach the user agreement, the platform can ban the user. Who can't take away your freedom of speech is the government, and you can't be banned from used public forums. Yet, that do...

The fact the the right to repair our cars, electronics, home appliance, and other thing we own, isn't a given or something that has to be legislated about is ludicrous. The option of repairing thing that we own, like smartphones and microwaves, should always be an option. Specially since being able to extend the life of devices helps our pockets, since most of the time repairing is cheaper that replacing, it also means less waste over time. Yet, most importantly we paid to be able to fully own our devices. Companies shouldn't be able to artificially restrict our right to repair what we own, by raising artificial walls to prevent us to repair the devices we purchased from them. That we can't repair our devices artificially shortens the lifespan of our devices, and only benefits the companies by forcing us to buy a new one we want it or not. Not only that, repairs should be able to be performed by third parties or even by the owners of the devices. Such repairs shouldn'...

When I jump to using Ubuntu full time on my personal computer about a decade ago, I couldn't have imagined that I'd be using a Linux distro for my work as well. While I moved to Linux Mint since 2019, I've been able to do my job since 2022 without much trouble using Remmina to connect to the remote desktop I need to connect to do my job. The best part is that it has given me the chance to work remotely , which has allowed me to have more flexibility on how I manage my time and be more productive. My work place uses Windows computers for everything. So, when we had to start working remotely because of the pandemic, and bringing the desktop computer I used home with me, I was worried about losing some income because of it. Yet, with a few hours of research I found Remmina and it has worked like a charm ever since then. Actually, when I showed to the IT team at work, they were surprised how well it worked. Mainly because the software they had tried to use to connect to a...

Every time someone says they are against communism , because the government will come to take away their things I get they don't really understand what communism is about. Communism isn't about communal ownership of everything. Personal things can be privately owned, yet the means of production is what would fall in communal ownership. What this means, is that you could own your car but the factory that produced it would be own by the workers or community. Government ownership of the means of production is not the what communism seeks, but that the workers become the owners of the means of production. At the end of the day, governments as we think of today are not needed in a communist society. While communism was created as a reactionary response to capitalism , how it should be implemented has changed as time has gone by. Free trade is seen as desirable, while the means of production remain in the ownership of the workers. Most importantly, communism doesn't mean everyo...

One of the things made a lot better for me by mobile apps , is my relationships with banks . Being able to manage my bank accounts , and my money, through my smartphone has made it a lot easier. Being able to access by money from where I am at the moment, independent of the time, has made managing my finances a lot easier. Not only that, being able to send or receive money at a moments notice, without depending having to go to a physical branch of my bank, makes it a lot easier to go out with friends without being worried if I've got enough cash with me. It also have made it a lot easier to reduce my need of cash, and to plan my expenses a lot better. Being able to have less cash with me, also helps me feel safer. Adding to that, that I don't need to have my debit card with me to withdraw money makes thing a lot more convenient for me. While there still some things that could be done to make it a lot better, like allowing to withdraw a bit lower denominations via the app, I sti...

It's borderline bizarre that a company like Apple , that paints itself as a progressive company, to have a hard stance against Apple store employees forming labor unions . Specially since the kind of person that tend to work at Apple Stores , tend to be people who would actually use the labor union as a body to actually negotiate in ways that benefit both the employees and the company. That even Starbucks has an anti labor union stance on their coffee shops is worrying, since it also tries to paint itself as a fair company with their workers and their providers. The fact that they are trying so hard to impede their workers to form labor unions, could also cast shadows on how fair are their deals with coffee growers. The common trend it the anti labor union stance of both companies, is that they view labor unions as perjudicial for everyone involved by default. The truth is that there are not, it comes down to how workers manage and how the company relates to the labor union. A w...

One of the things made apparent by social media , is that not everyone receives the same quality of education . Our education systems are failing society at large, by not giving every member of society the same education. Education is one of the elements that actually has a big impact on how society as a whole can advance, and build a better future for humanity as whole. Yet, it seems that if you don't have enough money, the education that have access to doesn't give the individual the tools needed to be able to adapt to the changing world or make the best of the opportunities presented by life. This is specially evident when critical thinking comes into play, or there is a need to process new information. There is a large segment of people who aren't capable to deal with changes in well, alright refusing to make any change no matter how beneficial it is to them. There are people whose education is not giving them the tools needed to be able to make the most, and benefit, ...

After about using Evie as my go to launcher for my Android smartphone, I started using Discreet launcher for a couple of weeks now. So far, Discreet has been the first launcher that I've actually liked enough to replace Evie for an extended period of time. Evie was my go to launcher, but it hasn't been updated by its original developer for a while. While it has been picked up by another set of developers, it has lost a bit of what I used to like about it. As such, I started to look for a replacement. It took a while since no launcher I tried game the combination of simplicity with the ability to use some of my favorite icon sets like Delta , or  Viral . I just prefer to use icons rather than texts on my launchers, its just a personal thing. Discreet is that launcher that just ticks most of the boxes of what I look for in a launcher. It isn't perfect match, since the search function just allows to search for apps, and to makes use of Google search. Yet, to be honest that ...