Back to Linux Mint.

After a couple of years I decided to come back to Linux Mint. I was prompted to make the jump back after learning Ubuntu is going back to use GNOME 3 as its desktop environment by the 18.04 LTS.

Though I somewhat like GNOME 3, it doesn't really fit my needs or expectations. And while there are ways to make it work like Unity, personally I rather not do so if I can use another desktop environment that works and feels from the start.

Linux Mint has been, along with Ubuntu, one of my favorite operating systems. I usually elected Ubuntu because Unity had a slight advantage over Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop environment. The main reason for this was that Unity was a better fit for me, and that I simply liked it a bit more. I've always found Linux Mint to be a solid Linux distro, I just felt that Cinnamon had to mature a bit more.

The version of Linux Mint I'm using now is the 18.1 Serena, using Cinnamon 3.2.7. So far, I really would recommend it to anyone who wants a solid easy to use OS. Cinnamon has really come a long way, and has earn its place as my favorite desktop environment. In a way it gives credence to Linux Mint motto that from freedom came elegance.

And it not only helps Linux Mint an elegant OS, it makes it easy to use while it has a lot of ways to make it look and feel like you want it to. You can really make it feel yours easily.

Coming back to Linux Mint really felt like coming back home. And this time I'm planning to stay.

Smartphones, a the computer that we don't take as one...

Most people seem oblivious to that a fact that the smartphone they carry around everyday in their pocket, is in fact a mobile computer. As such, smartphones give us a whole new way on how we can interact with other people and the world in general.

Smartphones allow us to keep in contact with people and share with them, both in real time and asynchronously, in ways that were unimaginable even a few years ago.

Now the real question is what, with who, and how much should we share. Oversharing has become a real problem, as has sharing things with people we never intended in the first place. The fact that we can share any aspect of our lives, and our opinions, so easily makes it harder to make the choice.

As such, our privacy can be compromised if we don't give proper attention to what, and how, we share what we do. As such, one can't be to careful on these two aspects, since the negative effects of not being careful can have a huge impact in our lives.

The fact that we can share everything with everyone who is willing to pay attention to us, means that we should do so. Once we make public something, its almost impossible to take it back.

To be honest, the problem is not the smartphone or the apps that allows us to do so. The problem is that people need to be aware of this, and also of the tools that can help them to manage what they share. There is a need to educate on how best manage our social media.

As many technologies have done before, smartphones are redefining what it means to be human. And its upon us to make sure that the new definition is the best one we can make.

Evie Launcher, one more app why I love Android...

I've been an Android fan for some time now, yet until recently I have used the launcher that came installed on the Mobo device I got.

About 3 weeks ago I decided to try out some new launchers on the Mobo MB405(link in Spanish) I got , since the one it has by default didn't really make it for me.

After looking around a bit, I decided to give the Evie Launcher a try. Ever since I started using it, I fell in love with it. It's design, and just how it works, its very intuitive for me. From the start, it has been the best launcher app for how I use my smartphone.

When I decided to give Evie a try, I did have some reservations about it. Yet, after 3 weeks of using it on a daily basis I just feel in love with it. I've been using Android for at least a couple of years now, and Evie is the first launcher that has made my devices feel as truly mine.

Mixed feeling about Ubuntu switching back to GNOME.

Since I heard the news that Ubuntu is switching back to GNOME by Ubuntu 18.04 LTS next year, I must admit I've some mixed feeling about it.

I do understand the move, yet Unity has become my favorite user interface. Unity just works for me, and though you can make GNOME look like Unity I still would prefer not having to do that.

Back when Ubuntu used GNOME 2, I loved it. It simply it was a joy to use, and it was one of the main reasons why I want for Ubuntu as my distro of choice.

Then GNOME 3 came along, and while I do like it, I made the jump to Linux Mint to try it's Cinnamon user interface. At this time, it was a new piece of software and for whatever reason I hit a lot of bugs that interfered with my user experience. It has come a long way since then, and it became my 2nd favorite user interface.

At the time, I heard a lot of bad things about Unity. But, I decided to come back to Ubuntu and at least give it a try. I just fell in love with it, since it worked for me and the way it looks is just the way I want my desktop to look like out of the box.

To be honest, on the technical side of things I do thing is better for both Ubuntu and GNOME. Both sides will benefit from it, and most importantly Ubuntu users will get a great deal in the process.

Learn to set your pase based on the moment you are in...

It seems that many people has lost the ability to change pase, I mean to slow down or move faster depending on the situation they are at. The worst part of it, is that many seem unable to slow down and enjoy family, friends or just a nice meal.

Let's face it, the pase we are moving at has to go along with the moment we are at. Sometimes we have to speed things up, while in others we need to slow down. The ability to recognize these moments, and set our pase accordingly, is key not only for success, but for our well being. Not being able to speed up at the right moment means lost opportunities.

Yet, being unable to slow down means that we miss creating, or strengthening, bonds with people around us that make our lives a lot better. Also, it means we won't rest and recover physically and mentally to be take opportunities as they present themselves to us.

The key to find balance in our lives, is recognizing what's going around us and them set the pase that we need to make the most out of what is going on.

There isn't one pase on which to live life, the context of each passing moment is what should set the pase the dial in. Haste what needs to be, and linger on those moments that deserve it.

Time is one of out most precious treasures we have, and its one of the hardest to invest wisely.

Streaming services can be a win-win for artists and fans...

Music, TV series, and movies creator have had a thorny with the Internet. Its seen mostly as a enemy rather than an ally, since its easy for people to share media among themselves without the creators getting anything from their hard work.

The real question here isn't how to prevent people from sharing, but how to enable them to do so in a way that its easy and that benefits the creators as well.

Streaming services like Spotify, which I use and personally love, has make it a lot easier to listen to artist I already enjoy listening to and to discover new music. For me it has given me a practical way to enjoy music in a way that the artist can benefit as well, which is the ideal situation.

While I've issues with Spotify being proprietary, and that it uses digital rights management(DRM), I do believe its a step in a good direction to enable artists to receive the income they deserve. I'd love to see Spotify becoming free and open source software, and ditch DRM, its a start. And while there are free and open source options out there, like OBS Studio, none comes close to give me what Spotify does.

We need to give artists more reasons to use streaming services to release the music, and not to use DRM. It can be done, I do see these services as beneficial for the relationship of artists and their fans to connect with each other in a deeper way than ever before.

The question artists should be making is not why should they use streaming services. It should be how can I use it to make meaningful connections with my fans that are beneficial for everyone involved. Embracing it, and actively making it better way to make media available to fans, is way better than trying people stop using it.

The Internet is here to stay, and people will share media on it one way or another. So, how can we make it practical and easier for people to do so in a way that helps creator earn a living. I strongly believe that streaming services are key to make that a reality.

Make Mass Transit An Option...

The importance of public transit doesn't seem to understood by many, both by politicians and the common people as the attack on California's railroad shows.

There is a need to make it easier for people and goods to move around in other ways than cars, both locally and on longer trips. Cars aren't the most efficient or environmentally friendly way to do so, as such there need to be options to help people leave it behind that are as practical and easy as their car.

As cities grow, there is a need to move away from cars to really move as much people as possible in an efficient, friendly, and easy around. We need to make mass transit an integral part of our cities, one that adds value to them and the first option to move around them. In a way, we need to make people feel at home at their communities, not just at their house or apartment.

There need to many reasons for people want to get out and to know that happens around them. What local shops have to offer, and who patronize them. Who are their neighbors, and to make what happens on their community something worth knowing and being a part of it. A bus system, subways and the like can make this happen by allowing people to actually move in a way that allows meaningful interactions with their community and other people.

Mass transit benefits are to many to ignore, and they impact to many different areas of our lives in a positive way.

Only together can we build a better world...

One of the things that Donald Trumps actions as the US president have shown, is how interconnected the world has become. All countries, and their citizens, are connected to each other in some way.

Directly, or indirectly, all what one country does affects all others. The world has really become smaller, and we all can feel the impact of what happens in any other place in some way or another. We all have to face the fact that no country can so things all on its own, and that it's on everyone best interest to continue the integration to be able to improve every person quality of life.

The question isn't if global integration is good, its how to do so in a way that it benefits as many people as possible and how to reduce the negative effects.

Instead of building walls, we should be building bridges and trust. Only through cooperation can we hope to build a better future. Only by bringing people in, and giving them a stake on the future we want to build, there is a real chance that we can actually build such a future.

Dividing people, or trying to keep them divided, will only mean that we won't have the better world we all want and work hard to build. Only by working together, in concert with each other, there is a chance to build that world we want to live in.

The focus should be on making any one country great, but to help humanity as a whole achieve greatness together. Divided we'll fall, together we'll reach far beyond our wildest dreams.

Our data, our property...

The data we produce everyday, can turn out to be much more valuable than we imagine on our hyper connected world. Data is at the core of who we are, and could be used in our favor or against us.

Everything we do on daily basis, generates data that defines us in some way or another. In way, data can be seen as a way that could be used as a lens
through which others can build an impression of who we are.

It shows who we are, what motivates us to act a certain way, what are our philias and phobias. When put in context, that data can be used to reveal things that otherwise we wouldn't share. That's why is of upmost importance to protect it, since it can be used in ways that we don't intend to or are against our interests.

We should be able to decide what data we share, with who, and for what purposes. So it goes with who the data we shared can be forwarded to third parties, and for what purpose.

Even though our data is not something tangible, it should be considered as private property and treated as such. It has to be our right to choose to who we share data, what data we share and for what purpose. Any use of our data without our consent has to be prevented, and it's misused punished.

It should be a given that our data should be dealt with privately, only shared with third parties with our permission. Even how that data is shared should be in a way that we feel comfortable with, and for uses that we agree with.

At the end of the day, that data is an integral part of our identity. Because of this, it should be treated with utmost confidentiality.

A era comes to a close...

The first week of 2017, and Yahoo! decline seems to finally coming to it's end. Verizon is closing Yahoo as we know it, transforming it into an investment company called Altaba.

Yahoo! was acquired by Verizon last year, and it kind of makes sense for Verizon to make such a move. While in the 90's and some fo the 00's Yahoo was a force to be recon with the Internet, it has become rather irrelevant now.

People has moved on to other places, like Google, Facebook, or Twitter. Even the way people interact with the Internet has changed drastically, with many using a smartphone as their main, if not only, way to access it. We even use TV's and tablets to access some of the content on the Internet.

While Yahoo will become Altaba, it does mark an end of an era for some of us who have been around for a while. My second e-mail account was a Yahoo! one, which became my primary one since I didn't wanted to keep using my hotmail one.

I've mixed feeling about Yahoo's demise, since I've some fond memories of my experience using it's services. Yet, I've moved on to other services that better suit my need, like Gmail for my e-mail.

So, it seems time to bid farewell to Yahoo! and move to other things.

Spotify, DRM, and other musings...

This year my music listening habits have changed to listening to my music library and to Spotify.

I found that I really like Spotify, since it gives me the right balance of the music I like while letting me discover new music based on my tastes. It also has the plus that the artist get paid for their work.

There is only one thing that I don't like about Spotify, and it's use of digital rights management(DRM). I can't agree on the use of DRM, since it restricts users right to control the software that runs on their devices.

DRM is not the way to help artists make a living, since efforts should be concentrated on making it easier for user to support their favorites artists. Adding artificial restrictions like DRM doesn't do much for help artists, and harm the user in more than one way.

Instead of restricting users, ways to make easier to support artists should be made available. In some ways, artists, producers and content creators should realize that once their creations are made public, they lose some of the control over it. People will use their work for their own purposes, and there isn't much they can do to stop this from happening.

The business model of the music industry has changes, and thus the way of making money has to change as well. The relationship between artists and their fans has changed as well, as such artists have to adapt.

For better or worse, artists and producers don't have as much control over their creations as they did before. New channels need to be found in order for them to be able to make a living.