Tsikbal: from my perspective

The purpose of technology should always be enhancing humanity, not being its substitute. If any new technology doesn't enhance our life in a positive way, it isn't worth developing. Technology shouldn't be something that to be feared, but it should be something useful for people. All technological development should put peoples needs and interests first, so that it makes their lives better and enjoyable. It should be adding value to our lives, not subtracting from it. People should be at the center of every technological development. There should be clear commitment to make the world a better, and how it'll meet that commitment. There shouldn't be any development just for the sake of doing so, just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done. The purpose of all and every technology is to be at the service of society. There should be no need to question this, and it should be the basis for all technological development. It doesn'...

The Internet, and other communication technologies, won't bring revolutionary change by themselves. These are just tools, and the contributions they bring are dependent on how people use them. At the end of the end, people are the ones who make change happen. If they don't act, that change they want won't come at all. What the Internet and other technologies bring to the table, is a way by which people can inform themselves and organize to act to do what they believe it must be done. People are the ones that must act in order to bring change, and technology is the tool that can help us to make that change a reality. And the Internet, mobile phones, among other technologies, give us a real chance to organize ourselves to bring the change we want. More than ever, people can have the control over how they interact with each other in order do what's needed to make a difference. Now more than ever people building the society they want is no longer a dream, but s...

The possibilities that modern technology are almost limitless, and any limitation that currently exists can be made mute by giving it enough though and effort to make it through. It's easy to say that this or that isn't possible, but history shows that where theres a will theres a way. It comes down to asking the right questions, and to face the problem with the right mind set. More often that not, when we fail to see how we can solve a problem it isn't because the problem is unsolvable. It's because we aren't able to see beyond what we have right in front of us. The answer might be where we least expect it to be, but we have to be able to see it by not closing our minds to it. Just because something hasn't been done before, it means that it can't be done. Quite often the main limitation to solve a problem is not it's difficulty, but that we can't seem to be able to think on ways to solve it. We limit our possibilities to what we know, n...

Technology can be as humanizing, or dehumanizing, as each user wants it to be. All comes down on how the user handles technology, and what use is made out of technology on daily basis. It's true that technology is a double-edged sword, since it can be used to enhance social interaction or thwart it. Yet this is not the fault of technology itself, since technology can not make choices for the user. At the end the one making choices on how it's used is the user, technology is just the medium that facilitates the action that derives from the choices made by the user. The argument that technology is the origin, and end, of all what's wrong with society is shortsighted to say the least. It doesn't take into account a host of other factors that make people use the technology they use they way they do. Or how we can give people the tools to avoid the pitfalls that comes with any technology. At the other hand, technology by itself wont solve all the problems that h...

One of the best things about FOSS(free and open-source software), is that users have choice over their computer experience in all aspects. With open source, software adapts to they users needs, not the other way around. FOSS isn't about being free in the sense of having no monetary cost, or that developers can't have a profit from their work. FOSS is about the users freedom to control their software, and hardware, by being able to study, modify and redistribute any piece of software installed on their computers. In many ways, is putting the users freedoms ahead of other concerns. It's about people and the communities they make to work on the same objectives, or people just getting together to share what they are passionate about. It's time to put users freedoms at the forefront of software development, and not the interests of corporations and their profits. All software needs to protect the freedoms of its users as principle, and serve their interests as w...

The perception that science and technology are boring and hard to understand, are two persistent misconceptions. Those perceptions steam from how they are presented to society at large, we are told that they are that way all the time. Adding the fact that our schools systems seem to be on the business of teaching it so it becomes boring, making it harder for our children to become interested on them. Since we remember how science classes where boring, it becomes evident that it becomes hard to understand because people had no incentive to study science in a way they can make sense of it. Not only that, in many ways science classes don't tie what they teach with technologies, or other instances, on which what it's being teach is applied. So, many just don't see why science is useful, or how it's part of their everyday life. If we want to keep moving science forward, and to benefit from its fruits trough new technologies, we need to give people at least worki...

When I think about getting a new laptop, the first question that comes to mind is which design is one that I'll be happy to use for at least the next 2-3 years. That is that minimum amount of time I expect any good laptop to last with the type of use I give to my laptops. As a matter of fact, I could use one up to 5 years before I need to change it because it can't be repaired or because the specs are not up to my everyday usage. My current laptop has about 3 years, and I can safely say that could last about 1 more year. So, it's time for to start thinking about the replacement. The only two factors that aren't subject to change are that it has to be able to run Ubuntu, and that the screen size shouldn't be less than 13". All other aspects are variable, and all depends on what offering are on the market that meet the prior two requirements while being something that I can see me using for at least 2 years. I want it to last for at least that lo...