Tsikbal: from my perspective

The Internet has not only made access to information a lot more easier for more people than ever before. It also has made it easier to get founds for projects, either by traditional means or by crowdfunding . Sites like Patreon and Liberapay allow people that create media, or take new products to market, get funds for their project directly from people who are interested on what they offer. Which means, that they don't have to go to traditional sources to get the funds they need. Other benefit is that many ideas and product that might get rejected on traditional channels, now can get produced with the help of those who find it interesting or useful. There are less gatekeepers that decide what the people funds, where from, or the people who get to fund them. While not everything that comes out with crowdfunding, it helps to better connect supply chains with those who want what they offer. In some ways, it helps to streamline the way things are produced and delivered. ...

As someone who enjoys technology, and believes that it can bring quite an improvement to our lives, I find it quite irksome to say the least when people try to push their particular favorite piece of tech as the absolute best. One of the most high profile being the Android vs iPhone discussions. Die hard fans of both platforms claiming that theirs is the absolute best, minimizing any of the negatives each platform has. The thing is, that is that the best will be the one that better fits to each person needs, and expects, from their smartphone. For some, an Android devices got their needs covered while for others the iPhone is the way to go. Forcing people to one or another without considering their needs is a recipe for making the whole experience a disaster, cementing quite a negative impression of the platform you gave them. Personal preferences aside, we need to start seeing each and every technology as a tool that will help us do something happen. As such, we need to s...

Up until a month ago, I used Spotify on my mobile device on the offline mode to listen to a couple of my playlists and on the desktop to stream music in order to discover new music or listen to a broader selection of my favorite artist and genres. With time I found myself using Spotify more on my smartphone while I'm commuting, or when I want to listen to music without having my laptop to enjoy some. As such, streaming from more playlist or radios became a lot more practical since that means not using as much storage on my smartphone or having to decide which ones to delete in order to make space for new one when I want to change playlist or discover new music. When music streaming services came along, I was somewhat skeptical about them. Now, Spotify has become a main part of my daily music consumption. It has helped me to enjoy the music in ways I didn't before. Not only that, it has enhanced the way I discover new music by allowing me to browse a larger library of...

Ever since I made the jump to Android a few years ago, I've really feel that the OS has been improving steadily. The first device I got, came with Android Gingerbread installed. To be honest, I was a bit doubtful when I made the jump coming from a Blackberry Curve. I really liked the physical QWERTY keyboard, ever since I started using it with a Nokia E63, and being a bit old school sometimes the whole touchscreen didn't attracted me all that much. But Android quickly won me over, it really made feel at home and easy to use. For the next devices one came Android KitKat , and the other with Android Lollipop . Both felt quite solid, and did more than enough to keep me on the side of Android. Last year, I got a device running Android Marshmallow . This version of Android made a really great impression for me on the technical side. It felt a lot more solid and stable for daily use, and cemented Android as my go to mobile OS. Yet, with  Marshmallow I still felt a bit j...

It's both, interesting and disconcerting how technology is either viewed as what will save or utterly destroy humanity. At the end of the day, technology is only a tool to be used for an end. Its our responsibility to use technology in such a way that helps move forward, in the best possible way. We'll have to deal with the consequences of its use, and how it is used. We've to pay close attention how the technology we use affects us, and make decisions depending on the results we are getting. Just because we have a technology doesn't mean that we have to keep using it if we get something better, or if we don't get the results we were hoping for. The idea that we have to use something just because it's there, is not a reason to do so. In many ways, technology is our best tool to make our lives better and to make changes for the better. It can do so by empowering people getting better education, or getting better information to make the best decision ...

After coming back to Linux Mint about a month ago back from Ubuntu, I've decided to stick with it from now. Ever since Linux Mint started using Cinnamon as it's desktop environment, I've been a big fan of it; though I liked Ubuntu's Unity shell a bit better since it did a better job for me. I've never really liked GNOME 3 all that much, I simply don't finish to feel comfortable using it. As such, Ubuntu going back to using it was an issue for me and one I'm not really willing to live with after about 3 months of using it daily. Although I can install both Unity and Cinnamon on Ubuntu, its an extra step I'm not willing to make. Also, I had some bad experiences with Ubuntu breaking my Cinnamon install with each upgrade. Finally, Linux Mint has been one of my 2 favorite Linux distros ever since I started using Linux. So, I see no reason to keep distro jumping when there is no good reason to do so. Besides, when Cinnamon 4 comes with Linux M...

As a free and open-source software advocate, I try to help people make to the move to software that its at least open-source . Personally, I run Linux Mint on my personal laptop, Mozilla Firefox my go to web browser, Mozilla Thunderbird my email client, and LibreOffice as my office suite. Rhythmbox is my go to audio player. All this apps work for me, so much so that I consider them indispensable to have on my system and are the ones I recommend the most since I used on daily basis. Yet, with time I've seen that not everyone would be served as well by these apps because their needs are completely different. Even for me, at work I can't use Linux Mint since we use SAP ERP , and Microsoft Office . As such, I've to use Windows for work. I still use Firefox for when I need to keep track of certain things I need to for my work. This has thought me that if you don't give people the right app, you are asking for trouble. There are some proprietary apps that...