Tsikbal: from my perspective

Over the years, Spotify has become a staple of my daily life. While I still have my favorite music on my laptop's drive, Spotify has become my preferred way to listen to music, and podcasts , on the go.   While I do listen to music on the Spotify Linux desktop app, I find that it has become the main way I listen to music and podcasts on my smartphone while I'm on the go. I enjoy more the experience of doing so than having to connect my smartphone to my laptop in order to copy my music library to it. Besides, Spotify gives me far more options to listen to while on the go. What I like the most about using Spotify on my smartphone, is that I don't have to worry much about filling the memory. I can choose from a far wider library of options than I could otherwise. In a way, I feel that I can take all my music with me to access at a moments notice. The limits of the amount of music at my finger tips feel almost non existent. While there a few titles that aren't available, t...

With the amount of information at our fingertips that smartphones, and computers connected to the Internet is easy to get lost the shear available. It has become a question of being able to ask the right questions, not if the information we are looking for is there.   The ability to filter out the information out there to find which is relevant, is becoming one of the most important abilities to have to be able to actually function in the modern world. It has become easy to get lost among the sea of information available for any given subject, even not to know what sources to trust. Feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information bombarding us almost continuously, makes it easy to become numb to it. This can be a problem in the long sun, since it can make it easy for some not be able to access the relevant information for their needs. Without that information, it becomes harder to make the right decision. Which becomes worse when one takes into account that there are people who ...

Linux has stopped to be just for techies for quite some time now, with distros like Linux Mint and Zorin OS it has become far easier for people with not much technical skills to actually use a Linux distro with ease to do what they do on Windows or macOS . Both Linux Mint, and Zorin OS, come with all the software that most people already uses on Windows, or macOS, or something that can be a direct replacement for what they have been using so far. Besides, most distros now come with a software store that allows to install with a few clicks the software that doesn't come installed by default. Dropbox , Zoom , and Spotify can be installed quite easily this way. Most distros use either Chrome or Firefox as default, or both can be easily installed via the software store used by the distros. Since Chrome and Firefox are supported, accessing Disney+ , Netflix , or Amazon Prime Video is something you do as you do on Windows or macOS using said web browsers. The same can be said of...

One of the things I like the most about Linux , is that the user can pick and choose the desktop environment that works for her/him. When I made the jump to Linux, I Linux distro of choice was Ubuntu using GNOME 2 . Now, Linux Mint using Cinnamon has become my favorite Linux distro. This combination just works for me, and it runs like a charm on all laptops I've installed it on. For while I used Ubuntu with Unity , but when they decided to drop it in favor of a highly customized version of GNOME 3 I decided to move to Linux Mint. The idea that the user can choose the desktop environment that just works for her/his workflow, is a big benefit. Computers are a tool, an as such users have to be able to make it work according to their needs. The desktop environment they use is one of the most important ones, since its one of the things users interact directly when using a computer. While the number of desktop environments on Linux have consolidated somewhat over the past five years...

The idea that computer hackers are bad by default is not true. While some hackers are malicious, many hackers are not out to do bad things. Many hackers got into hacking out of curiosity, wanting to know how computers and software work or extend their capabilities. Hackers have a set of skills that can be used for good or bad, depending on the individual. This is true for anything that people do, skill sets are not good or bad in themselves. Yet, in a world that ever more dependent on computer systems to work, hackers are described as people who are out  to no good by many media outlets. Yet, hackers can be a force for good. In fact, a good proportion of them use their skills to actually improve computer systems we use. Some by helping patching vulnerabilities in the computer systems, others by finding ways to extend their capabilities, while others help keep systems alive that have been dropped by their original developers. As computer systems become more important for our daily ...

I've been using either Ubuntu or Linux Mint on my daily driver computer since 2005, and it has been a great experience. For the most part, it has been so good that I haven't had to really be conscious about the fact I run a Linux distro for the most part. Since 2018 I've settled on Linux Mint, mainly because changes on Ubuntu has made Linux Mint the better option for my needs. All the software I use on my personal life is available, and works great, on Linux Mint. The best part, is that it has been getting better over time, and I haven't faced any mayor issue with Linux Mint at all. What has made the whole experience better, is that I'm able to work using Linux Mint from both the office and home. Since we need to connect to a remote desktop, no matter where we are, being able to do so with no issue from my laptops using Remmina , has meant that I can keep working as usual using my laptop without any problems at all. So much so, that the IT department at work are fin...

Personally, what is pulling people apart isn't technology in itself. What is pulling people apart, is how people use technology. Most often than not, people use technology use technology to hide when the world they face isn't one that allows them to engage others in a healthy way. When the world around them is one that facilitate the use of technology to connect with others in a healthy way, technology become another tool to do so. Yet, when the world people face is one that is toxic, technology acts as a shield to hide from it. There is also how we were thought to interact not only with technology, but also with how to deal with our emotions when things don't go as we want, or expected, them go. If we aren't thought to deal with our emotions, and view technology as a tool and not as a replacement for the world around us, it becomes quite easy to use said technology to hide from our emotions and the world. There is a need to stop blaming technology for people hiding beh...