Breaking the Prism #002 - Alternative app store for Android

In last article from Breaking the Prism series I presented idea of alternative ROMs for Android. Today I will discuss next step - breaking free form proprietary app stores.

Currently, there are two main application stores for Android. One is given by default with most of Android powered phones: Google Play. It is official application shop for Android and it is managed by Google itself. Second store is called Amazon Appstore. As you can expect, it is owned by Amazon.

What is the problem with those appstores? They are heavily interested about what are you installing. You need account to be able to install applications, even free. To be honest, I'm not even sure how much information exactly user is sharing with app store. But it seems way too much.

Of course, anyone can develop own application and install it on any supported phone. This application will be packaged into .apk file, which could be distributed freely. So if you find any particularly interesting app packaged into .apk, you can install it (with usual risk factor for installing apps from internet) on your device.

If you are interested in application which is not only available via mentioned stores, and this application is also FOSS, it is pretty big chance that it is also available through F-Droid. F-Droid is kind of app store. It is quite similar for example to Debian apt system. It means, that F-Droid is app that manages different software repositories, allow user to install software from those repositories, and track updates. It don't even have user accounts system.

How to install F-Droid? You need to enable installation from unknown sources on your device. Then you need to go to F-Droid website and download its .apk. After installation you are free to browse through repository and install any software you will find there. When you want to install something, F-Droid firs will download .apk and then will try to install it. Note that you will still have enabled installation from unknown sources.

There is one cool feature that F-Droid has. You can add other software repositories, so more software will appear in software browser. So lets add Guardian Project repositories. Doing it pretty easy. You need to go through Menu > Manage Repos > New Repository and input https://guardianproject.info/repo/ there. Then just Menu > Update and voilà, you have access to several new cool apps. I will describe some of them in later articles.

I hope that this simple description will help with considering picking application distribution channel for Android. Stay vigilant!

Is extropianism a humanitarian approach to being hacker?

Some time ago friend introduced me definition of Longevity Escape Velocity. I very like the idea of life extension. I was imminently sucked by similar topics and finally landed on transhumanism. Transhumanism is a idea to enhance human intelligence, physical and psychical abilities. It could be done for example by enhancement in medicine or by using technological add ons like implants. Overall idea is very broad, and I'm not planning to discuss it here. I would like to discuss subset of transhumanism called extropianism.

First of all, here is a nice introductory article about extropianism and general principles that emerge from this philosophy. For me, those principles were very familiar, but I wasn't sure from where. But someday, when I was discussing something related to Hackerspace ideology I connected my definition of being hacker with definition of being extropian.

Lets examine those rules, step by step:

• Perpetual Progress - every hacker is optimizing things and system around him/her. And this is called hacking.
• Self-Transformation - constant learning, getting familiar with new tools and ideas, using new technologies - those are also attributes of hackers. Every one of us knows his limitations but also tries to improve himself in those areas.
• Practical Optimism - this varies from day to day. We have persons like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Aaron Swartz which are connected to not-so optimistic view on the past and future. On the other hand, with movements like free software, creative commons, open source hardware combined with MOOCs and Wikipedia like sites, average hacker could be also optimistic about future. Today, we have access to incredible large amount of knowledge and information - we just need to use it and everything will be better with some luck.
• Intelligent Technology - should I mention that practically every modern technology was created by hackers?
• Open Society - we don't have anything to hide. We even created an ideology of free software and derivatives to protect our work. 
• Self-Direction - every hacker that I know is a different person. Someone are programmers, others sysadmins, there are electronics and scientists. There are also artists. I can divide those groups to sub groups and those sub groups to sub sub groups till I will receive pure sub groups with only one person in each. But also going up for communities, we can observe different communities dedicated to alternative solutions which can co-exist and share common interests and goals.
• Rational Thinking - no one is expert in everything. As I mentioned above, we know our limitations and weak spots. But we also know when we could do something significantly important and right. I mean that, discussion combined with facts and arguments will build rational model. So to say we don't have any dogma, sometimes we have axioms but only when everyone agrees and we know its limitations. 

I'm not sure if I wrote everything clearly. But you should understand my overall conclusion: we are practically the same persons using the same philosophy to live our lives. Don't you agree with me in that?