Category: Personal

  • Linux phones – Ubuntu Touch

    Linux phones – Ubuntu Touch

    Linux phones – my experience with Ubuntu Touch

    Earlier this year (2024) I wrote an article about my belief in linux phones as a partial solution to the multiple distractions and negative influences being piped directly into childrens’ brains by their use of mobile phones, and particularly the use of social media, at a young age.

    If my own children are to use linux phones, I have to dogfood it for myself. Partly to show leadership, partly for reasons of trouble-shooting.

    For the last week or so I have been using Ubuntu Touch (by UBports) on a OnePlus Nord N10 5g, and then a Fairphone 3 (because I lost my OnePlus!) to understand whether I could use it as my daily phone, without having my GrapheneOS Android in close proximity. (Note – if you’re not yet ready to leave Android but you want to take the first step in mobile privacy, GrapheneOS is a brilliant first step if you have a Google Pixel phone).

    TLDR: I’m not yet ready to use Ubuntu Touch as my daily driver. Read on to find out why.

    A Fairphone 3 showing the homescreen and some apps on the left hand side.

    Caveats

    I have a limited amount of time to be able to properly dig into different alternatives to various apps. I have gone as far as trying flatpak versions of different software packages in order to get things to work. However it is likely that there are solutions to some (most?) of the problems I encountered. I am grateful for any suggestions for alternatives that might work!

    Why Ubuntu Touch?

    There are plenty of people who will tell you that Ubuntu Touch isn’t ‘real’ linux because it’s based on an Android ‘layer’ that enables it to use the hardware.

    That’s fine; I’m less interested in purity than usability. I love 💗💗 the work being done on PostmarketOS and other pure linux systems, and I can’t wait until they are able to work with the drivers on a wider array of phones. But until then one of my ‘show stopper’ use cases is taking photos of my family, and in that case Ubuntu Touch is probably the best choice.

    Ubuntu Touch can also run Android apps via Waydroid (this is also the case with most linux mobile systems), which helps make the transition to a linux device more manageable.

    Ubuntu Touch also tends to be available on more modern phones; if I’m going to be moving from Android, I want my phone to have realtively good specs.

    Installation

    Most linux-enabled phones are on the old side, and I want something newer both for myself and for my kids when they are old enough to need a phone of their own

    I looked at the websites to find the most ‘modern’ linux-compatible phone I could (as of June 2024) and it appeared to be the Nord 10 5g. I bought one for £120 on ebay.

    Ubuntu Touch (Ubports) was the most likely solution, even though it’s not ‘pure’ linux (it’s a modified layer sitting on top of the Android driver set). This is because the disadvantage of sticking close to the android code base (more on that later) is mitigated by the good access to the camera. And having a good quality, working camera, is an absolute show-stopper for me

    Running the UBPorts installer is generally a piece of cake, but in this instance it failed; my first attempt resulted in a soft bricked phone. I hadn’t read the instructions, which specified that it should be downgraded.

    That set me back a few months as all my computers are linux. The downgrade tool provided by OnePlus only works on Windows.

    Lucky for me I had a Fairphone 3 as backup (£60 on ebay) as I have since lost the Nord 10! But nonetheless I learned some useful lessons along the way, not least to read the documentation before trying to install.

    Installing Ubuntu Touch on the Fairphone is very straightforward. Connect the phone via USB, run the installer and you’re away. Super-simple.

    On OnePlus Nord 10, you have to downgrade the software using the MSM tool you then just connect the phone via USB and run the installer as for the Fairphone.

    Things that just worked

    Here’s a list of things that worked mostly just like you expect.

    • Camera
    • Phone calls
    • Text messages
    • Wifi and hotspot
    • Mobile internet
    • Bluetooth
    • Browser (Morph, a bit basic but fine)
    • Messaging or social media apps such as:
      • Telegram (via Teleports or Webber)
      • Element (Matrix)
      • WhatsApp Web (using a burner Android phone as the ‘host’)
      • Mastodon

    In other words, most of the basic functionality that you would expect from a simple smart device is functional.

    Things that worked via Waydroid

    Some functionality is not available natively to Ubuntu Touch and needs to be installed through Waydroid. This has a delayed startup compared with a native app; which is usually not a big problem. These apps include:

    • One of my banking apps (Nationwide) – note several other banks did not work via Waydroid
    • Privacy Friendly Sudoku (fun to challenge friends/family to the daily puzzle)

    Things that took a bit of working out

    MFA/2FA

    I struggled a bit with a suitable 2FA app. Initially I used the 2FA Manager app; however I wasn’t able to use either the camera or manual login. Happily Authenticator NG worked perfectly.

    WhatsApp

    I also wanted a work-around for WhatsApp. I refuse to install the app on any device, and anyway there’s no app for it on Linux phones. So the solution is to use a burner Android phone (use an old or super-cheap ebay one) as the main account, and then login via WhatsApp Web. The formatting via the app worked much better than the browser version in my case.

    Contacts

    I couldn’t figure out an easy way to sync my contacts with Nextcloud (I have struggled with WebDav), so I manually exported from my ‘main’ phone and imported them which worked fine.

    Things that haven’t worked out

    Sadly there are some things that either haven’t worked at all, or are only partially successful.

    GPS

    Navigation is one issue; Android phones are apparently bundled with drivers and software to make GPS connections very fast. This is not the case with Linux installations, which are slower to identify location. Whilst in principle the various mapping tools, such as Pure Maps or uNav, work perfectly, they are dependent on the GPS location in the first place.

    If you are patient this does not present a problem. If not it might be an issue. GPS fix is affected by density of nearby buildings etc, so is likely to be a bigger problem in towns and cities than the countryside.

    Banking apps

    I have a business bank account that just didn’t work; this is a problem, as the app is generally needed to confirm purchasese, payments etc. I guess this is something that could be done on the burner phone, but it is less convenient. There is likely no way around the issue as the banks have security that is tied to the Android operating system.

    Password manager

    I didn’t expect a password manager to be a problem, but I couldn’t get a work-around for Bitwarden; the web vault refused to open, and there appear to be no viable locally installed password managers.

    Podcasts

    I’m a big listener to podcasts, and there is a perfectly usable podcast player, PodPhoenix. However I like to listen at 1.6x speed, and there is no capacity to modulate the listening speed. This would mean I would have to miss out on a substantial number of podcasts.

    E-reader

    When I run out of podcasts, I like to listen to books being ‘read’ (text to speech). This is possible on GrapheneOS via Librera FD but I haven’t found anything similar yet for UT.

    Design choices

    While I’m on the subject of Ubuntu Touch, I think it’s worth mentioning that the notifications/top pull-down bar is not as intuitive or helpful as the standard Android or PostmarketOS one. Sometimes you have to search around a bit to find (for example) the wifi hotspot or torch functions. Although not a showstopper, there’s probably a reason why other systems have gone with the ‘most used’ apps in an easily reachable drag-down area.

    Other than that, the swiping system and pinning of apps works effectively.

    Conclusion

    As it stands, I am having to bring along my existing GrapheneOS device as well as the Ubuntu Touch for my daily driver, predominantly to listen to podcasts at variable speed. Also quality of life stuff like the banking apps (though less of a showstopper).

    Having two phones with me is probably the reason I lost my first Ubuntu Touch so I’m going to revert to GrapheneOS for now, and maintain a strong interest in the further development of Ubuntu Touch, PostmarketOS and other mobile linux systems.

    However, the reasons for me reverting the GrapheneOS phone are not showstoppers for my own children, and I am confident that when it’s time for me to consider what phone they should have, I will feel reasonably happy with mobile linux as an ethical and practical choice.

    Edits

    Added the lack of an E-reader that can provide TTS functionality

    One response to “Linux phones – Ubuntu Touch”

    1. Linux mobile; safer phones for children? – David Clubb

      […] Linux phones – Ubuntu Touch – David Clubb October 16, 2024 […]

    Other blog posts relevant to this article:

  • Technology and Cymraeg

    Technology and Cymraeg

    Technology and Cymraeg

    In June 2024 Welsh Government launched a ‘call for information‘ on what is needed to make technology more friendly to Cymraeg.

    I produced a response to highlight the power of open source in enabling low-cost, high quality and ‘translation-friendly’ services. I post the response in full below.

    Hashtags:

    Recommendations

    • The value of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to health and well-being in Wales is so profound that it should be supported through a fund or equivalent of approximately 0.001% of the NHS budget
    • Public bodies in Wales should be required to use a FOSS equivalent (where one exists) of any existing proprietary social media platform, and to contribute to Welsh translations of the platforms

    Philosophy

    Technology is never agnostic. The deployment of technological tools depends strongly on the philosophy of those who created it. My response to this call for information is therefore predicated on the standpoint that open source solutions are generally preferable to commercial and proprietary alternatives. 

    Open source (also known as FOSS – Free and Open Source Software) has four freedoms:

    • Freedom 0: The freedom to run the software as you wish, for any purpose.
    • Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the software works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish
    • Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others
    • Freedom 3: The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes.  

    The beauty of FOSS to Wales is:

    • Using FOSS eliminates the leakage of money from Wales for licencing costs for using proprietary software
    • FOSS usually makes it very easy to translate, greatly reducing barriers to adoption for people who would like to use the Welsh language. 
    • Using FOSS can help upskill people within Wales (see freedoms 1 and 2).
    • Using and supporting FOSS directly helps achieve Wales’ future generations goal of ‘Globally Responsible’, because any improvements that are supported or produced from participants, volunteers or donors in Wales, are freely available for use or adoption by anybody globally, reducing the barriers to participation by the poorest in society (in Wales this supports the socio-economic duty)

    In the European context, Wales is a poor country within a poor unitary state, particularly if London is excluded. Issues of ownership and licensing are very important in this context. The use of proprietary software effectively means that the people of Wales are paying people elsewhere so that we can de-skill ourselves.

    In February 2022 I produced a White Paper entitled: “Why Wales should embrace free and open source software”. In it I made the case for open source against several Welsh Government objectives in the Digital Strategy for Wales. FOSS directly supports the following components:

    • Digital inclusion – creating digital public goods
    • Digital skills – widening participation in learning, and participation in communities of technology and interest
    • Digital economy – for some sectors, savings of more than 80% have been achieved through the use of FOSS

    For further details see the White Paper.

    The benefits of Cymraeg

    The use of the Welsh language produces numerous benefits for the individual, and still more for the community at large. Some of the individual benefits include:

    • Improved health outcomes
    • Improved career prospects
    • Increased performance in learning additional languages
    A mind map showing the links between the Welsh language and a range of positive well-being indicators

    Some of the benefits of using Cymraeg, all of which are evidence by peer-reviewed literature

    The health, educational and economic benefits are so profound that I believe the case should be made to divert a tiny proportion (say 0.001%) of the budget for the NHS to establish or fund an independent organisation aimed at improving understanding and adoption of FOSS in Wales.

    Cymraeg and communication technologies

    Welsh public institutions have been ‘captured’ by the early proprietary communication platforms to the extent that most use X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or other platforms without a thought as to the rationale, or the case for using alternatives that better support the Welsh language.

    The use of proprietary platforms indirectly enriches far-right voices, and certainly leads to a leakage of money and skill to (usually) America-based organisations through advertising and data harvesting.

    The proprietary platforms are not generally responsive to requests for making their interfaces multi-lingual, in direct contrast to their FOSS equivalents. 

    In order to properly implement the requirements of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, as well as the Welsh Language Act, public bodies in Wales should therefore be required to use FOSS social media platforms (where they exist) in addition to, or as a replacement for, their existing use of proprietary social media platforms. 

    This would give the opportunity for them to also contribute to the Welsh language translations of these platforms, making them more suitable for Welsh-language users.

    Other blog posts relevant to this article:

  • George Pickett, mortality and legacy

    George Pickett, mortality and legacy

    George Pickett, mortality and legacy

    George Picket died in July 2024 aged 85. A ripe old age, and statistically above average. He was a world-renowned physicist.

    I first met George when I was a first year undergraduate student at Lancaster University. I attended supervisions with him, in the company of my fellow student Graeme Plenderleith (we are still friends to this day!).

    As you will be able to read from the many entries into the book of condolence, George was an impressive, dynamic and very human character. I think he probably fits this definition of genius:

    “Someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill; especially somebody who has demonstrated this by a creative or original work in science, music, art etc.”

    He certainly took no prisoners with his students. I remember the first session we had with him. His room was a chaotic mess of papers and books, and after we’d found ourselves somewhere to sit he asked us questions about the physics we were studying. When I responded to one of his questions with a timid (and wholly inadequate) response, his retort was “like fuck it is”.

    I was fairly shocked by that – but George went on to kindly explain to both me and Graeme the basis of our misunderstanding. During the course of that year, he systematically helped break down and rebuild our understanding of the basics of physics, and did so in a way that was somehow warm and patient, even as it was highly intolerant of any lack of intellectual rigour.

    When I returned to Lancaster in the 2000’s it was as a post-doc, working in the low-temperature laboratory where George was still very active. It was there that I got interested in his ability to produce incredible graphics to help elucidate the most complex physics properties at low temperatures in ways that were easy to interpret.

    My interest in the design side was almost as great as my interest in physics, and when I left the lab to begin a career in renewable energy, I continued to tinker with graphic design. Without access to the adobe software packages, I eventually stumbled upon Inkscape, an open source alternative. And so began my love affair with open source software, a passion which continues today.

    I attended the funeral on 12 August 2024 remotely. Given his international notoriety in academia I suspect that the online audience was many multiples of the ‘in person’ attendees.

    There were many details about his life recounted by family members that helped fill in the parts that would have likely been uninteresting to me as a teenager, but which now add the richness and colour that bring wonder to our lives. I was also extremely touched by the eulogies, including an emotional tribute one by my ex-colleague, Richard Haley. 

    I wept during the funeral, and I have continued to think a lot about George in the days since. He was certainly influential on me, but I can’t attribute my sadness solely to his passing (no offence, George!). He was a thoughtful, outspoken, funny and kind man. Like thousands of others who die every day. His life touched mine in a small but significant way. I think my sadness is at least a reflection of mortality in general, and that of me and the people I care about in particular.

    I turned 50 this year. After the briefest of skinny-dips in the Gower to celebrate, I put my arm around my twin brother, and said that although we wouldn’t see another 50 together I was so very proud and happy to have spent the first 50 in his company.

    I think that my sadness that George has died is a sadness for almost everybody that has been a part of my life, and that I will miss when they’re gone. People in Lancaster, Machynlleth, Bristol, Northumberland and Denmark. People who aren’t close family, that it’s not practical to see often or even regularly, but that gave my life meaning and love.

    My parents’ generation is now becoming elderly. It feels as though there’s a slow-motion passing of the baton going on. I was nearly the same age now, as George was when we first met. In the way that George helped me as that first year student, I think it’s my duty now to help young people through the challenges they face, and to try to advance sustainability to the best of my ability through the rest of my career. Yes, and to have fun, lots of it. Whatever else George was; father, husband, genius physicist, grandfather, he was a funny, lovely guy. 

    I was not George’s friend but I miss him, and I miss what he represented. George, your legacy will continue to inspire me for years to come.

    In this age of the hyper-now, of social media, celebrity and status, of notifications and updates; his passing is a reminder that life is not about how we present ourselves to the world, but how we can use our talents and kindness to make it a better place.

  • Linux mobile; safer phones for children?

    Linux mobile; safer phones for children?

    Linux mobile; safer phones for children?

    I have two children in primary school. They live in a world where mobile phones, and specifically smartphones, are ubiquitous. And …. that’s not necessarily a bad thing. When used ‘smartly’, mobile phones are valuable sources of information, entertainment, organisation and communication. However there are downsides, as I describe later.

    Like many parents, I have considered the inevitability of my children having phones of their own. Like most parents, I have grave reservations about them having unfettered access to the whole panoply of social media and internet. How to strike the right balance between maximising the ‘good’ that can come from use of mobile phones; to limiting the ‘bad’?

    Read on. This is my journey as well as yours.

    Caveats

    • This blog post is predicated on the negative impacts of ‘excessive’ use of social media in children and young people. In this article I’ll use ‘young people’ as a catch-all for anybody below the age of 16. I’ll use ‘guardians’ to talk about anybody who has legal responsibility for young people, which includes parents, guardians and carers.
    • Although this blog post is focused on how to mitigate the harm to young people from unfettered access to social media via mobile devices, there is potential harm to people of all ages from social media. It is precisely because I have become aware of the harm from mainstream platforms such as Instagram and Twitter that I limit my social media to open source equivalents such as Mastodon and Pixelfed (with the exception of LinkedIn for which no viable open source alternative currently exists)
    • The Linux phone ecosystem is developing at a blistering pace, even though it is predominantly volunteer-driven. This is largely due to being able to use the existing linux codebase, adapted for small touchscreen devices. This means that the current state of the art is likely to be significantly improved on a monthly basis from the date of publication of this post

    The impacts of social media on young people

    The science that underpins our understanding of the impacts of social media on young people is rapidly evolving, and contested. However there appear to be five main negative impacts of social media on young people:

    1. A depletion of time spent with people in the ‘real’ world (social deprivation)
    2. Disturbance to sleep
    3. Attention overload
    4. Addiction to the dopamine ‘hit’ of notifications etc
    5. Mental health impacts arising from viewing unrealistic body or lifestyle ‘visions’

    There are numerous examples of research and policy on this topic. I list several below:

    There is a general agreement that children should not access social media, possibly with an implicit recognition about the risks associated with social media. However there is considerable disparity about when is a ‘safe’ age to participate:

    Of course, it’s one thing to suggest an age limit for using social media. It’s quite another to be able to ‘police’ it effectively.

    Note that the evidence of harm on young people from using social media is not one-way. There are many studies that suggest there are positive outcomes. Positive outcomes can include obtaining positive feedback from peers or others online when posting information.

    However my understanding is that the wicked patterns employed by mobile phone platforms and social media apps, to artificially boost the dopamine reward from using social media, are significant drivers of harm.

    A simple mind map demonstrating the impact of mobile phones (implicitly the social media on them), to health and the environment.
    Simple mind map attempting to summarise the relationship between phone use and

    Why can’t/won’t existing phones act?

    The two dominant phone ecosystems are Android (Google’s mobile phone platform) and iPhone (Apple’s mobile platform). Both these platforms are inherently unsuited for tackling issues relating to children’s health and social media, because:

    • They derive significant revenue from their own services (e.g. YouTube, various Apple products)
    • They harvest data from users that can be sold to third parties, or used to directly target advertising (known as ‘advert personalisation’)
    • Phones offer the opportunity to present Google as the default search engine, cementing Google’s dominance in the search/advertising space. Apple is also a beneficiary of this, receiving large annual payments to have Google as the default search engine on the iPhone platform.

    If Apple and Google restrict the ability of children to access social media accounts, they reduce their own income, and they reduce the number of years which people interact with advertising via social media platforms.

    Companies have a legal obligation to maximise their return to shareholders. Their legal obligations to children are far less clear. It seems likely that social media companies will therefore drag their heels on making their platforms safer, if there is a resultant reduction in their income.

    A flowchart showing the data collected by various social media providers
    A flowchart showing the data collected by various social media providers.

    Our choices

    Society at large, and guardians in particular, have a few choices they can make in response to understanding the potential harm from young people accessing social media.

    1. Do nothing and hope that young people will be ok (business as usual)
    2. Petition social media companies to be better at protecting the mental health of our young people
    3. Improve regulation
    4. Make different choices for young people, such as:
      • Allowing them a ‘dumb’ phone rather than a smartphone
      • Provide them with a smartphone that does not facilitate engagement with the most damaging social media platforms

    Choice 1 is likely to be the default choice for most people. Even if guardians are aware of some of the risks for young people, it is hard to resist constant pressure, including peer pressure. I have great sympathy with anybody who goes down this road. No judgement here.

    I judge Choice 2 as unlikely to be very effective. If any changes are made, they are likely to be the smallest necessary to satisfy public demand. This is because the mobile phone platforms answer predominantly to shareholders, and not to the public.

    Choice 3 is possible, but I fear regulatory capture in the UK, and the ability of social media companies to lobby to reduce the impacts of regulation, and then to innovate their way around regulation.

    Choice 4 places an unfair burden on guardians when the problem is systemic, society-wide and has ramifications way beyond individual families. Nonetheless, if we don’t have faith in social media companies to sacrifice profitability for the good of society; and if we don’t have faith in regulators or regulation to make a reasonable intervention that cannot be quickly circumvented; then we are left with Choice 4

    Some people choose to not allow their children to have ‘smart phones’. This is a viable option, although potentially a difficult one for many guardians to adopt. The peer pressure on young people to have a smart phone and to participate in social media and messaging is intense. There is an undoubted consequence of ‘missing out’ (FOMO) that would be felt by the young person, although I am keen to stress to my own children the JOMO (Joy of missing out). Although this is potentially more than compensated for by improved well-being, the stress and conflict within the family unit could be challenging.

    Whilst I think that the option of providing a ‘dumb’ phone to young people is a good one, I also have a philosophical reservation about it. If smart phones are so useful and valuable to adults, should we be denying their many positive uses to young people – as long as there is a plausible way to mitigate the harm?

    This is the alternative I will be exploring through the rest of this blog post. It is to use a smart phone that does not facilitate access to the most damaging social media platforms which could be one way to support the call by Esther Ghey who has called for teenagers to be ‘protected from smartphones‘, proposing a ban on social media for under-16s.

    This alternative already exists in the form of linux phones.

    Linux phones

    What is Linux?

    Linux is a family of software that enables computers, phones and digital hardware to operate. It’s the software that underpins most of the digital infrastructure globally, and can be used as a highly viable (or superior!) alternative to Windows or Mac on laptops or desktop machines. I have been using linux on my laptops since 2005. Whilst it runs brilliantly on new hardware, it is also a good solution for older machines, as the hardware requirements are lower than needed by Windows or MacOS.

    History of linux phones

    The smartphone era began with the iPhone, and Apple continued to dominate the early years of smartphone technology.

    Seeing the opportunity to grow their advertising and data harvesting operation, Google started to develop the Android operating system to compete with Apple’s iPhone.

    I was a very early adopter of Android in 2010 (HTC Hero), and continued to champion Google as a more ethical (and low-cost) alternative to Apple. How naive!!

    As the Android ecosystem expanded, the focus for Google appeared to be less about improving the functionality, and more about how much data could be captured from users.

    People who are interested in Linux and alternatives to ‘mainstream’ phones started developing alternatives. Although this was the case from as early as the mid-2000’s, the development started in earnest in the late 2010’s driven by companies such as Pine64 and Purism.

    Linux phones generally try to use the existing ‘mainstream’ Linux software and optimise it for use on mobile devices, thereby making use of an existing huge and powerful set of tools.

    How do Linux phones limit exposure to social media platforms?

    Although most social media platforms are available via web browsers, this form of access is inherently less addictive or distracting than the app versions.

    In other words, if you are able to use only the browser version of any social media platform, your health and well-being outcomes are likely to be better than using the app versions.

    ‘Wired’ has a good article on web vs app which is worth a look; it basically boils down to:

    • Much more limited access to your data (if any)
    • No notifications
    • Slight increase in friction to use the app, decreasing the temptation to doomscroll
    • Fewer terrible features
    • Fewer (or no) adverts

    Given that there are no native apps for social media platforms for Linux phones, it follows that Linux phones are inherently safer for young people, and therefore a better choice.

    Where are we now with Linux phones?

    Sadly we’re not yet in a place where you can rush off to a phone shop and demand a Linux phone. Linux can be installed on a number of devices, typically older ones which have chips that can more easily be understood so that the software works on them.

    The OnePlus 6 or 6T seem to be reasonably well supported, and I can personally attest for the Pinetab 2 tablet if you’re after a Linux tablet.

    However there are a number of more modern devices such as Fairphone 4 and 5 that work very well with Linux, and more such as the Pixel 6 being actively developed.

    There are several places you can go to find out which type of Linux works on which type of phone, including:

    If you want to do some research about Linux on phones generally, I suggest the following:

    • Tuxphones – general news site for anything related to mobile linux
    • Linux on Mobile– Fab resource for all sorts of platforms

    I bought a Fairphone 3 on ebay for under £70 (lucky!) and proceeded to install Ubuntu Touch. The installation process is relatively straightforward (there’s an automated installer), and the outcome is an entirely useable phone that doesn’t track you, and can’t install the apps that are likely the most damaging for young people whilst still being extremely functional and high performing.

    I am also investigating a Pixel 6 phone with Droidian installed.

    My aim overall is to identify a phone that has high functionality, low cost and that I would personally be happy to use as a daily driver, before selecting it as something I would provide for my own children.

    I can see that the Fairphone 3 running Ubuntu Touch would definitely meet my criteria. I will have to report back on the Pixel 6 which is currently in ‘alpha’ and not useable for normal phone activity.

    Acknowledgements

    I would like to thank everybody who has ever contributed to an open source project, whether through code, advocacy, policy, translation, donation or any other method.

    I encourage everybody to participate in the open source community. There is a home for you, whatever your level of experience, skill set or circumstance.

    Edits

    12 responses to “Linux mobile; safer phones for children?”

    1. Dyfrig Williams avatar
      Dyfrig Williams

      @david Mae hwnna'n gwneud i fi eisiau prynu ffôn Linux fel oedolyn!

      1. David Clubb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 avatar
        David Clubb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈

        @dyfrig @david wir, mae'n mor cyffrous i defnyddio!

        1. Dyfrig Williams avatar
          Dyfrig Williams

          @davidoclubb @david Mae'n gwneud i mi feddwl am bethau. Siŵr o fod colli'r apps negeseuon byddai'r prif golled, ond byddai'r wê yn iawn i bopeth arall

          1. David Clubb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 avatar
            David Clubb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈

            @dyfrig @david Fod yn onest ti ddim angen colli bron dim byd; jyst defnyddio fersiynau gwe. Fel enghraifft, efo Ubuntu Touch mae 'web app' Telegram yn gweithio hollol fel yr app go-iawn

            1. Dyfrig Williams avatar
              Dyfrig Williams

              @davidoclubb @david Hmmm, fi wedi bod yn meddwl symud i Telegram. WhatsApp yw'r unig app Facebook neu Gogledd dwi dal yn ddefnyddio achos yr effaith rhwydwaith. Mae'n amser am ymgyrch arall o berswadio!

            2. David Clubb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 avatar
              David Clubb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈

              @dyfrig @david Telegram yn well na WhatsApp. Nid fod dwi'n arbenigwr ond dwi'n cymryd fod mae Signal a Matrix yn hyd yn oed well. Dwi ar y tri 😂
              https://clubb.cymru/linkstack/@davidoclubb

            3. Dyfrig Williams avatar
              Dyfrig Williams

              @davidoclubb @david Mae popeth yn well na WhatsApp! Yr unig rheswm dwi arno fe yw bod pawb yn cyfathrebu arno, ond byddai lot well gen i ddewis amgen!

            4. David Clubb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 avatar
              David Clubb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈

              @dyfrig @david Fod rhan o'r gwrthwynebiad

            5. Dyfrig Williams avatar
              Dyfrig Williams

              @davidoclubb @david Gwych!

            6. davidoclubb avatar
              davidoclubb

              Diolch i ti Dyfrig 🙂

    2. Tech for Good Cymru – first meeting – David Clubb

      […] The general atmosphere in the room was very positive; lots of people stayed to chat after the event, and I even got a few people to play with the two linux phones I’d brought with me (see here for more on that topic). […]

    3. Linux phones – Ubuntu Touch – David Clubb

      […] Earlier this year (2024) I wrote an article about my belief in linux phones as a partial solution to the multiple distractions and negative influences being piped directly into childrens’ brains by their use of mobile phones, and particularly the use of social media, at a young age. […]

    Other blog posts relevant to this article:

  • In praise of Mike Clubb – and volunteers everywhere

    In praise of Mike Clubb – and volunteers everywhere

    In praise of Mike Clubb – and volunteers everywhere

    My dad, Mike Clubb, spent his whole working life as a history teacher. Bridgend for the most part, but also Cwmbrân and Zambia.

    It’s hard for a son to objectively assess his father’s quality as a teacher; but from conversations I’ve had with ex-pupils, he seems to be fairly high regarded, even by the ‘naughty kids’ (strict but fair being the general feedback).

    The Welsh Arsenal

    His love of history was given a particularly local flavour when he took a significant interest in the lives of the people, up to 32,000 of them, who worked in the arsenal in Bridgend during WW2. Most of those people were women who were suddenly faced with employment opportunities and a wage – things not necessarily in great supply for women in the ’40s.

    Dad wrote a book in 2007, ‘The Welsh Arsenal’, which kick-started a campaign to have the workers recognised for the part they played in the war effort.

    The campaign, led by the Bridgend Civic Trust, culminated in a public plaque and ceremony, attended by Huw Irranca-Davies, who read out a letter from Gordon Brown (Prime Minister at the time).

    Photo of the plaque unveiling, from a South Wales Echo story

    Since the book was published, dad has spent countless hours of his evenings and weekends traveling the length and breadth of south Wales to educate others about this unique historical legacy; and to inspire others to take an interest in their own local histories.

    Dad didn’t grow up speaking Welsh; he has learned it as an adult. So it was amazing to see him able to participate in an S4C programme about disability recently. His grandchildren were delighted too (apparently being on telly still has some caché even for kids today!)

    Excerpt from the S4C programme “Y Frwydr: Stori Anabledd”

    In praise of volunteers

    My dad’s obvious love of history, and his passion to share it with others, is simultaneously both mundane and extraordinary.

    It’s mundane only in the way that, across Wales, hundreds of thousands of us volunteer in our own ways every day, making life a bit better for people in our local communities, or communities of interest further afield. In other words, it’s ‘commonplace, ordinary’.

    But what an extraordinary gift of love and mutual cooperation.

    From the local history societies, civic societies, local museums, to the environmental organisations that are showing a path to local activism and love of nature, to every form of social, community, health and sporting activity. Our lives are supported by the invisible threads of generosity of spirit, of time, and frequently of money.

    You may have heard people say that society doesn’t matter. That only economics matters, only markets matter.

    They couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only is the current system broken, using the commons as a convenient place to dump pollution, and harvesting financial wealth as a compensation; but a market-driven approach, with every transaction needing to carry an equivalent monetary exchange, can never provide the rich experiences that humans need to fulfill their true potential.

    Next time you hear someone talk about ‘consumers’, remember that they really mean people; and each of us has our own part to play in forging a better society.

    The wonderful people who give freely of their time, energy and love are worthy of our huge thanks. So here’s to my dad, Mike Clubb, and to everybody like him who gifts their time within their local communities across Wales and beyond.

  • On bullies

    On bullies

    I have been bullied in two jobs during a career that has spanned more than twenty years and through a wide range of different organisations.

    Pretty good odds, you might think. But those two episodes, totalling around three years, were devastating for my emotional and mental health, and were the two unhappiest periods of my life.

    In 2010 I worked at the European Environment Agency, a brilliant organisation although not without its flaws. I was very grateful for being ‘required’ to undertake anti-bullying and anti-harassment training there. It used to be (maybe still is) a requirement for all staff, repeated every two years.

    Initially sceptical, I was increasingly drawn into the training that described that, although bullying can happen to anybody, and in any direction (i.e. bosses bullying more junior staff, and even bosses being bullied by junior staff), in general there are certain characteristics that seem to be identified in people who are bullied.

    My memory of the training may not be perfect, but my takeaway was that you are more likely to be bullied if:

    • You are a high performer
    • You choose unorthodox methods to deliver outputs
    • You go way above and beyond your remit
    • You break silos

    Feedback I’ve received from other people who have also experienced bullying aligns with this recollection of qualities that are targeted.

    One of the statistics that I remember being astonished by, was that in the experience of the training providers, on average around 2-3% of any organisation staff cohort is a bully. This was greeted with amazement by those in the training with me; one participant said:

    “So you’re telling me that there are more than five bullies in this organisation?”

    The trainer responded elegantly:

    “I’m saying that if there are no bullies here, it would be the first example in decades of our experience for an organisation of this size.”

    The sad truth is that no organisation, be it public, private or third sector, can consider itself immune from this malady. In my own experience, and to add insult to injury, both the people who bullied me were promoted shortly after I left the organisations, even though the institutions were well aware of my complaints about the way I had been treated.

    Even more ironic, one of my bullies was an active participant in the campaign at the same time as making my professional life miserable. I guess their outrage didn’t extend as far as an introspective.

    Sadly it seems that some organisations devote themselves far more to protecting how they are perceived, and the existing power structures within them, than to supporting people who are experiencing intolerable and unjustified maltreatment.

    I’m not an expert on this subject; I can only speak from my own personal experience. But if your ‘spider sense’ starts tingling that something’s not right with how you’re being treated; when you deliver outstanding work but it’s always wrong in some way; when people seem to be going out of their way to try to find things you’re doing incorrectly or wrong (laughably they couldn’t in my case, but that didn’t stop them trying, which was its own form of professional impugnation); then you may be being targeted by a bully.

    And again, I can only speak from my own experience, but the outcome of a process of complaints, formal or informal processes; these pile on the personal stress and are not guaranteed to result in any significant change in the relationship or the behaviour.

    I found the only way to deal with the issue was to leave the organisations in question. This was a positive thing, as it provided me with a focus for my attention rather than ruminating endlessly on ‘why’, and it empowered me in an environment where I had become very disempowered.

    All this is why I felt both sad and proud of my twin brother, Gareth, when he spoke out about being bullied when he worked as Chief Executive of Plaid Cymru. Sad because it’s such a destructive thing to experience; and proud that he could speak out about it, because it has given heart to others who may have thought that their own experiences were unique.

    The comments on his post from other people demonstrate that it’s a widespread issue that corrodes and degrades people and performance across all sectors of society.

    I stand with anybody who has been bullied.

  • Remembering Mick Bates

    Remembering Mick Bates

    I was sad to read yesterday that Mick Bates, a former member of the Senedd (back when it was an Assembly) had died.

    I knew Mick as a tireless and brave campaigner for renewables during a time when many politicians refused to participate in the debate. It seems crazy now, in the world of climate and nature emergencies, but there was a time in Wales – and in mid-Wales in particular – that renewable energy was something of a pariah topic. Mick was someone who was unafraid to put his head above the parapet, and was a key driver of the main advocacy group in the Senedd at the time – NASEG (National Assembly Sustainable Energy Group).

    As someone who was relatively early in their career, I really appreciated the NASEG meetings as an opportunity to travel down from Machynlleth to network with colleagues in Cardiff, as well as to stay with my brother and enjoy a night out. Pretty much all the main policy wonks and practitioners from the sector were at those events, and I remember them fondly. It’s how I got to meet people from organisations as diverse as Dulas, Awel Aman Tawe and Arup.

    Mick was a brilliant and inspirational Chair. He played an important role in the renewable energy sector in Wales. I will miss him.

  • Bad customer service; it’ll come back to bite you

    Bad customer service; it’ll come back to bite you

    Our little girl was over the moon to receive her first bike. We’d decided to use The Bike Club, because we were supporting a ‘reuse’ economy, where the company sends out reconditioned bikes. Then, when you need an upgrade – pretty much a given due to the normal process of children needing bigger everything – you send back your bike, and get one of the correct size.

    We paid our monthly fee happily for more than a year, and our daughter loved the bike. Not ‘girly’. A lovely design, and fully suitable for her needs.

    Then – after Christmas – we saw that she needed a new set of wheels. She’d outgrown her bike, and we decided to take up on the stated offer of a replacement (bigger) bike. As advertised, and as confirmed via an email from one of the customer service representatives.

    Except we didn’t get the bike. With no explanation, we were told that no bikes were available – contradicting earlier assurances. Lengthy periods went without any contact, despite our repeated requests for information. Our daughter’s birthday came and went – with no bike forthcoming.

    Eventually, when we were utterly frustrated with the company, we asked whether it would be cheaper for us to cancel the contract and pay the £30 bike return fee, or wait until a total of 18 months had elapsed, in which case we’d have been eligible for a replacement with shipping paid for. No response.

    In the end we just cancelled the contract. My complaints on Twitter resulted in them blocking me. Likewise on Linkedin. My polite response to the Founder and a request to connect to discuss our issues, was ignored.

    If you examine the company profile, The Bike Club is listed as a Financial Services Company. They’re currently extolling the virtues of their product as an investment. Not a values-based organisation, but one highly focused on profit.

    Picture of the Bike Club's LinkedIn page

    My advice is to steer clear. Their claims of customer service – in our experience – can’t be supported. They have chosen to do the exact opposite of good practice in terms of public relations, which is to ignore complaints, instead of engaging with a genuine grievance.

    Don’t use their service. Don’t invest. And advise your friends against.

  • Reflections on renewables

    Reflections on renewables

    I joined RenewableUK in June 2012 and left in March 2019. This blog post provides some reflections on my time with the organisation. To hear my thoughts on a wide range of issues, head to the Cardiff Podcast where I chat about climate change, feminism, the energy sector in Wales and my new venture, Afallen.

    Today marks the end of my employment with RenewableUK, the UK’s pre-eminent not-for-profit trade body for clean energy, and the only one with a staff presence in Wales. Nearly seven years after my move from the European Environment Agency in Denmark, I’m taking my next steps in my career — this time, one that I’ve defined for myself (more on that in a future post!)

    I’m taking the opportunity to reflect on some of the changes that have taken place over those seven years, and on the challenges that lie ahead. After all, although renewables are now one of the dominant forms of electricity generation, we still have to get to grips with powering our transport and heat with renewable energy if we’re to have any hope of meeting our legal and moral obligations to a low-carbon society.

    The change

    The sector has seen astonishing changes over the last seven years — both at a UK level, and in Wales. Most interesting for me is the change in political and media attitude to renewables over that time, and the divergence in approach to renewable energy between the governments of the UK and Wales.

    ‘Renewables’ in the media is usually a proxy to talk about onshore wind, a technology supported by the vast majority of citizens of the UK (demonstrated time and again by UK Government polls), yet one described almost invariably by the media as ‘controversial’. Perhaps in the same way as brussel sprouts on the plate at Christmas being ‘controversial’, in that a tiny proportion of the population are highly exercised by it; but not in the least controversial across the population at large.

    Graph showing the change in support levels amongst the general public in the UK, from March 2012 to March 2018.

    Despite my continuing frustration with many media outlets about their representation of onshore wind, the situation in Wales has greatly improved. In 2012 the general tone of debate was hostile, with a number of journalists — yes at some small publications, but also at national outlets — making little secret of their hostility. Perhaps this was partly down to the extreme politicisation of the topic, most notably by Russell George and Glyn Davies, which led to the famous protest outside the Senedd in 2011. 

    However, onshore wind has now become accepted by most communities and the media in Wales as infrastructure necessary for the benefit of future generations. Again, as a proxy for all renewables, this is extremely important, because without widespread acceptance, we cannot take the steps we know are necessary in order to prevent the very worst impacts of climate change.

    This is not to say that questions around the appropriateness of onshore wind are still not leveled — listen to my recent interview with Radio Cymru (with subtitles) where I field the assertion that wind turbines are ‘ugly’ — but this tends to happen less frequently. 

    Policy

    Policy in Wales has also seen huge changes over that time. Those with long enough memories will recall the discussions around the Silk Commission, and transfers of powers for consenting energy projects to Wales from Westminster. Indeed, our own members were not convinced by the idea, some preferring the idea of UK Ministers making decisions over the ‘lottery’ of local authority or Welsh Minister determination.

    How times change. In the intervening years, in Wales, we have witnessed the adoption of the Environment Act and the Well-being of Future Generations Act and — today — the launch of the low carbon delivery plan. And simultaneously at the UK level, we’ve seen a cooling of support for funding renewables generally, and a huge political and policy surge for that most unpopular of technologies, fracking. As I put it in 2016, Wales and England seem to be very different shades of green.

    Graph showing the change in levels of support for fracking in the UK from December 2013 to December 2018

    Our members would, I suspect, strongly oppose any idea of consenting powers for energy projects making their way back up the M4. I posed the question in 2015 as to whether decisions taken by the UK Government were making nationalists of the business community. Certainly, insofar as the direction of travel of sustainability, their policies may well have had the impact of shoring up support for the institutions of government within the devolved administrations.

    Wot no lagoon?

    Probably the biggest disappointment during my time at RenewableUK was the decision by the UK Government not to provide financial support for the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project, at the same time as it was bending over backwards to guarantee eye-wateringly lucrative payments for the nuclear sector (and yes, the evidence shows that a policy environment supportive for nuclear is less supportive for renewables)

    An image of the front page of the Hendry Review website

    In 2015 I wrote — before the outcome of the Hendry review was known — that a Wales without lagoons would be poorer, dirtier and sadder. When the review was finally published by UK Government, it described supporting the Swansea project as a ‘no regrets’ option. Indeed. All the more baffling for the sector — particularly bearing in mind the support that the nuclear industry had been promised — when that same support was not extended to this global pathfinder. I described that decision as unjust, and the resentment engendered by it still lingers in Wales — and will continue to do so, I suspect, for many years to come.

    Subsidy for a mainstream sector?

    Few would argue that renewables have entered the mainstream as a major power producer. Indeed, those that would argue do so in face of the facts; in 2018 the output from renewables overtook the combined output from coal and nuclear. 

    Fuel sources for electricity in the UK from 2008 to 2018 (excluding gas)

    It’s a trend which looks certain to continue, with the costs of renewable energy continuing to fall, and with UK Government support for offshore wind guaranteed for the medium term under a Sector Deal. Given this strong support for our offshore colleagues, it’s all the more disappointing to still be waiting for any sign that our nascent marine energy sector will see any kind of revenue support. And equally disappointing that the cheapest forms of electricity generation — onshore wind and solar photovoltaic — continue to be excluded from competitive auctions for subsidy.

    Let us not forget, in the discussion about subsidy, that fossil fuels in the UK receive subsidies of around £15bn per year on average. Offshore wind will receive £557m per year under the sector deal, and large-scale onshore wind and solar will receive zero.

    Given the headstart obtained by the nuclear and fossil fuel sectors, it’s astonishing to me that they should receive any subsidy at all. I would love to see those figures reversed. Let’s invest in our future instead of propping up our past.

    Heat and transport

    If electricity is a job partly undertaken, what of heat and transport?

    It’s no surprise that neither sector have decarbonised significantly since 1990, wedded as we are to the infrastructure that supports the processing and distribution of the fossil fuels which underpin our heat and transport systems. The Committee on Climate Change gave their suggestions for Wales’ emissions targets for 2050, and specifically highlighted planning as an area which could tackle both heat and transport. How disappointing, therefore, to see developments continuing to spring up around Cardiff with little or no obvious mechanism to transport people and goods, except for the private automobile. We seem to be putting an awful lot of faith in the laissez faire approach to market development in clean transport, and insufficient regulation into obliging our developers to make our communities genuinely sustainable.

    That’s not to say that we haven’t made progress — the latest version of Planning Policy Wales is a major step forward. And yet those housing developers who obtained their planning permission many years ago, and have been sitting on their precious land banks; they will be able to build to the same crappy standards they’ve been using for decades, condemning the occupants to a lifetime of high fuel bills. What power does our Future Generations Act have in preventing this? I call for a sunset clause on planning permission in the built environment — or at least a requirement for developers to adopt the latest building standards when they finally get around to developing their sites.

    Final thoughts

    My final comment is to urge you as an individual — and as an organisation — to sign up to your trade body or union. Our sector would undoubtedly be the poorer without RenewableUK’s policy, advocacy, media and networking activity. Even though I will no longer be an employee of RenewableUK, I will be tireless in advocating membership for it. Whatever your sector, there is (probably) a union or a trade body for you. Your membership enables the functioning of that organisation, to the benefit of the sector.

    As an organisation, we are as flawed as any. But what wonderful, talented, inspirational and committed individuals they are that make up RenewableUK, and what an amazing difference this organisation has made to the sector, and to our society. 

    Wales, and the UK, are more prosperous, cleaner, and are stronger global players in the discussion around climate change because of the action of RenewableUK and other trade bodies in the sector — and, of course, because of the member organisations who make up those trade bodies. Colleagues in the energy sector, I salute you and your perseverance. My very best wishes as you continue to make this world a better place.

  • Our digital strategy; it’s yours too

    Our digital strategy; it’s yours too

    Our digital strategy; it’s yours too (written as Head of Digital at RenewableUK)

    A long exposure photo of a person shining a torch into the starry sky at night

    I’ve previously written about the process which we’ve undertaken to develop our digital strategy. 

    Since writing that article — and the previous ones about digital principles and our rules of engagement on social media — we have adopted the digital strategy and we’re on the implementation journey. 

    This article is written to help others on that journey by sharing our strategy (here’s the link) — not least because one our digital principles is “Openness as a Virtue”.

    A cropped image of a numbered list, with number 6 highlighted, emphasising openness as a virtue.

    Expectation management — the digital strategy that you’ll see is just the skeleton. It’s just words, a framework. The real impact arises from delivering the meaning behind them in a corporate (or NGO, public sector) environment.

    The platform

    First up, kudos to Notion. They have created a very useful platform which eliminates the pain of a wiki and puts editing and commenting into the hands of your average office worker.

    That’s important, because although I don’t *really* expect my colleagues to dive into this thing, it has to be as accessible and user-friendly as possible. One day I won’t be working for RenewableUK and someone else is going to pick up the mantle. Notion keeps things simple.

    A screenshot of a Notion page with arrows showing how different aspects of it can be interacted with.

    Navigating the strategy as a logged-in editor is reasonably intuitive — you just click on either the icons on the page itself, or on the navigation panel on the left. Nested pages can be exposed by clicking on the arrows on the left panel.

    If you’re a viewer only (which is the case with the strategy I’m sharing), you’ll get something a bit different.

    Gone are the menus and the drag’n’drop. You still have all the content though, and I’ve tried to make it reasonably straightforward to navigate by liberally scattering breadcrumbs throughout each of the content sections.

    A screenshot of a Notion page highlighting the 'breadcrumbs' at the top of the page, enabling simple navigation of the site.

    So while you won’t be able to edit the document directly, you’ll have in place a framework with a suggested bunch of content to get you off to a flying start.

    What’s not in it?

    An excellent question.

    Clearly I’ve redacted anything which created any commercial risk, so there’s a lot of stuff which isn’t in there.

    Top of that pile is our list of actions and beta projects. I have a brain fizzing with ideas, and have recommended around 20 discrete actions or programmes of work relating to digital. To date we are working on only about six of them.

    The entire list ranges from the trivial (using a shared spreadsheet via Google Sheets to share contact details of staff members internally), to the near-impossible (change our office software to GSuite and have Chromebooks instead of laptop PCs).

    I say near-impossible not because it’s technically difficult (that would be trivial) but because it require large cultural shifts. Unless you’re a small start-up, your organisation will most likely have ‘near-impossible’ digital adoption challenges too.

    It’s all about the culture

    If you’re anything like me, you’ll have heard the phrase about culture, strategy and breakfast a thousand times.

    "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" text on a black background

    Dead right. The organisational culture will kill a new initiative stone dead — or enable it to fly.

    Culture is determined by thousands of interactions between staff and with customers every day, and by the impacts of previous corporate decisions — in some cases —decades ago. 

    Culture is also a product of the political, policy and business environment that we currently experience at any given moment. Organisational culture is incredibly complex, durable and yet strangely dynamic.

    In trying to implement a digital strategy, it’s critical to understand the priorities of colleagues, and to empathise with their situation.

    That’s made a touch more difficult in that most of mine sit in an office several hundred miles away. This highlights the need for whoever is in charge of change management (me in this case) to be super-sensitive to my colleagues’ ability to take on new work practices and platforms at a time when they are stretched in different directions.

    It’s an awareness of the limits of people to handle change that gave rise to our Digital Principle number 8 — Voluntarity. 

    A screen grab of a numbered list, with number 8 highlighted: "Voluntarity; we encourage staff to engage, but only mandate where it is critical to business activity"

    In managing my frustrations at the apparent slow pace of change, I’m also the first to appreciate that we have come a huge distance already. Meetings at head office about ‘digital’ are better-informed than they were six months ago. Progress is being made on real-life projects. Our culture is slowly shifting.

    I’m not alone in dealing with change management. I know that Janet Hughes is working on cultural challenges, having identified digital leadership (or lack of) as a critical component. I also know that superb practitioners like Neil Tamplin, Dyfrig Williams, and renowned digital gurus like Paul Boag have experience and tools which can help speed the journey (if you haven’t come across Paul before, I strongly recommend you check out this YouTube video as an intro). 

    “The secret of change is to focus your energy not on fighting the old, but building the new.” — Socrates