Miscellaneous

Not Surprised TikTok Is Addictive? You Might Be Surprised By How Fast!

I don’t think anybody will be surprised to hear that social media can be addictive. Well, “fine” so far. But what did indeed surprise me was what I heard recently when I heard the c’t “Haken dran”-Podcast (german only).

75% of Software projects fail – why?

A lot of software projects cost more than expected, take longer to finish and / or deliver a result below expectation.

SmartTVs going from bad to worse?

When we bought a new TV a couple of years ago, I was really to use all the Smart features from our SmartTV. But after a while the discomfort has outweighed the features. Recently we had the opportunity to “test” a newer SmartTV in a hotel and I must admit – it hasn’t gotten better! But I was surprised that the rabbit hole was even deeper and darker than I would have expected …

How to get simple DNS Protection

Malware sites are the plague of the century! And it’s so easy to fall for them. Phishing, hacked website content, or malware-ads – one click and you are on a website you shouldn’t be.

One way to deal with the issue is to block malicious domains at DNS resolver level. The advantage is that you do not have to do any modification at the devices!

“Death to the Algorithm” a recommended read

I just came across Jeffrey’s post “Death to the Algorithm | Jeffrey Inscho” and I so resonate with it!

Good bye reading LinkedIn

I just figure: it is exactly 2 months since I wrote Good Bye posting on LinkedIn?. And it seems I’m ready for the next step: Good bye reading LinkedIn?

20 Years of OpenStreetMap, 14 Years of Contribution and counting

Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap!

“In just twenty years, OpenStreetMap grew from a small UK-based mapping project into the largest crowdsourced and crowd-worked geospatial project of all time.” [Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap – Celebrating 20 Years]

I can’t even remember how I came across one of the best projects that we have. But I am super happy that Steve Coast started it, and that I decided to join.

I just checked and saw in my profile that I registered at 2010-04-30. But I do remember that I never wanted to contribute to GoogleMaps but contribute to a true OpenData project.

Social Media Platforms vs Entertainment Platforms?

I often like to listen / read when someone tells about his or her experience on different social media platforms. And when it comes to Mastodon, I’ve noticed a recurring theme: Many users describe how other social networks fill their timelines with entertaining or funny content and that they were missing this in the beginning of their “Mastodon-experience”.

And at some point I thought by myself: “Wait wait wait – Are we still talking about social networks?” Is it the purpose of a social network to keep me entertained? I mean – this isn’t the expectation from my real-world-social-network, is it?

Why do I feel triggered when Managers talk about AI?

I still don’t know why it triggers me so much when managers talk about “(Gen)AI” with such fascination. Maybe because I get the feeling that they tell themselves that IT problems will magically disappear?

But … what does ChatGPT say … the AI for sure must know (*cough*)

The truth about (Gen)AI

(✅ clickbait title)
Recently I attended a GenAI event organized by <big company>. All professional, interesting, insightful. Really good. (Really! I mean it! No sarcasm.)

Until it hit me like a blow during a discussion:

I DO KNOW the whole plot already!