Last month, Germany elected a new parliament. I have seen many maps (e.g. Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, this post on r/dataisbeautiful), but I always felt that coloring the map using either a single party or using the dominant party hides the how diverse the country really is. This is why I set out to create my own version.

Last year our electricity bill was higher than expected. So I’ve decided to I need some insights into our consumption and bought a LEDVANCE Matter SMART+ plug. It can connect to my Home Assistant installation using matter, the promising new standard for IoT.

Since my Home Assistant setup runs self-managed on an Orange Pi 5B, I opted to install python-matter-server in a container alongside the Home Assistant installation. During the setup I have encountered a potential security issue that I have reported and I will now share publicly.

Ransomware has become an increasing thread to companies. IT departments often suggest that clicking a link in a fishing mail can infect you and that it is the personal responsibility of each individual employee to not do that. I think this framing is flawed. There a many measures that an organization can and should implement that each will protect against “single click infections”. Manual checking of links should never be your only layer of defense and blaming individuals is just a cheap excuse.

It is unlikely that many companies implement all defenses proposed here, but I think it is important to keep in mind that we as an industry can and should do better. Ransomware attacks are – at least to a high degree – avoidable.

I am using Linux in the form of various distributions for probably over 15 years now. After 8 years with my trusted Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon, it was time for a hardware refresh. I got a framework which turned out pretty nice. I take this opportunity to also reflect on the current state of Linux on “Desktops”.

It all started with a recommendation of a friend, that was to never read The Elements of Typographic Style shortly before you have to finish something. Since then I have finished many things so it was time for insightful procrastination. I read the book and now I cannot unsee it. Bad typography – everywhere, but especially in tech. So I had to redesign this blog. After consulting The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web which was partially helpful, I spend hours if not days on it. And here it is: the grand redesign.