Franz

Brasil’s Twitter/X ban shows once more an over centralized system

If you haven’t heard about it, on August 31st 2024 Brasil banned Twitter/X nationwide (see BBC, NYTimes, TheVerge).

There are numerous debates about the whys etc. But for this post I don’t care. My point here is: it once more shows the massive downside of such a centralized system.

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!

Toxic Positivity and Whitewashing in Tech

What I’ve been noticing and disliking more and more lately:

All the whitewashing and toxic positivity!

Love it, Change it or Leave it

The picture shows a CleanUpBag from LOWA GmbH that I once won in a promo from LOWA including the litter that I found (and collected) on a mountain hike. The reactions on social media were either “thank you” or anger at the people who leave the litter on the trails.

And I can understand those who feel anger! I used to feel the same way!

“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!

Audio and Video Quality in Online Meetings DOES matter

We’ve all been there – endless online meetings, squinting at grainy screens, wondering if our colleagues are even awake. Seriously, how many online meeting does it take to realize that audio and video quality matter more than we want to admit?

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?

Why we need Feedback on the Feedback

“Feedback is important!” – We’ve all heard this before. It’s an old adage.

I guess we also agree that feedback without any following actions is not only useless but demotivating. People will learn very quickly that “giving Feedback” is obviously useless and thus will not give feedback anymore. – End of Feedback culture.

The most important things about dailies …

… and what you’ve never read about them:

So, one of the most important reasons (besides the buzzword stuff), for me, is that I hear my colleagues. Not just WHAT they say, but HOW they say it.

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.