Notices by Hanno Zulla (hzulla@infosec.exchange)

It's a fun contrast to see how AI apologists kept saying that criticism of data center water use is overblown, while the actual water utility companies loudly point out that data centers are a problem to the water supply.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/21/not-enough-water-for-uks-datacentre-plans-trade-body-says

https://projects.propublica.org/why-carbon-capture-cant-solve-climate-change/

Technologieoffenheit:

Wenn man eine offene Ausschreibung zur Grundlastversorgung des Stromnetzes macht, gewinnen 2026 Batterien gegen Gaskraftwerke.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/big-batteries-scoop-the-pool-in-key-long-duration-storage-tender-that-was-open-to-gas-peakers/

A cartoon by Kevin Maher and Joe Dator for New Yorker Magazine.

Man kann übrigens ganz auch ohne Olympia-Bewerbung Milliarden dafür investieren, die Stadt für ihre Bewohner lebenswert zu machen.

Hey there, some personal news: I've decided to move on and am therefore looking for a new job starting July.

I loved serving as a program manager with open source projects involving some of the most brilliant software developers out there.

In a future job, I'd like to continue working near the intersection of open source, funding, business, policy and the societal impact of digital technology. But that's a small niche and so I hope that this post might open some doors through my contacts here. Are there OSS foundations or (non-) government orgs looking for staff?

Being a software developer at heart, I have been excited about tech all my life and later found myself involved in various software projects and business ventures big and small. I speak both fluent Nerd and fluent Business and frequently helped translating between the two during my career.

I'm aware that my requirements are a strong filter: Part-time and remote, German timezone. I'm also fairly unenthusiastic about the current generative AI / LLM hype and would prefer to work outside of that bubble.

If you have possible leads, I'd be grateful to hear about it. Thanks in advance and thanks for sharing.

#jobsearch #fedijobs #getfedihired #noAI

RE: https://mastodon.social/@hanno/116193243981099211

I've seen a non-native speaker trusting an AI translation tool to draft the German version of a minor document change.

The AI tool hallucinated a subtle mistake in the written-out number - "63872 (in Worten: Dreiundsechzigtausendachthundertundsiebzig)" - an error which the non-native speaker was obviously unable to spot.

Translation is often hailed as a positive example of using AI, but it suffers the same problem of human nature to accept a machine's plausibly looking result as "good enough" without the review that would be required.

A 7.5 x price hike.

This isn't even fancy high performance RAM that would be actually useful for AI applications or good enough to be used in a modern data center rack.

This is the most bland piece of hardware used for mediocre standard PC with non-exciting specs to do boring office work.

Fuck AI's destruction of the affordable home computer.

@petergleick You wouldn't believe what the German chancellor and his governing conservative party are trying to do.

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/verkehrspolitik-koalition-e-mobilitaet-verbrenner-100.html

@isotopp hier in der Region schafft man leider seit Jahren nicht, eine kommunale Fluss-Wärmepumpe im Teltow-Kanal zu implementieren. Sowas würde dem Wasser Wärme entziehen und iirc wird der Betreiber einer solchen Anlage sogar von den Wärmeeinspeisern im Wasserlauf davor dafür quersubventioniert.

https://www.bund-berlin.de/service/meldungen/detail/news/waermewende-konkret/

Wer glaubt, dass eine #Klarnamenpflicht das Internet besser und höflicher macht, war noch nie auf #LinkedIn.

Damn idiots.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/12/eu-2035-petrol-diesel-car-ban-mep-green-deal

"Wärmepumpen müssen ab 2026 deutlich leiser werden."

Amüsant daran ist, dass die lautesten Heizungen in meiner Nachbarschaft mehrere alte, schlecht eingestellte Gasthermen sind: Das Abgas aus dem Schornstein ist über große Distanz pfeifend und laut rauschend zu hören. Während die hiesigen Wärmepumpen nach wenigen Metern unauffällig sind.

https://www.heise.de/news/Ruhe-bitte-Waermepumpen-muessen-ab-2026-deutlich-leiser-werden-11076858.html

@neil @christianschwaegerl I'm switching between word processors based on the task and often, there's no way for me to figure out where anything is in MS Word, while I find it intuitively in LibreOffice.

Once, I literally spent an eternity figuring out removing yellow highlighting in MS Word because I wasn't prepared that there are two distinct types of yellow highlighting in the software that look the same, act differently and are found in very different non-obvious places of the user interface. (There are a lot of Google hits of people asking for help with the same problem in MS Word, so I'm not the only one who tripped over this.)

Yes, LibreOffice isn't a UI beauty, but MS Word's reputation of being user friendly can only be explained with muscle memory of people who trained on these weird inconsistencies since years and by now are able to stop thinking about them.

Always amazed at the number of steps my smart watch is counting while I'm standing still, brushing my teeth.

"Here are some of the projects the @sovtechfund has recently commissioned work on: Scala, SDCC, Let's Encrypt, Servo, chatmail, Drupal, Fedify, openprinting, PHP, Apache Arrow, Open SSL, R Project, Open Web Docs, conda, systemd, and phpseclib"

https://www.sovereign.tech/news/newsletter-october-2025

I'm proud to be a part of the team of program managers working on the @sovtechfund 's side of these projects.

Germany's Sovereign Tech Agency identifies and reviews potential open source software technologies that come into question for commissioning. We accompany the projects, all the way, from the initial proposal to the awarding of the contract through to successful completion of the milestones.

If you are a software developer working on a core open source project, don't hesitate to apply at the Sovereign Tech Fund: https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund

Some things learned after handling a few #endof10 devices:

- Yes, today's computers have become so much faster. Those old machines I'm refurbishing are, in fact, damn slow.

- "Damn slow" is still fast enough to handle e-mail, use a browser for a typical news site or use productivity software such as LibreOffice.

- It's a crying shame that Microsoft is degrading so many fine devices to e-waste that can easily be used with Linux.

- "Damn slow" is way too slow for Youtube and online TV streaming. Who would've expected that ubiquitous online video and the lack of hardware support for modern codecs is _actually_ what drives obsolescence?

- Linux Mint Debian Edition runs on pretty much _anything_ that can do amd64 with minimal amounts of RAM and yet it's _fast_.

- Imho, LMDE6 isn't as welcoming to beginners as it could be. The default desktop theme looks very much like a Nerd toy and every new installation wants you to run a number of first-time-setup procedures that are puzzling and intimidating for someone who isn't into computing and just wants to use this machine.

- I really miss Ubuntu's oemsetup option for Debian and LMDE. I'd prefer not to setup a default user for the devices we give away and would want the recipients to setup things as they prefer on their own.

- When even LMDE is too slow, Chrome OS Flex is still fast enough on even lower-end devices. It's not FOSS, but for those who use Android on their phone, it's an easy way to rescue a donated laptop from the trash and put it to good use for a few more years.

It's German Reunification Day, a national holiday, and this is how we celebrate.

Here's your regular reminder that the majority of "cyber attacks" aren't more sophisticated than simple vandalism and the disruption blamed on them was actually caused by the company not having hired proper IT staff to prepare backup and restore procedures. #airport

Generative AI is a denial of service attack on the human recipient's bullshit filter.

The curl project and other OSS projects suffer from a growing wave of nonsensical bug reports that appear plausible at first look.

Maintainers still have to process and spend hours on each of these bug reports, taking away their time to do actual work on their software.

https://media.ccc.de/v/froscon2025-3407-ai_slop_attacks_on_the_curl_project

#froscon @bagder