Notices by Martin Seeger (masek@infosec.exchange)

Liebe Anleger, ich habe da schlechte Nachrichten für Euch: Das Geld ist weg und auch alles was ihr noch nachlegt.

KI wird als Technologie durchaus einen massiven Einfluss haben, aber die Irrsinns-Summen, die in OpenAI und Co geflossen sind, werden nie eine Rendite liefern. Bestenfalls kriegt ihr ein paar Cent pro Dollar aus der Patente-Resterampe raus.

https://www.golem.de/news/wo-bleibt-die-rendite-ki-anleger-werden-ungeduldig-2512-203320.html

Dear Internet,

when do I get glasses that automatically adapt to the distance?

I don't want progressive lenses, I want glasses that magnify on short distances all by itself and switch back to normal when I climb on my bike.

At least 10 years ago they were announced as "pretty soon". It's getting urgent on my side now.

Sincerely, rapidly aging me

During the dotCom era everyone spoke of "funny money".

It was handed out as if it was candy or from a Monopoly game. While everyone else had to treat as like real money, sums didn't seem to matter any more for those on the "inside".

Now those times are back: https://deadline.com/2025/12/disney-openai-deal-sora-1236645728/

OpenAI is burning money at an incredible scale and now they pay a billion for cartoon characters?

Die @tagesschau offenbart mal wieder die Parteilichkeit:

Bei dem Wechsel von Lindner heisst es "Lindner wird Manager in Autobranche"
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/lindner-wechsel-autobranche-100.html

Aber wenn Kühnert für einen Verein tätig wird, der sich um Verteilungsgerechtigkeit kümmert, dann kautet der Satz "Kevin Kühnert wird Lobbyist"
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/kevin-kuehnert-166.html

Ich bin kein Fan von Kühnert, aber im Gegensatz zu Lindner glaube ich ihm, dass ihm andere Menschen nicht scheissegal sind.

You should think of this prize as the Nobel Prize in Corruption

https://www.euronews.com/2025/12/05/donald-trump-awarded-inaugural-fifa-peace-prize-during-2026-world-cup-draw

The FIFA is absolutely a top tier organization when it comes to corruption.

They could even give Tamany Hall and the legendary„Boss“ Tweed a run for their money.

And they, the most renowned experts in that field, clearly recognized Trump’s talent for enriching himself and gave him a golden trophy for it.

Dear OSS community on Mastodon,

Every day I scroll through my feed and I see proud announcements like:

“First Alpha Relase of HyperTurboWidget available"

or

“Version 2.7.1 now with improved glorb handlers!”

or

“Flux Capacitor version 4.5 is out”

… and I sit there wondering if I should be excited, terrified, or calling a licensed electrician.

Don’t get me wrong, I love open source. I just have no idea what three quarters of these projects actually do. Are we talking about a web server? A file system? A middleware thingy that keeps the flux from overflowing into the space–time continuum?

So, dear OSS developers of the world: When you announce a new release, please give us (your adoring but slightly confused audience) just a tiny bit of context.

• Tell us what your software does.
• Tell us why this release is cool.
• Tell us what it requires to work.

Example:

We are proud to announce Flux Capacitor version 4.5 is now avalaible. While it creates a nice wormhole to 1955, it requires an underlying gigawatt stack 1.21 to work reliably.

Because nobody wants to cheer enthusiastically for “v2.7.1” while secretly Googling “what is a glorb and why does it need handling”.

Yours truly,

Someone who wants to celebrate your achievements

How do I notice that I get old?

I am annoyed that most tutorials come as videos and not a document with screenshots 😏.

“Our datacenter is on fire …”

“Don’t be so negative, let’s call it a thermal event”

Jedes Mal, wenn ich Papierkram mache, bin ich hinterher in Rage.

Das könnte alles so einfach sein, aber sämtliche Digitalisierung auf Seiten der Anbieter ist alleine darauf optimiert, deren Aufwand zu senken.

Jedes zweite Schreiben kommt mit einem Hinweis "Melden Sie sich in unserem Portal an" und dann wäre alles digital.

Diese Portale sind alle gleich gestrickt:

• Per Mail bekommt man eine Nachricht "Sie haben Post" (meist ohne jegliche Metainformation)
• Dann kommt eine Authentisierung per Nutzername, Passwort, SMS (also Steinzeit)
• Jedes Schrifftstück muss mit x Clicks abgerufen werden
• Es gibt keinerleit Option der Automatisierung auf der Kundenseite

Ich habe das gebenchmarkt: das per Post zugesandte Papierdokument scannen geht für mich schneller als das Dokument aus derem Portal abrufen. Vor allem: da habe ich einen Ablauf für alle Gegenstellen.

@Badgardener

#include

This was inspired by a post that reached me as screenshot:

Updated "greek task list":

orphean task: when you almost succeed, but lose everything the moment you turn around to check your progress.

daedalean task: when you’re forced to design something brilliant and functional… that you yourself will inevitably become trapped inside.

medusan task: when your project becomes so horrifying that everyone involved freezes in place rather than deal with it.

tantaline task: when success is right there, but bureaucracy or budget cuts keep snatching it away at the last moment, forever.

pandoran task: when fixing one small issue unleashes a thousand new ones, but hey — at least there’s still hope somewhere in the ticket backlog.

odyssean task: when the assignment technically has an end, but it’s buried under so many side quests that you forget what the original goal was.

narcissian task: when the entire effort is about maintaining appearances rather than achieving anything of substance.

promethean task: when you give people a powerful new tool that could transform their work — and are punished eternally for doing so.

orestian task: when the mess you’re cleaning up is the direct result of the last cleanup you performed.

thesean task: when the only way to finish is to disassemble everything piece by piece — until you’re no longer sure if what’s left is the same project you started.

achillean task: when your work is flawless except for that one fatal oversight that will, inevitably, destroy you.

penelopean task: when you diligently undo by night what you accomplish by day, just to keep the stakeholders pacified.

midasean task: when everything you touch turns into paperwork, compliance documents, or gold-plated nonsense nobody actually needs.

gordian task: not intended to be actually done, but violence is the answer.

Das was die @evawolfangel hier berichtet, passt zu anderen Berichten über den Einsatz von KI bei der Telefonie von Arztpraxen.

Die KI legt auch bei ungelösten Anliegen einfach auf.

Wenn das so weitergeht, werden wir KI und #Doctolib als Ursache auf Totenscheinen brauchen.

Das kann alles IMHO nicht reschtskonform sein, was da gerade passiert.

Zum Glück ist bei meinen Ärzten kein Doctolib aufgetaucht, aber das ist leider nur eine Frage der Zeit.

P.S. Ich vermute die KI an der Hotline ist eine Leistung von Doctolib. Das weiß ich aber nicht sicher, weiß das jemand gesichert?

This is a valuable lesson for any manufacturer: never awaken the nerd sleeping inside your customer, because his wrath shall be terrible.

In this case the warning was quite literal.

The company annoyed a buyer enough to push him into full blown nerd mode. He tore the product apart, reverse engineered every part, and then published a step by step guide showing exactly how to disable "kill switch" that prevented the use of the product without the vendor spying on the user.

What started as a minor grievance became a public, technical exposé that left the maker exposed and embarrassed.

Moral of the story: underestimate your users at your own peril.

The Day My Smart Vacuum Turned Against Me

I guess we need a "mandatory cloud down day"

Once a year, all cloud providers have to go offline for the same 12 hour window to see what depends on it.

Additional benefit: they could do complex maintenance then.

Unintentional benefit: It will become a public holiday as no one can work anyway 😄.

Inspired by: https://mainz.social/@javahippie/115422694970300268

TIL & OH: "vibe governing"

Everyone with an Arduino project has, starting as of NOW, six months to look for a replacement.

If you don't start right away, I can point out someone who will be in a lot of pain in a few months.

Believe me...

https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2025/10/qualcomm-to-acquire-arduino-accelerating-developers--access-to-i

I know this will play merry hell with the 3d printer and mechanical keyboard scene. Innumerable hardware will die from this takeover.

#arduino #qualcomm

Frage: Wo in Deutschland gibt es eine einzige Veranstaltung,

• bei der 6.800 Menschen medizinisch betreut werden müssen,
• wo 784 Straftaten und Ordnungswidrigkeiten (davon 72 Sexualdelikten und 148 Rauschgiftfällen) von der Polizei verfolgt werden
• und wo kein einziger CSU-Politker ein Verbot fordert?

A: Die Radwege müssen breiter werden!

B: Wieso?

A: Schau es Dir doch an: die dort parkenden Lieferwagen ragen in die Straße und behindern dort den Verkehr.

Kein Sugarcoating wird mehr für nötig gehalten: https://fortune.com/2024/09/17/oracle-larry-ellison-surveillance-state-police-ai/

“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.