One Month of Trump: All Bets Are Off
30 days have passed since Donald Trump regained the White House seat as the 47th U.S. President. In this short timespan, he and his advisors have progressed swiftly in dismantling the United States administration, and started implementing more and more authoritarian measures. In this article, I reflect on what has happened, and try to make sense of what appears to be utterly senseless.
Code Signing With Azure Trusted Signing on GitHub Actions
Today's article is not really something where I offer thoughts on the current world situation, but a guide that is probably not too interesting to the usual reader of this blog. It's a guide to enable code signing of applications for Windows using Azure Trusted Signing.
The Death of Democracy begins with Symbols
On January 31, 2025, the German Bundestag voted down a bill that was widely seen as a crevasse; the first time conservatives using the right-wing extremist AfD party in parliament to gain a majority of votes. This hasn't happened, but democracy just received its first blow by a knife into its back. A precedent has been set from which it will be hard to turn back. Here, I offer some thoughts and personal opinion on the meaning of today.
The State of Local AI in 2024
What will it take to bring local generative AI to the average user? The state of local AI is promising, but accessibility remains a challenge due to technical complexity and the dominance of large tech companies. In this article, I discuss the current state of local AI, highlighting the need for improved user experience and wider adoption. I believe that a centralized approach is most promising, focusing on tools like Ollama and llama.cpp, and I have some nice words on Apple’s user interface design principles for writing tools.
The Death of the Forum
Forums are curious creatures. You visit them every week, even if you don't realize it; even if you were born well after 2000. Forums are the mycelium of the internet; the bedrock of our knowledge on technology. Without them, many would be alone with problems in their phones, computers, and apps. In this article, I remember the early days of forums, reflect on their disappearance, and argue for their return to prominence.
URLs are Surprisingly Hard
Have you ever wondered what happens when you type in "google.com" into your browser's address bar? It is actually a piece of genuinely amazing engineering. In this article, I talk about URLs, and why the simple translation between you and your computer is a great example for something that a few lines of "if" and "else" statements can do, but not ChatGPT.
Is Calling Sociology Analytical Redundant?
Recently, some comments reminded me of the constant battle over whether or not we need a field for analytical sociology specifically. I use this opportunity to again revisit the definition of analytical sociology and I propose arguments for either position. In the end, it's about what sociologists do, not how we classify them.
The Red Scare: On the Impact of the U.S. Presidential Election 2024
Last week came as a shock to many more liberally oriented people across both sides of the Atlantic. After thinking for a week about what the victory of Trump may mean for the U.S. and the world, I have formed a few thoughts. Unlike many of the opinion pieces I have seen in the past week, I try to maintain an aura of faith and instill hope in these dark times.
Is Generative AI Actually Useful?
Yes. Generative AI has plenty of good uses. And by now, setting it up locally with models you control and output that remains confidential is easier than ever. In this article, I share some use-cases I have found to be particularly useful, and some caveats I discovered along the way.
Understanding Backpropagation A Bit Better
I work with neural networks on a daily basis. But one thing has always escaped my understanding: how backpropagation actually works. By coding an SGNS network from scratch, I forced myself to implement a backpropagation mechanism all by myself. This helped me understand this crucial part of neural networks. In this article, I show you what I learned, and hopefully you, too, will understand the backpropagation algorithm better.