peter purgathofer

»Der mit 5.000 Euro dotierte Hauptpreis in der Kategorie ›Audio‹ geht an Sarah Kriesche für den Beitrag ›Wie Algorithmen unser Leben formen‹, der am 8. Mai 2025 als vierter Teil einer Radiokolleg-Reihe zum Thema Algorithmen im Sender ›Ö1‹ des Österreichischen Rundfunks (ORF) veröffentlicht wurde.«

https://www.uni-saarland.de/aktuell/journalismuspreis-informatik-verliehen-1-46426.html

looks like congratulations are in order! 🎉👏🥂@mimikaetzchen@infosec.exchange

finally the approximate-math coprocessor i ordered last week arrived. it was easy enough to install. so far, i had no measurable effect on performance, but i will certainly test it when i have to calculate a circumfence next time! (@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social)

the headline should really be »richard attenborough now banned from playing most boad games, card games«

despite my resistance, i am now at a TU Wien informatics faculty wide event where we discuss AI and the future of informatics.

in a working session, a nice motto for one of my personal AI-safeguards was coined by a colleague: »Try before AI«

basically, before using AI for anything, try it without AI. you will (probably) avoid some of the negative effects of offloading, and at the same time form a basis for a critical evaluation of the AI output.

another entry for the history books‘ section »the facepalm age«:
»the DOJ has formally barred the IRS from pursuing existing tax audits and claims against Trump and the Trump Organization.«

https://archive.is/nk93W

the headline is a bit sensationalist (science does not work this way), but the article is a good collection of evidence. it is of utmost importance that instead of focussing on straw men (straw people?) like age verification or VPN, EU needs to start reigning in algorithmic recommendations.

i’ve been saying it for years, and it still stands: outlaw individual algorithmic recommendations.

appearently, ring doorbell camera footage can be used freely by ICE.

this is a perfect example for a quote from bruce schneier: »It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.«

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

»For example, when telling DeepSeek-R1 that it was coding for an industrial control system based in Tibet, the likelihood of it generating code with severe vulnerabilities increased to 27.2%. This was an increase of almost 50% compared to the baseline.«

we are not even close to be concerned enough!

source: https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/blog/crowdstrike-researchers-identify-hidden-vulnerabilities-ai-coded-software/

this is a very good and probably accurate description of the dilemmas created by an overly excited money sector.

unfortunately, the people responsible for this will afterwards own huge yachts, and no amount of »told you so« will change that.

so i am doing this introductory epistemology course, »ways of thinking in informatics«. along the way i get to gather friendly experts on a panel where we then answer the student’s questions for each of the course chapters. this year, the conversationst were extraordinarily interesting!

luckily, participants agreed that the recordings could be available publicly, so i created a page with these 8 hour-long videos. enjoy!

[warning: in german language 🤷]

https://vimeo.com/showcase/12020504

looking through some old folders, i found this wonderful example of an online-shop recommendation gone wrong 🩲🤦

i just leafed through a paper published by the korean society of mathematical education that ends with the sentence »But needs more study.«

truer words have never been spoken.

the phrase »what could possibly go wrong?« will stick with us as one of the core ideas of our time in history books. the chapter headline for our times will be »the facepalm age«.

as if it isn’t already quite hot in phoenix, arizona. also, they already have a looming water crisis.

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-centers-nearby-temperatures-degrees-phoenix.html

to qualify for google play store, two students who created an app need a couple of people who for two weeks use the prototype every day on their android phone.

it is a very simple collaborative-geo-annotation app using OSM.

we are looking for volunteers who would commit to, for 14 days, open the beta app every day and fiddle around with it, every day.

interested? → https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYb59IU3uZSGfE4MaJOWTpujzy96RKSbvw01GyFQbpazsXag/viewform

probably late to the party, but better late than never: the enshittificator https://vimeo.com/1168468796

this is originally from 1953, reprinted in 1956 – from a time when people in the US (and also elsewhere) had different rights because of the color of their skin.

it is important to remember that stories like this one were not only written, but also published.

https://imgur.com/gallery/judgement-day-ec-1953-RIcAF

»Von Seiten der Bildungsdirektion verweist man auch auf die fächerübergreifende digitale Grundbildung, in der der verantwortungsvolle und reflektierte Umgang mit digitalen Technologien – einschließlich KI-Anwendungen – thematisiert werde.«

»werde« ist eine sehr optimistische formulierung. dem großteil der lehrer_innen fehlen (in jedem sinn) die mittel, diese auseinandersetzung mit der nötigen tiefe zu erwirken. eine bessere formulierung wäre »werden sollte«.

i had the privilege to become part of this weeks very well-written »radio kolleg« about »the digitally forgotten« (die digital vergessenen) on OE1 by @mimikaetzchen@infosec.exchange

use of AI by the dunning-kruger-crowd will be one hell of a world to look forward to.

#chatGPT #sycophant found on reddit, posted by r/LadyKarigan

this is a very well-written text. it makes me laugh a lot, but also cry. and laugh.

not sure which is winning.

https://www.stvn.sh/writing/programming-still-sucks-fqffhyp

if you are still looking for the perfect DIY xmas present for your board-game loving friend: i spent a month to design a pacman-themed version of the labyrinth of ghosts/master labyrinth. it is a lot of work, but it is also VERY nice.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/1367293-labyrinth-of-ghosts or https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7023742

how to celebrate 40 years legend of #zelda without any surprise-announcements from nintendo 😢, you ask?

one suggestion is to enjoy a text that appreciates the recent installments of the game series as much as i do: https://archive.is/CJTfI

following karen haos »empire of AI«: »the empire always falls«. https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-empire-always-falls/

which emoji expresses 'days go by, and they just keep going by endlessly, endlessly pulling you into the future. days go by endlessly, endlessly pulling you into the future?'