YouTube video by EU Made Simple Goodbye Visa & Mastercard? The Digital Euro Explained

An interesting video about the state of the digital Euro… an overdue 🇪🇺 alternative to Visa and Mastercard.
The timeline, though, seems to follow the often typical 🇪🇺-pace… 🐢
Not clear to me why systems like iDEAL or other national solutions are not being leveraged more to speed up the process.

OpenAI to launch AI data center in Norway, its first in Europe | TechCrunch OpenAI said the new Norway-based data center comes as the European Union races to achieve AI sovereignty by investing in data center and compute power.

… and into Norway 🇳🇴...
Datacenter-wise probably the more sustainable long-term choice… though this boom is unlikely to bring Norwegians closer to a leap on the polarizing question of EU 🇪🇺 membership 😕

Surveillance: Proton relocates parts of its infrastructure from Switzerland According to a Swiss monitoring ordinance, services with more than 5000 users must identify customers.

Interesting that privacy-focused @proton.me is starting to move away from former privacy and secrecy paradise Switzerland 🇨🇭… shifting services into Germany 🇩🇪🇪🇺 and .…

We bullied HP into a minor act of disenshittification Score one for the ink-stained wretches.

Printer Ink 🟨🟦🟪⬛ being more expensive than stallion 🐎 sperm per gallon… I found a very random but still interesting fact @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy

YouTube video by VPRO Tegenlicht Waarom tech-platforms opzettelijk steeds slechter werken | VPRO Tegenlicht

Really interesting video about #enshittification #verkuttificatie 🇳🇱 at the example of #bigtech and other monopolies.

Thanks @vpro.nl for not using voice over... the auto generated English subtitles are decent besides terms like #enshittigenic & considering #YouTube being a live example maybe 🤔

YouTube video by tagesschau 40 Liter Regen pro Quadratmeter in Wacken

40 liters per square meter. Mud everywhere. Still... happy people.
Wacken might not be my kind of music 😂
But it’s one of Germany’s festival gems.
The atmosphere alone makes it legendary.

But with recent price hikes and even the quiet removal of teenage day tickets, this special status is getting harder to defend politically… and it's only a matter of time before “free” becomes “unfree.” After DB trains another train system I witness becoming less & less attractive in 🇪🇺
#NS #Trains

I personally think it's great that college students in the Netherlands have access to free public transport—it's a clear sign they're taken seriously, supported in a way that matters. In comparison to the marketing act below... Which might still help some…

Spaghetti ice cream... Love it... A German Italian creation:

The pasta = pressed vanilla ice cream
The marinara = strawberry sauce in good places homemade
The parmigiano = white chocolate flakes....

consumer devices can be a big part of the risk to critical infrastructure… a backdoor by design… or just through fast, sloppy engineering of security‑relevant features

either way… it’s about trust
in those who build, control,
and sell #infrastructure #eclabel #supplychain #trusttech

Chinese retailer JD.com is in gesprek om MediaMarkt-moederbedrijf over te nemen Het Chinese bedrijf JD.com zou serieuze onderhandelingen voeren met Ceconomy, het moederbedrijf van MediaMarkt. Ceconomy bevestigt in gesprek te zijn over een mogelijke overname, maar er is nog niets ...

JD might take over MediaMarkt’s parent company 🤯
that one hits weird…
MediaMarkt always felt very German —
“Ich bin doch nicht blöd” still echoes

and soon a Chinese e‑commerce giant at the wheel?
is this what resilience looks like 🇪🇺?

#MediaMarkt #Ceconomy #resilience

The new 🇩🇪 government opened the Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation (BMDS).
But instead of learning from 🇪🇪🇩🇰🇳🇱 (the digital leaders), 🇩🇪 plans to partner with 🇫🇷🇵🇱 (at least before the new border controls) to build… most likely… another new wheel.
🇪🇺 collaboration… at its best in current reality.

Lehrerstellen falsch ausgewiesen In der Kultusverwaltung wurden seit 2005 rund 1.440 Stellen fälschlicherweise als belegt ausgewiesen. Das Kultusministerium wird nun schnellstmöglich einen Plan erstellen, wie die Stellen effektiv an ...

As 🇩🇪 expat in the Netherlands, I often add: "I’m from the south."
It’s less common here—and the south usually has a better reputation.
Economy, education, landscape, culture…
But then you read stories like this.
Digitalization? A mess everywhere in Deutschland.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Wirkoennenalles.jpg

Germany’s federal state Baden-Württemberg just discovered it had 1440 unfilled teacher positions.
Not because there were not enough teachers.
But because of a software error.
For years, the system—called DIPSY, like a Teletubby—introduced ghost 👻 teachers.
"Wir können alles. Besides digitalization."

BitChat’s mesh-based idea reminds me of my youth in the Black Forest... chatting over “CB funk” through the village 🌲🌳
With its planned extensions, nerds like us then (and still now 🤓) could help deliver messages faster, further.

And this time, encrypted😉.
Feels like something worth following
[3/3]

Whether someone’s in a bunker in 🇺🇦... or just stuck on the terrace of a café during a national power outage... Like in Spain during the blackout earlier in April... the need is the same: let people connect to their dearest ones...
The internet’s not always there when you need it...
[2/3]

Meet Bitchat, a WhatsApp rival that works without internet Jack Dorsey, Twitter's co-founder, has launched a new peer-to-peer messaging app that operates entirely over Bluetooth and promises encrypted, ephemeral chats.

Despite the name (yes, people are bitching about it), #BitChat hits a nerve and strikes me a compelling idea.

Comms without internet or Starlink?
That’s maybe real #resilience using peer-to-peer.

Local-first tools matter especially when things get weird. #p2p

[1/3]

Why GitHub Copilot Isn’t Your Coding Partner These days ‘AI’ is everywhere, including in software development. Coming hot on the heels of approaches like eXtreme Programming and Pair Programming, there’s now a new kind of pa…

I myself recently stopped using GitHub Copilot because it became less and less the assistant I am looking for... 🤖

Volkswagen Kübelwagen - Wikipedia

But I would not be surprised if we see a new generation of the Kübelwagen: rugged, pragmatic, no karaoke —reliable and still modern enough for today’s 🇪🇺 military needs.

Not my desired vision for automotive 🇩🇪... but maybe a necessary one.
#EuropeanDefence #StrategicAutonomy
[4/4]

Still, it drew in smart people from everywhere. That gives me hope—and the 🚗🚙 industry a lot of potential.

I doubt that VW will conquer the electric markets, as the video suggests.

[3/4]

That could ripple far beyond 🇩🇪... and hit 🇪🇺 as a whole.

I grew up in a region shaped by the car industry in southwest 🇩🇪. It was everywhere.

Incremental progress was often sold as breakthroughs. The #DieselScandal exposed a lot.

[2/4]

YouTube video by Financial Times Can Volkswagen reinvent itself for the electric era? | FT Film

An interesting summary about the state of Volkswagen and its impact on Germany. It aligns well with several German sources I’ve seen.

The scary thing is that similar developments might be coming up for BMW, Audi, Mercedes—and many of their suppliers.

[1/3] #EuropeEconomy #MobilityTransition

BREAKING: Israel's defense minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the Israeli military to 'respond forcefully to Iran’s violation of the ceasefire with high-intensity strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran.' Follow Reuters live coverage: reut.rs/4ehxCEo

Dutch economy grew faster than expected in early 2025

Dutch economy grew faster than expected in early 2025 www.dutchnews.nl?p=253665

a person is holding a piece of paper in front of a black fax machine . ALT: a person is holding a piece of paper in front of a black fax machine .

Sorry, I followed he engaging words.... But there must be better ways to make the important survey experience more engaging as well... Show less, dynamic build up... Looks like results need to be compatible for German #fax machines 😂 #germanHumor

Green parakeets in Den Haag. Exotic migrants who seem to enjoy life here.

But being able to defend yourself against the bullies of the world must be part of the concept as well... And #Europe needs to step up their game with money but primarily with #progressive maybe even some #exotic and smart ideas... #dualUse

White dove on the roof of a house in Den Haag. The location of the NATO summit at 5:46AM. A symbol for peace?

Den Haag mornings bring their surprises.

Green #parakeets are regulars... Exotic, playful but a bit noisy...

But today I spotted a white dove for the first time.
May it stand as a symbol of what the #NATO summit should aim for as a final goal: #peace and #ceasefire.

It looks like he is playing with Trump's ego, who can now say that he paused a war... He will use stopped most likely...
Still ceasefire does sound better to me in this very moment than hearing about more bombs and attacks...

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