Bye, bye Opera … welcome Vivaldi

These are hard times regarding politics and IT. Present developments, in particular in the USA, in China and Russia have an indirect or direct impact on various types of IT-components – concerning e.g. production sites, quality, tariffs and prices, data control, digital privacy. We in Europe who have supported Opensource and Opensource-based applications for decades, can – in my opinion – not ignore tendencies both of dictatorial regimes and capitalistic tech-giants to control the future of IT in general, the production of IT-related products and the efforts to control and analyze more and more of user-generated traffic. Be it for the surveillance and control of citizens or to earn money via analyzing user profiles and spamming them indirectly with advertisement. Even more concerning is the growing power of a handful of companies and institutions over the development and the ultimate direction of AI. The risks in all of these sectors to harm digital privacy (aside of the un-social media) are growing.

But we Europeans should also have an eye on who invests in what – and whether such investments come from countries which support aggressors against European countries or the EU. We sometimes need to take a clear position. Better late than never as in my case.

Continue reading

A message from a retired president to Germany and the world …

This morning my day started with a message of a former president of Germany, Joachim Gauck. As Christmas is coming in a time of war and terror I want to share his words with my readers:

“Wir sehen zu deutlich die Absicht Putins, eine ganze Bevölkerung unterschiedslos zu terrorisieren, sie erfrieren zu lassen, sie um ihre Rechte, sogar um ihr Lebensrecht zu bringen. Auch angesichts des imperialen Wahns, von dem dieser Mann offenkundig besessen ist, ist leider Schlimmes zu erwarten.”

and:

Ihm werde es in diesem Jahr nicht gelingen, Weihnachten so zu feiern wie in früheren Jahren, sagte Gauck.

“Aber wir dürfen uns andererseits nicht von einem kaltblütigen Kriegsverbrecher unsere Lebensart ruinieren lassen.”

Quoted according to a publication of the newspaper “Die Zeit” (Link. This was a contribution to the Zeit-blog on the war in Ukraine.

Clear words – especially about the Putler. Nothing to add …

I wish all the people in Ukraine at least some peaceful hours during the next days. Our thoughts are with you – and I hope you will get in 2023 all the equipment you need to defend your and our freedom in a democratic Europe.