Guys, just a quick update letting you know that there’ll be somewhat less content on this blog for a few weeks. I am quite busy at work and with other things at the moment. Don’t worry if you don’t hear from me in a while. It’s all good and I’ll be back soon.

As promised, I’ve just released an extra episode of The Private Citizen. This is a long one, so I hope you have some time on your hand. Or, you know, just pause it in between.

→ The Private Citizen 86: The Sausage Wars

A discussion with my friend Mike about the current state of Brexit and what it means for the future of the European Union and the geopolitical situation on the continent and beyond.

If you want to get notified automatically when new episodes of The Private Citizen are released, you can subscribe to the show via a number of methods:

I’ve just released another episode of The Private Citizen, hopefully one of a couple this week. In this one, I examine an example of exceptionally bad journalism that hit the world recently. I’ve discussed this kind of thing before, but sadly, the journalistic landscape seems to be getting worse, not better.

→ The Private Citizen 85: The Latest in Despicable Journalism

Again and again, so-called journalists in big media outlets exaggerate or even outright invent stories to scare or outrage the public. The audience just buys it wholesale and never notices when, a day or two later, it all turns out to be complete bullshit. Today’s example: Ivermectin.

If you want to get notified automatically when new episodes of The Private Citizen are released, you can subscribe to the show via a number of methods:

I’ve also updated the album art for the show again. As you can see, I am aggressively fighting for your right to have something to hide!

This week on The Private Citizen, I explain Steve Gibson’s SQRL, which is a really cool solution to the problems we all face with passwords on the internet.

→ The Private Citizen 84: Steve Gibson’s Squirrel

Authentication on the internet is fundamentally broken. Weak passwords, password reuse, data leaks and untrustworthy third parties tracking us while they log us in are the unfortunate reality right now. One man decided to single-handedly fix this mess.

If you want to get notified automatically when new episodes of The Private Citizen are released, you can subscribe to the show via a number of methods:

“Botany Bay”

A postcard from No Man’s Sky

I think the recent Pegasus spyware investigation and so-called “NSO scandal” was quite boring, personally. But people really wanted me to talk about it on The Private Citizen and, you know, I think they are right. It is a really important topic, even if it is boring to me. So I talked about it:

→ The Private Citizen 83: The Conspiracy Theorists Get It Right Again

Pegasus isn’t new. Anyone in the field has known about NSO Group’s spyware and its use against politicians, activists and journalists for half a decade. What’s worth discussing, though, is how the topic has been ignored for so long. Both by the press and by iPhone maker Apple.

If you want to get notified automatically when new episodes of The Private Citizen are released, you can subscribe to the show via a number of methods:

Here’s a little webcomic I’ve been working on:

Why I avoid Facebook like the plague these days? Because as soon as I log on, I see a former colleague of mine (a journalist) post this, liked by a lot of other former colleagues (also journalists):

It’s dumb shit like this that makes me fear for the future of my profession. What exactly are you saying there? That scientists can’t be wrong? If you actually asked a scientist about their job, they’d probably tell you that 95% of their job is being wrong. Also, much like “journalist”, “scientist” isn’t a protected job title. Anyone can be a scientist. In fact, much like being a journalist, being a scientist is a way of thinking more than anything else. Not to mention that there are very different sciences that work very differently from each other.

I don’t understand how these guys think. Are you only a scientist if you have a PhD? Are you only a scientist if you work at a university? And does this then mean you are automatically right about your job and me, a journalist (not a scientist), is automatically wrong? You can’t be possibly that naïve! These guys probably think somebody who’s not a journalist is not allowed to tell a journalist when the journalist is wrong about journalism, right? It’s hard for me to even imagine a more unscientific way of thinking than exhibited by whoever made this meme.

Facebook indeed seems to actively destroy intelligence in people. There’s no other way I have at my disposal to understand this Homer Simpson-esque behaviour. “Ha ha… Look! Smart text on image!” ~CLICK~ “I like!”

Tonight, on the The Private Citizen, I talk about breaking news from Afghanistan. Not so much the war or the troop withdrawal itself, but how politicians reacted to it. And why we, as freedom-loving, democracy-affirming citizens can not let this blatant (and dumb) propaganda stand.

→ The Private Citizen 82: The Afghan Disaster

The people responsible claim nobody could have predicted what happened in Afghanistan this week. But their experts did in fact did predict it, which wasn’t exactly hard, and then the people in charge lied about it. The public now desperately needs to understand how governments operate, or it will all happen again. And soon.

If you want to get notified automatically when new episodes are released, you can subscribe to the show via a number of methods:

I’ve got quite a busy week of streaming coming up, starting tomorrow afternoon with the release of Humankind:

By the way: If you want to keep up to date with what I’m streaming when, check out the /stream page regularly.

“Hexagonis”

A postcard from No Man’s Sky

I’ve just released the latest episode of The Private Citizen, where I cover Apple’s new privacy-defeating features in iOS and tie that together with some of their recent supposedly privacy-friendly initiatives to explain how its all part of the same strategy: Do things that are best for the company while pretending they have their users' interests at heart.

It always amazes me how people can be very suspicious of almost every other company but then give Apple a free pass. And this is IT security experts and journalists we are talking about. Well, they were in for a rude awakening last week…

→ The Private Citizen 81: Let’s Talk about Apple

What are the new features Apple is implementing in iOS 15 that have privacy and security people all up in arms? And why none of this should come a surprise to anyone who’s actually paid some attention and is thinking for themselves instead of just buying the company propaganda.

If you want to get notified automatically when new episodes are released, you can subscribe to the show via a number of methods:

This week, I finally picked up streaming games again. I started by getting back to The Witcher 2, which was actually a lot of fun, especially considering how long I hadn’t played the game and that I stopped right after starting it. Despite not knowing any of the combat controls anymore, the story hooked me and pulled me right back in. And the graphics are just such an unbelievable improvement on the first game!

I also picked up Snowrunner again on Saturday after a similarly long hiatus. I fell right back into loving that game, though, and it ended up being a very chill weekend stream with some nice discussions about weddings and such with chat. I’m looking forward to doing more game streams soon!

“NEU”

Street art in Düsseldorf
Nikon D7100, AF Nikkor 35mm f/2D (ISO 400 • 1/2500 s • f/22)

“Fab's Landing”

A postcard from No Man’s Sky

I’m a day late with this since I had a bit of an emergency last night and couldn’t record the podcast, but I’ve now released the latest episode of The Private Citizen. It’s all about a speech Joe Biden gave recently and why what he said concerns me greatly. And why I think it should concern you, too.

→ The Private Citizen 80: Biden’s Dangerous Cyber Jingoism

The US President says it’s likely that hacker attacks will lead to a real war and that is something that scares me a lot.

If you want to get notified automatically when new episodes are released, you can subscribe to the show via a number of methods:

“Pastellum”

A postcard from No Man’s Sky