Technology on akos.ma

Open Source Forbidden

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0200

What I’m going to tell you today might seem incredible, but just the same way as LLMs are banned from many workplaces these days, or mobile apps were outlawed by many an IT department 15 years ago, I was consulting 20 years ago for a large firm (a very large Swiss firm, actually) in which… Open Source code was explicitly forbidden to ever be put into production.

On Writing and Grading Papers in 2025

Fri, 23 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200

I’ve recently read two articles about the subject of how AI is quickly destroying higher education and what can be done about that; one on The New Yorker and another on The Chronicle of Higher Education, and they are quite similar in spirit: both quote similar sources, both deplore the current state of things, and both fail to provide any actionable idea at the end.

My Faithful Logitech C930e Webcam

Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200

I like boring technology that lasts decades: 2 years ago I was raving about my Harman Kardon SoundSticks (spoiler alert: they are still in service) and today I’d like to rave about my faithful Logitech C930e, an HDMI webcam that’s been with me for 10 years this month.

32 Years of PC Configurations

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200

I’ve been keeping track of the various characteristics of personal computers I’ve owned during the past 32 years, and here’s a table comparing those data points.

Swiss SaaS You Probably Never Heard About

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0200

I’ve recently talked about Proton and about how happy I am with their services, but it turns out that Switzerland has to offer much more in the realm of privacy-conscious SaaS.

The Proton Suite

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

First, a mandatory disclaimer: this is not a sponsored post (there are none in this blog, btw), just me telling the story of how I became a happy Proton user during the past 5 years; I’m not affiliated with them in any way.

Fading Into Irrelevance

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0100

As technology waves come and go, the names of iconic companies follow the movements, first reaching the pinnacle of their glories, and later fading into irrelevance.

30 Years of Product Naming Trends

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Here is an extension of a popular tweet I once wrote, extending it both backward and forward in time, with some actualizations.

20 Years of Harman Kardon SoundSticks

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Twenty years ago, months before the scorching (and deadly) summer of 2003, I bought the transparent Harman Kardon SoundSticks that I still have above (and below) my desk today.

FOSS in Developing Countries

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The other day, I had friends in Bolivia asking me if they could install Windows on a laptop they got through an NGO that initially came bundled with Linux.