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I did a major revamp of this website, rewriting it from scratch with Astro and Tailwind after outgrowing my old, dated Jekyll setup.

I gave a talk on DOI (Digital Object Identifier) at MRMCD 25. If you want to know a thing or two about DOI, check it out!

Since my last post on banking I got to try out new services and old ones changed a little.

I bought a Pixel 9 Pro right after it was released. It now shows a vertical pink line on the display. A short rant.

I have been using Google Fit to track my health data extensively since the end of 2023. In the meantime, Google released Health Connect, which is a platform to store health data from different providers instead of them using the Google Fit API. In 2024, I got a new Phone (P9P), but my historical Google Fit data is not showing up on my new phone's Google Fit app. Now I found a workaround.

When you start a new domain, you need to do routine tasks.

So, I set up bank accounts at various banking institutions offering their services in Germany. I will write about my experiences with them in a series of posts and test them out. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or anything else I should test or write about.

This shows how the Validity Sensor 138a:0090 fingerprint sensor can be made to work on Linux. This Sensor is used in various ThinkPads such as the X1 Carbon (4. Gen) or in my case the X1 Yoga (1. Gen).

Die #GPN24 war anstrengender als erwartet. Am Ende hat vieles geklappt, aber es hätte auch einfacher und besser sein können. Überanstrengung optimiert nur einen Zielparameter; man sollte das eigentlich Wichtige nicht vergessen und es nachhaltig erreichen.

2025 has been a mixed year for me. The Good times were pretty good, but the bad times were so bad.

I noticed today that I have been attending the Gulaschprogrammiernacht (GPN) for 10 years now.

In the next years, I want to achieve a few things. The general theme is doing more computer science and security. I think I can realistically achieve these things, if not I need to analyze it. Some of these things are more important than others and some are a byproduct of the general direction.

I am often critical of my work. I think of things I did in the past and I think it was bad. I could have done it better. There are always people who are better than me, people who studied faster than me, people who did two bachelor degrees, people who had better grades, who published more papers, who published at better venues, who won best paper awards at a* conference and so on.

After my own personal asset labels were made in Inkscape, I created a web-based label designer to make it easier to create and print labels. You can try it out here.

I designed and printed my own personal asset labels to tag my belongings. These labels help identify my items and provide contact information in case they get lost.

Android App development was an intermediate step for me into the world of programming. I have been developing Android apps since at least 2015. I initially got into programming as I wanted to create Minecraft mods, thus I learned Java. Later, I transitioned to developing my own Games, first with Slick2D and then with LibGDX. LibGDX is cross-platform and allows for developing desktop and mobile games from a single codebase. I did not own an Android device when I started developing for it.

I recently bought a lava lamp and I was inspired to create a website that showcases a colorful light. Check it out on decolight.toranm.me.

Centrifugal effects describe when a subunit of an organization pulls away from the main organization. It's a concept I came across in the context of universities, but it can apply to any organization. I think it is a useful concept to understand and want to proliferate it.

I noticed a recurring theme that I thought about: It's the concept of "highly refined things". A "thing" can be anything, I am mainly thinking about products, food items, software but also ideas. By "highly refined" I mean that the item was augmented upon from its basic form.

When you plan out something, a project, a process or something else, you can generally take more simple approaches or more complex approaches. There are plenty of examples where you need a complex approach, because there are very high requirements, I think of RF, semiconductor manufacturing, data intensive applications. But there are also plenty of examples where you can take a more simple approach. Complexity or simplicity are unrelated to the quality of the result.

To /keep innovating/ is to innovate, and then to do it again. But you can't just do the same thing again. You need to do something new again.

I did a major revamp of this website, rewriting it from scratch with Astro and Tailwind after outgrowing my old, dated Jekyll setup.

I added a new feature to my blog: you can now vote on the next blog post I will write! This is a fun way to get feedback from you and to see what you are interested in. I will add new topics every now and then, so you can vote on them. This feature is inspired by Dreckstool. You can find the voting page here: Vote on my next blog post.

I moved to Jekyll because it allows for explicitly naming one layout to be extended. Using Hugo I felt like having to fight with the lookup order. This is the primary reason.

Here's a list of songs I like to listen to currently:

Cro is a German rapper and producer. He is known for blending rap with pop and has paved the way for rap music in the mainstream. I think he has cool songs.

Charli xcx's 2024 album brat is incredible. The sound is inspired by EDM and developed into pop, but without the cliche poppy sound. Charli has done many hit songs, like Boom Clap, Fancy with Iggy Azalea and I Love It with Icona Pop, but this album makes her sound more mature and sophisticated. From the start, 360, to the end, 365, the album is a journey. The album has so many layers and always something new to discover, so it has great rehearability. Take 365 for example, it's catchy, but its ending makes you wonder how she passed it as a pop song. Apple and von dutch have been topping the charts, but the lesser known songs are also great. Take mean girls for example, its sound mixing piano and synths is so good.

Since my last post, the Rayhunter project has made significant progress.

Rayhunter by EFF is an open-source tool to detect cellular spying, aka IMSI catchers, aka Stingrays. This tool monitors the cellular network and detects anomalies. Specifically, it looks for IMSI requests, 2G downgrade, SIB types 6 and 7, and null cipher. It is originally written for the Orbic RC400L, which is hard to purchase in Europe. GitHub user m0veax has created a fork and documentation to bring Rayhunter to the TP-Link M7350, which is available in Europe.

Passkeys are a new authentication method that is gaining popularity. They are designed to be more secure and easier to use than traditional passwords. This scheme is developed by the FIDO Alliance, who also offer a database of certified passkey vendors. This database is called the FIDO Metadata Service (MDS).

I gave a talk on CRA (Cyber Resilience Act) at GPN 22 in German. It was a while ago, but if you want to know a thing or two about CRA, check it out!

I gave a talk on DOI (Digital Object Identifier) at MRMCD 25. If you want to know a thing or two about DOI, check it out!

When designing my own website, I drew inspiration from various other people's websites. Here are a few that stood out to me:

A fun and inspiring way to experience the web: browse the websites of architects, brick and mortar ones, not software.

Hi, inspired by this HN thread I decided to write about some of the most influential computer science papers I have read. For me, these papers shaped what I think computer science is, and what it can be. When someone asks me "What is computer science?" I think the answer is that it is the scientific investigation of IT. On the low end are foundational papers whose results are used, remixed and relevant to this day. On the high end are papers that are visionary, and have shaped the way we think about computer science, that have inspired novel ways of thinking.

The challenge "pls respond" from LakeCTF involved analyzing a network capture file containing SMS messages. Inside the messages are animations, IMelody and wireless vector graphics.

Short Backrooms review: I liked it overall, still a horror film.