February 2025, tech readings, tech knowledge

Thoughts on shifting from U.S.-based software to European alternatives, touching on privacy, digital sovereignty, AI tools, and personal DIY projects.

Given the bad news of recent years, and the shift in U.S. policy under the Trump administration, I’ve decided to move away from American software, or at least, I’m trying to. Moving to European software also means adopting a more user-friendly approach to privacy, and it aligns with the idea of digital sovereignty in a global context where democracy in the United States no longer feels guaranteed.

So I’ve decided to stop using Chrome and Brave, both on my computer and on my other devices. I’ve switched to Vivaldi, which is based in Norway (Europe), and for search I first tried Qwant and am now experimenting with Ecosia.

A more complex departure will be Gmail, which has been deeply embedded in my workflow for at least 20 years. I was an early adopter of Gmail and what later became Google Workspace (Drive, Sheets, Docs and Slides) for my company.

As for AI chat tools like ChatGPT, I don’t think I can move away from OpenAI just yet, but I’m keeping an eye out and will be ready to switch as soon as a viable alternative appears.

While looking for European software, I came across the EuroStack Initiative, an association aiming to bring together European tech companies and build a movement that empowers homegrown digital products at every level, technology, governance, and funding, across Europe’s digital assets, from connectivity to cloud computing, AI, and digital platforms (thanks to Raffaele Gaito and Vittorio Scarano fo this discovery).

Following the above thoughts, if I ever have to make a thing that uses voice to receive commands, I will go for Voxtral API.

Andrea De Prisco created a fast scanning process for his large photo archive using an Arduino Uno, an old slide projector, and a Canon digital camera. It’s a very clever DIY project, developed with the help of LLMs such as ChatGPT and NotebookLM. LLMs can genuinely support creativity and, when combined with solid personal skills, can significantly improve the making process and help you reach your goal.

This Truesize map is not a new thing, but it is always interesting to see how big are countries for real. The maps we use (invented by Gerardo Mercatore 1512-1594) are not accurate in representing sizes near the poles, and this web site shows it.

Ongoing personal project: these days I’m working on a bedside lamp, because the one I’ve been using for years no longer provides enough light for my eyes… Yes, God, I’m getting old. So I’m building a new one using a standard G5.3 LED bulb, equipped with an ATmega microcontroller and gesture control to dim the light without touching it. A detailed post will be published here later.

Sometimes I’m excited and worried and sometimes I’m staggered by news like this one that says GPT-5.2 discovered and proved a new theoretical law of physics. An LLM can now also publish research papers as a co-author with humans.

Suleyman Mustafa, Microsoft AI leader, says that in 18 months LLM products will crash white collars job.

I’ve also read a few positive articles about coding, future and AI. The creation of powerful tools can lead people to make software by themself without need of developers, but there is also a growing demand for different new roles and also developers can change and with AI receive superpowers and increase their skills. So we should consider AI as tech shift and not be scared. Last, why don’t use AI to make something good?