Ted
@desfontain.es
A little pinch of randomness here and there and poof, your data is now protected. Magic! ✨
(I don't read DMs. Send me an email instead.)
🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://hachyderm.io/@tedted, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
(I don't read DMs. Send me an email instead.)
🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://hachyderm.io/@tedted, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
I signed up for my first ever classical chess tournament. Will happen in March, 5 games over 3 days (90+30 time control). It will either be lots of fun, or an emotionally crushing experience, or maybe both 😺
January 16, 2026 at 11:12 PM
I signed up for my first ever classical chess tournament. Will happen in March, 5 games over 3 days (90+30 time control). It will either be lots of fun, or an emotionally crushing experience, or maybe both 😺
You think answering "thanks, you too" to a waiter telling you "enjoy your meal" is embarrassing?
A friend of mine, who is single, wished me a good honeymoon today. Guest what I answered 🫥
A friend of mine, who is single, wished me a good honeymoon today. Guest what I answered 🫥
January 15, 2026 at 9:36 PM
You think answering "thanks, you too" to a waiter telling you "enjoy your meal" is embarrassing?
A friend of mine, who is single, wished me a good honeymoon today. Guest what I answered 🫥
A friend of mine, who is single, wished me a good honeymoon today. Guest what I answered 🫥
Making pumpkin soup. First step: melt 330g of butter. #frenchcooking
January 13, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Making pumpkin soup. First step: melt 330g of butter. #frenchcooking
I wrote a ✨ new blog post ✨ discussing some proposed changes to the definition of personal data under GDPR.
tl;dr: good for my business, not great for society at large 🤔
Link ➡️ https://desfontain.es/blog/digital-omnibus-personal-data-definition.html ✨
tl;dr: good for my business, not great for society at large 🤔
Link ➡️ https://desfontain.es/blog/digital-omnibus-personal-data-definition.html ✨
On “simplifying” GDPR's definition of personal data - Ted is writing things
I don't think it's a great idea to redefine what counts as anonymized data according to GDPR, like the European Commission is currently proposing. Here's why.
desfontain.es
January 8, 2026 at 2:30 PM
I wrote a ✨ new blog post ✨ discussing some proposed changes to the definition of personal data under GDPR.
tl;dr: good for my business, not great for society at large 🤔
Link ➡️ https://desfontain.es/blog/digital-omnibus-personal-data-definition.html ✨
tl;dr: good for my business, not great for society at large 🤔
Link ➡️ https://desfontain.es/blog/digital-omnibus-personal-data-definition.html ✨
LibreOffice takes *dozens of seconds* to load even small documents on my laptop. Are there faster alternatives? Preferably open-source, and that don't require me to install a billion dependencies? I don't need many features, this is mostly to read docs & spreadsheets.
January 6, 2026 at 12:43 PM
LibreOffice takes *dozens of seconds* to load even small documents on my laptop. Are there faster alternatives? Preferably open-source, and that don't require me to install a billion dependencies? I don't need many features, this is mostly to read docs & spreadsheets.
I don't have a whisk problem. I can stop buying whisks whenever I want
January 5, 2026 at 9:22 PM
I don't have a whisk problem. I can stop buying whisks whenever I want
Wrote up a list of my favorite books read in 2025 ✨
https://desfontain.es/blog/favorite-reads-2025.html
https://desfontain.es/blog/favorite-reads-2025.html
Favorite reads of 2025 - Ted is writing things
A list of the books that I particularly enjoyed reading this year.
desfontain.es
December 30, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Wrote up a list of my favorite books read in 2025 ✨
https://desfontain.es/blog/favorite-reads-2025.html
https://desfontain.es/blog/favorite-reads-2025.html
This essay from 2 years ago resonates even harder today. Strong recommend:
https://catherineshannon.substack.com/p/everyone-is-numbing-out
https://catherineshannon.substack.com/p/everyone-is-numbing-out
December 27, 2025 at 11:37 PM
This essay from 2 years ago resonates even harder today. Strong recommend:
https://catherineshannon.substack.com/p/everyone-is-numbing-out
https://catherineshannon.substack.com/p/everyone-is-numbing-out
Yessss what a nice milestone for 2025 🥳
Reached 1900 in blitz earlier this year too. Maybe I'll get to 2000 in one of the formats next year?
Reached 1900 in blitz earlier this year too. Maybe I'll get to 2000 in one of the formats next year?
December 25, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Yessss what a nice milestone for 2025 🥳
Reached 1900 in blitz earlier this year too. Maybe I'll get to 2000 in one of the formats next year?
Reached 1900 in blitz earlier this year too. Maybe I'll get to 2000 in one of the formats next year?
Nouvelle recette : soupe de potiron rôti. On continue sur la lancée de prendre des recettes simples et de les rendre merveilleuses avec un peu d'attention portée aux détails (et beaucoup de beurre) ✨
https://desfontain.es/recettes/soupe-de-potiron-roti.html
https://desfontain.es/recettes/soupe-de-potiron-roti.html
Soupe de potiron rôti - Les bonnes recettes de Ted
desfontain.es
December 20, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Nouvelle recette : soupe de potiron rôti. On continue sur la lancée de prendre des recettes simples et de les rendre merveilleuses avec un peu d'attention portée aux détails (et beaucoup de beurre) ✨
https://desfontain.es/recettes/soupe-de-potiron-roti.html
https://desfontain.es/recettes/soupe-de-potiron-roti.html
I'm packing books for presents and dismayed at how ugly all the covers are. Good art, ruined with unimaginative quotes from people I don't care about, or mentions of random literary prizes that won't exist in 5 years. And don't get me started on back covers that spoil half the story!
December 18, 2025 at 10:20 PM
I'm packing books for presents and dismayed at how ugly all the covers are. Good art, ruined with unimaginative quotes from people I don't care about, or mentions of random literary prizes that won't exist in 5 years. And don't get me started on back covers that spoil half the story!
Me: urgh, why is Typst using _text_ for italic and *text* for bold, this is a pointless and annoying divergence from the Markdown syntax
Me after a week of using Typst: wait actually this makes so much more sense than Markdown's syntax, all hail Typst
Me after a week of using Typst: wait actually this makes so much more sense than Markdown's syntax, all hail Typst
December 8, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Me: urgh, why is Typst using _text_ for italic and *text* for bold, this is a pointless and annoying divergence from the Markdown syntax
Me after a week of using Typst: wait actually this makes so much more sense than Markdown's syntax, all hail Typst
Me after a week of using Typst: wait actually this makes so much more sense than Markdown's syntax, all hail Typst
Some draws feel more satisfying than victories
December 8, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Some draws feel more satisfying than victories
La CNIL recrute pour leur équipe d'ingénierie et d'expertise technique: https://www.cnil.fr/fr/offre-demploi/ingenieuree-experte-au-service-de-lexpertise-technologique
Des gens sympas au service d'une mission positive et importante =)
Des gens sympas au service d'une mission positive et importante =)
Ingénieure(e) expert(e) au service de l’expertise technologique
L’équipe
www.cnil.fr
November 28, 2025 at 11:05 AM
La CNIL recrute pour leur équipe d'ingénierie et d'expertise technique: https://www.cnil.fr/fr/offre-demploi/ingenieuree-experte-au-service-de-lexpertise-technologique
Des gens sympas au service d'une mission positive et importante =)
Des gens sympas au service d'une mission positive et importante =)
Nouvelle recette: soupe de carottes caramélisées 🥕
Parfois, le secret, c'est un procédé scientifique optimisé 🧪
Parfois, c'est du beurre 🧈
… parfois, c'est les deux 👀
https://desfontain.es/recettes/soupe-de-carottes-caramelisees.html
Parfois, le secret, c'est un procédé scientifique optimisé 🧪
Parfois, c'est du beurre 🧈
… parfois, c'est les deux 👀
https://desfontain.es/recettes/soupe-de-carottes-caramelisees.html
Soupe de carottes caramélisées - Les bonnes recettes de Ted
desfontain.es
November 26, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Nouvelle recette: soupe de carottes caramélisées 🥕
Parfois, le secret, c'est un procédé scientifique optimisé 🧪
Parfois, c'est du beurre 🧈
… parfois, c'est les deux 👀
https://desfontain.es/recettes/soupe-de-carottes-caramelisees.html
Parfois, le secret, c'est un procédé scientifique optimisé 🧪
Parfois, c'est du beurre 🧈
… parfois, c'est les deux 👀
https://desfontain.es/recettes/soupe-de-carottes-caramelisees.html
Words to live by in Ed Zitron's latest blog post: « I learn a great deal by coming to things from the perspective of being a dumbass, a valuable intellectual framework of "I need to make sure I understand each bit and explain it as simply as possible." »
November 24, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Words to live by in Ed Zitron's latest blog post: « I learn a great deal by coming to things from the perspective of being a dumbass, a valuable intellectual framework of "I need to make sure I understand each bit and explain it as simply as possible." »
First time making fried rice in my fancy new carbon steel wok ✨
November 24, 2025 at 1:11 PM
First time making fried rice in my fancy new carbon steel wok ✨
In case someone here has an idea of how to do this simple-sounding but weirdly complicated thing: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79828554/python-open-an-editor-with-text-in-it-without-saving-the-file
Python: open an editor with text in it, without saving the file
I want to write a script which ends by calling my text editor (vim) on a specific file path. The file doesn't yet exist, and I want the editor window to already have some contents in it. In particu...
stackoverflow.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:14 AM
In case someone here has an idea of how to do this simple-sounding but weirdly complicated thing: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79828554/python-open-an-editor-with-text-in-it-without-saving-the-file
Managed to draw this position, with 5 seconds on the clock, in a 2+1 game \o/
November 21, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Managed to draw this position, with 5 seconds on the clock, in a 2+1 game \o/
Nicholas Carlini's latest blog post about the risks of LLMs is, as always, worth a read: https://nicholas.carlini.com/writing/2025/are-llms-worth-it.html
Are large language models worth it?
Are the harms that LLMs have caused, and will soon cause, worth the benefits they may bring? This article (a written version of a keynote talk I gave at CoLM) tries to explore this question.
nicholas.carlini.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Nicholas Carlini's latest blog post about the risks of LLMs is, as always, worth a read: https://nicholas.carlini.com/writing/2025/are-llms-worth-it.html
✨ New blog post ✨ on a hot, trendy, exciting topic: ISO standards 🙃
More precisely: how to implement ISO standards on re-identifiability analysis in a principled way? This is not trivial (these standards are not great), but it can be done […]
More precisely: how to implement ISO standards on re-identifiability analysis in a principled way? This is not trivial (these standards are not great), but it can be done […]
Original post on hachyderm.io
hachyderm.io
November 19, 2025 at 9:53 AM
✨ New blog post ✨ on a hot, trendy, exciting topic: ISO standards 🙃
More precisely: how to implement ISO standards on re-identifiability analysis in a principled way? This is not trivial (these standards are not great), but it can be done […]
More precisely: how to implement ISO standards on re-identifiability analysis in a principled way? This is not trivial (these standards are not great), but it can be done […]
Just hit "publish" on a blog post I've been working on for a couple of months, which took a lot more time and effort than expected. Very happy to be done with it…
Except of course GitHub Pages decided to have an outage at this exact moment, making new deployments fail 🙃
Except of course GitHub Pages decided to have an outage at this exact moment, making new deployments fail 🙃
November 18, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Just hit "publish" on a blog post I've been working on for a couple of months, which took a lot more time and effort than expected. Very happy to be done with it…
Except of course GitHub Pages decided to have an outage at this exact moment, making new deployments fail 🙃
Except of course GitHub Pages decided to have an outage at this exact moment, making new deployments fail 🙃
Just tried Magic-Wormhole for the first time. Game changer. So easy. The second code I got was "8-miracle-freedom", which really sums up my feelings towards it 🩵
November 18, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Just tried Magic-Wormhole for the first time. Game changer. So easy. The second code I got was "8-miracle-freedom", which really sums up my feelings towards it 🩵
I want the optimism of the judge who told OpenAI to "exhaustively de-identify" 20 million ChatGPT chat logs in 5 days, and the confidence of the NYT saying that "no ChatGPT user’s privacy is at risk" if they were receiving that data 🫠 […]
Original post on hachyderm.io
hachyderm.io
November 14, 2025 at 10:25 AM
I want the optimism of the judge who told OpenAI to "exhaustively de-identify" 20 million ChatGPT chat logs in 5 days, and the confidence of the NYT saying that "no ChatGPT user’s privacy is at risk" if they were receiving that data 🫠 […]