Maik Zumstrull
@maik.zumstrull.net
Writer of code turned wrangler of coders. Drinker of coffee. Fan of reliable systems.
I'm just some software guy but if someone asked me for a code review and then said, but you can't read the code, you can only listen to me talk for an hour about how I feel about the code, I'd want to know what drugs they're on.
Presumably pre-publication would allow more robust scrutiny in Parliament as MPs would be able to read it and prepare questions beforeha- oh, I see why British governments don't like the idea
November 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
I'm just some software guy but if someone asked me for a code review and then said, but you can't read the code, you can only listen to me talk for an hour about how I feel about the code, I'd want to know what drugs they're on.
Good example of why I roll my eyes when people complain about the burden of GDPR compliance.
It's never “We ran into an exotic edge case.” It's always “We were absolutely not willing to do the bare minimum.”
Just write a one-page document laying out why you think something is legal!
It's never “We ran into an exotic edge case.” It's always “We were absolutely not willing to do the bare minimum.”
Just write a one-page document laying out why you think something is legal!
Spanish Airports Ordered To Shut Down Biometric Boarding Gates, Airport Operator Slapped With €10 Million Fine
Spain's Aena faces a €10 million fine and must halt biometric boarding gates due to GDPR violations on data assessments.
www.paddleyourownkanoo.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Good example of why I roll my eyes when people complain about the burden of GDPR compliance.
It's never “We ran into an exotic edge case.” It's always “We were absolutely not willing to do the bare minimum.”
Just write a one-page document laying out why you think something is legal!
It's never “We ran into an exotic edge case.” It's always “We were absolutely not willing to do the bare minimum.”
Just write a one-page document laying out why you think something is legal!
Reposted by Maik Zumstrull
Connection to the users and their desire paths is the most important path of working in security and nobody goddamn does it. You are gonna make compromises. And they're all gonna be worth it. Because you understand what they want and you're gonna deliver it and they're gonna stop doing stupid shit.
November 26, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Connection to the users and their desire paths is the most important path of working in security and nobody goddamn does it. You are gonna make compromises. And they're all gonna be worth it. Because you understand what they want and you're gonna deliver it and they're gonna stop doing stupid shit.
With another idiotic headline. “So seductive?” There's no audience for this! No one likes it! Not even the racists – they don't believe for a second she's really one of them!
A comprehensive evisceration of Mahmood and the politics that led to her rise, by @nesrinemalik.bsky.social
Shabana Mahmood is an avatar of open Britain – that’s what makes her fable about immigration so seductive | Nesrine Malik
‘She is the daughter of immigrants,’ supporters of her cruel asylum policies say. ‘How can she be wrong?’ Let me put them straight, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:47 AM
With another idiotic headline. “So seductive?” There's no audience for this! No one likes it! Not even the racists – they don't believe for a second she's really one of them!
It remains amazing that Theresa May somehow managed to get customs union membership without major concessions and her idiot party went, ew, no, we want a worse deal.
Oh, Customs Union again? Based on recent conversations I am pretty sure that any form of greater UK market access to the single market including this will require substantial financial contribution, alignment, and close to freedom of movement. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Lib Dems to force vote on creating new customs union with EU
Ed Davey’s party believes the move is the best way to ‘turbocharge’ economy, rather than tax rises
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:44 PM
It remains amazing that Theresa May somehow managed to get customs union membership without major concessions and her idiot party went, ew, no, we want a worse deal.
Reposted by Maik Zumstrull
Good news: only really, really dumb people thought they really wanted free speech on campus
Bad news: There are a deal-breakingly lot of really, really dumb people
Bad news: There are a deal-breakingly lot of really, really dumb people
November 21, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Good news: only really, really dumb people thought they really wanted free speech on campus
Bad news: There are a deal-breakingly lot of really, really dumb people
Bad news: There are a deal-breakingly lot of really, really dumb people
Even if he never gets into power, he does enormous damage to the UK every time he opens his mouth, because what every foreign negotiator hears is “This is an unreliable country that might rip up existing treaties if there's one bad election, so we should give them nothing.”
“He also set out plans to slash foreign aid to a minimum, and nearly triple the annual fee paid by visa applicants to use the NHS”
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reform plans to strip EU citizens of benefit rights, says Farage
Leader Nigel Farage says his party would renegotiate the Brexit deal struck by the Tory government.
www.bbc.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Even if he never gets into power, he does enormous damage to the UK every time he opens his mouth, because what every foreign negotiator hears is “This is an unreliable country that might rip up existing treaties if there's one bad election, so we should give them nothing.”
See also: old paintings of exotic animals by people who've never seen one but had good descriptions.
It’s like trying to understand a ‘cat’ say from lots of text related to cats but without having ever encountered an actual cat and gone through the process of converting perceived cat to language.
November 20, 2025 at 12:39 PM
See also: old paintings of exotic animals by people who've never seen one but had good descriptions.
Reposted by Maik Zumstrull
A hopeful message to finish. The problems with the UK economy are many, but most of them are solvable, because they are the result of sustained poor policy choices. These policy mistakes have left scars, and some of the damage is irreversible, but the majority of it can be recovered.
November 17, 2025 at 8:20 AM
A hopeful message to finish. The problems with the UK economy are many, but most of them are solvable, because they are the result of sustained poor policy choices. These policy mistakes have left scars, and some of the damage is irreversible, but the majority of it can be recovered.
I've lived under three different European health systems – four if you consider that Germany has two parallel systems for no real reason.
I could go on a long rant about what's wrong with any of them, but all of them understand that health insurance needs to cover all treatable health problems.
I could go on a long rant about what's wrong with any of them, but all of them understand that health insurance needs to cover all treatable health problems.
Dr. Oz is clearly a moron who, incredibly, doesn't understand anything about how the insurance system works.
But also: Conservatives genuinely believe that people want to spend endless hours "choosing the insurance that's best for them." They don't. They want good, secure health care. It's simple.
But also: Conservatives genuinely believe that people want to spend endless hours "choosing the insurance that's best for them." They don't. They want good, secure health care. It's simple.
Dr Oz: "If you had a check in the mail, you could buy the insurance you thought was best for you"
November 16, 2025 at 5:54 PM
I've lived under three different European health systems – four if you consider that Germany has two parallel systems for no real reason.
I could go on a long rant about what's wrong with any of them, but all of them understand that health insurance needs to cover all treatable health problems.
I could go on a long rant about what's wrong with any of them, but all of them understand that health insurance needs to cover all treatable health problems.
Proud to announce our next policy: installing a giant meat grinder on Trafalgar Square and slowing feeding migrants into it. There will be a live stream, and you can use the tipping function to vote on who goes next.
NEW from Ipsos
Satisfaction with the PM remains unchanged since September, continuing to be the worst ever recorded by Ipsos for a Prime Minister, going back to 1977…
Satisfaction with the PM remains unchanged since September, continuing to be the worst ever recorded by Ipsos for a Prime Minister, going back to 1977…
November 16, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Proud to announce our next policy: installing a giant meat grinder on Trafalgar Square and slowing feeding migrants into it. There will be a live stream, and you can use the tipping function to vote on who goes next.
They genuinely think it's just so mean and unfair they're supposed to choose and can't pander to fascists and antifascists at the same time.
Appealing to Reform voters whilst also invoking people’s “openness, tolerance and generosity” seems to involve a degree of mixed messaging
"Mahmood said a raft of tough immigration controls were designed to unlock “the inherent openness, tolerance and generosity” of the British people."
Such nauseating shamelessness.
Such nauseating shamelessness.
November 16, 2025 at 1:49 PM
They genuinely think it's just so mean and unfair they're supposed to choose and can't pander to fascists and antifascists at the same time.
Reposted by Maik Zumstrull
I love the "Prosecutions for fare evasion on the Tube are at their highest level for six years" bit. I wonder what could have happened 5-6 years ago that would have caused fare evasion to decline so steeply?!?
November 14, 2025 at 12:40 PM
I love the "Prosecutions for fare evasion on the Tube are at their highest level for six years" bit. I wonder what could have happened 5-6 years ago that would have caused fare evasion to decline so steeply?!?
Reposted by Maik Zumstrull
Anyway: both the state and private developers need to build at far greater rates, the default aim should be 'a dual earner couple on average incomes can live in non-crowded conditions and raise a family', and the model family *for policymakers* should be three for obvious reasons.
November 13, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Anyway: both the state and private developers need to build at far greater rates, the default aim should be 'a dual earner couple on average incomes can live in non-crowded conditions and raise a family', and the model family *for policymakers* should be three for obvious reasons.
Plus naked stock manipulation.
They've figured out that any layoffs will give you a quick stock price bump, no matter how unnecessary or irrational.
They've figured out that any layoffs will give you a quick stock price bump, no matter how unnecessary or irrational.
Financial stress from AI infrastructure spending, overhiring, and recession fears, rather than AI adoption, is likely driving layoffs in the tech sector (Fast Company)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
November 10, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Plus naked stock manipulation.
They've figured out that any layoffs will give you a quick stock price bump, no matter how unnecessary or irrational.
They've figured out that any layoffs will give you a quick stock price bump, no matter how unnecessary or irrational.
It's frustrating people don't understand how this works.
If you're the far right and you manage to place saboteurs in BBC leadership, you don't ask them to make the BBC nicer to conservatives.
You use them to create real cases of crass misconduct so liberals will agree the BBC must be destroyed.
If you're the far right and you manage to place saboteurs in BBC leadership, you don't ask them to make the BBC nicer to conservatives.
You use them to create real cases of crass misconduct so liberals will agree the BBC must be destroyed.
Sorry to be the archetypal bothsidesist again (!), but the newsreader's eye-roll *and* the editing of the Trump footage both seem quite difficult to defend?!?
November 10, 2025 at 1:13 PM
It's frustrating people don't understand how this works.
If you're the far right and you manage to place saboteurs in BBC leadership, you don't ask them to make the BBC nicer to conservatives.
You use them to create real cases of crass misconduct so liberals will agree the BBC must be destroyed.
If you're the far right and you manage to place saboteurs in BBC leadership, you don't ask them to make the BBC nicer to conservatives.
You use them to create real cases of crass misconduct so liberals will agree the BBC must be destroyed.
Reposted by Maik Zumstrull
I genuinely think there is a case that anyone using an AI product of this kind should face a short prison sentence. It's vandalism, just like painting on a wall or smashing a bus stop.
And you don’t even need an actually good bit of tech, which “Objector” may or may not be, to do this! If you just ask the free version of any genAI to do something plausible it still louses up everyone else’s productivity to work out it is bollocks!
The automated problem factory!
November 9, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I genuinely think there is a case that anyone using an AI product of this kind should face a short prison sentence. It's vandalism, just like painting on a wall or smashing a bus stop.
Tools so good you have to illegally influence the European Commission to try to force people to buy them!
November 7, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Tools so good you have to illegally influence the European Commission to try to force people to buy them!
“I'm not right or left, I'm liberta…”
“Okay, ultra hard right, got it. Next!”
“Okay, ultra hard right, got it. Next!”
Yawning at the limited government folks warning that a democratic socialist mayor of New York is an existential threat, but who remain guardedly optimistic about an authoritarian president.
November 4, 2025 at 1:14 PM
“I'm not right or left, I'm liberta…”
“Okay, ultra hard right, got it. Next!”
“Okay, ultra hard right, got it. Next!”
Reposted by Maik Zumstrull
Today, we celebrate 75 years of the European Convention on Human Rights. From the right to a fair trial and freedom of expression to freedom of thought, conscience, and belief, the #ECHR has been instrumental in advancing human dignity and liberty. 🧵
humanists.uk/2025/11/04/c...
humanists.uk/2025/11/04/c...
Celebrating 75 years of the European Convention on Human Rights
Today, we celebrate 75 years of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Brought into being after the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust, and following in the footsteps of the Un...
humanists.uk
November 4, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Today, we celebrate 75 years of the European Convention on Human Rights. From the right to a fair trial and freedom of expression to freedom of thought, conscience, and belief, the #ECHR has been instrumental in advancing human dignity and liberty. 🧵
humanists.uk/2025/11/04/c...
humanists.uk/2025/11/04/c...
Honestly thought at first that the joke was that one of these is actually real.
My favorite running comedy bit is whenever CBS knows it has additional viewers for a live sporting event they run a bunch of promos for clearly fake shows just to screw with them
November 2, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Honestly thought at first that the joke was that one of these is actually real.
“But how will we sell a policy of no starving children in this country” is an insane thing to think.
Terminal case of focus group brain worms.
Terminal case of focus group brain worms.
I can’t envisage a child poverty strategy which garners any credibility without fully scrapping the two-child limit.
Unconvinced? Check out (even better share) this summary of the peer-reviewed evidence base @kittyjstewart.bsky.social @aaronreeves.bsky.social
largerfamilies.study/publications...
Unconvinced? Check out (even better share) this summary of the peer-reviewed evidence base @kittyjstewart.bsky.social @aaronreeves.bsky.social
largerfamilies.study/publications...
November 2, 2025 at 10:20 AM
“But how will we sell a policy of no starving children in this country” is an insane thing to think.
Terminal case of focus group brain worms.
Terminal case of focus group brain worms.
Wichtigster Punkt: „Wir wissen gar nicht, wie viele Rechner wir haben, was darauf läuft, oder wer die betreut“ ist schon an sich eine Bankrotterklärung und ein rechtswidriger Zustand.
Ob das Betriebssystem theoretisch noch Support hätte, ist da fast schon egal. Völliger Kontrollverlust.
Ob das Betriebssystem theoretisch noch Support hätte, ist da fast schon egal. Völliger Kontrollverlust.
Einfachste Grundlagen für einen ordnungsgemäßen IT-Betrieb nicht vorhanden... da brauchen wir nicht reden von digitaler Souveränität. 🔥🔥🔥
Digitalministerium ratlos: Keine Strategie für Umstieg auf Windows 11
"Für Windows 10 bietet Microsoft..."
netzpolitik.org/2025/digital...
Digitalministerium ratlos: Keine Strategie für Umstieg auf Windows 11
"Für Windows 10 bietet Microsoft..."
netzpolitik.org/2025/digital...
Digitalministerium ratlos: Keine Strategie für Umstieg auf Windows 11
Für Windows 10 bietet Microsoft seit gut einer Woche keinen Support mehr an. Das bringt Nutzer*innen in Zugzwang, darunter auch die Bundesverwaltung. Das zuständige Digitalministerium weiß indes wenig...
netzpolitik.org
October 26, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Wichtigster Punkt: „Wir wissen gar nicht, wie viele Rechner wir haben, was darauf läuft, oder wer die betreut“ ist schon an sich eine Bankrotterklärung und ein rechtswidriger Zustand.
Ob das Betriebssystem theoretisch noch Support hätte, ist da fast schon egal. Völliger Kontrollverlust.
Ob das Betriebssystem theoretisch noch Support hätte, ist da fast schon egal. Völliger Kontrollverlust.
No matter how you slice the data, renewables today are cheaper than any other kind of energy.
It's not just that these dingdongs are laundering fossil fuel industry talking points, but that they're talking points from fifty years ago, ignoring all technical progress since then.
It's not just that these dingdongs are laundering fossil fuel industry talking points, but that they're talking points from fifty years ago, ignoring all technical progress since then.
Literally everything they do seems to be a bid to boost the Green Party, or Reform, or sometimes when they’re feeling really determined, both at once.
Just breathtaking how bad they are, even on their own ”gain power at all costs” terms.
Just breathtaking how bad they are, even on their own ”gain power at all costs” terms.
Keir Starmer prepares to miss key green target in effort to keep energy bills down
Exclusive: Promise to remove almost all fossil fuels from UK’s electricity supply by 2030 may be quietly abandoned over cost
www.theguardian.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:22 PM
No matter how you slice the data, renewables today are cheaper than any other kind of energy.
It's not just that these dingdongs are laundering fossil fuel industry talking points, but that they're talking points from fifty years ago, ignoring all technical progress since then.
It's not just that these dingdongs are laundering fossil fuel industry talking points, but that they're talking points from fifty years ago, ignoring all technical progress since then.
Reposted by Maik Zumstrull
good faith progressive reform is THE answer to authoritarianism, and there's a lot of money being spent across the partisan spectrum to pretend otherwise
October 23, 2025 at 2:19 PM
good faith progressive reform is THE answer to authoritarianism, and there's a lot of money being spent across the partisan spectrum to pretend otherwise