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Searching for a Simple Podcast App (Mac, iOS, Linux) Without Algorithms or Ads

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Podcasts used to be simple.

A creator publishes an RSS feed.
Listeners subscribe.
New episodes appear.

That simplicity comes from podcasting still running on open standards. Anyone can publish a feed and anyone can subscribe.

That simplicity is becoming harder to find.

Many podcast apps now resemble social platforms. They promote trending shows, push recommendations, and encourage discovery through curated feeds. Some include advertising layers or subscription models.

The underlying infrastructure has not changed. RSS still powers podcasting.

Who Controls the Algorithms That Shape Our Elections?

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As France approaches its 2026 municipal elections, a more fundamental question than campaign strategy emerges: who controls what voters are able to see online?

European elections no longer unfold only in town halls, television studios, or printed newspapers. They unfold inside privately owned ranking systems. When a candidate speaks, the decisive question is no longer simply what was said? It is: how did the algorithm rank it? Thus visibility is no longer organic but allocated. Much of Europe’s political communication now depends on platforms headquartered outside Europe. These platforms determine which posts trend, which clips go viral, which narratives gain momentum, and which disappear into obscurity. They are not neutral conduits. They are systems that prioritise, weight, and reorder information at scale.

Is Microsoft Authenticator a Single Point of Failure? The Attack Surface vs. Blast Radius Trade-Off

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When Authentication Becomes a Chokepoint

Reducing all entry points to a single, well-guarded door appears rational.

Centralising authentication through Microsoft Authenticator and Microsoft Entra ID standardises policy enforcement. It reduces configuration drift. It simplifies monitoring. Every user passes through the same control point.

From a security engineering perspective, consolidation improves defensive quality.

But consolidation changes the structure of dependency.

Digital fragility rarely begins as a technical defect. It becomes visible when control and dependency diverge under stress. When a single access layer gates multiple systems, continuity depends on that layer’s availability and governance.

Moving from 1Password to Proton Pass

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Trigger

There was a time when “US-based” simply meant global, stable, and inevitable.

My digital stack reflected that assumption. Passwords in 1Password. Files in North American clouds. Identity tied to platforms embedded in the US legal and economic sphere. All eggs in one basket — a basket that had always felt sturdy.

As geopolitical tensions increased — including discussions around Greenland’s geopolitical positioning — I reconsidered this position.

Nothing about 1Password itself raised alarms. The service remained strong. The interface remained elegant. 1Password is Canadian, not American — but it runs on AWS and operates within the same Five Eyes legal framework and the broader North American regulatory environment. So I decided to look elsewhere.

Reducing my dependence on US tech: step by step

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A progress update on reducing my dependence on US tech, covering email, storage, browsers, AI tools, e‑books, and the practical trade‑offs so far.

Why I started, and why I’m still cautious

This journey started as a risk assessment, not a moral stance. The core question wasn’t whether US platforms are good or bad, but what my exit cost actually is if legal, political, or commercial assumptions change.

Over time, I realised how deeply my digital life depended on a small number of US-based platforms, and how tightly those services are coupled. The problem isn’t any single dependency, but the way they reinforce each other. Leaving one service often means touching several others at once.

How to Build Democratic Resilience in the Age of Platform Algorithms

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In the weeks leading up to the 2024 European Parliament elections, coordinated attempts were made to manipulate online political debate across the European Union. What distinguished this election cycle was not the absence of interference, but the response: several operations were identified and disrupted early, before they escalated into the visible disruption seen in previous elections.

This shift followed the entry into force of the Digital Services Act. It is a hopeful development for democratic resilience at a time when elections are increasingly exposed to interference, disinformation, and organised propaganda.

What it really takes to leave Gmail after 20 years

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I absolutely love Gmail.

I signed up on 11 January 2005. I still have the welcome email. At the time, 1 GB of storage felt unreal. No more full inboxes. An uncannily good spam filter. Then came Calendar, Contacts, Google Drive and later the fabulous Google suite. For years, it was genuinely hard to beat.

That assessment has not changed. What changed was the context around it.

When comfort stops being neutral

Over the past year, I have become acutely aware of how dependent much of the world has become on US-based digital infrastructure. That dependency is mapped and explored in more detail in my dependency map.

The sovereignty question the Big Three cloud providers cannot answer

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

European “sovereign cloud” offerings have become more sophisticated.

Separate EU entities. EU staff. EU data centres. EU governance models.

Yet there is one question the Big Three cloud providers still cannot answer.

Can you guarantee that this service will continue to operate if your home government orders it to stop?

For Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google, the honest answer is no.

Not because of bad intent. Because of law.

Who controls sovereignty after the contract is signed?

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We often talk about digital sovereignty as a technology problem. In practice, it is usually an ownership problem.

An organisation can host systems in the EU, use EU staff, and meet every compliance requirement. Yet if the supplier can be acquired, controlled, or pressured by a foreign parent, sovereignty quietly evaporates over time.

This is where protected ownership comes in.

Protected ownership means that decisive control over a provider cannot be sold, transferred, or coerced without structurally breaking its mandate. In practice, this shows up as foundations, mission-locked statutes, golden shares, or governance vetoes on change of control. Ownership and economic value may exist, but governance is structurally designed to prevent hostile takeovers, jurisdictional drift, and short-term exits.

If Europe wants sovereignty, it must back its digital infrastructure

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Debates about European digital sovereignty frequently focus on the absence of EU-headquartered hyperscalers. This framing equates sovereignty with platform valuation and global market share.

However, Europe’s most durable digital influence has emerged not from platform dominance, but from foundational infrastructure: open standards, protocols and software layers that structure global markets without enclosing them.

If sovereignty is defined as reduced exposure to external control and lower structural lock-in, then infrastructure — not hyperscale platform replication — is the relevant policy lever.

When Microsoft pulled the plug

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This was not a security failure.
It was a continuity failure caused by jurisdiction.

On 5 February 2025, something quietly unprecedented happened.

The email account of the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was disabled.
Not hacked or compromised.
Not suspended for misuse by his organisation.

Access was removed because the service provider, Microsoft, was legally required to comply with US sanctions.

The consequence was immediate and practical. Without access to official email, the Chief Prosecutor could not conduct routine correspondence, coordinate with staff and partner states, or carry out core day-to-day duties.

Building this blog without a platform

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This blog is about digital resilience.

Resilience, as used here, means designing systems so that shocks, failures, and shifts in external conditions do not propagate into collapse. It is the ability to continue, adapt, or move when the environment becomes unstable.

Geopolitics has entered that environment.

Once stable alliances shift. Projected jurisdictions no longer seem harmless. Economic incentives realign. Technology infrastructure, often assumed neutral, sits downstream from these forces.

Before writing a single post, I had to decide how this blog itself would exist.

Switching from Chrome to Vivaldi as a power user (without breaking Google Workspace)

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a power user of Gmail, Drive, Docs and Google Apps Script. For years, that made Chrome the obvious choice. It’s tightly integrated, predictable, and guaranteed to work well with that stack.

I also rely heavily on fully separated browser profiles to keep my private life, company work and client projects cleanly apart. That setup isn’t a preference. It’s how I stay focused and sane.

For a long time, I never questioned this arrangement.

Dependency map: understanding digital lock‑in in a personal tech stack

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This page documents the structural dependencies in my personal tech stack. Not just the tools I use, but the underlying layers they quietly rely on to function.

The goal is to make digital lock‑in visible. I use this map to understand and reduce how structural dependencies in my tech stack translate into vulnerability to external jurisdiction and policy overreach.

Lock‑in rarely lives in a single app. It emerges from connected dependencies: identity, storage, devices, formats and ecosystems reinforcing each other.

Why I’m reducing my dependence on US tech

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This site examines what happens when digital dependency meets power.

For years, my digital life sat comfortably inside one legal sphere. Different companies. Different products. One jurisdiction.

That concentration felt normal. Efficient. Invisible.

I no longer treat it as neutral.

Two wake-up calls

In 2025, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court lost access to his Microsoft email account after U.S. sanctions were imposed. A European judicial institution found itself digitally constrained through a corporate platform governed by foreign law.

Why many “sovereign clouds” aren’t actually sovereign

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When hyperscalers launched their European “sovereign cloud” offerings, the promise sounded reassuring: EU data centres, EU staff, EU operations. On closer inspection, that promise often collapses.

This article sets out the structural and legal basis for evaluating “sovereign cloud” claims, with references to applicable law and documented failure cases.

The comforting story

Most sovereign cloud propositions emphasise where data is stored:

Data centres in the EU
Operations run by European entities
Compliance with GDPR and EU regulations

For many buyers, that feels like sovereignty. It is not.