Philipp @pb@chaos.social

I haven’t played an instrument since my mum’s optimistic attempt to get me to play the clarinet when I was around ten or twelve and far more interested in computers. I can read – all right, decipher – sheet music though.

🎹 Hi, music geeks! I’m thinking about learning to play the piano. But, um, how? Any resources I should know about? Are there any good virtual courses (paid or free) or should I get a teacher at once?

Happy to announce that I’ve safely returned from my trip to Null Island.

So I got a cheque for the mind-boggling amount of EXACTLY ELEVEN AND 62/100 DOLLARS. I doubt I’ll be able to cash this thing here in Norway. What the hell do I do with it? Can I donate it or something?

My weekend was full of geeky vehicular surprises. On Saturday I did a double take when I found a plane where a boat should have been. Then yesterday a tram startled me by its sheer existence in Bergen.

Norwegian news sites are pure poetry.

According to Norkart’s press release, the breach was due to a misconfigured firewall. It was discovered at 13:12 last Thursday and fixed at 13:29, although I can’t find any information on how long it may have lasted. https://www.norkart.no/

The records contain current and previous owners’ names, addresses and ID numbers. The ID number (fødselsnummer) is extensively used for government services. It uniquely identifies each Norwegian resident and contains their date of birth and gender.

They say they don’t know whose data was accessed – potentially all current and previous owners of property in Norway, except for secret addresses.

The company that suffered the breach, Norkart, sells access to geodata such as the Norwegian property register that was the target of this attack.
(Disclosure: My employer is a customer of Norkart’s.)

(I’m writing about this here mainly because I feel that it might be interesting internationally, but I can’t find any English reporting on it.)

Up to 3.3 million Norwegian homeowners may have had their personal data breached. https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/dnEWLz/dataangrep-mot-norkart

I’ve been working in journalism for the better part of a decade and I think I’ve gotten pretty good with data and code. But I still find the idea of calling sources or writing articles mildly terrifying.

That has to change, so today I’ll be an intern on the breaking news desk!

Jeg var i dag år gammel da jeg lærte at uttrykket er «å tuske til seg» og ikke «å tyske til seg».

Dere som har vært voksne lenger enn jeg: jeg har behov for elektriker for første gangen i mitt liv. Fire brytere, en dimmer og muligens en termostat skal skiftes. Har fått 7300 kroner som prisestimat. Er det en fornuftig pris? Det virker litt dyrt.

This one’s new!

But I’m not thrilled to lose a small, popular, friendly and free indie thing that someone built for fun and put on the internet. Let’s have more of those.

I don’t mean this as a criticism of @powerlanguish@twitter.com or the @nytimes@twitter.com. As a programmer, I wouldn’t hesitate if someone offered me “a price ‘in the low seven figures’” for a hobby project and as a journalist, subscriptions and ads pay my salary. This acquisition makes sense.

The New York Times buys Wordle. Any guesses on how long until it becomes riddled with adtech, trackers and cookie banners?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/business/media/new-york-times-wordle.html

At least I’ve learnt how to fix my own mess.