Inspired by @dantleech@fosstodon.org 's end of year blog post, I pondered what happened in my world, did some research and gathered some stats, too.
Quite a stressful year with lots of sales and marketing related activities and way to few deep technical challenges. On the plus side, working with new colleagues always brings in fresh ideas and perspectives - I like that.
No conferences, no talks for me in 2024; Two (not really successful) efforts from my side to re-start the Berlin PHP user group. Definitely something to change/improve in 2025.
I have been experimenting with various AI related tools. Producing fiction, images and music is fun though I feel these tasks are propably better left in the capable hands of artists. Not to mention the grave impact the technology is going to have on the planet from an energy consumption perspective. Using local LLMs like LLama have been quite helpful on some real-life occasions, though. I guess it boils down to how it is with most newly introduced tools/tech: Understanding its strengths and limits is key to using it productively.
Sample:
=> "A Tale from the Mountain of the Dead - Lovecraftian Horror" - ChatGPT / Elevenlabs
Worked closely with our information security officer and got the company CISIS12 (ISO27001-ish) re-certified for its information security management system - might sound tedious, but is really a rewarding project: Improving standards, processes and documentation.
A couple of days in a stationary house boat at a lake near Laasow (Spreewald) in February - quite a luxury: peaceful, quiet and with a Sauna close by. Chose this as an alternative to the usual visit at this time of the year to the baltic sea being only half the distance to drive.
Off to Ortigia/Syracuse (Sicily, Italy) for two weeks end of April. Most people just stay for one or two days because the (old) town on the island is really small, but I enjoyed strolling through the city and getting to know it and its inhabitants better than being just a day tourist. Not only are the restaurants marvellous, but living in a fully equipped flat had the benefits of getting fresh vegetables at the market and being able to cook on my own.
Short weekend in Nice (France) for a family re-union with the US people. Being able to take the Tram/train from the Airport to the city center and walking the promenade is a real benefit. Had a nice (pun intended) hotel with sea view and went for a swim at least once each day.
Late summer retreat close to the city of Les Sables d'Orlonne (France, Atlantic coast) for three weeks. Cycling at the shore, swimming, hiking and generally enjoying the french way of life with good food and drinks. The Vendee area has a lot of different sights to offer with the salt mines and Oyster farms of Ile de Re, the 7km low tide drive to Ile de Nourmatier (famous potatoes!) and many small beautiful villages and golden sandy beaches. Took my Bodyboard for surfing, but strong eastern winds made this too risky. Flew my drone only once (I only fly when I am not annoying other people) but managed to get a nice video of the shore close to our home.
Finally a short extended weekend trip to the wine region of Saale/Unstrut in October, hiking and tasting.
Left Twitter/X (and deleted all my posts) at the end of March for good, and you should too. Mastondon really is a viable alternative.
=> Add me on Mastodon: @chluehr@fabulous.social
I am (still) on Instagram, allthough I recently started using the Fediverse Pixelfed alternative. Posted about 100 photos (feed items) on Insta this year. Definitely need to simplify the process of adding entries to my locally hosted feed.
=> Locally hosted feed of photos | Pixelfed.de: Christoph Lühr (syndicated from this site)
Generally planning on reducing my dependency on BigCorp(tm) platforms and services and return to simple, self-hosted / federated alternatives instead - this site and the above two sections are a start.
Finally sold all my Bitcoin. Proof of Work based crypto assets are just bad for the planet.
This year's retro has been inspired by:
=> Daniel Leech - (PHP) Developer, Cycling This content has been proxied by September (3851b).Proxy Information
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