January news: about Smart Glasses and read/learn/do tips

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What’s coming up?

We’ve planned some exciting events for the months ahead:

  • January: Join our MeshCore workshop and become part of an open-source, off-grid, decentralized communication network. MeshCore lets you send text messages or sensor data without relying on traditional infrastructure. Like Meshtastic, it’s based on LoRa—but it’s gaining momentum fast, which is why we’ve chosen it as the focus of this workshop.
  • February: Get hands-on with Do-It-Yourself smart glasses. Experiment yourself with the smart arm:
  • March: A lecture on the risks of generative AI, with practical tips on how to recognize and deal with its challenges. This will be a basic lecture in Dutch, aimed at empowering a broader audience.

We hope to see you soon—either in person or online!

RANDOM READ/LEARN/DO

  • 55 mindblowing (trivial?) facts of 2025, some quite weird…
  • Nice, someone’s trash is another person’s webserver 😉 Hosting a WebSite on a Disposable Vape; the vapeserver
  • Within the maker community, we promote the use of 3D printing—for example, to repair items ourselves. However, recent events, such as a plane crash, have once again raised questions about the long-term robustness of 3D-printed parts. 
  • MIT review reports about germs with AI-written DNA that represent the “the first generative design of complete genomes. The work, described in a preprint paper, has the potential to create new treatments and accelerate research into artificially engineered cells. They saw viruses with new genes, with truncated genes, and even different gene orders and arrangements”. This is not yet AI-designed life, however. That’s because viruses are not alive. They’re more like renegade bits of genetic code with relatively puny, simple genomes.” But still very impressive!
  • Large Language Models (LLMs) face inherent, and ultimately unsolvable, challenges due to their very nature. These include not only hallucinations, but also significant (cyber)security vulnerabilities, such as susceptibility to prompt injection. Even OpenAI now acknowledges that these issues cannot be fully resolved because they are intrinsic to how LLMs work. This limits the possibilities of AgenticAI.  Interested in more vulnerabilities, also check this paper “Weird Generalization and Inductive Backdoors: New Ways to Corrupt LLMs”
  • Criminals are using generative AI to their advantage, as I’ve shared in previous newsletters. But how effective are these tools really?  
  • How AI is overtaking the internet part 104; Tiktok and OnlyFans.  
  • HardList is a curated list of fast growing hardware startups driving European technological sovereignty. It was created to help talented people discover high quality startups in Europe that make a difference;
  • I loved this video about the “Enshittification of the Internet” with Cory Doctorow—he’s such a rapid thinker and talker that it’s the first time I seriously thought about watching a video in slow motion just to catch it all😉. 
  • For fun; Bob’s Confetti : Phonetic Memorization Attacks in Music and Video Generation

JOIN

  • Jan. 16th Final Expo Minor Immersive Environments
    (international) students of the Minor Immersive Environments (CMD, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) will showcase their work: interactive installations that merge the digital and physical worlds. Throughout the semester, students have explored light, sensors, audio, and projection techniques.
  • Jan. 29th, The Hague Techfest
  • Feb. 2th 4th Dutch Speech Tech Day
    “Crossing the Lines: Academia, Industry, and the Future of Knowledge” Also addressing pressing issues around bias, explainability, and accountability in speech technology, especially as these systems become increasingly integrated into everyday life.
  • TBA, Fiber festival
    The place for artists and visitors to experience cutting-edge audiovisual art, design, creative coding and electronic music. Check the website to see if a date is added!
  • April 20 – 24th, DevOpsCon & MLCon (Amsterdam)
    The Conference for CI/CD, the Kubernetes Ecosystem, DevSecOps, Generative AI & Machine Learning Engineering. We have requested a discount & some free tickets, we’ll update in the next newsletter.
  • June 23-25th Immersive Tech Week in Rotterdam
    A world-class tech festival for immersive tech innovations [VR, AR, XR, AI] where creativity, technology and society converge to shape the future and spark new realities.
  • Oct 20-21th IoT Tech Expo