This is a now page, where I share what I'm currently focusing on in life and how I spend my time.
Last updated 2026-06-08 from Zürich
Preparing for August exams in Mathematical Logic, Data Structures & Algorithms, and hopefully Graph Theory. Next semester I am looking forward to the theory of computation, and hopefully some formal methods.
I enjoyed events run by the Zürich AI Safety and ETH Blockchain student groups last semester and met a lot of interesting people. Next semester I hope to keep attending, and to help organize or even give a talk.
I am building a custom split keyboard input module for my Framework 16. For it I recently learned KiCad and build123d, and I have really enjoyed the latter. CAD-as-code fits naturally into normal software workflows, and b123d has clear advantages over the older OpenSCAD. Blog post coming soon.
Next I want to try some Framework expansion cards, in particular a Hardware Security Module along the lines of a YubiKey. The idea I keep coming back to is being able to sign my messages and hold my keys without having to trust every device and app I use, none of which I can really audit. You can never fully escape that problem (see Ken Thompson's Reflections on Trusting Trust), but privacy works like slices of swiss cheese: no single layer is whole, yet stack enough of them and the holes stop lining up, so the chance of compromise drops toward zero.
A slow project to depend on fewer third parties and run more of my own infrastructure. Always happy to exchange ideas with anyone doing the same.
I am learning Nix, aiming to move from Debian to NixOS. After exams I plan to spend a couple of weeks on the security and reliability of my self-hosted setup, and maybe extend it toward self-hosting an LLM. To prepare I keep my notes and data in open text formats, and I am working out how to collect more of my own data privately, for example my daily routine, and pull it together from my other self-hosted services for later analysis and agent context.
I am gradually setting up open-source replacements for the few third-party services I still rely on: Google calendar and tasks, password managers, GitHub, and above all how I consume content, swapping recommendation feeds I cannot inspect for RSS and LLM-assisted aggregation I can audit myself. Instant messaging and social media are the hard ones, since their value is the people already on them, which takes a larger shift to move.
Doing all this securely and reliably is unrealistic for one person, and self-hosting an LLM can get expensive. I think it belongs in high-trust communities, shared with friends and family. In that sense self-hosting is really a tool for decentralization and censorship resistance.
Basketball once a week at ASVZ on Hönggerberg, and the gym three times a week on a push-pull-legs split. When the weather is nice I swim in the Limmat, and I am looking forward to ice hockey again in September.