Walter van Holst

Doing stuff in data protection, healthcare law and privacy-by-design. Moonlighting as digital rights activist. Innocent bystander in infosec scene.

Bookwyrm: https://bookwyrm.world/user/whvholst

Public Key

npub10zv8uc99fttvfvgwans049wy995wwtmkqqa606chymyqp9vrj57s2hwpjj

NIP-05 Address

whvholst_at_eupolicy.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs83xr7vzj544kyky8wec86jhzzj6889amqqwa8avtjdjqqjkpe20gpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds0j9qu7

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub10zv8uc99fttvfvgwans049wy995wwtmkqqa606chymyqp9vrj57s2hwpjj

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Last Notes

2026-03-30 18:29:54 UTC

Now that the Knesset has voted for a death penalty that effectively will only be applied to Palestinians, now is as good a time as any to sign the EU Citizen's initiative calling the European Commission to suspend the EU-Israel Association Treaty: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2025/000005_en

2026-03-22 10:23:13 UTC

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https://archive.is/cXQeO

2026-02-22 19:34:17 UTC

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If only the CEOs would have had a crash course in database normalisation.

2026-02-20 11:42:20 UTC

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How is their record on "big tent" open source?

2026-02-04 11:08:56 UTC

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Signal zegt geen andere clients dan die van henzelf te willen ondersteunen. Geen bedrijf gaat hobbyen na zo'n waarschuwing.

2026-02-04 07:08:00 UTC

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Dat zou mooi zijn, maar Signal weigert diensten aan te bieden in de vorm die hiervoor vereist is. Je wilt dan een eindpunt in CRM/callcenter-achtige omgevingen. WhatsApp levert dat soort APIs, tegen betaling. Signal niet.

2026-01-23 10:37:44 UTC

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I am not affiliated with them either. But If I were I would not fund Kitten since it is not obvious what its added value is over other microframeworks like Flask. Also, a robust internet needs less Javascript, not more.

2026-01-22 13:13:35 UTC

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Have you noticed DHH's political leanings?
If not, do read this:
https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64

2026-01-22 09:18:40 UTC

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I have a circa 2010 iMac with Snow Leopard on it, wanna buy?

2026-01-07 07:47:59 UTC

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Succes met weer thuiskomen!

2026-01-02 20:23:19 UTC

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But do your fish deserve it?

2025-12-24 10:15:18 UTC

Het bestaat al enige tijd, maar het mag ook wel weer vermeld worden dat Topotijdreis (https://topotijdreis.nl) geweldig is.

2025-12-02 17:11:13 UTC

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I showed this to a central banker and their response was that this was less-than-terrific analysis given that the US money supply has grown fourfold between 2000 and 2025, so 82 USD now is not really comparable with 82 USD in 2000. If you adjust for inflation, 82 USD in 2025 was worth 43 USD in 2000. So the market's belief in Cisco in 2000 still has not been justified in 2025, at best we're halfway that valuation.

2025-09-27 11:01:37 UTC

I know it is a bit of a downer on a #solarpunk future, the reality of China decarbonising this rapidly probably has more to do with a goal to be able to weather a disruption of maritime trade after an invasion of Taiwan than with mirigating the unfolding climate catastrophe.

2025-09-16 09:43:35 UTC

Suggestion to whoever is involved in hacker event badges: let's not create more e-waste but upcycle existing e-waste. Like this hero who made a webserver out of the MCU of a disposable vape: https://bogdanthegeek.github.io/blog/projects/vapeserver/

2025-09-15 18:10:55 UTC

Using Google Forms to gather nominations for a privacy award is a tad... ironic, isn't it?

2025-09-03 07:50:54 UTC

CJEU: hey, let's enter the 21st century and livestream the announcements of judgments, this internet thing may become big. Also let's announce this on the Fediverse.
Fediverse: you suck, your website has a linkedin widget!
Also CJEU: the announcements are still only in French, a language the vast majority of EU citizens do not speak or understand.

2025-08-19 10:09:34 UTC

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If there is a general approach coming out of the Council of Ministers, there is little to nothing the MEPs can do to influence the trilogue and the second reading rarely leads to rejections. For now it is better to keep this dossier stalled in the Council of Ministers, so the national parliaments are where people should make noise at.

2025-08-18 09:16:50 UTC

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The permreps are useful, but even more useful would be to mention the national parliamentary committees that take this on. Tooting about MEPs is counterproductive at this stage.

2025-08-11 16:04:41 UTC

And what has this to do with Linux kernel stewardship, FLOSS development or anything, Linux Foundation?
https://social.lfx.dev/@linuxfoundation/114993371357953940
Also, you are plain wrong, as every new, almost daily, data disaster from the USA proves. Your corporate overlords need to wake up and smell the coffee, it is not Europe that is an outlier on data protection, but the USA.

2025-08-01 16:14:36 UTC

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One could also argue that an RTB platform is also a data intermediary as meant in Chapter III of the Data Governance Act.

2025-07-25 11:04:23 UTC

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You may want to look into NGI Zero https://nlnet.nl/NGI0/ which is mostly funded by the EU.

2025-07-10 12:35:40 UTC

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Yes, that concept is questionable to begin with, but there are examples of stocks that had a P/E ratio of 30 at some point in their life and are considered "respectable" in ways that OpenAI is not. And the irrationality of financial markets does not need further pointing out.

2025-07-10 08:11:43 UTC

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The article mentions a P/E ratio of 30 as excessive. While that is a high ratio, it is still within the bandwidth of "normal". For comparison, Tesla's P/E ratio is 160 which is frankly beyond ridiculous and in itself a sign that the stock market is in a bubble.

2025-06-25 10:32:02 UTC

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Hegseth has a good haircut...

2025-06-24 20:10:22 UTC

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Not defending him. Merely deciding not to be upset at him getting his hands dirty.

2025-05-25 19:17:19 UTC

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I rather doubt this is a common reading of the GPLv3. Could you elaborate on this?

2025-04-29 15:31:27 UTC

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eupolicy.social might be a good fit for you?

2025-04-20 12:57:42 UTC

Just realised that I am responding to plausible stupidity on LinkedIn not so much to convince the writers of said plausible stupidity, but to prevent other readers from finding it plausible.

2025-04-11 22:49:20 UTC

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The end result of today was my ICE arriving in Utrecht three minutes ahead of schedule...

2025-04-09 16:00:11 UTC

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Luckily, another train was two hours delayed, so my time of arrival in Essen was only a few minutes behind the original schedule....

2025-04-08 16:00:55 UTC

Ah, very considerate of you, Deutsche Bahn, to inform me two hours in advance that my connecting train is delayed by an hour (!).

2025-03-07 10:22:14 UTC

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That is even assuming the separatists are still alive. Lots of men of fighting age were drafted into units that were considered as expendable as convict units.

2025-03-06 08:17:37 UTC

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You are right here, sadly, the opposite is happening since the EU is scrambling to fill the funding gap.

2025-02-26 20:17:46 UTC

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I would be deeply disappointed if the European Commission had not wargamed this out beforehand. This is not their first rodeo.

2025-02-23 19:52:35 UTC

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A good middle ground would be a Jitsi link.

2025-02-23 19:26:21 UTC

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Yes, here's hoping they remain below 5%, same, if not moreso, for BSW.

2025-02-23 17:49:49 UTC

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Well, I should have written not-Germany

2025-02-23 17:32:56 UTC

While ZDF does a stupid geoblock for non-Germans, ARD does not support Firefox by the looks of it...

2025-02-22 20:27:30 UTC

Isn't it time for 25 out of the current 27 EU members to start considering the invocation of article 50 collectively to leave Slovakia and Hungary in the dust and to enter into a new treaty that clearly states that the Copenhagen criteria must not only be met when joining this new EU, but must be met continuously afterwards?

2025-02-20 13:26:58 UTC

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Am considering to splurge on a very large monitor in lieu of available non-smart tvs on the market...

2025-02-04 06:48:17 UTC

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Brilliant marketing phrase, "Microsoft Data Boundary".

2025-02-03 16:16:43 UTC

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Oh, am on the same page regarding the trade war. It may even make some policy decision in Brussels easier to make now. At the same time, there is historic precedent in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act which made things worse than they already were back then...

2025-02-03 15:47:08 UTC

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Not sharing your optimism on Trump's ability to back down. Also his extremely simplistic and wrong ideas about trade deficits and tariffs were already espoused by him back in the nineties. This is something he firmly believes.

2025-01-28 09:27:52 UTC

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It is fantastic for helping people write in a second or third language, I get told by my migrant partner.

2025-01-19 11:03:45 UTC

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That the speaker is part of an active group of oligarchs pushing for fascism.

2025-01-19 07:52:27 UTC

Am seeing ProtonVPN mentioned to circumvent certain regional bans on certain platforms. Do know that their CEO is aligned with the incoming US regime and that this may not work for platforms disliked by said incoming US regime. See https://archive.ph/McxeT
As far as VPNs go, I would go for MullvadVPN, but in general VPNs fundamentally are a band-aid with their own risks attached.

2025-01-18 22:14:35 UTC

For those who are attending #FOSDEM this year, this link to the lyrics of Bella Ciao might come in handy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bella_ciao#Partisan_version

2025-01-17 10:19:10 UTC

Phrase of the day: "matroshka of unsavoury tech-messiahs" - MB

2024-12-26 14:54:52 UTC

So, how long has this to go on until the Danes close their straits to the passage of Chinese ships? By now the presumption of innocent passage is getting more naive by the day...

2024-12-19 10:57:18 UTC

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Yes, that has been consistently the position of most of civil society as well. I was on the W3C DNT working group, remember...

2024-12-19 10:29:48 UTC

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Because there is a lot of tracking that happens without cookies being involved in the process. I would prefer the DPA to spend this money on enforcement (without relying on silly interpretations of legitimate interest) rather than misinforming a public it should be protecting.

2024-12-19 09:51:17 UTC

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Looks like a waste of public money and the result is misinformation.

2024-12-16 12:08:00 UTC

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Not now, Germany, not now.

2024-12-05 09:12:43 UTC

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It is not so much fundamentalism as a profound lack of faith in the ability of law enforcement to make fast freeze work, I reckon. Because then they will have to act fast.

2024-12-05 08:50:14 UTC

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A fast freeze is sort of defensible, in my view, depending on the details, obviously.

2024-11-30 19:00:15 UTC

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Living without airco is perfectly possible if you adjust your architecture to the local climate, instead of clinging to ideals from a different climate zone.

2024-11-30 17:10:35 UTC

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Gelukkig getuigt een meerderheid van de reacties van realiteitszin. (even gespiekt via xcancel.com)

2024-11-26 16:41:08 UTC

It always cheers me up to see "blockchain evangelists" on LinkedIn because it means some jobs are still more bullshit than mine.

2024-11-24 20:34:25 UTC

Dear #lazyweb what is the name of this unusual DC connector type?
https://eupolicy.social/system/media_attachments/files/113/539/835/467/208/681/original/cdc858947e1fb13e.jpg

2024-11-16 16:54:06 UTC

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That made me put more thought into the subject matter than I feel is warranted or desirable...

2024-11-15 13:46:04 UTC

Ross Anderson's classic handbook on security engineering can be downloaded for free here: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/archive/rja14/book.html

2024-11-12 21:05:58 UTC

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Ik zag dat BlueSky welcome packages heeft met lijstjes van interessante accounts die het volgen waard zijn, in rubrieken...

2024-11-07 10:39:14 UTC

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Oh, I usually do as well. In this particular case it is the choice between Eurostar and missing out on social activities that I would rather not miss out on.

2024-11-07 10:07:19 UTC

Eurostar is mailing me a checklist for a train trip to Brussels. Which is less than 120km, as the crow flies. Do the train operators realize that having to have seat reservations, being present at the (windy and cold) station 20 mins in advance etc is making trains as shit as flying and way worse than a car instead of making it a better proposition? Or do they just not care?

2024-11-06 17:31:10 UTC

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Switzerland is decreasing its cooperation with the eU. None of the bilateral treaties with the Swiss will be renewed to the point in which it will be truly a third country again, but within Schengen.

2024-11-06 09:44:15 UTC

Nie wieder, es sei denn, es betrifft braune Leute

2024-10-22 17:28:29 UTC

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Am not defending it at all. As a matter of fact, I have ended up repeatedly in arguments with people on public transport about it. Last few times notably involving Dutch Railways personnel...

2024-10-22 16:45:42 UTC

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WhatsApp is at least partly to blame, their support of headphones is severely lacking

2024-09-09 16:18:27 UTC

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Uiteraard gaan bovengemiddeld vaak treinen en bussen controleren...

2024-09-07 10:26:28 UTC

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That clip is from last March...

2024-09-06 12:18:59 UTC

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They do not make a profit. They operate on a loss to create a market and to capture it.

2024-08-30 13:01:54 UTC

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Only history or does it really allow for roaming across devices? Including OTR?

2024-08-30 12:08:51 UTC

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Have they resolved the issue of switching devices mid-conversation yet?

2024-08-28 20:34:30 UTC

After today's massive outage of Dutch defence and governmental networks, I feel this clip from Yes Prime Minister is painfully accurate https://youtu.be/IKQlQlQ6_pk

2024-08-14 08:58:53 UTC

Het hele gedoe rond het vastlopende stelsel van innamepunten voor blikjes en flesjes met statiegeld legt vooral op pijnlijke wijze bloot dat voor een deel van Nederland dat statiegeld niets uitmaakt en tegelijkertijd voor mensen aan de onderkant het inleveren van die flesjes genoeg verschil maakt dat het voor hen de moeite waard is om vuilnisbak na vuilnisbak na te speuren op wat het welvarende deel van Nederland gedachteloos weggooit..

2024-08-05 18:42:43 UTC

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that city is legendary anyway

2024-08-04 18:55:29 UTC

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They never caught on outside the Anglophone sphere anyway.

2024-08-02 12:55:43 UTC

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Would you have pointers to sources of those figures? And/or the figures for natural gas and coal, because that is the relevant baseline here.

2024-08-02 08:42:42 UTC

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It helps for grid congestion. There are multiple challenges in the energy transition. The seasonal issue is separate from the daily fluctuations, the latter will be very much diminished once four to eight hour battery backup becomes normal. The seasonal issue will have regional solutions and requires a regional energy mix that fits the regional seasonal changes.

2024-08-01 11:27:10 UTC

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Interesting data point: China is now requiring new solar farms to install battery capacity to the tune of 10% of their maximum output.