Pedro Sousa

Jack of many trades. Full Stack Web Developer at Singular. Web enthusiast, creator, thinkerer. Fuelled by coffee & chocolate.

[Pedro Sousa @psousa]

@exQUIZitely Damn, I completely erased any memory about this game. What a hidden gem, it was hilarious. :D

[Pedro Sousa @psousa]

@KenneyNL Looks awesome! ❤️

[JP @newinattica]

When Americans talk about the differences between Europe and the United States, it’s usually the big stuff. Public transportation, healthcare, walkable cities, and so on.

But after living in Europe, I’ve discovered that some of my favorite things are things I didn’t even know existed.

Here are 10 things I never knew I needed until I got here.

1. My credit card never leaves the table.

When you’re ready to pay at a restaurant, they bring the card machine right to you. Nobody disappears into the back with your credit card. You tap, pay, and you’re done. Now the idea of handing my card to a stranger and watching them walk away with it seems ridiculous.

2. Shopping carts that move SIDEWAYS.

All four wheels swivel. Not just the front two. You can literally slide the entire cart sideways without having to maneuver it like you’re parallel parking a Buick. Why aren’t all shopping carts like this?

3. Eggs on the shelf.

The first time I saw eggs sitting on an unrefrigerated grocery store shelf, I thought something had gone terribly wrong. Who knew they handled eggs differently here and didn’t need to keep them refrigerated? Now I love that I can store my eggs on the countertop and see at a glance how close I am to needing to make an egg run.

4. Contactless payment for practically EVERYTHING.

I don’t know if COVID started this or just accelerated it, but I love it. Coffee? Tap. Groceries? Tap. A €2 purchase at the corner shop? Tap. There’s no such thing as a purchase too small to tap.

5. Windows that actually have options.

Turn the handle one way, and the window tilts inward at the top for fresh air. Turn it another way, and the entire window swings open like a door. They’re called tilt-and-turn windows, and I don’t know who invented them, but somebody needs to introduce them to every American home immediately.

6. Weighing and labeling produce.

This one used to drive me absolutely crazy. You pick out your produce, bag it, and make sure it’s weighed and labeled before heading to the checkout. Why?

But now I get it. Checkout moves faster because everything is already labeled. And I’ve noticed something else: there’s never a cashier yelling, “Price check on spaghetti squash!”

7. Exterior shutters that actually WORK.

In America, we put decorative shutters on houses that don’t even close. Here, they actually serve a purpose. Want a little shade? Done. Want to block out the afternoon sun? Easy. Want your bedroom so dark you can’t tell whether it’s 2 AM or 2 PM?

How dark can you make it? As dark as you want.

8. Detachable showerheads.

In Europe, practically every shower I’ve encountered has a detachable showerhead. It’s not an upgrade. It’s just standard equipment. Want to rinse off without getting your hair wet? Easy. Need to clean the shower? Even easier.

Now, a single fixed showerhead feels like punishment.

9. Solar water heaters on the roof.

This one might be more specific to Southern Europe, but it’s brilliant. Here in Greece, rooftop solar water heaters use sunshine to heat the water in your home. I’m not talking about solar panels generating electricity. I’m talking about the sun directly heating your water.

I only have to turn on my electric water heater about 10–15 times a YEAR. The rest of the time, the sun does the work. And we’ve got plenty of sunshine.

10. Toilets with two flush buttons.

Remember the old saying, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow”?

Well, apparently Europe found a better solution. Two buttons. One for a little flush, one for a big flush. Why use the same amount of water every time nature calls?

Now, if it’s yellow, the flush can be mellow.

None of these things is going to change the world. But they’re little conveniences I’ve come to love since moving to Europe.

And now that I’ve gotten used to them, I’m not sure I could ever go back.

[eppes @eppesal]

What they don't understand is that’s the social contract. Companies benefit from public infrastructure, an educated workforce and a stable society. In return, they have responsibilities towards the people who make their success possible. Employees aren’t disposable assets.

[HazzadorGamin, Dragon of Dojima @HazzadorGamin]

12yr old PSN account with 250 Digital games and 94 plats trophies Gone.

and people have to audacity to call my post on PSN account hacked lies, maybe Stop sucking on Corporations? for once.

[Pedro Sousa @psousa]

@alexfredo87 💯 yes

[Pedro Sousa @psousa]

@hakimieiqbal So at one point, gpt just makes textures match the concept on top of the models?
Curious in the shader that opus uses after that.

[Chris Mizo @MizoChris]

🚨 VALVE DROPPED A HUGE STEAM UPDATE! 🔥

• New “Big Art Mode” for the Steam Home screen
• Brand-new customizable screensavers
• Personal Calendar added to Home
• New “Default to Desktop Mode” option
• Windows non-Steam games now launch through Proton by default on Linux
• Experimental Pyrowave low-latency streaming codec added
• Vulkan capture performance GREATLY improved
• Steam Frame controllers now have better fallback support for normal gamepad input in VR games
• Steam Machine can tell compatible TVs to automatically switch inputs through HDMI-CEC
• Steam Controller gets major firmware improvements including TWO Bluetooth pairing slots

Valve is building beyond than just Steam Deck updates. Steam Machine, Steam Frame, Steam Controller, Linux gaming and Remote Play are now a ecosystem. 👀

SteamOS development continues moving forward, Valve seems to be laying the groundwork for something much larger. 🔥

[SuperTuxKart @supertuxkart]

If this proposal passes as written, it is the end of SuperTuxKart in the EU — and possibly the end of the project.

We need to be serious for a moment.

We cannot "block the EU market." We cannot prevent private servers. The code is GPL. Anyone can run one.

That is not a loophole — it is the entire point of open source.

We could not detect EU players on VPNs without tracking our players. We will not track our players. Not for Brussels, not for anyone.

A law written for tech giants is about to outlaw free and open source software made with love.

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

We just can't catch a break, can we?

The EU Kids Act is nightmare fuel, if you look beneath the honorable surface claim of "protecting kids online". The breakdown: https://t.co/3lfV5Y1I9Y

#StopKillingGames #StopKillingTheInternet

[Dave Kiss @davekiss]

https://t.co/E74YRkf8rR

[Mikko Ohtamaa @moo9000]

EUROPOL IS LOBBYING THE EU COMMISSION TO BAN END-TO-END ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATIONS

"Horizon scanning on emerging privacy enhancement technologies" lobby report just dropped.

Europol, with EU taxpayers' money, is again lobbying to end privacy, seeking unlimited access to all messages worldwide, and pushing to ban end-to-end encrypted messaging apps and VPNs. This is part of the EU Commission's earlier ProtectEU agenda, which includes concerning snooping laws and mass-surveillance elements.

Europol calls privacy-enhancing technologies, or PETS, the tools of criminals:

“PETs are used by criminal actors for secure communication, anonymisation, and protection of data. Criminal networks utilise various PETs, including end-to-end encrypted messaging apps, encrypted phones, and virtual private networks (VPNs), to communicate securely and anonymously. “

"For this reason, lawful access to electronic evidence has become one of the most critical issues for European law enforcement"

These idiots still do not understand that the backdoor they want for themselves will be open for everyone in the world, and once opened, cannot be closed again. We had such a backdoor in the 90s, and after a lot of citizenship legal warfare, we managed to close it. The closed door was further tightened after Edward Snowden revealed how the USA spies on everyone on this planet, including the EU members of parliament themselves.

Now, Europol wants the backdoors back because of “protecting the children.” If consumer-grade encryption is made illegal, criminals can, and will, still use it, as anyone can build an encrypted messaging app with an AI in two days. Only normal citizens will have their data collected, sold and consumed by advertisers, opposition politicians, Russian oligarchs, Donald Trump, and God knows who. And of course Europol itself.

Remember, a state where the police make the rules is called a police state.

Europe has a rich and complicated history of snooping on its citizens, as for example with the Stasi or Brigada Político-Social ("la Secreta"). Even our current politicians in this decade have been using Israeli NSO spyware to spy on opposition politicians in Poland, Greece, Hungary and Spain, and nobody in the police has been sentenced for this. Mind you, these were judge-approved requests. Against this backdrop, getting "lawful" access to all messages in the world is a tall ask from Europol.

Furthermore, a deliberate path laid out for privacy violations and EU-wide snooping access erodes trust in the EU as an institution. The EU was sold to us as a trade union, but the Commission has taken an interest in turning it into the police state it wants. This drives voters to the far-left and far-right parties.

And what do the European Commission and Europol want? Here are the most important highlights from the paper.

BANNING END-TO-END ENCRYPTION IS A PRIORITY FOR EUROPEAN COMMISSION

"This report presents the results of a joint horizon scanning exercise carried out by the EU Policy Lab at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), and Europol, the EU law enforcement cooperation agency. It contributes to broader JRC efforts to support the European Commission’s political priority, the ‘New Era for European Defence and Security’, by anticipating future technological developments. “

END-TO-END ENCRYPTION MUST BE MADE ILLEGAL

“Existing regulatory frameworks might need to be reviewed to clarify and simplify compliance processes and reduce the current legal uncertainty related to data usage, particularly in light of the challenges and opportunities that current and emerging PETs pose to law enforcement.”

WE WANT TO HAVE A BACKDOOR IN EVERY SYSTEM

“A proactive and informed approach to regulating advanced PETs and key enabling technologies is needed to leverage the benefits of these technologies effectively and to prevent potential new risks stemming from them. This includes developing clear guidelines to include law enforcement access to data.”

WE WANT TO HAVE A BACKDOOR IN EVERY SYSTEM EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD WITH OUR POLICE BUDDIES, NO MATTER IF THOSE COUNTRIES ARE A BIT QUESTIONABLE

“Collaboration and international partnerships are essential to develop common standards for PETs and foster law enforcement cooperation in fighting cybercrime, including lawful access to data for law enforcement agencies; implementation of relevant international agreements should also be promoted”

The snoopers who signed this paper and want to read your messages include:

— Sigita TRAINAUSKIENE (JRC)
— João FARINHA (JRC)
— Mark WITTFOTH (Europol)
— Diederik DON (Europol)
— Alexandra de MALEVILLE (JRC)

And the others:

— Adrianus Warmenhoven, Nord VPN
— Bart Preneel, KU Leuven
— Cornelia Kutterer, Considerati
— Cyril Piotrowicz, FR Gendarmerie
— Denise Mayerdorfer, Federal Ministry of Interior – Austria
— Dorine Walter, National Gendarmerie – France
— Fredrik Heintz, Linköping University
— Freek Bomhof, TNO
— Igor Nai Fovino, JRC
— Ismael Alvarez, Europol
— Johanna Laurin Gulled, Swedish Police Authority
— Juraj Kubica, DG CNECT
— Olga Batura, TNO
— Pieter Nooren, TNO
— Jürgen Freudenberger, Cyberagentur
— Kasper Rasmussen, Oxford University
— Kirsi Jauhiainen, Police of Finland
— Marjolein Lanzing, University of Amsterdam
— Miguel Fayos Mestre, Guardia Civil – Spain
— Mihai Tiganus, Romanian Police
— Ralf Zimmermann, Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector – Germany
— Tariq Elahi, University of Edinburgh
— Vasileios Rovilos, Future of Privacy Forum
— William Borg, Danish Online Police Patrol
— William Karlberg, Malta Police Force
— Gwendolyn BAILEY (JRC)
— Antonia MOCHAN (JRC)

I have attached some screenshots of these authors celebrating the steps taken to erode privacy. If you want to stop this, the best way is to raise awareness: I kindly ask you to refer this to the local press and ask them to call these people for an interview to ask them what is so important that they should read our private messages.

https://t.co/IGTXpbf6u9

[Choom @JeChocobo]

Space Marine 2 sur le PS store

À gauche : ma PS5

À droite : celle d’un pote

6€ de différence entre nous deux, 2 prix différent pour le même jeu. À 14€ j’aurais pu le prendre mais là

c’est une dinguerie de faire ça, tout pour qu’on vous déteste @PlayStation @PlayStationEU

[Pedro Sousa @psousa]

@exQUIZitely Wonder what Éric is doing at Ubisoft. Would love to see another original IP from him.

[International Cyber Digest @IntCyberDigest]

Europeans after hearing they can’t use Anthropic’s AI models anymore.

[Pedro Sousa @psousa]

@exQUIZitely It had some charm that’s for sure. I also remember receiving Archipelagos and not understanding a thing. 😂

[Pedro Sousa @psousa]

This is so Cyberpunk! ❤️

[sphinx @protosphinx]

Renault pls make this a production car and you’ll instantly become the coolest car maker I guarantee it

[Pedro Sousa @psousa]

Interesting 👀

[OpenCode @opencode]

OpenCode Go is becoming the best source of data on what models are being used and how

we've made a public stats page so you can see the latest

https://t.co/LGJdkzYUMf

[Pedro Sousa @psousa]

@hewarsaber This is brilliant. Works really well. 😍