Youtube on Baldarn's

A second brain to really delegate to AI assistants

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Picking up where I left off yesterday on the second brain.

An AI secretary

Emails, chats, documents, transactions: we have information scattered everywhere. The idea of collecting it locally and making it available to an AI secretary gets me really excited.

I’m thinking of an assistant that reminds me of a message I never replied to, or asks me whether I’ve paid a bill.

I need a second brain, but I want my data kept local

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I feel the need for a second brain.

Scattered information

Messages, emails, documents: all the information I currently keep scattered across different apps. Every time I look for something, I have to remember where I wrote it down, or who sent it to me.

I never really got the hang of Notion or Obsidian. Now I’m trying out another tool to collect my data locally and make it searchable: text, voice messages, PDFs. Just being able to search all of it in one place is really appealing to me.

Local home automation, cloud AI: I want to be in control

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I got my hands on the air conditioning units.

The AC units, locally

The goal was to run them locally with Home Assistant. Four wires, a connector and a system I keep at home, without depending on the manufacturer’s service.

It’s something I care a lot about: owning my devices, under my control. If the manufacturer shuts down its service tomorrow, I can still turn on my air conditioner.

PHP and certificates: a couple of hectic days for cybersecurity

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of hectic days: first PHP, then certificates.

What I did

I got the emails from the services I use, updated my servers and moved on.

The PHP issue required an update. The certificate one is sneakier: it affects HTTPS, which is what guarantees we’re really on the site we think we’re on, and not on a fake one.

No panic

Two serious security issues, sure. But they don’t strike me as a sign that something weird is happening because of AI.

A bracelet that listens to everything: I'd want one, but only running locally

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A bracelet that listens to what I say, transcribes it and prepares a summary for me. Would I want one? Yes. But on one condition.

The usefulness

I can see how useful it would be. I say I need to do something tomorrow and it offers to put it in my calendar. I already use automatic meeting summaries in Meet, and devices like Omi are heading in this direction. Then there are glasses and all the other gadgets on the way.

Humanoid robots: I want one at home, but who's thinking about safety and jobs?

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I grew up reading Asimov (here on the blog you’ll also find the Italian translation of The Last Question). A robot at home? I want one.

More time for what matters

A robot that cooks and takes care of the house would leave me more time for my kids, for the people I care about and for everything else. I really like the idea, and in a small way I’m already living it by training them while I fold laundry.

Training robots while I fold laundry and empty the dishwasher

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This morning, before work, I folded the kids’ laundry and emptied the dishwasher. Since I had to do it anyway, I recorded the whole thing to train robots.

About half an hour of footage. I’m still on the 7 euros an hour tier: if they approved all of it, that would be around 3.50 euros for stuff I had to do anyway.

You do feel the weight of the head mount a bit, but a quick neck massage and you’re good to go.

Privacy and AI: what if transparency applied to those who use our data too?

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

To me, privacy is a shield, a sort of invisibility cloak. But how much does it really protect us today?

My experience

I’ve worked at companies where public social media data was collected and resold. Seen from the inside, the shield looks a lot thinner than we think.

I already wrote about this in Privacy makes you a liar, and this video picks up that thread.

Cloned voice scams: a family password to protect yourself

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I got a message from a friend: he was at the dentist, couldn’t talk and needed 200 euros.

The attempt

I asked to talk on the phone. It was a scam, and it ended there.

But what if next time the voice really were his? With voice cloning, it takes very little material to reproduce someone’s voice. And fake videos are getting more and more convincing. Imagine a call with a family member’s voice asking you for help.

Shift: I get paid to do household chores and teach them to robots

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Can you make money doing household chores? Apparently, yes.

How it works

For a couple of weeks now I’ve been trying out Shift. I put my phone on a head mount, record my daily activities and get paid for it.

The videos are used to build a dataset for training robots to do these tasks. Basically, while I fold laundry, I’m teaching a machine how to fold laundry.

Cybersecurity: plants grinding to a halt and damage in the physical world

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Standing in front of a Medici tower, which knows a thing or two about defense, I started thinking about cyber warfare. As an enthusiast, not an expert.

Compromised plants

I start from a story I heard: compromised refrigeration plants. Not stolen data, but machines shutting down and real damage in the physical world.

The problem is that security is often fragile. Default passwords, open access, the classic key under the doormat. And when we’re talking about infrastructure, the risk gets serious.

From Starlink to Neuralink: does Elon Musk's future look like The Matrix?

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Some rambling morning thoughts on where Elon Musk’s tech ecosystem is heading.

Starlink and connectivity everywhere

It starts with Starlink and satellite mobile connectivity. SpaceX has a huge advantage: low-cost launches. And that opens up interesting scenarios for phones, even though frequencies and the physical limits of the connection don’t go away with a tweet.

Then there’s Musk’s possible AI device: an assistant that’s always on, always connected.

Technofeudalism: are we digital colonies of Big Tech?

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A weekend in the countryside, feeling a bit tired, and some rambling thoughts. This time on technofeudalism.

The fiefdoms

The idea is this: big tech companies have become fiefdoms. Google and Apple control the operating systems and the app stores, and those who live inside them (users and small developers) look a lot like serfs.

Our devices track us and pile up data. And I’m not just talking about phones: smart appliances collect information continuously too.

The evolution of the developer in the age of artificial intelligence

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The era of the programmer who just writes code is over. And I say that as a programmer.

Code is a liability

I start from two people I really respect, DHH and Antirez, and from the idea of “pride”: pride in well-written code. I get it, I’ve felt it too.

But code isn’t the product. Code is a tool, and the more of it you have, the more you have to maintain. What matters is the solution, the architecture, the ability to solve real problems.

Home automation, artificial intelligence and agents: the future of the smart home

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve started making YouTube videos, and the first topic could only be the one I’ve been passionate about for years: home automation.

Hardware, software and DIY

If you follow this blog, you know: I’ve spent quite a lot of time taking apart relays, flashing ESPHome and configuring Home Assistant. DIY home automation is a world where hardware and software meet, and where you get to decide how your home should work.