I once read that Spalentor is one of Basel’s most interesting iconic buildings—it's almost a whole history lesson in a single building! It truly does stand out against the city's old town with its unique architecture. The tower's history is very interesting because it is linked to one of the main events that shaped the city: the earthquake of 1356
That dramatic seismic event reduced the city to ruins, and when it had to be rebuilt, the city was enclosed by a bigger ring of walls. This included multiple defensive structures, such as seven gate towers, and one of them was indeed Spalentor. Today, the tower stands as a symbol of the city's history, surrounded by other historic landmarks like St. Johann’s Tower and St. Alban's Tower.
I passed through Bern again a couple of days ago. As I’ve mentioned here before, it’s one of my favorite cities in Switzerland, and it’s super easy to get to from Basel.
I was actually going to Vaud that day, but since the weather was so lovely and the day was perfect, I decided to stop for a while.
I continued my usual walk from the city center to the bear pit, but I paused at the Aare bridge. The landscape was so beautiful that I had to stop and take pictures of the river.
The view was incredible: the turquoise water flowing beneath the bridge, set against the bright green of the trees, grass, and forested slopes on the left riverbank, as you can see above.
Back in 2018 I wrote a short post about what I had always considered one of the structural quirks of Colombian democracy: presidential elections, held every four years, always collide with the Football World Cup. When Colombia qualifies, football takes center stage in the national conversation and the election campaigns have to fight for attention.
Today is May 31st — first round of the 2026 presidential election — and the timing is even tighter than it was eight years ago. The World Cup kicks off on June 11th, just eleven days from now. Unless there is a first-round victory, which looks unlikely since the leading candidate Iván Cepeda was polling behind the threshold back in April, the runoff will take place on June 21st — right in the middle of the group stage. Colombia's third group match, against Uzbekistan, is on June 17th. Colombians vote again four days after that.
We need to focus on this election — it's so important! But honestly, I have a feeling the country is going to get distracted again, pulling attention to 'mi selección'. Seriously, some things just never change. 🤦♂️
Yesterday, while riding the train through the city of Neuchâtel, I looked out of the window, and the scenery was absolutely spectacular during that golden hour when the light was just perfect for taking a photo. So, I quickly grabbed my phone and took the shot you can see above.
As you can see, the image captures the city of Neuchâtel as the train passed, with the historic Neuchâtel Castle and the Collegiate Church dominating the hill on the right. Below them, a sea of medieval rooftops descends toward Lake Neuchâtel. I was quite lucky with the timing.
I took a stroll down by the lake this evening in Morges. The air had a nice chill to it, but the view was absolutely worth it. The sky is rarely so clear that you can see all the way across to the Alps, but tonight was one of those nights, as you can see in the picture above.
The Morges is a river in Vaud that flows into the Rhône at Lake Geneva and passes through the town of Morges, which takes its name from the river. This is a fact I had no idea about! Nevertheless, last week in the evening, I was walking by the Independence Park and saw the lights in the horizon reflecting on the water with some tulips in the foreground, and I thought it would be a nice picture to share.
The weather was gorgeous yesterday, and I had some time to spare near Voltaplatz, so I took one of Basel’s little Rhine ferries once more. I remembered why this simple plan is something I enjoy every single time. It’s very interesting how this small wooden boat has no engine — it’s just a cable and the river current doing all the work, quietly carrying you from one bank to the other. No rush, no noise, just the water and the nice lady telling some stories in Basler Deutsch.
Now the history of those ferries is interesting as well: They have been around since the 19th century, back when they were actually needed and were part of the standard transport system, before more bridges went up complementing the Mittlere Brücke. Today they’re not really essential for getting around, but they’re still there as a reminder of what they once were. For a few minutes you’re not commuting, you’re not in a hurry, you’re just floating across the Rhine. Really nice!
Today we had the opportunity to visit the Grottes de Vallorbe, and it turned out to be a really amazing experience. We started our journey by taking the train from Renens to Le Day, and from there it was super convenient to hop on a bus that brought us directly to the caves’ parking. From there, the entrance to the caves is about a 10-minute walk along the river.
The Grottes themselves were absolutely beautiful. Formed over millions of years by the underground flow of the Orbe River, the caves showcase incredible limestone formations that are really unique. As we walked through, the natural rock structures were beautifully highlighted, creating a magical atmosphere throughout.
All in all, it was a nice day trip into one of the most beautiful cave systems in Europe.
Yesterday we went for a walk in Basel-Landschaft while the weather was really lovely. We started at the SBB Bahnhof in Basel and took the IR to Liestal. From there, we continued by bus 70 to Reigoldswil village. Instead of hiking up, we decided to take the cable car up to Wasserfallen, which made the start of the day feel very relaxed and easy.
From the top, we then walked all the way back down together with A. and L. It was a really nice route through green hills, forests, and small waterfalls, with flower-filled fields along the way, as well as some truly beautiful landscapes like the one you see in the picture above.
Our feet were a bit sore after the steep descent, but it was totally worth it.
Yesterday a hacker compromised the account of the lead developer of axios> — the npm package with around 100 million weekly downloads — and published two malicious versions that included a remote access Trojan targeting macOS, Windows and Linux.
The malicious code was pulled from a staged dependency called "plain-crypto-js" and was designed to self-destruct after execution. It was only live for about three hours, but that was enough: security firm Huntress reported the first infection on a monitored endpoint just 89 seconds after the compromised version was published.
This got me thinking: do we actually still need axios? The original reason it became so popular was that it gave you a clean, consistent API for making HTTP requests that worked the same way in the browser and in Node.js. But Node.js has had native fetch since version 18 and it's been stable for a while now. The browser has had it for years. So the problem axios originally solved is basically gone.
For my typical axios usage, I wrote a simple fetch wrapper called fetchios that mirrors the axios API — same .get(), .post(), .create(), interceptors and all. It works as a drop-in module so I don't have to change the code everywhere, just copy the file in utils, swap the import and remove axios from my dependencies.
Every dependency you add is a potential attack surface — and this incident is a perfect reminder of that. Maybe it's time to stop running npm install axios by inertia and check what the platform already gives you.
I took this picture a couple of weeks ago during one of my early morning walks through Basel's city center. I love capturing shots in the early morning or late afternoon when places are quiet and you get to enjoy the small things that make them what they are — like a gravel pétanque court scattered with pigeons, a lone person sitting quietly on a bench, a bare winter tree, and the twin spires of the Münster poking up above the rooftops in the background. The light made it impossible not to stop and take a photo.
It's one of those scenes that feels completely unhurried, which is something I really appreciate about this city.
A couple of days ago the weather started to get better so I decided to jump back on my bike and commute to work. I left relatively early to avoid the rush hour and enjoy the morning light.
The weather was perfect, but what was even better was the background view of this commute: The sun rising in the background behind the Alps, creating interesting shadows and beautiful colors reflected on Lake Léman. I stopped to take some photos and enjoy the moment.
I felt really lucky to witness such a beautiful scene during my daily commute!
Every year when the health insurance renewal letters arrive, I get that familiar sinking feeling. Premiums going up again? Of course they are. I finally decided to look at the actual numbers, and yeah, the data confirms what we all suspected.
Back in 2001, the average earned premium per insured person was 1,911 CHF. Fast forward to 2024, and we’re looking at 4,234 CHF. That’s a 121% increase over 23 years, or about 3.5% annual growth. Not exactly a surprise, but seeing it spelled out still stings a little.
This year I had to switch to another provider in order to keep my premium increase manageable, and I know I’m not alone in that. Every year the effort of comparing plans and switching providers becomes more of a necessity than a choice. I wonder if a public option could curb these rising costs.
Sometimes you turn your head while walking and suddenly realize you’ve found the perfect photo spot. That’s exactly what happened yesterday along the shores of Lake Zug. The sun was out, the water was calm, and bare tree branches and the wooden posts framed a beautiful view showing the edge of the lake, while the town of Zug and the surrounding hills were clearly in the background under a blue winter sky. It was an amazing view!
I run a small VPS for some personal projects, and I often check the SSH logs to see who’s trying to break in. I have the standard setup: key-based authentication, password login disabled, non-default ssh port and fail2ban configured to block IPs after a few failed attempts. But that doesn’t stop the bots from trying.
This week, I decided to do a little analysis of the SSH logs to see where the attacks are coming from and the results are not surprising but still interesting.
Nearly 31,000 failed login attempts from the top 20 IPs alone. Russia takes the lead with 45% of attacks (20,742 attempts), followed by the US at 30% (8,163 attempts). One particularly persistent Russian IP tried over 9,600 times. Points for determination, I guess?
The geographic diversity is almost impressive: Russia, US, China, Brazil, and South Korea are all represented. It’s like a World Cup of “please let me into your server.”
This is just life when you have an ssh server exposed to the internet. I decided to add some additional security measures this week after seeing the data, but I wanted to share the conclusion of this analysis as a public service to anyone else who might be running a VPS with SSH access.
This morning the winter weather wasn't too bad, so I decided to grab my bike and do my commute using my favorite mode of transport. As I was passing by the Blancherie parking lot, I had to pull over and turn right—the sunset against the Alps in the background, reflecting off the calm waters of Lac Léman, was simply too beautiful to skip it. I took a moment to stop, wait a moment to admire it and then I shot the picture as you see above. As you can see with the lady in the foreground, I wasn't the only one taken by the view :)
Yesterday I was biking on my way to work, and when I started to climb the hill on the Route de Genève that takes you to the roundabout of Préverenges, I turned my head right and saw such a beautiful sunrise over Lake Léman, with the Alps in the background, that I had to stop to take the picture you see above.
On this New Year’s Eve of 2026, still recovering from the flu, we chose to celebrate quietly at home, preparing a traditional Bogotan ajiaco for a late lunch—a dish perfect for a cold day like yesterday. In that simple moment, I felt hopeful that 2026 would be a good year ahead!
Yesterday we had a nice day with A & L. We were looking for a day trip, and since they were absolutely dying to see some snow, I spent some time Googling the closest mountains accessible by public transport in the Vaud region. I eventually stumbled upon Rochers de Naye, and it turned out to be the perfect plan for a quick getaway into the snowy peaks.
We hopped on the cogwheel train from Montreux, and once we reached the top, the kids had the best time playing in the snow and building a snowman. We even got the chance to visit Santa’s Village, walking through a light-decorated tunnel, taking pictures with him, and leaving with a couple of treats in hand.
The train ride itself is an attraction, offering amazing panoramic views, just like the one in the picture above.
One of my favorite places in Basel is the Markthalle. This historic market hall has been transformed into a vibrant food court with a variety of international cuisines. The architecture of the building is quite interesting, with its high ceilings and large windows that let in plenty of natural light during the day.
Last week, when I was passing by Markthalle at night, I noticed the full moon shining brightly above the building. The combination of the modern "Markthalle" neon lights and the natural glow of the moon created a beautiful view that I tried to capture in the photo above.
One of the joys of spending weekends in Basel is being just steps away from the French border. It’s really easy to slip across early in the morning, pick up fresh bread from a local bakery, and return before sunrise — ready to enjoy breakfast with a still-warm baguette. And as if that weren’t enough, this trip often rewards early risers with breathtaking sunrises, like the one captured in the previous photo on Burgfelderstrasse.
Every once in a while, you get lucky enough to witness that exact moment at sunrise when the sun first peeks over the horizon, painting the sky in a beautiful palette of orange and pink hues. That’s exactly what happened in Morges a couple of weeks ago, when I opened the windows to let in the fresh morning air and I was fortunate to capture it in the image above. I hope my significant other is lucky to have such a view today. Happy Birthday K!
A couple of days ago we did our usual day trip from Basel to Bern, but this time we took a really nice walk along the river Aare. We passed by Freibad Marzili and ended up at the Bern Tierpark, enjoying beautiful weather all along the way. We wrapped up the trip with a well-deserved drink before crossing the Kirschfeldenbrücke again. It was the perfect way to unplug from the daily routine!
The Eurovision Song Contest, created in 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland, is considered Europe's longest-running international music competition. It currently includes over 40 participating nations, celebrating a broad variety of musical styles and cultural expressions.
This year, the competition is taking place in Basel for the 69th edition (third time Switzerland is hosting) and the city has transformed itself into Eurovision Town! Certain public spaces like Münsterplatz are adorned with heart-shaped decorations like the one you see above.
Last weekend, we passed by the Rathaus on the tram, where the Turquoise Carpet event was taking place. Once again, for these few weeks, the capital has transformed itself into a hub of cultural celebration for Eurovision.
Bern has become one of our favorite destinations for weekend day trips. The fact that it's only an hour from Basel, with plenty of connections throughout the weekend, makes it incredibly easy to just hop on the next available train without much planning at all.
Our usual routine is to get off at the central train station and walk straight to the BärenPark, passing by several iconic Bernese landmarks like the Zytglogge and the Einsteinhaus, and crossing the Nydeggbrücke bridge over the Aare River. The walk always ends at the Gelateria Eiswerkstatt, tucked inside the old tram depot, where we treat ourselves to some ice cream.
It was right there at the BärenPark where I took the photo you see above—on a day when the weather was perfect and the light couldn’t have been better for capturing the moment.
We were lucky that the weather last weekend in Morges was really nice: sunny but not too strong, perfect for a light jersey and a slow walk.
While strolling along the Cure Air beach, I sat on a bench near the lake and noticed a couple of people taking pictures. Among them, two women caught my attention, standing with the mountains behind them and the sun in front.
The scene felt perfect for a picture. The light, contrast, and shared desire to capture the moment came together to create the composition you see above.
This year, A and L were really eager to see the famous Morgenstreich—they’d been hearing about it non-stop. I hadn’t been in a while, not since Covid and everything, but I wanted to make them happy. So, I got up before 4 AM, as one must, and found a spot that wasn’t too crowded (at least by Morgenstreich standards). We ended up spending almost 45 minutes immersed in the atmosphere, listening to the different groups in traditional costumes play the drums and piccolo, marching alongside the iconic lanterns. It was there that I took the picture you see above.
Last week, EPFL announced in its official news channel that it had launched a Mastodon server (social.epfl.ch) for its academic community, choosing this platform because it aligns with its open science values and offers independence from corporate-controlled social media.
Although I've been away from traditional social media platforms for some time, I welcome this initiative and really hope it succeeds. The decentralised nature of Mastodon, combined with transparent algorithms and user privacy, offers a refreshing alternative to mainstream platforms. Additionally, it's really nice to see the EPFL supporting high impact open source projects.
The history of the famous German physicist Albert Einstein is closely intertwined with that of the renowned Swiss city of Bern. It was here, in 1905, while working at the patent office, that Einstein published four groundbreaking scientific papers that changed the course of modern physics: the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, the special theory of relativity and the iconic equation (E = mc^2).
Many years ago, when I visited Bern for the first time, I had the opportunity to visit the Einstein House, a museum located in the apartment where Einstein lived during his time in the city. However, last weekend, I discovered something new: the bench near the Bear Pit that I had passed many times also features a statue of the famous physicist. Quite fascinating!
A couple of days ago, winter came early to Basel, and out of nowhere, the city turned into a winter wonderland. Snow was falling throughout the day and night, and the next day, the city was completely covered in white. It was so sudden that the city was not prepared for it; as a result, many tram lines were not working, and the streets were full of snow. The snowplows were out and about, trying to clear the streets, while people walked around in their winter jackets and boots.
Nevertheless, it was a beautiful sight to see! I took a walk through the city and captured some pictures, like the one above, taken over the Rhine River, next to the Wettstein Bridge. I always love the sight of snow falling and the city covered in white—it is so peaceful and quiet. Walking on fresh snow is always enjoyable, especially with the crunching sound under your feet.
A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Basel Herbstmesse. This year, I had the chance to ride the Ferris wheel again, which they usually set up in Münsterplatz. From the top, I snapped this picture—showing the cathedral and the Rhine River in the background. The view is amazing, and it gives a nice perspective on the city!
Even though I've been going to this fair for years, I realized I’d never actually read up on its history. Turns out, it’s not just any fair; it’s the oldest and largest in Switzerland. It’s been held in Basel since 1471! The fair was first allowed by Emperor Friedrich III and started out as a market for selling goods and livestock. Hard to imagine that now, with all the rides, food stalls, and fun attractions we see today.
The fair’s changed a lot over the centuries, but it’s amazing how it still feels like a local tradition and brings the whole city together every year. If you’re ever in Basel during Herbstmesse, I definitely recommend a ride on the Ferris wheel for those city views—it’s worth it!
AnimeGAN is a deep learning model designed to convert real-world images or videos into anime-style artwork. Using this model, it's possible to transform photos into nice anime-style images that look like they were taken from a Japanese animation.
A couple of weeks ago I passed by this place early in the morning and I was able to capture a nice photo of the beach. I decided to use the Tensorflow.js version of this AnimeGAN model to convert the photo into an anime-style image. The result is quite interesting as you can observe in the image above.
One of my favorite plans is to jump on a train and head to Geneva. I always walk along Quai Gustave-Ador to the Jet d'Eau, enjoying the nice path along Lake Geneva.
A couple of days ago, I did this again. After passing the Jet d'Eau, I looked back and noticed the setting sun creating a beautiful backlight behind the fountain. It was a view that I thought was worth a picture, so I quickly captured the moment with my camera.
This unexpected photo turned out to be one of my favorites from that spot, so I'm sharing it here with you.
Last week, I had the opportunity to visit the village just before the Vallorbe station, thanks to a kind invitation from a friend and former work colleague. He invited me for dinner at his house, which is conveniently located right next to the station 'Le Day'. Not only was it a very pleasant evening with excellent food and company, but it was equally interesting to get to know this region of Vaud.
Before heading to his place, he suggested that we take a walk near a meadow where we spotted some chamois grazing on the cliff near the viaduct. These animals are indeed very interesting. We then went through the tunnel under the viaduct, where I had the opportunity to take the photo above.
It’s a very nice region, and I will definitely come back.
Last week, we were walking near Schützenmatt Park when we stumbled upon an unusual sight in the middle of the central meadow. One of the storks that typically wanders through the park in the early morning was having a confrontation with a bird of prey, which looked like a falcon. The scene unfolded over a few minutes, during which the stork protested with its distinctive "clack-clack-clack-clack." Finally, the falcon got fed up and flew off to a branch of a nearby tree, close to where we had parked our bikes.
I discussed with L. how unusual this situation was. It's rare to see such wildlife behaving this way in the middle of an urban park. It made me wonder if the argument had started earlier, perhaps in the sky, between these two fascinating birds.
A few weeks back, I visited a dear old friend, a guy whom I know from our school days, who now lives close to me in Vaud, Switzerland. My routine for these visits usually involves taking the train to Montreux and getting off at the Burier station. This time, everything aligned perfectly, allowing me to witness a really nice sunset painting on a particularly quiet Lake Leman, displaying a set of vibrant colors.
It is almost 9 years since the last time I had the opportunity to visit Locarno. This is a beautiful city in southern Switzerland, located on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore. It is known for its mild climate, its Mediterranean air, and its amazing landscapes. Last night I took this picture in the Piazza Grande, which is the main square in the city center. I remembered that just on that occasion in 2016, I attended a screening of the movie "Lo chiamavano Trinità" in this square.
Augusta Raurica is an ancient Roman archaeological site located near the modern town of Kaiseraugst, Switzerland. It was once a thriving Roman settlement and served as the capital of the Roman province of Rhaetia. Augusta Raurica was founded in the 1st century BCE and reached its peak during the 1st and 2nd centuries CE.
The proximity to Basel, along with convenient transportation options, makes this place an excellent destination for a day-trip excursion, especially when the weather is nice. Last weekend we visited this place again and enjoyed a walk around the site. It's interesting because it contains a number of well-preserved ruins, including the theater, the temple, and the forum. It's recommended if you are visiting Basel.
Yesterday we were celebrating New Year's Eve in Switzerland with a delightful Bogotanian dish called Ajiaco con Pollo. We placed the steaming pot at the center of the table and everyone poured a good amount of it, adding capers, cream, and the important avocado slices. This Colombian dish always brings some nice memories of my childhood, so I was delighted to discover that we still had some dried "guascas" to recreate it as close as possible to the real deal. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2024!
A few weeks ago, Basel experienced an unusually chilly couple of days, including a particularly frosty weekend that gave us a fresh layer of snow. This wintry weather was the perfect excuse to enjoy classic winter activities such as crafting snowmen, engaging in friendly snowball battles, and enjoying some fun ice sliding.
The following day was bright and sunny, and as a result, the lingering cold ensured the snow stuck around a bit longer. These moments presented some interesting photo opportunities, as the example captured in the image above. The photo showcases the sun's rays creating interesting patterns on the snowy rooftop.
Every time I visited the city of Geneva, whenever I had to wait at the train station platforms, I always noticed those luminous works of art in the street in front, and I always wondered what the story behind them was. Even the last time I visited Geneva, I took the photo you find above, when I was passing by
Some days ago, I was reading the story of those displays, and it's as interesting as they are beautiful: In December 2016, this work, titled "Pinta Cura", created by the local artist Frédéric Post, was set up in the center of Geneva for the 3rd edition of the Geneva Lux Festival. The work details the shamanic symbolism of Yage medicine among some indigenous people in Colombia, featuring the figures of the anaconda and the jaguar, two animals of power linked to healing and care.
The Eurostats website published an interesting article that emphasizes the increasing importance of digital skills in response to technological advancements. It discusses how the EU aims for at least 80% of adults to have the minimum basic digital skills by 2030.
It also describes how even if around 90% of EU citizens are using the internet weekly, only 54% on average had basic or above basic digital skills in 2021. Finland and the Netherlands led with 79%, followed by Ireland (70%) and Denmark (69%), highlighting disparities in digital proficiency across EU countries.
As more and more of our traditional activities move even further online, investing in digital skills education from an early age would seem to be a wise decision. I hope the EU governments will prioritise it.
A couple of days ago, when I was coming back from work and arriving in the picturesque city where I live, I started to think: What would happen if I told one of the AI tools to paint this place using the Impressionist technique, and then told it to describe it? Well, here is the result of this experiment:
"In an Impressionist painting of the Swiss town of Morges, we are transported to a tranquil and picturesque scene next to the pier of Lake Geneva. The essence of the Impressionist style is to capture the fleeting moment, the play of light and color, and the atmospheric ambiance. In this particular painting, the artist has masterfully conveyed these elements.
The canvas is alive with vibrant, dappled colors that dance across the scene. The shimmering waters of Lake Geneva, in soft shades of blues and greens, extend toward the horizon, creating a reflective surface that mirrors the world above. The surface of the lake is beautifully textured with strokes of various shades, conveying the rippling movement of the water..."
This is just an excerpt because the machine then started to describe parts of Morges that are not in the painting, but still, this visual and textual test was quite interesting.
I've been fortunate to explore several European cities showcasing remnants of Roman civilization, such as the Colosseum in Rome, the Library of Celsus in Turkey, the Theater of Merida, and the city of Augusta Raurica. However, Pompeii undoubtedly stands in a different league altogether. Last weekend I had the opportunity to go there and it was a truly fascinating experience
Since this Roman city was frozen in time after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and it took multiple centuries to discover it, the extent of its preservation is remarkable. It's surreal to find yourself walking along the original Roman streets, where once the horse-powered carriages used to ride. These narrow, cobblestone streets are flanked by impeccably preserved remnants of residences, stores, and public structures, such as the Amphitheater, the Forum, and even the impressive Tower of Mercury, which offers a panoramic view of the vast archaeological park.
A couple of days ago I had the opportunity to visit Geneva again, with a good friend of mine who was visiting me for the first time in the region. We decided to pay a visit to this interesting city, without a definite plan, just to chill and walk around the city. When we were passing near the cathedral, I noticed there were some people up there in the tower, and I proposed to her going up to have a panoramic view of the city (I had never done it before).
The plan turned out to be a very interesting one, offering beautiful views of the different parts of the city with a clear and sunny sky. One of those views is captured in the previous photograph: The iconic Jet d'Eau in the middle of the clear waters of Lake Geneva.
Saint Sulpice, a beautiful village in close proximity to Lausanne and Ecublens, has some amazing scenery along its lakeside promenade. One of the landmarks in this nice place is a meticulously preserved 12th-century church that you can observe in this backlight picture taken a couple of days ago.
This picture, taken in Morges last weekend, features an amazing landscape with an interesting composition: In the foreground, there is a group of multicolor tulips arranged in a nice lane; in the middle ground, there is Lake Leman with some boats and reflections on the lake; and finally, in the background, there are the alpine mountains with snow-capped peaks.
I think the contrast of colors in this picture is particularly nice, with the bright colors of the tulips contrasting with the blue and green hues of the lake and the earthy tones of the mountains, combined with the perfect sunset light. Nice!
A couple of days ago, while strolling through the center of Geneva, I stumbled upon a fascinating sight: an interesting composition in the background, with the Jet d'eau visible in the distance, seemingly on the verge of reaching the grey clouds before it started to rain.
The Tulip Festival in Morges is an annual event that takes place in this picturesque Vaudois. The festival is dedicated to celebrating the arrival of spring and the blooming of thousands of tulips that adorn the parks and gardens of Morges.
A couple of days ago, as I was strolling near the lake, my eyes caught this interesting sight. The scenery featured the lake and the mountains in the backdrop, along with bright yellow tulips on the stage. I couldn't help but think that it would make a nice composition for a photo, such as the one I attempted above.
One of the advantages of the EPFL campus is its location relatively close to Lake Leman. Sometimes the landscapes that can be seen in the background are really spectacular. This was indeed what happened last week: I was on the esplanade walking towards the library when I noticed in the background a composition that I thought definitely deserved a photo and a post about it.
As the sun began to rise over the horizon, the sky above the town of Morges was awash with some brilliant shades of pink and orange. The tranquil waters of Lake Geneva below reflected these vibrant hues, creating a stunning and serene scene.
The calm waters of Lake Geneva stretched out into the distance, their surface rippling gently in the light breeze. As the sun continued to rise, the colors of the sky deepened and the reflections on the water became even more pronounced, creating a breathtaking visual spectacle.
... and all this text was AI-generated just by asking the model to describe this picture. I had to make some corrections, but it was still quite impressive :)
Last week I was at the office when suddenly it started to snow heavily, and I could see the snowflakes falling very quickly through the window. I thought at that moment that it would be worth taking a picture, and you can see the result above this text.
Sometimes taking a good picture involves a bit of good luck and being in the right place at the right time. That's just what happened in Morges, Switzerland, a couple of days ago. I was riding back on my bike after buying some coffee when I noticed the silhouette of the Morges church reflected in the lake, with that spectacular sunset in the background. It was definitely a moment that called for me to stop and take this shot!
Yesterday when we were on our way home, my girlfriend pointed out the window and said, "Look, look there in the background." I couldn't see at the beginning what she was talking about, but then the amazing Bernese Alps were on full display in the background. I quickly snapped this shot with my phone, which you can see in the picture above. Really nice!
A couple of days ago I was testing my electric bike, doing a ride from the university to Vevey (about 25 km). At some point when the sunlight was starting to dim, I decided to stop and look back and I saw this beautiful sky that I captured in the photo you find in this post.
This morning, before starting work, I noticed that the day was quite beautiful with a bright sun. So, I went for a short walk to the lake here in Morges. While passing by the harbor, I captured this image, noting its interesting composition.
The city center of Morges can be quite beautiful when there are snowy days in these winter months. That was the case a couple of days ago as you can see in the photo above this post.
On this first day of 2022 I had the opportunity to enjoy this beautiful sunset on the shore of Lake Geneva, with the church of Morges in the background. I felt at that moment that in spite of the difficult beginning of 2022, I had hope that everything would be better and that it would be a great year!
Lausanne is a city that can be quite photogenic, and one of my favorite areas for taking photos is the Ouchy area. This area has stunning views of the lake with the Alps in the background. A couple of weeks ago I took this photo of the Éole sculpture created by Clelia Bettua in 1995.
Last week I went out at lunchtime to do a little walk to the lake that is quite close to my home office setting. Although the day was quite cold, the sun reflecting on Lake Geneva created a beautiful view that I captured in the photo you can see above.
The number of cases of covid-19 in Switzerland increased dramatically in November, reaching more than 10,000 at the beginning of the month, which forced the cantonal and federal authorities to take strict measures to prevent contagion.
One of the main differences with respect to the wave that occurred during the spring time is that the number of hospitalizations has increased significantly as can be seen in the graph above. We hope that those measures taken by the authorities will help to control this new peak. Of course everybody has to do their part: #wearamask.
Both in Basel city and Zurich, it is required to wear a face mask with the objective of reducing COVID-19 transmission. The country flattened the curve but as soon as it began to reopen, the cases started to go up again. The cantons of Geneva, Vaud, and Zurich are the most affected as can be observed in the previous graph.
The US democratic primaries are around the corner with the first state voting next Monday. I was curious how the Google Search Trends in the last 7 days reflects on each one of the top tier candidates. Bernie Sanders is clearly winning on that “interest” field. Interesting to see what will happen in the actual Iowa caucuses.
On the 25th of April, Joe Biden announced he was joining the crowded democratic primaries race. The aggregate polls show an interesting trend. Even before his announcement he was leading the polls, but there was a clear bump in his numbers afterwards. It's interesting to see what will happen in the months ahead. Will those trends continue, and will the main race be between him and Bernie Sanders, or will there be another candidate getting into the top spot? Time will tell.
The official FX Data from the Bank of England site shows the changes related to the whole Brexit process. Yesterday it was reported that MPs have voted overwhelmingly to hold Theresa May to her commitment to give them a vote on delaying Brexit if her withdrawal agreement fails to win a majority within the next two weeks.. It's interesting how every time Brexit seems to be further away ... the better the British currency performs.
Yesterday I noticed that the autumn colors are already here. It's beautiful, as you can see in the picture above. However, with the crazy weather this year and the temperature going up and down, I barely realized that this season was already here.
I always believed one of the main problems with the presidential elections in Colombia, held every four years, is the timing: They always coincide with the Football World Cup! Football is an extremely popular sport in the country, and when the national squad qualifies for the tournament, the country turns its attention away from everything except this event.
The previous graph generated with Google Trends Search Data relates to this point at least in the online sphere: The Colombian people are more interested in searching information about World Cup topics than about presidential topics.
The first round of this election will take place on the 27th May and the second round on the 17th June (the World Cup starts on the 14th). Just saying ...
A couple of weeks ago an article in Business Insider stated that Apple’s iOS was losing market share in Europe's four largest markets (Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain) besides Japan. I haven't checked the mobile global market in a while, and checking the StatCounter stats today shows that Android is clearly dominant on a global scale. It's true Android has some issues, including well-known fragmentation, but I still prefer the flexibility of this OS over the iOS one.
Some weeks ago when I finished working, I was about to leave the building and I saw in the wall a sheet of paper with information about a vue.js meetup here in Berlin. I thought I had never heard about this vue.js and the more I read, the more interested I became in this front-end javascript framework.
Google Search trends show vue.js has been the most popular framework in the last 12 months. Vue.js is self-described as "a progressive framework for building user interfaces. Unlike other monolithic frameworks, Vue is designed from the ground up to be incrementally adoptable". I gave it a go and it's quite interesting.
When Theresa May announced her intention to seek a general election back in April, the conservative lead on the polls over labor was around 21%. As you can see in the graph above, this lead has been shrinking over time. It's very interesting to see what is going to happen in this election next month.
Today the French are voting in their presidential elections and the possibility of having a far-right president, who has campaigned against Europe and NATO, brings dark clouds to the European horizon. I'm hoping the French people will reject those proposals. Allez les Bleus!
A couple of days ago, on March the 8th, it was the international women's day. I was chatting with some family members about whether this day should exist at all (they were arguing that the day should be every day). I was checking the pay gap between men and women in European countries, and I think there is still a reason to celebrate this day.
Wikipedia provides an article containing a list of the top 100 sites in the world in terms of traffic, using Alexa and SimilarWeb as sources. The chart above shows the count of site types based on that list, and Search Engines is the top category by far. Now, it's interesting to see how this finding is due to the massive popularity of Google around the world: Its localized version in all these countries makes it to the top 100 list:
Sometimes you look out the window and the view is so nice that it doesn't look like a normal window but rather as a picture that was presented to you instead. That was the case today.
The poll aggregates from Real Clear Politics show that Trump opinion has never been more favorable than unfavorable. In fact, it has been reported he assumed office as one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history. The trend shows it's again down after a short increase following the election.
Wikipedia has a useful page with a lot of stats about Switzerland Statistics. The chart above shows the number of live births per year. Very relevant information today.
Looking at the final 2016 US presidential election results, it's remarkable how badly Trump lost in California. 8.7 million vs 4.4 million votes. It's not surprising that on the days after the election the #calexit hashtag started to trend. Clinton won the popular vote; many Americans will feel underrepresented based on the electoral college system they have in place, but nowhere is this more dramatic than in California.
Not surprising. The Earth temperature measured by NASA in September was the warmest month ever. http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata_v3/GLB.Ts.txt. This follows the same pattern as every month this year. The Paris climate agreement clearly recognized the wide impact of global warming, but with the recent results of the U.S. elections, this issue needs to be raised constantly.
This morning I woke up very early feeling a bit uneasy. I started to follow the live US presidential transmission and then slowly it began to be clear that the Republican nominee was going to win. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the main danger with this outcome is that nationalist groups might feel empowered to spread and promote their hate speech. I'm really hoping this won't happen. And it was definitely a complete poll miss. A dangerous one.
Alright, the last 4-way presidential polls still put Clinton slightly ahead. Crossing the fingers. The lead will hold. Yesterday the FBI director sent a letter clarifying there was nothing new in the emails from last week, so I hope the voters in the US will be able to compare the flaws of the Democratic nominee against the real sexist, racist, protectionist, and xenophobic positions of the Republican nominee.
I haven't checked the Mobile OS market share in a while. According to net market share, Android has 68.5% and IOS has 25.8% in the last month. I'm curious how this will be affected by the whole Note 7 issue. Still, it's impressive the growth compared with just 2 years ago.
Yesterday I saw the excellent documentary "Hate Rising" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOsRktPBNhI), a film where the journalist Jorge Ramos explores how the current US election has empowered white nationalist groups, leading to a rise in hate in that country, including attacks on minority communities. This documentary brought memories back of my mother because I'm sure she would be extremely disappointed. Before she got sick and passed away, she worked with the Girl Scouts of the USA, setting up programs to make the Latino girls proud of their heritage and to help all the girls to feel equal and part of one nation.
"The most important task in my job is to make one world. It's important for the Latinos and it's important for the American people.", my mom used to say. I have been following the US presidential elections closely, not only because I have many relatives and friends living in that country, but also because I truly believe its outcome will have important repercussions around the world.
If you don't want to live in a country where hate is normalized, where sexist and misogynist views come from the top of the leadership and where your liberties and rights get curtailed under the "law and order" sophism, please vote on this binary election! As a European, I followed the Brexit vote closely because I still think the European Union project has brought a lot of stability and peace to this continent and I thought it would be bad for my adoptive Irish nation. As you know, the yes camp won mainly on “immigration control” grounds and unfortunately the attacks against immigrant communities increased immediately after the vote. The future of this nation looks gloomy, since most of the promises of the yes camp were not attainable.
On the other hand, as a Colombian, I was extremely hopeful about the referendum to accept the peace agreements signed in Cuba to put an end to the oldest civil conflict in the Latin American continent. For the first time during the civil war, the two sides were serious about ending the conflict and didn’t use the talks as a strategy of war. It pained my heart to see how a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the opposition helped the No camp to obtain victory. Now, this conflict, affecting mainly the minority populations living in the most remote and poorest parts of the country, is in a very dangerous stalemated situation.
As an immigrant on the other side of the Atlantic, I'm really hoping the people appearing in Jorge’s documentary are a minority and that they don't reflect the United States population overall. And I really hope the outcome of the US presidential election will reflect this statement.
So please don't fall into the fear trap and go out and vote to make a stand against the people attacking the diversity that’s so needed in this world.
I have been using Python for many years and I recognize how powerful it is with libraries like Pandas and Scikit-Learn for Data Science. In a previous role, I had the opportunity to use R, but I haven't touched it in a while. I was curious to see what the interest is in R vs Python in the Google Search Trends. You can see the graph above plotted with this data source.
Last weekend I finished converting the FX calculator I developed during my career break to React.js. I have briefly touched some code at work but I wanted to get my hands dirty and understand better the advantages and the challenges of this library.
I was also checking today some interesting [Google Trends data](https://t.co/aCOxxTOhUo) about the most popular JavaScript frameworks in terms of search interest, and React is definitively winning the interest war.
FiveThirtyEight, an interesting site focused on opinion poll analysis, has become one of the most quoted sites in political news. A couple of days ago they published an interesting article on how the USA electoral map would look like if only women voted, based on their poll models. It's interesting how it would be a landslide defeat of Donald Trump!
According to Nielsen, the presidential debate viewer numbers are out for the first debate between Trump and Clinton, and this was the most viewed debate in the history of the presidential debates (84 million viewers). The second closest was the one that happened in 1980 between Reagan and Carter.
I haven't checked the global search engines market share in a while because clearly Google dominates in almost every country, but yesterday I heard an interesting podcast on BBC about the power of Google, and I was curious about the position of the 2nd and 3rd players. The chart above is generated with data from startcounter.
Alexa and Similar web rank Wikipedia as the 7th and 9th most visited site on the web, so the visit statistics produced by the foundation are a good proxy for getting data on the most popular platforms on the web. The previous chart shows the visits by OS family. As you can observe, Windows 7 is the most popular desktop OS, but the mobile OS (Android and iOS) are responsible for almost 40% of the visits to those sites.
The US presidential election is far from over, since there are still some days ahead until November, but it's comforting to see evidence in the polls that Trump's divisive campaign is not 'winning' at all.
The map above shows the countries that currently have or ever had a female head of state. It's true, the historic nomination of Hillary Clinton is a milestone achieved in U.S. politics, but not in many countries of the world.
Last weekend we did a long weekend trip with my girlfriend to the Ticino region of Switzerland, staying in Locarno. I wasn't aware that the Locarno Film Festival was starting this week, and part of this event was a preview showing of a movie on Sunday night open to the public.
The organizers decided to honor Bud Spencer, one of the classic Italian actors from the 70's in the action-comedy genre who passed away earlier this year. They featured Lo chiamavano Trinità, one of the best examples of the "Spaghetti Westerns". I really enjoyed this movie! It brought back nice memories, since the movies featuring the duo Bud Spencer / Terence Hill were one of my grandpa's favorites.
This morning I was reading on the fivethirtyeight site an interesting section dedicated to the US elections. It tries to predict who will win the election based on the polls and historical data. They have been very accurate in the past, so it is definitely an interesting source.
One of the articles linked on this site was a post titled "Why Obama Might Be Trump's Biggest Challenge," which discussed how President Obama is enjoying a high approval rate. The chart above is generated with the >>>Real Politics>"http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html" data they were mentioning in the post.
I was discussing it with a colleague a couple of days ago. The Facebook React is definitely going to stay around. Look at the previous graphs showing the increase in Wikipedia page views during the last year and the trend increase in Stack Overflow.
In the Canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, there is a Benedictine monastery called Mariastein, relatively close to Basel. Apparently, this place is a must for the Catholics, but it's also a nice place to walk around in the fields, as you can see on this picture we took yesterday.
Browser usage according to the Wikipedia article on browser usage and the global stats reported by W3Counter. Not surprisingly, Chrome is the most popular browser today, and fortunately, IE is in a complete decline.
Yesterday I did a nice bike ride from Berlin to the Wandlitzer lake, located some 30 km north of the capital city. The area is really beautiful as you can see in this picture.
If you analyze the last 30 days of the Twitter feed between Trump and Sanders and plot the word frequency on a word cloud, it reveals what these candidates stand for. Guess which one belongs to whom?
Last night, when I was reading about the EgyptAir hijacking, I was thinking that fortunately this type of incident is now very rare. I remember that when I was a kid, this was one of the clichés in the American movies of the 80's (i.e., Delta Force), but with the tough security measures in place in most of the airports, this doesn't happen as often.
Wikipedia has a detailed compilation on the aircraft hijacking incidents, and there is definitely a decrease compared to the peak in the 70s.
Wikipedia has a list of the terrorist incidents that happened during the current year. Based on this information, the countries most affected by the number of terror incidents are:
Asylum is defined as the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee, mainly for fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. Due to the raging conflict in Syria, there has been a sharp increase in the number of refugees coming to Europe.
The last quarterly data report by Eurostat demonstrates this upwards trend. Germany and Sweden have been the countries who have welcomed the highest number of asylum seekers.
I haven't checked the operating systems market share for Desktop and Mobile, and based on data from StatCounter, the usual suspects: Windows and Android dominate in each sector, respectively.
The last episode of the excellent show Last Week tonight from John Oliver dealt with a very contentious issue in the US: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRauXXz6t0Y". I really like the approach that he took on this matter, acknowledging there are different positions on this topic, but hammering the "hypocritical" laws that, under the umbrella of protecting the "Women's health" target="_blank">The abortion laws</a> create barriers for people who need this medical procedure and unfortunately don't have the money to go somewhere else.
The next map shows the US states that had enacted laws to force women requiring an abortion to see an ultrasound of the unwanted pregnancy:
Yesterday at the office we were discussing the possibility of the UK leaving the European Union. Actually, we wrote in our company blog what this brexit would mean for European workers, some time ago. But with all this brexit discussion, we forgot the UK is actually one of the oldest members of the European Union (1973).
It is hard to assess what the most popular programming languages are because there are multiple ways to measure them, but none of them are perfect (i.e., repositories, lines of code, occurrences in job offers, etc.). For example, if you work with embedded systems, C is very popular, but if you work on the web, the story is very different.
One interesting measurement of popularity of a language is the questions related to the language. Stack Overflow features questions and answers on a wide range of programming languages and compiles a list of the most popular tags with total, today, and this week breakdown.
This data is a nice proxy for how popular the different programming languages are.
Last night I was reading a headline in Business Insider about how Bernie Sanders just melted away a 30-point Hillary Clinton lead in a new poll related to the US presidential elections. Wikipedia has a useful article that tracks the different polls for both parties. The results of those polls are reported here on that page: Democratic Primaries.
It's true that the last poll conducted by Quinnipiac University shows a preference of: Clinton: 44% and Sanders: 42%, and with a 4.5% margin of error, they are virtually tied. There is even a newer one conducted by "Reuters/Ipsos" showing a similar trend: Clinton: 48% and Sanders: 45% (with a 5% margin of error).
It's fascinating to see how this candidate, without any of the infamous [super PACs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_action_committee#Super_PACs) behind him, has been able to attract so much attention and has become a real contender in the US 2016 presidential elections.
Yesterday I was reading the news about Apple. On Tuesday, they reported the financial results of their fiscal first quarter. One conclusion from this event is that even with record profits, iPhone sales rose by less than 1 percent from a year earlier.
I was checking the Mobile & Tablet operating systems market share data published by netmarketshare.net and this downward trend is clear:
I never owned an iPhone. I really like the quality of the hardware and software produced by this company (In fact, I'm writing this post on a MacBook Air), but I don't like the closed, restricted ecosystem associated with their business model. It's refreshing to see so many different Android devices on the market.
