iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ted @desfontain.es · 27/08/2026

Bonsoir, je vous prie d'admirer ma tarte aux prunes.

Une tarte aux prunes joliment symétrique, avec trois cercles concentriques de quartiers de prunes côté peau en bas, sur un lit de confiture, et une pâte brisée visiblement artisanale.

Ted @desfontain.es · 24/08/2026

damn google, that's a very sad image to put front and center when someone searches for a country 😐

a screenshot of google search results when looking up "turkmenistan". the first image shown is a row of old, boring residential buildings, under a grey cloudy sky, behind a row of leafless trees

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Ted @desfontain.es · 13/08/2026

The long drive to Spain was so worth it 💛 Pictures really don't do this justice, but here are some anyway. (Second picture from Javier Belver/EFE.)

A picture of the sunset which is also a partial solar eclipse, seen from the old Roman stone bridge of Zaragoza, with a beautiful view on the Lady of the Pillar basilica and the Ebro river

A view of the total solar eclipse seen between pillars of the Lady of the Pillar basilica on Zaragoza, Spain. Photo by Javier Belver/EFE

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Ted @desfontain.es · 05/08/2026

How am I supposed to get any work done in these conditions

A kitten happily lying in a paper box. All four paws are up, he fits very snuggly, his eyes are closed, his expression is pure bliss

Ted @desfontain.es · 28/07/2026

guess who zoomed through a paper bag, ripped the handle, and got stuck with it around his neck for a solid half-hour afterwards #catsofmastodon

A black and white kitten with the ripped handle of a brown paper bag stuck around his neck. He looks a little confused about what's going on.

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Ted @desfontain.es · 16/07/2026

Extremely agree with these points from Edwige Cyffers about large privacy budgets in DP

A picture of Edwige Cyffers presenting a slide. It reads: Danger of Banning Large epsilon

→ When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure Goodhart's Law
- Label DP. If the features enable non-trivial prediction, what are we doing?
- Public-private learning. Public data is often contaminated by the private data.
- Adoption risk. Overly rigid norms can push practitioners toward non-DP privacy wash

Practical questions

What is counted, over what horizon, for which task, and against which alternative? Privacy budget interpretation also benefits from contextual integrity

Ted @desfontain.es · 13/07/2026

he's not sure what he's been busted for, but he's definitely been busted

a kitten on its back under a black couch, paws on the bottom part of the couch, looking straight at the camera like "oops you caught me"

Ted @desfontain.es · 08/07/2026

we've started exploring the world with Shoyu #catsofmastodon

Ted @desfontain.es · 05/07/2026

One skill I do not have yet: making cake icing that looks pretty. How do y'all do it?

A square light brown cake with white icing on top. It looks vaguely geometric, but not very good overall.

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Ted @desfontain.es · 30/06/2026

one thing is clear though, it's easier to take cute pictures when they're sleepy. blep!

A kitten sleeping on its side on a grey blanket. His eyes are closed, his white belly is visible, and his tongue is out. Blep!

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Ted @desfontain.es · 29/06/2026

i don't know if they're more cute when they're playing or when they're sleepy #cats

a white & tabby kitten lying on his back on a grey couch, surrounded by orange pillows. his mouth is fully open, in the middle of a biiig yawn

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Ted @desfontain.es · 25/06/2026

I think they trust me now

Two kittens lying on someone. One is sleeping and the other is looking straight at the camera

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Ted @desfontain.es · 23/06/2026

for future reference, here are some helpful factsheets

a close-up picture of a white and brown kitten, with blue text around it:
hello my name is Miso
i like:
- hiding
- high places
- sleeping
- SOFT head scritches
- hiding
- pouncing on my brother while he eats dinner, spilling food everywhere
i don’t like:
- sudden noises
- being perceived
- people coming towards me faster than 0.8m / minute

a close-up picture of a white and black kitten, with green text around it:
hello my name is Shoyu
i like:
- running around chasing my brother
- scratching things
- running around chasing flies
- fast toys that go zoom
- eating food straight from the floor
- eating not food straight from the floor
- running around chasing evil spirits
i don’t like:
- being told not to scratch things
- focusing on a task for more than 0.5 seconds

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Ted @desfontain.es · 22/06/2026

So, I just adopted these two little criminals. Say hello to Miso & Shoyu! And prepare yourselves for way too many kitten pictures in the coming months 👀

two 2-month kittens sitting on a bathroom mat. they both have a white belly, the left one has a brown back and patches of brown around the eyes while the right one has a black black and a patch of black around one eye

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Ted @desfontain.es · 14/06/2026

Someone who saw my post on Hacker News sent me an email asking, in essence: is it really *unsafe* if Census data can be reconstructed? Where's the actual harm? It's a common and reasonable question, so maybe it's worth posting my answer here:

This is screenshot text; the text is much too large to fit in the alt text limit. Here's a link to a pastebin: https://pastebin.com/2tgw7n2R

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Ted @desfontain.es · 02/06/2026

Well, tonight may have been a once-in-a-lifetime blitz chess session. 15 victories in a row! I think my previous record was 10 or 11 😮

A cropped screenshot of the Lichess UI (in french), indicating 15 successive victories on June 2nd, 2026

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Ted @desfontain.es · 27/05/2026

I commissionned a new logo for my consultancy ✨ Done by Taylor Joy from invisiblecity.online. I loved working with her and would recommend her in a heartbeat 🧡

A stylized coral in orange and bordeaux, along with the name "Hiding Nemo" in all caps, where "Hiding" is in bolder font.

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Ted @desfontain.es · 22/05/2026

current status (warning: loud)

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Ted @desfontain.es · 21/05/2026

Fourth #crochet project: a Sophie's scarf! I learned that spending hours doing single crochet on 4mm yarn is not my favorite thing 🙃 I also learned how to block a finished piece, and that was kind of scary but pretty magical ✨

A Sophie's scarf, crocheted using a variegated yarn that goes from a warm orange to a soft grey. It's folded in four, and shown on top of a darker grey couch.

A selfie of the author, wearing the Sophie's scarf and displaying a wide smile.

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Ted @desfontain.es · 18/05/2026

Important update: I made a pompon for my hat 😺 #crochet

a man wearing a brown crochet hat in a bathroom, with a cute pompon on top of the hat

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Ted @desfontain.es · 18/05/2026

the little cat was feeling lonely, so i made him a little bunny friend #crochet #amigurumi

the same blue kawaii crochet cat than in the previous picture, next to a white crochet bunny, in a very similar style, with longer bunny ears and two little feet

Ted @desfontain.es · 16/05/2026

first amigurumi project: this little cat #crochet #amigurumi

a tiny little blue crochet plush toy in the form of a stylized cat head with a tail behind, with black eyes, nose, and stripes on the sides

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Ted @desfontain.es · 15/05/2026

my spring rolls didn't look like what I envisioned, but my vietnamese friend said they were just as good as the ones her mom makes, so I'm just going to ride that high for the next 2-3 weeks

a plate of fried spring rolls on salad leaves

Ted @desfontain.es · 25/03/2026

Third #crochet project: a baby blanket for a friend who's about to become a dad ✨ This one taught me about color changes (not my favorite thing!) and increases/decreases for the wavy pattern. I'm pretty happy with the result ☺️

A folded baby blanket, with a wavy pattern in white, green and blue, resting against a large grey pilow.

The same baby blanket, lying flat against a grey sofa, with one of its corners folded.

Ted @desfontain.es · 15/02/2026

Just finished my second ever #crochet project! 😺 I learned (the hard way 🤣) that one should do a few rows on a much smaller scale to make sure to understand the pattern. I also learned about crocheting in "chain-1 spaces", which was initially very confusing. Progress! ✨

A bathroom selfie of a happy looking guy proudly wearing a brown, warm-looking crochet hat

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Ted @desfontain.es · 06/01/2026

Learned how to #crochet during the holidays and made my first hat, complete with cat ears 😺

A crocheted black hat with cat ears, worn by the author, half of whose face is visible on the picture

Ted @desfontain.es · 19/10/2025

This week I threw a 1st century-themed party, and cooked about 10 period-appropriate dishes from various civilizations. Well, authenticity is hard, but I tried my best! Here's a list of the recipes I tried, ranked. #history #food

A buffet table with various foods on them.

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Ted @desfontain.es · 15/06/2025

Ils ont intérêt à avoir des bons gâteaux (cc @Owi )

Un panneau annonçant une aire routière qui s'appelle "OWi-Land"

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Ted @desfontain.es · 08/03/2025

Strongly recommend the Mille et Une Orchidées exhibition in Paris. It felt like @jerry's personal paradise 🤩

An orchid plan t with a lot of pale orange flowers, with a dark pink and white center.

A close up of a few flowers from an orchid plant; the flowers have very pointy petals, dark purple with white dots and small stripes.

A close up of two orchid flowers, with pale green petals outside and a gorgeous purplish red center.

An orchid with very unusual-looking flowers: they have five petals that are green with purple spots, and one bigger petal in the center and bottom that's white with purple stripes.

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Ted @desfontain.es · 13/01/2025

Maybe for the shortform social media audience I should have chosen one of the spicier diagrams as a teaser image 🤔

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Ted @desfontain.es · 07/01/2025

J'ai complété la trilogie @Owi pour Noël 🤩

Les trois livres de Owi Owi Fouette-Moi: à foutre au four, chaud froid, et le gâteau dont tu es le héros

The Scholomance trilogy, by Naomi Novik (@naominovik) 🧙‍♀️ Come for the hilarious take on the "magic school for teenagers" genre (with an annoyingly dashing hero and a protagonist prophesized to be a world-destroying dark sorceress), stay for the compelling […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

The front cover of A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik.

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The Death of Vivek Oji, by Akwaeke Emezi. A story of death, relationship, and secrets in Nigerian families. Does a fantastic job at building mystery and compelling characters. Queer in stunningly touching ways — I bawled my eyes out during the last few chapters. #books

The front cover of The Death of Vivek Oji, by Akwaeke Emezi.

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When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, by Nghi Vo. I absolutely loved the first novella in this series (The Empress of Salt and Fortune — read it!) and this one also sparked a ton of joy. Such a great way to center storytelling itself in a story! #books

The front cover of When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, by Nghi Vo.

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The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, by Lola Shoneyin. A fantastic debut novel about polygamy and childlessness in Nigeria. The novel packs an emotional punch and does so with a fantastic sense of humor. #books

The front cover of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, by Lola Shoneyin.

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The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Discovered last year with Klara and the Sun, Ishiguro is now firmly in my "read everything by him" category. Phenomenal writing. If you'd told me I'd be so enthralled by a story about an English butler, I wouldn't have believed you.

The front cover of The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro. The cover mentions that the book won the Booker prize, and the author the Nobel prize in literature.

Ted @desfontain.es · 11/11/2024

Victory! Hello Bluesky 👋 ✨ bsky.app/profile/desfontain.es ✨ Have more cats to celebrate.

Two cats, a tabby one and a black one behind him, lying on a yellowish white duvet. The tabby one looks like he has exactly one brain cell left and he's not sure what to do with it. The black one looks directly at the camera with a knowing look.