https://nickyreinert.de/en/Blog & projects by Nicky Reinert (Institute for Digital Challenges): web development & software development, SEO & analytics, hosting & DevOps, WordPress & Hugo, tools & projects, data protection & digital culture — plus content on AI and autism & society.Hugo 0.162.0enNicky ReinertNicky ReinertTue, 26 May 2026 12:34:56 +0100https://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-05-26-digital-dilemma/Tue, 26 May 2026 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-05-26-digital-dilemma/Google and Microsoft accounts have become part of digital public life. Why account suspensions are more than just an email problem.blog0 days without Google account suspensionLesezeit: 5 Minutenblog_posthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-04-27-about-rc-cars/Sun, 03 May 2026 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-04-27-about-rc-cars/And now to something completely different… A few weeks ago I dived into a new “hobby”: remote-controlled semi‑pro vehicles — a birthday present for my child. So I started researching. For me, the priorities were robustness and modularity. I wanted my kid to be able to drive through rough terrain and …blogArrma Gorgon – repairs and modificationsLesezeit: 12 Minutenbloghttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-05-02-numbers-please/Sun, 03 May 2026 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-05-02-numbers-please/ 1/300 - ratio of support staff to users in traditional SaaS companies B2B [1] 1/3000 - max ratio of support staff to users in traditional SaaS companies B2C [2] 30 Bn - annual revenue of Anthropic [3] 5000 - number of employees at Anthropic [4] 18 - 30 million - estimated monthly active users at …blogKey industry numbers and sourcesLesezeit: 1 Minutennotehttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-05-03-pictero/Sun, 03 May 2026 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-05-03-pictero/Well, another year, another idea for my domain pictero.com. I was about to get rid of that domain for good. But here we are. This time I spend a little more time in a “product” - or whatever you want to call it and I came up with this idea: A (mostly) browser based toolbox for a couple of common, …blogpictero.com – browser based image toolboxLesezeit: 10 Minutenbloghttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-04-24-claude-critics/Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2026/2026-04-24-claude-critics/Prefix Note As this post is gaining more attention than expected on HN, I want to make some things clear - although I thought they are obvious. It sounds like a rant about Claude’s quality in general - if you don’t read to the end. But my concerns are more focused on the support performance and …blogLesezeit: 6 Minutenbloghttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-10-26-how-to-create-excel-ticker/Sun, 26 Oct 2025 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-10-26-how-to-create-excel-ticker/How to create an animated ticker in Excel without VBA? Last night, around 3 am, I woke up and thought: Wouldn’t it be nice to have an animated ticker in Excel? Like text that scrolls from right to left? With just one big formula? Welcome to the second episode of my series “How to create weird …bloghowtoAnimated text ticker in Excel (no VBA)Lesezeit: 6 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-29-ai-assisted-coding/Sat, 30 Aug 2025 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-29-ai-assisted-coding/Famous first words I work extensively with AI, and as it is a new tool that introduces an entirely different way of working, it sometimes takes time to adapt to these new circumstances. In this context, I am still exploring the best approach to integrate AI or agentic chatbots into my development …bloganleitungendevelopmentScreenshot of MCP server running in Visual Studio CodeLesezeit: 8 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-15-proof-of-work-in-bigquery-and-sql/Fri, 15 Aug 2025 12:34:56 +0000Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-15-proof-of-work-in-bigquery-and-sql/(or: How does blockchain mining work?) A miner has to solve a mathematical problem to validate a block for the Blockhain. The so called Proof of Work requires a lot of computing power aka energy and therefore is quite expensive. Googles BigQuery has a price model, that charges you for the …bloganleitungenHow to simulate proof of work in SQL and BigQuery - Title ImageLesezeit: 5 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-06-thin-line-between-scam-and-ambitious-entrepreneurship/Tue, 12 Aug 2025 19:00:00 +0000Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-06-thin-line-between-scam-and-ambitious-entrepreneurship/ German Version I’m not a fan of mobile games Not because I don’t like playing, but because a questionable business model has developed around mobile games, making it very difficult to find the true gems. It seems like it’s more about selling ad space or generating in-app purchases with simple game …blogThe Thin Line Between Scam and Ambitious Entrepreneurship - Title ImageLesezeit: 5 Minutenessayhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-10-we-are-doomed/Sat, 09 Aug 2025 12:34:56 +0000Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-10-we-are-doomed/New month, new category – “We are doomed” (wad) is about “smart and new technology” that turns out to be not so smart. But new, at least. Chatbots are going to replace search engines. Aren’t they? Well, no. I asked Gemini (Google’s AI chatbot) how to update Stadia’s firmware (Google’s former gaming …blogwad - about chatbots, captchas, and Chromecast - Title ImageLesezeit: 5 Minutenopinion_piecehttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-01-mtc---state-of-ai/Fri, 01 Aug 2025 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-08-01-mtc---state-of-ai/What about coding People don’t get tired of announcing that AI will replace developers. Mostly salespeople. Microsoft claims that AI is already writing 30–50% of their code. They also admit, that quality of C+ is behind expectations. In 2030 they plan to reach a rate of 95% , though human oversight …blogMy 2,718281828459045235 Cents - State Of AI: Year 3 of the hype. Things I learned. - Title ImageLesezeit: 5 Minutenessayhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-07-01-monitor-ssl-traffic-on-android/Tue, 01 Jul 2025 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-07-01-monitor-ssl-traffic-on-android/Fantastic Preface Monitoring SSL Traffic of Android Apps is quite a challenge these days. While it’s an important way to understand how Apps work, find security flaws or possible data breaches, a weak encrypted traffic also is a potential security risk. These days, most apps use a thing called …anleitungenMonitor SSL Traffic On Android - Title ImageLesezeit: 5 Minutentechnical_tutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-04-01-adobe-launch-dtm-naming-conventions/Tue, 01 Apr 2025 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-04-01-adobe-launch-dtm-naming-conventions/I’ve worked with Adobe Tracking Suite (which is Adobe Launch and all it’s sibblings) for quite a while and I saw many, some quite chaotic, tracking implementations and tag managers. At some point I felt the need to write down some basic rules to navigate those messy libraries. Hope that helps you, …blogAdobe Launch DTM Naming Conventions - Title ImageLesezeit: 5 Minutenguidehttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-03-19-developing-vscode/Wed, 19 Mar 2025 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-03-19-developing-vscode/VS Code Workspace Settings Shortcuts First of all, I strongly suggest adding some custom shortcuts because the default ones are a bit unintuitive. For example, CTRL + SHIFT + ' gets you to the terminal, while SHIFT + FN + F6 brings you back to the editor, andSHIFT + B opens the sidebar. What a mess! …blogHow to develop in 2025: Improve your Workflow with VS Code, GitHub & Copilot - Title ImageLesezeit: 5 Minutenguidehttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-01-31-about-agility-and-innovation/Fri, 31 Jan 2025 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2025/2025-01-31-about-agility-and-innovation/With the important caveat that my insights are based on experiences I’ve gathered in my own little bubble. In recent years, I’ve worked in and for a variety of companies, ranging from hands-on SMEs, through more or less organized startups, to large corporations and agencies. I mention this not to …blogAbout Agility and Innovation - Title ImageLesezeit: 5 Minutenessayhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-08-aoc-day-8/Sun, 08 Dec 2024 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-08-aoc-day-8/( task | solution ) The first time I read through the riddle, I was like: “Phew, no way, I’m going to skip this!” I looked at the example and the description, and it didn’t make sense at all. But when I’m stuck like that at the very beginning, the best approach to get a grip is: Visualize! (A …developmentaoc2024Advent of Code - Day 8 - Missing Operators (Ruby)Lesezeit: 5 Minutensolution_writeuphttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-07-aoc-day-7/Sat, 07 Dec 2024 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-07-aoc-day-7/( task | solution ) This is the kind of task I really enjoy: finding algorithms for simple mathematical challenges! Let’s go—this time in… C++! (Phew!) You’ll find my .devcontainer and Dockerfile on GitHub. Once again, I don’t want to bloat my system with additional compiler setups. It turns out, …developmentaoc2024Advent of Code - Day 7 - Missing Operators (C++)Lesezeit: 5 Minutensolution_writeuphttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-06-aoc-day-6/Fri, 06 Dec 2024 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-06-aoc-day-6/( task | solution ) This task looks tricky, so I am once again choosing a simple language that I am familiar with: JavaScript ( which, by the way, was developed in just 10 days ). With no further ado…developmentaoc2024Advent of Code - Day 6 - Walking the map (JavaScript)Lesezeit: 5 Minutensolution_writeuphttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-05-aoc-day-5/Thu, 05 Dec 2024 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-05-aoc-day-5/( task | solution ) It’s the fifth day of our outrageous adventure, and we are dealing with printer updates. To solve this riddle, we are getting back to the roots and our good ol’ friend Bash! The good news here is that I don’t need to set up any particular environment because, thankfully, Bash is …developmentaoc2024Advent of Code - Day 5 - Printer Updates (Bash)Lesezeit: 5 Minutensolution_writeuphttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-04-aoc-day-4/Wed, 04 Dec 2024 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-04-aoc-day-4/( task ) I Made It to Day 4! And today’s task perfectly fits Excel. Some—if not most—people don’t like Excel and would never consider it a serious tool for data analytics, exploration, or even “engineering.” Well, you’re wrong about Excel. It’s quite powerful if you know how to use it. Let me show …developmentaoc2024Advent of Code - Day 4 - Finding patterns (Excel)Lesezeit: 5 Minutensolution_writeuphttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-03-aoc-day-3/Tue, 03 Dec 2024 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-03-aoc-day-3/( task | solution ) As I reached the third day of my adventure, I had already learned something new that significantly improves the process: the devcontainer.json file can handle creating and running the Docker container for me. This saves the trouble of manually building and running it—essentially …developmentaoc2024Advent of Code - Day 3 - Multiplications (Python)Lesezeit: 5 Minutensolution_writeuphttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-02-aoc-day-2/Mon, 02 Dec 2024 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-02-aoc-day-2/( task | solution ) This task is about testing if integers in a list are increasing or decreasing. I’ll try Rust, and I assume I need nerves of steel for this exercise.developmentaoc2024Advent of Code - Day 2 - Increasing and decreasing (Rust)Lesezeit: 5 Minutensolution_writeuphttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-01-aoc-day-1/Sun, 01 Dec 2024 12:34:56 +0200Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-12-01-aoc-day-1/( task | solution ) As the challenge at AoC is not about the syntax but the algorithm, I decided to try a different approach this year: a new language every day. I am probably not going to explain the code in detail, but I will point out characteristics of each particular language that I think are …developmentaoc2024Advent of Code - Day 1 - Differences and Products (F#)Lesezeit: 5 Minutensolution_writeuphttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-10-18-sudoku/Thu, 17 Oct 2024 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-10-18-sudoku/How to build a brute force Sudoku solver Follow my journey on how to build an algorithm that lets you create or solve Sudoku puzzles! Follow my steps or jump ahead — this is the Jupyter notebook: https://gist.github.com/nickyreinert/966299333429ef685338e5feb5056126 Warmup — introduction Before we …projekteSudoku Solver TutorialLesezeit: 5 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-10-06-sha256-part-2/Sun, 06 Oct 2024 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-10-06-sha256-part-2/SHA-256 (Secure Hash Algorithm) is the name of a “cryptographic hash function”. SHA-256 is part of an , with the same goal: to create a hash that is resistant to collisions, the calculation of which only works in one direction and has a fixed length. In the following article, I describe the steps …blogSHA-256 Algorithm DiagramLesezeit: 5 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-10-04-sha256-part-1/Fri, 04 Oct 2024 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-10-04-sha256-part-1/Once you have successfully processed the first part , you are well prepared to learn in this part how the individual components or. Now functions together. Pre-certificate Before starting, I would like to clarify the connections again: We will immediately create a message (message), the length of …blogSHA-256 Algorithm DiagramLesezeit: 5 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-10-01-bitcoin-puzzle/Tue, 01 Oct 2024 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-10-01-bitcoin-puzzle/In this post, I’ll explain how I fell into a deep rabbit hole. I’ll cover how the puzzle works and how the algorithm can be optimized in Python using techniques like parallelization and pre-compiling with Cython. Finally, I’ll reveal how you can increase computation speed by nearly 100x by …projekteThe Bitcoin Puzzle - Title ImageLesezeit: 5 Minutencase_studyhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-05-05-gradio-app/Sun, 05 May 2024 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-05-05-gradio-app/I am currently building some kind of playground for Huggingface’s text-2-image models. This app offers more than a dozen configuration parameters. The problem: Every time the user reloads the page, all parameters are gone. Here’s my solution to cope with that. Gradio has a gr.Stateobject that allows …blogGradio App Configuration PersistenceLesezeit: 5 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-01-01-predict-crypto/Mon, 01 Jan 2024 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2024/2024-01-01-predict-crypto/Flying and predicting stock prices: two of humanity’s greatest dreams. While growing wings seems impossible, let’s focus on predicting the prices of stocks — or in this case, a ‘cryptocurrenciy’! It sounds catchier, doesn’t it? Goal You’ll learn how to leverage PyTorch, a machine learning …blogCryptocurrency price chart showing close price and volume over timeLesezeit: 5 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2023/2023-12-12-prime-numbers-javascript/Tue, 12 Dec 2023 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2023/2023-12-12-prime-numbers-javascript/There is only one thing that I love more than algorithms: Improving algorithms! This article will not explain one of those sophisticated formulas — but it will hopefully show you, how thoughtful thinking and tinkering will help you with optimising your code. Nota bene: Think Python is faster? Try …blogJavaScript vs Python Prime Number Algorithm Performance ComparisonLesezeit: 8 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2023/2023-11-11-prime-numbers-python/Sat, 11 Nov 2023 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2023/2023-11-11-prime-numbers-python/[PYTHON] How to find Prime Numbers. Fast. Feat. Cython. There is only one thing that I love more than algorithms: Improving algorithms! This article will not explain one of those sophisticated prime solving formulas — but it will show you, how thoughtful thinking and tinkering will help you with …blogPrime Numbers Python TutorialLesezeit: 5 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2023/2023-01-28-card-game-development/Sat, 28 Jan 2023 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2023/2023-01-28-card-game-development/Join me on my journey from drawing for fun, to Excel, over Python to a, probably working and good balanced card game. But why? Shameless bragging: I own a Remarkable2 and from time to time I’m drawing random stuff on it. Just for the sake of recreation. I’m not a good painter. It’s no serious art, …blogCard Game Balancing SimulationLesezeit: 8 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2022/2022-08-17-adobe-launch/Wed, 17 Aug 2022 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2022/2022-08-17-adobe-launch/POV: You need to maintain a website that implements Adobe Launch (or probably any tag manager). The tag is a huge mess and contains fragmented rules and no clear naming system. Adding features or fixing bugs can be a real pain in the ass: Finding the right rule, modifying the custom code in a not so …blogweb-developmentadobe-launchChrome DevTools Overrides panel showing local file selection for tag managementLesezeit: 5 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2022/2022-08-01-web3-withouth-the-hype/Mon, 01 Aug 2022 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2022/2022-08-01-web3-withouth-the-hype/Everyone is talking about Web 3.0 and it’s “driving technologies” Blockchain, Bitcoin, NFT or the Metaverse. Terms that belongs to every company’s roadmap if it’s want to be innovative. But if you try to find information about — let’s take Bitcoin — you’ll quickly find yourself on some …blogBlockchain visualization showing connected blocks with hashesLesezeit: 20 Minutenarticlehttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2022/2022-02-19-nft-selling/Sat, 19 Feb 2022 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2022/2022-02-19-nft-selling/What is NFT? NFT is short for Non-Fungible Token. In fact it’s a reference to a (digital) asset. And that asset can be everything from a poem to a software. You also may reference to a physical asset. In short: A NFT can be understand as an evidence of ownership. The token aka the reference is saved …blogCryptocurrency wallet providers supported by OpenSeaLesezeit: 15 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2021/2021-05-08-excel-lambda/Sat, 08 May 2021 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2021/2021-05-08-excel-lambda/Whait what, Excel? You call yourself a data engineer and you work with Excel? Sure. Excel is still the best tool for quick’n’dirty solutions, don’t let Tableau, Python or Alteryx tell you something different… ;) What’s LAMBDA? One sentence: LAMBDA allows you to combine common Excel functions into …blogIdentifying outliers using Excel LAMBDA functionLesezeit: 8 Minutentutorialhttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2021/2021-02-24-python-foo/Wed, 24 Feb 2021 12:34:56 +0100Nicky Reinerthttps://nickyreinert.de/en/2021/2021-02-24-python-foo/Let me show you my Python boilerplate and some little nifty standard features I’m working with. You can download the full template from github . This post will probably be extended in the future. Summary The boilerplate will help you with the following features: Use virtual environments manage …blogPython Boilerplate Patterns TutorialLesezeit: 5 Minutentutorial