There’s a story doing the rounds this week that made me nearly spit out my latte. Brussels launched an age verification app — presumably to protect kids from online pornography — and hackers cracked it in about two minutes. And then, almost as if on cue, EU officials quietly walked back their earlier confidence and admitted the app is “still a demo.” Right. A demo. That’s not what was being claimed a few days ago, but okay.

There’s a story doing the rounds this week that probably shouldn’t surprise anyone paying attention, but here we are. Someone apparently discussed “Luigi-ing” tech CEOs in an online chat — a reference that’s become grimly shorthand since the healthcare CEO shooting in the US late last year. The suspect in a plot targeting Sam Altman has been arrested, and the internet has responded with… well, not exactly an outpouring of sympathy for the OpenAI boss.

Been down a rabbit hole this week reading through a thread about self-hosting and CGNAT, and honestly, it’s one of those topics that sits right at the intersection of “deeply nerdy” and “genuinely important infrastructure that affects real people.” Bear with me if you’re not in the IT world — I’ll try to make this relatable.

For the uninitiated, CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT) is basically your ISP hiding your connection behind a shared IP address. Think of it like living in an apartment block where everyone shares the same street address — great for the landlord who doesn’t have to manage individual addresses, not so great if you want people to actually find your specific door. For those of us who like to self-host services at home — a personal media server, a game server, a home automation dashboard — CGNAT is an absolute pain in the neck.