Grandmothers

This engineer found 1,351 loose photos in his grandmother’s house. He ended up building a personal Wikipedia of his entire life

by

It all started with a closet full of old loose photos. Last year an engineer named Jeremy visited his grandmother’s house for the first time since the pandemic and unknowingly came across a treasure. 1,351 on paper, without order, without dates and without context. Some were in black and white, from when his grandparents were 20 years old. Others were from his mother as a baby. The last ones were from him in high school, just before smartphones arrived and everything moved to the cloud. What began as a family organization exercise became a fascinating project over the weeks: a personal encyclopedia. A Wikipedia of his own life. First, the physical photos and the grandmother. The first problem he encountered when starting his project is that physical photos do not have EXIF metadata. There is almost never a capture date (although some cameras superimposed it), there are no GPS coordinates and there is no information that allows them to be easily sorted. What Jeremy did was resort to a much more direct solution: sit down with his grandmother and ask her about the photos. Remembering that it is a gerund. In that conversation she rearranged the photos of their wedding and narrated the details while he took notes. Names, places, who was sitting where, what each ritual meant. With those notes, he set up a local instance of MediaWiki, the same software that Wikipedia uses, and wrote a page about the wedding following the same format that was used on Wikipedia to royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011. Within two afternoons I had a complete article with scanned photos, captions, links to empty pages about each person mentioned, and links to the real Wikipedia to give historical context to the events. Digital photos and Claude Code to get the job done. Jeremy realized that things could get worse and took the opportunity to do tests with digital photos, which do have EXIF data with date and time and even GPS coordinates. With that information he wanted to see how far he could go without interviews, so he took 625 photos from a family trip to Coorg (India) in 2012, put them in a folder and opened Claude Code in that directory with a simple instruction: compose a Wikipedia page by browsing the images. The model used ImageMagick to create contact sheets that allowed him to process multiple photos at once, and the magic of AI did the rest. The result was a detailed draft chronicling the trip organized by time of day. Without location data, just with timestamps and visual content, the AI ​​model was able to identify the places that appeared in the photos, including some that Jeremy himself had forgotten. It even detected the means of transportation used between destinations just with what it saw in the images. When AI starts remembering for you. Then came the most ambitious experiment, when he wanted to go further with a trip he took to Mexico City in 2022. He had 291 photos and 343 videos taken with an iPhone 12 Pro with GPS coordinates in the metadata, but he also exported his Google Maps location history, his Uber trips, his banking transactions and his Shazam history. By including all that data and sources, the model was able to cross-reference banking transactions with location data to identify the restaurants where he had eaten. For example, he found images of a soccer match in the photos but did not remember which teams were playing, but he found out that information by crossing those photos with bank transactions in which he found a Ticketmaster invoice with the name of the tournament and the teams, and incorporated them into the page. He also used Shazam’s history to describe the music playing in each location. From photos and memories to a personal encyclopedia. A wonderful project that now anyone can replicate thanks to the whoami.wiki website. First the trips, then the friendships. What started as a travel documentation project evolved into something more personal. The Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp archives contained some 100,000 messages and several thousand voice notes exchanged with close friends over a decade. The AI ​​model managed to convert all this information into a unique biography, identifying vital episodes of the protagonists, then converted into pages that, according to Jeremy, “read as if they were written by someone who knew us both.” When he shared the pages with those friends, they couldn’t stop reading those stories and wanted more. MediaWiki as a master ingredient. One of the most interesting decisions of the project is the choice of software. MediaWiki, Wikipedia’s engine, turned out to be an extraordinarily suitable tool for that use case. AI models understand this perfectly because they have been trained with millions of Wikipedia pages and know their structure and functioning. Discussion pages serve to control the development of those pages, categories group pages by topic, and revision history monitors the evolution of each page. All of this infrastructure already existed, and it was not necessary to create a new platform to organize the information that Jeremy was providing. Surpriseyes. At the end of his story, Jeremy explains that after the process: “I realized that I was no longer alone working on a family history project. What I had been creating, page by page, was a personal encyclopedia. A structured, navigable, interconnected record of my life compiled thanks to the data I already had around me.” Documenting her grandmother’s life revealed things she didn’t know: her years as a single mother or the decisions she had to make, for example. Going through the history of his friendships allowed him to recover moments that he had almost forgotten and made him call some of them to remember them together. “The encyclopedia not only organized the data, it made me pay more attention to the people in my life,” he explained. you can do it too. The project has been so rewarding for him that he … Read more

“Steal everything from grandmothers”

by

GoogleXcoder is the alias from the 25-year-old Brazilian arrested in Cantabria a couple of weeks agoaccused of directing the largest operation of phishing banking that Spain has suffered. His group, ‘Team GXC’, cloned 35 financial institutions and emptied the accounts of thousands of clients. The Civil Guard arrested him along with six other members of the network after more than a year of monitoring. Why is it important. This case marks a turning point in Spanish cybercrime. The GXC did not only steal: according to a report by The Worldthey also rented their tools to other criminals for up to 900 euros a day. The multiplier effect turned each day into dozens of banks supplanted and millions stolen. His name on Telegram sums up the philosophy: “Steal everything from grandmothers.” The method. They combined phishing traditional with malware for Android, a double scam that nullified any security barrier: First, they captured bank details through fake websites. The malware then collected additional documents, digital signatures, and passwords. With that arsenal, they emptied accounts without leaving any apparent trace. The investigation. Group-IB, a cybersecurity firm that collaborates with Interpol, detected the threat in 2023. Anton Ushakovhis head of investigations in Europe, alerted the UCO of the Civil Guard when he confirmed that Spain was the epicenter. For months they tracked IP addresses bouncing around global servers until they located the mastermind: a digital nomad who changed provinces every few weeks. GoogleXcoder used stolen identities for its phone lines and cards. He lived with his family, constantly moving between provinces, believing himself to be invulnerable. The agents followed him while they gathered enough evidence. They hunted him in San Vicente de la Barquera, a town with less than 4,000 inhabitants, with their devices full of evidence as well as wads of cash. The UCO has published both the moment of his arrest and a recording of the tool used: The scope. The network operated from Spain but its tentacles reached Slovakia, the United Kingdom, the United States and South America. Six people directly linked fell in simultaneous operations in Valladolid, Zaragoza, Barcelona, ​​Palma, San Fernando and La Línea. The forensic analysis of their cryptocurrencies took more than a year due to the complexity of the network. The collaboration between Group-IB and the UCO sets a precedent: Until now, private cybersecurity companies mainly worked with Europol or Interpol. This time, identifying a specific threat against Spain, they shared findings directly with national forces. The result: one of the largest operations against cybercrime in our country, as recognized by the UCO itself. In Xataka | They seemed like useful tools for WhatsApp Web, but they were part of a large spam campaign Featured image | UCO

The aging of the population and a poor pension system has a new symbol in Japan: grandmothers are rented

by

During the last months, the great drag crisis Japan with the aging of its population has been expressed in multiple formats. For example, in the field they are becoming Schools in hotels And more and more elderly for living in jail. In fact, the situation is such that the shortage of young labor has turned retirement into an aspiration of the past, with a large group of over 70 years keeping your work life Active The latest: the nation has begun to rent grandmothers. Grandmother for hours. As we said, in the context of a society that ages quickly and where loneliness and isolation They have become structural phenomena, Japan has witnessed the emergence of a unique and deeply revealing service: Ok obaachanan initiative that allows rent grandmothers For hours to fulfill as varied functions as teaching to cook, take care of children, accompany a loving break or simply provide emotional support. Behind this phenomenon, which might seem picturesque at first sight, underlies a series of economic tensions and social that clearly draw the fragility of the social contract in the Third Japanese age. With More than 9.3 million of people over 65 years old still active (That is, one in four elders continues to work after retirement age), many are forced to seek new forms of income against pensions that are barely enough to meet basic needs. For these older women, OK Obaachan represents not only an economic way, but also a form of Keep feeling usefulpresent and linked to society. A human catalog. The service, offered by the Client Partners companyis presented as a multifunctional female personnel (a kind of task and company company) and offers grandmothers to a cost of 3,300 yen per hour (More transport). The current template includes about 100 women between 60 and 94 yearswith diverse profiles and skills that cover From the kitchen, calligraphic writing or family mediation, to the simple ability to listen, advise or do affective presence. What began as a practical project has become an experience deeply human: Some grandmothers accompany people who want to leave the closet in front of their parents, others participate in academic research on social evolution in Japan, and there are those who simply help cope with everyday life. Some of the “rental grandmothers” Grandmothers of all colors. He Customer profile It is as wide as that of the grandmothers themselves: young people without family, lonely adults, people looking for a maternal figure, or even couples in the process of rupture that require a conciliatory presence. The range of services covers from functional to emotional, and in many cases the symbolic. Social reactions. What’s doubt, the appearance of the service has generated reactions found In Japanese society. While some value the possibility of receiving advice and affection from an experienced person, others express discomfort Before commercialization of human ties. In fact, they have appeared comments on networks social ranging from praise to the idea of ​​”feeling needy” to irony about the physical risk for the elderly or even the complaint about the lack of an equivalent service for men. Because, in effect, ok obaachan is exclusively feminineboth in its template and in its parallel services of “rental friends” or “rental relatives”, all managed by a company that It is defined as “Manitas company only for women.” They counted the media premises that, although there is a male version called Ossan Rental (Centered on middle -aged men, between 30 or 40 years), its approach is different and more informal, and does not reach the level of visibility or sophistication of the service focused on grandmothers. Grandmothers as a symptom. The proliferation of this type of services cannot be analyzed without attending the demographic backdrop that makes them possible. We have gone counting: Japan is one of the countries more aged of the world, with an inverted population pyramid, rates of minimal birth rate and a longevity that exceeds 85 years on average. Traditional family structures are They have eroded: Unipersonal households They multiplyintergenerational links They weakenand community fabric It is fragmented. In this scenario, older people not only face economic uncertainty, but also an existential vacuum. Initiatives like OK Obaachan They workas well as a kind of emotional economy, in which rent affection (either On the contrary), listening and the human heat that was previously given in the family. Far from being a marginal curiosity, the phenomenon embodies an adaptive response (and, of course, commercial) to a deeply structural need. Radiography of the present. If you want, although the boom Ok obaachan Point to the endearing, functional or even ingenious, deep down it is a sign of cultural transformation. The figure of the grandmother, traditionally associated with the home, the transmission of values ​​or the emotional refuge, has become a professionalized resourcenegotiable and temporal. What was previously free and spontaneous is now organized, is invoiced and reserved for hours. A RARE Av of professionalization of tenderness that speaks both of the spirit of resilience of older women and the void left by a Hyperravalized societywhere every need (even affective) must be covered For a transaction. Japan, as in so many Other trendsit is possible that anticipating a phenomenon that could be reproduced in other industrialized societies. In an increasingly individualistic world and agedperhaps the question is not why there is a grandmothers service for rent, but why the hell we need so much. Image | Miki YoshihitoClient Partners In Xataka | The aging of the population in the field has taken Japan to an unprecedented proposal: converting schools into hotels In Xataka | The aging of the population is causing Japan to make an unprecedented decision: welcome digital nomads

Grandmothers have always taken chairs to the street to chat. In Granada they have encountered a problem: the police

by

Santa Fe is A municipality of the Vega de Granada (Granada) of Luenga Historia and somewhat less than 15,000 neighbors that has just sneaked into headlines From the whole country for a peculiar motive: to have declared war on such an entrenched custom, as grenadine, as summer and apparently as peaceful as taking chairs to the streets to chat the fresco during the sunsets of the summer. Or so They interpreted it The networks until the mayor has been forced to take the floor to calm the spirits. The controversy has stirred a curious question: Can the grandparents continue enjoying long talks forming corrosons on the sidewalks, sitting to the fresh? The origin of everything: a tweet. The check From the Local Police of Santa Fe in X it does not reach the thousand followers, but holds the dubious honor of having published one of the most controversial tweets of recent weeks. The reason? On Tuesday, May 27, early in the afternoon, the police station launched A message in his profile in which he warned about the risks of placing chairs on the sidewalks to chat. “We know that taking chairs or tables at the door is a tradition in many villages, but public roads are regulated. If the police ask to withdraw them, do it out of respect and coexistence. With civism and common sense there are no discomfort,” he said The messagewhich in a matter of a few days has accumulated 6.5 million visualizations, around 6,000 responses and It has been replicated in media All Spain. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Why’s that? More than for the message itself, for the image that accompanied him and the association of ideas he suggested. The notice of the Local Police of Santa Fe included A photograph in which you could see a group of six old women sitting quietly in the semicircle in front of a house, on the sidewalk. Plastic and folding chairs. Pleasant chachara. And a group of elders enjoying the fresco of the sunset after a hot day. An almost traditional scene that we have been seeing in the streets (both in Santa Fe and other peoples) and cinemas without to date having generated the slightest controversy. And the scandal arrived. It doesn’t matter that the rest of the Santa Fe Local Police publications accumulate just a handful of Likesor comments. The famous grandmothers’s tweet ended up viralizing, jumping to media like South Canal, ABC, The Spanish either local newspapers and unleashing a heated debate in X in which the sneer and indignation were combined. “Enough impunity for grandparents who take the fresco when the afternoon falls. All the weight of the law”, Ironiza A user. “Handling and misrepresented”. The controversy climbed to such an extent that a few days ago the mayor of Santa Fe, Juan Cobo, granted An interview To the Cope chain to clarify what they allow and what do not allow municipal ordinances and what the police really wanted to convey with their famous message. The talk It has hung in full On the official website of the City Council and basically clarifies that the elderly of their breaks on the sidewalks have never wanted to deprive. “It has misrepresented. It seems that there are no more important news,” He lamented The mayor. A for “uncivic” attitudes. Although The tweet of discord It was accompanied by the photo of a group of old women sitting on chairs on the sidewalk, smiling and in peaceful attitude, Cobos nuances that the message was actually intended for other people: those who occupy the public space of the town with “uncivic” attitudes. From there, he says that no one in Santa Fe pretends to prohibit the elders of the town that they continue to take chairs to the sidewalk at sunset to hold quiet conversation and at schedules in which they do not bother the rest of their neighbors. “No one will prohibit our elders from going to the door, feel and enjoy the fresco. Not much less. This is intended for those who, doing uncivic acts, put themselves at the doors with the excuse of taking the fresco, cut the streets, put barbecues, sing, touch the guitar and leave everything in that way,” Cobo precisewhich ensures that the municipal police station receives an “avalanche” of calls from people who complain about that kind of behavior. The key: the regulations. The mayor It goes further And remember that what is and is not allowed is regulated in an ordinance prior to its arrival at the Consistory, a rule that seeks to guarantee “the coexistence and rest” of the residents of the people. “What they are doing is to remember that there is an ordinance, that the fresco can be taken, but without disturbing others,” The councilor insists In reference to the tweet. “People who get up at five at six in the morning have the right to rest.” “Our elders who have the absolute certainty that they will be able to continue taking the fresco as until now,” The first mayor remarks Before complaining that the news about the supposed war of Santa Fe against afternoon on the sidewalks has come out of mother, with statements that he believes “manipulated.” In summary: the elders of the people can continue enjoying such an entrenched, so peculiar tradition that there are Who thinks which deserves to be a World Heritage. Image | Santa Fe Local Police (X) In Xataka | Aragon wanted his children to eat more fruit at school. So he went to look for her 10,000 kilometers away

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.