@alexelcu@social.alexn.org
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

alexelcu

@alexelcu@social.alexn.org

Software developer, #FP, #Scala, #Kotlin, #Java / #JVM, #Haskell, #Rust; contributor to https://alexn.org, https://monix.io, https://typelevel.org.

🌍 #Bucharest, #Romania

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alexelcu, to programming
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

Writing an article on how awesome #Scala3's support for type-classes is, for a general audience, but it's a hard to write article 😒 #Scala

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@hugovr 🤣 that stings

alexelcu, to opensource
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

#FOSS / #OpenSource / #FreeSoftware is not just access to the source code.

It's also the right to fork, in case you don't agree with the direction of the project. Or to profit from someone else's work without paying them a dime. What distinguishes FOSS from proprietary software is that FOSS gives users real ownership.

It's totally OK for Amazon or Oracle to take your work and repackage it. If you're not OK with that, then FOSS may not be right for your business.

alexelcu, to python
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

#Python has batteries included in its stdlib, but when those batteries aren't enough people have to resort to installing pip + virtualenv + pyenv, alongside the OS's native packager, which they still need for native dependencies.

In #Scala, for writing all kinds of scripts, with all sorts of dependencies, all you need now is Scala CLI; which can also help with distributing your script as a JAR, or as a native executable:

https://scala-cli.virtuslab.org/

Checkmate, Atheists!

anderspuck, to twitter
@anderspuck@krigskunst.social avatar

I am becoming more and more convinced that Twitter is a waste of time for publishers and content creators. Over the last 28 days my YouTube channel has had 671,683 views, and a mere 250 of those came from Twitter. If you want to promote your work, #Twitter is no longer the place to be.

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@anderspuck I wouldn't be surprised if they now regard YouTube as competition (like Substack before it) and rank it even lower than they rank external links in general.

alexelcu, to programming
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

"Java Volatiles"

Blog article — , , ,

https://alexn.org/blog/2023/06/19/java-volatiles/

HeavenlyPossum, to random

There was a stretch when Elon Musk took over twitter and started charging for blue checks (lmao) and some of his sycophants started talking about “Veblen goods.”

A Veblen good is something for which demand increases as price increases, in contact to the neoclassical orthodoxy that demand decreases axiomatically with price.

Veblen goods are things that rich people buy to signal their wealth and status. Jewelry, fancy watches, yachts, Ivy League degrees. Things that cost many thousands or millions of dollars.

The idea that an $8 verification on twitter would ever be a status symbol for the rich was fucking ludicrous.

1/8

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@deech @HeavenlyPossum Takes on the perils of capitalism should be taken with a grain of salt.

I've never heard of “Instant Pot”, and I've never seen one used by my friends either. Being from Romania, this may have something to do with it, but clearly the Instant Pot folks haven't marketed their pot to all potential customers.

Now that I heard of it, I'm seeing plenty of copycats labeled as “multicooker”, from very respectable companies (e.g., Philips, Bosch, Tefal, etc.).

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@deech @HeavenlyPossum I also fail to see how any piece of electronic equipment can survive in a kitchen for more than 3–5 years, tops, given all the heat and humidity. Or any pot, actually, b/c of scratches, or chemical agents in cleaning products. People claiming a long lifetime for certain products must not use their kitchen very much.

The truth is, we may never know why certain companies fill for bankruptcy. Cloning is only a matter of time, and maybe the business was mismanaged, too.

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@wststreet While I know what you're experiencing, I tend to disagree with this because comparisons are usually apples to oranges.

For one, appliances made in the 80s and 90s were more mechanical, and less electronic — more durable, simpler, sometimes better, but with fewer features and less efficient. See for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y

But also, the market has been invaded by low-priced appliances, and the issue is higher priced items tend to last more.

@deech @HeavenlyPossum

hakan_geijer, to random

I feel like my feed is everyone arguing that "climate change isn't a personal responsibility, look at these rich assholes and capitalist structures!!!"

My friends, it is both.

Yeah, the rich are causing the most damage, but the so-called western lifestyle of cheap consumer goods, foreign produce, high meat consumption, jetsetting, and a whole lot of other things are absolutely unsustainable as it is much less if that level of luxury was extended to the other 7 billion people on the planet.

You (yes you, personally, the individual) have to cut back, and you have to convince your friends to do the same.

If we applied this to something like basic ass white feminism, it would be like saying "why should I stop being a womanizer when there's period poverty and the glass ceiling?" You have to do the right thing for yourself and others as you simultaneously try to undo the macro or structural injustices.

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@hakan_geijer If you will, for another perspective...

Developed countries have already decoupled growth from CO2 emissions. The biggest growth comes from developing countries.

The real problem, the elephant in the room, is population growth. Africa alone is projected to reach 4 billion if not pulled out of poverty. How green do you think the projected 14 billion people can be?

And what's the time tested way to pull populations out of poverty? It's not taxing the rich, that's for sure.

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@hakan_geijer Ah, I see, I misread you for someone civilized.

I apologize for engaging. Cheers 👋

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@hakan_geijer No, I was thinking about current trends in poverty. Being from Romania, our memories of poverty & subsistence farming are more recent, w/ my grandparents coming from families of ~10 children who lived in poverty.

Industrialization is what's needed for poverty to go down, and Africa is still behind.

It's interesting how racist you are, actually. It might not be intentional, just a side effect of behaving like a petulant child.

simon, to random
@simon@simonwillison.net avatar

OK, who can recommend a domain name registrar that:

  • Is boring and dependable and has a rock solid track record
  • Has a really good UI, including on mobile
  • Supports as many TLDs as possible
  • Isn't likely to get acquired by someone else
  • Ideally supports multiple payment methods as insurance against accidental card expiry

I'd settled on Google Domains... but they just sold themselves to Squarespace! https://9to5google.com/2023/06/15/google-domains-squarespace/

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@simon Namecheap

aral, to climate
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

Whenever someone tells you that the climate crisis is a personal responsibility issue, show them this:

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change

The climate crisis is a billionaires crisis, a trillion-dollar corporations crisis, a capitalism crisis, a systemic inequality crisis.

#climateChange #climateCrisis #climateCatastrophe #climate #corporatocracy #capitalism

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@aral What companies produce those emissions is less relevant than the output, with the real question being if it can be replaced with greener energy.

If fossil fuels are feeding and heating 8 billion people, then shaming the top X companies involved is not only disingenuous but akin to shaming people for existing and for creating the demand.

I find it disingenuous when people don't talk about the elephant in the room.

alexelcu, to random
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

Some people have a clear pattern of:

  1. Crap on other people and solutions to gather attention 💩

  2. Then spread messages of unity and collaboration, to wash away the negative perception of personal brand;

  3. GOTO 1.

The Internet still amazes me.

nurkiewicz, to random
@nurkiewicz@fosstodon.org avatar

Welcome to the XXI century, where changing background to dark in your editor requires a plugin with 45k downloads. And that plugin secretly leaks your metadata: https://blog.checkpoint.com/securing-the-cloud/malicious-vscode-extensions-with-more-than-45k-downloads-steal-pii-and-enable-backdoors/

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@nurkiewicz 👋

The existence of those extensions is regrettable, however VS Code does not require any extensions for auto-switching between light and dark mode, this being baked-in functionality, shipping with decent light & dark themes out of the box.

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/themes#_auto-switch-based-on-os-color-scheme

drahardja, to ai
@drahardja@sfba.social avatar

“The entire case for “AI” as a disruptive tool worth trillions of dollars is grounded in the idea that chatbots and image-generators will let bosses fire hundred of thousands or even millions of workers.

That’s it.”

Yep. Spot on. This is the fundamental reason that #AI is getting so many billions poured into it. It’s the lure of replacing expensive labor with automation. Corporations have endlessly squeezed blood from lower-cost labor and they are salivating at the prospect of getting rid of high-cost labor.

This is unfortunate, because AI has actual uses. As models get more specialized and smaller, I can see AI automating a lot of rote work away at reasonable cost. Unfortunately, the corporate hype is so strong right now it’s muddying all the conversations.

“Google’s AI Hype Circle” by @pluralistic

https://doctorow.medium.com/googles-ai-hype-circle-6158804d1299

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@diesalbla This is an old and unfounded fear since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Karl Marx argued that to maintain profits, companies will increasingly deploy cost-cutting machinery, capitalism relying on an ever-increasing unemployment rate to maintain profits. Which was BS then, and it's still BS now.

The obvious problem is that you can't reconcile such fears w/ actual data, like the trends in unemployment or income rates.

alexelcu, to programming
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

We have static #programming languages that are both adequate for the server-side and can target the client-side (Javascript, WASM, native, etc), such as #Scala, #Kotlin, #Rust, #FSharp, #Typescript.

The biggest advantage of using the same language is that you can share code, starting with the data models, alongside serialization, and parsing/validation rules. The API can thus be easily kept in sync, and a server-side test is also relevant on the client-side.

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

The problem that such #programming languages have is that big corporations practice specialization and horizontal scalability of software development. The client-side is often going to be developed by a different team, possibly in a different repository to avoid conflicts.

And thus we're seeing the roadblock in the adoption of newer programming languages and tools: improvements don't benefit big companies as much as they benefit small teams working with fewer resources.

alexelcu, to opensource
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

Having a domain name and website for your project is great. You don't want #GitHub to own the entire online identity of your project.

But you should stay away from the .io TLD:

  1. It's a country TLD that's disputed, and while it may not go anywhere…
  2. It's getting more and more expensive, which for #FOSS projects is a problem.

The best TLD for FOSS projects is probably the .org TLD.
Or, if stuck on .io, at least pre-pay it for years in advance.

#TLD #domains

gruber, to random
@gruber@mastodon.social avatar

Bluesky is going to skyrocket to mainstream popularity and actually replace Twitter, and Mastodon cannot, because Bluesky is being designed to be simple, fun, and — most importantly — easy to understand.

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

@gruber 👋 good perspective.

OTOH, I can't think of any successful clone of a mainstream product, even if the clone is idealized.

Twitter was loved when it was smaller and not full of US political drama. Problem is that hundreds of millions are no longer a community, but a population, one that can act mean & dumb in crowded online spaces. Compounded by an attention-driven business model.

Twitter was already in decline before Elon; and its competition is actually Facebook.

alexelcu, to internet
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

I no longer want online social networks that are creating proprietary & locked gardens. Out of the old guard, I only have a #LinkedIn account left.

#BlueSky is supposedly interoperable via its “AT protocol”. Thus far, there's only a single instance of it. If #BlueSky really wants to be a good Internet citizen, it should implement #ActivityPub for integrating in the #Fediverse.

If they do it, I see no reason to move. And if they don't, I see no reason to move either.

1/2

alexelcu,
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

Currently, all #BlueSky links are behind a login wall. You can't see what people are posting. I understand this is a beta, but content links should be public. It's the same anti-Internet BS we've come to know from the other social networks.

It's useful to remember that at this point #BlueSky is competing not just with Elon's Twitter, but with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, others too. Quite the crowded space for yet another Twitter-clone, it can't afford to be anti-Internet too.

2/2

alexelcu, to random
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

#ChatGPT may be a glorified Markov-chain system, but the results it produces are impressive nonetheless. The reason may be that it discovered the patterns of human thought.

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/

alexelcu, to rust
@alexelcu@social.alexn.org avatar

#Rust does many things right.

Underappreciated are the curly brackets for delimiting lexical blocks, and the semicolons required for separating statements. Others, like #Java, might seem old-fashioned, yet here's a language from the 2010s adopting conservative syntax.

It removes confusion for the compiler, AND for people reading the code, being easy to type due to IDEs. Like in natural language, punctuation is not clutter.

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