Posts by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
(DIR) Post #Ad6inbG2hCN8pZUV4i by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2023-12-23T17:04:53Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
All I want for #Christmas is a playlist without that annoying "All I want for Christmas" song in it.
(DIR) Post #Ad8fCnwsdZFtvjD8QC by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2023-12-24T15:34:03Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
#Cats #pic from my walk today. Playing in the winter's sun.
(DIR) Post #AdA7tFShj2NrIY5E5Q by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2023-12-25T08:30:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Morning walk #pic
(DIR) Post #AdAJtloMeNAr4tEJSi by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2023-12-25T10:44:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
#Christmas is the holiday reminding us to be more generous and kind, to be more selfless, and to love more. It's also a time to be together with family and friends.May you rest and enjoy your Christmas treats with your loved ones 🎄❤️✝️
(DIR) Post #AdNjGpV8eYv1Dw2oV6 by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2023-12-31T22:00:15Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Happy New Year! 🥳May this be the year we achieve our resolutions 😊#HappyNewYear
(DIR) Post #AdPBcQLTr1BJRxZX8K by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-01T14:52:30Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
“New Year Resolutions”A new year is upon us, and it's customary to make resolutions. The problem with new year resolutions is that we tend to forget them in about a week. So, how to make resolutions that stick?https://alexn.org/blog/2024/01/01/new-year-resolutions/#HappyNewYear #Blog
(DIR) Post #AdPapMFyrgFrO6GPvk by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-01T19:35:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@nuttycom That's somewhat tongue in cheek. During times of food scarcity, having an increased appetite or access to energy-dense food is an advantage. And a healthy appetite is still synonymous to an increased appetite, at least where I'm from.Anyway, I changed it.
(DIR) Post #AdTQX9BOVrgeiYdUbg by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-03T15:58:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
This article does an impressive job in detailing the state of search engines:https://danluu.com/seo-spam/One thing I've noticed is that, due to Quora providing ChatGPT answers, Google is now polluted by ChatGPT, too, and even includes these answers in their “knowledge cards”.Never thought I'd see this happening, but search engines are dying. Unless they drastically take steps to ban all content farms & SEO spammers, but that's hard when incentives aren't aligned with users (ads).
(DIR) Post #AdX4Oer7xlPxz6Xit6 by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-05T10:09:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
#cats #pic
(DIR) Post #Add0gyDsywJT1PiaEy by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-08T06:56:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@KeithC Variables are symbolic names bound to memory locations at runtime. As far as naming goes, mutability isn't required. The requirement is the separation between the name and the memory location.Even with your intuition, `val` in #Kotlin creates variables that cannot change during the lifetime of the variable, but the values can be different b/w lifetimes.Naming them “values” would be incorrect, too, as values refer to the actual objects stored in memory. Also see r-value vs l-value.
(DIR) Post #Add3FraVqIhiUH4Ffc by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-08T07:24:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@KeithC Note that in math or lambda calculus, the variables are basically the function parameters.Lambda calculus may bring clarity, as the variables are basically the symbols needing substitution for β-reduction. And even the “named constants” get defined as variables in a function definition that's immediately applied. Hence, named constants in pure lambda calculus are variables, too.
(DIR) Post #AddHgbqXsLD0qLDMNk by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-08T10:06:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@EdyBolos Given conflicts, if you're not being asked nicely to participate, it goes without saying that you're optional. And you can reject such meetings.It's worth keeping the calendar up-to-date because calendar software searches for empty slots to fit all participants. For example, we have a meetings-free day, and to help people that don't know about it, the whole day is booked in my calendar. Some meetings do happen on that day, but I reject everything that's not an emergency.
(DIR) Post #AddILFBD3RU4PtFvoe by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-08T10:13:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@eed3si9n @SethTisue Turbo Pascal was also my first programming language, learned in school, with which I participated at Olympiads in Informatics.TBF, I wish I had learned C, as Turbo Pascal was limiting, and people using C had an unfair advantage in both performance and ability to allocate arrays larger than 64k. But I loved TP's ability to describe procedures in assembly language, which is how I learned “286 real mode” assembly.Fun times.
(DIR) Post #AdhGjqCbKeOAZB3M80 by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-10T08:14:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@deech Names don't have anything to do with popularity.E.g., Monad is a terrible name, but it's not any worse than Thenable, which is cringy, yet in JavaScript nobody cares how these types implementing “then” are called.https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Promise#thenablesADTs and “sum types” in particular are confusing, as they get defined in contrast to product types, yet langs talk of dictionaries or classes. So languages should just define these in terms of what they already have (e.g. `sealed classes`, or enums).
(DIR) Post #AdhHBevup90TixVt6u by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-10T08:19:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@deech Also, monads are difficult not because of the name, but because managing effects via monads is far from what mainstream languages are doing. To take full advantage of monads, you need an expressive type system that not many static languages have, or because of performance considerations.Monads have been losing to continuations or blocking I/O (AKA “direct style” in FP circles). Changing the name won't matter much, unfortunately, monadic effect systems will remain niche, IMO.
(DIR) Post #Adhtc0OR4BVxISqjoG by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-10T12:21:12Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
"Update NextDNS with a Scala CLI script"Today I was reminded how awesome Scala is for scripting, via Scala CLI. And it goes beyond having “batteries included”.https://alexn.org/blog/2024/01/10/update-nextdns-with-a-scala-cli-script/#Scala #CLI #Snippet #Shell
(DIR) Post #Adi0AAl9d8OJ1D9SMK by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-01-10T16:43:47Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
On Reddit:Q: Is there a `Result` type in Java?A: Use checked exceptions, they are equivalent.Q: Checked exceptions don't play well with lambdas. What to do?A: Wait for a future Java.People are afraid of saying that #Java sucks for working with higher-order functions 🤷♂️
(DIR) Post #AhvJILSXdWpZ2pm2ka by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2024-05-04T21:57:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
He has risen!Happy Easter 🕯
(DIR) Post #Ar6cq3DCsZFsSnGpPM by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2025-02-14T10:04:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I'm a European conservative-liberal, but mostly I'm a human being. Given US politics under the Trump administration, I can no longer use 𝕏 in good faith. My account is now deleted.And given the hostility to EU, you know what time it is:https://european-alternatives.eu
(DIR) Post #AtRGSt9t0GnxDmu74C by alexelcu@social.alexn.org
2025-04-25T04:49:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ricci That's b/c Hetzner is significantly cheaper than Digital Ocean, you can afford more RAM with it, which is sorely needed for hosting Mastodon.It's also a mistake to attribute nationality to these servers. I'm not a German citizen and my instance is hosted at Hetzner. I was initially on Digital Ocean, but gave up due to pricing. I have acquaintances from the US hosting at Hetzner as well.And US shouldn't be compared w/ Germany or France individually, it should be compared w/ whole EU.