Alexandru Nedelcu
LightNews LightNews
banner
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu
@alexn.org
1.2K followers 170 following 550 posts
Software developer, FP, Scala, Kotlin, Java / JVM, Haskell, Rust; contributor to https://alexn.org, https://monix.io, https://typelevel.org. 🌍 Bucharest, Romania https://alexn.org/about/
alexn.org,
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 17d
I'm changing (again) how I use social-media. This account is now write-only, meant for publishing links to my website:

alexn.org

I will not be reading comments on my published links, either. Comment on my blog if you want to say hi and have opinions.
Alexandru Nedelcu
On programming and personal projects
alexn.org
5
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 20h
“Scala 3 / No-Indent”

Scala 3 came with “significant indentation”. And I still dislike it, despite trying hard, so I'm switching back to braces.

#Languages #Programming #ProgrammingRant #Scala #Scala3

alexn.org/blog/2025/10...
Scala 3 / No Indent
Scala 3 came with “significant indentation”. And I still dislike it, despite trying hard, so I’m switching back to braces.
alexn.org
2 3 9
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 1d
"Scala 3 / Match Types"

Scala has a neat new feature, resembling TypeScript's "conditional types", but more powerful.

#Languages #Programming #Scala #Scala3 #TypeScript

alexn.org/blog/2025/10...
Scala 3 / Match Types
Scala has a neat new feature, resembling TypeScript’s “conditional types”, but more powerful.
alexn.org
1 5
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 5d
On how I'm using GitHub's Copilot in Agent mode for yak shaving, evolving my Jekyll-powered website for rendering mathematical formulas by SVG images, instead of heavy JavaScript:

alexn.org/blog/2025/10...

#AI #Blogging #Jekyll #SelfHosting
Update on Math Formulas via Copilot
On programming and personal projects
alexn.org
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 11d
"Math Pill #2: Square Roots"

Simplifying radicals is strangely satisfying.

alexn.org/blog/2025/10...

#Math #Learning
Math Pill #2: Square Roots
Simplifying radicals is strangely satisfying.
alexn.org
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 11d
“Math Pill #1: Sums”

#Learning #Math
alexn.org/blog/2025/10...
Math Pill #1: Sums
On programming and personal projects
alexn.org
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 13d
“Outsourced Voices, Outsourced Minds”

We are not machines, or automatons. We were fooled, but we can fight back. Don't let algorithms control your thoughts and actions.

alexn.org/blog/2025/10...

(Note: I'm not replying to comments on Bluesky, comment on my blog instead)
Outsourced Voices, Outsourced Minds
We are not machines, or automatons. We were fooled, but we can fight back. Don’t let algorithms control your actions, don’t outsource your voice and your thoughts.
alexn.org
2
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 17d
I'm changing (again) how I use social-media. This account is now write-only, meant for publishing links to my website:

alexn.org

I will not be reading comments on my published links, either. Comment on my blog if you want to say hi and have opinions.
Alexandru Nedelcu
On programming and personal projects
alexn.org
5
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 18d
Cancel culture is not the same thing as being banned from an online community for being rude. Internet has a long history of channels poisoned by rude people, starting from Usenet, communities dying by pacifism.

Community owners should just forgo COCs and ban whomever they want.
2
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 19d
Much of that thought leadership is obviously LLM-generated
1
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 19d
REST vs GraphQL
Meme showing a bell curve with GraphQL at the peak and REST at both extremes (low and high IQ), featuring cartoon characters representing each API type.
1 2
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 19d
fightchatcontrol.eu
Fight Chat Control - Protect Digital Privacy in the EU
Learn about the EU Chat Control proposal and contact your representatives to protect digital privacy and encryption.
fightchatcontrol.eu
3
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 19d
“The state” does not represent the people. It's better for individuals to make mistakes; when the state makes mistakes, it's a collective tragedy. The state is never shrinking, it only grows, converging on either fascism or communism.

Politicians understand E2EE, don't assume good intentions.
1 1
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 19d
(Taking “European” out of the sentence)

What if “leaders” do understand how E2EE works?

Consider this: the state is always expanding, it's never shrinking of its own accord. It is in the direct interest of “leaders” to have more power.
1
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 20d
We agree then … law enforcement can just target individuals' phones, and backdooring e2e chat apps is a terrible policy.
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 20d
Sorry, it was a long thread, and I saw red right around when you started talking about banks 🙂
1
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 20d
On Chat Control 👇
alexn.org Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 20d
👋 I'm from Romania, and I was born in communism. Back then, the country was ruled by the secret police and people were paranoid for having their phones tapped or their newborns spying on them. Without privacy there is no democracy.

End-to-end enc makes _mass-surveillance_ impossible, as it should.
1 1
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 20d
Bank transactions? Yes, a big issue for privacy & democracy, as democracy can't be maintained w/o population having the means for civil disobedience.

“High-trust” doesn't happen in authoritarianism. This measure is authoritarian, like Covid-19 lockdowns & others, with fascism as consequence.
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 20d
Steel-manning Chat Control doesn't work, as all arguments for it are emotional BS. Chat Control will expose regular citizens to being hacked by state actors or organized crime, it will incriminate regular family photos, it will censor political speech, like when FB censored “Napalm girl”.
2 4
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 20d
Note that law enforcement can just target individuals, like they often do. And also, bad actors can just find ways to communicate that aren't affected by Chat Control, because you can't ban mathematics, or bits on the Internet, or the ability of criminals to run whatever app they want.
1 1
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 20d
👋 I'm from Romania, and I was born in communism. Back then, the country was ruled by the secret police and people were paranoid for having their phones tapped or their newborns spying on them. Without privacy there is no democracy.

End-to-end enc makes _mass-surveillance_ impossible, as it should.
1 1 4
Reposted by Alexandru Nedelcu
junit.org
JUnit Team 💙💛 @junit.org · 26d
#JUnit 6.0.0 is released!

✨ Java 17 and Kotlin 2.2 baseline
🌄 JSpecify nullability annotations
🛫 Integrated JFR support
🚟 Kotlin suspend function support
🛑 Support for cancelling test execution
⏭️ New `--fail-fast` mode for ConsoleLauncher
🧹 Removal of deprecated APIs

docs.junit.org/6.0.0/releas...
JUnit Release Notes
docs.junit.org
2 75 120
Reposted by Alexandru Nedelcu
antonarhipov.bsky.social
Anton Arhipov @antonarhipov.bsky.social · 24d
Better immutability in Kotlin with Valhalla

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jam...

#kotlin #programming #jvm #jvmls
Better immutability in Kotlin with Valhalla #JVMLS
YouTube video by Java
www.youtube.com
3 12
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 27d
To minimize community drama, pick wildly popular tech with distributed governance, maintained by large, faceless corporations but not fully controlled by a single entity (like Java or Linux, but unlike Microsoft's dotNET).
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · 27d
When anti-#Scala people say “nothing like [drama] has happened in the Java community”, that's only because #Java doesn't have a “community”.

It's like living in a village, where everyone knows each other, versus a city, where you barely know your next-door neighbours 😉
2 2 12
alexn.org
Alexandru Nedelcu @alexn.org · Sep 23
brew install ghostty