Justin du Coeur

Geek for all seasons, especially #SCA, #LARP, #scifi, #boardgames, #comics.

Avid programmer, focused on #FP #Scala, especially #Typelevel

he/him

Public Key

npub14ahc6nx24adm02eh2yz0zqtmu64xaj4dpc5dyz8mpkvdyyj7nhdsgjh2wj

NIP-05 Address

jducoeur@social-coop.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs27mudfn927kah4vm4zp83q9a7d2nwe2ksu2xjprasmxxjzf0fmkcw27tjm

Author Public Key

npub14ahc6nx24adm02eh2yz0zqtmu64xaj4dpc5dyz8mpkvdyyj7nhdsgjh2wj

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Last Notes

2025-05-07 13:06:17

Just got hit up by a recruiter from #Meta.
I probably don't want to work there anyway, but I might actually respond if the letter didn't *scream* "This was written by an #LLM that was pointed at my LinkedIn profile".
It's just... odd. Weirdly over-enthusiastic, dropping keywords from my background but not really *saying* anything at all despite the verbiage.
Really does nothing to entice me to check it out...

2025-04-10 22:09:01

Today I learned that https://humanstxt.org was a thing. Neat!
https://social.rossabaker.com/@ross/114311764925162585

2025-03-05 16:55:58

Significant #Scala announcement: after years of idle conversation, and a more-focused discussion over the past couple of months, the decision has formally been made to jump Scala 3's requirements up to JDK 17, as of the next LTS release: https://www.scala-lang.org/news/next-scala-lts-jdk.html

2025-02-22 16:44:46

From the current #Pixelfed Kickstarter, but worth a more general shout-out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixelfed/pixelfed-foundation-2024-real-ethical-social-networks/posts/4319823
tl;dr - Pixelfed (which is essentially the primary #Fediverse competitor to Instagram) could use more folks working on it, at many levels.
It's a common story in #OpenSource - almost every project could use help - but Pixelfed's getting to be an important service. If it's in your wheelhouse, consider pitching in!

2025-02-13 22:49:36

I keep saying “It's all about the business plan”. To wit: https://blog.kagi.com/kagi-privacy-pass
tl;dr: since #Kagi’s business plan doesn’t depend on tracking users (indeed, they prefer not to), they now support Tor and Privacy Pass. If you use these features, it's just about impossible for anyone, including them, to track what you are searching on.
I wish we lived in a world where that didn't seem essential, but reality being what it is, it's great to see a company taking privacy seriously…

2025-02-13 17:02:48

Not quite “fake news as a service" yet, but it sounds like we're getting awfully close (and it wouldn't surprise me if somebody has already set their shingle out to do that): https://www.404media.co/email/e998569a-3255-4b48-9e28-45c9f2f9ce09/
I could *almost* respect this if it was really done as absurdist art, but it doesn't go nearly far enough. I suspect that's post-hoc rationalization for why this isn't actually an awful thing to do…
#AI

2025-02-11 19:12:23

Unsurprising but significant item about #AI from @nprofile…ncxj -- https://www.404media.co/email/9d5175a3-2562-4236-9a27-adddffef39dc/
tl;dr: relying uncritically on #LLMs in order to accomplish things appears to weaken one's “cognitive faculties”.
That is, if you offload the thinking to an AI, you wind up out of practice seriously thinking about things. Which, y'know, is probably bad.

2025-01-24 00:28:58

Hah -- a delightful reminder that it is very, very easy to waste #AI companies' money if you are so minded: https://www.404media.co/developer-creates-infinite-maze-to-trap-ai-crawlers-in/
I haven't looked into this particular solution, but the idea is straightforward -- I'm halfway tempted to put something similar together, just to see what happens.
(Now I'm pondering how to make such a thing efficient to run, while taking up maximum crawler cycles…)

2025-01-16 16:04:18

Truly grim bit of analysis from @nprofile…ncxj, on the real-world social implications of #Meta's new wild-west approach to hate speech: https://www.404media.co/meta-is-laying-the-narrative-groundwork-for-trumps-mass-deportations-2/

2025-01-13 23:53:57

Because of course they did -- another day, another bit of evil from #Meta: https://www.404media.co/meta-is-blocking-links-to-decentralized-instagram-competitor-pixelfed/
On the plus side, if Meta is so afraid of the #Fediverse that they're hard-blocking Pixelfed, that suggests we're doing something right around here…

2025-01-08 02:14:36

Okay, so #Meta has declared publicly that they are following #Xitter down the road to hell.
I haven't used the feed there in years, but a bunch of my communities still run there -- FB Groups became the default as Yahoo gradually died.
So the question is, what are the alternatives? IMO it's clearly time to get the hell out of Dodge -- that means it's time to figure out, with some clear reasoning, where to go instead…

2025-01-07 23:42:21

Just in case it wasn't 100% obvious that #Facebook has consciously decided to follow the lead of Xitter, now this drops.
The only reason I use it at all any more is because some of my communities use Groups there. It's getting past time for us to all figure out how to start seriously migrating…
https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:o4pdps2jkn7uhrdgadni7djk/post/3lf6hbcc3qc2i

2025-01-07 14:01:29

@nprofile…qz4x is back with a new novel, firmly anti-enshittified as usual (yay for supporting Libro.fm, which is where I now get most of my audiobooks), about the early days of enshittification: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/picks-and-shovels-marty-hench-at-the-dawn-of-enshittification
Apparently already done, so this looks to be one of the fastest-turnaround Kickstarters I've seen. Check it out!

2025-01-01 22:03:45

For the #SCA cooks and others into #cooking #history: just came across this tasty-sounding reconstruction of Savillum, which is (basically) Roman cheesecake -- https://fluentisonus.tumblr.com/post/181570264430/making-cato-the-elders-savillum

2024-12-23 17:13:10

A small story of #enshittification, and fighting back against it: https://mynoise.net/blog.php
It reminds me of one of the ways in which #Mastodon fails to be as powerful as Xitter: it's not as good at publicly calling out bad actors, and actually getting them to notice. That's not a small thing - being able to name and shame corporations effectively matters a lot in the modern public square.
Are there ways we could improve this? I'm not sure there are, but it’s worth contemplating…

2024-12-19 17:09:20

Actual data continues to show that #RTO mandates are counter-productive and bad for companies: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/return-to-office-mandates-how-to-lose-your-best-performers/
IMO, smart investors should be punishing companies whose CEOs believe more in their own (usually irrational) preference for Butts in Chairs than the do the documented facts.
Plain and simply, if you *need* an RTO mandate, that's often an indicator that there's something wrong with the company…

2024-11-30 22:50:07

Some interesting thoughts about the differences between #Bluesky and #Mastodon from a protocol point of view, and specifically in terms of the different ways they think about the graph: https://benlog.com/2024/11/17/who-owns-the-graph/

2024-10-12 01:37:45

Having installed the #Kagi app, I'm now well and truly sick of being forced to waste #Android home page space on the stupid Google search bar.
So: for those of you who have chosen alternative Android launchers, which one did you go for, and why? There seem to be a bunch of alternatives, and I'm looking for thoughts…

2023-11-30 14:47:02

Another useful article from YLE, this time on the subject of #Covid “immunity debt”: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/has-covid-messed-with-our-immune

2023-10-05 16:49:04

Sooo -- javadoc.io has been down for a couple of days, and so far I've seen no information about why. I'm concerned about maxcellent (the owner of the site), but in the meantime, looking for suggestions:
What are the best alternatives to javadoc.io, particularly for #Scala development? I’m realizing that I use that site a dozen times a day, and I don't know offhand how to most conveniently access the scaladoc for the (many) libraries I care about…

2023-07-09 15:57:52

Back from #Pinewoods, catching up on email, and I find that this book is now done! https://www.manning.com/books/functional-programming-in-scala-second-edition
This is the new edition of "The Red Book": #FunctionalProgramming in #Scala. It's a serious course in FP, and well worth a deep read.
It's not for Scala beginners (start with something easier), and it takes a good while to get through (you should do the exercises!), but it's hugely educational.
Recommended to all #programmers who want to keep their skills sharp - check it out!