msgilligan

I think a fork with a mission to aggressively rewrite the kernel into Rust would be a great experiment. Lessons learned could be applied to the more mainstream C/Rust kernel(s).

Has anyone done that?

For those interested in the rationale for the simplified main methods (and the rationale for not simplifying further), the relevant JEP is a good read.

JEP 495: Simple Source Files and Instance Main Methods (Fourth Preview) https://openjdk.org/jeps/495

The parent article mentions and links JEP 477 -- the 3rd preview of the same feature-set. JEP 495 is the 4th preview and is included in JDK 24 which is in "stabilization" mode for release in March 2025.

I agree that for experienced programmers working on large projects a little bit of verbosity around `main` is insignificant. But first impressions matter, especially when there is pervasive word of mouth about "verbosity".

Pretend you are a college student and you are taking your first programming class (e.g. CS 1) and your friends have told you that Java is "verbose". You start with "hello world" and you have to type `public static void` etc. One of your friends shows you the same code as a Python 1-liner.

Or similarly you're a beginning programmer in the workforce and your employer asks you to solve a problem using Java. You've heard Java is verbose and when you start with "hello world" you find that what you heard was true.

This is not a non-existent/minuscule audience. They should have fixed this decades ago. Better late than never.

I've been impressed with the modernization of Java over the last 10+ years. Simplifying "hello world" is a minor change relative to the others, but still an important one.

Yes. Definitely already needs a second edition. I would happily buy it.

Ruthlessly rooting for rootless!

systemd-nspawn might be what you are looking for: https://wiki.debian.org/nspawn

It's almost 40 years since it was published and almost as long since I read it, but The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins [1] has a chapter or section about echolocation in bats that I found fascinating.

As I recall, it talks about how the scientists who discovered echolocation were initially laughed at (the greatest human engineers had just invented radar, how could the bats have evolved it?), how echolocation may have evolved stepwise, some of the specific physiological adaptions, and included some speculation about what kind of cognitive maps would be required within the bat's brain.

I don't know how well the science in that section holds up 40 years later, but it was beautifully written for the layman and was fairly high-level. If you're interested, I would definitely recommend taking a look.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Watchmaker

I've been using Nix on macOS for almost a year. The good (and bad) thing about Nix is that it supports many different use cases, so you have to spend some time understanding the options before you can even figure out which flavor to install.

A good way to get started is to start using Nix to replace/supplement Homebrew. You can install Nix in addition to Homebrew and have some packages installed by one and some by the other. You can uninstall a Homebrew package and then reinstall it with Nix. You can even remove it with Nix and go back to Homebrew if you like.

I would generally recommend the following:

1. Use the Determinate Systems Nix installer, see https://zero-to-nix.com/start/install

2. Use "Flakes" (unfortunately the core documentation isn't updated for flakes)

3. Use "Home Manger" -- I would recommend the Flakes-based "Standalone setup": https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/index.xhtml#sec...

I would wait on nix-darwin until you are sure you need/want it. (I have recently started using it for its support of the `linux-builder` feature, but not everyone needs that.)

As a software developer who uses macOS to develop for Linux, it is a great tool and I cautiously recommend it to those who are willing to deal with some learning curve and frustration.

I haven't yet used nix-darwin enough to make a recommendation one way or another. (But the `linux-builder` feature is compelling if you need it: https://nixcademy.com/posts/macos-linux-builder/)

Asahi M4 support and 3rd-party SSD upgrades[1] will result in me buying an M4 Mini. Glad to hear that Nix works well on Asahi!

[1] https://wccftech.com/m4-mac-mini-ssd-already-modded-to-2tb-s...

There is at least one way to do it: https://cheerpj.com/cheerpj-applet-runner/

Subtitle: From the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever built. Not even a kernel

I'm hoping that is not the case. I signed up in the hopes there will be more.

When the whole first paragraph is about how it's not about ideology, it's about ideology.

Java 23 is not final and I'm hoping this JEP makes it into 23:

https://openjdk.org/jeps/401

I don't follow the JEP process closely enough to know if it will be proposed for 23 or approved. But I think it's coming soon.

The submission is a page from r/Buttcoin, a Bitcoin-hater subreddit, with a random screenshot making the $188 for $4.09 complaint.

For those who don't know, Bitcoin on-chain transactions fees are not proportional to the amount sent, and it is common knowledge that $5 on-chain transactions are not practical. There are other solutions for sending smaller amounts.

Fees are currently spiking, but according to mempool.space (as I post this) an average on-chain transaction with ~$10.50 in fees will be confirmed within 30 minutes. See: https://mempool.space for details.

So this is not a very accurate, informative or helpful submission.

> People don't have problem reading try/catch, are used to it, it's already there, semantics match - why complicate things?

We don't have a problem reading try/catch because it comes from an era when Java was more procedural and less functional. "case throws" makes more sense in the functional-style Java era. (Well, makes more sense to me at least)

EDIT: To clarify "catch" is a verb and contains a block of executable statements. "case throws" maps to an expression (because I assume most people writing new code that uses this will be using switch expressions, not switch statements) In this context, "case throws" is a better choice because you are talking about the _expression_ inside the "switch".

"I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."

Regardless of one's political opinion of Ronald Reagan, his letter announcing his Alzheimer's diagnosis is relevant and poignant.

https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/reagans/ronald-reagan/reagans-...

I don't think any EIA officials are _quoted_ in the article. I'm not disputing the 8% figure mentioned.

This looks like fairly breathless, non-critical reporting. (The tagline of Grist is "Climate. Justice. Solutions." which at least implies a motivation for biased reporting.)

The article:

* avoids the question of whether the new washers and dryers will be the same prices as the models they replace.

* does not address whether the new technology will be as reliable as what it replaces or the possibility of additional maintenance costs (extra cleaning, etc.)

* It only quotes what appear to be biased sources (and dismisses opposition as "conservative backlash" and uses the "Fox News" straw man)

My personal experiences with "efficient" appliances have not been positive, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

(minor edits for grammar)

This shouldn't be downvoted. It is a legitimate question and widely held misconception that is addressed in several of the responses to parent.

The owner can control Trustzone if the device is shipped with unfused OTP registers.

On Raspberry Pi for example, you can write the hash of your own public key to locations 47-54 of the OTP memory block:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberr...

Here's the QuickStart for the entire process: https://github.com/raspberrypi/usbboot/blob/master/secure-bo...

Note that the Raspberry Pi does not have a full TrustZone implementation to protect secure mode memory, etc. But it is a widely available device with good documentation and allows developers to experiment with and learn about the basics of TrustZone architecture.

I used MacNosy extensively in the Mac 68k era. Though I haven’t used Ghidra, reading about it reminded me of the fun (and frustration) I had with MacNosy.

I have no doubt Ghidra has a superior overall user interface. But, as memory serves, Nosy had many features specifically for the classic MacOS and ROM that I assume Ghidra lacks.

Well the most significant difference [on macOS or Windows] is you must use a VM (by default Podman Machine) so there can be a Linux kernel to run the containers.

This is a significant limitation that you do not have when running on Linux. As I recall there are some other (related?) features that are not implemented on the macOS.

[edited to reflect that I misread the parent and thought they were specifically asking what was different on non-Linux platforms)

Valid point, but we are decades away from putting the whole world on Bitcoin. In those intervening decades lightning alternatives and/or derivatives will likely be developed that can allow the entire world to use Bitcoin.

The article makes some great points, but it is surprising that the article doesn't mention Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, or even the theoretical possibility of a "digital cash" that mitigates some or all of the issues he identifies.

I personally think that Bitcoin and the Lightning Network (with forthcoming and as-of-yet-undiscovered improvements) is our best long-term alternative to the "unbalanced cashless" society that he rightly fears. I admit I could be wrong about Bitcoin, but the larger point should be that we, as a society, need to allow for options other than what the "banking sector using big tech devices" is offering.

Freedom and the market system are about giving people options. Cash, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies should all be available to consumers. Our right to use cash should be protected and it makes sense for individuals to "vote with their [paper] dollars" to help preserve that option and that right. The same applies to Bitcoin and other "digital cash" systems.

Google "Lightning Network". It allows for "off-chain" transactions that aren't included in the "7 tx/sec" limit.

Lightning network (which admittedly has its own set of flaws) does a reasonably good job of improving privacy and increasing scalability. It's reasonable to assume that Lightning and other "layer 2" technologies will continue to develop if the Bitcoin user-base continues to grow.

Bitcoin and Lightning solve many of the issues in the article and will improve.

As a society we should encourage both the use of physical cash and decentralized cryptocurrency as alternatives to the centralized banking "cashless" system.

Some are saying they'd rather have an x86 for software compatibility reasons, but for those of us with ARM64 Macintosh systems that are building home labs, it's nice to be able to use the same binaries as we use in VMs on our Macs.

It was “National Military Establishment” from 1947-1949.

According to wikipedia, the new organizational structure was created in 1947. In 1949 it was renamed to “Department of Defense”.

(I had just looked this up for my sibling response to parent)

The US Department of Defense has had that name since 1949. From 1789 to 1947, we (USA) had a Department of War. “Defense” probably qualified as “new speak” at the time, but after nearly 80 years almost everyone understands what it means.