A Java Geek weekly 112

A good example of this terrible temptation is the sun.reflect.Reflection.getCaller(int) method. As its name implies, this evil piece returns which class called your current code, letting you tailor your code behavior depending on the calling class. The Dark Side can be seductive indeed!

A set of libraries to help developers implement domain models in distraction-free, plain old Java.

While C and C++ will persist, and both software and hardware safety mechanisms remain critical for layered defense, the transition to Rust is a different approach where the more secure path is also demonstrably more efficient. Instead of moving fast and then later fixing the mess, we can move faster while fixing things. And who knows, as our code gets increasingly safe, perhaps we can start to reclaim even more of that performance and productivity that we exchanged for security, all while also improving security.

Installing an industrial oven in your home kitchen doesn’t turn it into a bakery. It just takes up space, consumes more power, and complicates your routine. But a clay oven in a small corner shop? Simple, purposeful — enough to bake bread daily. It is a bakery. The same applies to software. You can stack layers, interfaces, and abstractions everywhere — but if none of that serves your context, you’ve simply built a heavy technical burden.

AI absolutely has a place in a developer’s toolbox. I use ChatGPT or Cursor’s Ask mode daily - to brainstorm, debug, or get unstuck on smaller problems. Tab completions? They’re right about 80% of the time, which is good enough to keep them on. I even let AI handle things like writing unit tests for clean interfaces or refactoring small snippets. Wrapping a loop in Promise.allSettled is boring for me - but trivial and instant for AI. It’s also great at recreating well-known patterns from scratch - like traversing a tree structure.

And sure, maybe one day AI will truly handle everything it’s being credited with today (whether that’s LLMs or something beyond them).

But we’re not there yet - and more people are starting to admit it.

Nostr is an apolitical communication commons. A simple standard that defines a scalable architecture of clients and servers that can be used to spread information freely. Not controlled by any corporation or government, anyone can build on Nostr and anyone can use it.

When a peripheral belief was challenged, something the person believed but wasn’t core to their identity, the brain’s reasoning centers activated normally. Participants could consider the evidence, weigh the arguments, and sometimes even change their minds.

But when an identity based belief was challenged, the brain responded as if under physical attack. The amygdala, your threat detection system, the same system that fires when you encounter a predator or a physical danger, activates immediately. The insular cortex, which processes emotional pain and disgust, lit up with activity. Most tellingly, the brain’s Default Mode Network, the system that maintains your sense of self and personal narrative, went into defensive mode, working to protect the existing identity rather than evaluate the new information.