prma

Andrew Kelley

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 13:59:01 +0330

Andrew Kelley is the BDFL of the Zig language. He is also one of my favorite thinkers in the space of software ecosystem. He has writte a lot about enshitification.
Andrew Kelley’s blog is the home to many of his writtings.

"Why We Can't Have Nice Software"

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:53:00 +0330

As a young pup in my early twenties, I once held a naively hopeful perspective on those massive entities we call corporations. I foolishly believed that Big-Tech companies actually possessed good intentions. Why would anyone with a choice between a morally satisfying choice and mere pittance of extra profit, go for the latter? Why bear such a guilt for slightly higher profit? So what if Google and Microsoft produced buggy or sub-par products? They probably have bad engineers, and slightly unsavory intentions.

Many years later, and after observing countless fuck ups by corporations, I no longer feel as optimistic about the amount of fault that lies in their intentions as I see perfectly competent software engineers who work in these companies. The hierarchy of these companies incentivizes middle and top-level management to pressure for more and more of these slightly-higher profits. Although the profit may seem proportionally small, it has significant implications for every managerial employee’s career.

Emphasizing the adverse effects of such forces on consumers, Andrew Kelley published an affectionate essay on his blog, called Why We Can’t Have Nice Software, which I highly recommend reading.

Drew Devault

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 16:57:22 +0330

Drew DeVault is a developer, and a blogger. He is famous for creating sway ¹, wlroots ², and SourceHut. He is also developing Hare-lang³ and HeliOS⁴.

Although I do not agree with his choices with regards to programming languages, in any other instance, I find myself in agreement with him. He is probably the closest thing to a profession role-model that I can point to.

Take a look at Drew DeVault’s blog.

A Wayland compositor. ↩︎
A Wayland compistior library. ↩︎
A programming language in the spirit as C. ↩︎
An operating system written in Hare. ↩︎

git-rebase.io

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 16:02:11 +0330

Ever since a while back, I started giving a damn about my Git commits and workflow. Before that, I used git mostly as a tool to push my code to GitHub. However, as soon as I began working with Sourcehut and contributing ¹ to the Pimalaya project, I found myself caring more and more about each commit and the information contained in them.

Doing so, however, can be impractical without using git rebase. git rebase is an amazing tool for organizing and cleaning up commits, as well as organizing a patchset. However, due to its many functionalities, it can be overwhelming to learn from Stack Overflow or random Google searches or using the --help flag.

Drew DeVault created git-rebase.io, which is a great tutorial for learning how to use git rebase -i properly. I strongly suggest trying to run each command and following along with the tutorial, as they can be more concretely learned when you do.

He is the patches I send to the pimalaya project. ↩︎

Phil Karlton

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:49:27 +0330

He is a person that this quote has been attributed to:

There two hard problems in programming

Cache invalidation

Naming things

I declare this quote, the first meme-quote in the history of software-engineering.

Elon Musk

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:43:43 +0330

Elon Musk is a douchebag billionare famous for fucking twitter up, misclaiming that Tesla’s auto-driving modes are safe, advertising NFTs and then jumping out of that sinking ship quicker than any one else, and encouraging workers to go back to work during CoViD.

I don’t have a positive view of him, as you may have guessed. Fuck that guy.

Kent Beck

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:32:19 +0330

Kent Beck is a software engineer he has been associated with Agile manifesto, Extreme programming, and this quote:

Make it work, Make it right, Make it fast.

Although the staggering amounts of misunderstanding of software community of his work are his true legacy.

Poor guy.

Daron Acemoglu

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:18:40 +0330

Daron Acemoglu is an economist, who authured Why Nations Fail. He has a pretty neat theory about why some nations strive, while others hardly can manage. Have you read or seen Lord of the Rings? Natural resources are like the ring: they give you power, but they also curse your existence. Why? Because natural resources make the power of the authorities, independent from people. ¹

I’m definite that Daron did not put his complex theory in these terms. But I think he would have had much more success communicating them if he did. ↩︎

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:13:25 +0330

Mozart is my favorit classical music composer. His works are energetic, and his Operas are moving. I could only imagine what would have been if he lived more than 35 years!

Johann Sebastian Bach

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:03:47 +0330

Bach was a classical music composer ¹. Although I generally like his music, I cannot say that I am a big fan.

You can easily count him as The classical music composer as well, since he probably kicked this classical music thing on. ↩︎

Britney Jean Spears

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 15:52:17 +0330

She is a singer ¹ and a performer. She easily can be counted as a pop-singer. I enjoy her musics, and suggest her Circle album.

At the time of this writing (2024-01-10), there are news of her not returning to the music industry. ↩︎

John Stuart Mill

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 15:38:47 +0330

John Stuart Mill was a Utilitarian philosopher.

Although I count myself a utilitarian, I cannot agree with much of his philosophy, since his version of Utilitarianism included a “quality” parameter. Which means that he discounted pleasures and pains of beings, based on their quality. Here is quote from him that should make this position clear:

It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.

Such a pompous ass!

Jeremy Bentham

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 15:19:17 +0330

Jeremy Bentham is probably ¹ the founder of Utilitarianism ².

I say probably, mostly to account for the fact that his idea is pretty simple, and probably many have followed and advocated for the idea behind utilitarianism with other names. ↩︎
Utilitarianism proposes that “when given the choice, you should do as such that your actions would result in a world that has the least amount of suffering and the greatest amount of pleasure.” ↩︎

Garrett Hardin

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 14:55:23 +0330

Garrett Hardin was a rather influential and controversial philosopher and ecologist. My main interest is his articulation of a phenomenon, named The Tragedy of Commons.

I would like to also emphasize that although I like his paper with the same name on this phenomenon, my interest in him ends there.

Notably, he had a pretty disturbing prescriptive view on immigration policies.

git-send-mail.io

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 18:40:31 +0330

Git is an amazing tool, and a massive one at that. Most of us know and agree about that fact. Sure, there are things that use more interesting approaches to the underlying data structure ¹, but for the most part, Git offers a world of wonder that no other system has.

As it happens, many developers only use a handful of features of Git, which is a shame, since those features fit much better in a workflow that includes more of Git’s features ².

One such feature is git send-email, which I have been using recently to contribute to the Pimalaya project ³. This command lets you send a patch-set ⁴ via email to someone or a mailing list. This is how Linux Kernel development is done and how SourceHut ⁵ works.

However, this workflow is foreign to most developers. Drew DeVault ⁶ created a very nice webpage on git-send-email, which guides you through using this rather amazing command.

I’m referring to Pijul and Darcs. ↩︎
This, of course, is thanks to the mass adoption of GitHub, which, to be frank, offers a workflow that is probably mostly advantageous to absolute beginners in programming and subpar to full-time developers. Although I can see myself being wrong on this point as well. ↩︎
Probably one of my upcoming recommendations. ↩︎
Or a set of commits, if you will. ↩︎
Another one of my upcoming recommendations. ↩︎
Drew co-created SourceHut, which should also connect some dots for you as well. ↩︎

Guilty Pleasures

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 23:27:07 +0330

For a long time, I have been wondering about my guilty pleasures, trying to figure out which pleasure, in particular, I feel guilty about. I think about other people’s answers, looking for things one does not need much practice to enjoy—‘satisfactions of pigs’, as John Stuart Mill would have put it. He famously wrote:

It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.

He argued that the quality of pleasures is much more important than their quantity. Listening to Bach, even if it brings little joy to someone, would always trump the manic joy of attending a Britney Spears concert.

However, as it happens, I am not a Millian. I find that argument bogus. I don’t feel any shame about listening to the cheesiest ’80s music and then complimenting that with Mozart’s Requiem.

Don’t get me wrong. I have a strong sense of guilt. I am a vegan. I help others when I can. And I regularly make life-changing decisions that may not favor my well-being but end up benefiting others. I just have not found many places in my life where guilt and pleasure co-exist.

I figured that my sense of guilt probably sucks every ounce of pleasure from different activities. That theory seemed shaky, at best.

Then, just an hour ago, it hit me. I have been looking in the wrong place. My two guilty pleasures? Fine coffee and fine audio equipment. It might sound quite strange to feel guilty about these. But consider this: My ethical stance in life is firmly rooted in Hedonistic Utilitarianism, which basically means to do whatever it takes to bring the most amount of pleasure and the least amount of suffering to the world. For example, the pleasure I take in eating meat does not surpass the suffering it brings to the animals from which the meat came.

If I have some amount of money, I should spend it in such a way that it creates the most joy in the world. That surely includes myself, but probably a hungry kid on the street could derive much more pleasure from the same amount of money I am spending on headphones and coffee. For sure, these lavish purchases mostly fall under the mid-range products of a European household. But I live in a third-world country, and even with the salary of a developer, they are still more than most people are willing to pay, here. I am ashamed to admit that I enjoy fine coffees and fine headphones.

It turns out, I am a proud pig and an ashamed Socrates.

Honk! Honk!

Fake Nuance

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 21:40:24 +0330

On a daily basis, I express a outrageous opinion about technology. “Apple should abandon Swift altogether and use Rust instead of just dancing around this move,” I once declared. To the best of my knowledge, that is a fair opinion. If I am a fool for thinking this way, then I am a fool. If, instead, I state that all languages have a good reason for being there and express that Swift is something amazing just to avoid sounding foolish, I will be a silent fool, but a fool nonetheless.

At least when my foolishness is expressed, some good Samaritan or an offended opposer might add nuance to my opinions and make me a wiser person than I currently am. In five years, I will be wiser, while the person who chooses to sound wise when they are not will still be a fool.

Taking the fool-forever-road is so ingrained in our polite and technical manner that we don’t think about it much. A rather obvious example of this is when we respond with “It depends” to any technical question. My friend, if you don’t know how to answer the question of “what it depends on” clearly, you are not being nuanced; you are just a fool like the inquirer of the question, hoping that your intuition comes to your rescue when you are held at gunpoint for a decision.

Be a fool once in a while; it is much better than being one all the time.

SOLID is a premature optimization

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 14:04:34 +0330

Honestly, the primary challenge I encountered with complex codebases originated from adhering to SOLID principles. Surprisingly, they appeared to turn the straightforward task of making any changes into a Herculean feat. Introducing numerous cumbersome abstractions also took a toll on performance.

Talk about actual premature optimizations!

I much prefer something like CUPID principles. More information on CUPID

Git For Persistence Layer

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:48:21 +0330

I’m entertaining with the idea of making a personal webserver that uses git instead of a database. Yet i don’t have any idea how well such a thing would work. More importantly, I’m not sure about the API. Perhaps instead of using the standard REST, I could use Telegram or Matrix instead of creating a whole front end.

Holidays For Rustaceans

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:41:06 +0330

For Rust developers, the passion stems from a combination of 10% performance, safety, and tooling. The remaining 90% is the bliss of holidays free from on-call disruptions.

Uses

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 13:08:00 +0330

Softwares

These are the softwares that I use.

Low Opacity means that it is used as a fallback option.

NixOS

as: OS
for: Desktop

Foot

as: Terminal
for: Desktop

Wezterm

as: Terminal
for: Desktop
note: Much heavier than foot. Uses a lot of ram and is not as stable. But works well as a fall back.

Helix

as: Text Editor
for: Desktop

Neovim

as: Text Editor
for: Desktop

Fuzzel

as: Application Launcher
for: Desktop

i3status-rust

as: Status Bar
for: Desktop
note: For SwayWM

Waybar

as: Status Bar
for: Desktop
note: for RiverWM

SwayWM

as: Window Manager
for: Desktop

RiverWM

as: Window Manager
for: Desktop
note: I love river, but it lacks stability and documentation around working well with systemd.

Firefox

as: Browser
for: Desktop

Tmux

as: Terminal Session Manager
for: Desktop
note: It works really great. But I cannot say that I love the UX.

Zellij

as: Terminal Session Manager
for: Desktop
note: It is much less mature than Tmux. But it is getting there. Offers much better defaults.

Yazi

as: File Manager
for: Desktop
note: New and immature. But I like it.

nnn

as: File Manager
for: Desktop
note: Reliable, fast and sane. However, there are some condecention in the tone of its maintainers.

lf

as: File Manager
for: Desktop
note: Delightfully good. Which uses a client-server model. However, it will need a lot of configurations.

Fish

as: Interactive Shell
for: Desktop
note: For interactive use. It is also getting faster and faster everyday.

Nushell

as: Interactive Shell
for: Desktop
note: I have high hopes for this one, but it still has a lot missing.

Zsh

as: Interactive Shell
for: Desktop
note: Works well. But it takes a lot of work to be usable for me.

Android

as: OS
for: SmartPhone
note: I absolutely hate both android and iOS.

Kiwi

as: Browser
for: SmartPhone

SourceHut

as: Code Forge
for: Web
note: Definitely much less bull-shit driven than others. It is well decentralized and uses git the way it was intended to. This blog is also hosted there.

Codeberg

as: Code Forge
for: Web
note: Good enough. But not as still adheres to the GitHub-way of interaction.

Github

as: Code Forge
for: Web
note: Mostly because everyone assumes it.

Kagi

as: Search Engine
for: Web

Feedbin

as: Feed Reader
for: Web

Hugo

as: Static Site Generator
for: Everything
note: This blog is made powered by Hugo.

Migadu

as: Email
for: Everything
note: This is probably the best service for email, if you have a domain name for it.

ProtonMail

as: Email
for: Everything

Pass

as: Password Manager
for: Linux
note: I love this one, but it is far from multiplatform.

Proton Pass

as: Password Manager
for: Everything
note: I started with Bitwarden, but it UX was absolutely horrible.

Fosstodon

as: Micro-blogging
for: web

Rust

as: Programming Language
for: Everything
note: I use it for everything, from back-ends, to quick scripts. Though the last one is counter intuitive.

Go

as: Programming Language
for: Everything
note: My first programming language. Simple. But not as reliable as I like. A lot of calls because of nil pointers on my weekends.

Matrix

as: Chatting
for: Everything
note: Buggy clients and weird protocols. Still, I wished I could use XMPP instead.

Telegram

as: Chatting
for: Everything
note: Centralized. But most of my friends are on it. Also, the applications are magnificent.

Hardware

These are the Hardwares that I use.

Low Opacity means that it is used as a fallback option.

Dell XPS 13 7390

as: Desktop
note: I love this thing. I got it second hand. It is fast and it is light. The Full HD monitor is just beautiful and the keyboard is excellent. Also, I am not pained with proprietory drivers, at every corner.

KZ ZS10 PRO X

as: Earphone
note: Amazing clarity of sound. I absolutely love this pair.

Redmi Note 10 Pro Max

as: SmartPhone
note: I hate it. Xiaomi has started enshitifying it, adding adds and removing options to remove their so called enhancements, at every update. I hate it.

Miscellaneous

The rest of things that I use.

Low Opacity means that it is used as a fallback option.

Monaspace

as: TypeFace
note: Excellent superfamily of fonts. I mainly use Argon for non-italic, and Radon for the italic text.

Lotion

as: TypeFace
note: Works great. But a bit limiting.

Maple mono

as: TypeFace

Catppuccin

as: ColorScheme
note: Not the best thing ever, but has a good support range. And consistency is important to me.

RosePine

as: ColorScheme
note: I love the look much better than Catppuccin, especially on older monitors with less contrast. But hues lack a bit.

Perma

as: Name
note: Not given, nor legal. But I strongly prefer it.

Amirhossein

as: Name
note: Legal. Given. Use it if you must. But I prefer Perma.

They/Them

as: Pronouns
note: I don't mind if you use any other pronouns. I will respect yours. But I wished language was gender-neutral.

English

as: Spoken Language
note: I journal in it, I work with it, I read with it. I prefer it.

Farsi

as: Spoken Language
note: My Mother Language. I am not crazy about it, though.

German

as: Spoken Language
note: I am very begginer in it. A1. But I am actively learning it.

Metric

as: Measurement standard
note: I mean, it makes sense.

Popularization of The Wrong Thing

Sun, 05 Nov 2023 18:11:55 +0330

There are people who proudly declare:

I used to like X, but then it became popular, so I don’t like it anymore.

I fucking hate these people. What a bunch of douchebags. Do you consider yourself superior to others?

However, there are circumstances where I believe that this perspective is valid and can be seen as a positive stance to take.

The Adventurer

There is a group of people who enjoy uncovering unknown valleys, experiencing them, and staying committed until they reach a more popular stage. They relish the thrill of discovery and take pleasure in popularizing things.

One such group is comprised of individuals who embrace emerging programming languages, with Zig and Nim serving as good examples. Some of them thrive in the startup scene, where they are comfortable taking risks and making decisions that have a tangible impact. However, in a more stable environment, when things become mainstream, their services are no longer required. Their advocacy and contributions are graciously acknowledged, and they happily move on to the next cutting-edge endeavor—a clean break.

The Adventurer’s Friend

Similar to the first group, there are individuals who relish spending time in less mainstream communities. It’s true that you can always find individuals with egotistical tendencies in these non-mainstream groups, as they seek to exert authority over others. However, there are also truly brilliant people who are dedicated to their craft, and they are both driven by their passion and drive the development of their crafts. You might encounter them later on as they become giants in their fields, but at that point they may become too preoccupied to engage with people they don’t already know.

These communities are incredibly dynamic and enjoyable. Your actions can influence the trajectory of the entire community’s existence.

The Misunderstood

The reason for this post is that I’ve recently found myself in this group.

If you delve into any modern art history book, you’ll encounter fascinating descriptions of abstract art. Its intended message is simple, in contrast to figurative art, which aims to depict tangible subjects. Abstract art seeks to convey emotions without adhering to reality, much like instrumental music. The history of abstract art is marked by experimentation and truly impressive works, both technically and emotionally.

However, if you search for abstract art on most art trading websites or social media, what you’ll discover is a type of decorative art. It experiments with various elements but often lacks novelty. Nevertheless, it can add exceptional charm to your hallway’s wall. This is a valid art form that enriches the world. However, for those seeking experimental abstract art that conveys emotions like hatred or sorrow, it’s increasingly challenging to find it because the more popular usage of the term ‘abstract art’ leans toward the decorative.

However, what recently placed me in this group was not the above. Instead, it was a few years ago when I fell in love with a genre of music called Lo-Fi. Lo-Fi music is a genre with a nostalgic approach to music, incorporating background noises from phonographs, sound clips from old movies, and yet embracing contemporary techniques. Apps like Loffee perfectly capture this kind of music for me.

Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, Lo-Fi has been used interchangeably with chill-hop ambient music. Most people use it as background music during their focus sessions, and you might hear it in coffee shops and YouTube videos. The famous Lofi Girl YouTube channel also features music that I can only describe as ambient chill-hop. If you search for Lo-Fi music, you’ll predominantly find that genre, which saddens me because I spend hours searching for music in my favorite genre, only to encounter ambient music.

Dear Readers…

The reason for my post is to ask if you are aware of any good sources for the Lo-Fi music I’m searching for. If you do, please reach out to me.

If, by chance, I discover a reliable source, I will update this post below this line.

Diversity Quotas

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 15:01:33 +0330

Honestly, I cannot say that diversity quotas are radical feminism; or in any terms extreme. Especially since they are implemented in societies that have endured thousands of years of cultural, institutional, and governmental oppression of women and minorities, which, we have yet to witness significant progress in achieving true equality for these oppressed groups.

Equal opportunity does not entail placing the food on top of the trees and then asserting that the whale just didn’t take it while the chimp did.

Python And NixOS

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 11:03:07 +0330

The problems surrounding Python programs on NixOS seem never-ending. I often have to refrain from installing most Python programs. On each update, another one of them breaks during installation – either their tests don’t pass, or their dependencies fail in some way.

And to be honest, I give the benefit of the doubt to NixOS, seeing its result with other languages, and knowing what I know about pip.

Test of 10x Developer

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 23:10:00 +0330

The true test of 10x developer is that you put two of them together, each debugging each others code, then you if they kept their 10x status, they are the true 10x developer. My guess would be that their population will reduce to less than that of unicorns'.

Usage Restriction of Software Licenses

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 23:05:00 +0330

Please think twice before saying, usage restriction is good because you might want to prevent someone from using your tool for war, crime, etc.

Like, you know that a poorly enforced license won’t deter a person in that situation from using your software, right?

There are probably better arguments for including usage restrictions in a software license; this one is a terrible one.

Centralization Around GitHub