Last Friday the internet was rocked with the discovery of an exploit in xz-utils that was not only well-put-together technically, but also an example of extremely effective long game social engineering. I could share my opinions, but the takes I’ve seen have actually been fairly nuanced and thoughtful, if (justifiably!) pessimistic, from people with more experience and more familiarity than I have.
So instead I did this. Which, if you recognize the title, is exactly what you think it is.
This has come up several times on the forums over the years, but I’ve never written it up in a standard place, so here it is: There are only three ways to get run-time polymorphism in Swift. Well, three and a half.
I’ve been thinking about different sorts of internet communities, and how they can feel pretty different based on their primary medium. By “community” I mean a group you specifically choose to be part of, a group where you can recognize other “regulars”…a group that feels like a “place” that feels comfortable. Sometimes this is going to be a closed group of friends; other times it’s friends-of-friends that come and go; still others it’s people oriented around a common interest. But as far as text-based online media go, I think they fit into five main categories: Messaging, Chat Rooms, Livestream Chat, Comment Threads, and Forums.