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Is Ruby Still a 'Serious' Programming Language?
Dec. 7th, 2025 08:34 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
slashdot_feedWired published an article by California-based writer/programmer Sheon Han arguing that Ruby "is not a serious programming language."
Han believes that the world of programming has "moved on", and "everything Ruby does, another language now does better, leaving it without a distinct niche.
Ruby is easy on the eyes. Its syntax is simple, free of semicolons or brackets. More so even thanPython — a language known for its readability — Ruby reads almost like plain English... Ruby, you might've guessed, is dynamically typed. Python and JavaScript are too, but over the years, those communities have developed sophisticated tools to make them behave more responsibly. None of Ruby's current solutions are on par with those. It's far too conducive to what programmers call "footguns," features that make it all too easy to shoot yourself in the foot.
Critically, Ruby's performance profile consistently ranks near the bottom (read: slowest) among major languages. You may remember Twitter's infamous "fail whale," the error screen with a whale lifted by birds that appeared whenever the service went down. You could say that Ruby was largely to blame. Twitter's collapse during the 2010 World Cup served as a wake-up call, and the company resolved to migrate its backend to Scala, a more robust language.
The move paid off: By the 2014 World Cup, Twitter handled a record 32 million tweets during the final match without an outage. Its new Scala-based backend could process up to 100 times faster than Ruby. In the 2010s, a wave of companies replaced much of their Ruby infrastructure, and when legacy Ruby code remained, new services were written in higher-performance languages.
You may wonderwhy people are still using Ruby in 2025. It survives because of its parasitic relationship with Ruby on Rails, the web framework that enabled Ruby's widespread adoption and continues to anchor its relevance.... Rails was the framework of choice for a new generation of startups. The main code bases of Airbnb, GitHub, Twitter, Shopify, and Stripe were built on it.
He points out on Stack Overflow's annual developer survey, Ruby has slipped from a top-10 technology in 2013 to #18 this year — "behind evenAssembly" — calling Ruby "a kind of professional comfort object, sustained by the inertia of legacy code bases and the loyalty of those who first imprinted upon it." But the article drew some criticism on X.com. ("You should do your next piece about how Vim isn't a serious editor and continue building your career around nerd sniping developers.")
Other reactions...
"Maybe WIRED is just not a serious medium..."
"FWIW — Ruby powered Shopify through another Black Friday / Cyber Monday — breaking last year's record."
"Maybe you should have taken a look at TypeScript..."
Wired's subheading argues that Ruby "survives on affection, not utility. Let's move on." Are they right? Share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments.
Is Ruby still a 'serious' programming language?
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Cultivated Cream of the Comedic Cat Crop Made of 27 Meowing Memes
Dec. 7th, 2025 11:00 amicanhascheezburger_feedCats don't just do comedy - they embody it. They're the floofy philosophers of foolishness, the tiny toe-bean jesters roaming our homes with an air of sophistication… right before falling off a countertop they absolutely meant to fall off. Truly, they are the cultivated cream of the comedic crop: elegant in theory, hilariously unhinged in practice.
Ask any cat parent and they'll confirm that their feline friend is a walking, meowing contradiction. One moment they're perched like a regal meowsterpiece - perfect posture, half-closed eyes, whiskers poised for a Renaissance portrait. The next moment, they're tearing around the living room at mach speed because their own tail "looked suspicious". High art meets chaotic slapstick, and we are merely the witnesses.
There's the dignified loaf who chooses to sit in a box two sizes too small, insisting it's avant-garde interior design. The "intellectual" kitty who studies the mysteries of the universe by blankly staring at a wall for twenty minutes straight. The self-proclaimed comedian cat who bonks their head on the doorframe and looks offended at the door.
This is the essence of cat comedy: intentional or accidental, refined or ridiculous, cats are always serving their funniest selves. And we - devoted feline fanatics - clap at it like the good audience members we are. After all, when the world gets too serious, a little meowing madness is exactly the cultured humor we need.
26 Merry Catmas Memes to Sleigh Your Spirits With Seasonal Silliness
Dec. 7th, 2025 09:00 amicanhascheezburger_feedOnly three weeks until Catmas, feline fam! We hope your bells are jingling and ring-ting-tingaling, too because it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you. That's all our original words, no, don't look it up or Google it. Remember, not everything you read on the internet is true.
But in all seriousness, we're pawsitively pumped for Santa Paws to come. We know that it's a stressful time - the end of the year, mandatory family time, traveling, buying presents, and kids being on break from school, but we're here to bring those vibes back up and get you in the hissterical holiday spirit. How else can we do that except with some festive "Merry Catmas" memes?
If there's one thing we love more than Christmas, it's cats. And if you're reading this, you probably feel the same way. Shake off that stress and fill yourself up with pawsitivity from all these cute cats celebrating Catmas in the only way they know how - with pure sass and silliness. They may pretend like they don't like Christmas, but we all know they do. Even if it's just to accomplish their purrsonal mission of taking down the Christmas tree every year. Everyone needs a goal, right?
The holiday spirit is in the room with us, and it's full of cattos. Enjoy these feline funnies and have a meowy Catmas!
icanhascheezburger_feedIt's finally cold outside. Cold and festive. This is one of our favorite periods of the year for the obvious reasons and for the less obvious ones. Like the fact that this is the best time of year to cuddle under blankets with our cats. We're cold, they're cold, and the two best sources of heat in the house are the blankets and the humans, so we become their favorite napping spots. Of course, as fun as it may be to be inside when it's cold, this is also an important time to keep an eye and an ear out, because outside, there are no blankets for lost kittens to hide under.
And the kitten in this story… considering the cold and the injuries that she had, would not have survived the winter out there alone. Heck, we're not sure she would have survived for a couple more days. But she lucked out. The kitten was found by a dog, and this dog, confused and excited, alerted his pawrents, and they gave her the second chance that she deserved.
C&L's Late Nite Music Club With Freddy Jones Band: 'In A Daydream'
Dec. 7th, 2025 04:00 amcrooks_and_liars_feed
The Freddy Jones band was formed by two friends, Wayne Healy and Marty Lloyd back in 1990.
Former Loyola University classmates Healy and Lloyd created the band in the early Nineties and quickly became a fixture on the college circuit. Encouraged by the positive reaction to their live show, they quickly dropped out of school and hit the road in a dilapidated old van.
"It really wasn't that tough of a decision for me," says Lloyd. "I was majoring in communications by day, and playing music around town at night. Realizing that I was cheating all aspects of my life by not concentrating on any one thing, I decided to do the band full-time." Luckily, the dropouts eased their parents' fears by releasing a self-titled indie album that went on to sell more than 10,000 copies -- just enough to attract the attention of Capricorn Records. Six years, four albums, and an AOR hit later (1993's "In a Daydream"), the Joneses have carved themselves a nice little niche and amassed a loyal and sizeable Deadhead-like following.
The band is celebrating their 30 year anniversary of “In a Daydream.”
New Jolla Phone Now Available for Pre-Order as an Independent Linux Phone
Dec. 7th, 2025 05:34 amslashdot_feedJolla is "trying again with a new crowd-funded smartphone," reports Phoronix:
Finnish company Jolla started out 14 years ago where Nokia left off with MeeGo and developed Sailfish OS as a new Linux smartphone platform. Jolla released their first smartphone in 2013 after crowdfunding but ultimately the Sailfish OS focus the past number of years now has been offering their software stack for use on other smartphone devices [including some Sony Xperia smartphones and OnePlus/Samsung/ Google/ Xiaomi devices].
This new Jolla Phone's pre-order voucher page says the phone will only produced if 2,000 units are ordered before January 4. (But in just a few days they've already received 1,721 pre-orders — all discounted to 499€ from a normal price between 599 and 699 €). Estimate delivery is the first half of 2026.
"The new Jolla Phone is powered by a high-performing Mediatek 5G SoC," reports 9to5Linux, "and features 12GB RAM, 256GB storage that can be expanded to up to 2TB with a microSDXC card, a 6.36-inch FullHD AMOLED display with ~390ppi, 20:9 aspect ratio, and Gorilla Glass, and a user-replaceable 5,500mAh battery."
The Linux phone also features 4G/5G support with dual nano-SIM and a global roaming modem configuration, Wi-Fi 6 wireless, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, 50MP Wide and 13MP Ultrawide main cameras, front front-facing wide-lens selfie camera, fingerprint reader on the power key, a user-changeable back cover, and an RGB indication LED. On top of that, the new Jolla Phone promises a user-configurable physical Privacy Switch that lets you turn off the microphone, Bluetooth, Android apps, or whatever you wish.
The device will be available in three colors, including Snow White, Kaamos Black, and The Orange. All the specs of the new Jolla Phone were voted on by Sailfish OS community members over the past few months. Honouring the original Jolla Phone form factor and design, the new model ships with Sailfish OS (with support for Android apps), a Linux-based European alternative to dominating mobile operating systems that promises a minimum of 5 years of support, no tracking, no calling home, and no hidden analytics...
The device will be manufactured and sold in Europe, but Jolla says that it will design the cellular band configuration to enable global travelling as much as possible, including e.g. roaming in the U.S. carrier networks. The initial sales markets are the EU, the UK, Switzerland, and Norway.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Oxford's Term Of The Year: 'Rage Bait'
Dec. 7th, 2025 02:30 amcrooks_and_liars_feed
Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis
Which terms best represent 2025?
Every year, editors for publications ranging from the Oxford English Dictionary to the Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English select a “word of the year.”
Sometimes these terms are thematically related, particularly in the wake of world-altering events. “Pandemic,” “lockdown” and “coronavirus,” for example, were among the words chosen in 2020. At other times, they are a potpourri of various cultural trends, as with 2022’s “goblin mode,” “permacrisis” and “gaslighting.”
The Anxieties of Full-Body MRI Scans (Not Covered by Insurance)
Dec. 7th, 2025 02:34 amslashdot_feedWashington Post columnist Dana Milbank calls himself "a highly creative hypochondriac" — who just paid for an expensive MRI scan to locate abnormal spots as tiny as 2 millimeters.
He discusses the pros and cons of its "diffusion-weighted imaging" technology combined with the pattern recognition of AI, which theoretically "has the potential to save our lives by revealing budding cancers, silent aneurysms and other hidden would-be killers before they become deadly. "
But the scans cost $2,500 a pop and insurance won't pay. Worse, for every cancer these MRIs find, they produce a slightly greater number of false positives that require a biopsy, with the potential for infection and bleeding and emotional distress. Even when the scans don't produce a false positive, they almost always come up with some vague and disconcerting abnormality.... Will we feel better after viewing our insides? Or will we become anxious about things we hadn't even thought to worry about?
Part of living has always been in the mystery, in not knowing what tomorrow will bring. Now, because of sophisticated imaging, genome sequencing and other revolutionary screening tools, we can have predictability, or at least the illusion of it. But do we want that? The American College of Radiology says we do not. Its still-current 2023 statement says there is not "sufficient evidence" to recommend full-body screening, cautioning that the scan could lead to needless testing and expense. But David Larson, chair of ACR's Commission on Quality and Safety, told me that could change as more data comes in. "When people ask me, 'Would you recommend it?' I would say it depends on your tolerance for ambiguity," he said, giving the example of somebody found to have a borderline aortic aneurysm who is advised to wait and monitor it. If "that won't keep you up at night, then I wouldn't necessarily recommend against it...."
About 1 in 20 gets that dreaded call. A study Prenuvo presented earlier this year of 1,011 participants found that 4.9 percent of scans required a follow-up biopsy. Of those, 2.2 percent were actually cancer, and the other 2.7 percent were false positives. Of the 22 cancers the scans caught, 86 percent of patients had no specific symptoms. But if finding something truly awful is rare, finding something abnormal is almost guaranteed. [Vikash Modi, Prenuvo's senior medical director of preventative medicine] said only 1 in 20 scans come back completely clean. The vast majority of patients wind up in the ambiguous realm where something may look suspicious but doesn't require urgent follow-up.
He opted for the cheaper $1,000 torso scan, which the senior medical director calls "our bread-and-butter area," since 17 of the 22 cancers detected in one Prenuvo study were in that area and is where they often find cancers that wouldn't be discovered until they were incurable like "that scary pancreatic stuff...."
Milbank's scan found 12 "abnormalities" included "a 2.5 mm pulmonary nodule in the right lower lobe" and "a 4.6 mm intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm in the pancreatic tail" — but with 10 abnormalities labeled "minor" (and six being musculoskeletal wear-and-tear problems "I already knew about from the usual aches and pains".)
Even the two "moderate" findings didn't sound that grim when I read on. The "indeterminant lesion" in my lung requires no follow-up, while the thing in my pancreas is "low-risk."... The "most interesting" finding was the pancreatic cyst, because, at this size and location, there's a 3 percent chance it will become cancerous in the next five years. But if annual follow-up scans of my pancreas (covered by insurance) show it's getting bigger, the cyst can be removed before it becomes cancer. For me, this made the MRI worthwhile. Sure, there was a 97 percent likelihood the cyst never would develop into a problem even if I hadn't learned about it. But now, with minimal inconvenience, I can eliminate that 3 percent risk of getting pancreatic cancer, the most lethal of major malignancies.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
21 Wild Pictures of Cats Pawtying Through Caturday Night
Dec. 6th, 2025 05:00 pmicanhascheezburger_feedCats go absolutely feral when Caturday night rolls in. The moment it gets dark, they decide it's time for a full-blown house party no one invited them to. One is zooming around like a furry comet, another is jumping on shelves they definitely shouldn't be on, and a third is yelling like the DJ just played their favorite song. It's pure, unfiltered chaos and they love every second of it.
Snacks become party fuel the second a treat bag is spotted. Toys get launched across the floor, water bowls become splash zones, and someone always chooses violence with a plant. Their dance moves? Completely unmatched. One cat crab-walks dramatically, another attempts a backflip, and someone is doing dizzy spins like they're chasing invisible strobe lights.
By the time sunrise hits, the pawty crew is passed out wherever they landed, looking sweet and innocent. And somehow, they expect you to believe they weren't the ones who hosted the wildest event of the weekend.
Trump Admin Deadnamed Trans Health Leader’s HHS Portrait
Dec. 7th, 2025 01:00 amcrooks_and_liars_feed
Not content with just sabotaging Americans’ health, HHS Secretary Robert “Brainworm” Kennedy's department has now sabotaged a portrait of a former HHS leader.
Adm. Rachel Levine, who served as President Biden’s assistant secretary of health for four years, was the first transgender person to win Senate confirmation, NPR reported. In the building that houses HHS, Levine’s portrait was part of a line of portraits of all the leaders of the Public Health Corps at the HHS. Her portrait has been displayed there since her 2021 confirmation, NPR noted.
But during the recent government shutdown, Levine’s portrait was altered and now displays her previous name.
NPR asked HHS who made the change and why. In response, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote: "Our priority is ensuring that the information presented internally and externally by HHS reflects gold standard science. We remain committed to reversing harmful policies enacted by Levine and ensuring that biological reality guides our approach to public health."
Not a single American’s health will be improved by this deliberate effort to denigrate and humiliate Levine.
Become a genius at plants for $15
Dec. 6th, 2025 10:00 pmboingboing_feed
TL;DR: Recognize and understand plants with Plantum AI Plant Identifier for only $14.97 with code GROWS (MSRP $59.99). Offer ends Jan. 11 at 11:59 p.m. PST.
With no subscription needed, you can access plant identification and professional plant care assistance directly from your phone. — Read the rest
The post Become a genius at plants for $15 appeared first on Boing Boing.
icanhascheezburger_feedTwo months ago, a simple visit to the shelter turned into something completely unexpected. A 19-year-old tuxedo cat had been brought back after being adopted two years earlier, and he was making sure the entire building knew how he felt about it. Despite his age, missing teeth, dementia, and kidney issues, he strutted around the visitor room with surprising energy, meowing like an old man who had seen too much and had plenty to say about it. The moment he started rubbing against everything and hopping onto the furniture, it was impossible not to fall for him. Hearing that he'd been dumped again made the choice even clearer, and a promise to return the next day quickly became a forever decision.
At home, he settled in with enthusiasm. His little adjustment area lasted about a day before he decided he preferred sleeping curled up next to his new person. Watching him blossom has been pure joy. He's eating well, gaining weight, rediscovering toys, and talking about everything that happens.
Life is simply brighter with him around. He brings laughter, comfort, and so much purrsonality, and he's made his home feel warmer than ever.
Why conservatives are obsessed with this bad college essay
Dec. 7th, 2025 12:00 amdailykos_feedExplaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.
Conservatives have spent the last week grousing about the academic merits of an obscure college essay, a topic that right-wingers historically show little interest in. But in this case, the story isn’t really about college or academia or essays but is instead about yet another front in the right’s never-ending culture wars and an attempt to bully another minority group.
University of Oklahoma junior Samantha Fulnecky has alleged that her First Amendment right to religious freedom is being infringed after her psychology professor gave her an “F” for a paper on the gender norms of middle school students.
Fulnecky, a conservative Christian, used her essay to attack transgender existence. She cited the Bible and said that “eliminating gender in our society would be detrimental, as it pulls us farther from God's original plan for humans.” Fulnecky argued that “society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic.”
Mel Curth, the graduate teaching assistant who graded Fulnecky’s paper, gave the student a failing grade. Curth, who is a trans woman, wrote that the problem was not with the student’s personal views but because her essay “does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive.” A second instructor agreed with Curth’s findings.
After Fulnecky filed a complaint with the school, the right-wing grievance industry went to work.
Turning Point USA is a college-based pressure group created by deceased racist and conservative activist Charlie Kirk to push right-wing ideology on college campuses. The group, which itself has a long history of hiring bigots, attacked Curth in a social media post.
“We should not be letting mentally ill professors around students,” the group wrote, supporting Fulnecky’s bigoted worldview.
The school launched a review of Curth and removed her from her position in response to the controversy.
One of the major promoters of the campaign against Curth was Fox News, who featured the story in multiple segments and hosted Fulnecky for an interview. On the network the interview was advertised as “Trans Instructor Fails Student Over Gender Essay.”
The framing of the interview gives up the tactic at play.
Fulnecky is the sort of telegenic conservative figure that the right-wing outrage machine loves to amplify. Conservatism is at a period of extreme strength at the moment—with Republican control of the White House, Congress, and Supreme Court, along with state governorships and legislatures. But the right loves to play victim.
The college student purportedly standing up for “Christian values” against academia, even in very conservative Oklahoma, is too good to resist.
The story dovetails almost perfectly with the Trump administration’s assault on institutes of higher learning, defunding important research and shaking down colleges for money in exchange for suppressing speech and admissions.
Related | Trump administration steps up its heinous war on trans people
The academic merits of Fulnecky’s essay are immaterial to the battle at hand. Instead she has been portrayed as an innocent under attack for holding conservative beliefs, which the right has asserted are fundamental American values—even if that means relegating transgender people to second-class citizenship.
The conservative machine is constantly searching for stories like that that tick all of the right’s preferred boxes. They are a way of keeping conservative activists and voters at a fever pitch, ready to turn out to vote—even when leaders they elect like Trump are failing on an array of issues.
The right would much rather have these voters intensely obsessing over a purported victim of “liberal” academia than investigating why food prices are up or why their neighbors are being abducted and harmed.
Focusing on the instructor’s gender identity adds to the right’s strategy of villainizing practically everyone who isn’t a straight white man. This allows the focus to be shifted from individuals and institutions negatively affecting their day-to-day living, be that Republicans in Congress or business leaders, and toward the “other” that they have demonized.
This type of campaign is a major contributing factor to the far-too-pervasive callousness that conservatives have for minorities, which can lead to death and neglect.
Conservatives and their allies in right-wing media like Fox don’t actually care about academic freedom or free expression at colleges and universities. They don’t care about academic merit, and they certainly don’t care about psychology essays.
What they intensely care about is creating another firestorm that can get them votes and allow them to retain and grow their power. It is a strategy that has worked for decades and continues to operate like a well-oiled machine.