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Joshua Bloch

@joshbloch.bsky.social
1.5K followers 100 following 1K posts

Effective Java author, API Designer, CMU Prof, Swell guy.

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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 13h
On a recent trip to Boston, I snapped this picture of a bust of Arthur Fiedler apparently wearing a monocle in his right eye. Except that it isn't! That "monocle" is a piece of exercise equipment behind the trees and across the path. It's an accidental "forced perspective" illusion.
The Arthur Fiedler memorial statue on Charles River Esplanade in Boston, appearing to contain a monocle on the maestro's right eye. But that monocle is entirely illusory. It's an unrelated piece of exercise equipment, some 80 feet behind the statue in an adjacent field.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 18h
We truly live in the stupidest timeline.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 18h
Cindy and I got the spam email for this repulsive (and likely illegal) stunt yesterday. Today we'll take the promised $180 and donate it to organizations that support the candidates he's targeting with this taxpayer-funded bribe: 🗳️ swingleft.org 🗳️ votesaveamerica.com 🗳️ movement.vote Please join us!
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 20h
I think it's quite possible he'll attempt to launch a nuke before his term ends. I wouldn't be shocked if the target were in the continental US, but more likely it will be elsewhere and he'll use it as a pretext for attempting to postpone the 2028 presidential election.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
And my alma mater, Columbia, were the first to come to heel. They had a unique opportunity to lead the resistance against a tyrant who despises everything they stand for, and they blew it. I was, and am, deeply saddened. I've been a lifelong supporter, but they will never see another dime out of me.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Hacker since the mid '70s here (NY through '81, Pittsburgh through '95, and Silicon Valley thereafter). You got this exactly right. Weinberger's view is, to put it charitably, revisionist.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Uh, I should've finished it by now, but I haven't started it. You know how it goes. But don't give up hope. I will write it.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
For cheapskates, throwing an extra 2.5gbps card into your desktop machine and and running two cables from your NAS is a fine first step, and costs < $100 including the 8-port 2.5gbps switch.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
But kicking the healthy people out of a risk pool will destroy it, and they know it. It's essentially the same playbook they used against the Kennedy center: make it insolvent, then kill it.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
No. Much of what Trump does is illegal, but he controls the Republican party and the party controls all three branches of our government. The checks and balances that kept the US a democratic republic for over two centuries have ceased to function.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I am tired of winning.
Gas price display at an Exxon station near our house, with prices varying from $5.999 / gallon to $8.659 / gallon, depending on gas grade and cash vs. credit.Total fill-up cost for our 2000 BMW 323iT displayed on the Exxon station's gas pump. The car took 15.771 gallons of gas, which cost us $102.50. On the bright side, this will push me to get a bike. I haven't owned one for years.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I wish I'd saved the original post. Roughly speaking, it said that students who learned to code when educators said that everyone should had wasted their time, because coding is obsolete in the era of AI.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Do physicists refer to truly bad wine as "max plonk"? (Asking for a friend.)
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
So Pluto causes autism?
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
While I agree that Fetterman is a shitsquib, it's worth noting that neurologists agree that the stroke was in his left temporal-frontal network, and the NIH says that possible effects of this stroke include loss of empathy (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...).
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Loss of empathy in stroke
Loss of empathy (LoE) is common among stroke survivors, yet often undiagnosed and thus untreated. LoE is related to the loss of a caring marital relationship, higher care burden and poorer quality of ...
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I call bullshit. Even if you never code professionally, it's an extremely valuable skill like, say, writing. It encourages creativity and precisions of thought. It is empowering. Everyone should 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 learn to code. (CS professor, software architect, and best-selling author here.)
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
You have to remember that, in addition to being evil, he is simply not that smart, or well-informed.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Yes, I've often thought that the Senate Grammarian should be a thing.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
R.I.P. Tim Curry variety.com/2026/film/ob...
variety.com
Tim Curry, ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Star, Dies at 80
Tim Curry, who soared to fame in the ‘70s as the flamboyant star of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 80.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Same (though I walked away from sixty thousand followers rather than half a million). I have zero regrets.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
It is one thing to invest in a company and another to understand what it does. Businesspeople think he's a great scientist/engineer, and scientist/engineers think he's a great businessman.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Yeah, I've noticed that businesspeople think he's a brilliant scientist/engineer, and scientist/engineers think he's a brilliant businessman. This is no accident.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Party like it's 1999! (OK, 2001, but still.)
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Damn straight. Now why didn't Columbia tell the Trump administration to fuck off (in court) when they were (pretextually) accused of antisemitism? www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/u...
nytimes.com
Judge Dismisses Trump Administration’s Antisemitism Case Against Harvard
The government argued the university had not done enough to combat antisemitism during campus protests. A judge called the incidents “isolated and episodic.”
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I agree. I heard that interview and the ignorance was astonishing. This is absolutely not what we need.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
No guarantees, but reboot your router. I had a similar problem, and rebooting my router (an Asus RT-AX86U) solved it.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Damn straight. I won't even be buying a vehicle with telematics. My newest vehicle is from 2010, which is fine by me.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
To be fair, hydroxychloroquine *might* be effective against Covid if combined with a bleach chaser and a flashlight enema. We just don't know.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Same, and I suspect we played exactly the same sequence of words, but I won't put 'em here to avoid spoiling the fun for others. IM me if you're curious.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
What likely comes out ahead of EVs is keeping your reasonably fuel-efficient internal combustion vehicle on the road (and well maintained!) for 30 years or more, so you don't incur the carbon emissions associated with manufacturing a new car ;) I'm not against EVs (except that they all spy on you).
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Also, I see you held on to your 533MC after getting the 2600MC. Was that to run two rigs in parallel? If not, why'd you keep it (since I'm in the same boat).
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Got any ideas for a filter to put in the fifth slot?
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Actually not going monochromatic: ASI2600MC. I'm only using 4 of the 5 slots for now: two dual narrowband filters (so I can play around w/ SHO), a UV/IR filter (not really necessary for this camera as it was for the 533MC but allows me to swap filters w/o refocusing), and opaque, for dark frames.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
No, much more prosaic, I fear. I got a new camera and ordered the components of the new image train around Christmas. (The mounting of the higher end ZWO camera forced the new image train on me.) It took forever for me to get the last piece of the image train, an ordinary ZWO 2" 5-filter EFW.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Here is our snack. Every bit of produce came from the garden except for the (spectacular) nectarines, which came from Andy Mariani's orchard. It was delicious.
A small table on our front porch holding a tray with Japanese dishes containing fresh garden snacks: flame broiled okra and eggplant, sungold tomatoes, cucumber sandwiches on toasted baguette slices, a small cast iron pan with blistered Padrón peppers, and a quartered nectarine. There are two glasses of chilled Maison Barboulot Cinsault Rosé in the background.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
That's really nice! I haven't been doing any astrophotography lately, but I finally got the gear that I was waiting on (don't ask), so I'll be starting again very soon.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I represent a consortium that is prepared to offer the sculptor $86.47 for the work.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I am in awe of that Hubble image of the crab nebula. Heck, I was in awe of this image, which I took from my San Jose backyard with an 8" cat.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I can't predict these things. I was shocked when so much elite opinion turned pro-Trump shortly before the 2024 election. My best guess is it was purely transactional. If so, it will evaporate when it ceases to be lucrative. But it's inexcusable. Integrity is more important that lucre.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
If there is any justice, Musk will be held to account by the ICJ for crimes against humanity, for what DOGE did to USAID (over 600,000 preventable deaths so far, with ~14 million predicted in the longer term). I am not holding my breath.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
True. We call it "stupidity" coupled with "ignorance" and "hubris." We further note that it demonstrates the "Dunning-Kruger effect." www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
theatlantic.com
Science Has a Name for What’s Plaguing the Reflecting Pool
Testing reveals that efforts to suppress one algal bloom seem to be fueling another.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Going to war against science is a losing proposition in the long run. But hey, we really owned the libs, amirite?
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
He is more Versailles-tile than you thought. (Sorry, I'll show myself out now.)
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
So it bombed with no help from terrorists ;) www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
FBI thwarted plot targeting White House UFC event, Patel says
In newly unsealed court documents, the government alleges that the plan would have used drones. The FBI boss says multiple suspects are in custody.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Facts are not the strong suit of this administration.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Innumeracy is a terrible thing, but the Dunning-Kruger effect is worse.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
This is not what democracy looks like. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/u...
nytimes.com
Postal Service Seeks to Block Mail Ballots in States Resisting Trump Demands
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Reposted by Joshua Bloch
Akiyoshi Kitaoka @akiyoshikitaoka.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
The squares may appear to shift vertically or horizontally, but they are actually stationary and perfectly aligned in either vertical or horizontal positions. References Flynn, O. F. & Shapiro, A. G. (2018). i-Perception, 9(6), 1–6.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
SEC regulations, like taxes, are for the little people now.
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Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
So two is weird but not odd?
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