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Robert Vitonsky

@vitonsky.bsky.social
1.4K followers 4.9K following 57 posts

Software engineer. Founder of linguister.io, a translation solution in browser. CEO at primebits.org. My posts mostly about programming, and code quality management.

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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
New post on my blog: I highlight a popular Tailwind-like anti-pattern in production code and argue for a practice that keeps UI implementations manageable — even on large projects with rich visual design. vitonsky.net/blog/2026/09... #blog #programming #coding #frontend #opensource #rssfeed #ui
vitonsky.net
Props Are Not a Design System
Most UI kits let you pass any style as a prop — radius, size, color, or a wall of Tailwind classes, whatever you need. That flexibility is exactly the problem: it turns every component call into a one...
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I especially like this ones #photography #photos #history #fun #engineering
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Nowadays you won't surprise anyone with photos from drones. I just found a photos from pigeon at 1909. Dr Julius Neubronner have invented a way to set camera on pigeon and take photos while its flight. It's something kinda GoPro but century ago. publicdomainreview.org/collection/d...
publicdomainreview.org
Dr Julius Neubronner’s Miniature Pigeon Camera
100 years before drones, in search of better aerial photography, Dr Julius Neubronner patented a miniature pigeon camera activated by a timing mechanism and created a remarkable body of images.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Spam is usually treated as something to delete. In my new blog post, I argue why that’s a mistake - how spam can reveal valuable insights, and how moderation enslave us. vitonsky.net/blog/2026/05... #blog #post #socialmedia #social #media #spam #dating #wellbeing
vitonsky.net
Do not remove my spam
Modern internet is broken and no longer built for human beings. By 2026 the internet is filled with robots . One type of robots generates content and injects advertisements, another type in...
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Btw, via Transly you can localize your app for free 🎉 If you do not configure LLM, the free Microsoft translate API fallback will be used. The quality are significant worse than well prompted LLM or DeepL API, but you can localize your app for free, and make it accessible for people worldwide.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
It depends on configured prompt for LLM, or a service you use. Transly is only orchestrate your locale files, its state, and translation tools you use on a project. Our default prompt works well with plural forms on our use cases.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Only changed keys are translated, so your translations stay consistent and you don’t burn all your money to release a new update of your app 🎉
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
This week I’m releasing Transly — a CLI tool for incremental translation and localization of apps via LLM or machine translation API, such as Google Translate. Share with your localization team. Let's break the language barriers together. github.com/translate-to... #opensource #devtools #i18n
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
As I said a few years ago in my blog post, the problem is that browser extension developers are mostly incompetent in security, and will sell all their users to scammers for a few thousand dollars. Do not trust anonymous developers with no track record. vitonsky.net/blog/2023/09... #security
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Over 100 malicious extensions in the Chrome Web Store are stealing Google OAuth2 bearer tokens by injecting backdoors and carrying out ad fraud. Researchers at Socket concluded they’re all part of a coordinated campaign, operating under a MaaS model. socket.dev/blog/108-chr... #security #malware
socket.dev
108 Chrome Extensions Linked to Data Exfiltration and Sessio...
Campaign of 108 extensions harvests identities, steals sessions, and adds backdoors to browsers, all tied to the same C2 infrastructure.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
WASM has limitations: no threads, no hardware acceleration, etc. So it is interesting what other real-world use cases can you imagine? Maybe you already used WebAssembly to solve some problems or business needs. Tell about it.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
What practical use cases for #WebAssembly can you imagine? Tell about it in this thread. I use WASM to integrate software solutions across different stacks. I compile a Twofish cipher implementation from C to WASM and use it in the browser. #wasm #webassembly #askfedi #opensource #programming
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
It would be nice if browser automatically load the WebAssembly modules, bind the native web APIs directly (without any JS glue code), and run the module. We could write the code for web apps in any language and then compile it to a WASM. hacks.mozilla.org/2026/02/maki... #wasm #webdev #javascript
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
People at Anthropic say they’ve found over 500 high-severity vulnerabilities using Claude. Looks like 0-day exploits might become widely accessible soon. red.anthropic.com/2026/zero-da... #security #research #llm
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Nothing extraordinary, we may do the same thing with a for + break, but this way let us organize code better, represent it in a pipeline manner
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Yes, this way give us a 2 wins - all processing steps for one item will be run in one step instead of iterate array N times, and we consume only number of items we really need and stop when have enough items, unlike a standard way.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Matt Smith noticed that the Iterator utils is widely available now (since ~2024). So we may keep an arrays processing look like a pipeline, but do it lazy and reach significant performance win. A trivial change is needed. Someone had to remind us all of this. allthingssmitty.com/2026/01/12/s...
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
New blog post where I show a nano-queries, an state of the art Query Builder for a SQL and NoSQL queries. Fun fact, the JavaScript infrastructure had no a query builder before. Only ORM solutions that makes hurt your queries performance. vitonsky.net/blog/2026/01... #opensource #sql #javascript
vitonsky.net
Nano Queries, a state of the art Query Builder
In June 2023, I found myself in an awkward situation. We used a custom database on a project, and I needed a simple query builder to create complex queries dynamically and ensure security against user...
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Don't shout at your drives! I just found a video where a man shouts at an HDD array and its latency are noticeably increases because of vibrating. youtu.be/tDacjrSCeq4?... #devops #science #humor #funny
youtu.be
Shouting in the Datacenter
YouTube video by Bryan Cantrill
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Can somebody explain why it so difficult to LLMs to place a commas correctly? The "villain," on my screenshot. All LLM I've tried last few years had this problem. Such problems makes me feel the LLM nowadays like a CGI in 2000s when people have called it a "photo realistic graphic". #ai #llm
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
One weird thing I noticed is they recommend a Vue as a default frontend framework that makes me thing they are weak in a frontend things like those who have invent a HTMX.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
I discovered tauri.app recently. Do you have any feedback on it? They define it as a framework to build cross platform apps based on web technologies like Electron does, but app will takes reasonable size like 600kb (not a 200mb unlike Electron). #opensource #programming #frontend
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
How do you search for a new good movies to watch among a tons of garbage released in last 20 years? Do you use an IMDB or any other service? #movies
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Just released Ordinality — a framework-agnostic migration tool for Browser, Node, and Deno. We use it in production on both backend and frontend. Ordinality works with any database — IndexedDB, SQL, state files, or anything else. github.com/vitonsky/ord... #opensource #javascript
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
I just read email from NPM "New TOTP 2FA configurations disabled (existing TOTP still works)". It looks NPM will disable TOTP and force package authors to use WebAuthn/passkeys. Business as usual. Spot an opportunity to hype it up and cash in. #opensource #programming #javascript
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Just found a fun article where author uses cluster of 3 candles as a clock source. cpldcpu.com/2025/08/13/c...
cpldcpu.com
Candle Flame Oscillations as a Clock
Todays candles have been optimized for millenia not to flicker. But it turns out when we bundle three of them together, we can undo all of these optimizations and the resulting triplet will start t…
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Linguist is a browser extension that translate content on web page. It cannot work other way, because "translate web page content" implies access to DOM of web page.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
Linguist is highly customizable. In recent update has been added an option to control what elements must not be translated. User now can describe elements to ignore as CSS selectors and Linguist will skip translation on anything that match the query.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
Linguist made it to the Top 3 extensions in the Chrome Web Store. Try it: linguister.io It is the only in-browser translation solution that respects your privacy. #opensource #browser #extension #FOSS
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Roasting post about Matrix - probably the most disappointing project claiming to be a "privacy-focused messenger," but actually a scam targeting naive people. xn--gckvb8fzb.com/giving-up-on... #security #privacy
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Just publish NPM package `langstats` that provides stats with speakers count and countries list where language is used. Basically, that's a small dataset i maintain for our products purposes. Will be useful for those who work on internationalization, to prioritize work. github.com/translate-to...
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Then how you can explain that Linguist still not in privacy guides list? Because It's literally the single one extension who really care about privacy as I explained above bsky.app/profile/vito... It was rejected twice as I can see.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
New post on blog, with insights around why it's nice to have open source project, why you can't rely on donations, and how you can actually make money on your pet project. Good to read for open source maintainers with existential questions. #opensource #programming vitonsky.net/blog/2025/06...
vitonsky.net
Open source is a promotion tool
Big tech companies invest a lot of effort to sell us the point that every good programmer must have their own open source project. Many programmers have open source side projects, but quite few of...
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Hey @privacyguides.org How you can comment on that? Isn't that a "privacy" about?
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Linguist is literally the single one project about translation who support custom translation modules. This feature let you up LLM locally and translate any content on all sites with LLM You may also do it with rule-based machine translation (RBMT), statistical machine translation or anything else
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
For me it looks like site where you should pay moderators to publish your product. I did not pay, so my product is not there. There are many sites based on this model, and I sure all of them is a bad company to trust.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
For me as a security researcher who built a linguister.io with embedded offline translator and support for custom translators, it looks suspicious that Privacy Guides still did not added Linguist at their site for more than 4 years. They have discussion discuss.privacyguides.net/t/translatio...
discuss.privacyguides.net
Translation software/services
I think it’d be nice to have an additional section on the recommendations website, under software, for translation software/services. A couple recommendations for the section would be: Offline solut...
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Actually problem have widely affects, out of "Copilot" scope
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
GitHub joins to the party. It looks this month gives a lot of fun for sys ops of BigTech.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
The HTTP QUERY Method draft, that defines a new HTTP method, QUERY, as a safe, idempotent request method that supports body payload and may be safely cached. httpwg.org/http-extensi...
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
There are many projects who don't. Startups, pet projects that powers a half of world
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Reality is porcelain. NPM is down, and all projects who had not set NPM proxy with cache is blocked for development. CI is in stuck, deployments is delayed, etc. #programming #frontend #javascript
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Huh, that's quite original way to tell us about malware in a blog post on platform that requires registration and send spam to its clients. Digital world are difficult.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Yeah, especially if we talk about quality in general. Games nowadays have improvements in graphics, but gameplay even degraded. AI may step on this way too and for example be more powerful, but less useful due to regulations and censorship
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Tell about it
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
My opinion is visually they looks better. There are even renders near to photo realistic graphic, at least in trailers. Of course maybe 20 years later we will laugh on it. But it still is not enough good to confuse it with reality. AI now is on level of video games in 2004 year
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Every time I hear something about "AI will replace us", I always remember how CGI and 3D games is looked impressive and "photo realistic" in 2004 and how ridiculous they looks today.
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I think we should not blame anybody, but just won't pay anybody who requests so much information. They could sign up an entity in Panama/Cyprus/Dubai/etc. where there are no such BDSM-style regulations. But you're right about milking supporters
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Some donation forms look like the project doesn't really want to be paid. #ux #privacy
Donation form of https://creativecommons.org where all fields is required, including email, address, zip, etc
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Robert Vitonsky @vitonsky.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Thanks to you 👍
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