Scala, Java, Unix, MacOS tutorials (page 6)

TechCrunch: Tracking layoffs in the technology industry

TechCrunch is a good name for this page, because they are now tracking layoffs in the technology industry. This is from their page:

“The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has more than 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether.”

Lucid dream: Meeting a tall, healthy Ram Dass, and The Lamb of God

As I became lucid in a dream this morning, I ran into Ram Dass. He was wearing a long-white outfit that I have seen in pictures of him, he was healthy again, with a big beard, and was much taller than I expected — significantly taller than me. (I later looked this up to find out he was 6’3”.)

He was standing next to a doorway and gathering people together for a seminar that he was giving, and asked if I wanted to attend. I said yes, and he said I was welcome if I could be like “The Lamb of God.”

I thought I knew what he meant by that, but just to be sure I asked him what he meant.

Home sleep study: example, results, information

In case this might help anyone else, I thought I’d share this information. I was having a weird problem where some mornings when I woke up my blood pressure would be really high, so long story short, I did an at-home sleep study a few weeks ago, and went over the results with a doctor this morning. I’ll include the doctor’s notes with each image.

Image 1: The “A+H” metric

In the first image, “A+H” is the main metric they use. It measures the average number of apnea events that occur per hour while you’re sleeping.

In my case, a 19.4 overall average means, “Yes, you have apnea.” The 36.8 value means, “you have really bad apnea on your back, don't sleep there.” Interestingly, 0.7 means “you have no apnea when sleeping on your left side, so sleep there as much as possible.” I’ve known for years that I sleep better on the left side, so the doctor encouraged me to sleep on that side as much as possible.

Places you can find Alvin Alexander in late 2024

If you are interested in connecting with me, here are a few places you can find me in late 2024:

Please note that I have abandoned that toxic cesspool of racism, sexism, and hate speech formerly known as Twitter.

Carl Jung: You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do

“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”

~ Carl Jung

How Katsuki Sekida taught Zen meditation (his style and techniques to reach samadhi)

This is another in a series of articles I call “Conversations with robots.” In this article I did into the style of meditation taught by one of my favorite Zen, Zazen, and meditation teachers, Katsuki Sekida.

Ram Dass: His ‘Namaste’ definition

This Ram Dass definition of the word “namaste” is really wonderful:

I honor the place in you
Where the entire universe resides.
I honor the place in you
Of love, of light, of truth, of peace.

I honor the place in you
Where if you are in that place in you and
I am in that place in me,
There is only one of us.

This namaste definition comes from the excellent Ram Dass book, Polishing the Mirror.

Namaste. :)

Benefits of GraphQL vs REST and gRPC

GraphQL FAQ: What are the benefits of GraphQL, and how does it compare to competing technologies?

This is another blog post in my series of “Conversations with robots.” In this post we look at GraphQL, and the pros and cons of how it compares to REST and gRPC.

My free online Scala and FP video training courses

May, 2024: Here’s a summary of my current free online Scala and functional programming training courses:

If you’re interested in 100% Free online Scala and FP video training courses, I hope these online video courses are helpful.

Two kinds of people who live in Alaska

From the movie Insomnia, this is a great quote from an Alaskan resident to a visitor:

“There are two kinds of people who live in Alaska: the ones who are born here and the ones who come here to escape something else. I wasn’t born here.”

Hotels in Santa Fe treat water like you’re living on the Space Station

A nice thing about most hotels in Santa Fe, New Mexico is that they treat water like you’re living on the Space Station. They have signs like, “You may have noticed that there’s not a lot of water around here. Please don’t waste it!”

At restaurants they usually only give you water if you ask for it, and I remember one time a waitress asked if I was really going to drink it or just look at it. :)

Hotels in Santa Fe treat water like you’re living on the Space Station

One thing I learned from my dad: The harder you try to control other people ...

One thing I learned from my dad: The harder you try to control other people, the more they resent it and pull away from you. You gotta let other people be who they are.

2024 holiday season: Reduced prices on my Scala and functional programming Kindle books

I know that a lot of people devalue products when they’re free or inexpensive, and I know this sounds corny, but I always hope that somewhere out there in the world there’s a programmer/developer that works hard, but for one reason or another can’t quite grok Scala and/or functional programming, but then they find one of my books, and the light bulb goes on over their head. And then they start writing better code, and they’re happier with their work, other people are happier with their work, and they make a little more money than they might have made otherwise.

With that in mind, I’ve lowered the price of my Kindle books to just $2.99 (USD) for the 2024 holiday season. Here’s Learn Functional Programming The Fast Way, and here’s Learn Scala 3 The Fast Way.

Also, please note that the PDF versions of these books are FREE.

Enjoy, and I hope they help. :)

2024 holiday season: Reduced prices on my Scala and functional programming Kindle books

Luke Skywalker fake oil painting (hoodie)

I use my favorite images as screensavers, and this “hoodie” image of Luke Skywalker from Star Wars Movie #7 is a recent favorite. I found an image online, then worked with it in Gimp to get a decent effect. This Luke Skywalker sketch shows another approach you can take with Gimp.

Starry Night Over Santa Fe

This is a small image of a painting I bought a few years ago in Santa Fe, New Mexico, called “Starry Night Over Santa Fe.”

My kidneys itch: A simple solution for itchy kidneys

As a brief note today, I have said to my doctors multiple times, “My kidneys itch.” If you have experienced the same feeling, a solution I have found for this problem is to take these AZO Cranberry Urinary Tract Health tablets.

As I’ve written here several times before, I’ve been treated for kidney stones three times so far, and kidney stones keep coming back, and this is a simple product that gets rid of the “itchy kidney” feeling. (Sometimes it also helps to help with the “pain of stones in the kidneys” feeling.)

Personally, I have allergic reactions to the AZO Urinary Pain Relief Maximum Strength product, so I can’t take that much if at all, but I can take the cranberry product every day without an issues.

Story: Lucid dreaming app triples users’ awareness in dreams, study finds

From this article at psypost.org:

“In a recent study published in Consciousness and Cognition, researchers at Northwestern University showed that a smartphone app using sensory cues can significantly increase the frequency of lucid dreams—dreams in which a person is aware they are dreaming while still asleep. This study marks the first attempt to apply a lucid-dreaming method called Targeted Lucidity Reactivation outside of a lab environment, demonstrating that even a simple at-home approach can help users experience more lucid dreams.”

Squirrel at the window

I’m sitting here working this morning when I start to hear that familiar scratching, crawling sound outside. In a few moments, the squirrel’s head appears from the right side of the window. He’s hanging sideways, three stories off the ground, and looking in, about twelve inches from my face. It’s cold outside so I had the window closed, but I slide it open.

“Dude, Cheerios,” he says.

“Oh shoot, I forgot,” I say.

By the time I walk to the kitchen, get the box of Cheerios, and open the door to the deck, he’s already there, waiting.

(October 12, 2014 #99PercentTrueStory)

Sunrise in Virginia Beach, Virginia

This photo looks like a sunset to me, but it’s from a sunrise in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Roadrunner in hightops

I found this “roadrunner in hightops” in the SouthwestIndian.com catalog.