Java/Scala experience
My development experience for the most part concerns the Java platform. This started with many years of (enterprise) Java development. After that I spent many years on Scala development (mixed with some Java development).
As much as I like Scala programming because of Scala's expressiveness and non-intrusive compile-time type-safety, Java has certainly caught up (lambdas/streams, "var" keyword, record types, immutable Guava collections, "FP patterns" in modern libraries, etc.). Also, development opportunities in Scala are still less common than I would like. Both factors caused me to get a renewed interest in Java. Of course, there is still a lot of overlap between Java and Scala development, such as the runtime platform and much of the ecosystem and tooling, so Java and Scala skills in a way strengthen each other.
Besides "regular" application development I also authored several (open source) libraries, for XPath analysis, XML processing (called "yaidom") and XBRL processing. These libraries in turn enabled fast and safe application software development in their respective domains.
I am passionate about software quality, and in particular about the ability to reason (locally) about code without losing clarity and readability. I like mentoring less experienced developers and giving "tech presentations".
As an example, my "yaidom" presentation at XML London 2015 is XML processing with Scala and yaidom.
Non-development topics
Normally I would limit myself in this page to my profile as software developer, or at least to topics related to software development. Unfortunately too much has happened in the world (and in the Netherlands) in recent years, and to me it feels like the right thing to do is to speak out.
- The first thing I would like to mention is the push to go to war with Russia (it's April 2024 as I write this). A small group of sane voices talks about and strives for peace, but the "establishment" ("our" media, politicians etc.) talk us into war.
Of course the designated enemy must be dehumanised in public opinion, regardless of what is really happening. We have seen this many times: "they threw the babies out of the incubators" (that's what Iraqis do, right?), "they threw the babies into ovens" (sure, whatever), "they were eating the babies" (the Russians, who else?).
Combined with a lot of fearmongering it becomes difficult to think clearly and see through the crap that we are being sold. There is a lot that we are not being told about the reasons for (this, or any) war.
We were not told that "the West" has consistently poked Russia in the eye for decades (e.g. the continuous NATO expansion towards Russia's border, against earlier agreements, and despite many Russian warnings that this threatened Russian national security).
We were not told that the conflict in the Ukraine is a proxy-war of the imploding Washington empire against Russia, while throwing the Ukraine (and, economically, Europe as well) under the bus.
We were not told that it is "the West" who has blocked all peace initiatives between Russia and the Ukraine.
We are also not being told that by supplying weaponry (much of it ending up being traded) we keep the suffering of the Ukrainians going, calling it "supporting Ukraine".
Moreover, we are not allowed to hear anything about the Russian perspective(s). That's censored. We must believe the simplistic notion that it's about "us, the good guys (defenders of democracy), versus them, the barbarians".
Frankly, I don't buy it. Almost a century ago, after his active career, highly decorated general Smedley Butler wrote "War is a Racket". He made clear that war is big business, with a few benefiting greatly, at the expense of everybody else. This should have been mandatory reading in history class, but of course it wasn't. Is it a coincidence that the warmongers are the ones profiting, and the ordinary folks the ones doing the senseless dying?
So, I strongly oppose sending our youths to the front line. I strongly oppose all this warmongering in the West.
Disclaimer: I have been to Russia on many occasions, and I was always treated well. That's an additional reason I cannot be convinced that Russia is my enemy. Quite the contrary. Immature people (the kind we have too many of in parliament) would now call me names and stick childish labels on me.
I don't care. I care about my country and about people of good will. The idea that Russia, with all its natural resources, is going to conquer Europe is naive and not based on sound logic.
- A few years ago we had a Covid crisis. Normally in such a health crisis people would receive safe and effective medicines, and there would hardly be any reason for oppressive measures lasting for a long time, because most people would voluntarily comply with benevolent public health measures. In reality there was a lot of oppression, and lots of measures that did not make any sense. Things did not add up:
- The curfews made no sense as health measure, unless the virus decided to attack at 9:00 pm.
- Mask mandates made no sense, because the masks were unhealthy (even more so for children) and did not stop infection.
- The (forced) PCR tests made no sense, because PCR method inventor Kary Mullis made clear it was useless for diagnosing disease.
- The mandatory jabs made no sense, e.g. because the really safe and effective Zelenko protocol was a far better alternative.
- The mandatory jabs made perfect sense as a business model, and the inexpensive Zelenko protocol was banned precisely for that reason.
- Why were mRNA jabs suddenly forced upon populations around the world?
- Physicians who were openly skeptical about the jab were severely punished.
- Peaceful demonstrators who opposed the Covid measures were often severely punished (and/or beaten up).
- Covid-unvaccinated "elites" told the Covid-unvaccinated populace to get the jab, or else.
- QR-codes were used to isolate the Covid-unvaccinated from society, and the Covid-unvaccinated were framed as risks to public health.
- Excesss deaths started with the mRNA vaccination campaigns, not with Covid itself.
- If the arrival of Covid made the flu suddenly disappear, could it be that "Covid" was the flu rebranded?
- Many small businesses went bankrupt, due to the lockdowns.
- Those damaged by the mRNA jabs get no recognition for their vaccine damage.
- In summary, things did and do not add up. This was not about health. This was about tyranny. And this should never be allowed to happen again.
- We like to think that we live in a free society. If that is true, why is Julian Assange still locked up? His crime is journalism, real and honest journalism, showing that the emperor has no clothes. He is far from the only one. Truth is now considered "extremely dangerous to our democracy". Again, I do not need "authorities" to tell me who to love and who to hate. I consider myself mature enough to make up my own mind about this. I consider Julian Assange a hero, and I think that the treatment he gets is an absolute disgrace.
There is also an upside to all of this (and about much more, that I do not get into now). We are basically forced to grow up spiritually. At least that's how I see it, along with many others.
Again, this may not belong to an introduction of myself as software professional, but so much has happened in recent years that I feel I must speak out about developments that I find quite worrisome.