like, i didn't realize how much I needed this. social media is truly one of my biggest ops. Being able to force myself to unplug for half an hour is great. It costs $40/year, but that means it literally only has to save me one hour per year for it to be worth it to me.

additionally, he seems to have retracted some of his past views, although i don’t think he was specific as to which one: “Recently, it’s been revealed that over a decade ago I held many beliefs that, as my current writing makes clear, I now find repulsive”

i think when you describe him as a white supremacist it paints a certain picture in people’s minds, which is not necessarily a super picture in hanania’s case. if you look at his twitter, about every 3rd tweet is arguing that we need more immigration in the US including from places like mexico

If you're interested in learning more about what not to do, I have a similar thread about C++! Check it out here: x.com/ChadNauseam/...

Last is Victoronz. I actually have no idea who this is lol. But they're a bevy contributor which is awesome, and I appreciate their contributions to the quiz!

Next is waffle, who also works on rust, is also accepting sponsorships, and has a very entertaining blog too!. Check it out!

Another author is the prolific Mara Bos, who you may know from the classic book "Rust Atomics and Locks" or her many other activities in the rust community!

There are many more questions on the quiz - please go check it out! But who are the authors? I found out about the quiz through Boxy - who is also working on making Rust's "const generics" more flexible! (She is also accepting sponsorships on github... just saying)

But things are different in the second code sample. When returning a place expression from a block (normal or unsafe), it is "coerced to a value", which necessitates loading it, which does cause UB. So the second example really is unsound.

Here, there's no variable on the left hand side of the `=`. There's only an `_`. This is the wildcard pattern, and unlike other patterns, the wildcard pattern does not load anything. So in the first code sample, the place expression is never loaded!

A place expression an expression that represents a memory location. When put a place expression on the right hand side of `=`, usually that memory location is loaded so it can be assigned to the variable on the left hand side. But there is an exception!

Answer: Claude is wrong. It is not unsound to deference a null pointer! It is only unsound to "load" a null pointer. And that first code sample doesn't load anything! The prefix * operator in rust is special syntax that creates a "place expression"

(credit to WaffleLapkin, BoxyUwU, m-ou-se, and Victoronz.)

At first glance, you'd think both are unsound. "Obviously" it's unsound to deference a null pointer. Even Claude 4 Opus with extended thinking agrees. Is that your final answer? Make up your mind now - spoilers below

which actually makes it very nice. there is some unnecessary complexity to rust, e.g. the async keyword, ?sized, and Pin. but in general, rust is a very straightforward language, which makes it great for beginners.