Jonathan Aldrich
jonathanaldrich.bsky.social
Jonathan Aldrich
@jonathanaldrich.bsky.social
Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, working on programming languages and software engineering. Coauthor, Programming Language Pragmatics (videos: https://tinyurl.com/PLP5vids). CTO of noteful.net ACM Publications Board member. He/him.
Sorting by race and ethnicity. Remind you of anything? Maybe from World War II?
More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...
Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News
About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
apple.news
February 12, 2026 at 4:35 AM
One of the true delights of paper reviewing is that you get to read about super creative and fun work before anyone else does! Feeling the PLDI vibes here....
February 12, 2026 at 4:29 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Aldrich
A note from our editors:
February 1, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Aldrich
On Don Lemon and Georgia Fort
The Case Against Don Lemon Is Junk, and Dangerous
If the Cities Church case falls apart, it will not be the first such embarrassment for Trump’s Justice Department.
www.theatlantic.com
January 30, 2026 at 11:29 PM
When Robert Rand, @hsenag.bsky.social, and I took our Open Access petition to ACM in 2020, we talked to CEO Vicki Hanson. Over the terms of 3 ACM presidents, Vicki shepherded ACM's transition to Open Access. I'm glad she saw it happen 20 days before she died.

Rest in peace, Vicki.
ACM mourns the loss of former CEO and President Vicki L. Hanson.

Vicki was a pioneer in accessibility research and a tireless advocate for inclusion in computing. From her over 25 years as a volunteer to her leadership as CEO, her impact on our community is immeasurable. She will be greatly missed.
January 23, 2026 at 2:52 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Aldrich
I keep seeing leftists from outside of Minneapolis say they’ve seen all this before, and no, you haven’t. I’ve been at this for 30+ years and I haven’t either. It’s not what you’re picturing. This is something else
I know people keep saying this but it’s hard to communicate the depth of active resistance here. Like, I’m on random cafes and people are checking in for observation shifts. Signs everywhere. Folks in visibility vests on the corners. It’s wild. Absolutely wild.
January 22, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Aldrich
Not only is Trump repeating a lie about the conduct of the 2020 election, but he is also announcing — at an international conference — that his administration will soon prosecute his political opponents for having defeated him in an election. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/dona...
Donald Trump just announced breaking news. The legacy media ignored it.
Not only is Trump repeating a lie about the conduct of the 2020 election, but he is also announcing — at an international conference — that his administration will soon prosecute his political opponen...
www.democracydocket.com
January 22, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Fun project last night, building a video editing PC for my wife!
January 21, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Police chief: "If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think about how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day. It has to stop."
Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley: "We're hearing people being stopped with no cause & being demanded to show paperwork to determine if they're here legally. We started hearing from our police officers the same complaints. Every one of these individuals is a person of color... it has to stop"
January 20, 2026 at 9:22 PM
A follow-up: today in the SIGCHI town hall, ACM President Yannis Ioannidis expressed the long term goal that in general, things that were in the DL before ACM OPEN would be made available in the Basic Edition, with new features in the Premium Edition.
The @acm.org has listened to feedback and is making changes to the Digital Library. Some things are still under discussion. But:
* Citation counts will be added to the Basic library
* Authors will be able to create a "authorizer"-style link to the complete list of their pubs
January 16, 2026 at 2:17 PM
FYI--many ACM members may be interested in this, I was told that you can participate even if you are not a SIGCHI member.
Please attend our upcoming SIGCHI Town Hall, on Jan 16, 1:30pm UTC, where we will discuss the recent changes to the ACM Digital Library—the Basic and Premium versions—that were launched just prior to the launch of ACM Open on Jan 1. Full details: sigchi.org/events/sigch...
SIGCHI Town Hall - Jan 2026
ACM SIGCHI is the leading international community of students and professionals interested in research, education, and practical applications of Human Computer Interaction.
sigchi.org
January 15, 2026 at 10:17 PM
The @acm.org has listened to feedback and is making changes to the Digital Library. Some things are still under discussion. But:
* Citation counts will be added to the Basic library
* Authors will be able to create a "authorizer"-style link to the complete list of their pubs
January 15, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Distinguished paper at POPL'25 today! Hemant Gouni presents our work Security Reasoning via Substructural Dependency Tracking at 16:45 in Réfectoire. See how a new kind of *substructural* information flow types can be used for capabilities, leakage, sandboxing, authorization etc.
January 15, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Last call--submit paper to HotSoS! Three cool tracks:
* Get more visibility for Already Published Papers!
* Get feedback on Works-in-Progress papers!
* Share a Poster or Demo!
Focus is foundations of cyber security & privacy. Deadline Friday 1/16 AoE

sos-vo.org/group/hotsos...
HotSoS 2026 Call for Papers | Science of Security Virtual Organization
sos-vo.org
January 13, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Implement your new language/type system either as a beautiful new language / language extension, or as a super clunky library that fits fully within an existing language.

Inevitable tradeoff? Sigh....
January 11, 2026 at 8:22 PM
Great example of why academic institutions should stay focused on their mission and avoid taking tangentially-relevant political positions (on Israel, in this case as in so many others)

davidabell.substack.com/p/the-americ...
The American Historical Association Divided
The annual meeting of the American Historical Association used to be a pretty staid affair.
davidabell.substack.com
January 9, 2026 at 8:53 PM
What is object-oriented programming? How did it start?

Learn about the foundations of OOP--encapsulation, inheritance, and dynamic method binding--some basic constructs, and its Norwegian origins in simulation language research in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video!
January 8, 2026 at 2:49 PM
OMG I cannot believe how TERRIBLE California is for small business. If you have an LLC doing business in CA you must pay an $800 tax per year--even if you have no income yet. Completely ridiculous!
January 6, 2026 at 1:31 AM
Ok "genital inspections" are way more of a threat to our children than trans athletes ever will be. Quite frankly...it's not even close!
1. This weekend, far-right group Lets Go Washington announced that it had collected enough signatures to get a trans sports ban on the ballot in the state.

The bill includes genital inspection provisions.

It is one of the first to go forward in a blue state.

Subscribe to support our journalism.
Trans Sports Ban With Genital Inspections Gains Enough Signatures To Appear On Washington State Ballot
The initiative collected 400,000 signatures, and will be one of the first major attempts to get an anti-trans law onto the ballot in a state that has dubbed itself a "refuge" for transgender people.
www.erininthemorning.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Aldrich
6 years ago, 1300+ of us signed a petition asking @TheOfficialACM to open up its digital library. As of today, January 1, 2026, all ACM papers are free to access by anyone!

Changing big orgs is tough, but your voice matters and the rewards are great!

www.change.org/p/associatio...
Sign the Petition
ACM Support Open Access
www.change.org
January 1, 2026 at 3:43 PM
6 years ago, 1300+ of us signed a petition asking @TheOfficialACM to open up its digital library. As of today, January 1, 2026, all ACM papers are free to access by anyone!

Changing big orgs is tough, but your voice matters and the rewards are great!

www.change.org/p/associatio...
Sign the Petition
ACM Support Open Access
www.change.org
January 1, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Wow--the real story of food deserts in the USA. The solution is as simple as stopping large chains from using their market power to get better deals from suppliers. Will politicians have the courage to apply the fix that worked pre-Reagan?

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Great Grocery Squeeze
How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert
www.theatlantic.com
December 31, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Why is event handling so painful--and can async make it better?

Events are essential to programming, yet notoriously tricky. In my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video, learn about events & how to use language ideas like promises, async, and await to untangle event code!
December 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
When there's a word for something, use it, rather than a negation. So, prefer "forbid" to "disallow." Prefer "range" to "codomain."
December 20, 2025 at 2:17 AM