Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Michael Simons @rotnroll666.bsky.social · 13d

Enjoy my new, artisanal blog post about #JSpecify and #NullAway, a fresh take on null safety in the #Java world. Be warned, may contains #Lombok. Happy weekend you all.

info.michael-simons.eu/2025/09/26/j...

JSpecify and NullAway: A fresh take on nullsafety in the Java world

Introduction Sir Antony Hoare[1] introduced the concept of Null-references or Null pointer[2] back in 1965 with the release of ALGOL W. In 2009 he spoke about it as his “Billion Dollar Mistake”[3]. De...

info.michael-simons.eu

1 10 13

Manu Sridharan @manu.sridharan.net · 23d

Excited to release NullAway 0.12.10 with much better inference support for generic method calls in JSpecify mode: github.com/uber/NullAwa... Please let us know if you run into issues!

Release NullAway 0.12.10 · uber/NullAway

This release contains significant improvements to inference support for generic method calls in JSpecify mode (#1075). We expect that many more valid calls will pass NullAway, but that some new bug...

github.com

1 2 7

Manu Sridharan @manu.sridharan.net · Aug 22

Only problem is the filtering doesn’t get applied on Mac. For now I’ve “solved” that problem by using the Known Senders view on Mac and turning off Messages notifications there 2/2

Manu Sridharan @manu.sridharan.net · Aug 22

Really happy with Bouncer as a solution to getting too many spam political texts apps.apple.com/us/app/bounc... open source too and privacy preserving github.com/afterxleep/B... 1/2

‎Bouncer: Spam Text Blocker

‎Stop unwanted SMS and text messages with Bouncer, the powerful spam blocker and text filter that puts you back in control. Block scam texts, political messages, phishing attempts, and junk SMS instan...

apps.apple.com

1 1

Manu Sridharan @manu.sridharan.net · Aug 19

Highly worth your time to read

Zac Sweers @zacsweers.dev · Aug 18

Wrote a lot of thoughts on junior developers, AI, and what I strongly feel is going to become the defining challenge of our industry's next generation.

www.zacsweers.dev/forklifts-re...

Forklifts Require Training

Sleepwalking into labor collapse

www.zacsweers.dev

2

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Zac Sweers @zacsweers.dev · Aug 18

Wrote a lot of thoughts on junior developers, AI, and what I strongly feel is going to become the defining challenge of our industry's next generation.

www.zacsweers.dev/forklifts-re...

Forklifts Require Training

Sleepwalking into labor collapse

www.zacsweers.dev

7 28 65

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Aws Albarghouthi @awsto.bsky.social · Jun 12

Here's a paper describing quantum computing using standard programming constructs, w/o the linear algebra!

The hope is that this will demystify quantum computing and serve as a formal foundation for reasoning about quantum programs.

paper eprint.iacr.org/2025/1091.pdf
code github.com/qqq-wisc/qwla

3 13 47

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Sam Westrick @shwestrick.bsky.social · Jun 4

The submission deadline for the ML Family Workshop 2025 is approaching. Just about two weeks to go!

Deadline: June 19

This year we're in Singapore, colocated with ICFP/SPLASH. It's going to be a great event -- please consider submitting, and hope to see you there!

Sam Westrick @shwestrick.bsky.social · Mar 16

Calling for Presentations!

Higher-order, Typed, Inferred, Strict:
The 2025 ML Family Workshop welcomes presentations on any topic related to programming languages in the ML family (such as SML, OCaml, F#, etc.)

Submissions due: June 19 AoE
Workshop: Oct 16

conf.researchr.org/home/icfp-sp...

ML Family Workshop 2025 - Higher-order, Typed, Inferred, Strict: ML Family Workshop 2025 - ICFP/SPLASH 2025

ML is a large family of programming languages that includes Standard ML, OCaml, F#, CakeML, SML#, Manticore, MetaOCaml, JoCaml, Alice ML, Dependent ML, Flow Caml, Reason ML, Flix, MaPLe, and many othe...

conf.researchr.org

1 2

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

ztatlock.bsky.social @ztatlock.bsky.social · May 20

If you’re planning to attend PLDI 2025 in Seoul, please book your room via the SIGPLAN room block link ASAP!

www.marriott.com/event-reserv...

Super stoked to see folks in a month :D

Reservation-Link

www.marriott.com

2 3

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Sam Tobin-Hochstadt @samth.bsky.social · May 8

A few thoughts on AI and education, from someone who uses AI and also teaches many levels of student.

1. Most importantly, it's not possible to know what will happen because no one knows what skills AI will or will not replace in the next few years.

1 9 27

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · May 4

Shared a few thoughts here on the next orchestrated budget/constitution "crisis" the white house has planned for the end of the summer talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-w...

The White House’s Next Orchestrated Budget Crisis

This is something I’m still trying to get my head around –...

talkingpointsmemo.com

29 250 690

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Jim Larus @jameslarus.bsky.social · Apr 29

cacm.acm.org/opinion/big-...

Big Tech, You Need Academia. Speak Up! – Communications of the ACM

cacm.acm.org

3 4

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Apr 26

New, from @mkfeeney.bsky.social at Can We Still Govern?:

She oversaw the Science of Science: Discovery, Communication, and Impact program at NSF, whose including grants to study misinformation.

The cancelation of those grants is government censorship. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/i-oversaw-...

I oversaw rigorous review of NSF-funded research on misinformation: Now the Trump administration is cancelling it

Politicians, not scientists, are the ones engaged in censorship

donmoynihan.substack.com

3 110 280

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · Apr 13

Yay for the first unikernel paper getting the ASPLOS most influential paper award, and some reflections on it anil.recoil.org/notes/uniker...

Unikernels wins the ASPLOS most influential paper award

anil.recoil.org

2 10 40

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Laurence Tratt @ltratt.bsky.social · Mar 25

New post: Better Shell History Search tratt.net/laurie/blog/...

2 1 23

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Laurence Tratt @ltratt.bsky.social · Mar 25

A very interesting retrospective on using Sea of Nodes in V8 and the pros and (seemingly in the majority) cons v8.dev/blog/leaving...

1 2 13

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Jenna DiVincenzo @jcenzo.bsky.social · Mar 29

Two updates: 1) early registration for physical attendees has been extended to April 1 and late registration to April 18, and 2) travel grant information is available on the VerifyThis website (verifythis.ethz.ch), apply by April 8. Hope to see you there!

Jenna DiVincenzo @jcenzo.bsky.social · Feb 24

VerifyThis is a series of program verification competitions bringing together those interested in formal verification. The 2025 edition will be held as a hybrid workshop with ETAPS. Early registration for physical attendees is open until Feb. 28. For more information see verifythis.ethz.ch. 1/2

2 5

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Jingbo Wang @jingbow.bsky.social · Mar 28

PLMW@PLDI'25 is now accepting applications: pldi25.sigplan.org/home/PLMW-pl...

Deadline: April 10, 2025

PLMW an excellent place to learn about exciting PL research, from the ground up, and to find your PL friends!

Please apply!

PLMW @ PLDI 2025 - Programming Languages Mentoring Workshop - PLDI 2025

The Programming Language Mentoring Workshop (PLMW) aims to broaden the exposure of late-stage undergraduate students and early-stage graduate students to research and career opportunities in programmi...

pldi25.sigplan.org

9 17

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Ryan Williams @rrwilliams.bsky.social · Feb 21

New paper: Simulating Time With Square-Root Space

people.csail.mit.edu/rrw/time-vs-...

It's still hard for me to believe it myself, but I seem to have shown that TIME[t] is contained in SPACE[sqrt{t log t}].

To appear in STOC. Comments are very welcome!

people.csail.mit.edu

17 74 270

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

numble.bsky.social @numble.bsky.social · Mar 19

LA Metro used to publish monthly reports detailing progress on each transit construction project. They stopped publishing them in August 2024, saying they do not keep these records and the public interest is clearly served better by not disclosing them.

libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/Status...

7 6 47

Reposted by Manu Sridharan

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Mar 19

If you are visiting the United States, having a negative view of Trump is enough to get you denied entry.
If this was coming out of Russia or China, we would deplore such an authoritarian attack on freedom of expression.

"I learned with concern that a French researcher" on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) "who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled ," said the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Philippe Baptiste, in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher's phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration's research policy ," he added

180 2.9K 6.6K

Manu Sridharan @manu.sridharan.net · Mar 12

Nice video on the (bad) design of LAX and how to improve youtu.be/8ykQAAxaAGw?... I wish some of this stuff had been in place for SPLASH'24!

Why LAX’s Horseshoe Shape Is the Airport’s Worst Feature | WSJ Pro Perfected

YouTube video by The Wall Street Journal

youtu.be

3

Manu Sridharan @manu.sridharan.net · Mar 10

Great post on JSpecify and NullAway usage in Spring

Sébastien Deleuze @seb.deleuze.fr · Mar 10

I have published a new blog post to explain what benefits Spring developers can expect from the next-level Spring null safety support based on JSpecify and NullAway. spring.io/blog/2025/03...

It will be available for general consumption in the upcoming Spring major version at the end of the year.

3

Manu Sridharan @manu.sridharan.net · Mar 1

Now my go-to order when I need to get coffee from Starbucks: short flat white with blonde espresso. From www.reddit.com/r/espresso/s...

landofcortados's comment on "Starbucks is undrinkable"

Explore this conversation and more from the espresso community

www.reddit.com

1 2

Manu Sridharan @manu.sridharan.net · Feb 21

@nickandert.bsky.social @numble.bsky.social FYI www.gosbcta.com/wp-content/u... Final EIR for autonomous vehicle tunnel to connect Rancho to ONT. Still defending the plan.

www.gosbcta.com

1