This blog post is an extended metaphor that serves as an excuse to complain about Verilog. https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~asampson/blog/buildingblocks.html

☕️ LATTE, our little workshop on hardware design languages/compilers/etc., has 24 (!) rad-looking position papers this year. It’s on Monday, and you can attend on Zoom or in Pittsburgh: https://capra.cs.cornell.edu/latte26/

☕️ For the sixth time (!), we’re running our little ASPLOS workshop on hardware design languages/compilers/etc. Papers are just two pages! So easy! Please submit! #latte26 capra.cs.cornell.edu/latte26/

I'm bad at self-promo but I am currently on the job market looking for industry gigs. If your team needs a compiler engineer, language developer, rust programmer, or language tools person, drop me a line! All my details are on my personal site.

At PLDI this year, I received the SIGPLAN John C. Reynolds Distinguished Dissertation award and at ISCA, I received an honorable mention for the SIGARCH / TCCA Outstanding dissertation award! Truly honored to receive recognition from both the communities! Really excited for what comes next!

We’ve started a podcast! @awsto.bsky.social and @samps.phd host “Current Continuation,” a little interview series with PL researchers. The first two episodes are with @ranjitjhala.bsky.social and @satnam6502.bsky.social. sigplan.org/cc/

In this episode of current continuation, Adrian (@samps.phd) and I talk to the incredible Dr. Satnam Singh (@satnam6502.bsky.social) from Groq. A far-ranging conversation—from SAT to Haskell to chip design to HDLs to Scotch to castles to HR :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g5f...

As part of SIGPLAN blog, @samps.phd (Cornell) and I started an interview series where we talk to luminaries in the field of Programming Languages. Our first one is a super fun conversation with Ranjit Jhala (UCSD). 1h26m of goodness. www.youtube.com/watch?v=goUZ...

Defunding the NSF will have disastrous downstream effects on the tech industry. It’s time for people in industry to ACT. In this cross-post from the SIGARCH blog, Prof. Vijay Janapa Reddi outlines some steps you can take now. blog.sigplan.org/2025/05/19/t...

Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.

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

☕️ Our little workshop about accelerator design languages & tools is next weekend, on March 30! We have 15 cool talks lined up, and the 2-page papers are out now: capra.cs.cornell.edu/latte25/ Make your travel plans to Rotterdam! Or pre-register for the Zoom option: cornell.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

🧪 The NSF director is lying to you. Let’s fact check 7 claims from yesterday’s letter to the community, while pointing out 3 critical omissions. 🧵

It would be fantastic if major federal institutions would acknowledge that the executive branch cannot legally unilaterally cancel or redistribute congressionally appropriated funding on ideological grounds and thus they have no legal obligation to comply with such directives

This week, the NSF Director became complicit in the administration’s efforts to undermine American science. bit.ly/nsfresign

Programming languages: "We are just a way to operate computers in a way that makes sense to humans." Programming languages [takes a big joint hit]: "What if there were 5 kinds of nothingness?"

Eric Adams is amazing because when he won every media person was leaping over each to go “this is the normal sane leadership that the political left doesn’t understand normal sane Americans crave” and then every day since that Eric Adams has been like “Leprechauns are real and I’m going to cook one”

What role should Student Research Competitions play in mentoring new researchers? @notypes.bsky.social and @avh.bsky.social argue for a renewed focus on feedback and visibility for SRCs. blog.sigplan.org/2025/01/13/t...

☕️ We’re running LATTE again: our ASPLOS workshop about languages/compilers/tools/whatever for hardware design. Submissions are just little 2-pagers, due on January 31. Plenty of time to throw something together! capra.cs.cornell.edu/latte25/

After 6 wonderful years with @samps.phd at Cornell, I have finally defended my PhD, written a 250-page document, and submitted that one NSF survey form Thank you to everyone who was a part of the journey and I am excited for the next chapter!

the current C++ kerfuffle is so delightfully popcorn-worthy because, like Star Wars or Drake/Kendrick, there is absolutely zero subtlety about who is right and who is wrong

👋🦋 Consider following @sigplan.bsky.social, if you want. We've got cool blog posts like this: bsky.app/profile/sigp...