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Jul 12

What’s Next for the Fast-Growing Programming Language? – The New Stack

The programming language Rust has been growing in popularity over the last couple of years. In its latest developer industry report, analyst firm SlashData stated that Rust has “nearly tripled in size in the past 24 months, from just 0.6M developers in Q1 2020 to 2.2M in Q1 2022.”

The Rust Foundation recently announced its Community Grants Program 2022, which has a budget of $625,000. The plan is to give selected Rust maintainers a grant of $12,000 each. In an AMA (Ask Me Anything) video last month, Rust Foundation Executive Director Rebecca Rumbul said that the grants won’t just be for current maintainers, but to encourage new people to join the project too. “We want to reward people who are already here and who are already doing good work,” she said, “but we want to ensure that Rust is sustainable and that requires a pipeline of people coming through, being able to learn.”

To find out more about Rust’s growth — and why it is increasing being preferred over traditional programming languages like C and C++ — I conducted an email interview with Rumbul.

TNS: SlashData says that Rust is “the fastest growing language community”. What’s driving this rapid adoption? Is it coming at the expense of older programming languages, like C/C++?

Rust Foundation Executive Director Rebecca Rumbul

Rumbul: I think there are a number of factors in the growth — the language itself is interesting, challenging and satisfying to build in. The security and memory safety enables people to create with a lot of confidence. The maintainer and contributor community are inclusive and supportive, and Rust is also a great choice for developers looking to enhance their professional prospects, as demand for Rust developers continues to increase.

I’m not sure yet that this growth is at the expense of other languages — we find that Rust users are typically people who are already very familiar with languages such as C++.

I was interested in this comment in the SlashData report: “it is mostly used in IoT software projects but also in AR/VR development, most commonly for implementing the low-level core logic of AR/VR applications.” I’ve been fascinated by the rise of 3D web apps (aka metaverse) this year — why is Rust better than other options for the core logic in these kinds of apps?

A complete AR/VR application can be written in multiple languages. For example, you may use C# and Unity to implement the graphics. Rust is a great option for the underlying core logic of the application because of its safety profile (eg, catching bugs before runtime and memory safety), availability of libraries (crates), and its ability to create efficient binaries, which may be important for the clients where you want to deploy the application.

in an open source software security plan presented to the White House last week by The Linux Foundation, it states that “memory safe languages such as Rust, Go, and Java” are increasing preferred over the likes of C and C++.

Jul 12

Best monitors for graphic design for 2022

Published Jun 13, 2022 10:00 AM

Monitors for graphic design have some very specific requirements beyond the typical displays found in homes and offices. Graphic designers frequently work in fine detail, so sharpness and clarity are critical. Text components and fine line work should be crisp and easy to see, or you’re just asking for a headache. Color accuracy is also crucial in graphic design. Displays need to accurately depict tones and offer advanced color management because inconsistencies could cost big money in professional settings. You don’t want to wrap up their design and get printed materials made only to see that the colors don’t match the customer’s branding. The best monitors for graphic design will ensure your work meets the needs of even the most demanding clients.

Things to consider before buying a monitors for graphic design

As with any monitor or technical device decision, there are lots of different specs and terms thrown around. It can be very confusing to wade through what matters and what doesn’t. To simplify things, when it comes to graphic design, three features are most important: screen size, resolution, and color accuracy. Things like refresh and response rate aren’t relevant to graphic design, so you don’t need to worry about those.

Screen size

Screen size will have a big (no pun intended) impact on your workflow. While you can absolutely work in design programs on laptop screens or small external monitors, creating on a larger display can make your work more efficient and comfortable. A large monitor will allow you to see more at once, so you can scroll around less. It makes it easier to compare things when you need to because you can fit multiple canvases on a single screen. And, you won’t have to squint and crane your neck forward when working with small details.

For most graphic designers, a screen between 27 and 32 inches will be perfect. But, if you like to multitask with multiple windows open at once, or want a more immersive experience, something around 40 inches may be better. Those huge displays offer lots of screen real estate without having to worry about perfectly color matching multiple displays.

Resolution

Resolution is another essential spec to pay attention to, especially for designers and photographers. Many will say that you absolutely need a 4K monitor for graphic design, but that isn’t necessarily the case. 4K displays do provide some advantages. The detail is exceptional, which can be helpful for certain types of design work. All those pixels come in handy for displaying large versions of your work with room enough for your editing program’s tools and palettes. But, these high-res displays can also get very expensive and may be out of reach for many.

For some types of design, or someone just starting out, 4K may be overkill. Instead, a resolution of at least 2560 by 1440 will give you a good balance between quality and price. That said, if you can afford a 4K–or higher–monitor, go

Jul 12

I’m not too worried about recommending another (few) tech podcasts – TechCrunch

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

I’m out this week, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving you alone. TechCrunch has been not-so-quietly growing its podcast universe. So, I thought I’d take a second to highlight the podcasts, the minds behind them and my favorite episodes so far. Thanks to Yashad, Maggie, Grace and Kell for their work behind the scenes making us sound smart and informed.

Equity: You know this one. Co-hosted by myself, Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo, Equity is a thrice-weekly podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuances behind the headlines. My recent favorite episodes include an interview with a founder about All That VC advice and a fintech battle of the bands chat.
Found: Now a little over one year old, Found is a weekly podcast co-hosted by Jordan Crook and Darrell Etherington about the stories behind the startups. Each week, the duo profiles a different founder and their journey toward solving some sort of massive problem — whether its building a faster way to fly or ocean floor green tech.
Chain Reaction: Co-hosted by Anita Ramaswamy and Lucas Matney, Chain Reaction dives into the world of crypto, web3 and NFTs in the freshest way I’ve seen yet. Even better, the duo has a weekly newsletter by the same name that gets into web3 happenings, spicy tweets and big funding rounds included. My recent favorite episodes including Outdoor Voices and unpredictable ones, too.
The TechCrunch Podcast: Our newest edition to the podcast fam, The TechCrunch Podcast gets staff reporters to talk through the week’s biggest headlines. I like to describe the show as a reporter’s notebook meets noise-cancelling headphones, leaving you with a true pulse of what’s going on. Oh, and it’s again hosted by Darrell Etherington, and that’s not even his last podcast.

That’s the rundown. And every week, Matt Burns rounds up what we’ve published, but so you don’t miss out, go ahead and subscribe.

In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about my new beat and some startup math. As always, you can support me by forwarding this newsletter to a friend or following me on Twitter or subscribe to my blog. Thanks for hanging with me this week, back to normal programming next time!

New beat, who this?

You know you’re in a good place when your own co-worker scoops you on your own personal news. As Mary Ann Azevedo mentioned in her newsletter earlier this month, I’m joining the fintech desk to write about entrepreneurship’s answers to access, wealth creation and socialization of finance.

Here’s why it’s important: Selfishly, I hope this doesn’t need an explanation. The economic empowerment of individuals has been a constant mission of startups before, during and assumedly long after the COVID-19 pandemic put it into focus. I’m just happy to finally have the words to describe what I care about!

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Jul 12

Two ODU Graphic Design Students Win National ADDY Awards « News @ ODU

June 10, 2022

“Banana Ketchup Packaging” by Stephanie Marx.

sekoyah-mcglorn-design Cover redesign of George Saunder’s “The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil” by Sekoyah McGlorn.

By Jonah Grinkewitz

Two Old Dominion University graphic design students won national ADDYs in the student division of the American Advertising Awards.

Stephanie Marx, a spring graduate, won silver for her “Banana Ketchup Packaging” design created in a typographic design class at ODU.

Sekoyah McGlorn, a rising senior, won silver for her cover redesign of George Saunders’ political satire novella, “The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil.”

They received their awards at ADMERICA, the American Advertising Federation’s national conference, on June 3 at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee.

To make it to the national level, their designs had to medal in local and regional ADDY competitions.

“The fact that their work made it through these three steps is quite a feat,” said Ivanete Blanco, associate professor of graphic design at ODU. “This recognition increases the profile of the program and it’s a rarity to have a student receive a national ADDY. We are so proud of them both.”

After graduating, Marx started a job as a graphic designer for MGM International.

“My time at ODU prepared me so much for my professional career,” she said. “I utilized my professors and took the time to push my undergrad projects to a higher level, and I used my summers for internships as well as taking time to gain experience during the school year.”

She came up with the idea for her packaging design after researching banana ketchup – a popular fruit ketchup in the Philippines that is dyed red to resemble tomato ketchup.

“I was excited to take a product that was common in another country and display it as something exciting on US shelves,” Marx said.

Since banana ketchup was first produced during WWII, she used ration stamp ephemera as inspiration for the bold type, contained spaces and distressed patterning and structure of her design.

“Stephanie’s work is always well-researched and considered,” said David Shields, associate professor of graphic design and Marx’s typographic design teacher. “At the same time, she consistently demonstrates a great sense of humor and empathy and has a knack for matching visual style to the demands of a particular problem.”

In her redesign of Saunders’ abstract political novella, McGlorn chose to reduce the citizen characters of the book down to bits and pieces of flesh. She reimagined Phil, a character who manipulates his way into becoming a dictator, as a monstrous hammer ready to bring down his wrath.

“Usually when you read a book, you can picture it in your head, but in this book, you are forced to interpret many of the visuals for yourself,” she said. “The strange and fantastical world gave me a lot of freedom to interpret the characters the way I wanted.”

McGlorn said working

Jul 12

A programming language for hardware accelerators | MIT News

Moore’s Law needs a hug. The days of stuffing transistors on little silicon computer chips are numbered, and their life rafts — hardware accelerators — come with a price.

When programming an accelerator — a process where applications offload certain tasks to system hardware especially to accelerate that task — you have to build a whole new software support. Hardware accelerators can run certain tasks orders of magnitude faster than CPUs, but they cannot be used out of the box. Software needs to efficiently use accelerators’ instructions to make it compatible with the entire application system. This translates to a lot of engineering work that then would have to be maintained for a new chip that you’re compiling code to, with any programming language.

Now, scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) created a new programming language called “Exo” for writing high-performance code on hardware accelerators. Exo helps low-level performance engineers transform very simple programs that specify what they want to compute, into very complex programs that do the same thing as the specification, but much, much faster by using these special accelerator chips. Engineers, for example, can use Exo to turn a simple matrix multiplication into a more complex program, which runs orders of magnitude faster by using these special accelerators.

Unlike other programming languages and compilers, Exo is built around a concept called “Exocompilation.” “Traditionally, a lot of research has focused on automating the optimization process for the specific hardware,” says Yuka Ikarashi, a PhD student in electrical engineering and computer science and CSAIL affiliate who is a lead author on a new paper about Exo. “This is great for most programmers, but for performance engineers, the compiler gets in the way as often as it helps. Because the compiler’s optimizations are automatic, there’s no good way to fix it when it does the wrong thing and gives you 45 percent efficiency instead of 90 percent.”

With Exocompilation, the performance engineer is back in the driver’s seat. Responsibility for choosing which optimizations to apply, when, and in what order is externalized from the compiler, back to the performance engineer. This way, they don’t have to waste time fighting the compiler on the one hand, or doing everything manually on the other. At the same time, Exo takes responsibility to ensure that all of these optimizations are correct. As a result, the performance engineer can spend their time improving performance, rather than debugging the complex, optimized code.

“Exo language is a compiler that’s parameterized over the hardware it targets; the same compiler can adapt to many different hardware accelerators,” says Adrian Sampson, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. “ Instead of writing a bunch of messy C++ code to compile for a new accelerator, Exo gives you an abstract, uniform way to write down the ‘shape’ of the hardware you want to target. Then you can reuse the existing Exo compiler to adapt to that new description instead of writing something