WebAssembly
Nick Fitzgerald has a post on using Rust compiled to WebAssembly to replace performance-sensitive parts of the JavaScript library source-map, achieving a 6x speedup. Vyacheslav Egorov responded with his own post on matching the speedups with JavaScript alone. The profiling and optimization process is detailed and very cool to see. In the third and final post, Fitzgerald discussed the end result of an 11x speedup of the Rust and WebAssembly implementation by incorporating ideas from both sources.
What I find illuminating is the process in which these optimizations are at obtained (as per the title). The JavaScript version resulted in hard-to-maintain code in the name of performance, whereas in Rust one was able to get the best of both worlds - clear expression of interest and optimal runtime performance.
Excessive allocation rates make any garbage collector (or malloc and free implementation) a bottleneck. Monomorphization and inlining are crucial to eking out performance in both Rust and JavaScript. Algorithms transcend programming languages. But a distinction between JavaScript and Rust+WebAssembly emerges when we consider the effort required to attain inlining and monomorphization, or to avoid allocations.
Rust lets us explicitly state our desires to the compiler, we can rely on the optimizations occurring. Rust's natural idioms guide us towards fast code, so we don’t have to be performance wizards to get fast code. In JavaScript, on the other hand, we must communicate with oblique incantations to match each JavaScript engine’s JIT’s heuristics.
Content: Custodians of the custard
Antiga Confeitaria de Belém is a cafe/bakery in the Lisbon suburb of Belém that's been making Portuguese egg tarts since 1837. The secret recipe of the filling is entrusted to three pastry chefs, the most recent one after 20 years in the kitchen! The quest for the perfect tart, and resisting the temptation to move to the mass market, makes for a charming story (enclosed below).
Content: Somewhere Inside
I love Tiësto, and I especially love how the track comes together with Julie Thompson's energetic vocals.
Content: POP/STARS
I've always been fascinated by new mediums that inspire new business models. Defense of the Ancients (more commonly-known by its acronym DotA) started as a fan-made modification of the computer game Warcraft 3. The game developer Valve then hired DotA's lead designer to develop a sequel to the highly popular 'mod'. DotA 2 was released for free, but monetized through sales of cosmetic enhancements for the game characters (referred to as 'skins').
To promote the shift to DotA 2, Valve organized a gaming competition for top teams from all over the world called The International. The International started in 2011 with a $1.6mm prize pool. In 2013, Valve started crowdfunding the prize pool through sales of an in-game battle pass. The prize pool grew to $3mm and was already the largest prize pool for any e-sports competition. By 2020 the prize pool ballooned to $34mm.
The featured video is actually from League of Legends, DotA's main competitor. League has Worlds, their own version of The International, as well as a talented team of composers, songwriters and producers to orchestrate cinematic music for the opening ceremony. The musical score for Worlds 2018 was performed by a virtual K-pop group called K/DA, created especially for the occasion. The song POP/STARS went viral, receiving 5 million views within 24 hours.
How did this start? To promote sales of skins.
Content: Startup
I read Jerry Kaplan's Startup from time to time, and always amazed how his struggles as a founder in the late 1980s are ever familiar today - raising money, hiring talent, finding product-market fit, dealing with partners and competitors (while constantly assessing which is which). I particularly enjoy the framing of the venture as a game.
It begins with an aspiring entrepreneur who is willing to step right up and be tested. As in many other games, the player starts with an artificial currency - in this case the stock of a new venture. The goal is simple: increase the value of the entrepreneurs' shares, because when the game is over, these can be cashed in for real money. The trick is to swap some of the stock for three resources - ideas, money and people - then use these resources to increase the value of the remaining stock.
I know. It's become a cliché. I'm still a believer.
It is comforting to know that the human impulse to make the world a better place is not today confined to the young or the foolish. It is alive and well among the people that live and work in Silicon Valley.