Project Hail Mary is maybe my favorite fiction book from the past few years. I read it twice, which I never do. So, I’m super excited to go see the movie tonight. If you see it too, let me know.

[article] What Is the PARK Stack? I know there have been other acronym-stacks since LAMP, but I struggle to remember them. This one is about PyTorch, AI models, Ray, and Kubernetes. Might stick.

[blog] Kubernetes v1.36 — Sneak Peek. Speaking of Kubernetes, there always seems to be another version around the corner. Scale to zero is interesting!

[article] Anthropic just shipped an OpenClaw killer called Claude Code Channels, letting you message it over Telegram and Discord. Neat. Expect a lot of “OpenClaw killers” this year as people experiment with multi-agent orchestrators.

[blog] How I overhauled my app UI in minutes with Stitch and AI Studio. Great example. Take those existing apps and let these smart tools help with redesign, rearchitecture, and deployment.

[article] 9 reasons Java is still great. Java is doing fine. I’m not sure it’s the default choice for many startups, but it’s well-established and constantly improving.

[blog] Next-gen caching with Memorystore for Valkey 9.0, now GA. If you like open software, fast performance, and reliable databases, Valkey could be on your radar.

[blog] Building an MCP Ecosystem at Pinterest. Here we go. Let’s get some real-world practices from users, not just messages from vendors and thought-leaders.

[blog] Streamline read scalability with Cloud SQL autoscaling read pools. One smart way to scale relational databases is to use read replicas. Now we’re offering a clean way to autoscale your read replicas without requiring any changes to your apps.

[article] State of JavaScript 2025: Survey Reveals a Maturing Ecosystem with TypeScript Cementing Dominance. This is a dense report, so InfoQ rolled up some of the highlights. But dig into the source material and see what stands out to you.

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Summary Manny and Raymmar opened the doors at HQ for a two-hour behind-the-scenes look at our team, the energy after launch, and what Agent 4 actually means for builders. Manny demoed a taste-development app built in Agent 4 with a landing page, web app, and mobile-native version all inside one unified project on the Infinite Canvas. Raymmar showed Replitopolis, a live 3D city pulling from our BigQuery data where every building is a real user and every orange glow is a commit. Eight other team members joined the stream, from designers and engineers to our marketing team and Amjad, our CEO and co-founder. Last week was Agent 4 launch week, and the team could finally breathe. Our very own community managers Manny Bernabe and Raymmar Tirado decided the best way to mark it was to bring the community inside HQ: pull teammates on camera, share what everyone has been building, and have fun along the way.

In 2015, Microsoft decided that you shouldn't be in control of updating your PC anymore. At first, it seemed like a good idea to keep malware at bay - but soon, users discovered their computers were automatically shutting down and erasing work in the middle of the day. Then, Microsoft abused its power to install shovelware apps and force-feed us a new web browser.

Now, each new update might add unwanted Copilot AI buttons or prevent our PCs from properly booting. My colleague Tom Warren wrote about Microsoft's many buggy Windows updates in this story.

But today, as Microsoft commits to fix Windows 11, it's also signaling that our long Win …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft has faced a breakdown of trust in Windows 11 and a backlash over AI additions to its operating system in recent months. After promising to rebuild trust in Windows earlier this year, Microsoft's Windows chief, Pavan Davuluri, is now revealing the company's plan to fix Windows 11 - and there are a lot of changes on the way.

"Over the past several months, the team and I have spent a great deal of time analyzing your feedback," says Davuluri in a blog post committing to Windows quality improvements. "What came through was the voice of people who care deeply about Windows and want it to be better."

Windows 11 will start with a first …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Trump’s AI framework pushes federal preemption of state laws, emphasizes innovation, and shifts responsibility for child safety toward parents while laying out lighter-touch rules for tech companies.

Amazon’s beloved Treasure Truck finally ran out of road in 2022, after about a seven-year run. But Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores and an early champion of the deals-on-wheels concept, once worried that Marshawn Lynch was going to crash the party just as it got rolling.

In a new episode of his “Learn and Be Curious” podcast (below), Herrington recalled a December 2016 promotional event for the Treasure Truck in Seattle in which Lynch, the onetime Seattle Seahawks running back, got behind the wheel.

Herrington remembered Lynch asking if he could drive the truck, and someone said yes. Herrington said he could still picture the keys going into Lynch’s hands.

“We had the press there and it was a big hurly burly and there was all these people running around,” Herrington said in a conversation with Kandace Kapps, director of Amazon’s sub-same day ops integration. “And he gets in this Treasure Truck, starts driving it … and all I could imagine was, ‘This is how the Treasure Truck enterprise ends, when Marshawn Lynch crashes it into some crowd at the end.'”

With fans outside CenturyLink Field (now Lumen Field) chanting “Beast Mode! Beast Mode!” and Lynch bopping to hip-hop music in the driver’s seat, the short drive near the stadium did not turn to disaster. Herrington said that in addition to being an excellent running back, Lynch was also an excellent driver and “all went well.”

Lynch, who spent six seasons in Seattle and helped the team win a Super Bowl in 2014, was on hand that day to hand out a Beast Mode-skinned Amazon Echo and Beast Mode Hat for $139.99. He signed autographs and handed out Skittles.

His driving skills have been famously captured on video before the Treasure Truck episode and since:

• In October 2006, Lynch commandeered a medical cart and took it for a joyride around the field at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., after Cal beat the Washington Huskies, 31-24. Weaving in and out of players and coaches to celebrate the win, it was classic Lynch behavior before Seattle came to love him.
• For an episode of Amazon Prime’s “Thursday Night Football” last fall, in which Lynch does a segment called “‘N Yo’ City,” Lynch tried a variety of off-road vehicles during a visit to stunt performer Travis Pastrana’s compound. He even ended up upside down in one four-wheeler mishap.

GeekWire first spotted the Treasure Truck in Seattle in June 2016. The first official deal was an inflatable paddleboard for $99 — 79% off the regular price of $476.99.

Customers were alerted to such deals via text message and during the heyday of the traveling trucks, they could reserve an item through Amazon’s mobile app and then go to a location to grab their purchase. Once the truck’s supply was exhausted, the deal was done.

When the Treasure Truck program — which grew to a fleet of more than 100 vehicles across 29 U.S. cities — did come to an end, it wasn’t Lynch’s fault. It was the pandemic in 2020 and then the reality that deals online sold a lot more items than deals facilitated by a glorified ice cream truck.

“We probably should have figured this out ahead of time,” Herrington said. “And all of a sudden the light kind of went off, it’s like, wow, one thing people love more than coming to the truck and picking up all this stuff is having us deliver to their home.”