🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #293

It's Thursday! Time to wrap up the week strong!

#AI-Rivals-Turned-Business-Partners - Playing both sides? OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, just signed a deal with Google for cloud computing, despite Google being a major rival. Guess you could say it's a "frenemies" situation.

#AIOverviews - Google’s AI-powered tools, including chatbots, are devastating traffic for news publishers, according to a Wall Street Journal report. People can simply ask a chatbot for answers — sometimes generated from news content taken without a publisher's knowledge. That means referrals to news sites are plummeting.

Facial Recognition Attendance System To Be Rolled Out In Karnataka Government Schools
Karnataka education minister Madhu Bangarappa has announced the introduction of a facial recognition attendance system in state government schools. The technology is anticipated to deliver precise daily attendance logs for school children, identify absentees, and promote transparency.

Indian Transport Minister Unveils Futuristic Transport Projects
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari announced a series of futuristic transport projects on Monday. The government is planning an aerial pod transport system between Dhaula Kuan and Manesar, one of the busiest road corridors in the National Capital Region. He also said similar electric bus corridors are being planned for key intercity routes, including Delhi-Jaipur.

Bigbasket To Roll Out 10-minute Food Delivery Nationwide
BigBasket is an Indian online grocery delivery service that started in 2011 and is backed by the Tata Group. Today, they announced plans to roll out a 10-minute food delivery service across India by 2026, competing with existing players like Swiggy and Zomato, and using their network of "dark stores" to fuel the service.

Android 16 Rolling Out To Pixel Phones With New Features
Alphabet just released Android 16, and it's got some exciting new features like Progress-centric notifications, Adaptive Refresh Rate, and improved Predictive back gestures. It's also got better photo searching and sharing, plus new privacy and security APIs. It's rolling out to Pixel phones first, but other devices will get it soon.

Meta Pursues Superintelligence With New AI Lab
Social media giant Meta has created a new lab dedicated to pursuing "superintelligence". Superintelligence refers to a hypothetical AI system that would exceed human cognitive abilities. The new lab represents Meta's effort to remain competitive in the increasingly crowded AI race.

Threads - Introduces direct messaging feature with a separate inbox, allowing users to send private messages without leaving the platform.

Ubuntu - Introduces sudo-rs, a Rust-based replacement for traditional sudo, enhancing security with memory safety guarantees and improved resistance to vulnerabilities.

Dia - The Browser Company, behind the popular Arc browser introduced a new browser with an AI-powered URL bar that can search the web, summarize files, and switch between chat and search functions.

Garima Singh | Service Oriented Architecture | NDC Melbourne 2025 - From monoliths to microservices and beyond, this deep dive into Service-Oriented Architecture is a must-watch! Garima Singh expertly slices and dices modern architectural patterns like Micro Frontends, BFFs, and Domain Services. Learn to choose the right design for your specific problem, understand crucial trade-offs, and build more sustainable, effective systems. Essential for any software architect or engineer.

Sajeetharan Sinnathurai | Using Copilot with Node.js and Azure Cosmos DB - Harness the full power of Azure Cosmos DB in your JavaScript applications! Join a PM from the Azure Cosmos team as he unveils how to leverage this globally distributed, scalable database. Discover seamless integrations with Vercel, OpenAI, and LangChain, and watch a live demo of a React app deployment. Level up your stack with mission-critical performance and low latency.

Nikhil Nanivadekar | Unlock the Power of Generative AI | Simplifying Multimedia Creation - Go behind the scenes at Amazon Ads to see how they're pioneering generative AI for multimedia creation! A Principal Engineer reveals the architecture behind their one-click image and video generation tools. Discover how they scale for production, streamline development with a unique SDK model, and apply universal design principles for building robust, high-impact AI applications. A must-see!

Vibe Code - How To Stay In Control
Monadical explores the "vibe code" dilemma: treating AI-generated code as precious hinders productivity. Solution: separate human code (domain knowledge, architecture) from AI-generated implementation details, allowing for fearless regeneration and clear code reviews.

Google Account Recovery Exploit
A security researcher discovered a vulnerability in Google's account recovery form that allows brute-forcing phone numbers associated with Google accounts. The exploit uses IPv6 to bypass rate limits, but was still blocked by captchas. The researcher found a workaround by using the botguard token from the JavaScript-enabled form.

The UX Butterfly Effect
Social media platforms like TikTok, designed to connect people, have unintended consequences on teen mental health and the environment, highlighting the importance of considering the broader impact of design decisions, known as the Law of Unintended Consequences.