🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #305

Cheers to Monday! New week, new adventures!

It may appear that Google has sponsored our post today - but that is not the case. We just have lots of updates from Google 😀

#Instagram - Death scrolling is about to get whole lot worse. Looking at YouTube’s success on SmartTVs / TV sticks, Instagram is getting ideas. They are planning to launch apps for televisions now!

#BlueScreenOfDeath - The infamous BSOD - screen shown when Windows encounters an error, is going to now be Black in color. It’s getting a makeover. The new design drops the traditional blue color, frowning face, and QR code in favor of a simplified black screen. The simplified BSOD looks a lot more like the black screen you’d see during a Windows update.

Microsoft To Move Antivirus Apps Out Of Windows Kernel
Remember Crowdstrike fiasco last year that caused millions of computers to crash? Microsoft seems to be smarting from it and making some big changes to how security apps like antivirus software work with Windows. They're moving them out of the "kernel".

Google Launches Offerwall To Help Publishers Monetize Content
With their AI Summaries causing websites to lose revenue - since users no longer have to visit individual websites and can get answers to their query from the summaries itself, Google, has introduced Offerwall, a new tool that allows publishers to generate revenue beyond traditional ads. Offerwall offers various options like micropayments, surveys, and ad watching for readers to access content.

The Google For Startups Gemini Kit Is Here
Google just launched the Google for Startups Gemini kit, a suite of tools designed to help startups build faster with its AI tools and resources. The kit includes simple access to the Gemini API, Google AI Studio and Firebase Studio for building full-stack apps, Google Cloud credits, extensive developer documentation, tailored training, and hands-on help through immersive workshops and a community of experts.

Cloudflare Containers - Run new kinds of applications alongside Workers, from media and data processing to backend services and CLI tools, with tight integration and a simple workflow.

LinkedIn - Adds Video Option to Header Image Slot on Articles and Newsletters

YouTube - Introduces AI-powered search results carousel and expands conversational AI tool for Premium and non-Premium users.

Google Sheets - New AI Functions for Text Generation, Summarization, and Categorization

Doppl - New App launched by Google to visualize how an outfit might look on you.

Npmgraph | A tool for exploring NPM modules and dependencies

Fang | The CLI starter kit

Welsonjs | WelsonJS - Build a Windows app on the Windows built-in JavaScript engine

Building A Comprehensive Alerting System With Influxdb 3 And Python
Learn how to create a robust notification system that ensures your team never misses a critical alert. This guide will walk you through setting up alerts across three critical channels: SMS, WhatsApp, and Slack using InfluxDB 3's embedded Python processing engine and third-party services like Twilio and Slack's API.

Tech Lead Overload
As companies grow, a single senior engineer managing code and team leads to burnout and inefficiencies, requiring a dedicated Engineering Manager to oversee career growth, approvals, and project direction.

Challenging Projects For New Programmers
Implement a text editor from scratch, handling text storage, cursor behavior, and features like undo/redo and word wrapping. Try building a 2D game like Space Invaders, learning about game loops, user input, and game object management.