Happy Thursday! Let's power through the day!
Geek Gossip
#VisualStudioCode - Linux users who installed Microsoft's Visual Studio Code as a Snap package may want to check to see whether files they sent to the trash with the app have actually been deleted. A handful of Linux-based developers have found large amounts of supposedly deleted data on their computers, in some cases consuming hundreds of gigabytes of storage.
#AdobeAnimate - They were planning on sunsetting their 30+ year old product (previously named Adobe Flash), but then the backlash from their user base was so big, Adobe has gone back on their plans. Flash lives to see another day (year most likely)
Latest Updates
Amid H-1B Visa Rules, Alphabet Joins Google And Meta In Scaling India Operations In Bengaluru, With 20,000 Potential New Jobs
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is planning to occupy 2.4 million square feet of office space in Bengaluru, doubling its employee base in India to 34,000 and making it one of Google's biggest talent pools globally. This move comes as US firms face uncertainty over immigration and talent mobility, making it cheaper to tap into India's deep technical talent pool.
Anthropic's New AI Tool Draggs Down Indian IT Stocks
Anthropic’s new legal AI tool sparked a global sell-off, wiping $300B from US software indices. Shares in RELX, Thomson Reuters, and Indian IT giants like TCS and Infosys fell sharply as investors feared disruption of routine legal services. While firms are investing in AI, the market reaction underscores intense pressure on traditional tech providers to adapt rapidly to AI-driven automation.
EU Governments Shift Away From US Tech Giants
European governments are ditching US-based video conferencing tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams in favor of homegrown alternatives, citing concerns over data privacy and digital sovereignty. This move is driven by a desire to reduce dependence on US tech companies and create more secure, locally-controlled digital infrastructure.
Changelog
Spotify - Made lyrics translations globally available, offers offline viewing and relocates the feature to display directly beneath album artwork.
GitHub - Run multiple coding agents (Copilot, Claude, Codex) directly in GitHub, GitHub Mobile, and Visual Studio Code with Agent HQ.
YouTube - Auto Dubbing Available in 27 Languages, Expressive Speech for 8 Languages, and Preferred Language Setting Introduced
Tech Talk Thursdays
Divya Kamat shares leadership lessons from Squarespace's massive migration of 10 million Google Domains. Key strategies include viewing the team as a superpower, choosing agility over perfection, and acting as a leadership shield to protect staff from executive pressure. She also stresses becoming a "celebration engine" to maintain morale and visibility during long, high-stakes projects.
Swapna Chimanchodkar explains how DevOps and MLOps enable real-time sepsis detection to save lives. By leveraging Kubernetes, Kafka, and SRE practices, the system achieves the high reliability required for clinical environments. The process includes strict clinical validation and shadow deployments to ensure patient safety while integrating machine learning into critical medical workflows.
Drishti Jain explores Python's role in climate research and sustainability using libraries like GeoPandas and Rasterio. Her talk covers climate modeling, AI forecasting, and carbon-aware computing with Eco2AI. She encourages developers to monitor the environment and optimize code to reduce carbon footprints, emphasizing the tech industry's responsibility in the climate crisis.
In Case You Missed It
🎁 We now have a dedicated page to list all events. We will be updating this page EVERY WEEK. We will of course be publishing new (and coming-soon) events in this section but for a comprehensive list of events, check the link(s) below:
This link is EXCLUSIVELY accessible by subscribers of Heap Heap Hurray!
The SugarNxt Hackathon is an in-person innovation challenge focused on transforming the Indian sugar and bio-energy sector through tech solutions in areas like automation, sustainability, AI, and process optimization, inviting students, startups, researchers and technologists to build industry-ready prototypes. More details here.
Miscellaneous
Practical Use Of AI Coding Tools For The Responsible Developer
AI agents can be valuable allies in everyday development work. They help handle time-consuming grunt work, guide you through large legacy codebases, and offer low-risk ways to implement features in previously unfamiliar programming languages. Here are practical, easy-to-apply techniques to help you use these tools to improve your workflow.
Data Centers In Space Makes No Sense
Space-based data centers face major hurdles: massive satellite fleets could trigger Kessler syndrome, hardware is nearly impossible to upgrade, and ground-based solar remains more cost-effective. Despite these issues, companies like SpaceX and Google pursue the tech, likely driven by IPO hype and investor speculation rather than technical feasibility or long-term economic viability.
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