Here are some things online I’ve read that I have enjoyed reading in November.
Seeing Code
Seeing Code
https://cognition.ai/blog/codemaps
I really like the idea of our software systems providing us higher level context about what we are working on, it looks like Windsurf are trying to do this. I probably won’t look soon at this as I am deluged with other tools, but if it’s a good idea I’d expect to see this coming into other tools too.
Expanding universe news
I really like the idea of our software systems providing us higher level context about what we are working on, it looks like Windsurf are trying to do this. I probably won’t look soon at this as I am deluged with other tools, but if it’s a good idea I’d expect to see this coming into other tools too.
Expanding universe news
https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/universes-expansion-now-slowing-not-speeding
For the past three decades, astronomers have widely believed that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, driven by an unseen phenomenon called dark energy that acts as a kind of anti-gravity.
For the past three decades, astronomers have widely believed that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, driven by an unseen phenomenon called dark energy that acts as a kind of anti-gravity.
I studied expansion rates extensively in the late 90s and early 2000s. To see a shift in this means a lot to me personally. The result depends on a change in our understanding of supernovae as a standard candle which is super interesting. Standard candles are used so much that changing this one thing is going to have a lot of knock on effects, so I’d wait to see further confirmation of whether this result is true or not, but it should be possible to support or refute this hypothesis.
More AI IDEs
More AI IDEs
https://kiro.dev/
AWS has an AI IDE. I asked if it was just a reskinned VS Code, and they were not amazingly happy with that description, but that’s basically what it is. You need to login to use it, which is awful. From what I can see the main thing is that it has some panels that guide you to think about what you want to do, before you do it with an agent. This is trying to support planning based agentic coding.
AWS has an AI IDE. I asked if it was just a reskinned VS Code, and they were not amazingly happy with that description, but that’s basically what it is. You need to login to use it, which is awful. From what I can see the main thing is that it has some panels that guide you to think about what you want to do, before you do it with an agent. This is trying to support planning based agentic coding.
Quick Suite from AWS
AWS have another thing called QuickSuite - https://aws.amazon.com/quicksuite/getting-started/
“Amazon Quick Suite answers your questions and turns those answers into actions using agentic teammates for research, business insights, and automation”
So I think this is more or less an AWS Tableau replacement. If you have a lot of core business data being driven within AWS then this might make sense. It seems to be priced per seat per month. It can integrate with a lot of 3rd party systems. This blog has a reasonable overview - https://www.augmentedtechlabs.com/blog/tableau-vs-quicksight. It makes sense to start with - what questions do you want answered, where is that data, where might you bring that data together, and then make a call on tooling, rather than the other way around, but I’d not known about this before.
Pied Piper was a real thing
Pied Piper was a real thing
https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20200902-the-grim-truth-behind-the-pied-piper
I didn’t know that the events portrayed in the myth of the Pied Piper actually happened. Apparently there was an incident involving the disappearance of about 130 children in 1284.
I didn’t know that the events portrayed in the myth of the Pied Piper actually happened. Apparently there was an incident involving the disappearance of about 130 children in 1284.
Healthy Heart
https://myticker.com
This has great advice on how to avoid dying of heart disease.
Roman Roads Mapped
https://itiner-e.org
Just cool, a “google maps” for Roman Roads. This is probably the single best visualisation I’ve ever seen for the extent of the Roman Empire.
Obit - James Watson
Just cool, a “google maps” for Roman Roads. This is probably the single best visualisation I’ve ever seen for the extent of the Roman Empire.
Obit - James Watson
https://www.statnews.com/2025/11/07/james-watson-remembrance-from-dna-pioneer-to-pariah/
James Watson was a racist, and also made a huge contribution to science. The author of this piece died a few years ago, but she filed her obit for Watson before she died. Well worth reading.
AI Bubble thoughts
James Watson was a racist, and also made a huge contribution to science. The author of this piece died a few years ago, but she filed her obit for Watson before she died. Well worth reading.
AI Bubble thoughts
https://www.wreflection.com/p/ai-dial-up-era
Some thoughts on whether we are in a bubble with AI. The author argues that:
Some thoughts on whether we are in a bubble with AI. The author argues that:
- not in an AI bubble yet.
- most software engineers will disaster, in time
- we are in the “dot com” era of software.
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What does it mean? For me it means that capital flows continue to drive engineering trends, and valuations. That the ongoing narrative about the transformative nature of AI continues, but that the complexity of organisations remain too large for AI on its own to help with. In a way one way might be to say that engineering is good at solving “clock problems” but most progress involves dealing with systems that are messy and are not clock problems. AI starts to bring some non-deterministic flexibility to systems to allow them to try different strategies to get to a result, but it’s still only scratching the surface. This is something to come back to.
Manifold
Manifold
https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-a-manifold-20251103/
The term “manifold” comes from Riemann’s Mannigfaltigkeit, which is German for “variety” or “multiplicity.”
I didn’t know that!
Watches
The term “manifold” comes from Riemann’s Mannigfaltigkeit, which is German for “variety” or “multiplicity.”
I didn’t know that!
Watches